Immersion Retreat for Your Biz | What it is + How to Host One

As y’all know, I serve as a fractional integrator (read this post to get a refresh on what that means!). Back in April, I went on an immersion retreat with one of my clients and it was amazing!! We got the idea from Amy Porterfield when she shared a podcast interview about the immersion retreat she took with her integrator, Chloe.

Rebecca and I had been working together for about six weeks and I think the timing of our retreat was perfect. We had gotten in a work-groove together but also realized we had some deep work to do and needed to time to “immerse” ourselves TOGETHER in her business.

We spent 2 days together with a laundry list of things to do… and we almost got that entire list done! 😉 When we hosted the immersion retreat, I received SO many questions about what it is + how do it is, so I thought I’d share some tips if you’re thinking about it:

First of all – an immersion retreat is NOT about dreaming big + goal setting. It’s actually the OPPOSITE.

You know I love those quarterly goals 😉 but there is a time & a place for goal-setting. An immersion retreat’s purpose is to immerse yourself in the EXISTING business, problem-solving, optimizing and generally making it more efficient than it was before the retreat began.

This looks like spending dedicated time doing “on the business” tasks. Focusing on projects you’ve left unfinished, assessing bottlenecks for you + your team and ultimately looking at what’s happening RIGHT NOW to set yourself for BETTER goals in the future!

You can take an immersion retreat with a team member (like Rebecca and I did!), with another biz owner or two (make it a workaction!) OR completely solo (book a hotel room and get some deep work done!).

BEFORE your immersion retreat you need to make sure you:

set your business up for you to be out of office the entire time (auto-responder, let clients know…)
create a running list of what you are doing at the retreat. what projects do you need to focus on? what problems do you want to solve? how do you want to feel AFTERWARD and what do you want to have accomplished afterward?
do not get distracted!!! host the retreat in a physical location (and with people around you) who will help you stay focused. If you go with friends, make sure there is an expectation that you’ll have time to connect + chat (lunch, dinner, etc) but that the majority of the time is DEEP WORK time. If you go with a team member, set that same expectation. And of course, if you go solo then create an environment that emphasizes that!! (Example: I am SUPER efficient in a coffee shop so if I were to do this solo, I’d hunker down in a busy coffee house for the day!)

At the end of the retreat, make a list of what DIDN’T get done and decided (a) is this priority for when you are home or (b) can this be done later in the month or even at your next retreat.

I highly recommend an annual immersion retreat. You can also have “immersion days” where you block an entire day (in a coffee shop, rent a hotel for a night, etc) to create this routine every 4-5 months in your business!!