Today we’d like to introduce you to Tori Toma and Frances Naude.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Our story started ten years ago. We were freshmen at Laguna Beach High School running around with rosy cheeks, kissing the same boys, and going to the same beaches. After one too many of the same love interests, we decided we were not supposed to be in each other’s lives.
After years of disconnect and graduating college, we happened to live in close proximity and found both our priorities have shifted. While we used to focus on boys and partying, Frances and Tori both have core values rooted in love, kindness, empowerment, and deep connections. We strive for authentic relations in order to support and empower one another on a daily basis.
Frances got into the health and healing space when she decided to seek more than just the day-to-day drudgery that has become ‘normal.’ She studied for a year to become a Holistic Health Coach and then went on to complete her 200-hour yoga teacher training. It was here that she realized the power of the mind-body-spirit connection, and she was hooked, which propelled to into reading Tarot Cards and becoming a Reiki Master. Now, after hundreds of hours of training, studying, experimenting, playing, receiving, and working with clients, Frances has finally found her purpose: to guide people on their life’s journeys so that together, we can heal the collective. One way that Frances loves to bring people healing is through events and retreats. Enter Tori: the missing piece of the puzzle.
Tori is an Event Production Coordinator who loves to make individuals’ passions come to life. She has about five years of experience in the industry and has worked with a wide variety of clients in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, and New York. That being said, Tori was sitting in church on Easter Sunday when it all clicked – she wanted to use her skills to help Frances develop the retreat they had both chatted about, never thinking it would actually happen. She pitched the idea and just a couple months later, SURFACE was born.
We felt it necessary to bring both of our passions to our guests, Frances with her healing and Tori with a passion that may not be recognizable by just looking at her… Tori is a plant mom. This passion started with just one philodendron, her very first hanging plant pal called Kip. He taught her so much about life — patience, the effects of positivity, and so much more. Since Kip, she now has a jungle at home and has become quite the expert on plant propagation and care. She can’t wait to share these tips and life lessons with the guests at SURFACE.
While Reiki, Plants, Tarot, Yoga, and Authentic Feminine Connection might seem arbitrary from one another, they are not. They are all based on the same core values that Frances and Tori share: deep-rooted love and desire to share that love with the world.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Unsurprisingly, our journey has been smooth so far. The biggest struggle as with any business is ensuring the product is 100% worth it so that people feel confident reserving their spot. We’ve designed SURFACE to be affordable for those who may not be able to take off work for an entire week and spend $2,500+ on a wellness retreat. Even so, it has been a bit challenging filling every spot to create a complete sisterhood. However, with additional promotions and exposure, we’re confident that our sisters will find us and purchase their retreat ticket as we get closer to the date.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Surface Retreat story. Tell us more about the business.
SURFACE is an all-inclusive, transformative retreat. Our goal this weekend is simple: come out better than we came in.
SURFACE is committed to help you recognize and accept parts of yourself that may need to come to light. We intend to reach complete gratitude and contentment as we unwind with one another and our deeper selves over the weekend. We want this to be a comfortable transition, so we have organized a lot of activities to bring your highest and truest good to the foreground.
Our guests will uncover their most authentic self, connect with other beautiful souls, and evolve into the best version of themselves throughout our three-day journey of yoga practice, reiki healings, plant philosophy workshops, tarot readings, delicious food, and really freaking good times.
We are proud to offer an event-filled experience at such an affordable investment. Our price points, along with our authentic passion for healing and fun, are what set us apart from other retreats. While we hope that SURFACE will sustain itself and become a blossoming business, we will not be taking any profit, only re-investing it into future SURFACE retreats to continue to spread the love. Frances and Tori are truly doing this because they believe in its message and purpose, which is why guests can feel assured they’re getting wholesome, loving and transformative guidance at SURFACE.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
From Tori: I have seemed to be at the right place, at just the right time in my life when it comes to my professional career. Although I have been dedicated to working full-time ever since I graduated high school, and also during my college years, I have been blessed with unique job opportunities that allow me to strive in the industry I’ve always imagined myself in.
Nowadays, it’s not always easy for young people to land a job in a market they’ve worked extremely hard towards in college. However, I feel I’ve surrounded myself with a creative, committed and experimental group of people over the past few years who encourage me to concentrate on working hard and keeping an innovative mind each and every day.
I have had things happen in my life that are very “unlucky” and hard to understand the “why” behind them. But keeping myself in a positive headspace, and always being kind and loving to others has seemed to be enough of a good reason enough for the Universe to “reward” me with Luck. I know that my path would not be what it is without being able to overcome the “unlucky” occurrences that have happened to me — the things that were 100% out of my control. So to those, I say “thank you” and to the rest, I say “keep the luck flowing to me!”
From Frances: Luck is tricky business. For me, luck is a mindset: positivity breeds positivity, so if you are positive, you get positive results. Is this luck? Maybe. Or, the way I see it, it’s actually just science as can be seen in the Law of Attraction. Our energy is matched as it leaves our body and mind, so what we put out, we get back. My boyfriend is the most positive person I’ve ever met, almost naively so, and he is definitely very “lucky.” For me, I have inner-demons that surface as anxiety and fear, and when I’m in my downward spins, I am very “unlucky” — everything goes wrong, making the spiral worse. It is only when I shift to positivity that my “luck” starts to return.
Like I said before, “luck” is a mindset shift. It’s a choice. If we trust in the Universe, match its high vibration with positivity and gratitude, and actively walk in the Light, we’ll be real damn “lucky”. So, to answer the question… I guess the role that “luck” has played for me is teaching me to stay in the high vibe so that I can attract it back easily and stay in the circle of stoke.
Pricing:
- Shared Bunk Room: $400 (all-inclusive)
- Shared Room – 2 Queen Beds: $450 (all-inclusive)
- Private Room – 1 Queen Bed: $550 (all-inclusive)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.surfaceretreat.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/surfaceretreat/
Image Credit:
Scott Stinnett
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