Start With Y is in the air!

It has taken blood, sweat and tears, but here it is… our website!

You can have a look at www.startwith-y.com

And especially for all you Dutchies, take a look at Start With Y Online Branding is Live!

It’s all Dutch for now, but the English version is on its way. I promise!

I’m very curious what you think of it, so please feel free to comment.

 

National Achievers Congress 2011 – London

LIFE CHANGING EVENTS

There are moments in life that really make a difference. Often you don’t know until it happened. NAC2011 is not one of those moments. Not because it does not make a difference – it does! – but because you realise it on the spot.

Months ago I was talking to @sharona_5 about the Anthony Robbins event Date With Destiny she’s going to attend in Australia. She’d already been to Unleash the Power Within and now was spending shitloads – pardon my French – of money to go all the way to Oz to see him again. That intrigued me. Why would anyone fly across the world to see the same presenter again and again?

Not really knowing Robbins all that well, I decided to see where else he was presenting and I ran across the National Achievers Congress in London. What a great way to catch a glimpse of him! And moreover, Sir Richard Branson – the man behind the Virgin empire – would be there as well! I sort of took the other 13(!) achievers I’d never heard of – and the fact that there were no women lined up – for granted.

Saturday July 2 I got up at 6, switched from tube to DLR on the way to Excel and – in hindsight – had no idea what I had gotten myself into…

I should’ve guessed from the thousands of people walking around all excited. The music – ‘Feeling Hot Hot Hot’, Ricky Martin, Bob Sinclair – pumping so loud that you could actually feel the floor tremble. The cheers when the host came on stage. This was not just any event, this was going to be a Life Changing Event.

AND NOW LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MR ANTHONY ROBBINS!

After some introduction from the host, HE came on stage and I immediately realised how naïve I had been. Catching a glimpse of Tony Robbins?! The guy doesn’t give glimpses, he lights up the entire hall!

For over 4 hours he got thousands of people dancing, shouting ‘Aye’, clapping and laughing. People were high-fiving, hugging and massaging each other and telling the deepest of their secrets to new-found friends.

After watching – or better yet, experiencing – him perform for just 4 hours I can only imagine what 4 or 6 days would be like. And… what it will do to people’s lives. What an experience. As he’d say it, it was AMAZING!

[VIDEO] Anthony Robbins Causing a Frenzy – National Achievers Congress 2011 – London

After a break and my first coffee of the day – at 14:30! – I got back to see GREG SECKER telling about currency trading and how to make easy money. At first I really wondered why on earth I was listening to someone telling me how to trade currency. It only took me a moment to find out that even though the subject was not my thing, there were enough important general remarks and tips to jot down. So on the spot I decided to attend all achievers no matter what they were going to talk about or how tired I was. It turned out to be good decision.

THE ACHIEVERS

As you can imagine, the expectations of the event and the other achievers were sky high after Robbins’ performance. And to be honest, not all of them lived up to it. But how could they? How can you out-shine a man who’s been performing for many thousands of people all over the world for 20+ years?

Since there were so many achievers on stage during these three days, I will not cover all of them but I will highlight a few.

One of the achievers I must mention is T. HARV EKER. An American – and not just by nationality but more so by performance – and total idiot, but a brilliant one.
The absolute low of his entire presentation was when he said that rich people are always generous and that poor people cannot make a difference in the world since their time and little money is useless. Quite a bold thing to say, if you ask me.
Furthermore, he spoke about fear while scaring the shit out of people; about following your own path while – again – scaring the audience into feeling left out; about everyone being the same while his gestures and body language were screaming ‘I look down on YOU poor(er) people!!’ He came up with all these arguments and reasons that were total and utter bullshit but actually seemed to make sense, just by the way he was saying it. The guy was brilliant in his stupidity and his marketing strategy was the best I’ve even seen!

Someone who opened my eyes – in a positive way – was KERWIN RAE. Stand-up comedian on the side, he managed to get the audience to laugh, cheer and listen to him for 90 minutes. All of which is quite an achievement on the third day. I will tell more about what he said that made an impact on me in my next blog.

SIMON COULSON impressed me on day 2 with his talk on internet marketing. A calm guy who talked a little bit too fast, but had a great story and wasn’t jumping up and down to entertain people. All of a sudden he announced that he and his band were going to play a song because that was his dream: to perform in front of thousands of people. Cool!

KEVIN GREEN got all the women in the audience to cry when showing one of his ‘secret millionaire’ videos. An inspiring man as well.

LORD ALAN SUGAR was nice in the way that he wasn’t performing. He was interviewed my Michael Buerk and just sat there, answering questions and telling his story. I’ve never seen The Apprentice, but apparently people get the impression from that show that he is a mean bullying tiran. On stage he was just a nice, honest and funny guy you shouldn’t mess around with.
When asked what one piece of advice he could give the audience he just said “now that is a stupid question, there are so many different people here, how can I give them one piece of advice?!”

SALES PITCHES AND BARGAINS

After three days of listening to and watching highly experienced public speakers, it was easy to recognise their build up. First, there was a 20-minute introduction to build up the tension and tell what they were going to talk about. Then there was the actual story for 40 minutes and then the 30-minute sales talk started.

The first few times everyone was impressed about the enormous discounts the achievers were giving. Packages that would normally costs 17,000-20,000 pounds would now be on sale for 1,997.  People were actually running to the counters to make use of these offers. After watching this happen 3 times most of us realised that nearly ALL packages were sold at 1,997 and it became the pun of the event. But still, the bargains were AMAZING! I myself was deeply impressed by the sales pitches and how they went on an on and created this AMAZING hunger that people would actually run for it. There was even talk that people who are part of the team start running to create even more sense of urgency. Ridiculous but smart.

I wasn’t tempted at all, until on the second day ANDY HARRINGTON came on stage. He was such an incredibly talented public speaker who actually teaches people to become public speakers, that I caught myself thinking ‘what would I be willing to pay for this?’

When his offer came up for only… 1,997 (or something of the like) it took me a few minutes and a very vivid internal discussion with my little voices before I decided to go for it.

Just for the record, I didn’t run to the counter. I hurried. I never run unless I’m being chased, not even for a really good deal.

I was so excited my hands were all sweaty, my heart was pounding and I completely blanked out on my personal details when I had to fill out the form. Now that’s when you realise you’re doing something major and life changing.

Both my new friends decided to buy the same offer because – and these were their exact words – they couldn’t miss out on becoming millionaires with me. Fair enough.

There were a few other very interesting offers but I choose to listen to the wise words of the achievers: focus on one thing. And then there was the small detail that I’d sort of run out of money.

On the third day, JOSEPH MCCLENDON III caused an outburst of relief and happiness amongst the entire audience when he announced he wasn’t going to sell us anything. He got everyone on their feet and got them to scream ‘BRING IT!’ from the top of their lungs. Which was a nice change from ‘YES!’, ‘AYE’, ‘You’re AMAZING’ etc.

Finally, the man we’d all been waiting for came on stage on Monday night. SIR RICHARD BRANSON. A calm, normal guy wearing jeans and a shirt that clearly wasn’t ironed. Speaking about his co-workers as if he was talking about his own flesh and blood. Telling about how he wanted (and still wants) to make a difference in people’s lives and have a blast while doing it. He’s not about money or fame, he’s an idealist that wants to make the world a better place. When asked what his one piece of advice was by Michael Buerk he said ‘Screw it, just do it!’ Which – of course – was followed by an outburst of cheers by the audience.

[VIDEO] Sir Richard Branson of Virgin on stage – National Achievers Congress 2011 – London

DISNEYLAND ON STEROIDS

At the end of the congress on Monday night, some of the achievers that were still present walked around for Q&A, autographs and pictures. What happened much resembled Mickey Mouse walking around Disneyland…

THE BIGGER – BETTER – PICTURE

As you can imagine, you get a lot of information during three days from 9 till 9 and close to 20 people on stage. Still, there was a very clear message in all of the stories:

Becoming rich is not about the money itself, it’s about what the money means to you. For some this is expensive cars, 12-bedroom villas, fame or a private helicopter. For others it’s giving money away to charity, supporting their parents or securing their kids’ future. All of the – very rich – achievers mentioned that money IS important, because it brings freedom to do whatever you want. Sounds obvious, right? Still I get the creeps when someone on a stage yells ‘So who wants a lot of money!!’ and thousands of people yell, jump or ‘high-five’ in response. But that’s probably just my Dutch nature.

THAT’S A WRAP

So, three days of excitement, of hearing the expressions ‘yesoryes, people? YESORYES?!’, or ‘EVERYONEINTHEROOMWHOLIKESTOMAKEMOREMONEYRAISE-YOURHANDANDSAYAYE’ more than you can imagine, of being surrounded by thousands of friendly people that like to connect. That’s quite a lot to take in.

I wonder how many people went to work on Tuesday morning telling their co-workers that ‘it was quite a nice event’ and then sitting down behind their desks doing the things they’ve always done. And how many people actually walked up to their managers saying, “here’s my key, it was a pleasure working for you, but now I’m off to change the world”.

I’d like to ask the people that were present at NAC2011 to comment on this. What have you done with the information since? What was your impression of the event? Which achiever did you like best? And what are you going to do now? Are you a seminar-junkie who will just attend the next NACs and all of Tony Robbins’ events and dream on? Or are you taking action right now to change your living conditions, your life or even the world?

How do you keep hold of the feeling you had during these three days and how are you going to inspire others?

Of course, for those of you who haven’t (yet) been to any of the NACs you can respond as well. What do you do to change your living conditions or how do you inspire others?

In my next blog I will talk about wishes, dreams and making a difference.