Connected Leadership Retreats
Leadership is Relationship
Natural Lifemanship Headquarters
Brenham, Texas
October 6th-8th, 2025
Are you looking for an opportunity to become a more impactful leader?
The heart of empowered and impactful leadership lies in the quality of our relationships.
Connection is how you inspire your team, become more efficient, and get results. But it can be tough to achieve without proper tools and practice.
That’s why we put together a 3-day immersive experience on our beautiful Texas horse ranch.
Out of the Office and into Nature
Get away from the office and out into nature to explore what it means to truly lead. Our skilled facilitators will guide you through interactions with horses to develop actionable skills to become a more connected and effective leader.
During the Connected Leadership Retreats you will learn and practice:
- The verbal and nonverbal communications that impact your relationships
- How to move away from pushing hard on others and instead lean into attuned “right action” to get results
- Building strong relationships with your team that translate into motivation, competence, and cohesion.
- How to develop skills for being more trustworthy, attuned, assertive, and ultimately—more successful in your role as a leader.
Get Real Results
Whether you’re struggling to build trust with your team or simply looking to take your leadership to the next level, we understand the challenges that arise when you’re responsible for guiding your team toward a shared vision.
Join executive coach Heather Neely, and facilitators Bettina Shultz-Jobe, Tim Jobe, and Kate Naylor for 3 days of transformational experience on our Texas horse ranch to explore who you are as a leader, and how to become a more impactful one.
What is the Connected Leadership Retreat
The Connected Leadership Retreat is specifically designed to utilize Natural Lifemanship principles and Equine Assisted Services to improve your relationship with yourself and others, and grow your strength as a leader.
Over the course of 3 days together, we’ll dive into elements of connected leadership and generative leadership to enhance your understanding of using your own presence to build a powerful and capable team.
All of our trainings at Natural Lifemanship are built upon the science of Interpersonal Neurobiology to meet you where you are and help you grow personally and professionally.
Calling all Leaders
The Connected Leadership Retreat is designed specifically for executives and team leaders who are eager to dig deep into the behaviors, skills, and internal experiences necessary for strong leadership, and happy, productive teams.
In these three days you’ll learn how to:
- Lead from a deeper place based on an understanding of how the brain and body works.
- Be clear and confident in your body while attuning to others.
- Sharpen your ability to have the kinds of conversations you want to have.
- Promote cohesion and team transformation.
- Communicate in a way that fosters connection, trust, accountability, and forward movement
- Handle conflict and breakdown (aka “rupture”) and move through the process of repair
PLUS! You will have the opportunity to:
- Connect and reflect with like-minded professionals
- Take time to to slow down, explore, learn, and grow
- Bring elements of connected and generative relationships back to all areas of your life, both personal and professional
Three days of reflection and transformation
Humans are hardwired for connection. That’s why secure relationships are such an important part of compelling leadership.
A great leader knows this and effectively harnesses strong relationships to achieve the success they’re looking for. If you’re ready to get away from the office and out into nature to explore what it means to truly lead under the guidance of skilled facilitators—join us.
At the end of the retreat, you’ll walk away feeling more empowered, more connected, and more influential in your workplace—and in your life as a whole.
Connected Leadership Retreats include:
- A welcome dinner and intention setting on night 1.
- Three full days of in depth work with seasoned coaches and equine partners.
- Single occupancy lodging onsite at the NL HomePlace Inn.
- Continental breakfast and lunch every day.
- Close-up access to cutting edge practices in relationship science, equine assisted services, and connected and generative leadership frameworks.
- A stronger sense of self and attunement to others.
- Small group immersive experience aimed at understanding what is below the surface of your communication
Agenda
What to expect on your 3-day immersive journey to more impactful leadership:
Arrival Day
Welcome dinner and intention setting! Get to know your fellow leaders, review the itinerary and expectations for the next 3 days. Settle in and clear your head in preparation for the experiences to come.
Day 1
We’ll explore the concept of generative leadership, discuss the involvement of horses & why they matter, learn the basics of brain & body science, begin to build a relationship with the horses, and allow time for reflection
Day 2
We dive into the concepts of requests and regulation, review the Enneagram and explore your individual types, spend time practicing with the horses, and allow for time to reflect
Day 3
We round out our learning with the concepts of rupture and repair, practice assertiveness and connected accountability with the horses, then wrap up our time together with actionable goals for you to take with you
Meet The Facilitators
Heather Neely
Executive Coach
As an Executive Coach, Heather focuses on developing senior leaders, managers, and teams. She’s helped hundreds of people hone skills that bring greater ease and efficiency to their leadership roles.
Heather teaches smart leaders how to get smarter by accessing the intelligence of their head, heart, and body, coaching the “whole” person.
Heather Neely
Executive Coach
As an Executive Coach, Heather focuses on developing senior leaders, managers, and teams. She’s helped hundreds of people hone skills that bring greater ease and efficiency to their leadership roles.
Heather teaches smart leaders how to get smarter by accessing the intelligence of their head, heart, and body, coaching the “whole” person.
Bettina Shultz-Jobe, MA, LPC
Natural Lifemanship Co-Founder and CEO
With more than 20 years of experience partnering people and horses to bring about healing, growth, and transformation for horse and human alike, Bettina is passionate about discovering and utilizing the horse’s full potential for helping humans.
A pioneer in the field, she teaches others the practice of Trauma Informed Equine Assisted Services and believes that healing, growth, and transformation begins when people and horses form deep connections free from power, domination, and control.
Tim Jobe
Natural Lifemanship Co-Founder
Since 1986, Tim has worked to develop and apply the unique principles of Natural Lifemanship that center around connected relationships.
In 2010, Tim and his wife Bettina founded the Natural Lifemanship Institute on the principles of connected relationships—with self, with others, with horses and other animals, with our Creator, and with the natural world.
Today, he and the NL team train practitioners throughout the world on how to integrate the NL principles into their own lives and practices, and transform the lives of their clients as a result
Tim Jobe
Natural Lifemanship Co-Founder
Since 1986, Tim has worked to develop and apply the unique principles of Natural Lifemanship that center around connected relationships.
In 2010, Tim and his wife Bettina founded the Natural Lifemanship Institute on the principles of connected relationships—with self, with others, with horses and other animals, with our Creator, and with the natural world.
Today, he and the NL team train practitioners throughout the world on how to integrate the NL principles into their own lives and practices, and transform the lives of their clients as a result
Kate Naylor
Director of Trainer Development and Community Engagement
As a nature-based mental health therapist, NL instructor, Director of the NL training team, and horsewoman, Kate believes strongly in our interconnectedness— the connections of our own mind/body/soul as well our connections with others and the larger web of life – it is in these connections that we know who we are, and how to be in the world.
Kate’s purpose is to offer the kind of relationship that allows others to embrace their full humanity. She combines her experience to create an environment where clients and trainees can experience presence, authenticity, and embodied change.
FAQ
Why horses?
Horses are unique and powerful partners when it comes to learning and practicing deeper connections to self and others. We share many characteristics with horses – such as being highly relational (herd animals) – and learning to communicate and relate with horses allows us to reconnect to our skills in self-awareness and non-verbal communication. Because the non-verbal is our only shared language with horses, we must become aware of it and refine it, in order to really connect and accomplish a goal.
The same is true for humans, but with our added skill of verbal communication, we often lose our connection with these abilities. Horses offer us an opportunity to practice and grow our skill set in non-verbal communication so that we may more easily navigate all the different conversations that occur between a professional team.
What you practice with the horses will transfer seamlessly to your work life.
Are meals included?
Your registration includes a welcome dinner on arrival day as well as breakfast and lunch each day. Dinner on the other days is on your own and a list of nearby restaurants will be provided.
How many people are in a group?
We believe that small groups are the best way to get the most out of your Connected Leadership Experience. You will walk through this experience with a team of 6-8 participants and will be accompanied by a team of professional coaches and equine partners.
What can I expect before, during, and after the retreat?
Before the retreat you will be asked to complete an online Enneagram Assessment. The Enneagram is an incisive personality assessment that helps us better understand ourselves, including aspects of our leadership approach. Heather Neely and Laura McFarland will schedule a 50 minute Zoom call with you prior to the retreat to review and explore your results. This pre-call will guide you in beginning to set your intention and focus for the 3 day immersion.
During the retreat you will participate in a structured 3-day itinerary complete with information sessions, interactive and immersive activities, equine assisted activities, ample breaks, time for reflection, and community building.
After the retreat, our hope is that you return to your workplace and your everyday life empowered to inspire those around you by being attuned to nonverbal communication of yourself and others, bring more confidence and embodiment to the spaces you are in, and experience significantly more success as a leader in your organization. We will also follow up to ask you about your experience, and invite you to be a continued member of our community, if you wish!
If you’re ready to become a more effective, connected, and impactful leader, join us for a powerful experience that you won’t want to miss.