Earlier this month I hosted our sixth Huddle down in Austin, Texas. We took a small group of female founders and spent 3 incredible days at the beautiful Wayback Cafe and Cottages working on their businesses with a group of mentors and coaches.
Would you like to see what it was like?
For those new around here, The Huddle is a series of intimate retreats for female business owners centered around mentorship, skill sharing, business strategy, leadership coaching, and the holistic needs of a female entrepreneur. It was born out of pure necessity a couple years ago , and you can find more about the vision and founding story of The Huddle in this post, and more info on The Huddle site here. The retreat are purposefully very small and by application only, focused on women growing and scaling their business.
Our first Huddle was in March of 2019 and we’ve had six events since. Our next retreat isn’t until Fall 2022 because we’re working on two new big projects: The Huddle HUB membership club (open for registration only until next week), and something else top secret!
We’ve always had Huddles at private homes, but I really wanted to curate a more refined experience which led me to The Wayback in Austin, Texas. This boutique hotel includes a group of beautiful cottages, cafe, pool, and charming grounds for our wellness sessions and free time.
There’s so much work that goes on behind the scenes in preparation for a Huddle, but here’s a snippet of what we were working on just hours before..
My cottage’s bathroom turned into a floral shop…
And our swag bags are getting assembled here…
In addition to our signature Huddle hat and notebook, we always have wonderful partners that support The Huddle by donating gifts for our attendees.
At this Austin Huddle our guests received…
Mini Skin Care Kit from Good Juju Herbal. Their organic, handmade skin products are formulated for sensitive skin and smell amazing. They’re most known for their incredible bar soaps. I interviewed founder Judith Jones for an IG Live about her journey as a female founder last week on The Huddle’s IG account. You can find the interview here.
A gift card from Athleta. Their athletic wear and athleisure wear are my go-to staples. We’re lucky enough to have a shop here in Bozeman and I’m always finding something new there I love. My current favorites are their Ultra High Rise leggings and the Warrior Sports Bra.
Madewell has been a partner of The Huddle from the start, and I’m so happy they’ve continued to support our mission and journey. I love their bandanas and thought it was a perfect accessory for our Austin Huddle (in a fantastic burnt orange color). They also sent these mini travel perfumes which smell amazing. Also eyeing these boots and quilted coat for fall.
Grove Collaborative sent mini hand sanitizer and hand soap sheets. Both such useful products during travel and COVID-19 precautions. Grove has also been a Huddle partner since day 1 and I’m in love with all their products, but particularly their cleaning concentrates and the dryer balls are my all time favorites.
Our attendees are arriving soon! Each is staying in a private or shared cottage. We try to create a really meaningful and impactful experiences for attendees with lots of thoughtful details.
Time for arrivals!
Time for the opening session!
Can you tell I’m over the moon excited about everything and everyone?
The first evening Wild Blume (founder is a Huddle Alum from the Palm Springs Huddle) supplied us with a gorgeous tablescape to enjoy our first candlelit dinner together.
At every Huddle we have Hot Seat sessions. EACH woman’s business has a Hot Seat hour session where we focus collectively, brainstorming together to address each woman’s specific challenges. We also have high level guidance in these Hot Seats from our mentors. At this Huddle we had Anjelika Temple, co-founder of Brit & Co, and Jill Dempsey, an experienced venture capitalist and CEO as mentors.
Each woman also had a personal coaching session with our leadership and self care coach Jamie Greenwood during The Huddle. Jamie works with high achieving females and is such an outstanding resource for our attendees.
Jamie also led an opening group workshop for our attendees about self care, and a closing workshop to integrate all the wisdom and move forward with changes to their businesses and selves as leaders.
During free time, our attendees had massage treatments, coaching sessions, and plenty of time to connect and talk shop by the pool.
During free time, we also had casual Skillshare sessions on business development topics the group voted on to discuss. These were led by our mentors Jill and Anjelika and resulted in some really incredible conversations and learnings.
Anjelika here preaching about the art of content planning.
Lots of downtime at the pool too!
We try to build in lots of time for these important and impromptu conversations and connections.
Each morning we had a yoga session led by Austin Yoga Tree. They were incredible with live sound bath music and a very empowering practice created just for our group.
If your’e in the Austin area definitely look them up! We hosted it outside in the grove. Such a perfect way to start the day.
Each woman also had an opportunity to get a new headshot! Who doesn’t love a fancy new headshot?
The last evening we went on an Austin food tour which was so much fun! After all the hard work and focus for three days, that last night was pure release. We even ended up at a karaoke drag queen show late in the evening.
I was delighted at how well everyone was getting along and enjoying each other’s company.
Life long friendships made here for sure!
The connections between these women are just as crucial as their business development.
Our next Huddle isn’t until Fall 2022 but already missing this incredible energy of generosity, wisdom, and growth. There is something so magical about this gathering and can’t wait to create our next event.
(Photography by Anita Warnick and myself)
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