Beautiful things happen when two people meet and realise their minds are so intertwined that they decide to start a new venture and utilise their respective knowledge to create award winning wellness retreats.
Hi Carola, tell us a bit about yourself and your partner in crime Vikki?
We are Dr Vikki Barnes, Psychologist and Wellbeing Consultant at Positive Wellbeing, and Carola Becker, Nutritionist and Fitness Instructor at The Nutrition Coach. Vikki and I met a few years ago at an event where we both had speaker engagements about how we can support our brains. We realised that we are very much aligned in our work and our values, so we decided to team up to help even more people!
Where did the idea for your award winning wellbeing retreats come from?
Besides being the wellbeing leads for the Southwest and together supporting companies and their wellbeing strategy, we both always wanted to run wellbeing retreats.
But we were ambitious – We wanted to offer our guests more than just a few days at a beautiful spa enjoying relaxing massages – our goal was to develop a holistic program for body and mind with benefits that last! Relax, rejuvenate, recharge. For good!
So, we decided to take all our expertise and pack it into a wellbeing retreat with a twist: A fantastic location, a private chef who I worked with to create an amazing yet healthy menu. Vikki shared her knowledge about wellbeing and positive psychology, I created a sample meal plan for everybody to take away and gave a talk about how food and lifestyle can support the brain, its wellbeing and productivity.
Spending time in nature helped our guests broadening their vision, letting their mind rest, and creating experiences for all senses. Being active was part of the relaxation process, too. For us it was important to give our guests the opportunity to make wellbeing a part of their life, long after they have left the retreat.
We were super excited when our concept had been recognised with the Devon Tourism Awards for the Wellbeing Experience of the Year! Such a boost for us and the future retreats!
We have now taken this further and run our next health & wellbeing retreat in September in Cornwall at the beautiful in Pentillie Castle, January 2022 you are welcome to join us for our retreat in Colorado! There will be lots of beautiful health retreats in the future – we are in talks with the most amazing venues worldwide and will confirm all the details soon!
What have been your biggest learning experience since becoming business partners on this new journey?
Our biggest learning was to have confidence in our cooperation and the benefit we can bring to people. We see it every day in the people we work with and having a retreat experience, elevates these benefits. Part of our success is that we have the same values and trust but also recognise our unique skillset, a shared passion for wellbeing and the benefit it brings. But also, recognising our different skills, for example that Vikki is great with Marketing (much better than I am) and I love the organisational side of our retreats (where Vikki is happy to leave me).
We just make a great team! #TeamCaroVik ☺.
Sounds like you both know each other's strengths! If you could give one bit of advice to someone thinking of starting their own business, what would it be?
Starting something new is always exciting. Well, having started something new in 2020 certainly had its challenges! For me personally, I enjoy having a colleague and ‘sounding board’ for the first time since I started my Nutrition Coaching business 6 years ago. I always enjoyed working on my own, but having Vikki to bounce around ideas and tackle challenges together, made me appreciate this cooperation even more!
So, if you have an idea for your business, team up with somebody! And don't give up. If you believe in your idea, you will make it work.
Who inspires you, Carola?
I have read several books by Dr Benjamin Hardy recently and especially his book ‘Personality isn’t permanent’ was an eye opener for me. I always considered myself as a ‘confident introvert’ but realising that these labels are far too restrictive, really helped me in my work – because we feel different in different situations: more or less confidence, openness, be more nervous or calmer…
I also can’t wait to read Vikki’s book which is all about the science of happiness and will be published soon!
And there's a BONUS!
We would love to see you at one of our retreats and watch you making game-changing shifts to your wellbeing, health, and happiness! We are excited to offer you a 15% discount on all bookings, just mention ‘It’s her business’.
You can find all the details here: https://www.carolabecker.com/award-winning-retreats
If you have any questions or would like to book, please email: carola@carolabecker.com,
About Carola and Vikki:
Carola Becker is an award-winning and passionate nutrition coach and founder of The Nutrition Coach working with individuals, corporates and hospitality. Her clients' testaments speak volume about her knowledge and 'no magic pill' attitude towards better lifestyle.
Vikki Barnes is the founder of Positive Wellbeing, a Doctor of clinical psychology, working with a wide range of private, public and corporate industries as their organisational consultant for happiness & wellbeing. She’s a humanitarian, nature lover, adventurer, writer and speaker and also Richard's Branson's friend! Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram
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