Live Experience 2019

I remember the day so well. It was a Thursday night in Manchester and I’d sold 10 tickets to an evening event I was running called DARETOGROW.

I was feeling so nervous I felt demobilised. Frozen to the spot in the living room that morning. 

Five times I thought about cancelling the event; making up multiple excuses in my head.

Fever. Family emergency. Traffic. The usual excuses.

But 7pm rolled around and I turned up.

I was wearing heals, skinny jeans, a smart top and had my long blonde hair in loose curls. This is an actual picture from that night! 

I was ready, but terrified.

As people started to arrive, I met them with a hug and introduced them to the other guests. 

At 7:30 I took my place at the front and delivered a ‘motivational speech’ I’d been working on all week. 

My process was this: notes on a piece of paper, turned into a full write up on Word, re-condensed into cue cards. It was a full on speech! 

By 8:15 I was done.

We all stayed for a glass of wine, chatted and by 9pm it was all over and I was wiped out and ready for a hot bath. Mostly from the stress I’d put myself under the night before.

I was still in debt at the time. I was still battling depression. So it felt like I was living a dual existence; one foot in reality and one foot in my dreams.

I ran events like that every month for about a year and then I had a brainwave:

‘What if I ran a day-event as part of The Online Course’ I’d built!’

The Online Course is a 12 week online programme teaching people how to uncover their purpose, change their life and make a living doing what they love. We’ve just launched Cohort 10. 

That way, I’d get to meet people I was working with online and I could focus on delivering a deeper transformation for the people who came because they’d be well on their way to change as a result of the course content!

Boom. DARETOGROW / The Live Experience was born! What started an evening talk turned into a one day event, then a short weekend and is now a jam packed weekend of transformation, with music, dancing, guest speakers and even meditation! 

So this weekend saw 40 of us gather in Colony Coworking Space in Manchester for the massive two-day event.

We started with introductions from everyone on the course and we all cheered and whooped as each person found the courage to walk to the front of the room and share their learning with the group.

It was incredible to see people from Cohort 10 come up and share the transformation they’d experienced in their confidence, their self belief and even their happiness in the few short weeks since the course began.

Seeing people come up from previous cohorts was incredible too. One wonder woman had left work and was launching her online course. Another had generated tens of thousands in revenue and had hired her first team members! Whaaaaatt!!!

I closed my mouth, wiped the tears of joy from my eyes and took to the front to share a guided visualisation where people get to experience a day in their dream life. The aim was to get people into the energy state of their dream life. It’s one thing reading your goals and it’s quite another experiencing the manifestation of those dreams in a full body visualisation exercise.

Alice then stood up and delivered a knockout session on manifestation. The content was brand new for the event and people really caught on to her approach for attracting dream clients! We don’t have to chase them down. We can welcome them in instead.

One thing Alice asked in particular really struck a cord with people: “What are you committed to this year?”

Alice said there is no point having a goal in focus if we’re not truly committed to it – we might as well let ourselves off the hook and spare the heartache.

I love it. It really made us all question what action we were taking now to make the dream come true!

We were even treated to a Kundalini Yoga chanting experience. It was magical! Thank you Alice!

That night, people met up with each other, went out for dinner, slept and journalled as they refreshed ready for day two.

On day two, after jumping around to music we blasted through the PA system to get our energy levels back up, we opened with a focus on the product or service people would be bringing to the world.

I really wanted people to leave with (1) focus on their offering and (2) the energy to bring it to life.

This is where my concept of ‘first shit version’ came in as I challenged people to build something or put someone on in the next 30 days. This could be their first event for a small group of people (just like I did back in 2015). It could be a Facebook live. Anything that enables them to take a step towards their dream of making a living doing what they love.

Then the wonderful Nicky Thackray – founder of MyZenDays and a former member of the course – took to the front of the room and led everyone in a ‘future-self meditation’. We were all guided 10 years into the future where we meet the future version of ourselves. We saw our future homes and experienced our future lives. It was beautiful and the room was filled with a mix of silence, tears and laughter.

I felt humbled and still – looking around the room at the end of the session – with an overwhelming recognition of the work everyone was doing within themselves that weekend.

We finished the event with a focus on marketing for purpose-driven entrepreneurs. I shared my formula for building a warm and supportive online community who can’t wait to work with you and wrapped up with final teas and coffees before everyone left to make their way back home.

It’s hard to explain what goes down at these events.

People turn up nervous and apprehensive and leave exhilarated, lifted and focused.

I always recommend a few days of journalling, walking / exercising and eating after the event: Time to let the ideas settle and return to the physical plain!

These events are getting bigger and bigger and more and more electric. One thing people comment on more than anything is the explosive energy they feel over the weekend and the sheer friendliness of the people who attend.

I have to say, I could not do this without my incredible team! Shout out to Matt who leads our video efforts, Amy who shares all this delicious content with you every day and Amie Crews who helps me look after the community in The Online Course. This weekend, Matt was capturing key scenes and talks. (And he managed to squeeze in a handful of wonderful testimonials to help future movement makers decide if The Online Course is right for them.) Amy was snapping away on photos – I can’t wait to see the group photo she got at the end – there were benches and balancing involved! And Amie Crews was…well, the glue, the smoothness and the coach this weekend. Thank you all!

Want to come along in 2020?

 

DARETOGROW / The Online Course is my flagship online course for good people who want to uncover their purpose, change their life and make a living doing what they love. Click the link below to join the waiting list and be the first to hear when the course re-opens. The Live Experience weekend event is complimentary and exclusive to course members.