Show Notes

During economic downturns, it's understandable to think about diversifying your income beyond the therapy room. In this episode, Patrick Casale opens up about the highs and lows of hosting international retreats and the basics of what it takes to build a retreat business that has the potential to lead to more income and security.

After launching 19 retreats across the globe since 2022, Patrick Casale shares what it really takes to recession-proof your business while following your passion.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

1. Build Your Audience Before You Launch: A loyal, engaged audience is essential for successful events. Don’t count on luck—consistent podcasting, a thriving Facebook group, and authentic relationship-building paved the way for his own sold-out retreats.
2. Marketing Matters (A Lot): Social media and clear messaging aren’t optional. Knowing your target market—and communicating value consistently—is the difference between an empty event and a thriving one.
3. Start Small and Niche Down: Not ready to host in Ireland? Try a local, one-day event and partner with other wellness professionals. Know exactly who your retreat serves and what transformation you offer—this clarity powers your marketing and event design.

If you’re looking to step beyond traditional therapy, recession-proof your business, and want to learn more about diversifying income through retreat hosting, podcasting, and writing books, check out the Beyond Private Practice: Recession Proofing Intensive on December 12, 2025. Learn more: allthingspractice.com/beyond-recession-intensive

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Transcript

PATRICK CASALE: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to All Things Private Practice. I am talking today about Beyond Private Practice: Recession Proofing Intensive. This part will be about retreat hosting. So, if you've been following along these bonus episodes that we've been releasing, you know last week we started talking about podcasting.

Today, we are talking about retreat hosting, which I've done several episodes on throughout these 250 episodes of All Things Private Practice. Make sure to search through my website. They're all categorized and in order. Done quite a few episodes on retreats with different people like Gabrielle Juliano-Villani, Jennifer Agee, and several others. So, those resources do exist.

However, I'm talking today about hosting a retreat, because if you've been following me, I'm talking about how to recession-proof your practice as we move into 2026, knowing my thoughts on where the economy is going and the future of private practice ownership and group practice ownership.

A lot of you may be know that I host retreats. As of right now, November 2025, I have hosted 19 since March of 2022. Well, my first one was in Ireland, in Ferns, a medieval village in the middle of nowhere that nobody knows about, including most Irish people, which is kind of my jam. It has an old historic castle, two pubs, a restaurant, an ancient historic cathedral, and cemetery. It's like, what else do you need?

Since that time, my career and that part of my career has really taken off. That was a moment where I was exploring autism discovery. I had just received a diagnosis. I had multiple throat surgeries during that time, one of which paralyzed my vocal cord permanently. My voice has forever changed. I've hated it before and after.

And I didn't think anybody was going to come. I just remember saying on my social media at the time, back in like, October of 2021, "If I hosted a retreat in Ireland, who would come." And like 60 people were like, "Yeah." I mean, I thought, "Oh shit. That means I have to do this or figure it out." I had no idea what I was doing.

I didn't have any experience hosting. I've always been a good planner, researcher. I always find cool stuff, but I had never brought anyone to a random country and facilitated a four- or five-day event, or organized one, or hired people to come to it and speak, or found vendors, not to mention marketing and selling it out.

But I did learn all of that on the go. And as you know, as I always talk about building the plane as you fly it, so to speak, and imperfect action, because I could have sat on that idea forever and been like, "This is way too risky." Or, "I don't know what I'm doing." Or, "I don't think anybody would come." All of those thoughts are normal. We don't want to dismiss them, but we also don't want to let them prevent us from pursuing things that we are passionate about.

Before COVID started, I wanted to be a travel coach. I don't know what that means. I just know that I wanted to help helpers step away, immerse themselves in culture, and organize events. And that was my goal. I was actually building a website called Empowered Escape. And that was going to be my goal. And I finally, like, built the confidence to do that.

I actually even booked a few clients through word of mouth. People knew I traveled a lot and planned all my trips, and they all thought they were cool and exciting. But then, COVID happened, and the world shut down. And I was like, "Well, fuck."

And then, I pivoted and started All Things Private Practice. And I am really grateful that I did. And that I was able to figure it out, as so many entrepreneurs pivot, and adapt, and evolve. And eventually, once All Things Private Practice started taking off with coaching programs, and courses, and the podcast, I was like, "Retreats. That feels like a natural progression and something that I've always wanted to do."

And then, I got invited to speak at an event, a retreat. My friend Jennifer Agee, her first retreat was in Tennessee. I didn't know her. She just reached out to me based on a referral source. And I was like, "Yeah, you know what? I'm in the era…" Back in 2021, "…of saying yes to more opportunities. And I'm trying to expand of, you know, myself, and not just say no to everything immediately." Because that was kind of my nature.

So, I said yes. And I was really intimidated. And I went and spoke and did two breakout coaching sessions. I thought, "I think I can do this." And if I'm going to do it, I want it to be in places that I want to go. I wanted to be in places that are special to me. And Ireland is very special to me.

So, I found the venue. I booked it. I put the deposit down. It was horrifying. I asked the venue hostess, Brianna, who has become a friend of mine over the years, a million questions. She was probably so sick of seeing my email pop up. She helped me organize tours, a tour guide who was a absolutely wonderful human being, Kathy Keen. If you're ever in Wexford County, look her up. Contact her. She does Heritage Tours of Wexford County. She's an incredible person. Catering, music, musicians to play at the venue, all the things.

And I was like, "Damn, this feels really synchronistic and perfect. I should go over and do some recon." So, I had a plan to go over December of 2021. And then, COVID shut the world back down. And Ireland started these as a lot of countries did, like laws where everyone had to be inside, in the evening time. And I was like, "There's no point to go to Ireland if I have to be in my hotel and not in a pub." So, I didn't go and do the recon. Ended up going with a friend to Portugal instead, just for the hell of it.

And I kind of went into the Ireland event really not knowing what to expect, like, you know, there were a lot of stumbling blocks, a lot of things I would have done differently, fast forwarding to today. And I got really fucking lucky. That's just the reality. And maybe it was just like luck with the Irish. I am Irish. Maybe that was part of it. I actually found out later that most of my ancestry on my dad's side came from Kilkenny, Ireland, which is where I've actually spent the last four St Patrick's days, unknowingly, while at this retreat that I've been hosting. So, that's been kind of very cool to learn.

But I got very lucky. And it was a phenomenal event. It was four nights, and by the time I left, I had already booked the venue for the following year. The woman who owned it, Brianna, was like, "Are you sure?" I said, "Yeah, I'm sure I'm going to do this again."

And because I had created such a buzz with people posting on social media and being like, "What do you mean you're at a retreat in Ireland, and you're getting CEs, and learning, and doing trainings, and like exploring the countryside?"

I sold out my second retreat in Ireland before my feet ever touched down in American soil. And it's been a whirlwind since that time. I've hosted 19 retreats or summits all over the world. I actually have two coming up in New Zealand in March that I'm co-hosting with Gabrielle Juliano-Villani. And I never imagined this is where my career takes me.

Back in 2015, in grad school, and I was like, trying to pass my licensing exams, I was like, that wasn't even on my mind. The only thing on my mind was, "Am I going to find a job? Am I going to get licensed? Or can I be hired somewhere?" It was never, ever on my mind to be hosting retreats in Ireland, and Italy, and Greece, and Spain, and Scotland, and New Zealand, and parts of the United States, and Portugal. No, never, ever, ever.

And I am so, so damn grateful to all of you who have come, who have spoken at these events, who have supported, who have helped spread the buzz and the word. I couldn't have done it without you. I also burnt myself out to no fucking end by doing it.

So, my thoughts are like, if you want to host retreats, we have to get really comfortable with marketing. We have to be really comfortable with social media. I don't want to mislead you. I don't want you to think like you just can find a cool location and a cool idea. You really do need to build the audience that needs to happen. I don't think I pull these retreats off at first, had I not already started the All Things Private Practice podcast, the Facebook group, developed a know, like, and trust.

Because honestly, like, I see people post about their own retreats in random therapy Facebook groups, and it'll just be like, "Hey, hosting intensive or retreat for couples and infidelity in whatever location." And the flyer looks kind of tacky, and the marketing kind of doesn't look good.

But that stuff doesn't really matter if you have an audience, but if you don't have an audience, that's not how people are going to sign up. Like, you're casting a very wide net in that situation without a lot of luck.

And I hate to say that, you know, I host retreats to help other people get theirs started and launched. That's where I see people stumble, is the marketing and the consistency. People will post about their ideas that they're really excited about for a couple of weeks, and it'll fizzle out. Or they'll post like, once today and not again for a month. Or they'll be like, "I just can't stand social media. I cannot stand being on there."

And again, I'm just being very transparent. It is my perspective that if you don't have a solid foundation of people who are going to buy these events from you, and you are relying on your like group of people, and your humans in your circle, and your networking to spread the word for you, it's not going to work. I think you have to get really strategic. I think you have to be really intentional. I think you have to know who the audience is that you're marketing to retreat to. Is it clinical? Is it entrepreneurial? Separate that out first and foremost, then it's like, okay, who is this for? Like, who is the ideal target for this event? And it can't be everyone. That's not realistic, especially in these higher ticket events. You have to really niche this down and think this out. I'm going to help you do that in the intensive, the Beyond Private Practice: Recession Proofing Intensive. Those retreats are one of the three topics we'll cover, alongside book writing and podcasting. I think those all go really well together in terms of how to promote yourself, how to leverage to get in front of audience, how to build in more speaking opportunities for yourself.

And the reality is, like, okay, marketing has to exist, but the audience has to exist. You can rely on your speakers, who you might hire, but like, are they really going to spread the word as enthusiastically as you are? Probably not. They're not going to be as invested. It's not their money, it's not their time. So, I have to be able to be very clear about that.

If you feel like I don't want to be a part of social media, I don't want to be on it. I don't want to be marketing consistently. I don't want to create all this social media content. I'm just going to try to gently nudge you to a different income stream, because I just don't think it's going to work well.

You could certainly start small, one-day events in your hometown. You could be networking with other business owners or in a similar field, like if you want to do a wellness retreat, just a one-day situation, low risk, high reward, low financial investment, so to speak. You could certainly partner with, like, a massage therapist, or an acupuncturist, or some other holistic healer, and someone who does tarot, and all the things. You could definitely do that. And that's an option.

And I encourage a lot of people to start that way. I don't encourage you to leap in headfirst like I did into Ireland, because when you see the retreats that I've hosted, and you see that they've all sold out, I think it creates this perception that that will be duplicated and replicable. And it will be easy. I can tell you that is not true.

If anyone's trying to host or sell you on, like teaching you how to do these things, and is saying this is easy, or they have some like magic formula or plan, I would be really hesitant to sign up. It is not easy. You have to have the audience built up. And you have to be willing to market it. And I'm going to teach you how to do all of those things in the intensive.

In the meantime, whether you come to the intensive or not, what I want you to be thinking about is, who is the retreat for? Who is the target audience? Right? Who are we marketing to? And then, what will they come away with? What will they experience? How will that transformation take place? Those are the two things that I'm going to leave you with for homework, whether you're coming to the intensive on December 12 or you just want to take this advice, that is where I want you to start, because until you know those things, the marketing will never make sense, and it will be really hard to sell your event.

So, start there. Make sure that you are marking your calendars for Friday, December 12th, from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern time for the Beyond Private Practice: Recession Proofing Intensive, where we are going to go through retreats, podcasting, writing your book, and getting started and unstuck. That is first and foremost.

$299 for four CEs and five hours of coaching time, and training. And then, I follow up accountability body doubling session that we'll be having as well. And then, a Facebook group, private Facebook group for everyone who attends, so you can build community, and connection, and support, because that's also unbelievably important to success. So, make sure, doubt yourself, do it anyway. Sign up for the intensive. And I will see you next week.