3 Things We Dive Into In This Episode:
Anxiety and the unknown becomes easier to move through with collaboration and making it more fun
The beauty of cultivating community through retreats
Travel as a portal for adventure and self-development
🏔️Learn more about Caitie's Scotland retreat & Diana's Ecuador retreat on their websites or by sending them a DM on Instagram!
Caitie's Website | Instagram | Book a Discovery Call
Thanks for listening! 💖 Stay tuned to Caitie’s website for more episode updates and other exciting programs and resources.
Transcript
Caitie: If there's anything we all need right now, it's the capacity to handle what we cannot control, and the capacity to handle the anxiety that comes up with uncertainty. And so the second you and I were like, like, just go full blown promoting each other's retreats and team up on this. We both felt more safe and more cozy and more excited.
Welcome to Whole, Full, & Alive, a podcast helping you feed yourself, feel yourself and be yourself. I'm Caitie Corradino. I'm a Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist, a body image coach, and the founder of Full Soul Nutrition, a method that combines nutrition counseling with a powerful toolkit of somatic healing modalities. I have guided hundreds of clients to freedom with food, their bodies and every aspect of their lives. I've also been through this healing myself. And on this podcast, I want to help you eat with confidence, embrace your body, formalized relationships, and create a life that you're in love with. I'll share actionable tools, no bullshit stories, and interviews that will remind you why you have everything you need within you to feel whole, full and alive. Are you ready? Let's get into it.
All right. Hi. Welcome to another episode of Whole, Full, & Alive.
Diana: Welcome to another episode of Pollen. This is a first. We're doing a little collab here. Maybe the first of its kind.
Caitie: So if you're listening to Diana's podcast and you're not familiar with me, I'm Caitie Corradino and I'm a Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist, a yoga instructor, a Reiki healer, and a breath work facilitator. And I combine nutrition counseling with a toolkit of somatic healing modalities to help people heal their relationship with food, their bodies and exercise, and live a life that feels truly whole, full and alive.
Diana: I love it. And what she does is incredible. I can't recommend it enough. Um, if you are new to me and Pollen, my name is Diana Davis of Diana Davis Creative and you're not going crazy. You've heard both of us on each other's episodes before. So this is not like a new guest situation. If you've listened to our past, but I'm a business coach for creative entrepreneurs. I used to be a photographer and graphic designer. I built a multi-six figure business doing that, which blew my mind. I'm not saying that to brag, but truly to say, wow, it is possible to be a creative and actually make money and not be hustling and doing the things you love versus being the starving artist. And that's one of my biggest whys, is to debunk the starving artist to let people know that they can actually pursue their passions as businesses. So I became a business coach instead of a photographer and graphic designer back in 2020. And I haven't looked back since.
Caitie: And I love to start every episode of my podcast with a few deep breaths. And so Pollen, you get some deep breaths today too. Before we dive into today's episode about collaboration and community and letting go of all our nothing thinking and also traveling and being nomadic.
Let's take a few deep breaths. So wherever you are, whether you are walking or doing your dishes or doing nothing at all while you listen to this podcast, roll your shoulders down your back and take a nice deep breath in through your nose. Fill your chest, fill your belly, and then take a nice long exhale to let something go. One more time just in case you didn't do it the first time. Breathe in through your nose, fill your chest, fill your belly, feel your body. And exhale. Let it go.
Okay. We are going to talk about why we're here. I mean, we're here for so many reasons because we love each other, because we have time today because we have podcasts, and one big particular sparkly reason. Diana, why are we here?
Diana: It is sparkly. And I want to talk about this too, because we're so afraid to promote our own stuff. It's wild. And both of us deal with that. And that's kind of why we started this collaboration because we knew that if we can be sparkly for each other, maybe we could be more confident to put ourselves out there because we know what we do helps people so freaking much.
But why we are here in particular on this podcast on December 27th, the black hole week of the year is because we are both hosting retreats and we just believe in retreats so freaking much. We have said if we honestly part of our business plan was going on retreats quarterly, we would probably be blowing it out of the freaking water.
So I am hosting a business coaching retreat in Ecuador, February 19th through the 24th. I will let Caitie tell you about hers in a second. Mine is for creative entrepreneurs. So you don't have to have a business yet, but you have to have a skillset. I'm not here to teach you to be a better photographer or designer or whatever it is. You have to have some sort of skillset you would maybe wanna turn into a business or already have a creative business. For example, some of the people that are going are fitness pros, stylists, photographers, yoga instructors, all of those kind of people.
And the cool thing about my retreats, Caitie has been on them, we can talk about that a little bit, is it's not sitting in a room with a whiteboard for six days. It is about getting out of your head, getting out of your culture, getting off of your laptop, getting your nose out of the math book, if you will, and taking a freaking recess. And integrating and going on adventures outside of your culture in Ecuador in particular in February. And doing business coaching workshops that are just all off your laptop so you can let the creative juices flow. So that's what our retreat is about in Ecuador. And Caitie’s is gonna be in Scotland. She's gonna tell you all about that.
Caitie: So if you're a creative entrepreneur that's interested in going on Diana's retreat, something else that you need in addition to the spaciousness to get more creative and get back connected to the mission of your business, you also need a really nourished body. You need a nourished body. I see it happen way too much that someone has so much creative potential and so much untapped professional potential and they're unable to fully access it because they have a lot of anxiety when it comes to food and body image and movement.
So Diana and I are bundling our retreats so that a creative entrepreneur will have the opportunity to come on both of our retreats. On Diana's retreat, they're going to reconnect with the essence of their business and the essence of their creativity. And on my retreat, they're going to heal their relationship with food and their bodies so that they can step into 2024 and have the best freaking year of their lives.
My retreat in Scotland is called the Nutrition & Intuition Retreat. It is gonna be six days that are focused on really healing your relationship with food, movement and your body once and for all so that you can actually pursue true holistic sustainable wellness. So we're doing a combination of movement classes, breathwork workshops, body image workshops, hikes and other fun excursions, all centered around really healing your relationship with your body and forming community in a meaningful way with other people who are doing that same kind of work.
And Diana and I decided to bundle our retreats and we decided to do this a couple of weeks ago when Diana was visiting me here in Lisbon. Can we tell that story?
So Diana was visiting me here in Lisbon a few weeks ago, and I would say that even though it is December 27th now, Diana and I have been in a black hole for a couple weeks. We've been living in a little bit of a swirly-whirly like tornado black hole for a couple of weeks in terms of just anxiety about the future. We are keeping it real right now. The two of us have hit a little bit of an anxious point in our lives in a million different ways and nothing is all or nothing, right? We're also having a lot of joy and a lot of love and a lot of fun and a lot of really great things happening over the last couple of weeks. But we were both feeling pretty particularly anxious about our businesses when we were hanging out a couple weeks ago.
And there was one Monday that I literally rolled in after trying to work from a cafe for two hours. Do you remember this? And I was just like, banging my head against the wall. Like I feel like I'm not talking about my retreat enough. I feel like I'm not talking about my retreat enough. What do I do? And long story short, we had a dance party in our kitchen. We had some conversations. We both took out our notepads. We wrote down tangibly what we could do because Diana was feeling similarly about her retreat. And over a period of about 48 hours, we realized that we could make this easier by collaborating. We could make this easier by shining a light on each other. We could make this easier by supporting each other, by creating this bundle because Diana, frankly, and I have quite a few of the same clients. And we were like, why don't we just promote each other's retreats. Why don't we create a bundle with our retreats? Because somebody's year could literally pop off if they came to both of our retreats. And 24 hours later, we were feeling a lot better, a lot better. We went to a really special breakfast where we talked about why we are each hosting a retreat and why we both believe in the power of retreating and the power of community and meeting new people and traveling.
And so on this podcast today, for the next 20 or so minutes, Diana and I are going to recreate that little breakfast that we had with you and we were both feeling so energized talking about the power of community and collaboration and retreating and traveling. And we're also gonna encourage you to collaborate and to shine a light on each other when you're feeling stressed out.
Diana: Sometimes we just have our blinders on and all we can see is the anxiety and all we can see is the unknown and the dauntingness of it. And then we come together and get even more sparkly and I just love this visual, us like dancing in our kitchen, sparkles flowing all around. We can do business a different way. We can get creative and go, you know what? I feel like I'm screaming into the void on Instagram about this retreat. I feel so unaligned with the marketing of it and promoting it and da da. What if I looked at this differently and what if we could collaborate and this could be more fun and we could help each other instead of tearing each other down of like, oh, well, I can't mention that retreat and I can't mention hers because it's got to be all or nothing. It's got to be one or the other. And we're just like, it can be both.
And I do want to say, too, how important it is. I know there's someone out there listening that's an entrepreneur going, yeah, but food and body image? Like, really? Why do I need that as a creative entrepreneur? And I will say, you absolutely need it. Because this vessel is what we've got. This vessel is running our businesses. And if we don't feel good here, if we can't trust ourselves here, even with eating food, with body image, and it's so much more than that. It's tied to so much. When I've done breath work with Caitie, she's done it on my grease retreat and facilitated the whole wellness situation. She's gonna be doing breathwork in Ecuador. It moves stuff. And if you're feeling stuck, this is where the work comes in and where things change. So yeah, feels good.
Caitie: Yeah. I have two really sparkly things I want to say. I don't know why we keep using the word sparkly, but there's just two things that are feeling super sparkly for me and what you were just saying. And the first thing is that when you are able to stop viewing your body as an object that needs to be maintained and needs to look a certain way, needs to appear a certain way, and you can start using your body as a tool to help you create things to help you experience your life, to help you be your best, to help you move through and feel and just be alive. Your whole life changes when your body is no longer a project or an object and your body becomes a tool and the thing that you get to use to create, the whole game changes. And when your body is no longer your business card and it’s really something that you use to convey your energy and your essence, the whole game changes. That's why I believe that business owners really need to heal their relationship with food and body image in particular, because body image creates a lot of blocks for people's creativity.
The anxiety that comes up around our body weight and shape creates so many blocks to our creativity. If you had all of the head space that you devote to thinking about your body, shape and size back, the amount of creative ideas that you can come up with is just fucking endless. And so that's why it matters for creative entrepreneurs to come on the Nutrition & Intuition retreat and your creative business retreat. But I think another thing that just feels really sparkly for me in what you said too, is that the second we decided to collaborate, the unknown around our retreats became way less scary.
And I think that if there's anything we all need right now, it's the capacity to handle what we cannot control and the capacity to handle the anxiety that comes up with uncertainty. And so the second you and I were like, okay, instead of coming up with a strategy for Caitie to promote her retreat, and for Diana to promote her retreat, let's just join together and start promoting each other's retreats. Just go full blown promoting each other's retreats and team up on this. We both felt more safe and more cozy and more excited.
And so I also want you to remember that by coming on a retreat, you get an opportunity to find your people to do that with. I think it's safe to say that, you know, Diana and I, we didn't meet on a retreat, but we got a lot closer by going on retreats together. I got a lot closer with you when I came on your Greece retreat. And that was an amazing opportunity for us to recognize the ways in which we could make life a little bit easier on ourselves. Other people make the unknown a much softer blow. So yeah, body image and the unknown. That's what I just talked about.
Diana: And I love the body not being your business card. Your body is not your business card. We are not our businesses. And the vibe of these retreats is just to show up as you and kind of show up in the unknown and be able to trust fall into a space that is curated for you, already figured out, and all you have to do is lean in. Whether it's Scotland, Ecuador, both, all you have to do is lean in. We've got you. It's such a safe space. And what comes out of these retreats because you can just lean in and flow is incredible.
Caitie: You know, I want to say something in relation to what you were saying about how every time you've been on a retreat you've been like wow, like the vibe here is amazing and the people here are amazing. I have never once gone on a retreat and I've been on like five now to be clear. This is something that I've been really grateful to have the opportunity to do a few times now I've never been on a retreat where I haven't been sitting in the closing circle looking around thinking, what a fucking awesome and fantastic and spectacular group of human beings. And that's because when you spend a intentional period of time intentionally getting to know a group of people, you realize that everyone is so cool and everyone has such an incredibly unique essence to them. And everyone is a creator and everyone is worth getting to spend time with and worth getting to know.
And that is one of the really beautiful things about a retreat too, is that you have this uninterrupted, present, beautiful period of time with a small group of humans, and you just get to see like the light in each of them. And they see the light in you and they remind you what makes you a unique and invaluable and irreplaceable human. And so what's so cool is that, like, yes, Diana attracts a very cool group of people, but every group of people is cool. And you get an opportunity to realize that when you come on a retreat and spend a sustained period of time with people.
I went on one retreat where I shit you not, everyone was so different from each other - ages, genders, where everyone came from. It was the most international retreat I'd ever been on. I we were sitting in opening circle and I was like, wow, this is a really eclectic group of humans like, okay. And it was gorgeous. The synchronicity like the way everyone showed up for each other the way everyone got to know each other the way we were literally all like hugging and holding hands the last day. Retreats are magic for that reason. Do you agree?
Diana: Yeah, I do agree. And I've been on many, many retreats, actually, in just the last few years too. And it always ends up that way for sure. I think I'll be a little bit spicy about this, that I have been on retreats where it has been super transactional. And there's just a vibe. And it can kind of like, no matter how beautiful the humans are, it can kind of like alter things and I just, I think it's really important that, you know, it's a big deal. Like the vibe of the people, the vibe of the leaders are a big deal. So it's like, honestly, spicy, if you don't vibe with us, don't come on our retreats. Like if you don't vibe with us, it might not be your people and that's okay. But I do think it's like, at the end of the day, once we shed all our masks, which you do over the course of six days and dining together, sleeping in the same rooms as each other, adventuring together, going through uncomfortable situations together, learning together, it's always magical. And even from, I'm thinking like Steamboat, you have, and I have from retreats I've been on, best friends from these retreats, people I will literally be connected with for life. And if we trace our little spider web of like us as a human and the people we've met on retreats is a circle outside of us and the people and things and opportunities and breakthroughs we have gotten from each of those people, like the spider web is huge and it's really wild to think about. And it's a good time. We get to travel and have fun, you know, it's like, it's a business write off. And yes, I guarantee you as an entrepreneur, going to Caitie’s retreat about food and body image, also a business write off, like 100% it will help your business. This is like, to me, retreats are a no brainer. If I could go on a retreat every month, I would, because it's just a portal. It's a complete portal.
Caitie: Yeah, yeah. So I mean, two takeaways so far really is that number one, like, your life can become so much easier and dealing with the burden and anxiety of whatever your unknown is can become so much easier with collaboration and with asking yourself, wait a second, how can I make this more fun? And that's what Diana and I are sitting here doing. We are just deciding to make our retreat, selling more fun by just doing it together as friends and colleagues and collaborators and people who just know each other really well. And the second thing is that you always, always come away with a community from a retreat. Like it just, it's gonna happen no matter what. You will make friends, you will feel connected and you will feel, especially because Diana and I are intentional leaders, I guess, you know, not every retreat leader is as intentional. We are going to cultivate a really intentional trauma informed, electric, eclectic vibe on this retreat that will ensure that you feel like you're part of a community.
But I think the last thing I want to make sure we talk about too is the power travel because that is the last piece of the retreat experience, right? Is that you're also traveling. And Diana and I are both digital nomad entrepreneurs. We both travel full time. I recently decided that I'm going to land in an apartment in March and I'm very excited about it. But until then, I'm still a digital nomad entrepreneur.
I would love to wrap this podcast up talking about traveling because I know that's one of the main reasons why a few people have registered for my retreat so far. They just feel really excited about the idea of coming to Scotland. And I guess Diana, what are your reasons for traveling? What's your traveling, why? Why do you think it's so powerful?
Diana: Yeah, I actually wrote a whole email about this the other day. When I was in Lisbon, I was with a partner who is no longer a partner, which is a little T you can dig in to Pollen about that. But I was saying like, wow, we could just be these like, the Americana white picket fence, own a house, 2.5 kids kind of vibe corporate job. Totally cool. Like honestly, sometimes I wish I wanted that because I could achieve that, I could. But something is calling me for more depth. And I think that's why I'm an entrepreneur. And I think that's why I travel full-time, which is a little extreme, you know, it's not for everybody, either one of these. But I was questioning this guy I was with like, why do we travel? And I just kind of realized that it always puts me outside of my comfort zone. And something that always puts me outside of my comfort zone makes me grow and reflect and come back to myself and lean on myself all the time. Which Caitie and I have talked about, grounding is very important as well.
We can't always be, you know, just having growth spurts or it gets a little jolting. But it really is to me something that is a portal. I'll say it again, it's a portal into the next version of myself. And because I'm always doing it, I'm continually growing. And I love that. I'm a personal development junkie, so like bring it on. So I love places and retreats. And part of the reason why I'm going to Caitie’s, fucking want to go to Scotland? Hell yes. Yes, please. And I know I need what she's offering. And I know that I've seen what she's offering at my own retreats and experienced it and it's a beautiful thing. Part of the reason why people are going to Ecuador or came to Greece or went to Colorado is because they wanna experience that place and maybe do it in a way where they're not doing it alone or waiting for their girlfriends to be able to afford it or people who might not be like-minded. I think that's a really important thing to note too, is to be around like-minded people is also incredibly expansive. So that's why I travel. Why do you travel?
Caitie: Yeah, yeah, I mean, retweet on all of that, right? The launching out of your comfort zone that happens when you travel is so nourishing. I actually find that really, really nourishing when I travel, especially when I travel alone and I'm wheeling my suitcase like at the airport and I'm stepping out of a cab in Rome and I'm alone and I'm like, all right, I got me. I'm growing here because something inevitably goes wrong. Something is inevitably challenging. Something is inevitably just like new. And I always expand out of my current container when I'm traveling and that's really important. And I'm not saying like come to Scotland, something's gonna go wrong, but I am saying come to Scotland, you're gonna get uncomfortable at some point. And that really is gonna help you grow and feel more confident in yourself and give you more of this feeling of like, I got me.
And I would say the second reason I travel is summarized by a hot tub moment we had one time, Diana.
Diana: In Greece?
Caitie: In Greece. So you're in the hot tub and looking at the stars and it was really idyllic honestly and you were like you know I just want to keep living the best story like I just want to keep like living the best story and creating the best story of my life that I know I'm capable of creating and you said that to me because I was feeling a little bit heartbroken by a British man. I thought my life was gonna end in London and it didn't. You were like, okay, but like, this is just a chapter of the story, Caitie. And I look back at this year of my life and I realized that I started it in Denver, Colorado in January, I was on a date at the rodeo. And then suddenly two weeks later, I was in Mexico City and then I was in Lisbon and then I was in London and then I was in Scotland and then I ended up spending my summer in Lisbon and I went to Greece with you because I could because I didn't have to say no to anything because I didn't have rent and there was just all sorts of twists and turns that my life took this year. This year became a really incredible story and there was highs and there was lows and there was plot twists and there was a lot of beautiful people that I met unexpectedly along the way. And I'm really proud of that story. And that happens because I travel.
Diana: Yeah, I'll go back and just top it off with this that still one of my favorite meditations to date by a friend of mine is about meeting your 90 year old self and going and telling her what part of your life you're in. So saying like, wow, like, hi, I'm 33 and I am traveling full time and I own my own business and I'm single and whatever. And she goes, oh, I love that part. And I think it's so important to just keep asking ourselves, even though there's so much unknown. Caitie and I are going through it too, like in a big way. There's so much unknown, especially as an entrepreneur. When's the next paycheck? When's the next client? When's the next thing? Am I going to keep up with the market? Is the market too saturated? How do I show up online? Blah, blah, blah. But if we just go by, oh, what would I be so proud of as my 90 year old self looking back on this? Would I be so stoked that I went to Ecuador and Scotland and like met all these people? Like, isn't that a cool story? And that can be enough. That can be enough logic to just go if it's like truly a desire.
Caitie: Yeah, yeah, I had one of my clients who signed up for the Scotland retreat say to me that she sat down and closed her eyes and imagined her 2024 and she said she couldn't imagine it without Scotland. It just felt so right in her body to go and to make it part of her story. And so I think that it's important to know that we're not telling you that you have to come, you know, if it doesn't make sense for you, it doesn't make sense for you. But if you close your eyes, if you're a creative entrepreneur and you're thinking about spending a week in February in Ecuador with other creative entrepreneurs, and then a week in Scotland in March, nourishing your body and your soul and really just fucking healing your relationship with your body image once and for all, that feels good for you when you think about it. Please come, because we are so certain that this is going to be a life-changing experience for you. And we are so certain that moment when we sat down at that breakfast in Lisbon and decided to just collaborate and promote each other's retreats was something that happened for a reason. I mean, we do already have one person coming on both retreats.
Diana: We have two, right? I think.
Caitie: Oh yeah, two people. That is really exciting.
Diana: Plus Caitie and I.
Caitie: And I am so excited for all the stories that are going to be written out of these people that are already coming to Ecuador and Scotland. I mean, could you think of two more random places? I love it. Like two places that you just wouldn't, you wouldn't go otherwise, probably. So yeah, anything else you want to say Diana as we're wrapping up what's on your heart?
Diana: I think it's perfect, perfect ending. I think we just let them know the deets and invite them to our community, you know? So, dropping the deets. Ecuador, February 19th through 24th. Scotland, March. Give me the dates.
Caitie: March 21st through 26th, 2024.
Diana: So what I want you to do if you're listening and you're interested in this, we will drop both of our handles in the show notes and you can just reach out to one of us and say, I wanna go to both Ecuador and Scotland, what does that look like? And with that bundle, we're offering 15% off the whole retreat experience for both of them. We would love to have you. And like Caitie said, this is not for everybody. There's not room for everybody. To be totally honest, we only have a few more spots left each. But if that's something you want to combine and maybe even do a little traveling in between with some of the retreat goers, which happens a lot. Come. Let yourself have it. Like I loved on the Steamboat retreat in Colorado, Amy, let's edit that part out. Annie was always like, her mantra at that time was like, let's fuck around and find out, you know? Like, why not? So that's all I have to say. Come.
Caitie:Yeah. I mean, honestly, just come if it feels aligned for you. I have really flexible payment plans available for my retreat that I am really happy to offer you. And if you're someone who is wanting to travel and do so in a way that's already planned for you and is really meaningful and will guarantee you lifelong connections. Come. Yeah, our handles are below. You can reach out to either one of us and say I want to come to both Scotland and Ecuador. I'm a creative entrepreneur who also wants to feed myself and feel myself. Then you can come to both retreats. This was such a fun collaboration. I'm so excited for people to hear this. And I'll be back with another episode next week. I don't know. Will you be back with another episode next week?
Diana: Same. Same.
Caitie: Ciao ciao.
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