Everything we learned from Bonfire Retreat #2
Recap and takeaways from our second retreat
Hi there! You’re reading the Bonfire newsletter from Kevan Lee & Shannon Deep. Each week, we highlight learnings from our experience as in-house marketers turned agency owners who think a lot about creativity, our relationship to work, and how all of that impacts our identities.
Wishing you a great week!
Yes, Bonfire is a brand and marketing agency for startups. (And we’d love to work with you!)
But if you’ve been reading and following our story, you also know that agency work is one of many things we want to be doing. The beauty of running your own business is that you can turn the business into anything you want it to be. And we’re really excited about what Bonfire will become.
One of our dreams involves retreats.
We just completed our second in-person retreat, an incredible experience with 10 incredible people at a beautiful chateau in the French countryside. We plan on doing more—and we’d love to have you at the next one (you can join the interest list here).
We are also, as you can imagine, learning tons as we go. We are career creatives and marketers and writers and managers; we are not hospitality experts or retreat savants. We have a lot to learn. And we want to do so in public, with you, so you can see how we’re bringing together a new part of our business dream and trying to wrap our heads around what this could look like moving forward.
So here are a few of our reflections after Retreat #2 about what we’ve learned, what’s working, and what we hope to do next.
First off, what exactly is a Bonfire retreat?
We got asked this question a lot when we were promoting the retreat. (Another very popular question: “Do I have to pay for it?” Um…yes? Please?)
Simply put: A Bonfire retreat is a place to reconnect with yourself, connect with others, and think deeply about how to further align with your values: at work, in life, and everything in between.
Practically speaking, we host people at a chateau in France for six days. We have a couple hours of programming each day, where we lead people through values and visioning exercises or do creative activities together. Afternoons and evenings are very laid back, hanging out by the pool, biking into town, and enjoying amazing meals cooked by our on-site chef. There’s lots of time to rest, relax, connect with like-minded people, and (re)connect with yourself.
It’s not exactly a creative retreat. (Though we use that phrase sometimes.)
It’s not exactly professional development either. (This has made it difficult to pin down.)
We see it as a mini sabbatical for people at a career crossroads, looking to find more meaning and purpose in their work-life and more connection with their values and their authentic desires. This second retreat in particular proved to be a great followup test to see if the magic from our first retreat carried through and that the impact on attendees was just as powerful. Turns out: yes! It was!
4 takeaways from Bonfire Retreat #2
1 - Transformation isn’t demographic-dependent.
Our attendee group was even more varied than the group at our first retreat: different careers, different stages of life, different geographies and experiences. Nevertheless, we were so pleased to see people connect, again and again, over similar feelings or shared values:
How do I make the most of the next season of my work/life?
How do I reconnect with the things that really light me up?
How do I show myself that new things are possible for me?
It was just more confirmation that you don’t have to be a senior marketing manager to get real value from this retreat.
When we took stock of the participants who had signed up, it was a question mark of how well the content would land with such a diverse group. Turns out, the people who self-select into Bonfire retreats have a certain interest in common already, even if their backgrounds aren’t the same.
By the end of the six days, people were truly rested and restored…and not wanting to go home! We wish we could have let everyone stay there forever.
2 - Everybody needs somebody.
This retreat felt timely for a lot of reasons: the career hamster wheel has never spun faster, the world’s dumpster fire has never burned brighter. And people are really craving in-person experiences around people (community) they enjoy and respect.
This desire for community came through loud and clear in this retreat, and it took many forms.
For some, it just felt nice to have someone listen to their career fears.
Or to have a stand-in “people manager” or “colleague” to bounce around ideas with.
Or to have a group where you could be yourself.
Or to have a group where you didn’t have to be only one particular version of yourself for a change.
It seemed like each attendee had a different degree of relief at finding a space and a community where they could access part of themselves that they might not get to access as often back in the real world. Of course, we know that retreat week is fleeting; but at least for our six days together, there was space for people to fill a gap they can’t always fill back in the day-to-day, and encouragement and ideas for how to do some gap-filling when they’re home.
3 - Nature was the real MVP.
We could not have imagined nicer weather in a more beautiful part of the country. (The view from the chateau didn’t hurt!) Every day was like living in a Disney set design, where you wanted to pinch and push the rolling hills to make sure they weren’t cardboard cutouts.
Our first retreat also took place at a beautiful chateau in Burgundy, France, but the local area wasn’t as verdant, the buildings weren’t as elevated, and the weather wasn’t as well coordinated as Retreat #2.
And what a synergistic effect it had on the week! We would go from sessions about value orientation and crafting a vision of your future to afternoons spent strolling through fields of happy cows and lounging in the spring sunshine. It underscored how many of us don’t have regular access to nature, or at least how often we forget and let it fade into the background when we’re in the bustle of daily life. When there’s nothing else screaming for your attention, it’s easier to sit down in a field of flowers for an hour and watch the bugs.
We’ll never be able to control the weather for future retreats, but now that we know how great it feels to couple our programming with the perfect environment for rejuvenation, we may want to invest in some weather machines.
4 - Logistics get easier the more you do logistics.
There is SO MUCH to take into consideration when you are planning and hosting a retreat. Yet the jump from “goodness gracious” overwhelm at Retreat #1 to “we got this” confidence of Retreat #2 was real.
Logistics we got better with at Retreat #2:
We knew what supplies to buy and didn’t overspend at the store (too badly).
We hired someone to help with day-to-day setup and errands.
We had a relatively smooth train pick up and drop off.
We didn’t get lost driving around the French countryside this time.
As we think about scaling retreats, the logistics time and energy is a significant factor. What are we actually signing ourselves up for with multiple retreats per year? Like with anything new, the more you do the thing, the more you understand about the thing. And our “thing”—running a smooth retreat from start to finish—isn’t as onerous as we might have thought after Retreat #1. (Although it still ain’t easy. It’ll always be a little onerous!)
Wanna come to the next one?
We can’t wait to do this again! If you’re intrigued and would like to come, or you’d just like more information, you can join our interest list here and be the first to receive emails on our next retreat dates and other ways to stay connected.
But wait! There’s more…
Wanna hang out in person?
We do in-person retreats! Our next one isn’t in the books yet, but you can sign up for the mailing list to find out when we have new ones to offer.
Wanna work with us?
If you need help with brand strategy and storytelling, fractional brand and marketing leadership, and bringing your brand strategy to life in impactful ways, send us an email at hello@aroundthebonfire.com to get in touch.
As always, you can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Threads.
