I recently returned from several days hosting a retreat in San Diego with a fantastic group of women entrepreneurs who, as I often say, were looking to “bust through the glass ceiling.”
What Did We Learn From Each Other? Plenty.
Let’s start with the way that these women connected with each other. New friendships have been formed from the retreat as the result of them spending this time together, which is definitely encouraging. My goal was not to have women come together for a brief period of time and go their separate ways but for them begin to form a small community of support that would last well beyond our retreat. I’m thrilled to see that take shape as all attendees of the retreat were really high performing women who, despite the fact they came from very different backgrounds and experiences, have now realized that their challenges are quite similar. They have each other’s backs now, which is inspiring to me.
In addition, I often believe women feel very alone in terms of the burden that they're carrying between work, home, kids, etc. We need a space where it is perfectly fine to let it all out and identify strategies on how to deal with all of that successfully. When we connect with each other, as these women entrepreneurs did in San Diego who realized they were all in the same boat, it feels amazing. The momentum is there now for all of us to enjoy real, sustained relationships going forward based on the connections we made with one another.
During our time, we also covered a lot of ground on how to be a better leader, how to leverage your talents and how to build resilience. There is something in that mix that applies to all of us, no matter where you are in your leadership journey and what you’re struggling with. The greatest outcome, at the end of the day, is that you not only identify your key takeaway but that you put action items in place immediately afterward. I’m confident every woman at our retreat was able to do that and all of them are going to get after it in the many days to come.
On a note of personal satisfaction, beyond witnessing the transformation of these women in a short period of time, I received one of the highest compliments I could imagine from a friend and colleague I’ve admired for a long time in the learning and development space. She remarked, "Wow, Kim. This is so cool to see the combination of all that you've learned over the years come into this amazing two days’ worth of content. You put this together beautifully."
Let’s hear from you: When you get together with a similar group of women entrepreneurs, what have you gained insight from? What challenges are you striving to push through? Would you be interested in taking part in a retreat like this? Let me know! You’ll help give me food for thought as I plan the next retreat to hopefully make it even more powerful than this recent one.