A transformational weekend retreat for gay men 50+ ready to flourish in their next act
March 27 - 29, 2026
The Dinah Shore Estate
Palm Springs, California
ABOUT
Create Your Next Act
Here we are in our 50s, 60s, 70s, or beyond. We’ve lived lives rich with experiences—building careers, deepening friendships, nurturing marriages and partnerships, and creating meaningful lives in countless other ways. We’ve also faced some profound challenges that have shaped us over the years. And now, standing on the cusp of a new chapter, we ask ourselves: What’s next?
We’re bringing together a group of gay men 50+ across different life stages who are eager to explore just that for a gathering in Palm Springs—to look honestly at what matters now. Together, we’ll imagine what’s possible for the years ahead. How can we build on the richness of our lives so far—our experience, our wisdom, our heart—to create what comes next for each of us? Where do we want to grow, reconnect, or recalibrate?
If something in you is stirring for what’s next, join a vibrant group of your peers for a transformative weekend retreat at the stunning Dinah Shore Estate in historic Old Las Palmas.
Are you ready?
APPROACH
What You’ll Experience: The Ask What Matters Approach to Total Well-Being
Your workshop experience is grounded in a research-based methodology used successfully with individuals and organizations around the world for over a decade. We will facilitate guided conversations, interactive exercises, and hands-on workshops in a supportive environment. Here’s what we’ll dive into:
1
Day One
What Matters Now
Where are you right now? What gives your life meaning and purpose? How do your current choices align with what you say matters most?
2
Day TWO
What’s Your Next
What do you want to create more of – or less of – in your life? How do you want to make the most of the time that is flying by? How do you actively cultivate your relationship with self? What is your relationship with others? How do you develop friendships and community in new ways?
3
Day THREE
What’s Your Game Plan
What are your self-limiting beliefs and how can you overcome them? What is your new narrative? What are your Ideas and opportunities that you will commit to in your action plan?
We’ll have time for some fun too in a quintessential Palm Springs setting – enjoy the iconic mid century Donald Wexler designed house, and on the grounds take part in tennis, pickleball, swimming, great food and intimate meals and, along the way, forge new friendships.
Agenda
Day One (Friday)
4:00 pm
Dinah Shore room check ins (for those who have booked rooms here)
7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Dessert
Opening Session: What Matters Now?
Guest Speaker: Dr. James Mellon
Day Two (Saturday)
7:00 am–7:45 am
Physical Fitness Class with Founder of Atlas Training Club (Optional)
8:30 am–12:30 pm
Session: What Matters Now?
Session: What’s Your Next?
12:30 pm–1:30 pm
Lunch at Dinah Shore Estate
1:30 pm–5:00 pm
Session: What’s Your Next?
Outdoor Experience
5:00 pm–7:00 pm
Personal time
7:00 pm–9:00 pm
“Gala” Dinner at Dinah Shore Estate
Day Three (Sunday)
7:00 am–7:45 am
Physical Fitness Class with Founder of Atlas Training Club (Optional)
8:00 am–12:00 pm
Session: What’s Your Game Plan?
Session Close and Declarations of Commitment
Venue and Accommodations
Workshop Venue
Join us for the What Matters Next Workshop at the legendary Dinah Shore Estate in Palm Springs. This iconic mid-century modern retreat, nestled in the exclusive Old Las Palmas neighborhood, offers the perfect backdrop for renewal and connection. Set on 1.3 acres the estate features:
- Sweeping mountain views that inspire reflection
- Expansive indoor–outdoor living spaces for engaging conversations
- A resort-style pool and spa for relaxation
- Tennis and pickleball courts for active fun
With its refined yet welcoming atmosphere, the Dinah Shore Estate provides an ideal setting for us!
Accommodations
The Dinah Shore Estate offers limited on-site accommodations for workshop participants. If you are interested in securing a room at the estate, please indicate that on the registration page.
Please note that accommodations at the Dinah Shore Estate are available exclusively for the duration of our workshop, scheduled from March 27 to March 29, 2026. Overnight stays can only be arranged for these two nights. All prices listed below are per room, single or double occupancy and include all taxes and fees.
- Primary Suite – $750/night
- Cabana – $750/night
- Guest Rooms (3) – $500/night
- Back-of-house room (2 twin beds) – $250/night
We also have a few personal suggestions for Palm Springs hotels:
Celebrate Your Life
This isn’t about fixing yourself. It’s a celebration of the life you’ve built — all the learned experiences that have brought you here to this moment — and a few lightbulb moments that may shift what’s possible for your next act.
Bring your curiosity and commitment. We’ll bring inspiration and cool vibes. Together we’ll have great conversations.
You’ll leave with clarity, a game plan, and daily tools for living at your best.
Your next act is waiting.
And it just might be your best one yet.
Workshop Leaders
Paul Sherman
Paul Sherman is a Harvard-educated certified executive and personal coach with 35+ years of experience empowering people and organizations worldwide to grow, transform, and thrive. His diverse client base includes Google, Procter and Gamble, and Moderna Therapeutics. Recognized by Forbes as a “miracle medium,” he is the co-author of Ask What Matters?! A Practical Approach to Your Total Well-Being, where he translates decades of insight into practical, life-changing tools. After relocating to Palm Springs eight years ago and experiencing the life changing experience of divorce, he’s dedicated to awakening others to flourish in their later years—equipping them to imagine and live into a vibrant, fulfilling next chapter.
Why This Matters To Me
Soterios and I have developed What Matters Next as a shared offering born from our collective experience, curiosity, and care for this moment in life. Over the past several years, I’ve watched not only myself but many of the men around me navigate transition—relationships shifting, identities evolving, careers changing shape, priorities rearranging themselves in ways we didn’t always anticipate. There’s a tenderness and a power in this stage of life. We’re not starting over—but we are being invited to create again. And I wanted a space where we could do that honestly, thoughtfully, and together.
At almost 60, I find myself in a chapter I never saw coming. When my husband and I moved to Palm Springs eight years ago, we came seeking possibility and new experiences—a fresh horizon. Instead, I found myself navigating an unexpected divorce that reshaped the landscape of my life. It was a profound turning point—one that asked me to consider who I was becoming, not just who I had been.
What I came to understand is this: life invites us to evolve, sometimes in ways we never would have scripted for ourselves. Change doesn’t always arrive gently. Sometimes it disrupts. Sometimes it redirects. But when we meet those moments with curiosity rather than resistance, something meaningful begins to unfold. We are ushered—quietly, insistently—toward a fuller expression of who we truly are.
As an executive and personal coach, I have spent my professional life walking alongside individuals and teams as they navigate growth, change, uncertainty, and possibility. Forbes once described me as a “miracle medium,” but the real miracle is what happens when people pause long enough to ask themselves: What matters now? And what matters next?
Through my own process of re-imagining, I’ve learned this: there is always more life available to us. More joy. More meaning. More connection. More of our true selves.
This workshop isn’t about fixing anything. It’s about creating the future with intention, honesty, and community.
If something in you is stirring, join us.
Soterios Rouman
Soterios Rouman is a senior executive and business leader with more than 35 years of experience leading startups, Fortune 500 organizations, and advisory work with senior leadership teams. He is the current founder and CEO of IncuBay, a coaching and consulting firm. Soterios also founded and served as CEO of the venture-backed FinTech company Achex (acquired by First Data) and later led Capital One’s Merchant Services Division. His commitment to helping others flourish in their next acts and live their fullest lives is also currently reflected in his volunteer leadership as Board Chair of Sunny Dunes Clubhouse, a nonprofit recovery community. A Harvard graduate with an MBA from Stanford, Soterios lives in Palm Springs with his husband.
Why This Matters To Me
In 2017, at age 51, I retired after a successful and long career as an entrepreneur and executive leader and moved to Palm Springs with my longtime husband to live happily ever after. Or so I thought.
Knowing that strong relationships and a sense of purpose are heavily correlated to well-being and happiness, I made it my full-time job to find and nurture those things. I started having coffee with at least one new person every week, a habit I continue to this day. A sober alcoholic and recovering codependent, I dove into the Palm Springs recovery community. I’m adopted, and it was about this time that I also discovered and connected with a whole new family – my birth mother, as well as five half-siblings on both sides. I got to know and love each of them. I was thriving. And I was busy. Too busy to see that my marriage of 26 years was about to fall apart, which it did the following year. My world turned upside down.
Suddenly the retirement math had changed, along with everything else in my life. Should I move? Should I go back to work? Doing what?
I dove into figuring that out – with the community of friends I had now built up to support and guide me. I had become enchanted with Palm Springs and decided to stay. I fell in love again and have remarried a wonderful man. I started working again, but in a brand-new career, this time as an executive and personal coach, helping people figure out their own paths forward and how to live their best lives.
Nearly everything in my life has changed in the 10 years since I turned 50.
The people in my life, many of whom are also gay men 50+, are often also experiencing profound changes. Retirement or second-act careers. Redefined relationships. Or stability that sometimes leads to boredom. I love helping them figure out what matters to them and what comes next. How to lead their best lives. Just as others helped me. As a friend. Or as a coach.
I am so excited to be working with Paul to bring this important work to a group setting, as we bring What Matters Next to life. Together we will discover what matters most in our lives, and how to create our best futures and our best selves.
Guests
Dr. James Mellon
Dr. James J. Mellon is a sought-after speaker, teacher and inspirational leader in the field of personal growth. He is the author of the book, “The Five Questions,” and “Mental Muscle: 16 Weeks of Spiritual Bootcamp.” He lectures throughout the United States and Canada. His prosperity program, “Core Prosperity Relief” has attracted thousands of participants for each 30-day workshop.
Dr. James received his Doctorate in Consciousness Studies from the Emerson Theological Institute and is the Founding Spiritual Director of Global Truth Center LA, a spiritual community of love and unconditional acceptance. Combining the arts with spirituality, Dr. James’ primary focus and his personal vision is “Enlightenment Through Entertainment.”
Dr. James has had a successful career in the entertainment industry, which included Broadway, television, music and film. He played Riff in the Jerome Robbins revival of “West Side Story,” and toured the country as Jesus in “Jesus Christ Superstar” before turning his attention to directing and writing. He has written for television, film and has had three original musicals published for which he has written the book, music and lyrics.
Dr. James and his husband, Broadway producer & actor Kevin Bailey, live in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, and have been together for over 35 years. Their son William graduated Texas State University majoring in directing and screenwriting. Their daughter Nora, Will’s twin sister, made her transition in 2018 during her first year of college at UCLA in a collision with a drunk driver. She continues providing the family with her love, light, and guidance.
“My Global Intention is to empower people to know that they can have it all, not because of what they do, but because of who they are.”
— Dr. James Mellon
Chad Ryan
Chad Ryan is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer with over a decade of experience helping clients transform their bodies, build confidence, and create lasting lifestyle change.
He founded Atlas Training Co. in Palm Springs to bring together fitness, mindfulness, and community in one inclusive space. Through Atlas, Chad is building a movement that empowers people—especially within the LGBTQ+ community and its allies—to live stronger, healthier, and more connected lives.
His approach blends science, structure, and genuine connection to help every client become their strongest self—physically, mentally, and emotionally.