Why Retreats Make HR Consultants Indispensable to Their Clients

On this week's episode we discuss why retreats could be the secret ingredient to making you stand out as a HR Consultant.

🔊 Listen now to discover:

✅ How you can build stronger relationships with your clients – without spending all your time on calls.
💡 Why retreats lead to faster business growth (and how they can make you stand out to your clients).
🚀 The secret ingredient that turns an average retreat into an unforgettable experience.
🌍 How to create a high-impact retreat that YOUR clients would actually pay to join.
💰 Why retreats can become your most profitable offering – if you structure them the right way.

🎧 Hit play now and learn how to use retreats to create deeper connections with your clients, deliver more value, and grow your consultancy!

Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction: What this episode is all about
02:15 – The real definition of a retreat (it’s not just about relaxing!)
05:30 – Why retreats create stronger communities and deeper client relationships
08:45 – The biggest mistake people make when running a retreat
11:20 – How retreats help you speed up results for your clients
13:55 – The role of retreats in positioning yourself as an expert
16:30 – Why some industries struggle with retreats – and how to make them work
18:50 – How HR consultants can use retreats to support their clients’ business goals
21:15 – A powerful way to turn retreats into a long-term revenue stream
23:30 – Where to learn more and how to plan your own retreat

Want My Help to Build Your £70K+ HR Consultancy?

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Transcript

Patrick Bryan and Nick Poninski - 2024/11/20 13:55 GMT – Transcript

Attendees

Patrick Bryan, Nick Poninski

Transcript

Nick Poninski: 

Nick Poninski: Hello there and welcome back to another episode of marketing made easy it for consultants with me Nick sky. joining us and…

Nick Poninski: retre He's going to talk to us about what they are, why you should suggest them to your clients, what the advantages are and yeah, just generally explore the topic because as I'm sure that we're about to find out these could be invaluable to your clients. So, thank you for joining us today, Patrick.

Patrick Bryan: No, you're very welcome,…

Patrick Bryan: Yep.

Nick Poninski: 

Nick Poninski: Yeah, it's great to meet because obviously we met each other in the Atomicon Facebook group and then …

Nick Poninski: since then we've had a few phone calls and here we are. Yes, this is it. You're over in sunny Spain,…

Patrick Bryan: chatting in virtual life virtual.

Patrick Bryan: Yeah. Yes,…

Nick Poninski: aren't you? Wow.

Patrick Bryan: I am. Yeah, it's a beautiful day here The sky is blue. Probably about if you can get out of the wind about 22 or 23 degrees. yeah.

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: So, it's a different life.

Nick Poninski: I was about to say it's not a bad life cuz I'm in Manchester and…

Patrick Bryan: It's not bad life. I feel a bit guilty sometimes.

Nick Poninski: it's Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: It feels odd having this sort of weather at this time of year. I'm too English. I'm used to it. I drawly a picture this morning of all frost on the cars and it's like that's…

Nick Poninski: Yes. Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: what I'm used to even if I don't miss it,

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah. I'm not surprised over in England right now.

Nick Poninski: It is I'm in Manchester. It's four degrees. So, yes, cold. But, hey, talk to me about retreats. Give me What is a retreat?

Patrick Bryan: So a retreat in essence is I would say a residential break…

Patrick Bryan: where there is a certain topic that is taught or discussed or practiced in the case of yoga and things like that but the dictionary definition is an escape from everyday life…

Nick Poninski: Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: which is actually a lot more poetic than what I've just given you. so that's It can be anything and everything. I always say that I think just about everyone in the world has got the answers to someone's questions. they have a skill, a bit of knowledge that other people are actively out there looking for. And that is what a tree is all about.

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: Finding someone who's asking the questions that you've got the answers to.

Nick Poninski: That is so interesting…

Nick Poninski: because in my head I think about this from my world, My perspective. And I was thinking, maybe I'll put on a retreat for my clients, and offer it out there and we can come together and make some real progress in people's businesses. But what you're saying is perhaps you have one is in terms of a mastermind. I work in marketing. Perhaps there could be an accountant. Perhaps there could be employment.

Nick Poninski: We could have, the whole spectrum of different worlds and we could all answer each other's problems on this retreat.

Patrick Bryan: Yeah, that's exactly it.

Patrick Bryan: And what you described there is one of the important things about a massage is it's not, teacher and pupils. It tends to be more of a community-based thing. if you get it right, and particularly if you've got people there who share the same interests, which is very often happens because, not everyone wants to go and learn how to crochet or play the ukulele and they're unlikely to end up at that sort of retreat by accident, so you tend to get people with similar interests. and that forms that tight bonds that you get during a retreat.

Patrick Bryan: And it's interesting that, you need as a retreat leader to not overwhelm that.

Nick Poninski: Yes.  Interesting. Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: You need to tailor your content to spark conversations rather than override them. I think, it's all about getting people to interact with each other and bounce off each other because, we run retreats here and it's an old cliche, isn't it?  every day is a school day, but it is for me as well when we're teaching a bunch of students about how to run retreats or how to run their beauty businesses better or things like that. everyone who has got lived experiences and knowledge that we don't have. and it's the interaction between all that.

Patrick Bryan: 

Patrick Bryan: The boring ones are where someone just gets up and talks at you for hours on it. And that is a classroom environment rather than a retreat.

00:05:00

Nick Poninski: 

Nick Poninski: That doesn't work so I get that. No. Yeah. I'm just thinking to myself, I've got a friend, a client I wonder if he's called the good man Association. Can't remember what it is now. It's about men being men,

Patrick Bryan: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: I was wondering if maybe I'm going to suggest your retreat to him because he getting that mastermind together, these guys getting together, etc. This would be a good place for them, to have their mastermind with you. But yes, what kind of people come along to your retreats? What kind of businesses? So you mentioned butitionicians. Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: So, we've got buticians as I was saying to you earlier, we've got some photographers coming over early next year. This year we've had fitness trainers, we've had some yoga and pilateses teachers. next year we've got quite a few coaches coming in actually, business coaches and lifestyle coaches because that's more where we're aiming the business at is that market because particularly with the business coaches,

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: they tend to have a good idea of what they want to teach and they have an audience already in place that they're going to teach it to.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: So for them and for us it's an easy sound because they've got people waiting to come on the retreat rather than where we were focusing on yoga teachers before sometimes their audience is free OAPS on a Tuesday morning and it can be a hard sale for them. It's not a hard sale. It takes much longer to create an audience than to sell to one that is already within your world and are buying stuff from you already. let me think…

Nick Poninski: Yeah, that definitely makes sense. So, I guess anybody could use a retreat. So, what are the benefits of a retreat? Let's go. Have you got five benefits? Love a list.

Patrick Bryan: if I have five I will just ramble and there'll probably be five semi-interesting points.

Nick Poninski: No rambling.

Nick Poninski: 

Nick Poninski: Let's go.

Patrick Bryan: So the benefits I suppose from an attendee of a retreat are that they are going to hopefully get their questions answered.

Nick Poninski: Give me a list. Yes. Mhm.

Patrick Bryan: They're going to have their pain points reduced. if there is something in their life that's affecting them. I think the top benefit is being as I said the def dictionary definition of a retreat is an escape from your normal life. So you're not controlled by the daily routines that we all have. You've actually got time to sit and think and assimilate and consider what is being taught to you.

Patrick Bryan: 

Patrick Bryan: And number two, going back again to what I said earlier, you're part of a like-minded community of people who have the same ideas as you. So, they're great sounding board and quite often able to give you other bits of the jigsaw as well. number three is the fact that,…

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: even if someone is teaching quite a dry topic, maybe I was going to say I'll say accountancy or law or something like that. What we always recommend people to do is to mix in a few more traditional retreat activities.

Nick Poninski: Excellent. Mhm.

Patrick Bryan: Maybe a yoga session. we've got a great fitness pilatees instructor who can come over here. We can do some meditation or something like that. So, they are going to experience things that perhaps they wouldn't necessarily do in the normal run of their lives.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: Number four, particularly if they come here, they're going to have a wonderfully relaxing time as well. the food's going to be great. the weather's usually going to be even better.

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: We've got miles and miles of walks around here, so you can just really get back into nature. and number five, I can't think of number five, but we'll rename four top.

Nick Poninski: What about as an organizer?

Nick Poninski: So if I was to organize a retreat, what would be a benefit for me?

Patrick Bryan: So you are going to be able most coaches or people who have a membership or things like that work with their members in very small tightly controlled time spans. Maybe an hour or two a week, something like that. Maybe not even that if they're not doing onetoone sessions and things.  When you've got someone in your company in a retreat environment for five days, six days, the amount of work you can get through and the amount of progress you can make with them is astounding. because I suppose it's like they always say when kids go back to school after the summer holidays, they've got to spend two weeks teaching them what they taught before the holidays.

00:10:00

Patrick Bryan: And so if you've got an hour with someone, you'll probably spend in the first 20 minutes or half an hour recapping the last session you had in a retreat,…

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: it becomes more seamless because what you said to them the day before or in the morning rather than the evening is still fresh in their memories.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. …

Patrick Bryan: So you examinated Yeah.

Nick Poninski: accelerated progress, accelerated learning.

Patrick Bryan: And it is in an environment where they are going to be able to go away and if they spend an hour with you a week, they probably got thinking for half, I've got to go and…

Patrick Bryan: pick the kids up, got to go and put the tea on, things like that.

Nick Poninski: Yeah, life has

Patrick Bryan: When you're out of that daily routine, they don't have that constraint, So they're able to consider your words to assimilate it to actually see…

Nick Poninski: Oops.  They've been exposed to your brilliance. Nice.

Patrick Bryan: how it's going to work for them. and also, one of the things that we always recommend retreat leaders have is upselles because even if they respect you already as a coach, as a mentor, as a ukulele player or a mean crocheter, that's going to be doubled or trebled while they're on the retreat with you and they're really getting the full extent of your knowledge.  So they are going to want to continue working with you after the retreat. So then you can, create Exactly. Hopefully. Yeah. and also another thing that's really interesting is because of that tight bonds that forms between the group quite often they want to carry on working within that same group.

Patrick Bryan: So, if you've got part two of the retreat,…

Nick Poninski: Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: have it ready to sell before the one that you're on is finished because they are going to say, "Wouldn't it be great to learn more, but learn more together," So, a lot of retreat leaders make the mistake of seeing the money they can make from a retreat as a single item of the money that's paid for the retreat rather than, the long-term recurring income that you can get from them.

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: Which sounds very mercenary. a lot of retreat leads, I'm only doing it to help people. I don't want to make money. You still got to wait. You still got to live somewhere,…

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: .

Nick Poninski: The mortgage needs paying. It's only fair.

Patrick Bryan: Yeah, of course it is. so that's always something to bear in mind, Don't give them all of your knowledge, spread it out.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. …

Patrick Bryan: And if you do it,…

Nick Poninski: I think the idea in my head would be that you would do some sort of projects, So, when somebody comes to me and says, I need help with my marketing, there's a holistic world of marketing. There's all sorts, right? But the reality is we could do one aspect of it and plug it into your business. last year in October I did the consultants pipeline playbook workshop.

Nick Poninski: 

Nick Poninski: So that was basically an hour a day for three days to plug in a pipeline of leads and…

Nick Poninski: clients into their business. So that was one element. So I guess what you're saying is you can do the same thing on a retreat. Rather than giving them everything, you giving them an element, a useful plugin. Nice.

Patrick Bryan: Yeah. Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: And that's another aspect of it that you don't need to necessarily have a set topic. It can be a mastermind with a group of minded people who just want to brainstorm various ideas. it doesn't need to have a set rigid agenda. Some of the best ones are the ones that just come naturally. that without too much prompt. Obviously, you do need someone there to prompt it along when it's 5:00 and they'd rather have a beer than continue working.

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: But have a beer and continue working. You're on holiday.

Nick Poninski: …

Nick Poninski: people say that it never really works too well.

Patrick Bryan: No, it doesn't.

Nick Poninski: Not Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: Come out past six and it's all getting a bit messy usually.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah. it's very true cuz I mean, it's a chemical. It alters your brain. It alters the way it works.

00:15:00

Nick Poninski: So, for sure, once you have some alcohol is a drug, So once you have some drugs, it's definitely going to affect your output, your work.

Patrick Bryan: Yeah, we can drink.

Patrick Bryan: We are happy to. So when you come there, it'll be alcohol free.

Nick Poninski: I'm actually taught, so no problem for me.

Patrick Bryan: Yeah. No, me and Patrick. So that would be three of us at least.

Nick Poninski: Yeah, for Fair enough. Okay, I like it. So we now know what a retreat is. We now know how they can make advantage.

Nick Poninski: you make progress quicker, you make strong bonds with your people in all aspects.

Patrick Bryan: 

Nick Poninski: So yeah, is there anything else you want to share with us?

Patrick Bryan: Yes.

Patrick Bryan: One of the things I was thinking about because when you asked me to do this, I was thinking maybe is the only,…

Patrick Bryan: sphere of business where I can't see any immediate relevance for retreats.

Nick Poninski: Yes. Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: But I think there are several I'm probably presuming a lot here, but I'm presuming that your clients help small to medium businesses with their HR requirements. so one thing that immediately sprung to mind is are there any bits of legislation that most companies are getting wrong? where you could rather than teaching people individually a hundred times to do it, bring a group of people away and go over it. I mean, at the end of the day, if you're not having to correct their mistakes they're making,…

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: that's better from the consultant's point of view as well, isn't it? but it's also reinforcing or…

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: establishing their expertise and knowledge in the subject that they are employed to do.

Nick Poninski: I think the other aspect as well is they can tell their clients to come along.

Patrick Bryan: Yep.

Nick Poninski: I've got clients that work with accountants, for example. So why would a group of clients, want to come along to a retreat? all sorts of reasons, right? they can make major progress with their business by coming away on a retreat, like you say, no distractions. So there are advantages for any business, So they don't necessarily need to have the retreat framed around their world as plugging in certain situations.

Nick Poninski: They can suggest it their clients to come along to the retreat for their own needs.  Yes.

Patrick Bryan: I think that's very true.

Patrick Bryan: I mean, I don't think there is any industry that couldn't have some sort of a treatment. even if it's not the traditional as I was saying there explaining bits of legislation or things like that the buzzword in corporate life these days is community one has to build a sense of community amongst their clients so if you have account consultants lawyers things like that the idea is that the more they identify

Patrick Bryan: 

Patrick Bryan: with you not only as the person but as a community the less likely they are to take their business elsewhere. so this is something that you don't need although I'd like it very much if you did to come here for a week with a group of people to achieve that. It's something you can achieve on a local level. if you've got all of your clients there start a few social events. Take them for a day at the races and go to a restaurant go to a pub for the evening. I would imagine amongst any consultant, lawyers, accountants, they have a very varied group of skills within their clientele.

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: So imagine if you can get those clientele to start interacting with you and start using each other's businesses.  Now it becomes not just a community building exercise but a networking exercise where you are facilitating people getting business from other clients that you have. yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: That's so interesting that your brain went cuz that's…

Nick Poninski: where my brain went as well. A lot of my clients ing, they go through networks. So, if they can get their referral partners around, because consultants would work pretty well with accountants, employment lawyers, all that good stuff. So, if they can run a mini retreat of their own and work out how they are going to pass work in and amongst themselves, run joint ventures, run partnerships, etc., etc.

00:20:00

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: No, I think that is a really good idea.

Nick Poninski: That could be thanks.

Patrick Bryan: And it's something that can start off small, It can start off,…

Nick Poninski: Yeah, it's not something that interests me to be honest.

Patrick Bryan: as I said, just an evening down the pub or playing darts or going to the races. People still go to the races. Living in Spain, I never see it on the television. no, not really.

Nick Poninski: No idea.

Patrick Bryan: It used to be a nice town, didn't it? and then eventually you could build it up to maybe a long weekend away somewhere in the sun. it could I suppose I don't know, we were talking before we came on the podcast about,…

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: what is taxdeductible and it could just be a jolly, but if there was an element of education in there, you could probably pass it off as a taxdeductible thing as well.

Nick Poninski: Yeah, small teams could just use it as a clients could use it as a bonus for their staff tax deductible…

Patrick Bryan: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: but listen guys we did really well in Q4 of booked as a holiday not necessarily maybe you do a little bit of work on Maybe you just have days by the pool or…

Patrick Bryan: Yeah. I mean,…

Nick Poninski: whatever, right?

Patrick Bryan: I think that would appeal to me far more than I never went on one, but the idea of those team building exercises when you were stood in the pissing rain constructing a raft with people,…

Nick Poninski: That was a great one.

Patrick Bryan: but you really didn't want to be there was …

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: a long weekend away in Spain doing not very much is team bonding rather than team building. I like to Yeah.

Nick Poninski: team bonding.

Nick Poninski: Perfect. I like it. a lot of good options there, Patrick. So, help us out here. If somebody would be interested in exploring the idea of going on a retreat with you, where should they find more information?

Patrick Bryan: So I suppose if you start off at the website that is www.casa terretablanca. So that's C A S A T O R E T A B L A N Ca.com.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Heat.

Patrick Bryan: Phew, that's quite a mouthful. and then from there there's links there where you can book a call with us or send us an email and then we can start the conversation. and sometimes, the conversations follow pretty much the same course that this little podcast has followed. I'm interested in retreats, but I've got no idea what I want to do one on or how I would actually manage to achieve booking it.

Nick Poninski: 

Patrick Bryan: Book me about, so then we'd find out what people's areas of interest were, what their audience was, things like that, and start to craft that idea of what they could do in the retreat world.

Nick Poninski: Perfect.

Nick Poninski: I like it. I'll put a link to your website in the show notes so that people don't have to work out…

Nick Poninski: what the spelling was there. Casat Blanca, I think. Was that it? Casat Yeah.

Patrick Bryan: It's a blanker.

Patrick Bryan: Yeah. The white house.

Nick Poninski: I love that in Spanish the adjective comes after the noun or whatever it is,…

Patrick Bryan: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: right? Blanka comes at the end.

Patrick Bryan: I used to Yeah.

Nick Poninski: Fair play.

Nick Poninski: Thank you for joining us today, Taking some time to talk to us about retreats and all the many possible uses. yeah.

Patrick Bryan: Yeah, you're welcome.

Patrick Bryan: Thank you for asking me.

Nick Poninski: Yeah, no problem.

Nick Poninski: 

Nick Poninski: Hopefully in the not too distant future I can organize my own retreat and we will meet at Casablanca Blanca.

Patrick Bryan: Yes, castor blanket. Yeah, anytime. Just give me a ring and we'll sort something out.

Nick Poninski: Love it. hopefully those listening along at home, you've learned something today. You're contempla booking your own retreat or maybe a breakaway. and if so, then Patrick's the guy to speak to. but as ever, thanks for listening and get marketing because without marketing, there's no sales and without sales there's no business. So, get marketing.

Meeting ended after 00:24:20 👋

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