Do you want to just swan in & deliver your retreat, get paid and have someone else sort out all the other stuff for you?

You might need a retreat doula!

WTF is a Retreat Doula?

It’s me, Yo!

I am a tech wizard living on the gorgeous South Coast of NSW and I can help you birth your retreat.

Don’t think you have a whole retreat in you yet?

Maybe you can run a workshop as part of a collaborative retreat delivered by Yo…

A doula is a person that gives support to a woman who is giving birth.

A doula supports the woman’s vision and keeps away unnecessary distractions, so the woman can birth her baby with integrity to her vision. The doula advocates for the birthing mother when she is in her cosmic process.

In the same way, I can support you to bring the vision you have for your retreat to life by keeping unnecessary distractions at bay. I can deal with whichever parts of the process are drawing you away from what you do best.

I have many years of experience in retreats, website design, graphic design, project management and marketing which is the perfect set of skills for this act of service.

Ever thought about running a retreat the easy way?

Maybe there’s a retreat lurking inside you but all of the tech is too much.

Maybe it’s all the venue, catering and marketing that is stopping you.

Or maybe it’s just everything.

Don’t worry, your genie in a bottle has arrived and now it’s time to finally bring your retreat to life!

Hi! I’m Yo 🙂

Why the south coast?

They say a picture tells a thousand words so feast your eyes on the deep, healing wilderness that we enjoy on the South Coast.

Accomodation

The great thing about the South Coast is the number of special properties available as retreat venues.
Over the years, like-minded people have been gathering here to heal, grow and build community.

As well as the deeply healing quality of the land here, the people have been diving deep with integrity which results in a special place to visit and practice.

There are many private venues and public spaces to run retreats and workshops.

I know a heap of people here, having lived in the Bega Valley for 22 years and if I don’t know, I probably know someone who does.

Catering

My first taste of work was in our family business in a cafe in Cooma. I learned how to do everything needed to run a business.

My next love was food, and then yoga. I worked in catering for 25 years and soent many of those honing my wholefoods cooking prowess.

I also know a bunch of amazing caterers locally who can adapt to a broad set of requests.

Catering tends to come in at $60 for 3 meals per person. This would be for a wholefoods, lacto-ovo vegetarian menu. Other options are available – this is just a guide. I can arrange gluten free, low carb, vegan and many other food needs.

Who is Yo?

Here I am!

You might know me from my business mentoring business. Yep – it’s me, Natasha Berta. Yo is my preferred name. Ask me about it some time.

For the last 8 and a half years I’ve been helping heart-centred women grow their business, overcome tech hurdles and grow in confidence.

Now it’s time for me to follow my heart and deliver my service in a slightly different way.

the kinds of things can I help you with

Website

I can create a website landing page with payment processing for your retreat. I can build on your website if you have one and if you don’t want to stuff around with a website, we can just use this one. You get your own /{your-retreat-name} at the end of southcoastwomensretreat.com.au for the duration of our time working together. Afterwards, I can share all of the text and images in a Google Drive folder for you to use later.

I just pay you

Everyone is different and some people would just love ${insert your number here} to swan in and deliver the content. No recruiting, no talking to venue owners, no talking to caterers. Just plan the retreat, get your ${payment} and swan out.

Then there are all the variations in between. I am pretty agile and depending on our personal chemistry, I can work with most configurations. We need to chat it out.

Catering

There are lots of options for catering. As well as my background in catering, I know a bunch of incredible caterers who can cook up a storm for your retreat. Food costs tend to come in at $60 a day for 3 meals of healthy, vegetarian wholefoods. Other options are available. I just mention this as a guide.
What kind of food best supports your retreat?

I can sort it all out for you so you don’t have to worry about it. Dietary needs of specific attendees. Whatever is needed. I am willing to support the vision.

flyers and social media posts

I love creating websites, social media posts and flyers. I can create Facebook events with you as a co-host that you can easily share as well as Instagram Reels which are a great format for all social media. I can resize designs and we can negotiate how many images and graphics you’d like made for your retreat.

accomodation + venue

Being a long time local (not a true local of course haha) I know of many venues for retreats in our gorgeous region. I am pretty well connected through the entire Bega Valley Shire and Eurobodalla. What I don’t know I’m willing to seek out and cannot recommend our region highly enough as a beautiful, magical and healing place for your retreat.

Our vicinity to Canberra makes us a national and even globally accessible location.

facebook advertising

Facebook ads are a great way to spend any budget you have for advertising and are crucial if you’re trying to reach a geograophically wide audience in a niche topic.

These kinds of ads are the only way to know how many people are seeing your posts – you can’t rely on organic reach anymore. Lucky for you I have been running Facebook ads for 5+ years. Let’s do this.

what does it cost?

Here’s the thing: if you choose the swan in and get paid option, you decide your price that I pay you, I set the retreat cost and get paid by your attendees, not by you. Does that make sense?

Let’s say you want $2000 and you think 12 attendees is a good number.

Then I calculate the cost of the food, venue and my time and add that on.

Next, I set up a pricing scale with early bird to ensure we secure a venue and I cover your payment. Then it’s up to me to fill your retreat so I get paid.

If it still isn’t making sense we can chat it out.

Basically, if your active audience isn’t freaked out by that cost, we have a happy marriage. We can find new people to attend your event with advertising, but your current audience are some of your best options.

Plus, we always have the early bird deadline to see how price sensitive your audience is. If we can’t get the numbers by early bird, we cancel and refund – no hard feelings. Or we find a smaller venue and go ahead with an intimate group and reconsider pricing. We can be agile.

Wondering if this is for you?

We probably just need a chat.

If you’ve worked with me before then we can probably get cracking super easy. Just need to flesh out dates, ideas and preferences.

If we haven’t worked together before, we need to see if we are a fit.

You can check out my “Are we a fit?” page on my business website – that might give you the start of an idea.

If you resonate with that, then we can arrange a time to chat.

I can help you map out the next steps of your retreat plan whether we move forward together or not. Usually people get clear on their ideas after talking them through with me.

In 2024, I’m working for the Wollongong University, so my time for calls is a bit limited. I don’t have a scheduler set up so please just email me: hello@southcoastwomensretreat.com.au and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can to arrange a time for our call.

More FAQs

Is this only for the South Coast of NSW?

I am open to other areas and travel, however my advantage in this region is my existing network of people, my passion for the area and local knowledge.

Let’s talk about your idea and see what we come up with.

How long have you been running retreats?

I have been organising retreats, events, catering and other projects for 27+ years.

What are my practices?

Originally, when I was 16 I learned Satyananda Yoga and wholefoods cooking. I am a singer, a foodie, a Vipassna meditator, a women’s circle space holder, I love art as therapy, I make most of my own clothes, I need time in nature, I adore the pagan seasons, I’ve been an actual doula and I’ve been a mother. Nothing like lunch boxes and after school pickups to get you in shape for project management.

What events have I successfully managed?

As well as retreats, women’s circles, workshops and many other catering gigs, I recently delivered 2 summits; (i) one virtual in my own business over 5 days with 20+ presenters and (ii) one in person for the University of Wollongong with over 150 attendees, a banquet, catering, venue management, speakers and many other stakeholders.

It’s my fun.

Still got questions?

Go ahead and send me an email hello@southcoastwomensretreat.com.au and I’ll try to help with anything I can.

South Coast Women’s Retreat lovingly Acknowledges the custodians of the land where we conduct our retreats, raise and nurture our future generations and nourish ourselves.

We pay respect and honour the Elders past, present and emerging.

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