Rakita Lillard-Brown

I attribute my success to witnessing what happens when women are loved properly and thoroughly supported. There is nothing quite like watching someone walk through the door at the beginning of a retreat and then seeing that same woman leave - she looks different, she moves different. Something has shifted. And it stays. Years later, I still receive messages from past attendees who have started businesses, found love, left relationships that were no longer serving them, or stepped into a new season of life with a freedom they did not have before. That is what makes this work worth it.

What drives me is knowing what becomes possible when women are given the space to figure out whatever they need to figure out - without performance, without pressure, just genuine support. It changes you. And because women accomplish everything, when they are restored and resourced, the ripple effect is immeasurable. To reach the other side of that and know I was even a small part of it that is the greatest feeling in the world. To be trusted with someone's becoming, and to watch it happen.

On a personal level, my mother was one of those women. When she was loved properly and supported thoroughly, she was absolutely thriving. That is a legacy I carry with me every single day, and one I will spend my life honoring through this work.

Find something you love and pursue it with everything you have. There will inevitably be bumps along the way - moments of doubt, pivots, hard seasons but when the work is rooted in genuine love and passion, it becomes the very thing that carries you through. That advice has proven itself true at every stage of building Holistree. The retreats, the community, the women I get to serve none of it feels like work because it was never just a business. It has always been a calling. And that love is what has kept me going for over a decade.

My best advice is honestly two-part. First, ask for help and ask for it often. Even when you think you do not need it, there is always an opportunity to receive support, and there is no strength in going it alone. The women who thrive are rarely the ones who figured it all out by themselves. They are the ones who were willing to be held.

The second piece is grace. Give yourself the same grace and leniency you so freely extend to everyone else. We are not always going to get it right. There will be seasons that do not feel good, launches that do not land, rooms that do not respond the way we hoped. That is part of the process not proof that you do not belong. We are often our own harshest critics, and learning to soften that inner voice is some of the most important work you will ever do. Growth does not require self-abandonment. You are allowed to be a work in progress and still be exactly where you are supposed to be.

One of the ongoing opportunities in this work is finding the right balance between access and experience - making sure that time and money never become the reason a woman doesn't get what she needs or has always dreamed of. That tension is something I think about constantly, and it shapes how Holistree is designed.

We offer annual international retreats that run five to seven days, giving women the full immersive experience of stepping away, going deep, and returning home transformed. But we also recognize that not every woman is ready for that or available for it right now. So we intentionally offer smaller domestic retreats over a weekend, two to three days, as well as single-day experiences. The goal is to meet women where they are while always holding the door open to more.

The challenge and the opportunity are really the same thing: creating a range of entry points into this work without ever diluting the quality or the intention behind it. Every experience, regardless of length, should feel like a full exhale. That is the standard we hold ourselves to, and it keeps us innovating in how we design and deliver every retreat we offer.

One of the values I am most proud of is the intentionality I bring to both my work and my personal life and the commitment to making sure one never swallows the other. I have worked hard to build a life where the things I love are woven into everything I do, and that includes protecting the time that belongs to the people I love most.

Family is my highest priority right now, and I mean that practically, not just philosophically. I put family time on my calendar the same way I schedule a retreat or a client call. It might be an hour and a half on the phone with my sister but if it is not protected, it does not always happen. Life moves fast, and I have learned not to leave the people who matter most to chance.

My sister is a new mom, and watching her baby discover the world is one of the greatest joys of my life right now. My goddaughter is growing up. These are the moments I refuse to miss. Losing my mother in 2024 deepened that conviction in ways I am still processing — it sharpened how I see time, how I hold people, and what I choose to show up for.

The last two years have been about doubling down on presence. Creating memories on purpose. That is a value I carry into my work too because the women I serve deserve that same quality of presence from me. You cannot pour from a life you are not actually living.