It's hard to believe that it's already the end of the day on another Monday. Just like always, it feels like the summer is flying by. I mean, I'm looking at the calendar and there are just six (!) weeks left until September. What?! And when I think September, of course I'm thinking about the BEST LIFE™ Mastermind.

There is a reason the retreats are not on weekends, Reader.

Not because we couldn't do them on weekends. But because I made a deliberate decision years ago to stop relegating the most important work of a woman's life to whatever time is left over after everyone else's priorities. We do this work during the week... like the work that matters.

But the more important reason we do retreats at all is this:

You cannot read the label from inside the jar.

When you are at home, you are who you have always been. You are carrying the same roles, the same relationships, the same identity that everyone around you has come to depend on. Your family knows you a certain way. Your colleagues know you a certain way. Even your own internal voice — the one that runs the background narrative of your life — knows you a certain way.

And it is nearly impossible to imagine a different version of yourself when you are completely surrounded by every expectation and demand of the version you've always been.

The retreat removes all of that. (Did you notice your exhale there?! Or that your shoulders dropped?)

For four days, you are not someone's mother, someone's wife, someone's boss, someone's most reliable employee.

You are a woman in a room with nine other women who are asking the same questions you are. Nobody knows you as who you've always been, which means you get to try on who you're becoming.

• How does she feel?
• How does she move through the world?
• What does she want?
• What does she say yes to — and what does she finally say no to?

You get to find out, in real time, without the weight of everyone's expectations pressing down on the answer. How refreshing does that sound?!

And then — this is the part that makes the retreat different from every solo retreat, every solo vacation, every solo anything — the women in that room become your witnesses. They saw you step into something new. They heard you say the thing out loud. And when you go home and real life starts pulling you back toward who you used to be — because it will — they're the ones who remember who you said you wanted to become.

They become your personal board of directors. Your cheerleaders. Your accountability partners.

That's why you can't just book the same hotel on your own and call it a retreat. Sure, the location is part of it. The curation is also part of it. But the community — the ten women who are doing this work alongside you — that's the thing that makes it stick.

So join us at BEST LIFE™ Mastermind. Two retreats. Nine months of support in between. Applications close July 31.

→ Apply here​

→ Book a call with me here​

xx, Laurie

P.S. "You can't read the label from inside the jar" truly descibes why this work must happen outside your ordinary life. If it resonated with you, you probably have a friend who could also benefit from this perspective. Will you please share it with her? 🙏