This month we sat down to talk with April Nova Scipio, owner of novaCo and founder of novaRetreat. What started as a small gathering and has grown into a yearly tradition that’s changing lives one weekend at a time. Now heading into its fourth year, nova Retreat is proof that you don’t have to scale big to make a big impact. While other parts of her business are built to grow wide and welcome everyone, the retreat stays intentionally small. As April put it, growing the retreat isn’t about figuring out “how do you scale it” and getting “all the people” — it’s about protecting the intimacy that makes the experience work in the first place.

Why novaRetreat Exists

At its core, novaRetreat is about one thing: creating space for women to be poured into, not just to keep pouring out.

“I’m the girl that’s like, all right, great job pouring out. Come hang out with me so I can get that cup filled back up so then you can go and be poured out again,” April shared. It’s a message that hits home for so many of us — moms, business owners, caretakers — who give so much of ourselves that we forget someone needs to refill our cup too.

April is quick to point out that the goal isn’t to send women home to simply rest and disengage. The point is to send them back out stronger. Retreat is meant to be a starting point, not a finish line — a weekend that ripples outward into every relationship in an attendee’s life, from her kids to her business to her marriage. The hope is that a mom leaves with more energy to pour into her children, which builds their confidence, which changes how they show up at school — a chain reaction that starts with one weekend of rest.

Zero Decisions, All Rest

One thing that sets novaRetreat apart is how intentional founder April is about removing decision fatigue. Every meal, every detail of the schedule, every logistic — handled. Attendees show up and simply exist.

“This year was zero decisions they had to make. It was so awesome, and they really came and just felt so built up,” she said. That’s the result of years of small refinements — each retreat, April’s asked herself how she can serve attendees a little more by taking one more thing off their plate.

And yes — no surprise here from the moms reading — having all your food prepared for you is the unsung hero of the whole weekend. With a dedicated team member whose sole job is to cook for attendees all weekend long, nobody goes hungry, and nobody lifts a finger in the kitchen. No prep, no cooking, no cleanup — just good food and full bellies. For women who spend so much of their lives preparing meals for everyone else, that alone can is a gift.

Who novaRetreat Is For

If you’re a woman who gives — to your family, your business, your church, your community — and you’ve quietly wondered who takes care of you, this retreat was built with you in mind. Attendees come from every walk of life: stay-at-home moms pouring into their families, career-driven women building businesses, women serving faithfully in their churches. What they have in common is that they give constantly, in ways that often go unnoticed.

“It’s not a come, and everything’s fixed, but it’s like a come. Let me take an honest look at where I am and what I need,” April said of the retreat’s purpose. It’s not about arriving broken and leaving perfect — it’s about arriving honest and leaving whole.

The Support Doesn’t End When Retreat Does

New this year: a private online container that keeps the community connected for a full 12 months after retreat ends. Attendees stay supported, encouraged, and equipped long after they’ve packed up and gone home — a shift from previous years, when the online group existed mainly to build excitement before retreat and quietly wound down afterward.

“So for these next 12 months, you’re maintaining kind of the journey that you started at retreat,” April explained. It’s the kind of follow-through that turns a weekend into a lasting transformation, with tools and encouragement dropped in throughout the year rather than left behind on the last day.

A Weekend That’s Hard to Put Into Words

Ask April to describe exactly what happens at novaRetreat, and she’ll be the first to admit it’s tough to describe what happens at each retreat — not because the impact isn’t real, but because it can’t be reduced to a bullet-pointed itinerary. The weekend flexes to meet whoever is in the room. Every group is different, every need is different, and she’d rather adapt in real time than force attendees through a rigid, cookie-cutter agenda.

What April can say for certain is that women don’t leave the same way they arrived. Something happens when a room full of women from completely different backgrounds and seasons of life come together, all expecting change, all willing to be honest about where they are. It’s less a “girls’ weekend” and more the beginning of a transformation — one that continues long after everyone’s driven home, especially now that the year-long support container keeps the momentum going.

Where Retreat Is Headed

novaRetreat has intentionally stayed close to home so far, keeping logistics simple and the experience personal. But as interest continues to grow, 2027 marks a new chapter: for the first time, novaRetreat will host two retreats in a single year.

It’s a shift born out of demand, not a departure from what makes the retreat work. Rather than opening the doors wider to accommodate more women in one room, the decision was to add a second weekend — preserving the small, personal environment that’s core to the experience while still making room for more women to be poured into.

Looking further ahead, there’s a bigger vision taking shape — one that could eventually bring novaRetreat to women in different regions of the country. But for now, the priority remains the same: protect the intimacy, protect the depth, and let growth happen without sacrificing what makes the weekend transformative in the first place.

Get On the Waitlist

If this sounds like exactly the kind of reset your cup needs, don’t wait until it’s full — get on the 2027 waitlist now. Spots stay intentionally limited, so when they’re gone, they’re gone.

Click here to join the nova Retreat 2027 Waitlist!