Planning Your First Retreat: Essential Questions to Ask

Stalled out in your business growth, and feeling the warning signs of burnout?

Been there and done that.

Now it’s our mission to help you build a simple, sustainable, and profitable business, while affording you the time and the freedom to live the life of your dreams. It’s time to get your confidence back.

"I started to work with Phil because I realized there were some things holding me back" - Leo Babauta, zenhabits

"I was so fortunate to have worked with a team that understands entrepreneurial consultation as a whole-person endeavor. I was deeply inquired into, truly seen, appreciated, and personally catered to by Phil; while physically, emotionally, and energetically held and guided by Carolina. To me, this ability to cater to one’s wholeness and uniqueness, coupled with actual energetic work to help recognize and open contractions that may stand in the way holds the future of entrepreneurial support. I can’t thank you enough Carolina and Phil" - Ece Anderson

Phil Powis, Chief Wisdom Keeper, Sacred Business Flow

Hi, I’m Phil Powis

I’ve lived through one of many entrepreneur’s worst nightmares.

My father was an IBM executive, and one of the earliest memories I have of my childhood is sitting on his lap in front of a personal PC, learning the basics of programming before I could barely even speak.

Blessed with a gift for harnessing technology, and a strong knack for problem solving, I leveraged these skills to land a job at one of the world’s most prestigious software companies, and built several successful businesses in my 20’s and early 30’s across different industries ranging from healthcare to the music industry.

But we all know that entrepreneurship is hard and not without peril.

1 in 5 businesses fail in their first year, and over 45% don’t make it to the 5-year mark.

Those entrepreneurs who are able to hang in for the roller-coaster ride, and actually get traction are often plagued by many symptoms of chronic stress, anxiety, burnout, and even serious illness.

This is my story.

At age 30, I began to experience warning signs in my body that something was terribly wrong but I just kept pushing through. My answer was to “double down”, both at work and hitting it hard in the gym.

By 35, I had everything I had ever dreamed of on paper, and was managing a consulting business bringing in over 100K a month in revenue with only a single employee.

But years of ignoring the warning signs of overworking, playing the “lone-wolf” who didn’t need the help of others, and not listening to the wisdom of my heart finally culminated in a complete breakdown of my health, several auto-immune conditions, and the discovery of a golf-ball size tumor growing in my neck.

Talk about uncertainty.

The doctors could only give me 50% odds of whether I was walking around with Cancer.

It took years of unhealthy work and personal habits for me to finally realize how much damage I had created in my life.

And even though I had experienced financial success, inside I was suffering emotionally.

I suffered from low confidence and self-worth, always playing the comparison game with other entrepreneurs I would meet at events and masterminds.

It was as if I had a bottomless hole in my soul that I just couldn’t fill, as hard as I tried to direct all my energy into a singular business focus that I was sure would finally bring an end to my suffering.

The energy was all wrong. I was obsessed with maintaining an image of “I’ve got this” to my peers, colleagues, and everyone else in my life.

As I saw my mortality flash before my eyes with my tumor diagnosis, I embarked on a lot of soul-searching about the direction of my life, and what was truly important to cultivate in my personal experience and my relationships with others.

By great fortune, I was invited to an exclusive event in Costa Rica in 2017 that was an eye opening experience for me. I found myself surrounded by 30+ other entrepreneurs doing incredible things in the world, but it was obvious they were playing a very different game than the one I had grown accustomed to.

They were tuned into something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on at the time, but it was evident that they were following a strong flow of creativity, passion, and inspiration, and had found a way to create an abundance of time, money, and freedom in their life.

I remember feeling as if I had been hit by a lightning bolt from God in the sky.

There was a better way to approach entrepreneurship, and as I began to witness first hand a different way of living, I felt like I had been handed the cheat codes to the arcade game.

Upon returning to the US, I promptly shut down my successful consulting business, trusting that with what I had learned on that retreat, I could rebuild my life and my business on an upgraded operating system, employing a much more holistic approach.

As I slowly began my healing journey back from illness, burnout, and exhaustion, I sought out mentors in my life that would continue to guide me towards what it meant to live a life of balance, but without compromise.

And with this newfound view on life, I found my way back to consulting, but this time consciously choosing to work only with mission driven online-entrepreneurs who I felt were really committed to making a meaningful impact in the world.

I am grateful to be able to say that I experienced a full recovery from my cancer scare, and after a successful surgery to remove the tumor, I now experience levels of vitality in my body that I hadn’t experienced since my late teens.

As I dove deeper into my own spiritual journey and cultivated a relationship with the invisible divine that guides each of us in our hearts, I’ve become equipped with a deep understanding of the complex identities and competing narratives that are often playing out inside the minds of an entrepreneur.

I’m fully committed to helping entrepreneurs experience the clarity, confidence, and purpose that is required to build the profitable business of their dreams.

Alongside Carolina, I support our clients in building and executing on powerful business strategies that don’t require sacrificing their physical or emotional health.

Together, Carolina and I have created a unique and innovative approach in working with the 9 Fundamental Frequencies that honors both the required structures for business success, as well as the innate intelligence and guidance of the heart.

Here's a few things people have to say about me ...

"Your heart for service, passion for creative solutions, and commitment to bringing your gifts to the world show through everything you do and I deeply appreciate you showing up the way you do" - Rev. Erin-Ashley Kerti

"It's been 24 business days since this program officially started. I've already 3x'd my investment in AI with people who found me and felt safe to invest after very empowering discovery calls - not to mention the moments of emotional attunement, consent, and joy. So THANK YOU" - Jackie Sunga

"Our first consultation was more beneficial than we could have ever imagined. Just one idea Phil gave, which we never would have thought of, helped us generate several thousand dollars in our first month of business" - Luana Fara

"One of the best decisions I made was to trust the wisdom of Phil Powis. The simple nugget of the prospect not being the same person at the start of the sales page as the customer who converts was so enlightening" - Kerry Santiago

"Phil has had a huge impact on how I create meaningful experiences in my business. So many marketers talk about being more "human" online, but have little success translating that into reality" - Jen Havice

"Phil is a wizard amongst the normal folk when it comes to his knowledge of systems, tools, and marketing strategy. He is systematic and impeccably prolific at what he does and takes the idea of being a genius or geek at what he does to the next level. I am constantly impressed with him not only in business, but as a man of integrity and conscious thought, and he is incredibly inspiring and supportive" - Marc Angelo Coppola

"Phil is a modern-day wizard. He's one of the main reasons I'm focusing on branding, and not marketing. Why I changed from Heart Funnels to BrandThrive. And why I have more creative energy, cashflow, and business clarity than ever before (by far)." - Miles Hanson

"When it comes to system architecture, there is no one quite like Phil. To the untrained eye, the systems he sets up look like code crossing the screen in the matrix, but it all makes complete sense and serves a specific purpose. Few people do automation and marketing right. Phil is one of these people. Great marketing is about getting the right message to the right person and the right time. This is exactly what he does. His ability to add a personal touch to client and company interaction allows you to stand out amongst competitors. Oh yeah ...and massive increases in trackable sales which is always nice. Need assistance with email marketing, systems, or funnel building? Phil is the guy" - Garrett Adkins

Feeling a bit lost when it comes to knowing the practical steps to take to move the needle in your business?

I know the terrain all too well.

"Working with Carolina has permanently changed the way I start my day, every day, where I eagerly reaffirm my purpose in life and who I want to be come" - Alvaro Cedeño Molinari, Partner, Tactic Legal

Carolina Wilke, Chief Energy Officer, Sacred Business Flow

Hi, I’m Carolina Wilke

I spent the better part of my twenties and early 30’s “floating adrift” through life aimlessly and without a clear target, unclear what my contribution was meant to be in this world.

It’s not that life wasn’t good, it’s just that I couldn’t yet connect with a sense of higher purpose in my life in spite of an intuitive knowing that there was more to experience than just a bigger paycheck, a nice house, car, family, and the usual trappings of a corporate lifestyle.

Sometimes it can feel like there is a disconnect between the truth of who we are at the deepest level, and who we become when we sit down at the office to go about our work day.

You might even feel like you are putting on a mask or separate identity when you start your day interacting with clients and co-workers.

A feeling of being separate from “life out there”.

But how can your life be sacred if your business is not?

The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work, which begs the question, are you happy with how you are spending your days?

This accounts for over ⅓ of your life, and that’s not even taking into consideration all the time you spent getting to this point, preparing yourself in grade school and university.

It’s not just you.

In fact, the majority of people report they are not happy at the place they spend the majority of their time, doing the things they spend the majority of their time on, and yet they find themselves repeating this routine every single day for a huge part of their life.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

I grew up in Florianopolis, Brazil, the daughter of a family psychologist, and from an early age, I was invited to participate in many ceremonies and rituals with the indigenous communities that were located in the regions surrounding our home.

Call it the cosmos, a higher power, or God - even as a young child I experienced a pull towards the invisible world that supports this universe.

At the age of 9, I began my meditation training with my brother, and this was the first time that I was able to feel that there was more to me than my body.

When I was 14, I experienced my first Temazcal ceremony with my mother, which is an ancient ancestral shamanic ritual for wellbeing, and purification of the soul, spirit, and body.

But as I grew older into early adulthood, I was not immune to the pull of societal standards and the pressures of modern life, influencing me with all the ways one is expected to show up if they are to be “successful”.

I had no clue what I wanted to do for work, and I didn’t know how to connect my early childhood experiences with creating a life of alignment to a higher purpose. So I opted for what seemed like the most obvious choice at the time - I decided to enroll in university in Business Administration.

By 25, I was a “success” by all standard measures, even landing myself on the cover of a well-known Brazilian newspaper for my innovative work in the hospitality industry.

But as I continued down this path, got married, started a family, and made a big move to Canada to support my career, I couldn’t help but feel that something was missing.

I had lost the magic and connection that had been such a pivotal part of my youth.

And eventually the stress of living a face-paced corporate lifestyle that wasn’t aligned with the guidance of my heart manifested over several years into consistent chronic migraine headaches that made it difficult for me to function in my daily life.

I didn’t know it yet at the time, but the headaches were the result of my excessive control and overactive thought patterns.

I was completely disconnected from my body, and inner wisdom, and this manifested quite literally into my head screaming for help.

I kept asking for inner guidance for the disconnect I was feeling, and for a solution for the physical suffering I was experiencing.

I tried to exhaust every possibility for getting help including working with ophthalmologists, neurologists, dentists, physiotherapists, micro-physiotherapy, chiropractors, Chinese massage, acupuncture, shaking, homeopathy, osteopathy, meditation, and a whole bunch of other stuff with names too weird to remember.

Nothing seemed to make a difference.

As in many of the most pivotal moments in my life, I turned to my mother for help.

She had begun to work with a mind-body healing modality called Bioenergetics, which balances the body, mind, memory, and spirit energy fields to enhance the flow of energy in the body and promote radical healing.

Frustrated after years of trying to find a solution for my headaches, I flew back to Brazil from Canada and dove headfirst into learning everything I could about this fascinating approach to healing.

As I engaged in my training towards becoming a Master Bioenergetics Practitioner, I began to understand the impact of unresolved subconscious emotional issues within the body, and their impact on overall health and wellbeing.

I also observed how these same subconscious patterns of the mind could have a huge negative impact on one’s self-confidence, and ability to feel connected with a state of joy and happiness, no matter how much success was being experienced in the material world.

And as my own capacity and understanding increased under the guidance of my teacher, I was able to experience nothing less than a full miraculous healing from my headaches.

Through experiencing such radical transformation in my own life, I began to recognize that I had a gift for this type of healing work.

I’ve dedicated my life to helping as many people as I can in understanding their own potential for personal transformation, emotional and physical healing, and how they can consciously create the life of their dreams.

After building a successful private practice in Montreal, I left my corporate job, and eventually moved to Costa Rica, where I partnered with Phil in the creation of Sacred Business Flow.

This is my purpose …to serve entrepreneurs in achieving harmony and balance in their life so that they are operating in their fullest expression.

This is a sacred act of co-creation.

When we learn to integrate the whole of our being with our businesses, and our relationship with the divine, the Sacred Business powerfully emerges.

It can’t help but be an abundant source of personal fulfillment, while also being in service to something greater than you, a true gift to the world.

We work with you to reach this fullest expression of your heart's desire, to be in touch with your essence.

And with this, you’ll no longer feel that you are alone, and you’ll realize you have the capacity to manifest all the continued support that is needed to move things forward with confidence, clarity, and purpose.

I can’t wait to walk this path with you.

Here's a few nice things people have to say about working with me ...

"In the midst of this major life transition, working with Carolina has been absolutely essential. I've been provided a safe space to open up about my challenges and unwavering acceptance" - Dani Oxer, Author

"Working with Carolina, I am more balanced and happier! I think my body is healthier! Her knowledge and dedication are felt at all times, she is wonderful" - Neusa

"Working with Carolina is a journey of the body, mind, and soul. Blending her intuition, healing practices, Carolina harmoniously guided me to connect and attune consciousness in truth and love" - John

"I've learned so much about myself. I feel renewed after every session. Thank you Carolina for always listening to me and sharing your knowledge" - Sara

I've spent my life dedicated to helping people run transformational and  retreats as well as those wanting to build their own retreat centers.

I’ve been producing events and retreats for the last 18 years, having grown up in New York City, I was organizing everything from 7000 person gatherings to boutique events for celebrities at top venues. But after some years in the fast paced event industry, I realized that a shift was needed and turned to more conscious gatherings.

I started going on retreats, masterminds, joining communities and then finally I went to Burning Man. So inspired by this next level of experience, I worked there for a year learning everything I could from the founders. I spent the next years visiting the top retreat centers around the world and meeting top teachers, healers, and practitioners of various wellness modalities. While their wisdom had such a profound impact on my life, I wanted nothing more than to share their knowledge and wisdom as they were the catalyst behind so much of the growth and transformation I saw.

That’s when VIDA our retreat center was born and we chose Costa Rica to paint this canvas! With VIDA, we wanted to create a space conducive to the level of transformation we saw possible. Out of a deep desire to prototype better, more abundant ways to live and feel – with a focus on true wellness and longevity and quality of life. To date VIDA has hosted some of the most incredible teachers and retreat leaders, and thousands of transformed lives after passing through our doors.

Over the years, having consulted international hotel brands, developing my own retreat center in Costa Rica, producing unique events around the globe, and working with top thought leaders in the personal growth and wellness space has left me quite invigorated. Impacting people’s lives in a positive way through experiential education and hospitality is a true passion.

Hi, I’m Carolina Wilke

I spent the better part of my twenties and early 30’s “floating adrift” through life aimlessly and without a clear target, unclear what my contribution was meant to be in this world.

It’s not that life wasn’t good, it’s just that I couldn’t yet connect with a sense of higher purpose in my life in spite of an intuitive knowing that there was more to experience than just a bigger paycheck, a nice house, car, family, and the usual trappings of a corporate lifestyle.

Sometimes it can feel like there is a disconnect between the truth of who we are at the deepest level, and who we become when we sit down at the office to go about our work day.

You might even feel like you are putting on a mask or separate identity when you start your day interacting with clients and co-workers.

A feeling of being separate from “life out there”.

But how can your life be sacred if your business is not?

The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work, which begs the question, are you happy with how you are spending your days?

This accounts for over ⅓ of your life, and that’s not even taking into consideration all the time you spent getting to this point, preparing yourself in grade school and university.

It’s not just you.

In fact, the majority of people report they are not happy at the place they spend the majority of their time, doing the things they spend the majority of their time on, and yet they find themselves repeating this routine every single day for a huge part of their life.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

I grew up in Florianopolis, Brazil, the daughter of a family psychologist, and from an early age, I was invited to participate in many ceremonies and rituals with the indigenous communities that were located in the regions surrounding our home.

Call it the cosmos, a higher power, or God - even as a young child I experienced a pull towards the invisible world that supports this universe.

At the age of 9, I began my meditation training with my brother, and this was the first time that I was able to feel that there was more to me than my body.

Little Carolina going to visit her Grandma ...

When I was 14, I experienced my first Temazcal ceremony with my mother, which is an ancient ancestral shamanic ritual for wellbeing, and purification of the soul, spirit, and body.

But as I grew older into early adulthood, I was not immune to the pull of societal standards and the pressures of modern life, influencing me with all the ways one is expected to show up if they are to be “successful”.

I had no clue what I wanted to do for work, and I didn’t know how to connect my early childhood experiences with creating a life of alignment to a higher purpose. So I opted for what seemed like the most obvious choice at the time - I decided to enroll in university in Business Administration.

By 25, I was a “success” by all standard measures, even landing myself on the cover of a well-known Brazilian newspaper for my innovative work in the hospitality industry.

But as I continued down this path, got married, started a family, and made a big move to Canada to support my career, I couldn’t help but feel that something was missing.

I had lost the magic and connection that had been such a pivotal part of my youth.

And eventually the stress of living a face-paced corporate lifestyle that wasn’t aligned with the guidance of my heart manifested over several years into consistent chronic migraine headaches that made it difficult for me to function in my daily life.

I didn’t know it yet at the time, but the headaches were the result of my excessive control and overactive thought patterns.

I was completely disconnected from my body, and inner wisdom, and this manifested quite literally into my head screaming for help.

I kept asking for inner guidance for the disconnect I was feeling, and for a solution for the physical suffering I was experiencing.

I tried to exhaust every possibility for getting help including working with ophthalmologists, neurologists, dentists, physiotherapists, micro-physiotherapy, chiropractors, Chinese massage, acupuncture, shaking, homeopathy, osteopathy, meditation, and a whole bunch of other stuff with names too weird to remember.

Nothing seemed to make a difference.

As in many of the most pivotal moments in my life, I turned to my mother for help.

She had begun to work with a mind-body healing modality called Bioenergetics, which balances the body, mind, memory, and spirit energy fields to enhance the flow of energy in the body and promote radical healing.

Frustrated after years of trying to find a solution for my headaches, I flew back to Brazil from Canada and dove headfirst into learning everything I could about this fascinating approach to healing.

As I engaged in my training towards becoming a Master Bioenergetics Practitioner, I began to understand the impact of unresolved subconscious emotional issues within the body, and their impact on overall health and wellbeing.

I also observed how these same subconscious patterns of the mind could have a huge negative impact on one’s self-confidence, and ability to feel connected with a state of joy and happiness, no matter how much success was being experienced in the material world.

And as my own capacity and understanding increased under the guidance of my teacher, I was able to experience nothing less than a full miraculous healing from my headaches.

Through experiencing such radical transformation in my own life, I began to recognize that I had a gift for this type of healing work.

I’ve dedicated my life to helping as many people as I can in understanding their own potential for personal transformation, emotional and physical healing, and how they can consciously create the life of their dreams.

After building a successful private practice in Montreal, I left my corporate job, and eventually moved to Costa Rica, where I partnered with Phil in the creation of Sacred Business Flow.

This is my purpose …to serve entrepreneurs in achieving harmony and balance in their life so that they are operating in their fullest expression.

This is a sacred act of co-creation.

When we learn to integrate the whole of our being with our businesses, and our relationship with the divine, the Sacred Business powerfully emerges.

It can’t help but be an abundant source of personal fulfillment, while also being in service to something greater than you, a true gift to the world.

We work with you to reach this fullest expression of your heart's desire, to be in touch with your essence.

And with this, you’ll no longer feel that you are alone, and you’ll realize you have the capacity to manifest all the continued support that is needed to move things forward with confidence, clarity, and purpose.

I can’t wait to walk this path with you.

I’ve lived through one of many entrepreneur’s worst nightmares.

My father was an IBM executive, and one of the earliest memories I have of my childhood is sitting on his lap in front of a personal PC, learning the basics of programming before I could barely even speak.

Blessed with a gift for harnessing technology, and a strong knack for problem solving, I leveraged these skills to land a job at one of the world’s most prestigious software companies, and built several successful businesses in my 20’s and early 30’s across different industries ranging from healthcare to the music industry.

But we all know that entrepreneurship is hard and not without peril.

1 in 5 businesses fail in their first year, and over 45% don’t make it to the 5-year mark.

Those entrepreneurs who are able to hang in for the roller-coaster ride, and actually get traction are often plagued by many symptoms of chronic stress, anxiety, burnout, and even serious illness.

This is my story.

At age 30, I began to experience warning signs in my body that something was terribly wrong but I just kept pushing through. My answer was to “double down”, both at work and hitting it hard in the gym.

By 35, I had everything I had ever dreamed of on paper, and was managing a consulting business bringing in over 100K a month in revenue with only a single employee.

But years of ignoring the warning signs of overworking, playing the “lone-wolf” who didn’t need the help of others, and not listening to the wisdom of my heart finally culminated in a complete breakdown of my health, several auto-immune conditions, and the discovery of a golf-ball size tumor growing in my neck.

Talk about uncertainty.

The doctors could only give me a 50/50% odds of whether I was walking around with Cancer.

It took years of unhealthy work and personal habits for me to finally realize how much damage I had created in my life.

And even though I had experienced financial success, inside I was suffering emotionally.

I suffered from low confidence and self-worth, always playing the comparison game with other entrepreneurs I would meet at events and masterminds.

It was as if I had a bottomless hole in my soul that I just couldn’t fill, as hard as I tried to direct all my energy into a singular business focus that I was sure would finally bring an end to my suffering.

The energy was all wrong. I was obsessed with maintaining an image of “I’ve got this” to my peers, colleagues, and everyone else in my life.

As I saw my mortality flash before my eyes with my tumor diagnosis, I embarked on a lot of soul-searching about the direction of my life, and what was truly important to cultivate in my personal experience and my relationships with others.

By great fortune, I was invited to an exclusive event in Costa Rica in 2017 that was an eye opening experience for me. I found myself surrounded by 30+ other entrepreneurs doing incredible things in the world, but it was obvious they were playing a very different game than the one I had grown accustomed to.

Superhero Academy Mastermind in Costa Rica

They were tuned into something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on at the time, but it was evident that they were following a strong flow of creativity, passion, and inspiration, and had found a way to create an abundance of time, money, and freedom in their life.

I remember feeling as if I had been hit by a lightning bolt from God in the sky.

There was a better way to approach entrepreneurship, and as I began to witness first hand a different way of living, I felt like I had been handed the cheat codes to the arcade game.

Upon returning to the US, I promptly shut down my successful consulting business, trusting that with what I had learned on that retreat, I could rebuild my life and my business on an upgraded operating system, employing a much more holistic approach.

Full Life Integration.

As I slowly began my healing journey back from illness, burnout, and exhaustion, I sought out mentors in my life that would continue to guide me towards what it meant to live a life of balance, but without compromise.

And with this newfound view on life, I found my way back to consulting, but this time consciously choosing to work only with mission driven online-entrepreneurs who I felt were really committed to making a meaningful impact in the world.

I am grateful to be able to say that I experienced a full recovery from my cancer scare, and after a successful surgery to remove the tumor, I now experience levels of vitality in my body that I hadn’t experienced since my late teens.

As I dove deeper into my own spiritual journey and cultivated a relationship with the invisible divine that guides each of us in our hearts, I’ve become equipped with a deep understanding of the complex identities and competing narratives that are often playing out inside the minds of an entrepreneur.

I’m fully committed to helping entrepreneurs experience the clarity, confidence, and purpose that is required to build the profitable business of their dreams.

Alongside Carolina, I support our clients in building and executing on powerful business strategies that don’t require sacrificing their physical or emotional health.

Together, Carolina and I have created a unique and innovative approach in working with the 9 Fundamental Frequencies that honors both the required structures for business success, as well as the innate intelligence and guidance of the heart.