Vision 2026: A Nature Inspired Retreat for Women
September 26-28, 2025
Pollock Cove Seaside Retreat
Campobello Island, New Brunswick Canada
Campobello Island is a magical place where you can sip coffee and watch bald eagles fly by while a whale swims below. This weekend will use the beautiful surroundings to spark your creativity for your creating your vision for 2026. Using guided activities, you will be given the chance to explore whatever you want to bring into your life in the new year and you will leave with a strategy and the action steps to make that happen.
Exploring Business Ideas: Use the weekend to think through a new product launch, focus on a new market or strategize how to achieve growth.
Exploring a New Chapter in Your Life: Do you want to expand your life in a new direction? Looking to change jobs or careers? Considering what you will do in retirement? This weekend will give you the time to explore what resonates with you and to articulate where you want to go next.
Program Overview
Friday Sept 26 Welcome 4 pm
Get to know the other powerhouse women who are
visualizing an amazing 2026.
6 pm Dinner: Herring Cove Restaurant
Evening: Inspiration Session
Photographs from around the island will help you explore what you want to achieve in 2026 by sparking your creative thinking. With good weather, this work will be done watching the sunset beside the fire pit on the point.
Saturday Sept 27
Sunrise Nature Walk
Join Kari Heistad at Head Harbour Lighthouse watching the sunrise and look for whales and eagles. Learn tips for capturing beautiful photos.
(weather permitting)
Continental Breakfast 8-8:30
Inspiration Session Insights
Sharing the insights gained from the work with the photos and key take-aways for how you want to plan for 2026.
Eleanor Roosevelt's World
Campobello Island is where the Roosevelts had their summer home. There are many lessons that can be learned from how Eleanor spent time on the island and her work around that world that still apply today. We will explore key insights sparked from her pioneering career that can inspire us all to explore new ideas and challenge assumptions.
Sharing the Vision
When bringing a vision into focus, we need to be able to explain it to others. Very few visions can be achieved completely on our own. Using a guided process, you will be asked to develop the outline for what you are seeking to achieve. This process will help you to gain clarity about the logistics to bring your vision from the land of fantasy into reality. If this is a business idea, you can focus on defining your universal selling point and explaining the unique attributes and benefits. If this is about a new chapter in your life, this time is about defining what you want that chapter to feel and look like. When you develop a vision you can articulate, it is easier for others to step up and help you to achieve that vision. This will be a combination of individual and group work.
Lunch 12-12:30
Journaling, Contemplating and Musings
An opportunity to capture the ideas generated during the morning in the workshop journal (provided). Let your ideas swirl and capture them as you flesh out your ideas. Or, if you do your best thinking while being active, set out for a walk in nature or to stare into the sea from one of the many viewpoints on the island.
Engaging with flexibility
Saturday Afternoon Free Time 2-7 pm
Afternoon: Nature & Culture Inspired Options
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Enjoy the nature areas of Roosevelt and Herring Cove Parks
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Tea with Eleanor at Roosevelt Park (3 pm AST)
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Take a private whale watch (weather permitting)
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Enjoy the view from the Point
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Look for bald eagles and other wildlife at Head Harbour Lighthouse
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Shop at the Campobello Gift Shop
Dinner: 7 pm The Porch at Friar's Bay
Evening: Enjoy the firepit and the sunset on your own, or team up with others to work collaboratively on your visions for 2026.
Sunday Sept 28
Sunrise
Join Kari Heistad at Head Harbour Lighthouse watching the sunrise and look for whales and eagles. Learn tips for capturing beautiful photos.
(weather permitting)
Continental Breakfast 8-8:30
Tools for Motivation and Inspiration
Explore AI tools to help you bring your goals into reality.
Gamma: This is an AI platform that helps you to create presentations that detail your goals, or use the photo generating tool to create a vision board of what you want to achieve in 2026.
Suno: Feeling more artistic? Using Suno's AI platform, we will show you how to use the tool to create your own unique song that you can use as an anthem for achieving your goals.
Canva: If you are feeling really creative, you can use this tool to bring together images and a song to create an inspirational video!
All of these have a free version for personal use.
Action Steps
Ideas are great, but nothing beats a clear action plan. The last section of the weekend will be deciding on action steps that you can take that will help you to create what you desire in 2026. These will be shared with the group and a request/assist exercise will help to facilitate support for the action steps.
Lunch and Closing with Departures at 2 pm
Pre-Retreat Day: Thursday Sept 26 arrival 3 pm or later
Dinner: At a local restaurant and an evening on the Point
Coaching Thursday evening or Friday morning: One hour coaching session with Kari getting a jump start on the work you will be focusing on and exploring specific questions and concerns.
Friday: Enjoy the nature of the island before the others arrive.
Kari Heistad, Facilitator
The weekend will be led by Kari Heistad. Kari founded Culture Coach in 1998 and she is well versed in the challenges and opportunities for women in life and in business. She has served as a coach for women for more than 20 years and she has encouraged and supported four people to start their own businesses. She has also helped companies to design and implement business strategic plans and marketing strategies. Having won the pitch contest for her national Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses business accelerator cohort, she served as a pitch coach for other small businesses going through the program. She is also an alumni of the Babson WIN Lab accelerator program where she won the Community Award. She was chosen to represent New England as a WBENC Rising Star in 2010, an award which highlights 14 women from across the country each year.
Recently she has been exploring how to use AI platforms to create songs, videos and presentations for many aspects of her life including marketing, business tools and videos for the important children in her life.
She combines her business knowledge and her photography through her Captured Images business when she works with locations seeking ways to more deeply engage visitors.
Six years ago she fell in love with Campobello Island and she has written numerous guide and activity books to the island.
Small Group: The retreat is limited to 8 women wanting to bring creativity and a focus to their 2026.
Fee: USD $1,250, $300 deposit when registering, the balance due Sept 1
Cancellations are accepted prior to Sept 1. Once a registration form is completed, you will be contacted for the deposit payment. A discount is available for local residents of Campobello Island and Lubec, Maine.
Pre-Retreat Includes: Thursday evening accommodation, one hour private coaching session. Fee $350.
Included:
Workshop and Coaching: Group facilitation and presentations, and two 30-minute coaching sessions after the retreat with Kari Heistad.
Meals: Friday reception, Saturday continental breakfast, lunch and snacks. Sunday breakfast and lunch.
Materials: Guide to Campobello Island, retreat journal with templates, writing sparks, ideas and inspiration to help you create your vision for 2026.
Accommodations: Pollock Cove Seaside Retreat
Shared occupancy (own bedroom, shared cottage with 1-3 other people). Single supplement: USD $150 for solo cottage.
Not included:
Meals and Entertainment: Friday and Saturday dinner, whale watching fee
Women Supporting Women
During the weekend we will be supporting these women run businesses:
Pollock Cove Seaside Retreat, Niki's Island Convenience, Herring Cove Golf Lodge Restaurant, The Porch at Friar's Bay Restaurant, Campobello Gift Shop
Location: Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. Campobello is across the bridge from Lubec Maine, the eastern most town of the USA. It is a 2 hour drive from Bangor, ME and a 4 hour drive from Portland, ME. It is a 1.5 hour drive (if the ferry is running from Deer Island) or a 2 hour drive (if coming through the USA) from St. Andrews, NB.
Passport Required: A passport or passport card is required to pass into Canada if coming from or through the United States.