I am personally an entrepreneur and into learning anything to help me be successful in what I do and of course surrounding myself with successful professionals. Since I am an entrepreneur and Tony Robbins is one of my many mentors, I keep getting this ad about a "National Achievers Congress" coming to Boston on June 8th with Tony Robbins, Tom Brady, Julian Edelman and other famous celebrities. I was like yeah yeah yeah, but then one day, I was like hmm, I want to check this out. I read Tony Robbins books and saw his videos and how about seeing the GOAT Tom Brady in person!
So I got a ticket and attended the event. I like to share with you my thoughts. The good, the bad and my thoughts going forward.
After plowing through the typical brutal Boston rush-hour traffic, I got to the event in time and got an amazing seat in the "economy" section next to some real nice people. The thing is with entrepreneurs and people that attend events like this, the energy is always positive and forward thinking. I also saw a few of my fellow business networkers from my events and some old friends.
The day started with Bethenny Frankel, reality TV Star and founder of Skinnygirl. It was odd that she was the only woman speaker of the day considering how many successful women entrepreneurs there are in the world. Bethenny was also on the Original Apprentice when Trump was cool. Bethenny talked a lot about herself and her accomplishments which may be inspiring to some people but I always like to hear more concrete information and tips to be successful. Regardless, I think she is a great inspiration for women entrepreneurs.
Next, we had Steve Wollaston, who has been investing in real estate for over 20 years, provided some insight for entrepreneurs on many different strategies for real estate investing and creative financing. It was cool that they use an example of a foreclosure in Framingham that ended up being an amazing investment. The big tip when investing in property is to not fall in love with the house! Steve was pretty good with tactical information but unfortunately, toward the end, the first of many of those sales pitches to attend his three day class to learn the ins and outs of real estate investing was forced down our throats.
After Steve Wollaston, we had a surprise guest, Mr, Wonderful himself, Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank. He provided some great business tips including how you need to tell your opportunity to someone in less than 90 seconds and you need to know your numbers and understand your business model. Of course if you watch Shark Tank, you know how much Kevin loves money. Kevin did not push any three day class on us.
Next we had Steve Sitkowski, a financial services expert, who recommended investing in stocks since since the end of World War II, the average large stock has returned close to 10% a year, well ahead of inflation and other saving vehicles. A great quote from Steve was "You can be watching Netflix or you can be trading Netflix, your choice". Other notes are that 86% of mutual funds don't make money and money in checking/savings account are dead money. Once again, there was a huge sales pitch to attend Steve's three day class on how to be a financial expert. I love how they saw for today only we will give you a huge discount only if you sign up today. Already, this is getting old.
Next we had Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Camping World and CNBC Host of the Profit. Peter's famous "three Ps principle - People, Process and Product - is his mainstay for assisting struggling businesses around the country. Peter focused his presentation on how leaders need to be compassionate and care about the people aspect of their team. Peter brought a few people on stage to tell their story which was a nice change from the previous speakers who focused specifically on making money. Finally, Peter recommended leaders to not hide their vulnerability and show their personal side.
Dennis Cummins, the Author of the #1 best-seller of Turning Terrible into Terrific, was quick-witted and had a no-nonsense style speaking to the over 10,000 attendees at the seminar. He mentioned facts like only 5 in 100 people are financially secure and people are programmed to think a certain way whether it is mental, spiritual, emotional or physical. The important tip is to always be looking for information to help meet your goals. Once again, there was the old three day class on how to be financially free. This time they had staff pass out forms to fill out to attend their class. A little over the top with their sales tactics.
Next on the agenda and the last speaker before Tony Robbins and Tom Brady, was Gerry Robert, who made it known numerous times that he is the "warm-up" to get the crowd going for Tony Robbins. Gerry is an expert at publishing and is known for the book "Publish a Book and Grow Rich". I really listened to what Gerry had to say since I am planning on writing a book on Business Networking. Gerry's tips when writing a book is to determine your primary objective, write the right content, design an awesome cover and then capture leads. A book can be used to boost sales, use for free publicity, get others to pay for everything and then use the book to create cashflow. Good tips, but once again, and this was getting comical, the three day class on how to write your own book was slammed down our throats.
By now, I figured that is almost eight thousand dollars in classes between the speakers so far. I forgot to mention, for the best seats including meeting the speaker, you were looking at a five thousand dollar ticket to get in the place. Some bank accounts got a little dent after this one.
Ok, the featured speaker, Mr. Tony Robbins, came on stage to loud dance music and cheering. He knows how to get people going with his stretchy of "I !!!" when he wanted you to repeat what he says. He has a Millionaire Mindset Event coming up so he went into that first and got it out of the way, then he went into the crowd and down the aisles preaching about conditioning yourself for success and increasing your capacity. Basically, anyone can be successful if you simply increase your capability and looking into your inner soul and change your thinking. In reality this is so true since we all are born the same way, and the ones that are successful think successfully. Tony is one of the most energetic speakers I have even seen in person and he is a big dude. Tony was to come out again later, but first you know who was coming next. The GOAT.
Yes, the crowd was buzzing and it was surreal when they were showing the amazing comeback by our Patriots in Super Bowl LI. Yes Tom Brady and Julian Edelman were in the house. The place was the most electrifying it has been all day. You know about 60-70% at the event was there for Tom and not Tony. Tony had an interview style setup with Tom and Julian, Both of the Patriot stars talked about their humble beginnings and how they stay fiercely focused internally to meet their goals. Tom mentioned that he is always learning and striving to be better Tom and Julian mentioned that external forces do not affect their focus on the game. Both players were very down to earth and appreciative that they were there. I can honestly say that Tom is my mentor simply for the fact that he is always learning despite the fact we all know he is the greatest quarterback of all time. Wow, now we can breath... awesome.
Once Tom and Julian left the stage, about 30-40% of the attendees left the building too, however Tony Robbins was not done yet. He still had another hour and half to go! But boy, did the people that left miss perhaps the most inspiring part of the event. Tony went into the crowd and down the aisles to loud thumping music and yelled out those "I !!" whenever he wanted the crowd to repeat what he said. Tony recommended mastering the science of achievement and experience the art of fulfillment. He used Robin Williams as an example of mastering the science of achievement but not being fulfilled. He mentioned focus is the power of absolute clarity and commitment and you need hunger to take massive action and effective execution. Basically success without fulfillment is failure and life is too short to suffer. The basis of fulfillment is that you must grow and you must give to others. Tony also mentioned that you should trade your expectations for appreciations. Pretty deep stuff. By now, I was on my 13th hour of the event, but I had laser focus on what Tony was saying. Awesome.
The event ended right before 9pm and I left the event with mixed emotions. I did not like all of the sales tactics especially consider it was a pricey event for some attendees. The price range for tickets ranged from $75 to $4995. The tips were great but as always, it is what you do after the event is more important. I think Marcus Lemonis and Tony were the best speakers, with Dennis Cummins a close second. Bethenny Frankel was too focused on herself and the two Steve's provided great advice on real estate and finances but the sales push for their classes was a little over the top. Mr. Wonderful was himself and then finally Tom Brady and Julian Edelman was very sincere, down-to-earth, and provided some great highlights of their careers. Btw, they are not done yet, the drive for six!
All in all, I know I need to work on myself to be a better leader and more successful entrepreneur, and I felt I got some great nuggets to take massive action on.
