Why I’m Spending Over $5000 On Just A Few Days In A Luxury Resort

My mouth was dry, I had butterflies in the pit of my stomach, I even thought about turning back. But I didn’t.

I remember walking into a large London pub to meet up with Chris Ducker, a businessman turned blogger, and many others there that I’d never met before. Why? My first business meetup.

This was about four years ago. A lot has happened with me and my business since then.

What was so amazing about that meet-up in a London pub all those years ago and why I’m mentioning it now? It was the first time I’d voluntarily ventured out from behind my iMac to meet business people face-to-face.

Meet-ups

Going to business meet-ups is something I have done regularly since then and something I’d advise all bloggers, writers, creatives and business-people to do as much as possible.

If you haven’t already, you should join Meetup.com. I can guarantee you won’t have time to go to all the ones you want. Two of the meet-ups I attended regularly I actually spoke at – The London WordPress meetup and the London 4-Hour WorkWeek meetup.

Speaking at events is another thing you simply must do. It helps you present your content better elsewhere.

Masterminds

If you’ve read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich then you’ll know what I’m talking about. A mastermind group is a small collection of likeminded business-people that offer a combination of brainstorming, peer-accountability and support. They can meet physically or virtually once a week or at any time.

I have also been to two Masterminds hosted by Chris Ducker. I’m not exactly sure of the figures but I think the first one, in 2012, was $150 for a day and the second one, a year later, was around $450. It seems funny now that I questioned at the time whether I should spend that on something that had no tangible value.

That’s ridiculous! Experiences that educate are always worth the investment.

Whenever I’ve spent money on education and learning experiences, it’s always totally been worth it.

So what’s the $5000 for then?

I’m going to Chris Ducker’s Tropical Think Tank in a couple of weeks. The Tropical Think Tank is a sort of mastermind / conference on steroids. It’s four days, 50 attendees and 12 or so speakers.

Who are the speakers? Well, it seems wrong to highlight any so I’m going to have to mention them all – this reads like a Who’s Who of successful online entrepreneurs in today’s content marketing space:

• Darren Rowse – What a great place to start. Darren (aka Mr ProBlogger) was probably the first “famous blogger” I was aware of. I remember linking to one of his posts back in 2008!
• James Schramko – Phew! A big fish here. James “˜fired his boss, in May 2008 (he was earning $300k+ in a car dealership at the time) and quickly developed his business well past the million dollar mark by starting and growing an online coaching community, a top level Mastermind, a website development business and traffic businesses. I have several friends who are members of SuperFastBusiness.com who literally hang on every word this guy says.
• Matthew Kimberley – I remember having a Skype call with Matthew years ago, it was obvious then to see he was going places. He is the head of the Book Yourself Solid School of Coach Training and a marketing consultant currently based in Malta.
• Dan Norris – I heard Dan speak at last year’s Dynamite Circle Bangkok Junto about setting up WPcurve to became profitable in 23 days. I loved his book The 7 Day Startup. Read it!
• Michael O,Neal – Michael is the current host of The Solopreneur Hour Podcast – a podcast that claims “Job Security for the Unemployable”. As the last time I was a paid employee was 1992, I’ve started listening to his podcast.
• Amy Schmittauer – I have been watching Amy’s videos for years. She’s a consummate YouTube performer but she’s so much more besides.
• Nick Unsworth – I know Nick as a Facebook advertising guru but nowadays he’s doing exciting things with Life On Fire a business coaching company.
• Lewis Howes – I’ve got to be honest, I’ve not followed Lewis as closely as some of the others but I have listened to his School of Greatness podcast which is great. Lewis has built several multi-million dollar online businesses and will be the keynote speaker at the event.
• John Lee Dumas – have you heard of Entrepreneur on Fire? That’s a retorical question. John started in September 2012 and has published an interview with an entrepreneur on every single day since then. John, like me, posts income reports and at the end of 2013 enjoyed his first $100,000+ month. John’s income comes mainly from the show sponsors as well as products about podcasting and hosting webinars.
• Kate Erickson – Kate is John’s better half and the Content Creator and Community Leader at EntrepreneurOnFire.

(Thanks to Brian Creager for help with the above information.)

Last year Pat Flynn was there 🙁 well, you can’t win them all! Who else could you ask for? H’mmm, Seth Godin, Elon Musk and James Altucher?

Why am I going there?

Going back to my main goal to help and inspire people to gain financial freedom and happiness in their lives, I believe investing in the Tropical Think Tank will help me grow my business and help more people.

I have seen how last year’s Tropical Think Tank helped my friend, Meron Bareket, grow his Inspiring Innovation podcast. I’ve seen how an event like NMX in 2012 helped John Lee Dumas get EntrepreneurOnFire off the ground. While I’m not expecting miracles, I am sure that bouncing ideas off 50 or so like-minded souls for a few days will help in some way.

It might be a new entrepreneurial idea, it might be a new business contact, it might be a smart marketing tactic, hey, it might even be a kick up the ass – I don’t know. But, something great will come of it.

What are the eight most common words heard in business?

For me, the eight most common words I hear are: if only I’d known that a year ago or if only I’d read that book before… or something like that.

Everyone always tells me: I wish I’d started my business earlier; I wish I’d started my email list earlier; I wish I’d started a mastermind earlier. What follows from this is we should always try innovating and moving on with our businesses.

If you could spend $5000+ to give your business or business ideas the best boost possible – what would you spend it on?