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Where business, life and leadership come together

  • Three life changing days spent with other like-minded women in a safe, supportive environment

  • Two nights accommodation and all meals included at a luxury spa venue in the heart of the beautiful Surrey/Hampshire borders countryside

Recharge

Women typically juggle; take on more roles and projects than they can sometimes handle. Finding the space to take time out and recharge is critical to ensure you don’t burn out.

Connect

Connect with the deep wisdom of the group and, most importantly, discover how to connect with your intuitive self and hear your inner whispers.

Review

Autumn is the ideal time to reflect. As the days shorten, this is your opportunity to give yourself the gift of time to review your progress and decide what lessons to take into the new year.

Take a breath and expand into who you are becoming

How would it feel to be in flow and deeply connected with your business purpose?

Running a business and running your life can feel exhausting at times!

Every year the hamster wheel seems to go faster, making the years feel like they fly by, especially if you spend if your days are busy, you’re saying yes more than you are saying no, and you’re dealing with family, eldercare or health issues. 

It’s easy to let life keep you busy so you find your dreams and potential for more buried beneath your to-do lists.

When you have the opportunity to take the time to connect with yourself … away from the busy-ness of business and what life has been throwing at you … you can begin to hear the whispers of what’s calling to you.

Schedule this time away from the day-to-day working IN your business and the complications of life, and immerse yourself in the company of inspirational and supportive women to get this opportunity to work ON yourself, your vision, and a deeper connection with your work.

Plus with me as your guide, you’ll be gently stretched to step into the fullest potential of you.

It’s time to embrace who you are ready to become and focus your time and energy on the projects that mean more to you.

What you’ll get from Elevate

Three days to open you up for fresh thinking, give you ways to connect with yourself more deeply, and come away with new friends for life!

You are going to have the space and time to truly reflect and open up your view of your world to see what’s really possible, and connect and share openly with the other women in the room and forge lifelong friendships.

What you are going to get over these three transformational days:

 

  • Get clarity on your bigger vision and the legacy you want to create
  • Leave with a plan on how to start implementing it
  • Understand yourself more deeply and who you are becoming to be able to take your business on to the next phase of growth
  • Realise the difference between striving for success, and thriving because of your success
  • Learn the power of managing your energy flow, rather than relying on project and time management
  • Change your perspective on what productivity is so that you can achieve more in your professional work than you ever thought possible
  • Discover how to break the patterns of behaviour that keep you in a freelancer and business owner mindset, and develop new rituals and practices to harness the power of a CEO mindset
  • Network and connect with a group of high-performing women and forge lifelong friendships
  • Space, away from everyday interruptions to allow clarity of thought, as well as time to nurture your mind, body, and soul to refuel you for your onward journey

Come away feeling refreshed, re-energised, and empowered to grow with purpose

When & Where

Get on the Priority List Now

Next dates in 2024 to be confirmed soon!

Two nights accommodation and all meals included, plus full access to the hotel spa and swimming pool during your stay.

If you would like to arrive a day early or extend your stay, please let us know and we can arrange this for you (prices for extra nights quoted on request).

 

  • Pre-retreat gathering on Zoom to set the scene and meet the women you’ll be spending this time with (date TBC)
  • Coffee & refreshments available from 10am on Monday, ready for our first welcome session
  • Finish by 4pm on the last day, and you are welcome to stay on and enjoy the spa and the grounds before you leave for home
  • You are invited to a special evening session on Monday (optional)
  • Early morning yoga on Tuesday morning for those of you who would like to join us (optional)
  • Guided walk in nature with stunning views from the highest point in the South Downs National Park (weather dependent)
  • Time scheduled for you to relax and make full use of the hotel spa, swimming pool, grounds, and walking access into stunning National Trust land

Lythe Hill Hotel is an exclusive country hotel and spa venue, tucked away in the Surrey Hills and set in 22 acres of picturesque countryside.

Easy access from the M25, M23, and M27, and just 15 minutes drive off the A3 (nearest fast road).

The nearest airports are Gatwick (approx 50 minutes drive) and Southampton (approx 55 min drive).

What was said about our Elevate Business Retreat in 2022

“As business owners, with all the best intentions in the world, we want to work on our businesses and think bigger, but generally life – clients and family – get in the way. Elevate gives you a chance to take a step back and reconnect with what’s important and to focus on elevating your business with clear action points to move forward!

You can’t afford not to attend it.”

“If you are committed to bringing your vision to fruition, and ready to move from freelancer to business owner to CEO, you need to invest time and money into it. Elevate provides a quick, short, sharp burst of inspiration, and a perfect progression of sessions and practical tools to get you there!

If you are really ready to “level up”, Elevate is for you.”

“Being around like-minded women and being able to share our thoughts on how to do business in a sustainable way in this season of our lives was amazing. Brilliant to be away with lovely women doing interesting things, and the attention to detail and thought about the structure of the days was very impressive.

I found the whole experience refreshing and it’s always wonderful to spend time with Karen.

“Heading away to an event such as Elevate is key to growth. Spending much-needed thinking time with like-minded people, who naturally support you with your bigger vision, and help with practical steps, certainly adds tangible and specific clarity that your vision is possible.

Karen devised a varied and enriching programme that combined valuable content, and time to explore further as well as receive super input from each participant. It made Elevate an essential and rewarding event in the next step of creating a sustainable and scalable business.”

business retreat
business retreat
business retreat

FAQs

Do I have to share a bedroom?

No, absolutely not 🙂 You will have your own double room, all to yourself, with no extra single supplement, for two nights included in the retreat price.

I have dietary requirements. Are you able to cater for me?

Absolutely yes. All food and refreshments are covered whilst you are at the retreat, and we will be checking in with you and asking for any specifics you require before you arrive. The hotel can provide for anything that you need.

What are the timings of the retreat?

The dates are 6th to 8th November 2023. We begin at 10am on the first day and finish by 4pm on the last day. The days will be designed to give you plenty of time to relax, rest and enjoy the hotel and spa, with longer lunch breaks and the opportunity to spend time alone if this something you’d like to do. 

Can I stay an extra night or arrive early?

Yes, we can make arrangements for you to book extra nights on top of the two nights included in the retreat. Once you have booked, please let us know if you want to arrive on the Sunday or stay on until Thursday. These extra nights will be charged by the hotel directly to you so please ensure you make payment for these extra nights when you check in. 

Are there treatments that I can book whilst I am there?

Yes, the hotel has a spa menu available with various massages and treatments available. We do recommend you book these as soon as possible as they have limited spaces and treatment rooms. 

What about the pool?

You have full access to the pool, sauna, steam room and gym during your stay and we’ll ensure you have the time to enjoy these facilities during the retreat.

Meet Your Retreat Hosts

Karen Skidmore

Business Books Awards finalist 2020, podcaster, and business mentor with 25+ years’ experience, Karen helps entrepreneurs step into their CEO-ship, uniquely combining the being-ness and doing-ness of business to grow purpose-driven businesses. She knows that most business owners and leaders are burning out, trying to drive their business and life forward. And Karen knows this from first-hand experience.

She has run her own coaching and consulting company since 2004. After an 11-year career with Hays Plc, her children were approaching school age and she realised how much she wanted a more flexible and fulfilling professional career.

Within 6 months of starting up, she was awarded European Social Funds for her Women’s Enterprise Programme and Simply Marketing Workshops, which was instrumental in helping hundreds of women start up their own businesses across Surrey and Sussex. She founded a regional women’s networking group in 2005, created and ran a 100+ membership site for 3 years and launched dozens of online courses and group programmes over the past 13 years.

But in 2012, struggling with adrenal fatigue and hormonal imbalances, Karen was burnt out from constantly launching new programmes and marketing campaigns, exasperated by dealing with grief from losing her father to cancer two years previously. She fought with her health; trying to find ways to fix her low energy levels, severe brain fog and aching body, and struggled to keep up with work and family life. After admitting that she had to change the way she was using her body, as well as the way she was working, she began to realise she had far better outcomes when she started to embrace her journey.  And it soon became apparent that many of her clients wanted this same change.

She now leads her Momentum community, along with her team, and is also Ambassador for The Hunger Project, leading the Unleashed Women movement here in the UK. She’s also written two books and is a Menopause Champion, hosting her annual Embrace Festival and developing menopause support programmes for organisations.

 

Alexia Padgham 

Alexia is our Client & Operations Manager and runs Karen’s business like clockwork.

She has been supporting Karen since 2007 so she knows exactly what our clients and community members need to help them in their business growth journeys.

As well as running our events, she personally welcomes all new members into our Momentum community and runs the day-to-day logistics of a growing and expanding coaching and training company. If you need any logistical info for the retreat, Alexia is the go-to person to reach out to. You can contact her at [email protected].

Karen has helped me focus on the right things to become CEO and leader of my business

“Working on my own in my own business had been fine, but I was ready for the next stage. I’d started to bring a team of associates together, to make greater use of Zoom for delivery now that all our programmes were online rather than ‘in the room’, and to think about how I could develop a passive income stream. I knew I needed some help to figure out – and take – the next steps. In short, I wanted to become more of a CEO of my business.

With Karen’s support, I worked on building a team and how to share my vision for the company with them, so that I could step into the role of the CEO. One of my values is abundance and what I am creating is something a little bit different – a business that is more friendly and warm and supportive because I know that when you’re out on your own, you need that. I was able to be really open with my team, partly because it’s part of who I am, but partly because I’ve been an associate for others and transparency is important. It’s how I want to run my business.

My work with Karen has highlighted some of the gaps in knowledge of running a bigger business, with a different operating model. It was the prompt I needed to dig deeper and be able to access the data in order to make decisions. Now, just being in control of the model and the important figures makes me feel more like the sort of person who is strategic. Karen helped me to focus on the right things as CEO and leader of my business.”

Elaine Gosden

CEO, Blue Gnu Consultancy Ltd

Working with Karen has been a business catalyst for speeding up my growth. Being stretched and challenged has been incredible​.

“I needed to have someone externally to talk things through with; to discuss the strategic direction of my business and being challenged around the right things to do. In the early days, it was really easy to beat myself up. I was really impatient and felt a lot of frustration, as I wasn’t seeing the results quickly enough, but working with Karen, I can honestly say that the last eighteen months I have grown the most I have ever grown in my career. The work I have done with Karen has been instrumental in this. The stretch and support from someone saying “you really can do this” is incredible.

Karen has really challenged me to say yes, and then think how was I going to do it. She has got me to take some pretty bold actions, which got me my first high profile interview, so being able to talk through my options and getting feedback on this strategy was a real turning point for me and the business. She has also helped me simplify things, and in doing so, this took the pressure off my shoulders. Before this, I was always in the future, racing ahead and in my head too much, so I’ve learnt the power of stopping to review and celebrate successes.

Karen has been a business catalyst for speeding up my growth. Being stretched and challenged, and learning from Karen’s experience has been incredible. I like to surround myself with people who stretch me, but don’t treat me as though I am ignorant.”

Joy Burnford

Founder & Director, My Confidence Matters Ltd

“Karen is a highly engaging, energetic professional who I have had the pleasure of working with over the last three months. Karen has a real passion and expertise in supporting you align your core values around all aspects of your life including your business, allowing you to remain focused on the right results. Karen creates the spark that we all need in life and I have no doubt we will continue to work together for many years to come.”

Carolyn Moir Grant

Managing Director at Allstaff

Not only is Karen highly experienced, she also has an incredibly intuitive way of just knowing what you need to do to take your business to the next level. Karen is very approachable – her style is soft yet strong, insightful, knowledgeable – she gets what you need and helps you get it done too. She is willing to challenge you too and call out what you are not doing when you should be!

Julia Carter

CEO, Zestfor Ltd

At every meeting, I am impressed with how well Karen is able to get inside the skin of my business. Not only does she offer her expertise generously and without ego, she does it in a way which both challenges and supports. Her ability to hone in on what is needed NOW in my business, and how she helps me find ways to prioritise that through all my busyness, is so helpful. For the first time in years I feel I am truly working on my business and not just in it.

Working with Karen is like having a non-Exec Director in your business and for that I am truly grateful.

Kate Turner

Founder & Director, Motivational Leadership Ltd

Need to ask us a question first before booking your place?

If we didn’t answer all of your questions here on this page, please email Alexia on [email protected] or click the contact us button below.
© Karen Skidmore Ltd | +44 (0) 1428 607745

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