From my first retreat to the spaces I create today
Published about 2 months ago • 4 min read
LA WORKSHOPPEUSE
Facilitator Sticky Diaries
Hi Reader🙋🏼♀️
This story is about where my journey as a facilitator really began, and why collective spaces matter so much to me today.
This is the first photo I ever posted on LinkedIn, back in 2022.
At that time, I had just quit my job as an internal consultant in organizational development.
I didn't really know what I was going to do next - other than one clear decision:
to travel.
The first destination of that journey was a small village in Italy, where this photo was taken. I had allowed myself a small indulgence by signing up for a facilitation retreat organized by AJ&Smart, after being part of their community for several months and following their newly released program The Workshopper Master.
In my luggage:
a few clothes, my curiosity… and a microphone.
I didn't yet know why I packed this mic. I just felt I might want to record conversations or moments along the way, for myself.
I left Germany in my little blue Beetle, crossed Switzerland, and arrived in Italy, where Jonathan Courtney himself served me my first proper Italian espresso.
The investment felt huge.
I had just walked away from a comfortable monthly paycheck and only had enough savings to travel modestly for about a year.
And yet, the return on investment was almost immediate, not in money, but in perspective.
It completely shifted what I believed was possible next.
What I learned..
From my first deeper initiation into design thinking with Mickael Lewrick, to exploring storytelling with JP Phillips, those learnings - added to 20 years of navigating team challenges in corporate environments - became the first sparks of my solo journey.
But the greatest value of that retreat wasn't the content. It was the connections I made,
the inspiration I drew from other people's paths,
the conversations that planted seeds for future work,
and the encouragement from people who gently pushed me beyond my comfort zone
including posting that very first photo on LinkedIn.
That experience gave real meaning to a sentence we often hear:
Alone, we can do good things. Together, we can do great things.
I was simply with the right people, at the right moment.
The start of the solo journey ...
Yes this was the podcast. I'm so grateful that I packed that microphone.
Those spontaneous recordings became, one month later,
the podcast "There's a Workshop for That".
Today, it has more than 80 episodes,
is listened to by many of you, and was voted a Top 3 Facilitation Podcast in the State of Facilitation 2024.
I'm deeply thankful to everyone at this retreat, who shared
Their knowledge,
Their experience,
Their doubts
Their wins
Their ideas with me along the way.
They shaped not only my work, but how I think about learning and growth.
And maybe that's why, after years of sharing content, hosting conversations, and accompanying facilitators in their journeys, one thought kept coming back to me:
What if we could intentionally recreate that spirit of collective energy, support, and transformative conversation - for facilitators today?
Everything I do now is rooted in that belief:
that collective intelligence is where real growth happens.
Over time, this belief gave birth to different spaces.
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