Where experienced coaches pause, reflect and shape what's next
Our story
How The Next Chapter Retreat was born
Julie Smith and Sarah Fraser, Paris 2026
The story of The Next Chapter Retreat began in 2020, when we met during an online Conscious Business coach training programme.
Over several weeks, we found ourselves in the same Zoom breakout rooms, alongside four other coaches who quickly became familiar faces. We explored ideas, welcomed challenging questions and formed genuine connections.
When the programme ended, none of us wanted those conversations to stop. Although our six-person mastermind group is spread across Asia, Europe and North America, we've continued to meet every month for peer coaching, mastermind discussions and group supervision. That commitment to learning, reflection and supporting one another has continued ever since, with the group meeting in person in London and Paris, and Berlin next on the list.
Over time, amid all those conversations, we realised we'd both been quietly holding onto the same idea: creating a retreat for experienced coaches.
For years, it had remained just that... an idea. Working together gave us the fresh thinking, shared energy and accountability to finally bring it to life.
As we explored what we wanted to create, one theme kept emerging.
The coaching landscape was changing.
More and more experienced coaches were telling us that work no longer seemed to arrive through the routes it once had. Referrals had slowed. Associate opportunities felt less certain. Many had become weary of the constant stream of LinkedIn messages promising guaranteed leads, six-figure coaching businesses and marketing "secrets" that never felt quite right.
The question we kept hearing wasn't:
"How do I market myself better?"
It was:
"How do I build a business that genuinely reflects the coach I've become?"
That conversation resonated because it wasn't just something we were hearing from other coaches. It was something we'd both been reflecting on ourselves.
We could see a gap in the coaching world. There are plenty of programmes that help people become coaches, build a business from scratch or gain credentials. But where was the space for experienced coaches to pause, reflect and evolve?
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A space to reconnect with who they've become as a coach.
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A space to align years of experience with the value they now bring.
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A space to refresh their business so it reflects the coach they are today, not the one they were when they first started.
From those conversations, The Next Chapter Retreat was born. A place for experienced coaches to step back, think differently about their business, and create one that reflects their next chapter.
Meet Sarah
Sarah Fraser is an experienced international leadership coach, mentor coach, facilitator, and former global marketing and brand leader with over 25 years' experience.
As a Master Certified Coach (MCC), she has delivered more than 3,500 hours of coaching to leaders and teams from over 45 nationalities, partnering with clients across a wide range of industries and cultures.
Sarah loves supporting mid-to-senior level women in the technology sector to develop their leadership identity, strengthen their confidence and executive presence, and accelerate their careers with authenticity. Her clients have included leaders at organisations such as Google, Dell, Salesforce, Cloudflare, and other global technology companies.
Since 2018, Sarah has also mentored more than 30 coach development cohorts, helping coaches deepen their practice and achieve International Coaching Federation (ICF) credentials.
Increasingly, she supports experienced coaches to evolve not only their coaching but their business—clarifying their positioning, articulating their unique value, and building practices that reflect who they are today rather than who they were when they first started.
Before becoming a coach, Sarah spent 13 years in the technology industry across the UK, USA and the Netherlands, leading global marketing and brand for international organisations. Her commercial background brings an intuitive and considered perspective to help coaches define what they stand for, communicate their value with confidence, and attract work that aligns with their strengths, values, and aspirations—without relying on marketing that feels inauthentic.
With just the right blend of support and challenge, Sarah helps people go from 'I wish I was...' to 'I am...'.
Meet Julie
Julie Smith is an executive coach, facilitator and leadership development consultant with over 25 years' experience helping leaders, teams and organisations think more clearly about the challenges they face. Through coaching, facilitation and leadership programmes, she has worked with thousands of clients across five continents, partnering with senior leaders to navigate complexity, strengthen decision-making and unlock better thinking.
Julie believes most leadership challenges aren't solved by working harder or finding another model. They are solved by seeing the situation differently. Known for asking the question that changes the conversation, she helps people step back from the noise, challenge assumptions and uncover possibilities they had been too close to see.
Her work spans executive coaching, leadership development, team coaching and facilitation, with particular expertise in executive readiness, organisational change and helping leaders have the conversations they would rather avoid. She combines practical business experience with a deep understanding of human behaviour, creating environments where people think honestly and differently.
Alongside her organisational work, Julie became increasingly interested in the questions experienced coaches ask as their practice matures. Through facilitating workshops for coaches around the world, she noticed a recurring pattern: coaches continued to grow in confidence, capability and experience, but their businesses often remained built around decisions they had made years earlier. That insight became one of the foundations of The Next Chapter Retreat.
Known for her warmth, curiosity and gently provocative style, Julie helps people ask better questions, because better questions create better thinking, and better thinking changes everything.