We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Breanne White. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Breanne below.

Breanne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I started an MBA program in the fall of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. With all classes held online throughout the first year, I found myself feeling isolated, engaging with coursework and classmates solely through a screen. I realized that even once we were post-pandemic, a huge amount of work and professional interactions would be online. It made me question how we could foster meaningful connections and build strong relationships when in-person interactions would become increasingly rare.

I realized that taking advantage of the time we *were* together was the key. Corporate retreats offered a powerful solution to this, but I saw room for innovation beyond the traditional models. Historically, retreats have fallen into three categories: executive retreats tailored for top leaders, rewards-driven retreats to celebrate employee achievements, and standard “hotel conference room” retreats focused on business discussions in generic environments.

To address this need, I founded a company specializing in nature-based corporate retreats. My goal was to create experiences that blend focused company discussions with time spent in nature, moving beyond the confines of hotel conference rooms. During covid all I (and many others!) wanted to do was get out into nature, so when I shared the idea with others everyone told me they wished their companies would do a retreat like this! This feedback confirmed the value of bringing people together in a natural setting to foster collaboration, innovation, and stronger relationships.

Breanne, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up with mountains in my backyard, but I didn’t really understand the transformative power of spending time in nature until I moved to the concrete jungle of Washington, DC. With so much time spent sitting in an office staring at a computer screen, I quickly became a “weekend warrior” and spent nearly every weekend escaping the city to the mountains and forests along the East Coast.

This love of nature prompted me to launch Mintaka post-pandemic. I saw how much time so many of us were spending online for work and decided to launch a startup focused on nature-based corporate retreats.

Mintaka partners with you to create meaningful corporate retreats. We focus on building connections and facilitating experiential training in nature. Want to learn more about leadership through learning to rock climb, or teamwork through kayaking? We’ve got you covered! We work with our clients to create retreats that employees look forward to and want to return to year after year. We facilitate all types of nature-based retreats, from the “nature curious” to the hard-core explorers, making sure that everyone can participate in a way that feels meaningful to them.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

*How Will You Measure Your Life* by Clayton Christensen has long been a favorite of mine. It’s helped to keep me grounded in my management and entrepreneurial endeavors by reminding me to focus on what truly matters in life.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I launched Mintaka at one of the worst times possible for the corporate retreats market–when a second wave of covid-19 spread across the world. I was extremely discouraged because I worried that I would never see success. What I thought would be an easy soft launch with several corporate retreats to test the waters turned into many calls and online meetings with potential customers to continue research into what the market wanted and needed and a long waiting game until people could safely meet in person again. However, I continued to persevere, and by the next year companies were ready to go on retreats again and I was able to get my first customers! I learned that success isn’t always immediate (in fact it rarely is) and patience and resilience are necessary to stay motivated.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mintakaretreats.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mintakaretreats/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mintaka/

Image Credits

Photos by Salvador Mora