Reflections on the first-ever Storytellers Retreat

Hunter Sunrise was among the first cohort of Storytellers Retreat attendees and the budding community that is resulting from it. Our CEO/founder Jennifer Cloer reached out to him to learn more about what that space and time meant to him and how it’s influencing the way he looks towards 2022.

What purpose does a retreat like the Storytellers Retreat serve for you personally?

After such a tremendous amount of time putting fires out at work and throughout this period of COVID living that we have all been experiencing, attending the Storytellers Retreat was the first opportunity—in what felt like ages—to prioritize time for community, personal calm and to take a mental and emotional break from day to day living in far too long. It was an opportunity to put life on pause for a long enough period of time that I could create an environment to internally reset.

Hunter Sunrise

What do you think is unique about a retreat dedicated to storytellers? 

Really, it is all about the people. Spending time with a group of individuals who are all interested in the notion of storytelling and/or have an application of storytelling somewhere in their personal or professional life is like finding that group of kindred spirits with that core understanding of being on one’s own hero's journey. Spending time in communion with a group of individuals who are all looking through a similar lens with their approach to however story shows up in their life and the ability to find safety and camaraderie and raucous laughter in that space is amazing.

The most fascinating thing for me at the Storytellers Retreat was just how such a diverse group of people living such different lives, from their careers to their geographies, could all come together and immediately feel like some kindred family right out the gate. Within the first two hours of the opening ceremony and initial prompts and conversations, we were a united group for the rest of the entire retreat (and beyond), because there's something so familiar and so special about people who value story in a similar way.

What is your primary reflection on the Storytellers Retreat?

The time was truly remarkable.The group people that had been curated to join the retreat were all of just an incredible caliber: curious, thoughtful, in a similar state of mind and heart who were all looking for an opportunity to unplug from the day to day world and to plug into an environment of open exploration, reflection and community and others around what value storytelling has in our lives. Each person brought their own goals and areas of focus and allowed the structure of the time to act as a container for guiding and creating plans, dreaming, or closing / and then intentionally reopening ourselves to the next chapter ahead. I arrived exhausted, stressed and overwhelmed, and left feeling inspired, excited, reinvigorated and completely focused.

The Retreat focused on how to create space for creativity and inspiration and then experiences and connections to surface creative ideas and collaborations. Given your experiences as a creative strategist, entrepreneur and writer, how do you create that type of space throughout the year?

Ha! Great question. Finding and creating time to have space to work on art, creativity and family can feel sometimes insurmountable.

I’m a big fan of intentional time blocking and goal setting as a way to create structure and accountability toward my dreams/vision. I believe firmly in having short-term/immediate, midterm and long term goals as a way to create and utterly commit to the time and space needed to achieve them.

When I look at day-to-day life, month-to-month life and my year-to-year life, everything that I do tracks back to what those goals are. For instance, I have a five-year set of goals, and I break the five-year plans into annual plans and then into quarterly plans. And each quarter I drill down and ensure that every month I have the appropriate number of days or hours that I need to do the work required towards those goals. So what I’ll often do is every four to six weeks, I'll block a long weekend out for myself—between three and five days—and will travel someplace to get away and work on my projects.

On a day-to-day basis, or a week-to-week basis, I do the same thing. I look at my calendar and think about my own energy flows, time, focus and commitments. Then I block my time in chunks of hours to accomplish things. For instance, I block my meetings into certain parts of the day and block my focus time into another part of the day. I work long hours on Mondays and Tuesdays, because I know that my attention will wane on Thursdays and Fridays. And I make those days intentionally shorter. I now know that even if I can work a long day, by around three o'clock in the afternoon all my creative energy has gone and my focus tends to be quite scattered. So I ensure that the mornings/first half of the day is when I have this creative and dreaming time. 

So for me, I’m all about structure and self-awareness driving progress toward goals. If I zoom out, I have a really clear structure. If I zoom in, I have equally clear structure. But one is more of an inspired bigger picture, step-by-step and the other is on a really granular level of tactical organization.

It takes time away from work and family to attend a retreat. What’s your advice for people who are considering a 2022 retreat that creates space outside the day-to-day?

This can be summed up in one statement:

We are only our best selves and can only be our best selves if we give ourselves the time to to be fueled by what it is we need to stay joyful and connected.

Yes, something like retreat takes us away from our day-to-day interactions or family commitments or job commitments, etc., but it's uncanny how much energy and focus and inspiration and peace and enjoyment can be created in those three or four days. Even with a gap here and there for some personal hobbies or interests, it can't deliver the same thing. The amount of time it took to stop, unplug, disengage with the day-to-day and show up fully-present to the Storytellers Retreat brought me so much more fully back to myself, and my other commitments in a way that was tangible. I’m more connected to my family, to work and to myself than before the retreat—and that is such a blessing.