The Portage Retreat
The pause that moves you forward.
The Portage Retreat is an immersive, all-inclusive executive team experience in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota - where complexity quiets and clarity emerges.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
-
This experience is designed for intact executive or C-suite teams charged with shaping the future of their organization—where failure isn’t an option.
It’s for leaders with the courage to name what’s hard, the humility to examine themselves, and the resolve to navigate complexity together.
Ideal participants bring an adventurous spirit—ready to step into an environment that challenges, restores, and reveals what matters most.
WHAT TO EXPECT
-
PHYSICAL CHALLENGE THAT RESTORES
You’ll carry canoes, heavy packs, and bear barrels across rocky and muddy portages. You will scavenge for down branches, saw and cut wood to make fires. You may get wet, sore, and tired—and in the process, you'll rediscover strength, resilience, and a sense of vitality that only nature can offer.
You’ll return more grounded, more connected, and more equipped to meet the moment - not with burnout, but with boldness.
-
EMOTIONAL DISCOMFORT THAT TRANSFORMS
Throughout the journey, we’ll pause to reflect, surface insights, and engage in meaningful dialogue designed to deepen your listening and stretch your thinking related to the challenges you present in the intake.
At the end of this retreat, your team will be better equipped to navigate and lead through uncertainty, listen deeply and focus on what matters most, work collaboratively through conflict, and see new opportunities.
WHAT YOU GET
All-Inclusive.
All Intentional.
All Handled.
-
Gear:
Permits
Tent, camp chairs, hammocks
Sleeping bag, sleeping pad and pillow
Canoes, paddles, life jackets, wet bags, canoe packs and canoe seats
Meals and snacks
Arrival Logistics:
Complimentary transportation from MSP to the BWCA and back (if needed)
One-night hotel stay in Grand Marais (Thursday, September 11)
-
Physical:
Canoe paddling and camping basics
Personal packing checklist
Pre-retreat intake form (personal needs, dietary needs, experience levels)
Developmental:
Enneagram assessment
Retreat preparation survey (team and individual leadership goals)
Coaching session (one per person)
Post-retreat team coaching session to integrate insights and identify actions
-
The topics and focus of this retreat are not pre-set—they’re curated based on a thoughtful pre-retreat intake to address the specific dynamics, challenges, and strategic priorities your team is facing. You'll work both on how you collaborate together and what you're working toward.
On the People & Team Side:
Stronger trust and cohesion built through shared challenge and honest dialogue
Shared tools in giving feedback, navigating conflict, and moving through tension—rather than around it
A renewed sense of connection, vitality, and personal ownership
Deeper understanding of each other’s perspectives—on what matters personally and professionally
Greater empathy for each team member’s core motivations and behavior patterns—through the lens of the Enneagram—illuminating what helps and what hinders team dynamics
On the Business & Organizational Side:
Focused progress on at least one live, strategic priority
Greater clarity on what’s essential now—and what’s getting in the way
Insight into your team’s current stage of development—and what’s needed to lead from the next level
-
Extra days in Grand Marais (hotel stay)
MyWorldView developmental stage assessment
Post-retreat individual coaching
Post-retreat team coaching
360 Feedback assessment (Shift Positive or Leadership Circle Profile)
Key Coordinates
-
-
-
-
Schedule a discovery call
-
Participants must be physically capable of hiking uneven trails and paddling a canoe.
You’ll share a tent with a colleague (or opt to sleep in a hammock—weather permitting).
You’ll be fully off the grid: no cell phones, no connectivity.
No alcohol or drugs.
Your Guide & Coach
Nikki Shultz is not your typical retreat facilitator. She’s a seasoned ICF-certified executive coach, a practiced wilderness guide, and a woman whose presence has been described as grounding, catalytic, and unforgettable. Equally at home in high-stakes boardrooms and the backcountry of the Boundary Waters, Nikki blends insight, intensity, joy, and spiritual depth into every experience she leads.
Her approach is both deeply intuitive and deliberately developmental—drawing from frameworks like the Enneagram and Vertical Development to help leaders expand their thinking, deepen their impact, and connect to what matters most.
At The Portage Retreat, Nikki doesn’t just guide teams through the wild—she helps them cross inner thresholds. Working with her is like stepping into a moment of clarity, courage, and transformation.
Why a wilderness retreat? Why now?
-
where complexity outpaces clarity, and yet the demand for performance only intensifies. Your team is expected to lead through uncertainty, deliver double-digit growth, and hold it all together under immense pressure.
You have capable people: smart, capable, and committed. But the pressure is unrelenting—and with it, the risk of burnout, misalignment, and conflict.
Four days off the grid sounds impossible. With so much on the line, stepping away from the day-to-day may feel like a luxury you can’t afford.
But here’s the paradox: doing the counterintuitive thing—pausing—may be the smartest move you make all year.
Like elite athletes, the most effective leaders know that high performance isn’t sustained by intensity alone. It’s built on recovery, reflection, and reorientation. Without space to recalibrate, even the strongest teams lose their edge.
The Portage Retreat isn’t a break from leadership. It’s the boldest kind of leadership. A deliberate reset that restores clarity, realigns purpose, and strengthens your team at its core.
