[00:00:00] EMMA: I wanna take you behind the scenes of something really special. If you've been following along, playing along, you know that in February we held our Crowned for Success Retreat as part of the Thriving Women Program. I'm still processing it. I'm still getting messages from the women who were there.
[00:00:16] I'm still finding confetti in my handbag and I'm still carrying the warmth of what happened in that room, and I only do retreats for my thriving women. Just before you ask, what I'd love you to do though is grab a cup, settle in, and let me walk you through what actually goes down at a Thriving Women Retreat, because I think there's a lot of assumptions out there about what retreats are, and I want to set the record straight.
[00:00:41] I've spoken before on this podcast about the power of retreats, and I had a gorgeous conversation with Deb Fowler a while back about what makes a good one, and one of the things that Deb said that has always stuck with me. That is the most valuable around retreats is it [00:01:00] gives people real space to slow down, reflect and reconnect rather than packing schedules with content.
[00:01:07] And I hold that close every single time I design one of ours because what I know to be true is that the women who come into the thriving women. As a whole, whether they're running a one woman show or managing a team of 12, they are busy. They're already carrying a lot. They make decisions all day, every day, most of them don't have someone sitting next to them saying, Hey, you're doing a brilliant job.
[00:01:30] Wouldn't that be amazing? let's think about what's next. That's what the retreat is for. To help them do that. You're doing well. What's next? And a retreat. It's not a conference. It's not a workshop. It's not a lanyard and a swag bag. It's an intentional pause, like a proper one. The kind where you can hear yourself.
[00:01:49] Think again. Do you remember those? I used to think retreats were a little bit indulgent, a little bit woo woo for someone like me. But over the years, through [00:02:00] running thriving women and watching what happens when women actually give themselves permission to stop, have completely changed my mind. Retreats are one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself and your business.
[00:02:12] Full stop. the Crown for Success retreat ran in late February. Right at the start of our Thriving Women 2026 calendar year, And I sit down each year and ask myself, what do I need to do differently? What do I need to chop? What do I need to add? What are the women actually finding valuable and retreats? They keep coming back as one of the most requested, most cherished parts of the program. People love the dinners, they love the hot seats.
[00:02:42] They love hanging out with one another. And I think that's never going to change. Being in a room with like-minded women just does something that, a Zoom call is wonderful as a Zoom call is simply cannot replicate. So we set the scene [00:03:00] with care. Every detail matters to me. Kind of like managing your wedding from the way the room is arranged.
[00:03:06] When people walk in to the little touches on the tables, I want women to walk through the door and immediately feel like they can go, whew. Bit of an exhale, like they've arrived somewhere safe, somewhere that's literally just for them. Now let's talk about what we actually did, because it wasn't all facials and massages, although they were both of those, so I'm not really very sorry about that.
[00:03:29] I. We kicked off with some really solid practical sessions. Morning is for hard work, afternoon is for play, and one of the things I've learned over the years is that women come to retreats wanting two things, connection and clarity. So the content needs to deliver. On both of those, we work through some focus strategy sessions.
[00:03:50] Where are you at in your business right now? What does visibility mean to you? Where do you wanna be by the end of the year? What's the gap? What will you do in the next 90 days? [00:04:00] What will you commit to? Oh my goodness. All the things. What's the one or two things you can actually do, not the 17 things you think you should would, could.
[00:04:08] Wows. I'm a big believer in keeping things simple. And when I hit a certain point in my business, I had 11 offers out. You would've heard this, 11. And I thought I was gonna go nuts, so, so I pulled out a piece of paper, I jotted them all down, worked out which ones bought me joy, and which ones were commercial, and wheeled it back to three, one-on-one coaching, thriving women.
[00:04:31] And my corporate programs,
[00:04:33] three offers simple, and I share that story at every retreat because the relief on everyone's face when they hear it is palpable. They realize that they don't actually have to do everything. They just have to do the right things, whatever the right thing is for their business.
[00:04:51] We also build in proper coworking time. And I love this part because it's where the magic quietly happens. Women sitting side by side, [00:05:00] laptops open, actually doing the work, not talking about doing the work, actually doing the work. And when they get stuck, they lean over and they say, Hey, can I run something past you?
[00:05:09] And suddenly you've got a mini hot seat happening. It just happens beautifully and organically. Ideas flow. Problems get solved in real time. Makes my heart sing. I've seen this happen at our go-Getters days as well. I sat down with a woman at one of those events and she said, Emma, I need a new revenue stream.
[00:05:29] We had 15 minutes together, we scratched out a new revenue stream and I showed her how she could make $108,000 from it. Do you reckon she was happy with 15 minutes with a business coach? Oh, yes. Yes, she was. That same energy carries into a retreat, except you've got days of it unhurried instead of minutes, and that's the beauty unhurried.
[00:05:54] If you know anything about how I run this community, you'll know that surprise and delight is [00:06:00] baked into everything we do. It's not an afterthought, it's a philosophy. I want women to feel genuinely taken care of, not just coached. So at the retreat. We had facials and massages on offer, and before you think, oh, that's a nice little bonus.
[00:06:17] Let me tell you what actually happened. Women who hadn't stopped in months, some of them years, sat down in a chair and someone else looked after them. That's it. Someone else took care of them for 60 whole minutes, and for some of those women, this was the most radical thing that's happened to them all freaking year.
[00:06:36] We talk a lot about self-care in the business world and sometimes it can feel like just another thing on the to-do list schedule, self-care, tick. But when you actually create the space for it, when you remove all the barriers and say, this is for you, just receive it. Something shifts. I watched women walk out of those sessions softer, more open, open, ready to [00:07:00] have the deeper conversations.
[00:07:01] That did come later. Now there's this one highlight and I didn't see it coming, even though I've planned the freaking event. We organized a scavenger hunt around Melbourne, and honestly, I wasn't sure how it would land. These are serious business women, CEOs, founders, consultants, coaches, would they wanna run around the city like kids on an excursion?
[00:07:26] The answer was apparently a resounding yes. We broke them into teams and off we went. There was laughter echoing down Melbourne laneways. There were ridiculous photos being taken. There were women who had never met before. The retreat suddenly scheming together like old friends. It was joyful, properly, deeply joyful, and.
[00:07:50] What I noticed was that the scavenger hunt did something that no workshop or strategy session could do. It broke down every last wall. When you are giggling with [00:08:00] some someone over a ridiculous challenge, when you are lost together trying to find A hidden laneway. When you are cheering each other on, that's when real connection happens.
[00:08:10] When you are wearing weird little Mexican hats, that's when the pretense drops and you see each other as whole humans, not just as business owners. And by the time we came back together that evening, by the way, the team I was in did not win. The energy in the room had completely transformed. There was this lightness, a playfulness that carried on throughout the rest of the retreat.
[00:08:34] And I think some of the most important business conversations happened because of that scavenger hunt. Not in spite of it. In the evenings, I would just wanna tell you about our private dinner. Wow. Says because belly to belly is still the best. at the retreat, one dinner in particular was a very intimate, private affair. Beautiful food, beautiful wine. So I'm told because I don't drink beautiful company and we added a dress up element, which [00:09:00] honestly brought out a side of these women that was so delightful.
[00:09:03] There's just something about putting on something sparkly or bold or just different from your usual Tuesday uniform, which is, let's be honest, probably activewear that gives you permission to show up. Differently to be playful, to be a bit silly, and most importantly to celebrate yourself. the conversations that happened over these dinners, they were the kind you cannot manufacture.
[00:09:27] Women sharing their real stories as in REAL, not REEL. Stories. Their struggles, their wins, the staff, they don't post on Instagram. One woman told me afterwards that a conversation that she had over dinner. Completely changed how she was thinking about her next 12 months. That's what happens when you create the right environment and then you get out the way, Okay. This is the part I wanna talk to you about most, and it's also the part that's hardest to put into words. The vulnerability in that room was [00:10:00] palpable. I don't use that word lightly. I have been running thriving men for years now, and I've seen some incredible moments of openness and courage. But this retreat, wow, this retreat was something else.
[00:10:13] I'm not gonna lie. There was tears, lots of tears, and some were sad and some were not. They were the kind of tears that come when you finally say the thing out loud, when you finally admit that you're exhausted, when you acknowledge that your business has outgrown you or that you've outgrown your business.
[00:10:33] When you tell a room full of women. That you are scared and instead of judgment, you get a dozen heads nodding back at you because they feel it too. I think about what one of our attendees said after our very first retreat. She called the retreat amazeballs. I love that. And I love that word because she kept it light.
[00:10:55] But what she was actually saying was that she felt held, she felt seen. She felt like she [00:11:00] belonged somewhere. It felt amazeballs and what happened in February. Multiplied that for the women in there. The women who were walked in carrying the weight of every decision, every doubt, every, am I doing this right?
[00:11:15] They got to put that down for a few days, and in that space, they found clarity. They found each other. I've always said that how I measure success is that when someone leaves our community, they stay in touch with others. They stay connected. Sometimes I'll walk into a room six years later and I'll spot thriving women everywhere.
[00:11:35] And it's not even my event. The ripple effect of what we build together is extraordinary, that ripple starts in moments like these, a retreat room where someone is brave enough to be honest, and everyone else is brave enough to actually listen to what is being said. Not to try and solve every retreat teaches me something really different.
[00:11:59] Every single [00:12:00] one. And this one reinforced a few things I wanna share with you, whether you are thinking about hosting your own retreat, joining one, or just trying to build more depth into your business relationships. You know, I miss practical, so here we go. Number one, space is the strategy. I know that sounds counterintuitive when we're all about actions and outcomes and results, but giving people space to think, to breathe, to just like be that is the strategy.
[00:12:28] The breakthroughs don't come when you pack the schedule wall to. They come in the gaps, in the quiet moments over a glass of wine at dinner, during a walk between sessions. You need to build in the space. Number two, play is so underrated that scavenger hunt reminded me that we take ourselves far too seriously.
[00:12:50] Sometimes business is important. Yes, revenue matters, of course, but joy matters too. And when you play let people play, they open up [00:13:00] in ways that no amount of structured content can achieve. And number three. Community transcends everything. I've said this before and I'll say it again. Go get a day, welcomes everyone with open arms from business newbies to entrepreneurs with multimillion dollar businesses because the value of community truly does transcend revenue.
[00:13:24] The same is true at our retreats. It doesn't matter where you are in your business journey. What matters is that you are willing to show up, be real, and support the women around you, and also feel the support. And number four, surprise and delight is not a luxury. It's my leadership tool. When you take care of people in unexpected ways, you build trust, you build loyalty, you build a culture where people feel valued and valued people, whoa.
[00:13:53] They do extraordinary things. I wanna talk about pricing. Pricing a retreat. It's the bane [00:14:00] of my existence in thriving women. We are very lucky. Uh, all of our women who sign up to all in get two retreats. That is the cheapest way to get a retreat with the Emma McQueen game. When you're running a retreat, you need to figure out why you are running the retreat.
[00:14:16] I simply run thriving women retreats because I want the community to get together and they love it. It is not a money making exercise for me. Could it be. Yes. Could I go public and run a retreat? Yes. so sometimes. There's these two elements playing out. The person who is hosting the retreat has to get the minimum amount of numbers to make the retreat commercial, and the participant who or the attendee who's thinking about coming, has to pop the money down.
[00:14:50] Now, our retreat in the Emma McQueen world is probably around about $3,000. For those that aren't in the all in tier for thriving women, that's a lot of [00:15:00] money. You gotta make that work. Now, our retreats. To be clear are not basic. I know that sounds random, but I like luxe. I don't think having a retreat and sharing a room is really a retreat.
[00:15:13] I want people to have their own room. I want people to have their own snacks. I want people to have their own experience, like I want them to have their own facials. You know, I do a lot of surprise and delight. Could we do it cheaper? Yes, we could. Would it be the same?
[00:15:26] No, it wouldn't. A private dinner. In the middle of a retreat is not a cheap exercise, right? So if you are thinking about hosting a retreat, you need to work out what's your break E? Why are you doing it in the first place? What's your break even number? Do you need five or 10 to make it worthwhile, or do you wanna make some money on top of that?
[00:15:44] And then you need to work out how am I gonna price it to make sure that the right audience comes, depending on who the right audience is for you. It is not for the fainthearted. it's taken me a long time to get My own formula right But let me be clear, we do not [00:16:00] make money on our retreats.
[00:16:01] It's simply because the community wanted it and the community needs it. And that's why I show up. now. I want you to know I am not a professional retreat organizer In fact, I tried to avoid retreats for thriving women for quite some time because the effort that's involved in putting a retreat together.
[00:16:18] With the right people, the right dynamics, having enough space, having enough content, like those things take months to put together. I think I've gotten better with it over the time, and I also. Always question myself at the beginning of the retreat and at the end of the retreat. have I put enough space in?
[00:16:37] Is space even valuable? Have I put the right content in? Is that the right content for every single person in that room? Have I got the coaching sorted? Do I have the surprise and delight sorted? What are the logistics? How will we make a scavenger hunt work? Like all the things, they take a lot of my mental energy. for our mid-year retreat that's coming [00:17:00] up, I've gone back to the retreaters and I've gone, what is it that you would like as an add-on, as an additional for the next retreat? Like you have to do your homework.
[00:17:08] So if you're thinking about hosting a retreat, there's so much that goes into the retreat before you even hit retreat day. It's almost like all the work is done. All the workbooks are written and printed. All the surprise and delight is thought of all the ways it flows, how you make it work, what happens on each day.
[00:17:29] That is all done by the time I hit retreat. I'm solid because I've done all of the work and I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot of work. It's also a lot of work for our events team. So I have the beautiful Steph from Carter and Co who helps me. I have Serena in Western Australia, who also helps me.
[00:17:47] Serena hears me say things like, okay, I know this is crazy, but I don't think we should just go for dinner 'cause that's boring. Let's go find a show. And then she'll go, there's no shows at that time. And I'll go, okay, let's go do karaoke. No, not everyone likes karaoke. [00:18:00] Okay, let's go do a scavenger hunt.
[00:18:01] Like the amount of decisions that we make as business owners times 10 for a retreat. So if you're thinking about running a retreat for your community or doing something else, just know it's quite a lot of work and I'm okay with it. I've got muscle memory on it now, and the first one always hurts.
[00:18:20] So what's next for thriving women? Well, we've got a packed calendar for 2026. We have go-getter days in both Melbourne and Brisbane. We have online master classes, we have dinners, we have Coffee and Connects. We have online co-working sessions and midyear winter retreat warmer coming up in July.
[00:18:41] We've also got our day with the Queen event in October, which is always a highlight for the calendar. And for those of you who've been asking about joining from interstate or from regional areas, we do have national online tier now, took me a while 'cause I can be a slow learner, but you can join from [00:19:00] anywhere you wish and I wish I had created this sooner.
[00:19:04] And listen to my regional and my national ladies. Just because you're remote or have kids at home doesn't mean. You don't get to have a community. The power is in this community and is in the accessibility of this community.
[00:19:18] And if you are thinking, I want that, I wanna be in the room, I wanna be in that, a room like that, I wanna feel some kind of connection and get that kind clarity.
[00:19:26] I'd love to have a chat with you. You could book in a power chat with me through our website and we can talk about what we can do to support you in these crazy times. When I first created Thriving Women, I sat back and asked myself, do I love it? Would I want to be part of this community?
[00:19:44] And the answer was yes. And I created the community that I felt was missing. And seven years in, maybe eight years in that conviction has not wavered. If anything, it's stronger than it was before. A [00:20:00] thriving woman is someone who pays attention to every single part of her life, not just her business. She realizes that life works in seasons, and sometimes the seasons are hard and sometimes they're glorious.
[00:20:13] And sometimes, like our February retreat, it's a bit of both at the same time. So to every woman in that room in February, thank you. Thank you for your courage. You know who you are. Thank you for your laughter, and thank you for your tears. And thank you for showing up as your whole messy, brilliant, beautiful selves.
[00:20:31] And to everyone listening, I hope this episode has given you a little taste of what's possible when people come together with intention, openness, and a willingness to learn. That's it for today. I'll see you next time. Same teacup. Say Queen,
[00:20:49]
