Are you an adventurous woman looking to rekindle the passion and purpose that drew you to your work? Leadership can sometimes feel lonely and overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be.
Each year we hold space for an intimate group of seasoned mid-career professionals who long to slow down and fall in love with their work all over again. It’s an opportunity for creative dreaming, away from the daily stresses of leading our organizations and teams. You will be seen, heard, and valued for the inspired leader and messy human you are, and will emerge with hope, inspiration, actionable skills, and greater clarity about your future.
Before we go into details, let’s make sure this retreat is for you.
Your guides Irene & Tutti
Are you someone who…
self identifies as a powerful, dynamic woman or non-binary person
leads a team or collaborative project, and struggles with overwhelm when trying to get everything done
is working your tail off for others and have no energy left for yourself or the things and people you love
worries about how to push your team to get the high quality work done and also want to be supportive
struggles with imposter syndrome and your own self-critical voices holding you back
craves the time to upskill your own leadership and leave with practical tools and strategies that you can immediately apply
If this sounds like you, then you’re in the right place. Welcome!
This retreat isn’t a spa getaway to solely relax and escape. You should be willing to…
go deep into your own patterns
be vulnerable and share what’s happening inside
explore changing how you lead
experiment and try new things
*Early bird rate until Jan 31, 2025 then rates increase to $2,995
The Design
This woman’s leadership retreat weaves together three strands -- group leadership coaching, creative adventuring, and self-paced reflection -- into an unforgettable four day, three night experience in stunning Mendocino, California.
There, you will be guided by a designer and neuroscientist through a journey where you will find actionable leadership tools that connect you with yourself.
You will walk away with skills to
Navigate change and uncertainty. You’ll learn how to keep your spark and inspire your team when things are hard
Find your authentic voice in any context from the boardroom to managing up
Get out of your own way and work through your self-critical voices
Connect deeply with others so you can both provide and receive genuine support in your network
Expand the impact of your leadership outside your organization
Leverage and trust collective wisdom from a nurturing group of female leaders & founders
RESTORE - Exhaustion, overwhelm, stress, uncertainty, and burnout is very, very real in today’s workplaces. This is your chance to fully restore your mind, body, and soul so that you can give your organization the best of you, not what’s left of you.
UPSKILL - You’ll get the chance to support your own growth and learn new leadership skills from Irene and Tutti as well as from like-minded peers. You’ll challenge yourself with new tools — mental, emotional, and physical — and bring these skills back the workplace for yourself and your teams.
CONNECT - Not only will you reconnect with who you are at your best, you will build new connections with inspirational leaders from diverse fields. The leaders we are curating collectively bring hundreds of years of expertise and wisdom so that the work of leadership won’t ever have to feel lonely again.
There’s a neuroscientific reason why restoration, upskilling, and connection is essential to exceptional leadership. In our everyday work, we primarily exercise an interconnected group of brain areas known as the executive attention network. This network helps us focus on, plan out, problem solve, and execute goal-directed actions. In contrast, creative thinking and insight requires the engagement of a different brain network, known as the default mode network. It's an entirely different set of brain areas that activate when your mind is resting, wandering, untethered, remembering, imaginative, and goal-free. Neuroscientists have found that creative insight happens in those rare moments when both the default mode and executive attention networks are active simultaneously. Normally, they are mutually exclusive. One inhibits the other. But certain environments activate the executive attention AND default mode networks together, at the same time.
This is the express purpose of this retreat – to activate both brain networks at once and thus rekindle the spark of creative insight.
GROUP LEADERSHIP COACHING
16 hours of professional development (less on Friday and Monday, more on Saturday and Sunday) will be spent in guided group coaching activities. We will deeply explore your:
Past - Autobiography of your unique history, confront your inner saboteurs and battle imposter syndrome
Present - Understand your unique leadership style. Embrace your greatest gifts and the dark sides of those gifts
Future - Vision board, Learn to grow and empower your team, Lean into your leadership
CREATIVE ADVENTURING
There will be a several hour stretch on both Saturday and Sunday focused on expanding the heroine’s journey to physical adventures together as a group.
On the water - We will embark on a quest through the magical sea caves of the Mendocino Coast. These caves form at the base of the cliffs bordering the ocean’s edge and are caused by wave erosion. Our tour will be guided by the expert paddlers of Kayak Mendocino who will keep us all safe and provide all the equipment needed.
On the land - Join a short hike through the towering redwoods and along meandering streams.
SELF-PACED REFLECTION
There will be ample down time each day to create or choose your own adventure. Options could include:
Prompt-based and free-form journaling
Exploring Mendocino town
Creative art projects
Tarot readings
Role playing games
ACCOMMODATIONS
The retreat includes all accommodations in a private neighborhood of luxury glamping tents in Mendocino Grove. You’ll have your own, private tent with a heated queen bed, soft downy comforter, lanterns, and leather butterfly chairs. Yes, bathrooms are shared but are fully stocked with fancy organic bath products, steaming hot showers, and fluffy towels. We will have a group campfire each evening, fire season permitting.
MEALS
All drinks, meals and snacks will be provided starting with Friday dinner and continuing through Monday breakfast. Prepare to be pampered with delicious meals from the best restaurants in town such as Trillium and GoodLife Cafe and Bakery, upscale coffee and tea, delectable wine, and gourmet smores. We are happy to accommodate any unique food restrictions that you might have.
TRANSPORT & SCHEDULE
Adventurers are responsible for their own travel & transportation to Mendocino.
The retreat check-in opens at 4pm on Friday with the first program activities starting after dinner at 7:30pm. Our final circle is at 8:30am Monday with check-out at 11am.
“The impact to time investment of this retreat is tremendous. I’m someone who has done a lot of growth work and in 3 days, you are transformed and taken to the next level. The days have divergence / convergence and give you opportunities to bring in a variety of issues and conflicts. The retreat blends the emotional, the cerebral, and the creative and you leave with tangible tools. Irene and Tutti continually push you to get out of your comfort zone and lead in a different way.”
“The retreat was an experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life. There was a collective energy, wisdom, and spirit of resilience that permeated from each heroine. I am both humbled and invigorated by what I witnessed.
It was a powerful reminder that leadership comes in many forms and from many walks of life. To hear these strong women share their journeys of challenge, triumph, failure, and reinvention was deeply inspiring. Their narratives were a testament to the human spirit’s capacity for growth, transformation, and impact.”
“The Heroine’s Journey was one of the best experiences of my life in my journey to become a better human. I truly appreciated the authenticity of Tutti and Irene and every detail of their experience. I can’t wait to go again!”
“I really appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into putting this together. The accommodations, communication, food, activities, women who were present - everything was clearly communicated, smoothly executed, and just a delightful and memorable time all around. You two balance each other out beautifully, with so much to offer! ”
“The Heroine’s Journey is a magical leadership retreat experience for those who seek to connect more deeply with themselves and reignite their inner spark. Tutti and Irene are warm, magnetic, and thoughtful designers who bringing to life an experience that is dynamic, adventurous, and soulful. I’m grateful to have been on this journey with them and the amazing group of women leaders and for the lasting relationships that came from this experience.”
“Tutti and Irene create a super safe space for people. You are able to hold us in experiences that feel uncomfortable which is great because we’re here to grow. The explanation that we’re giving you different tools, take what you want and leave the others feels like we can choose what we take away, with no pressure. After the retreat, I’m able to approach funders and supporters in a different way and feel like I can take full ownership of the ask and the results.”
“This retreat gave me the time and space to engage in deep personal growth and reflection. At the same time I felt a deep sense of community and made connections with incredible women who have so much warmth and wisdom. Tutti and Irene are fun and supportive facilitators who offer a wide variety of strategies to reflect.”
“The Heroine’s Journey came to me just when I needed it most. I wanted to examine and challenge my leadership in a way that I knew I wouldn’t get from a typical workshop format. The experience that Tutti and Irene crafted was absolutely one of a kind. It was nourishing weekend of self exploration, adventure, and female kinship that provided impact beyond my expectations.”
“This retreat created a fun and safe space where we could all be free to be ourselves and learn from each other. The time to be able to reflect was invaluable - and the prompts from Tutti and Irene, as well as their ability to be open and vulnerable, really got to the heart of the matter. I’d encourage any heroine to experience the joy and growth from this retreat.”
“What an incredible soul filling weekend of self reflection, learning and bonding! I not only left with new friends I can’t wait to cultivate, but also with such positive energy about myself and my future, so very uplifting! Thank you Tutti and Irene!”
“I gifted this retreat to myself. It’s the best gift I could have given myself. The retreat provided with the tools to channel my inner heroine and coach my inner critics. After taking time to be with myself and in community, I came back home feeling more confident in my ability to lead myself and others with grace.”
Before the retreat, you will be supported with 1-1 zoom calls to dive deeper into your personal needs. This input will help craft and curate the retreat to suit the specific heroine cohort. You will also receive intention setting prompts to set the stage for our time together.
After the retreat, the goal is for you to bring your insights home and to successfully apply them in your everyday lives. Integration is harder to do without support, thus, we will offer a series of Zoom integration sessions to support re-entry into daily life through group coaching, feedback, and additional practices. A minimum number of heroines will be required in order to run these integration sessions.
Tutti and Irene met each other freshman year at Stanford University. In the following decades, they’ve supported each other through weddings, becoming moms, and many traveling adventures around the globe together. After disparate careers (in design & technology for Tutti and science & education for Irene), they’ve come together as coaches to combine their teachings in this Heroine’s Journey.
Tutti Taygerly
Tutti coaches cofounders and tech leaders to embrace their unique leadership style to achieve professional impact and a sustainable company culture. She guides “others” who never felt like they belonged in a professional setting — including women, people of color, immigrants and the neurodiverse — to confidently share their voices with the world. Previously she was a design leader at design firms, startups, and large companies including Disney and Meta. Tutti writes for Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, and Fast Company and her book Make Space to Lead shows high achievers how to reframe our relationship to work. She’s currently bewitched with her second book on leading when you feel like an "other."
Tutti grew up in seven countries on three continents and is settled in San Francisco as her home base. She spends her time parenting two spirited girls, obsessively reading, and paddling out for the next wave.
Irene Salter
Irene has an unparalleled mind with a PhD in neuroscience, master's in psychology, and 20+ years of leadership experience, but it’s her heart and soul that people fall in love with. Irene's ability to weave science and magic through storytelling makes her a sought after coach who cultivates leadership circles and retreats for leaders driven by passion, purpose, and people. Her book on the science of why we love to travel is due on bookshelves in late 2024 or early 2025, but you can find her writing in magazines, her blog, or her monthly column in Shasta Scout.
Irene is an adventurer and unabashed science geek. Many of her favorite experiences involve travel: waking up at dawn in a tent in the Amazon, diving a shipwreck in Thailand, being lowered by winch into a tomb filled with hundreds of mummies. Her home base is in rural Northern California where she lives with her amazing husband and two kids.