Retreating into myself: A business mastermind and The Hoffman Process
On juggling back-to-back business and personal retreat weeks
I had the privilege of stepping back from my day-to-day work not once, but twice over the past month. While spacing this out would have been ideal, it was an exercise in running a business with extremely limited bandwidth. And trusting everything would be fine.1
Infinite Success in Colorado
Six months ago I decided to invest in my business by hiring a business coach. Juggling about 5 different projects, I found it hard to prioritize where to focus. And I found myself really lacking in my sales skills…because I was not a salesperson. I was a product person, after all!2
From a referral, I started working with my coach, Adrienne, and joined other female entrepreneurs and coaches in a mastermind, a community dedicated to empowering us to hit our business goals through sales, writing and mindset work.
It was the biggest investment I made in my business to date.
And it was 100% worth it.
I saw some real tangible outcomes - like repeatable sales, deep copyrighting support and strategic business planning that would have taken me months, maybe years to figure out on my own.
But the biggest outcomes were the intangibles: my mindset. There were key moments that changed the course of my business journey that had nothing to do with bringing in a specific dollar amount…
Specifically, Adrienne, her team of coaches and the broader mastermind group helped me…
Drop work I wasn’t enjoying and lean into the activities I really loved. Because when you spend your time and energy doing what you love, the rest follows. I’ve been reaping the benefits of this since I made this shift and it’s real. And if I wanted to stuff I didn’t like, I could go back to corporate right? 😜
Trust the unknown. Relinquishing control along with my results based mindset3 has been the biggest shift I’ve made since going solo one year ago. I love telling people what I do and that I imagine it will evolve over time. Because I truly believe it. And I look forward to seeing where this path takes me. It’s a full, conscious surrendering…which brings me to my second “retreat”4
The Hoffman Process in Connecticut
The Hoffman Process has been on my radar for some time. Years ago, a former therapist brought it up so regularly in sessions that it was a running joke that she was making a commission5. But when I hit a wall in my life this spring, I came back to this option, spoke with a few acquaintances and signed myself up quickly. As many of my friends and family know, I love pushing myself and doing hard introspective work.
I’m still actively processing the week. It was incredibly intense (7:30am - 9:30pm for 7 days), void of distractions (devices, TV/internet, books are prohibited) and extremely vulnerable (crying with 28 strangers6). It was an incredible, therapeutic, challenging experience that I believe planted deep seeds in me. I found deep self-compassion and self-love that feels unshakeable.
I’d *highly* recommend the Process to anyone looking to connect more deeply to their spiritual self.7
In the absence of deeper reflections that are still cooking in my brain, I want to share a great podcast (about 17 minutes in) I found that articulates the experience really well. It’s from 2020 but it all rings incredibly true today.
And of course, I’d love to be a resource for anyone who thinks its right for them. If not for the generosity of a few folks who connected with me beforehand, I wouldn’t have made the move to sign up as quickly as I did.
I am ever grateful to them for their vulnerability and time.
Hi - I’m Jori and I’m a Product Coach. Here’s how to work with me ↩️
I work with Product Leaders and their teams to unlock their biggest career moments. If you’re looking for support - drop me a note, I’d love to connect. 🤝
I co-host Product Leadership Breakfast NYC, a monthly product breakfast series to bring together curated groups of PM leaders to connect and share learnings and insights over casual breakfast. If you live in NYC or find yourself passing through, join us! ☕
Spoiler alert: It was fine.
Working in corporate, I actively avoided sales teams because I hated the sales dance. To this day, I’m not sure I would have plunged into this world if I knew how much of it was sales, but I’m so happy I did.
Which is good and served me but also depleting and ultimately harmful for me.
Retreat feels too soft to describe what this was…
She was not and she’s never been! Which is quite a testimonial.
Who eventually became dear friends :)
A sentence I would have cringed typing a month ago but here 👏 we 👏 are 👏