How Max Schneider Turned Mindfulness Retreats Into a Profitable Business

When burnout forced Max Schneider to step away from a decade-long consulting career, he never expected it would spark the foundation of two thriving businesses. What began as personal healing through mindfulness practices soon evolved into Sand and Salt Escapes, a retreat company for individuals seeking renewal. As word spread, executives from his professional network began asking for curated leadership experiences, planting the seeds for what would eventually become his newest venture, Ritual Retreats.

Today, Ritual Retreats blends the boardroom with breathwork, offering luxury, mindfulness-based offsites designed to help CEOs and their teams connect on a deeper level. With six figures in revenue before officially launching and a business model built on relationships and repeat clients, Schneider has proven that conscious leadership can be both transformative and profitable. In this interview, he shares the story of how he built the company, the lessons he’s learned along the way, and his advice for entrepreneurs looking to grow in alignment with their values.

How much revenue and profit does the business generate?

We had six figures in booked revenue before the company was officially formed. Ritual Retreats was born out of my first company, Sand and Salt Escapes, where we run mindfulness retreats for individuals.

As that work grew, executives from my days in management consulting reached out and asked if I could curate retreats for their leadership teams. We did that for a couple of years, until it became clear that our corporate-facing work needed its own brand to fully thrive. As I split our corporate work into a second company, we were fortunate to have clients seamlessly transition with the business.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

Ritual Retreats is a blend of my professional experience in consulting and my passion for mindfulness. But it took a while to get here.

I was in management consulting for the first 10 years of my career. At the end of 2021, I burnt out hard. I had shingles, anxiety attacks – all the good stuff. I quit working at the beginning of 2022 and leaned hard on my mindfulness practice to recover. Meditation, yoga, breathwork, and journaling provided a lot of space for me to make sense of what was going on and to reconnect with myself.

I ended up starting Sand and Salt Escapes, where we run mindfulness retreats for individuals. I started to get inquiries from leaders in my professional network who asked if I could curate a similar experience for their leadership team. As we ventured into that work, I realized the impact it had on helping executives connect with themselves and each other as human beings, and began pouring more time into it.

Eventually, it became clear that in order to give our corporate work the space it needs to grow, I needed to split it into a second company. With that, Ritual Retreats was born.

How does your business make money?

We have two revenue streams. 

The first is the retreats themselves. We only run 5-6/year, focusing intently on intimate, white-glove experiences. It’s very much a quality over quantity approach where we build deep relationships with our clients.

Our second revenue stream, mindfulness-based executive advisory, evolved naturally from that work. It’s super important that the work we do on the retreat is integrated when teams return to the business, so we always support the CEO/President with follow-up calls. It was adding a lot of value – “business therapy”, as one client called it – and we began offering those calls on a monthly basis. It’s a space for CEOs to explore what’s taking the most mindspace for them through a mindfulness lens, becoming more conscious of how they’re leading and living. 

What was your inspiration for starting the business?

When I quit my job in consulting back in 2022, I swore I would never do anything corporate ever again. I realize now that was just a coping mechanism for my burnout, but at the time, I was adamant. Then I received a call from a former manager who runs a company and is part of Young Presidents’ Organization. He shared that his Forum had an upcoming offsite that was aligned to the work I was building at Sand and Salt Escapes and asked if I’d be interested in designing/facilitating it. He’s been a friend and mentor for years, so I decided to trust and say “yes” to the opportunity.

The experience opened a door for me to see how impactful this work can be with executives. Shortly after, I had three organizations reach out asking how I could bring our work into their companies. I walked away from two of the three opportunities because they didn’t feel right, but the third was perfectly aligned with what we do. That team retreat was the catalyst for building out our corporate retreats as a proper service line within Sand and Salt Escapes.

But I quickly realized that approach wasn’t sustainable. Having one entity speaking to both corporate clients and individuals was diluting our messaging to both. At the same time, our corporate work was begging to grow but it needed its own brand and set of processes to do so.

So after a lot of contemplation, I decided to separate our corporate retreats into a second company, Ritual Retreats. I took the opportunity to interview past clients and others in my network in service of revamping both the service and the messaging. When we launched in 2024, we were fortunate to seamlessly transition our corporate clients from Sand and Salt Escapes to Ritual Retreats.

How and when did you launch the business?

Ritual Retreats was incorporated at the end of 2024 and officially launched in June 2025. The first half of 2025 was what I would describe as a “soft launch”. We were delivering on client work while not being public with the brand because of the iteration that was happening on both the brand and the messaging.

In June, I officially announced it to my network and have been promoting the company through podcasts, PR, and other similar efforts to build our organic presence.

How is the business funded? 

I bootstrapped both Sand and Salt Escapes and Ritual Retreats, which is something I’m super proud of. It took about $100k in start-up costs and losses in the first year of Sand and Salt Escapes to get to the point where we had enough social proof and organic presence to dramatically reduce acquisition costs and become profitable. 

Since Ritual Retreats was born from a proven model with a client base within Sand and Salt Escapes, the economics have been profitable from the beginning.

How did you find your first few clients or customers?

My first clients came from relationships I’d built during my consulting career. I had leaders who’d seen me in action years prior reach out after hearing about the retreats I was running in Costa Rica. They were curious if I could adapt that kind of experience for their teams.

Those early conversations opened the door to running my first corporate retreats, which not only validated the idea but also gave me a foundation of trust to build on. Over time, those engagements turned into referrals and repeat business, which has been the most natural and aligned way for us to grow.

What was your first year in business like?

The first year was intense, to say the least. I was coming off ten years in consulting, where I was used to long hours, but running a business felt entirely different. With Sand and Salt Escapes, I was essentially living on an eight-week cycle. Home for six weeks, then ten days in Costa Rica running a retreat. We hosted 11 retreats in the first 24 months, which was exhilarating but unsustainable for my well-being.

Financially, it took a few months before I started seeing steady revenue. At first, most of my energy went toward building credibility and social proof through professional imagery, refining our messaging, and experimenting with marketing channels. By the end of the first 18 months, though, the combination of paid ads and organic SEO started to pay off. Retreats were selling out months in advance, and I finally felt like we had traction.

What strategies did you use to grow the business?

For Sand and Salt Escapes, the early strategy was a two-pronged approach: paid acquisition and organic credibility. I invested heavily in Google Ads because they connected us with people actively searching for wellness retreats, and at the same time, I focused on building our organic presence through things like PR, influencer reviews, podcasts, and SEO. That combination gave us immediate bookings while also laying the groundwork for long-term demand.

When I spun Ritual Retreats into its own brand, I intentionally shifted strategies. Our work with executive teams had to reflect the nature of the service itself: personal, bespoke, relationship-driven. That meant no cold outreach through email and LinkedIn, and no generic campaigns. Instead, we focused on building deep 1:1 relationships with CEOs and Presidents through introductions, referrals, and thoughtful touches like handwritten notes.

I also leaned heavily on storytelling. Whether through podcasts, interviews, or writing, sharing the “why” behind our work has been a way to attract leaders who resonate with our values. It’s less about selling and more about creating a connection.

Another strategy that’s worked well is prioritizing repeat clients. Once a team experiences one of our retreats, they almost always want to come back. So we design our process not as a one-off event but as a foundation for an ongoing partnership. That shift from transaction to relationship has been one of the biggest drivers of growth.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?

The hardest challenge in building Ritual Retreats was learning how to talk about mindfulness in a way that resonated with CEOs. Early on, the word itself felt too soft or ambiguous for some leaders, even if the benefits were exactly what they needed. 

I spent a lot of time listening by doing things like interviewing executives, listening to CEO interviews, testing different language, and refining our message until it connected. That process taught me the importance of meeting people where they are and how to connect what we do to what’s important to them. Today, we can articulate our work in ways that make immediate sense to business leaders without losing the depth of what we do.

What have been the most significant keys to your business’s success?

Relationships, without a doubt. Every major opportunity has come through people I knew, people who referred me, or people I built trust with over time. Another key has been discipline in staying aligned and ensuring that how we market and deliver is consistent with the spirit of our work. When your business is about mindfulness and connection, every touchpoint has to embody that.

Lastly, I’d say resilience. Entrepreneurship is full of moments where it would be easier to give up. But I’ve learned to trust the process, sit with the challenges, and keep moving forward in alignment with the bigger vision. It’s a constant oscillation between seeing the big picture and doing the small details while maintaining belief in what you’re building.

Tell us about your team.

We run a very lean team by design. I’m the only full-time employee. Outside of me, our work is done through a trusted network of contractors and partners. These are people we’ve worked with for years: mindfulness practitioners, chefs, designers, advisors, photographers, and other retreat staff. The model allows us to adapt to each client’s unique needs while keeping overhead low.

What was the turning point when you knew your business was successful?

For Sand and Salt Escapes, the moment was when retreats started selling out months in advance without paid advertising. It was validation that the brand and the experience were strong enough to generate demand organically. 

With Ritual Retreats, the turning point came even earlier. Before the company was officially launched, we had six figures in booked revenue. That told me we weren’t just onto something interesting but that we were meeting a real, urgent need in the market.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned growing the business?

The biggest lesson I’ve had is learning that entrepreneurship itself is a mindfulness practice. Just like in meditation, you have to observe what’s happening, separate signal from noise, and respond in alignment rather than simply reacting. When I stopped forcing my own ideas and started listening to what the business was asking for, things started flowing much more naturally.

What separates your business from your competitors?

Most leadership offsites are about strategy sessions, team-building exercises, or surface-level workshops. We intentionally don’t do that. Ritual Retreats is about helping leaders connect with themselves and each other as human beings. That shift changes everything. We bring together my background in the boardroom with deep experience in mindfulness to create something no one else is offering: luxury experiences that are both grounding and transformative.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

Detach from outcomes. Every challenge and every so-called failure is happening for you, not to you. If you can zoom out and see each moment as part of a bigger process, it makes the hard parts easier to bear and the wins more meaningful. Build your business in alignment with who you are, and make sure how you show up in the market reflects the spirit of what you’re selling. 

What are some of your favorite books, blogs, podcasts, or YouTube channels?

Books:

• The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
• No Mud, No Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Ishmael by Daniel Quin
• The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter

Podcasts:

• The Rich Roll Podcast