How to Build Authority & Run a Successful Retreat Center w/ Chris Kirkpatrick

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (00:00):
If you're trying to be totally

(00:01):
present and you're in your phoneand you've got your laptop and
you're doing emails and you'redealing with business back home
and doing all this stuff all thetime, you're not wholly present
with the people that you'rethere.
You're never going to get thefull experience that you're
after.
And what I love about this isthat there's no cell phone
reception in our town.
we moved from suburbia, livingin basically a private
neighborhood with a milliondollar house and a cul de sac on

(00:22):
a golf course to living in thejungle.
And it's like the road to evenget to this place is like, you
feel like you need an off roadvehicle to get there.
We packed up.
we Sold about 90 percent ofeverything that we owned.
We took the rest of the 10%, weput it in a storage unit.
My wife and I took our threekids, 13, 10, and six, on
January 1st, we took overoperational control and

(00:45):
purchased this Retreat centerAnd so that, that has been an
interesting journey on its own.

HypeMiC & FaceTime HD Came (00:54):
What is up?
Welcome to another episode ofthe Complete Retreat Podcast.
Today's guest is my friend ChrisKirkpatrick.
Chris has a fascinating story.
A little over a year ago, Chrisbought a retreat center in the
middle of the jungle in theDominican Republic.
He packed up his whole family,left his very comfortable life
in suburbia, and moved to aCaribbean island.

(01:16):
I hear a lot of people talkingabout how they'd love to own a
retreat center someday.
The thing is, Chris actually didit, and he shares his story
about how he got there and whatit's been like the first year of
owning a retreat center.
From living on a golf course tothe jungle.
But before moving his family tothe Dominican, Chris had built a
successful career as anentrepreneur and a business

(01:38):
owner.
And in this conversation, Chrisshares some of his tips and
secrets around marketing, how hesuccessfully created an
authority platform, what thatmeans and how he leverages
YouTube to help support hisbusiness and his lifestyle.
Chris shares a ton of veryuseful and valuable tips when it
comes to marketing yourself,building your brand, whether

(01:58):
you're a retreat creator, aretreat host, whether you own a
retreat center.
There's something in thispodcast for everyone.
So let's just get into it.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11434 (02:09):
So Chris I would love to hear about
what the last year of your lifehas been Because when I met you
about a year and a half ago Youwere Packing up your whole life
in Arizona and getting ready tomove to the Dominican Republic
because you had just purchased aretreat center So yeah, please

(02:30):
You Please, let me know whatthis last year has been like for
you and your family, becauseit's, it was a whole

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (02:35):
it's been crazy.
So yeah, January well actuallyit was December 31st, New Year's
Eve, 2023.
Uh We packed up.
we Sold about 90 percent ofeverything that we owned.
We took the rest of the 10%, weput it in a storage unit.
My wife and I took our threekids, 13, 10, and six, and
actually 12, 12, nine, and fiveat the time.

(02:57):
And we moved them.
Down to the DR.
And so we landed at 11 PM on the31st of December.
So New Year's Eve.
And then we drove across theIsland when we landed.
And by the, it was like 1 AM bythe time we actually got to our
destination.
And on January 1st, we took overoperational control and
purchased this Retreat center itwas actually like an eco hotel

(03:19):
that we are converting into aretreat center.
And so that, that has been aninteresting journey on its own.
Right.
So all of last year you know, wespent time relocating, getting
used to living in a third worldcountry in a developing nation
in, and not just like, if you'veever been to the Dominican
Republic, which I know you have,I mean, you know, the area well,

(03:40):
right, you've been there.
And so.
moving to a Caribbean islandwhere You know, there, maybe you
move into the city, like SantoDomingo, you could move to the
Dominican Republic and go toPunta Cana or Santo Domingo or
Santiago or Porta Plata.
And there's a lot of access toresources and so on and so
forth.
We are out in the middle of thejungle in a fishing village with

(04:03):
very instable power.
And it's like the road to evenget to this place is like, you
feel like you need an off roadvehicle to get there.
And so.
we moved from suburbia, livingin basically a private
neighborhood with a milliondollar house and a cul de sac on
a golf course to living in thejungle.
And so it was like just a wildpolarity, right?

(04:24):
Like, just major a major shiftand it was exciting.
And moving and being in thatenvironment had a lot of
challenges.
What I did love and what I dolove still is, you know, we have
this place and the propertywhere we purchased is just it's
the only little magical place onthis earth.
It's got an amazing energyaround it.

(04:45):
I've really loved the process ofWorking on converting it from an
eco hotel to a complete retreatcenter.
That is still a work inprogress.
You know, last year had plentyof challenges.
I'm sure we'll get into that,but really what we decided is
when we bought the place we hadplanned initially having all
these goals for expansion andgrowth and all this stuff.

(05:05):
And very quickly, I realizedthat I was a little over my
skis.
I was going a little too fastand and things didn't work down
here the way that they work inthe United States.
You gotta operate differently.
You gotta build differently.
Like you gotta have differentrelationships with different
people.
And luckily we know a lot of theright people.
But what I also realized wasthat the.
We had a responsibility to takewhat we purchased, the asset

(05:29):
that we have, which was thehotel with 10 rooms and a
beautiful property in a uniqueplace in the jungle.
And we had to take and maximizewhat we had before we built out
and expanded.
And so last year, our firstyear, we had 13 retreats that we
hosted and ran throughout theentire year.
And now, so far in 2025, wealready have 22 retreats on the

(05:52):
books.
And so we're working on buildingthose out.
And obviously, my goal is to getthe 30 retreats this year
throughout the year.
And ultimately next year, I wantto have 46 retreats.
So we don't have to operate as ahotel at all anymore.
The goal is to have 46 retreats.
Throughout the year and thenhave 6 weeks of downtime that we
can work on maintenance and, youknow, fixing the property up and

(06:14):
given key employees time off andso on and so forth and go from
there.
But last year, going throughthat process, I would say the
1st, 6 months.
Was kind of me bringing myAmerican way of doing things
down there and just fighting andjust pressure and fighting and
kind of like feeling like I keptcoming up against this wall and
I wasn't in a flow, so to speak,you know what I mean?

(06:36):
I was just trying to be asledgehammer to everything that
I was doing, which is like,let's face it.
It's the American way, right?
Like I just, things had to bedone.
They had to be done a certainway on a certain timeframe.
And if they weren't done the waythat we needed them, you know,
up to a certain code, then.
It, I wasn't happy and I, youknow, I was just having a lot of

(06:56):
friction with everybody I wasworking with my wife and I were
having a challenge witheverybody we were working with,
like on the construction side,on the rehabilitation of the
property side, and then I justhit the place where I realized,
okay, this is never going to be.
Up to United States codestandard.
So just settle into that, getcomfortable with being
uncomfortable, ease into it,just get in flow and realize the

(07:19):
magic and the beauty of whatthat could be for what you can
build out of it and allow it tobe a bit more rough and allow it
to be a bit more Caribbeanjungle, right?
It's just, there's a magic inthat as well.
And so, you know, we've had toshift our expectations, but I
think in doing that, it'sallowed us to get to this place

(07:41):
now where we have an amazingstaff.
I think people are living andworking and operating in flow.
It's been amazing for us at thispoint in time to have the right
people in place that helpoperate it.
I think we have the best.
I would argue we have probablyone of the best staffs in the
entire Dominican Republic forany kind of eco retreat center
like this, especially for oursize of a property.

(08:03):
And yeah it's just been reallyfun.
I think one of my favorite partshas been building relationships
with the people that come downand run retreats there.
Because those, I mean, some ofthe coolest people, right?
And so, to me, that's beenselfishly one of the, one of the
best parts of the whole deal.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_1 (08:19):
Sounds like you, you went down there
with an idea of what you coulddo to change the place, change
the environment.
These changes that you wanted tomake, and A year later, the
thing that actually changed isnot so much the, the retreat
center, but more so

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (08:35):
Oh, yeah, for sure.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_1 (08:36):
really interesting.
And, you know, I'm sure a lot ofpeople can relate to that
homeowners and people, wheneveryou buy a home or a property,
you have all these ideas andwhen you put yourself in that
environment.
You start to learn that it'seasier and more, helpful to kind
of start to go with flow andfind a natural rhythm of that
place than to, as you said, justtry to, hammer home and get

(08:58):
things done.
And it's, you know, I've beento, to Zaria and it's not like
you can just go to the homedepot and get some two by fours
and some nails to build thedeck.
I mean, like you said, it's.
It's out there and you do almostneed a four by four or four
wheel drive to, to get to whereyou're at.
It's, you know, that's whatmakes it so magical.

(09:20):
In one part because there's nota lot of people out there and
the people who go there, theywant to be there and they have
to make an effort to get there.
But when you do get there it's,in my experience, it was 100
percent worth, yeah, worth allthe effort to get there.
So that's a really, interesting,perspective on how the space,
Changed you as much if not morethan you changed the space and

(09:43):
you know with the plans movingforward I was there for a Like a
business retreat, essentiallylike a business mastermind.
And what was that?
The first retreat that youhosted at Zaria?

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (09:54):
was the first one I hosted.
Yeah, we had other retreatsthere, but we also, for my
company, Life 180, and Hannah,my wife also ran a retreat last
year.
And we're also running nowcouples retreats that we're
hosting together.
And so we run some of our ownretreats.
I'll tell you, we're probablygonna run three or four of our
own retreats this year, but theplace is not designed for us to

(10:18):
just host our own retreats.
Our real objective is to be acontainer, right.
To allow.
Other retreat hosts, whetherit's people that want to work in
different modalities from breathwork to just conscious business
masterminds to yoga to adventureretreats to all over the board.
We have kind of, access to allof it.

(10:41):
The goal is to create acontainer where people can feel
safe and to realize that ourproperty size is pretty much
perfect for 20 to 30 people.
To come down to be able toaccess and have a private
property all to themselves,built into a cliff with private
meeting spaces, a private pool,private ceremony spaces,

(11:01):
whatever you need and you haveaccess to all of it.
And we're, you know, a stone'sthrow from the beach.
Basically, we have all sorts ofexcursions that people can do
everything from adventure totranquility, hiking the tallest
waterfall in the Caribbean to,all these different things, zip
lining and, exotic beaches andcatamarans and whale watching
and all this different stuffthat kind of comes into play.

(11:21):
And so we, we were located inthis really unique space that's
close enough to a lot of theexcursions where we can get
there really easily, but alsoisolated and far enough.
So you have this tranquil spaceto be yeah I love it.
So, our main focus, while we dorun retreats that we host, The
main focus is in a perfectworld, I'd love to have say, 40

(11:43):
to 42 retreats a year that webring in influencers and retreat
hosts that are just looking tohave a a good container with
people that share values.
You know,

HypeMiC & FaceTime HD Came (11:54):
This episode of the Complete Retreat
Podcast is brought to you byRetreatHelp.
com, where conscious retreatowners go to sell out their
events, increase revenue,simplify their business
operations, and have a greaterimpact on the world with Retreat
Help is changing the retreatindustry with its dynamic and
innovative business systems thatallow retreat business owners to

(12:14):
spend less time on tediousadministrative tasks and more
time doing what they love.
Give us a call and let ourexperience and expertise
accelerate your From creatingprofessional, high performing
websites that boost credibility,improve the customer experience,
and increase sales, to settingup a complete technical system
that grows your business onautopilot, 24 7, without you

(12:36):
needing to manage it.
Whatever your situation is,Retreat Helps got you covered.
Whether you're new to theRetreat industry, or you're a
well established veteran, saveyourself time and money by
leveraging RetreatHelp'scomprehensive business
solutions.
Visit RetreatHelp.
com and set up a call to learnmore.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11 (12:52):
Yeah.
And the space that you havethere is really diverse and
unique and close to so many coolthings.
You can walk down to the beachand.
You know, like I said, I wasthere for a, more of a business
mastermind.
And I, I could have notimagined.
How putting a business contextfor the mastermind in such a

(13:15):
beautiful and like holistic andjust natural setting.
Like How the just the space thatwe're in had such an impact on
the business mastermind itselfand the things that we're able
to take away and, having theability to really connect with
the other people in themastermind, usually when you
think of business mastermind,often you think of hotel lobby

(13:38):
or hotel ballrooms or somerented room in a hotel.
Yeah.
Some convention centersomewhere.
And this was such a departurefrom that.
And I know you've done a lotmore business masterminds than I
have.
So I'm curious.
You know, given your perspectiveand your experience, what it

(13:59):
adds to the experience ofsomething like a business
mastermind or something youmight not necessarily think
about putting in the middle ofthe jungle of the Dominican
Republic, like what can that addto an experience?

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (14:12):
Well, you know, it's interesting.
So we just did a retreat and thecool part about this is.
We call it, I call it disconnectto reconnect, right?
So when, let's face it, we'reall so connected in our lives
and our devices and you know,with our tasks and our
responsibilities and all thesedifferent things, it's so hard
to be fully, wholly present,right?

(14:34):
It's fair.
Like it's almost impossible.
And so.
What I love is this process whenpeople come down and do a
mastermind and I call it aconscious business mastermind.
That's what really works wherewe are.
It's not a conference.
It's a conscious businessmastermind.
And the reason that it works isbecause people come down and the

(14:55):
goal when you do a mastermind isto be totally present with the
people that you're mastermindingwith, right?
Like that is the goal.
Now, when they come down, Ifyou're trying to be totally
present and you're in your phoneand you've got your laptop and
you're doing emails and you'redealing with business back home
and doing all this stuff all thetime, you're not wholly present
with the people that you'rethere.
You're never going to get thefull experience that you're
after.
And what I love about this isthat a, there's no cell phone

(15:19):
reception in our town.
So that's awesome.
We have star link.
Right?
But the cool part is, and so I'mgoing to use the example here.
We just did this for the firsttime where a group came down and
there was 14 of them and theycame down and the goal and the
guy who was leading the groupwas like, listen, I want to
allow people so they could beconnected a little bit, right?

(15:41):
Like in the mornings that givethem like an hour and a half
window.
We give them 90 minutes in themorning to connect and do their
work, check emails so they couldfeel like they were doing their
thing, but that he gave them awindow and they knew that they
had that one time that they hadto work.
And he said, outside of that, Iliterally want you to cut
Starlink off.
Like do not allow them to accessthe internet.
And so we literally got totoggle people's connection on

(16:04):
and off and there was no escape.
And so the crazy part, and youprobably relate to this is.
I, for me, I've been throughthis several times going to
ayahuasca retreats and so on andso forth, like going down into
the jungle and disconnecting atfirst, it's like, Oh my God, I
got all this stuff.
I got to get done.
And it's like, you kind of getlike a little anxiety, like of

(16:25):
all the things and what's goingto happen and how much work is
going to be there when I getback.
And then after about 24, maybe36 hours, you just kind of go,
ah, screw it.
Like.
I can't do anything about it.
I might as well just settle intothis flow that I'm in for this
journey.
And after the first day and ahalf, the next five and a half,
five days or so just become someof the greatest connection.

(16:47):
It's where you can get more ofthe in depth work done.
It's where you have some of thebiggest realizations and the
biggest breakthroughs you know,that you could possibly find.
And, you know, that's where thepower happens.
And for me, That's what I loveabout a location like we have.
And that's one of the thingsthat I didn't even realize it
when we bought it.

(17:07):
That's really what was whatattracted me to it.
Like that at the end of the day,having that type of location
where you can disconnect toreconnect, where you have this
place that is like, Reallyspiritually in tune.
I'm going to call it a vortexcause it's really a magical like
energy on the property.
But then also it's a flexibleenough thing where you can kind

(17:28):
of create what you need tocreate, right?
So if whatever you have as aretreat leader to come down,
whatever kind of container thatyou want to create, you can
create intentionally.
And a lot of places you can't dothat because no matter what you
want to create.
You're powerless in the sensethat you're always connected to
the internet and so on and soforth.
And so to be able to just flipthat switch on and off is a real

(17:52):
powerful tool.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_1143 (17:53):
And I, you know, I think this is a
trend we're going to continue tosee and it's something that's
starting to emerge where peoplein the business world are
starting to, you know, they'lltake their team, they'll take
their, you know, the leaders intheir business and they'll like
disconnect them, get them awayfrom the everyday routines and
do a pattern interrupt so thatthey can You know, get back to

(18:16):
connecting with each other andreally start to unlock new ideas
and creativity because whenyou're stuck in these everyday
rhythms, you know, we all getinto our patterns and the more
deeply entrained we get in.
In those patterns the lesscreative we can become in a lot
of areas and looking at theworld we're in now, things are

(18:36):
changing really rapidly andbeing able to be creative and to
adapt in a business sense to thechanging times is going to be
super important.
so so I foresee people moving,you know, the team leaders doing
more of that.
And.
And utilizing spaces like theone you have to do more team
building exercises and havethose experiences.

(19:00):
I mean, we went on the zipline.
We, when I was there and we did,we went to a deserted beach.
That was pretty wild that wetook that, that catamaran
through the crazy waves to getout there.
I mean, it was a, it was anawesome experience and.
Yeah.
Those things that we did, thoseexcursions, those more team

(19:20):
building type experiences, theywere really memorable and they
helped, to enhance theexperience overall and, help to
create those breakthroughs.
I know I had a prettysignificant breakthrough and
just a lot of things shifted forme when I was there, and I know
a lot of other people did on theteam as well, and.
And the kinds of relationshipsthat were built.

(19:43):
I mean, I still get on a callevery two weeks with a lot of
the guys that were at that,experience.

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (19:48):
And it's been like nine months since
the first one, right?
So you guys have been doing thatfor a long time.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11 (19:53):
yeah.
And I look forward to it everyevery two weeks we get on a call
every Friday afternoon and

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (19:59):
It's

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_114347 (20:00):
I haven't seen any of them in
person since then.
But that's, you know, it's,Again, disconnecting a lot from,
the internet, from your everydaylife allows you that space to to
form these new connections andhave the kind of breakthroughs
that people are looking for, ifyou're in a position of
leadership within your business,there's nothing more fulfilling

(20:20):
than seeing the people who areon your team grow and expand and
have new experiences and pushthemselves outside of their
comfort zones.
I know we saw a couple of peopleget on a zipline who we first
got to, they said, Oh hell no,there's no way I'm getting on
that zipline.
And then everybody else is doingit.
They're like, you know what?
I think I can, you know, I thinkI could do it.
And they did it.
And that was a big moment forsome of those.

(20:41):
You know, for some people, andit doesn't, it may not seem like
much, but as a business leaderor retreat leader, somebody
who's got a team creating thosekinds of opportunities for
people and curating that space,that's going to allow you those
opportunities, whatever it is,is I think kind of overlooked
When people are planningretreats, they're like, okay,
how much can we get done?

(21:02):
How much can we pack in?
How many speaker, how many guestspeakers can we get in?
Like, what can we pack into thislimited amount of time?
And based on what you're sayingand my experience, you know,
maybe leaving a little bit ofroom for flexibility and space
and openness, that may get yougreater results in the long run
than trying to pack so muchinto, you know, tightly into a

(21:25):
small, you know, just a fewdays.

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (21:27):
Yeah.
I mean, you creating anenvironment in a container a
that allows people to do thatand then creating an itinerary
that enables people to reallyconnect with themselves and then
connect with the other people inthe group as well, I think it's
one of the, one of the thingsthat we're missing the most in

(21:48):
this world is connection withother humans, like true
connection, not just like.
We're connected on social media,right?
Like not that we're just havingthese surface level
conversations.
But when you put together aprogram and itinerary for an
event and the itinerary isfocused on building depth and
working through things andworking through challenges and.

(22:10):
Learning parts about yourselfthat you maybe have never
explored before.
And then once you do that andyou start scraping away at the
surface levels of people, andthen you create space and allow
people to explore, allow peopleto journal, allow people to work
deeply within themselves.
And then.
You create space where they canall connect with each other and
talk about and integrate whatthe experience has been like

(22:31):
during that.
That's where real relationshipsare forged.
Like, that's it.
And I think that's why you guysare still talking all the time,
because you all went throughthat experience together.
And with that, now you have thiscommon thread where you shared
this experience and nobody elsewill understand that except for
you guys that were theretogether going through it

(22:51):
together.
It's kind of like people, and Idon't want to equate it to this,
but it's similar to people whoare platoon mates in war and
going through these experiencesand you know, they're, they have
a brotherhood, they have A thingbecause they went through
something unique that nobodyoutside that would be able to
understand.
And so, it's different, but it'svery much the same at the same
time, you know?

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11 (23:10):
Yeah, and that just brought up
thoughts of my very firstayahuasca retreat that I went to
was like almost nine years agoat this point, and I'm still in
contact with some of the peoplethat, that I met at that very
first retreat.
I mean, the guy who sat on myleft, one of the person who was
right next to me, he's still agood friend of mine.
And I still communicate with himfairly regularly.

(23:33):
So, creating, or, putting yourteam or, Getting people out of
their comfort zones allowspeople to open up in very unique
ways.
And opening up facilitates adeep connection for people who
are, for other people who are inthat group and sharing that
experience.
again, I foresee businessesdoing this more and getting, you
know, pushing their teamsfurther and further out of the

(23:54):
comfort zone in this sort of asetting that's still very
comfortable.
I mean, the food Azaria was.
Off the chain.
It was so good.
I mean, I'm sure you get that.
You probably hear that a lot

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (24:05):
good.
It's it like we got so luckywith our cook with our chef.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11 (24:08):
Shout out to willie

chris_1_02-18-2025_134 (24:10):
amazing.
Yeah.
And actually, we got a groupcoming in tonight as we're
filming this.
I'm going down bringing thefamily down.
We're gonna have dinner therewith a group of seven or eight
people that are coming in.
And it's going to be the firsttime I've eaten at the retreat
center.
And like, Two months.
So I'm excited to go down andhave some of Willie's cooking.
It's going to be good

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_114 (24:29):
Yes, I mean It's and it's cool
because it's far enough outthere to where it does You know
gets people out of their comfortzones and there still are
comforts and amenities the bedsare nice.
The food is great.
So people can really focus onwhat they came there to focus on
I spent The two weeks in thejungle in Peru a few years ago,
and they were like, they were,it was beautiful.

(24:51):
It was amazing.
And there were bugs.
Like you just, there was a lotmore variables in that
situation.
It was awesome.
It made the experience what it

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (25:00):
Yeah.
Yeah.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_1143 (25:01):
And in the context of, you know, of
hosting a transformative retreator experience for, people you
want to be able to, to a certainextent, control the amount of
variables that you introduceinto the container and when you
introduce those variables intothe container, that's having the
option to.
To push people outside of theircomfort zone, rather than, you

(25:23):
know, you're just in the junglewith no fly net and you're going
to get eaten by mosquitoes,like, like,

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (25:28):
Well

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_1143 (25:29):
the comforts that are available
there, although while they aresomewhat basic, they, you have
everything that you need and allthe bases, the foundational
bases are covered.
So you can really, you know, getdown and focus on, what you came
there to focus on.

chris_1_02-18-2025_134 (25:43):
totally.
And one of the reasons we choseto come to the Dominican instead
of Costa Rica, which is theother place we were looking is
because nothing in the DominicanRepublic wants to kill you and
everything in Costa Rica or theAmazon or whatever.
It's full of poisonous stuffthat literally is just.
Wants to eat you, wants to biteyou, wants to like poison you,
wants to like it's nuts.

(26:04):
And so, I remember the firsttime I came here and tour the
property and walked through thejungle and the guy that was
walking me through, and I hadjust been in Costa Rica.
And I get out of the car out ofhis little jimny and we started
walking through the jungle andI'm like booted up, like got my
legs covered and all this stuff.
And he gets out in his shortsand flip flops and he's walking
through the jungle.
I'm like, dude, Austin, what areyou doing?

(26:25):
You're going to get killed.
And he's like, what are youtalking about?
And I'm like, what about all thepoisonous stuff?
He's like, that doesn't existhere.
And I'm like, okay, we're inlike that to me, like to knowing
that we're going to move downhere with our kids and let them
just run through the jungle androam free without having to
worry about like, are they goingto, Run into a spider or a frog
or an ant or, you know, a snakeor something like that is going

(26:48):
to get them, you know, it'scool.
Now I'm not saying we don't havebugs or something like that, but
like nothing here is dangerous.
So once again, this goes to yourstate of mind as you go in a lot
of people that are already alittle uncomfortable.
It makes it a lot easier to knowthat, okay, you're going to be
uncomfortable enough seeing abug, but to know that bug is not
going to be dangerous to youallows you to just like
decompress a lot, right?

(27:10):
Because let's face it, mostAmericans, most people that live
in a more developed.
Existence are reallyuncomfortable going into the
jungle, right?
And knowing that they're exposedin so many different ways.
And so to be able to have a aspace where people can kind of

(27:30):
get that exposure without therisks associated with what the
assumptions of that exposurelook like is pretty awesome.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_114 (27:37):
Yeah I totally agree.
And I was not aware that theDominican Republic is, has less
venomous and dangerous creepycrawlies than other Caribbean
islands.

chris_1_02-18-2025_1343 (27:48):
there's nothing here man.
The only thing here that ispoisonous at all are these
little scorpions And I mean, I'mfrom Arizona.
So to me, that's nothing, youknow, like they're you get bit
by scorpion.
Don't get me wrong It's gonnasuck but like it's a we don't
have that many of them be if youget bit It's like it's literally
you don't have to go to thedoctor.
It's just like it sucks It hurtsfor a couple days and then

(28:09):
you're good, you know,

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11 (28:11):
yeah, so, one other thing that I
wanted to talk about in thisconversation and knowing you and
knowing your past, like I thinkof you as an incredible
marketer, and you've done alarge variety of businesses and
have had a lot of success inbusiness before this current
venture with Zaria.
And one thing.

(28:31):
That I've learned from you thatstuck with me and that I now
help teach other people and showother people how to do.
And an idea that I introducepeople to often is the idea of
building an authority platform.
And that's something that you'vedone, again, in a different
business context, but you'vedone it very well.
And If I'm not mistaken, that's,you know, part of building that

(28:53):
authority platform has allowedyou to have a lot of options and
has allowed you to do some ofthe things that you're doing now
and has created opportunitiesfor you.
So, you know, I'd love to hear alittle bit about your experience
in maybe first.
How do you describe an authorityplatform?
What has your experience beenlike building your authority
platform?

(29:14):
And for people who may belistening to this how can
retreat lead leaders, retreatcreators, people who are maybe
running retreat businesses, likewhat are some practical things
that people can implement intheir own marketing strategy
that they can take away from thesuccess that you've had?

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (29:28):
It's funny you say this.
So I was having a conversationwith my 13 year old daughter
last night, nightly and she wasjust like talking to me about
wanting to, we've got her intohorseback riding and all this
stuff, she's got lessons.
She goes to this barn locallyand gets, whatever, every week.
And we're trying to get her tostart doing her own YouTube
channel.
And I'm like, listen, if you'regoing to do this and you want to

(29:49):
create, we'll give you more timethere, but like start filming
videos, start doing this, startdoing that.
And you know, she's 13 year oldteenage girl.
So she's just coming up withexcuses why she can't.
And then I literally said to herlast night, and it's funny
because me and my wife were likesitting across from her, me and
Hannah were sitting across fromher, kind of mocking her, but
playfully having fun with hertoo, and we're like, look
around, like, do you know why wehave all this?

(30:11):
YouTube because of YouTube,right.
And then like everything we cameto is like, you realize all the
things that you love in lifestarted by me being willing to
film videos on YouTube before Iknew what it would become.
You know what I mean?
And I didn't realize how, and Iwas just having this
conversation with her and kindof having fun and playful and

(30:33):
mocking her and trying to alsolike, incentivize her to get to
go and, you know, do it and getstarted.
Because if she could do it now,I mean.
Man, her life would never be thesame, you know?
But that goes back to, for me,my authority platform started
in, in the financial space, youknow, and I just believe that I
guess I would define anauthority platform is I don't

(30:54):
have a pure definition for it,but this is what I, how I kind
of explain it is that no matterwhat you do, there are people
that are looking for you,period.
Right.
And they want your service.
They want your intellect.
They want your expertise.
They want your coaching.
They want.
Access to your community, theywant access to your
relationships, they, like,whatever it is, right?
You have something unique insideyou and I believe everybody has

(31:18):
something unique inside themthat, that was our God given,
our divine given talents,abilities, skills, whatever,
that you were put on this earthto be able to share and that,
and I think it's our soul'spurpose and soul's journey to be
able to identify and find whatthose things are to be able to
go do it, you know what I mean?
Like that, that for me, that's,to me, that's what life is all

(31:38):
about.
That's what this journey is allabout.
And so really interestingbecause I didn't start off
thinking I was building anauthority platform, but what
happened was I just createdvideos and then what happened is
I started making YouTube videosand then people kept commenting
on them after a couple of yearsand then I was like, Oh my gosh,
they're making all thesecomments.
I got to create.

(31:59):
Ways to help them.
And so I started creatingfunnels and websites and other
PDFs and landing pages anddifferent things that would add
value to the people that wereasking questions.
And before you knew it, I hadthis big platform, you know, and
the bottom line is this, is thatthe people that need you,
whether they find you or findsomebody else they're going to
go online and they're going togo search.

(32:21):
And I, as much as I don't likeGrant Cardone.
He says this the best I thinkthat I've ever heard is he says
it's not the best product thatwins.
It's the best marketed productthat wins period.
So it's not about like, and I'veheard so many people say, Oh
man, Chris, I'm so talented.
I've got such an ability to makesuch a difference in so many

(32:43):
people's lives.
If I could just get in front ofthe people, if I could just, you
know, if people just knew aboutme.
Imagine the difference in thisworld I could make.
Well, then you need to go makeyour authority platform.
Like how are people going toknow about you if you don't have
a place for them to go find you?
And listen, like you got to havea social media presence.

(33:04):
You got to have a process.
And I think social media is thetop of the funnel, so to speak,
right?
It's the easiest way that peoplecan identify you, be made aware
of who you are, what you do, andthen make your content congruent
with what your offer is, withwho you want to serve, make
content that is designed to be.

(33:24):
Marketing towards the people youwant to serve, add value to
those people.
Don't create content.
Don't go out and build yourplatform saying I have an
objective of creating X amountof revenue and getting X amount
of conversions and all thisstuff go out.
I was talking to my wife causewe're launching our new business
thrive hive, which is a newpodcast and all this stuff that
is going to be integrated intowhat we're doing at Zaria.

(33:45):
Because there's so much synergythere, but she's creating
content.
And I said to her, she was like,I don't know what to make for
content.
To really connect with peopleand convert people and get them
to really see the value.
And I'm like, well, first ofall, you're thinking about it
wrong.
If you're, If you're reallytrying to force that.
You're then you're in your head,like get out of your head, get

(34:06):
into your heart and think aboutif you like, where do you have
the ability to actually purely,truly authentically add the most
value to people?
Right.
And what makes your heart sing?
What do you want to share withpeople?
Right.
And so I said to her, I said, myquestion to you, babe, is if you
were to die tomorrow, what arethe 10 things that you can think

(34:28):
of the top 10 things?
That you will have wished youcould have left behind your top
tips, skills, wisdom, insightsmindsets, processes.
Like, what would you want toshare?
Like, what do you think your 10.
Most impactful things that youcould leave behind that would

(34:48):
benefit humanity, that wouldhelp people go from where they
are to get to where they want togo, help them close that gap and
help actually make an impact inpeople's lives, not making it
about how do you close peopleinto a deal?
How do you get them to sign upfor a retreat or anything of
that nature?
But how do you just serve themwithout expectation?
And what value do you believethat you could leave behind?

(35:09):
And dude, she's, she startedcrying.
She's like, Oh my gosh, I neverthought about it that way.
And so for, you know, she's upthere

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_1143 (35:15):
I'm getting emotional thinking about
the, you know, as you're sayingthat.
Hmm.

chris_1_02-18-2025_1 (35:21):
Marketing.
Like I, I can't stand.
So I do marketing a lotdifferent than most people.
Most people think aboutmarketing as selling and listen,
there's an element of that hasto happen.
Don't get me wrong, but reallyfrom an, from marketing
perspective, we got to.
I look at it very selfishly,like I have a big significance
drive and I just want to helpthe earth, right?
And I believe that money followsvalue.

(35:42):
And if we create enough value,money is just a scoreboard like,
you know, to show us howimpactful are we being, you
know?
And I don't believe that there'sany product or any service or
any retreats or any, anythingthat's going to change.
our life with one thing.
It's we need to become who weneed to become to create the
life that we want to live.
We need to put the work and weneed to take accountability.

(36:04):
And we need to be really clearon what we, what a life that
matters to us looks like, right?
I mean, you and I, we'refriends, we're good friends,
right?
And so we have a lot of sharedvalues and at the same time, If
you were to write out what apure life that truly matters to
Ian Vogel looks like, it'sprobably going to look fairly
different than what a pure lifethat matters to Chris

(36:26):
Kirkpatrick looks like.
And while there may be someoverlap, you're going to have so
many unique nuances to yourversion that I'm going to have.
And so, what you need to do tocreate your life that matters is
probably going to be a littlebit different than me.
And while we can have overlapand collaboration and all this
stuff, It's important that youare really clear on what a life
that matters to you looks like.
And then once you're clear onthat, then build your authority

(36:50):
platform, right?
Because now you're going to beable to go out and create.
Create content that's authenticto you.
That's real.
That's full of integrity.
That's going to connect with thepeople that you actually purely
want to serve because I know somany people and guess what?
I've done this.
I've made this mistake.
That's how I've gotten to thisconclusion where I know how to
build things.
I could sell anything toanybody.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm a great salesperson in thatway, but I've learned to not do

(37:12):
that because of the fact thatwhen I did that in the past, I
made sales, but what happenedwas I made sales to the people
that I didn't want to work with.
You know, and then before youknow it, I go down that path and
I've got this group of peoplethat I have to serve and I'm
responsible for and I don'tenjoy my life at that point in
time.
So to me, the goal of buildingan authority platform is just

(37:34):
it's your mountaintop to standon, to be like, this is who I
am.
And this is where I am.
And if you want to, if you alignwith this, if you align with me,
if you, if we share thesevalues, if we, you know, you
want to go on a similar journey,This is the path that I've taken
to get here and let me share itwith you.
And now through social media andthen creating sales funnels and

(37:55):
registration pages and freedownloads and lead magnets and
like all these different coursesand offerings and retreats and
events, like that's.
You, you got to have a processand a flow that people can go
through to, to connect with you.
And you got to make it easy forthem to get into your world, you
know, and you got to have what,you know, what we call a value
ladder, which is like allowpeople to get in easy, build a

(38:18):
relationship with them over thetime and let them ascend through
that process with you.
That's really what it comes downto.
But don't lose yourself anddon't the thing I can't stand
about.
And this is something I was ahuge fan of Russell Brunson.
Don't get me wrong.
I love Russell.
I think he does a lot of reallygood for the industry, but
there's a lot of stuff out therein regards to like the NLP stuff
that is designed to train andtrain people to like it, I don't

(38:40):
know.
It's like designed to manipulatepeople.
That's NLP was never designed tobe a sales tool, but a lot of
people have taken it and twistedit.
And use for sales, especially ononline sales funnels and opt in
videos and all this stuff.
And, you know, I just thinkthere's a responsibility if
you're going to go down that,make sure you're doing it from a
place of full integrity and notjust trying to convert people,

(39:01):
you know?
I would just say it's importantfirst and foremost for you to
live a fully authentic and highintegrity life for yourself.
So you know that whatever you'redoing, you're going to be
completely fulfilled in, andthat's, that, that's the key to
everything.
And if you do that, it doesn'tmatter if you get.
A hundred thousand followers ora thousand you don't want, it's
not about volume or the numbers.
It's about having the rightpeople that are, that you're

(39:22):
actually going to be able tomake an impact on because you
could have a hundred thousandfollowers with a low engagement
rate and nobody actually signingup because they're not the right
people is the thing that I findfunny with all the egos out
there that are buying followers.
And trying to look bigger andmore important than they are.
And it's like, I'd rather findsomebody with 500 followers that
has a high engagement and thathas maybe 20 or 30 people in

(39:42):
their life that they're actuallymaking an impact on, like to me,
that's what this is about.
And I promise you, if you do itthat way, your life is going to
be more fulfilling.
And you're going to enjoy theprocess along the way.
And guess what?
Like the ripple effect is goingto be much greater.
And I love the phrase, bewilling to go slow to go fast.
And that's what I mean by this.
Like if you do that and you canjust build this ecosystem where

(40:05):
you can actually serve and buildpeople in a way that is in
alignment with what, with howyou naturally show up, you're
going to be fulfilled.
People are going to want to comein and experience what you have
to offer.
And as you can help themelevate, guess what?
It's just going to spread.
It takes a little longer to dothat.
But, you know, life is going tobe more fun along the way.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11 (40:24):
Well, that's super powerful and very
impactful.
And the one thing that, thatreally struck me, cause I'm in
the beginning stages of a sideproject and it's been,
percolating for years, and nowit's, getting closer to the
surface and I just have had somehesitation around it.
Well, you helped bring someclarity to something.
And it was clarity.

(40:46):
Like, get clear with what youwant, I mean, I've heard you say
this before, start with the endin mind, have a clear
destination for where you wantthis thing to go, know who you
want to serve, know what youwant to say, like, at what you
were telling, you were saying.
Hannah, your wife, I felt likeyou were speaking directly to
me.
It was like, Oh, before I get,in front of the camera and start

(41:07):
making all these videos, it'sreally going to be in my best
interest to be very clear whatkind of videos that I want to
make and what kind of message Iwant to send and who I want to
be speaking to specifically, Icould start making videos.
And just start throwing stuff atthe wall But then there's going
to be a much longer slower startand a longer period of trial and

(41:31):
error if I could take some moretime in the beginning And I
think this would be applicableto everybody like when you're
starting a marketing journey orstarting to market something
like the amount of time youspend in the beginning and i've
heard this other places like Oneminute spent in planning is
equal to 10 minutes ofexecution.
So like you'll save yourself somuch time if you just go slow in

(41:53):
the beginning, get really clearon your direction and so that
you're not having to coursecorrect as much along the way.
So you can just focus on whatyou're doing.
And I think that's such apoignant piece of advice And I
hope that really came throughfor people like getting, like
before you do anything, spendtime with yourself, know what
you really want for you and whoyou want to work with.

(42:16):
And be clear on the value thatyou provide to the marketplace
and to the people that you workwith and focus on that.
Focus on what you know and focuson the things that feel good and
the things that you actuallywant to talk about.
And to know those things, itmight take a little time in the
beginning to sit with yourselfand really plan it out, write it
out, get on chat, GPT, think of,you know, do some, come up with

(42:39):
some ideas.
But whatever it takes.

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (42:42):
You know what I've done recently,
and me and Hannah have both donethis, and I would encourage
every single person to do this,is spend time journaling.
And, but here's the deal,journal in ChatGPT.
And the reason is because whenyou journal inside of ChatGPT
and dump all of your thoughts,all the good, the bad, the ugly,

(43:04):
the beautiful the just nasty,like whatever real positive
vibes that you have, whateverself limiting beliefs you have,
just journal it all there,right?
All your aspirations, all yourfears, everything, just put it
all in there.
And the reason for this isbecause that allows.
to really get to know who youare and what I've realized is,

(43:25):
and this is something Hannah andI've both done is by doing that.
And as you're building yourbrand and also doing your other
kind of technical marketingstuff, you can then ask chat GPT
to help You build out amarketing plan that is more
authentic and help and i'mtelling you I did this the other

(43:46):
day I'm rewriting my book cashflow hacking right and in this I
asked I said listen I want tochange what this is about
because the first version ofcash flow hacking was very
linear It was very focused onone thing and I want it to be a
more vast thing to really helppeople holistically with their
finances And be in alignmentwith who I am today.
Cause the first time I wrote thebook was four years ago and I'm

(44:07):
a wildly different person todaythan I was back then.
Right.
And so I want the spirit of thebook to embody who I am today.
Not who I was back then and notwho I was when the brand was
created.
And I want the brand to evolvewith me because.
It's important to me, and sobecause I'd been journaling and
because it knows all mytechnical stuff, cause I use it
a lot on the insurance andfinancial strategy side, real

(44:30):
estate investment side, all thatstuff.
I was able to say, listen,here's how the book was.
And I, you know, whatever, andhere's what I want it to be
based on what you know about me,based on all of our
conversations, all of myjournaling, what would you say
are the things that I could workinto this book?
And the ways that I could likefind my new authentic voice.

(44:51):
And because only because I was,I literally had dozens and
dozens of pages worth ofjournaling in it, was it able to
pull it out?
And I'm telling you within fiveminutes I literally, I was
almost in tears.
I had, I was like, Oh my gosh,like this is one of the most
beautiful things I've ever seenhow I felt about how I was going
to be able to convey who Iwanted to be holistically, not

(45:16):
just in the financial space, butas a business leader, as a
leader.
As a person that wants to helpmen break through and become who
they need to be to live the lifethat they want to live as
husbands, as fathers, asbusiness conscious business
leaders, as you know, gettingfinancial security as a retreat
host is somebody who wants tohelp that whole space.
I mean, that's a lot to likebring in together.

(45:36):
But it did it.
And like, I'm telling you, Iwould have had to pay a
consultant 50, 000 to help mecome up with the same thing.
But because I just unloaded mylife into Chat GPT for like a
six month period, it was able todo it for me.
So if you're not using Chat GPT,you need to be doing it.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11 (45:55):
Yeah, and I, you know, I think these,
like the way that you're usingit as a tool and like journaling
is so valuable, I mean, justwhether it's on pen and paper or
whether it's in something likechat GPT, The amount of data
that you can potentially give toan artificial intelligence to
analyze and, I've been workingwith AI a lot over the last few

(46:18):
months in different contexts.
And I've noticed, it's reallygood at some things and some
things it's not quite so good atyet, but what it is the best at
is analyzing data and findingpatterns and taking large pieces
of data.
And.
and picking out and identifyingthe patterns and things that it
sees repeatedly over and overagain.

(46:38):
And I'm guessing, when you wentthrough that process, it
probably picked out patternsthat you hadn't identified
within yourself.
You know, with all the amount ofdata that you gave it, it, was
able to see things that werecoming up over and over again,
that to you may be passing ormaybe unconscious, but it's
like, Oh, boom, here's all thesethings.

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (46:57):
It's not just the patterns.
It's and yes you're right itidentifies patterns but what it
did for me is, and I'm sureeverybody watching this whether
you're an influencer in anyspace, you have, your unique
ability and your unique abilityto you just feels natural,
right?
Because it's your uniqueability.
And so sometimes it's harder foryou to be able to identify some

(47:19):
of these processes andframeworks and so on and so
forth.
And so for me, what wasinteresting was when I read the
output from it, I was like, Ohmy gosh, that it all just made
so much sense.
And I was like, Why was I notable to identify that myself?
Why was it so hard for me?
Why did I not see this?
It was all the things that I sayin all these different

(47:41):
conversations.
And I've got, 1, 600 YouTubevideos, right?
So, and I've uploaded my booksand all my transcripts, and I've
got this thing.
It knows me better than I knowmyself, obviously at this point
in time, right?
And so when I did it, it wasable to take everything I said,
the good, the bad, the ugly, andmixed in with the journaling.
It knew what I didn't want towrite.

(48:02):
Like that's important.
Right.
And knew who I want to be in theworld.
It knew what I consideredfulfilling and it made sure that
the outputs were completely inalignment, not with just what I
wanted to create, but what Iwanted to make sure was avoided
in that creation, and so to givethat output, it was like, it was
a life changing moment.
And It's pretty cool.

(48:24):
And that's the thing though, islike, I'm constantly evolving.
Everybody should be constantlyevolving.
That's what this life is aboutis growth.
It's the journey.
It's not the destination.
And so, that's why, circlingback to the beginning is like
when it comes to marketing, whenit comes to doing all this
stuff, building a businesswhether it's running a retreat
or just building a business orwhatever, you need time for

(48:44):
yourself.
You need time to just be whollypresent.
And I think going tomasterminds, going to events,
going to.
Experiences that will allow youto get to that place to unplug
and get to know yourself on adeeper level so you can do the
work to hit that next level.
That's the magic in this life tome.
And.
I think it's sad how few peopleare doing it.
And I think selfishly, that'sbeen the greatest gift and

(49:08):
blessing of buying the retreatcenter is getting to know people
in that getting to spend moretime inside of those containers
with people that are on thosejourneys.
It's just made, I feel like it'sjust made me a more conscious
and aware person to help me inall these other areas, you know?
But I will say that it's notall, it's not all easy, right?

(49:28):
Like it's been, it's hard too.
Like doing that work has takentime away from things.
And that's where I say sometimesyou gotta be willing to go slow
to go fast.
And for me, I had to pump thebrakes on a couple of things.
I had to do some stuff.
But now I'm going to be able togo three times as fast as I
would have been able to gobefore.

(49:49):
And so, it just makes sense.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11 (49:52):
Yeah, that's really, beautiful.
And I think it just like, as yousaid, kind of wrapping it up and
bringing it back to the, tohaving that ability to, whether
it's take that time to yourself,because, you know, Doing that
all that journaling you did tooktime, you know, inputting all
that information.
It's like you're sure you'reputting it into chat GPT, but

(50:13):
chat GPT isn't responding to inreal time.
That's really time where you'regoing inward and assessing your
own thoughts and your ownbeliefs and putting it out
there.

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (50:23):
a hundred percent

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_11434 (50:24):
On the backend chat, GPT was able
to do something magical with it,the only reason chat GPT was
able to do what it did isbecause you spent so much time
and just by yourself in thequiet just doing that work and
journaling and looking inward.
And, I've facilitated manyceremonies myself plant medicine
ceremonies and there's, nothingquite as.
Fulfilling as is watching peoplego have breakthroughs and go

(50:47):
through, the kind of experiencesthat people have at Zarya just
like when you're going through abreakthrough yourself You don't
realize that the person who'shelping facilitate it is also
going through a growth andexpansion and the people who are
holding space like there's Youtypically don't have that
perception yourself, but it'shappening everybody You're not

(51:08):
you're never in it alone whenyou're in a group container like
that.
Like everybody is growing andlearning and expanding together
at the same time and that's whatmakes those kind of retreats and
masterminds.
That's what makes them so, sopowerful.
If it was just you by yourselfin a hut in the jungle, yeah,
you'd certainly have profoundexperiences on your own and

(51:29):
people certainly do all thetime.
And when you add other peopleinto it who are vibrating at the
same level or have this similarvalues and a similar mindset,
similar goals, and they're therefor a similar reason, it's just
a force multiplier.
It's like you don't add to thegroup, you, like your presence
there multiplies the amount ofenergy and what's happening and

(51:51):
the amount of transformationthat happens within the group.
And, I'm.
so grateful that I was able tocome and visit Zaria and have
the experience that I had there.
I'm super grateful to have metyou and that you're so willing
to come on and chat today andhave this awesome conversation
and share, you know, so muchknowledge and so much of your
story.
Is there anything you'd like to.
To end with I'll kind of giveyou the mic at the very end.

(52:12):
Is there, how can people getahold of you or if people are
interested in seeing what you'redoing outside of Zarya or if
people are interested inchecking out Zarya itself, like,
Yeah, we'll let people knowwhere they can find you.

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (52:23):
Yeah.
I would just say the last thingI wanna say is, and I said it a
little bit, but it's just kindof my story right now and I feel
like it's my life's journey in,in, in what I'm being called to
share is that the reason we areall where we are in life is
because of who we are.
Right.
And the gap of, and get reallyclear on what you want your life
to be like.
What does a life that mattersmean to you?

(52:44):
And then figure out where youare and the results that you
have in your life are based onwho you are and who do you need
to become to create that lifethat matters to you and then you
can identify this gap and youcan kind of start filling the
gap in and and I think doing thework and getting in the right
communities and surroundingyourself with like minded people
who are on the same or similarjourney.
Is the key.
And you can only do that throughgroups.

(53:06):
So whether you're somebody wholooks to run groups and run
retreats or whatever, I wouldsay, reach out.
We have an amazing space and I'dlove to have a conversation
about what.
It might look like for somebodyto host an event at our place at
Zaria down in the Dominicanwould look like and then
obviously I would just encouragego to retreats, go, get yourself
around those people I've alreadybeen, it's February.

(53:29):
Whatever middle of February whenwe're filming this and I've
already been to three retreatsthis year.
And it's just it's a part of mylife.
And if it, if that weren't sucha big part of my life, like I
wouldn't be growing at the ratethat I'm growing.
And so now I realize noteverybody has the ability to do
that, but.
I definitely think, one to oneto two retreats per year is

(53:51):
something everybody should beparticipating in, find your
tribe and surround yourself withpeople who see you as a higher
version of yourself than youbelieve in yourself.
If you question, if that's outthere, it's out there, I
promise.
You just gotta go find it, spendthe time to find it.
It's going to be one of the mostvaluable things that you can do
is finding your tribe thatbelieves in you and believes in

(54:11):
your message.
And then just be willing to growslow and become who you need to
be to build what you're lookingto build.
That matters.
And so that's what I would say.
So that said if you do, anybodydoes want to connect or reach
out on Instagram, you can go tovisit Zaria at visit Zaria, Z A
R I A is our Instagram channel,pretty cool channel.

(54:32):
A good content that goes onthere.
My, my personal Instagram is atreal Chris Kirkpatrick.
Go follow me there and yeah, Imean, that's, it's pretty much
it simple.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_1 (54:43):
That's awesome.
And just to piggyback on that alittle bit, like a retreat does
not have to be an extravagantadventure around the world.
It can be getting together witha few of your closest friends
and everybody chipping in on anAirbnb.
like where everybody can meetand you can, do your thing,
whatever that is.
Maybe it's just, maybe it's justget out of your home.
Like putting yourself, gettingyourself outta your comfort

(55:05):
zone, giving yourself anopportunity to have a.
A pattern interrupt and as yousaid, like being around people
who can support you in a waythat, and people who can support
you in a way, and that may seeyou in a way that you don't
necessarily see yourself isgoing to help lead to growth and
evolution in a way that whenyou're all by yourself, you may

(55:25):
not have access to that level ofgrowth at that speed.
So.
Chris, thanks so much for comingon.
I appreciate you and I lookforward to our next
conversation.

chris_1_02-18-2025_134345 (55:35):
too, man.
It was fun.
Thanks for having me.

ian-vogel_1_02-18-2025_1143 (55:37):
All right.
Take care.

chris_1_02-18-2025_1343 (55:39):
Thanks, brother.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}How to Build Authority & Run a Successful Retreat Center w/ Chris Kirkpatrick

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes

How to Build Authority & Run a Successful Retreat Center w/ Chris Kirkpatrick

Stuff You Should Know