Mastering Retreat Marketing: From Nervous Beginnings to Building a Thriving Community
In this episode of Amplified Impact, Amber dives deep into the world of retreat leadership and entrepreneurship. Join in for a live coaching session from the Sold Out Retreats mini-course, where we explore powerful strategies for marketing and building communities that attract the right clients. Whether you're a retreat leader or an entrepreneur looking to expand your impact, you'll gain insights into overcoming nerves, finding high-ticket clients, creating irresistible offers, and building a movement around your brand. Tune in to learn how to thrive by creating authentic connections and delivering unmatched value.
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Time Stamps
01:07 - Learning from Other Coaches: The Power of Witnessing
02:08 - Question 1: Overcoming Nerves When Showing Up Online
03:09 - Tips for Regulating Your Nervous System
05:08 - Question 2: Finding Clients for a High-Ticket Program
06:19 - Strategies for Offering High-Value Experiences
09:16 - Speaking to the Right Audience
10:02 - Question 3: When Marketing Falls Flat
12:06 - Clarifying the Transformation and Positioning Your Offer
14:17 - Building a Community for Retreats
16:12 - Networking and Collaborating to Expand Your Reach
18:26 - Question 4: Strategies When Selling Retreats Isn't Easy
20:04 - Fostering Relationships and Trust Before Selling
20:59 - Final Thoughts and Encouragement
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SHOW LINKS:
Transcript
Amplified impact.
::For multi passionate female entrepreneurs turning their gifts into assets, this is a space to open your heart even deeper as you learn how to tune into your mission and connect with your clients, the ones who you dream to serve and create massive impact in their lives.
::I'm here to inspire you to take.
::Take time for yourself so you can be the leader in your life and your business.
::One who stands out and thrives.
::This is the place where women just like you create wealth from the inside out.
::Welcome back to amplified impact, a new episode, and I'm excited because today I'm going to share with you a little live coaching session that I do frequently throughout the sold out retreat mini course.
::Whether you are a retreat leader, an aspiring retreat leader or an entrepreneur, this is going to be really powerful.
::To not only listen to the answers, hear the way the questions are asked, or learn something from the responses, it's to see how someone else coaches.
::That's the power of a mastermind, or going to a retreat or a live event is you get to experience how other people do it.
::We can learn from other people just by witnessing how they are doing it.
::Take what you love, leave what you don't, get inspired because then that allows you to craft and curate your way, where you get to stand out and be different because of what lands and actually resonates with you.
::The first question that I have here is, when you first started showing up online, were you nervous?
::It's all pretty new to me.
::Getting out there, getting your work out there, it's nerve wracking.
::Who's listening to this?
::And they're like, oh, my, oh, my gosh.
::I totally get that.
::When you go to do anything that you've never done before, nervousness is a normal human reaction.
::You've never done it before.
::I just had a coaching call with one of my clients this morning and she's like, I'm scared to start sharing this story.
::I've never shared this story before publicly.
::Of course you're scared.
::Of course you're nervous.
::It would be weird if you weren't.
::And what we want to do is come into the body to sit and feel the emotions, to witness.
::Where do we feel it?
::Are we sweaty?
::Are we worried about what other people will think?
::Are we afraid people will leave?
::Are we afraid we'll be abandoned?
::Are we afraid we'll be judged?
::Is the heart beating fast?
::Are you sweaty?
::Is your mind racing?
::What's actually happening?
::And can you come into a practice to regulate the nervous system?
::Can you create a list of all the worst case scenarios, all the best case scenarios and be okay with just starting.
::I still get nervous when I share a piece of content that's edgy, that's a news story that's a little bit more vulnerable than I'd been in a while.
::Nervousness is normal and the only way to normalize putting yourself out there, sharing something new is to do it.
::After you do it and you realize actually everything is okay, you feel safe to do it.
::This is why it's so important to get comfortable being uncomfortable, to do things you've never done before.
::That is why it is so important so that you can practice doing the thing that scares the living heck out of you.
::Next question.
::How do I find potential clients for a $300 program and retreat when most of my audience is barely is current?
::Most of my current audience is barely low ticket buyers.
::Should I start with a three day retreat instead of a five day?
::It will still be a lot more money than they're used to paying when it comes to charging higher ticket, it's not about what they're used to paying.
::Some people actually just love paying more because they know it means more value.
::How can you just give more value when you sell a higher ticket offer and your audience is used to lower ticket offer, there's two things that you can do.
::The first one is give more value.
::Sell something that is going to sell the higher ticket thing.
::For example, right now I'm selling a program called cash conversation.
::How to make more sales without sales calls or feeling sticky.
::How to simply just get more clients by mastering your marketing, your messaging and your energy.
::By having authentic conversations in your DM's.
::When people have conversations, that program typically would be $1,999.
::I'm selling it for $97 right now.
::Eventually it'll be 197 497 and then it'll only be available for my mastermind.
::My clients pay anywhere from $37 $47 $97.
::This low ticket offer is going to sell my mastermind.
::My mastermind is $1,400 a month, but it includes calls, voxer coaching programs, a live event, a mastermind.
::It gives more value.
::But what I'm doing is taking people that are listening to my podcast, following me on social media, putting them into a low ticket offer that's going to allow them to experience my work.
::And then I'm going to show them the value of the mastermind.
::What you can do is create a free or low ticket experience that will sell the high ticket experience.
::But be sure that you use marketing and messaging that shows the value people don't pay.
::People pay when they see value.
::People spend money they quote unquote, don't have all the time when they see the value for them.
::How can you position your offer so that they can see the value?
::Most of your audience is not the right fit for your retreater program.
::At three k, you are speaking to the ones that are there.
::I have 20,000 followers.
::23,000 followers on Instagram, 7000 followers on Facebook, 5000 people on my email list.
::Most of them are not a good fit for my live event in my retreat in December of 2024.
::I am marketing, speaking and calling forward those that are ready to heal and transform their own lives as the evidence to make bigger waves and impact in the world.
::This event is for those who want to get into the spotlight and not just get more visible.
::They're ready to blow up.
::They're ready to make what they made in one month, in one year, in one month.
::They're ready to not just sign a few clients or sell out a few retreats.
::They're ready to be completely, fully booked.
::Every single retreat and every single event.
::Who you're speaking to is not for everyone, but you want to have a little gap, a little celebration that will move the right people into your offer.
::Next question.
::What do you suggest when the marketing calls in?
::Nothing but crickets.
::Even the mailing list of folks who signed up because they said they were interested in attending your retreat?
::Good question.
::When your marketing isn't getting any feedback, it's very important that you go back and you read your content.
::Are you selling the details?
::Are you marketing the location?
::Are you selling the name?
::Or is it clear that you are providing transformation?
::Can you yourself see the value in the retreat?
::In the program?
::So often people's content is very vague.
::It's very fluffy.
::When we are marketing and selling, which we're going deep into this in cash combos.
::So if you're not already in cash combos, get yourself in cash combos.
::Send me a DM sign up.
::It's a live coaching experience.
::It's all about how to sell.
::But first you have to see are you sold on your offer?
::When you read your content, is it clear who they are?
::Who they'll be afterwards?
::Is it clear who they are?
::And is it clear why you are different?
::Is it clear who you are and why they should come to your retreat?
::Is the transformation of the retreat clear?
::And are you actually selling to people that when they read the sales page, the emails and the social media content, they think to themselves, how does she?
::She know me?
::She's in my head.
::I am experiencing that.
::I am feeling that I need this.
::I want this.
::You want to be creepily specific.
::You want to give real life examples of what they're experiencing right now and what you're presenting to them that is different from anything else that they've tried before from any other retreats out there before.
::It's so important that you position this retreat as different, this program as different.
::If your marketing isn't working yet, it might have nothing to do with the marketing and the messaging.
::It just might be that they haven't seen it enough times.
::Did you know in 2024, people need to see your content, your program, your retreat, 42 times.
::42.
::Now, if you're doing it 42 times in the exact same way, that's not gonna work.
::There's many different angles and many different ways to sell.
::And I go deep into this in my mastermind.
::The different ways that you create content, the different ways that you sell, there's so many different angles.
::You can't come at it from the same angle because there's different types of buyers in your audience that need to hear it from someone or something in a different way.
::Next question, how to build a community to attend retreats.
::Marketing helps, but I'm feeling it's the community that's needing.
::Yeah, this is a really good question, and I answer this full out in most of my programs for retreats and online, but I'll just cover it here slightly.
::Building community is creating one marketing content that allows people to get to know like and trust you.
::Authentic, deep connection where your content online is like you are speaking to them, like they're in the room with you, like you're talking to them, create content like you're talking to them and then actually engage with people that are following you.
::Watch other people's stories, comment on other people's posts, create conversations on your content, use your content to call in your community.
::Use your content to build a movement.
::You're not here just to niche down.
::You want to build something so much bigger where you're creating a collective of like minded human beings where they, when they actually get into the room for a live event or a retreat, they feel like they know you.
::They feel like they know the people within your community because you are also raw and real online.
::Another thing that is so powerful for retreats or programs or people hiring you, not just the content that you create, but collaborating, going and being on other people's podcasts, going on other people's Instagram lives.
::Putting yourself into the stages of other people.
::That's what's so magical about my live event here in December and the retreat is that you get to come and meet my community.
::You get to see how I'm building a multi seven figure business, a huge movement of wave makers, of visionary leaders, of healers who are here to do the work.
::First, you get to come be a fly on the wall, but you get to meet your next best friend, your next client, your next mentor.
::When you put yourself in this room, you're coming in and being on my stage.
::And then those people that you meet will invite you to be on their stages.
::This is the next thing.
::So not only collaborating, going out to be on other people's podcasts, going out to be in other people's programs, being a guest on someone else's retreat, going into someone else's community and giving value.
::Going into someone else's community and giving value.
::The next thing is networking.
::Go to a live event, go to retreats, go to in person collaboration gatherings, put yourself in other people's rooms to network and get to know other people in person.
::Live events, retreats and gatherings, in person sisterhood, community, new Moon circle ceremonies, different things like this is where a lot of my retreat clients and live event clients come from.
::Because when you go to a retreat or in a live event, you're meeting other people who like to go to live events and retreats.
::You're meeting people who would like to come to your retreat because you and your retreat are different than me and my retreat.
::Getting yourself out there networking and marketing and making friends and then finding each other online and following each other online and deepening the relationship online.
::You create content online to market yourself.
::You go and collaborate in other people's audiences.
::You get out there, network, go to other events and live events, and then finally you can also do ads.
::You can run ads to a post a piece of content that isn't selling, it's talking about who you are and what you do.
::So people get to know, know you, and then they follow you and then they start to like you and then they start to trust you and they come.
::But when you're creating ads, you want to create a funnel within the ads that isn't just directing them to buy immediately, it's getting them to know like and trust you.
::Trust you so that they buy from you.
::So that they, they like you enough that they're willing to pay you, so that they like, feel that you're giving them enough value that they're willing to pull out their credit card.
::We want to think about retreats, online business of building a personal brand and actually caring about relationships.
::Where it's so much bigger than building out transactional businesses where you sell something, people pay you and you never see them again.
::You want to create a collective community where it's not just about you and your retreat, it's about you.
::You're a retreat and the people that you bring, the energy that holds and that is there based upon you and what it is that you do.
::And that is the most important thing when it comes to building a business.
::It's like building a personal brand where you're a real person and you want to have real life long, authentic relationships with the people within your community because that is felt.
::Next question.
::I'm doing my first retreat October 4 through 6th.
::I'll be in Florida.
::I have Facebook, group of three.
::K, TikTok, seventeen K.
::I thought it would be easy to sell.
::So far, only five people paid out of 40.
::Can you look at my site to see if anything is off?
::So I'm not going to look at your site because that's something that I offer as a paid offer of like giving you feedback on your marketing, your messaging, and that's something that I will send to you after this session.
::But what I would say for you is this is why I just had a coaching call this morning with one of my clients.
::So many of my clients have double, triple the amount of followers and engagement as me.
::But I make a lot more money than them because I'm actually building relationships with my community and selling to them in a way that it's like a customer client journey of an experience.
::And I'm not just like creating content and then one day selling them into a retreat.
::It's like every day I'm creating content, but I'm also giving them different ways in which they can work with me.
::I have low ticket offers, mini courses that are 27, 37, $47.
::I have a monthly membership that's dollar 97 a month.
::But I give so much value that just coming into that program for one month is worth over $10,000 of value in the trainings, the courses, the programs, the community that's alive inside of there.
::And then I also have like lower ticket offers that lead into my mastermind, that lead into my retreats, that lead into.
::So what we want to do is create something that allows them to get to know, like and trust you.
::I would get them into a room, I would host a free event online, and then in that free event.
::I would then invite the right people to your retreat.
::You want to get people to feel your work, feel your magic, feel your medicine before you try to sell them.
::We can grow an audience and have a lot of followers.
::Three k, 17k.
::But if you don't nurture them, if you don't give them value, if you don't get them to know, like, know, like, like and trust you, then you just have a huge audience.
::You want to build a huge audience that becomes family, that becomes community, and that's through deepening their relationships, where you actually get them into a room and you actually transform their lives and they're actually learning from you even when the phone is shut off.
::So I would focus on how are you nurturing them?
::What is the space between them following you online, then paying you to go onto the retreat?
::Next question.
::Just launched my first retreat a week ago, and no sign up so far.
::Need to learn how to get traction.
::I love you so much.
::I just, I just launched my first retreat.
::No signup so far.
::If you just launched your first thing ever and you don't have a sign up in one week, news flash, you are not alone.
::People that launch a retreat and sell out the day of within a week have a very loyal, warm audience, lots of community that have literally been waiting for this.
::So unless you have an online or in person community where they already know, like, and trust you, it's gonna take time.
::Which means you need to market, you need to collaborate, you need to network, and you might need to use ads.
::But what's most important is that you focus on building relationships, getting your retreat out there 42 times, someone needs to see your retreat before they'll buy it.
::And from 42 different angles, and from 42 different stories, and from 42 different intentional marketing posts.
::And in the meantime, you need to be growing your audience.
::You need to be marketing yourself, your brand, building a personal brand, collaborating with others, getting yourself out there.
::You don't know how many people have come onto my retreats because they found me on someone else's podcast or because they found me on someone else's Instagram Live.
::Collaboration is huge because they might not know you, but they know the person that you're going live with, and they trust that person.
::If that person is willing to have you on their platform, they trust you.
::It shortens the distance.
::It allows you to collapse time from someone getting to know, like and trust you if you're referred by someone else.
::If you launched your retreat a week ago, no one signed up, that's okay.
::What you have to do is focus on building relationships.
::And what I would also do for you is what I said in that, just the last response that I gave.
::Create a live experience.
::Let them get to know who you are, what you do, why you're here, how you can help, and then sell them into the retreat.
::Get them off social media, get them off the podcast, get them off where they're learning and listening to you from, and get them into an actual room where they can experience you, your magic, your work, and then invite them to grow one layer deeper.
::What we want to do is get people off of the platforms and into a room, and in that room, change their life.
::Make them feel, think, experience something different than before.
::And if you can do that in a room, they're going to be like, wow, what else can we do together?
::All right, final question.
::I want to host a retreat, and my area of skills is drumming.
::But I also want to offer yoga and another activity that I won't rouse myself.
::We'll get outside help as the host, it is a no no to participate in yoga, etcetera.
::And should I stand back and host only?
::Oh, my gosh.
::I just went on a retreat and we talked about this.
::You don't have to follow any rules.
::You can participate in anything and everything.
::Just make sure that your people are taken care of.
::Make sure that your people feel seen, they feel safe, they feel guided, they feel held, they feel directed.
::Be in the room with them, sit at the same table with them.
::Stretch your body with them, laugh with them, cry with them.
::Open your heart.
::Be vulnerable, but don't be a participant.
::And not make sure that your people are having the best time of their life.
::Make sure that every single person there feels like they're being seen and held.
::Like this was curated for them, not for you.
::You want to make sure that they feel like this is the best experience of their life.
::And if you are completely detached because you are being the student, that's a no no.
::But there are no rules.
::Participate as much as you possibly can while making sure behind the scenes.
::Everything is smooth, everything is flowing, everyone feels as though this is the best experience of their life.
::Everything is flowing, everything is in place, everything was pre thought of, everything was pre planned.
::And, well, if you've ever let a retreat before, you know, everything changes and things go differently, of course, as always.
::But the most important thing is that it feels as though you have curated this experience with intention.
::For them, that's the most important.
::So I hope this was helpful.
::And if you were curious, about different ways to work together.
::You can always reach out to me.
::Amberhagberg on Instagram if you found value from this and you want to share the podcast on your social media platforms, tag me.
::Let me know your biggest takeaway.
::It allows other people to find this podcast, get value, help another multi passionate entrepreneur make a bigger ripple, a wave in the world, and I will talk to you on the next episode.
