Conscious Growth Workshop DVDs

I received the initial DVD masters from the videographer — 8 DVDs total for the whole weekend. I’ll start watching them this week to see if any additional edits are needed to create the final product.

After that I’ll need someone to design a cover/package for the DVDs and then get a bunch of them duplicated so we can start shipping them.

For anyone who pre-ordered the DVDs at the workshop and paid via credit card, your card won’t be charged till the DVDs actually ship.

It’s hard to say how long it will take for the DVDs to be ready since I’ve never made DVDs before. I should have a better idea after I watch the DVDs and see how much more editing will be needed. My goal is to get them released by the end of the year.

As for pricing, I’m leaning toward $297 for the set, but I’ll likely offer a $100 discount for the first few weeks or so.

Conscious Growth Workshop #2

The second Conscious Growth Workshop is 2-1/2 months away, January 15-17, 2010 at the Flamingo in Las Vegas.

Just a reminder that the $100 early registration discount expires on December 15th. After that the price will be $597 instead of $497.

I’m really looking forward to doing another workshop. The energy people brought to the first one was just amazing! It’s been 4 weeks since the last one, and I’m still buzzing with excitement from it.

To learn more about the workshop and to register for it, please see the Conscious Growth Workshop page. You may also want to check out the Workshop FAQ, which will help you plan your trip to Las Vegas — my favorite city on earth.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Hot Topic Media products page

After posting my review of Man Transformation, I still had lots of other products from the same publisher (Hot Topic Media) to review and potentially recommend. It is a ton of material to go through, however, and I think it would be way overkill to attempt to write a separate review for every product. So I opted to simply add a separate Hot Topic Media products page that lists their top-selling, most recommended products for men and women. This page is linked from the bottom of the Man Transformation page.

Hot Topic Media has a hugely successful dating and relationships product line with more than 40 products created by top experts in their fields. I wish I had time to review them all because I’ve found them fascinating so far, but that would require watching dozens and dozens more DVDs, and if I do it at a pace that’s comfortable for me, it could take more than a year.

At this point I can personally recommend two more of their products I really liked: On Being a Man and Deep Inner Game. All of their products include a free 30-day trial and a money-back guarantee. Check out the Hot Topic Media products page for the details.

My Mac experience

I’m really enjoying my new Macbook Pro so far. It took me a while to get used to the interface, but overall the adaptation has been fairly easy. The hardest part was getting used to using command-C, command-V, command-X, command-Z instead of using the ctrl key, but I’ve got the hang of it now. I also found it odd that closing a window doesn’t close the app and that I have to close the app from the menu bar or by hitting command-Q.

Fortunately most of my work involves using online tools, so I don’t actually need that much native software. Once I figured out the web browser, I was able to be productive right away. I do miss Google Chrome, but Safari is working out okay so far.

I really like that I can connect the hard drive from my PC to my Mac (via a USB enclosure), and access all my PC files. It’s painlessly simple to open my MS-Office documents on my Mac without having to convert the file format.

For HTML editing and FTP, I’ve been using Coda and Transmit (I used HomeSite and CuteFTP on my PC). These two apps were among the most popular recommendations I received when I asked about Mac apps on Twitter and Facebook. I’m very thankful for all the people who gave me software suggestions within minutes of my asking.

I found Coda and Transmit very easy to learn and was editing files on my website within minutes after installing them. Right now I’m still using the free trial versions. I especially like that Transmit is built into Coda, so I’m wondering if I can get by with just Coda by itself. In general I tend to prefer try-before-you-buy software as opposed to free open-source software because in my experience the features, quality, usability, and support are usually better. Coda is $99.

What I like most about the Mac is the usability. The interface is elegantly designed, and it isn’t cluttered with stuff I don’t need to see. I also like that booting up and shutting down takes only seconds. With my PC I would sometimes go make a cup of tea while it was booting up. So far I haven’t had a single piece of software (or the Mac itself) crash on me. “It just works” is proving true in my experience.

I was stunned by how incredibly simple it was to connect the Mac to my wireless network. Before it even finished booting up, I was already online because the Mac detected my wireless network during the initial setup process. By comparison Windows networking looks like it was designed by an absolute lunatic.

I haven’t even booted up my PC in more than a week.

There is some PC software I still really like, such as The Journal, and some stuff I need for my business like Quickbooks Pro with the Payroll module (that module apparently isn’t available on the Mac), so I’ll probably install a Windows partition on my Macbook this week. I don’t need to use any Windows apps multiple times per day though, so I don’t think it will be necessary for me to install something like Parallels to run Mac and Windows apps side by side.

So far I’m quite happy with my purchase, and I doubt I’ll be using my old Windows-based PC anymore.

Yes, there is a premium to pay for a Mac, but I’m not in a position where it makes sense to be cheap. Quality is a much more important consideration for me.

Relationship update

Erin and I appreciate all the love and support that has come our way since we announced our separation last month.

We’re both in a pretty good place right now. We still talk and see each other often. As I mentioned previously, we remain close friends. We separated due to a lack of compatibility as husband and wife, not a lack of love or respect for each other. As one friend pointed out to me recently, our relationship had become like that of brother and sister. A marriage simply wasn’t the right form for us to enjoy our particular connection.

At this point it’s unlikely that Erin and I will be blogging much about the details. The love and support are much appreciated, but there were also lots of immature reactions to our announcement. For example, a few bloggers tried to capitalize on it by writing ridiculous posts to play up the drama in order to garner more attention for their blogs. We really don’t want to feed the drama addicts. Many people also projected their own relationship and divorce issues onto us and our children, asserting all sorts of false assumptions about the nature of our relationship and our reasons for separating. These people’s personal issues have nothing to do with the reality of our situation, and a high volume of low-quality feedback and advice from people who’ve never even met us really isn’t helpful to us, so I don’t want to encourage more of that silliness.

Erin and I are getting plenty of constructive advice and support from our friends who know us well, so it makes much more sense for us to connect with those people as opposed to trying to summarize our relationship in a few blog posts. I probably spent about 30 hours on the phone last week, and I’m glad for it. Blogging really isn’t the right medium for addressing a topic like this though because it’s tough to convey emotions through plain text, so I tend not to even try (which admittedly makes my writing about it seem a bit cold). However, Erin and I might share more of our experiences together at the next Conscious Growth Workshop in January. Hopefully we can help people release some of the social conditioning regarding what a relationship or a divorce is supposed to look like.

One last thing I want to address is that some people seem to expect that I should be feeling sad or depressed right now, as if that’s my solemn duty as a guy who’s going through a divorce. Apparently I’m supposed to be miserable since that’s what divorcing people do to themselves. At the very least, I’m supposed to feel bad for my kids and the wretched existence they’re about to endure. To anyone who thinks that way, the best reply I can offer is, “Please remove thine head from thine arse.” A conscious separation is a very different experience than one filled with animosity and resentment.

There have been a few sad days in the past weeks, but overall I’m feeling immensely happy. If you see that as a betrayal of reality, of Erin, or of my children, that’s your business, but please don’t foist it on me as if it’s my business too. Rest assured I won’t be joining you in such foolish nonsense. I see no reason to wallow in negativity during this time when I’m perfectly capable of creating the emotions I want to experience — especially joy, abundance, bliss, excitement, and gratitude.

I feel genuinely grateful for my relationship with Erin — past, present, and future — and I’m delighted to continue exploring our soulful connection without trying to wedge it into the unwieldy shape of a marriage or a cohabitation arrangement. I’m feeling very happy and excited these days, and for those who expect me to feel otherwise, well… get used to disappointment. I choose not to create misery for myself — I think that would be incredibly foolish and selfish. I have a duty not only to myself to keep radiating joy and gratitude, but also to all the people I interact with. So I choose to be happy. Life is beautiful!

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.

The first Conscious Growth Workshop earlier this month was such an unqualified success that I started the process of booking another event less than 48 hours after it ended. It took a little while to select the meeting room and get the paperwork signed, but we’re good to go now.

Workshop Details

All the workshop details can be found on the Conscious Growth Workshop page, including the specific topics we’ll be covering each day.

This will be a very holistic workshop, blending high-level ideas with practical application. We’re going to cover career development, money, health, skill building, habits, productivity, emotions, relationships, spirituality, and more. I’ll be sharing the best insights I have on each of these topics. My goal is not to send you home with pages and pages of notes that you’ll hopefully implement later. This workshop is geared to create many a-ha moments that shift your thinking right there in the workshop.

Workshop Location

The first CGW was at Harrah’s. This one will be at the Flamingo, which is just two doors down, still right in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip.

For CGW #2 we’ll have a significantly larger and nicer meeting room. This new room can hold up to 400 people, so we’ll have more capacity too. I expect attendance for this workshop to be considerably higher than for the first workshop, especially given all the positive buzz about it — and the fact that CGW #1 alumni can attend for free.

Comparison to CGW #1

I’ve received a tremendous amount of feedback from attendees of CGW #1. I didn’t calculate it precisely, but it looks like the average rating was higher than a 9 out of 10. So obviously we did something right. We don’t want to mess up what’s working, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

In the months ahead, I’ll be poring over the feedback in detail and making lots of tweaks to the format, the exercises, the fieldwork assignments, and the way the material is presented. I REALLY appreciate the level of detail people used when sending me their feedback. Rest assured I’m reading every word of it and carefully considering what you shared.

One simple change is that we’ll be doing 2-hour lunch breaks each day instead of 90 minutes. It was obvious that people wanted more time to socialize at lunch, myself included. To compensate for the longer lunch breaks, we’ll be ending 30 minutes later each day (5:30pm on Fri and Sat, 4pm on Sun), so the actual time in the workshop will be the same.

We’ll still cover the seven fundamental principles of growth on Day 1, and then we’ll apply them to different areas of life on Days 2 and 3. The feedback I received suggests that this overall structure was very effective. Most of the changes I’ll be making will pertain to how each individual segment is structured and delivered. I’ve already refined some of the exercises (including the Master-Servant one), and I’ll probably make a lot of changes to how we do the written exercises to make them more impactful. The biggest challenge is figuring out how to incorporate the best ideas into the time we have available.

My goal is to make CGW #2 significantly better than CGW #1 while retaining the elements of CGW #1 that worked best. I can’t yet say what all those changes will be. It’s going to take time to fully review the feedback and re-factor each segment of the workshop.

Workshop FAQ

If you have questions about the workshop, please consult the Workshop FAQ first. It packs in a lot of info.

I did my best to anticipate any questions you may have about the workshop, travel arrangements, hotels, and staying in Las Vegas.

Workshop Forums

A few weeks ago, we added a Conscious Growth Workshop discussion forum. This is a great place to interact with CGW #1 alumni if you want to learn about their experiences. You can read plenty of feedback from them about the experience.

A good place to start is with Alex Wu’s day-by-day review of CGW #1.

You can also use that new forum to introduce yourself to other CGW #2 attendees, arrange social gatherings in Vegas, find people to share hotel rooms, ask questions about Las Vegas, etc.

Additionally, you may enjoy reading through this thread about the workshop results, which includes lots of feedback on CGW #1. Just be aware that it’s pretty long (more than 140 posts). You may find this post from Daan Buckinx especially insightful since he shares the specific changes he experienced.

The CGW discussion forum is also a good place to keep in touch after the workshop. It’s very likely you’ll make some great new friends there. I’ve been seeing CGW alumni continuing to stay in touch on Facebook, Twitter, and sometimes in person.

CGW Alumni Attend Free

As I mentioned previously, anyone who attended the very first Conscious Growth Workshop in October can attend one of the 2010 CGWs for free.

Will there be any benefit to attending more than once? Yes, absolutely. This workshop is designed to meet you where you are right now and to help you grow from there. If you attended the first workshop, you may recall the analogy of the different planets. Next year your Planet A will be different, and so will your Planet B. Even though the material will be similar, you’ll be applying each principle to your current life situation, so your experiences will be different each time. Also, you’ll have many new friends to make and hang out with, so the social opportunities will be unique as well.

If you’re a CGW alumni, and you’d like to register for CGW #2, don’t use the online registration form. Instead, please visit Erin’s contact form, and send her a message letting her know you’d like to register for CGW #2. Please provide her with the following info:

• Your name (as you want it to be printed on your badge)
• Your city and state (city and country if you live outside the USA)
• Your email address
• Your phone number

If you send Erin this info and she confirms receipt of it, we’ll have a badge waiting for you at CGW #2.

There’s one caveat though. We need to make sure we don’t get too many alumni saying they’ll be at CGW #2 and then not showing up. That could mean having empty seats we might otherwise have offered to someone else. So if you request a badge for CGW #2 and you flake for some reason, then it means you’ve used up your freebie pass for good, and you won’t be able to attend another CGW in 2010 for free.

Since there were 115 attendees of CGW #1, we should have enough capacity to accommodate anyone who wants to attend CGW #2 for free, as long as you request a badge early enough. However, if we sell out with paid registrations, then it’s possible we may have to turn away some alumni freebie requests if they wait till the last minute to request a badge.

I’d suggest that if you want to request a free alumni badge, please submit your request by December 1st, 2009. That gives you more than a month to decide. We may be able to accommodate requests after that date, but I can’t guarantee it.

If we do get close to selling out, we may follow up with each alumni freebie request to verify that you’re still planning to attend. That way we can offer your seat to someone else if you change your mind. But please don’t request an alumni badge unless you’re willing to commit to using your freebie pass.

If we can swing it, we’ll use a different color for the alumni badges, so you’ll be able to tell at a glance who’s alumni and who’s new.

I don’t know how many CGWs we’ll have in 2010 — that depends on the demand — but I’d like to do at least 3-4 of them, roughly one per calendar quarter. CGW #2 is the only one that’s been scheduled so far.

Time to Register

It should be obvious that I’m EXCITED about doing another workshop. I had so much fun at the first one that I couldn’t wait to schedule another one.

This workshop has had a huge impact on my own personal growth. I thought I was there to be the facilitator, but it turned out that I was just as much an attendee as anyone else. Together we created a space where many breakthroughs were able to occur. The last two weeks have been – without a doubt – one of the most intense growth periods of my life.

Some of the changes I’ve been experiencing are still creating ripples and will have to be revealed in the weeks ahead. But one of the simplest changes I can share is that I’ve been exercising a lot more, eating more lightly, and sleeping less. My fitness level has measurably improved, and I dropped six pounds in the past two weeks.

But perhaps the most astonishing change is that I did something I’ve never done before. That’s right — I bought a Mac! After 20+ years of continuous PC usage, I decided to switch to a Mac for a while. The fact that my laptop PC and desktop PC both went belly-up within the past 3 months made it a good time to switch. I figure it will be an interesting growth experience to become a Mac guy for a while. I ordered a Macbook Pro online last week, and it’s supposed to arrive on Thursday. I also bought a 24″ Mac monitor, which I received yesterday. Before the workshop I’d never have thought it possible!

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up for January 2010 Conscious Growth Workshop. You’ll love it!

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.

Something about the energy of the room pushed me to keep stepping up my own energy. If you attended the workshop, you may have noticed a shift in me too from Day 1 to Day 2 to Day 3. Those shifts have been continuing and increasing this week. It feels like a tremendous amount of blocked energy was freed up, and I’m more passionate about my life and my purpose than I’ve ever been.

I am anxious to do another workshop, not just because of the huge transformations I saw in others but because of the major shifts I experienced in myself. I can’t even fathom where I’ll be after doing 5-10 more of these. And the ongoing rippling effects created by other attendees will be incredible to behold.

More Workshops

We’re definitely doing this workshop again. I already contacted Harrah’s to tell them we wanted to schedule another one ASAP. Later today I have an appointment on the Strip to check out potential meeting locations.

Specifically I’m looking at January 15-17, 2010 (Fri-Sun), but this is very tentative.  The same room isn’t available on that date, but there are other places available. The most promising location at this point seems to be the Flamingo, which is just a couple doors down from Harrah’s, still right in the middle of the Vegas Strip.

At least for the next workshop or two, I’d like to stick with groups of 100-125 people, not including repeat attendees. We had 115 people for this first one, and that worked very well. It was big enough to generate plenty of energy and audience interaction, and it was small enough to create a sense of connection, intimacy, and friendship. Erin and I were able to personally meet and talk to most of the attendees, and on the second day we went out to lunch with a group of them. I really liked the level of connection we were able to share. If we had 500+ people, we wouldn’t be able to manage the same level of personal interaction — it would be too overwhelming. But on the flip side, that many people would be able to generate a lot more energy. This may be a tough balancing act, and we’ll just have to experiment to see what works best.

I get the feeling we won’t be able to keep these small for long. Ideally I want to be doing these workshops about once a month.

Las Vegas

I intend to stick with Las Vegas for the location for at least the next several workshops. We had people flying in from all over the world for the first workshop, and Las Vegas itself is a natural (or perhaps unnatural) draw.

Harrah’s was great to work with. They own many properties in Las Vegas, so I can work with a single meeting planner to scout lots of possible locations. They own Harrah’s Hotel, the Flamingo, Caesar’s Palace, Bally’s, Paris, the Rio, and Imperial Palace. Our meeting planner likes to say, “We have infinite inventory available. Whatever you need, we’ll find you a room.” I love her attitude.

Aside from the fact that Erin and I live in Las Vegas, the main reason I like this location is because of the rich social opportunities that are available 24/7. At the first workshop there were some “homework” assignments that people did outside the workshop room. All they had to do to find people was to go downstairs, and they’d find a sea of approachable tourists playing slot machines… or a line of people queued up for a buffet. Las Vegas has a very fun and lively energy to it, so it’s a great fit for the energy generated by our workshop.

Yes, Las Vegas has its vices, but that’s exactly why I think it’s such a perfect fit for a workshop on conscious growth. The city is all about freedom and acceptance. If you want to drink, smoke, gamble, stay out all night, or have sex, you have the freedom to do that here. I think a city that defends your freedom of choice so staunchly is the perfect backdrop for the sort of transformation we want to encourage with this workshop. This is a city where people are out living life and having fun. It’s not a city that demands you spend your life in a soul-sucking cubicle.

Another city that could be a good fit would be New York City. But the people there seem to be always in motion, hurrying from one place to another. In Las Vegas, it’s easy to find people just hanging out, sitting at a slot machine, and having fun. Since so many people here are on vacation, the open energy makes it much easier for our workshop attendees to go out and start conversations with strangers. And they can’t use the excuse that they couldn’t find anyone to talk to, even if they do the exercises at 3am.

Friday and Saturday nights are always bustling on the Vegas Strip, so having our workshop on those days makes a lot of sense to me. It’s hard to imagine a more lively place on earth than the Vegas Strip on a Friday night.

I know that some people will groan about having to travel here, but my intuition says this is the right place for us to be for now, so I’m going to trust that.

I also have a special personal connection with Las Vegas. It’s long been my favorite city. Doing workshops in this city helps keep me in a fun, high-energy state. Other cities simply don’t excite me as much as Las Vegas.

Plus I think it’s just insanely cool that I get to go to work on the Vegas Strip. We don’t have our own neon sign yet, but we can dream. I just need to figure out how to work in some showgirls and maybe a tiger or two. :)

Free Repeat for First-Time Attendees

Anyone who attended the first workshop is welcome to attend another one anytime within the next year for free. That’s my way of saying thanks for being part of the very first CGW, which I think we can agree was something very special. It can only get better from here as we continue to experiment with the format (authority), take some creative risks (courage), listen to feedback (truth), create a deeper and more connected space for working together (love, oneness), and hold the intention and take action to improve (power).

Did you know that we were generating so much energy in the room that we blew out 6 light bulbs near the stage? (Fortunately, Harrah’s wonderful staff replaced them within a matter of minutes during one of the breaks.) We also blew a few wireless mikes.

After Effects

Electronic devices are having problems around me. When I got home, my desktop computer started overheating repeatedly, even though it’s cool in the room and outside. Last night it overheated again, and I can’t even get it to boot up now. I have all my data on an external hard drive, so no worries there, but I may need a new computer soon. My phone also kept disconnecting during phone calls with another workshop attendee, and this morning my phone provider was having an outage. Sorry, Vonage.

I’ve been noticing a major increase in synchronicities since the workshop. The details are a bit too complicated to explain. But it’s very clear to me that this is something I need to keep doing.

On Monday sixteen workshop attendees who were still in town came to a Toastmasters meeting with Erin and me. Erin is our club President, and our club, Powerhouse Pros, is the largest in Vegas. The energy we brought to the room was so high that it elevated everyone. I was impressed to see everyone take their skills to a whole new level. It was one of the most hilarious meetings we’ve ever had. Alex Wu’s Table Topics answer was absolutely hysterical — I was still laughing about it on the way home. I didn’t have a speaking role at that meeting, although I contributed a bit of observational humor at the end.

After enjoying such a fun, high energy meeting, I couldn’t help but think… What the heck did we put in those green orbs??? (an inside joke for workshop attendees)

Returning Home

If you attended the workshop, you may be noticing a stark contrast between the person you used to be and the person you’ve become (or are becoming). It’s when you return to your old environment that you really notice how much you’ve grown. Believe me — you definitely aren’t alone. I’ve been hearing about this contrast from lots of attendees.

You may be feeling an increasing sense of disconnect with your old life. Relationships with certain people may begin to feel pointless or lifeless. Try watching TV, and you may be able to barely tolerate it — it’s utterly boring no matter what you watch, isn’t it? Your sleep patterns may shift. You may be able to barely stomach going to work. In fact, several workshop participants either left their old jobs immediately upon returning home, or they made commitments in front of other people or on YouTube videos to quit their jobs within a matter of months. Amazing!

This is a good time to go ahead and shed that which you know is soulless and heartless. Let it go and simplify your life. Create the space for something new. Jettison the excess junk as you embark on your journey from Planet A to Planet B.

The most important thing that you can do is to keep your vibration up. Hold that new level for as long as you can.

Remember to apply the principle of Love. Reach out and connect with other highly conscious people, including the friends you made at the workshop.

My commitment is to do whatever I can to facilitate your continued growth and help you apply what you learned from the workshop.

For starters, to help workshop attendees stay in touch and keep connecting, we’ve added a new discussion forum. Anyone can participate, including people who didn’t attend the workshop, but this is a great way for workshop attendees to stay in touch, discuss the after-effects of the workshop, and keep encouraging each other to apply the principles to sustain positive momentum.

But don’t just use email and the forums to stay in touch. It’s really important that you pick up the phone now and then, or arrange a face-to-face meet-up. It’s important to connect with the other people’s energy, and the Internet is unfortunately a weak medium for that. I’ve probably spent 15-20 hours on the phone this week after the workshop, and it really makes a huge difference.

Remember that we’re all in this together. You do not have to go it alone. Tapping into that social support is very important at this time. If you stay connected with other highly conscious people, they will help you stay grounded in that new place of being and help you avoid sinking back down.

Be sure to also apply the principles of Power and Authority. This is a great time to kick off a new 30-day trial. Also, take some small actions to move forward. Don’t think you have to change everything all at once. Start with little changes here and there. One attendee rearranged his office as soon as he got back, in order to help break the old patterns of thinking and doing.

Take the cover of one of the handouts from the workshop with the Truth-Love-Power triangle, and post it on the wall in front of you, so you’ll see it every day and remember to apply the principles to your life. If you want a copy of that image in digital form, feel free to copy-paste the one below.

Be patient with yourself. It’s going to take time for your outer reality to catch up to your new inner reality. Those changes won’t manifest overnight, but they will happen if you can hold yourself to your new state of being, so just enjoy the process of unfolding. Take note of the daily shifts and new synchronicities that are popping up in your life, and flow with them.

Follow the path with a heart. This is the time to drop all the heartless connections from your life. You already know where the old path leads. Do you really want to keep following it? Remind yourself that maintaining heartless, soulless connections in your life is a STUPID path. Stop giving your power away.

Think bigger. Begin to notice ways you can be of service to others and to the larger body of humanity. You don’t have to seek them out. They’ll find you. And when you notice an opportunity to serve, pounce on it without hesitation, and throw yourself into it fully.

When you feel ready, make some new decisions — REAL decisions. Remember that the word decide comes from the Latin decidere, which means “to cut off from.” Don’t give your power away to excuses. Go out and get the lunch you want to eat. If you get blocked, let it be because the world beat you down and your muscles failed you, not because you gave up and pre-failed in your mind.

Connect with people. Say hi to someone new as frequently as possible. Set a minimum standard for yourself like one new connection per day or per week — a few workshop participants have already committed to this. Keep pushing yourself to connect socially. Don’t retreat back into your cocoon where the Internet becomes your primary portal to the rest of humanity. Your primary communication device is your body, not your computer, so use your body to go outside and connect.

Take time for journaling. Write about your workshop experiences, so you can remember them. Review your notes and written exercises. If you feel so inclined, blog about your experiences. Several bloggers have already done so.

Referring People

If you want to refer others to future CGWs, I ask that you do so wisely, responsibly, and with careful consideration. Ask yourself if the person you’re referring is really on the path of conscious growth, or are they still in the unconscious growth phase. Is s/he ready for such a big shift? If not, please don’t refer them.

If you attended this workshop, it should be clear that CGW is not for everyone. You need to have at least a minimum basic level of alignment with Truth, Love, and Power to benefit from it. That’s one of the reasons I charge admission for it. If your Power is so low that the entry fee seems like an enormous barrier, it’s safe to say you probably won’t have the strength to really do the work, especially the exercises that require some courage. You may or may not have noticed that one woman left the room crying on the very first day. This workshop can generate some intense inner processing, and not everyone is ready for that.

CGW is like an advanced yoga class. If you’re new to yoga, then it’s unwise to jump into an advanced class without training in a basic class first. My articles and podcasts collectively form the basic class, and they’re free to everyone. My book is an intermediate step. But this workshop is meant to take things to a more advanced level for those who are ready for it. It is far removed from a basic self-help seminar. So be careful about referring people to this workshop who haven’t yet done enough of the inner development work necessary to benefit from it. People you refer should at least feel they are personally responsible for their lives, be able to afford the registration price without undue hardship, and have a stable social environment around them.

It’s not my intention to draw as many people as possible and sell, sell, sell. If you attended CGW, that should be obvious. My role is to help create the space to assist you on your path of conscious growth. Holding that space requires that the people within it have enough Truth, Love, and Power alignment to help us stay at a high level of consciousness without being dragged back down. That isn’t easy, and it takes a serious commitment from the whole room. If you felt yourself unusually tired after the workshop, even when you didn’t physically exert yourself much, it’s because you were holding a higher vibration in your body, and it was a bit of a strain to keep it there. And that’s okay.

I am now leaving for the Strip to find us a new location for CGW #2.

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.

Format

This workshop definitely had a lot of variety, and it was clear that people were having fun. In addition to the lecture portions, we had a lot of audience participation. We did one-on-one work with several people on stage, written exercises, group exercises, sharing of results, and Q&A sessions.

I especially loved the Master-and-Servant exercises, which (in case you didn’t know) was inspired by the Depeche Mode song. It was really fun to see the room come alive with so much crazy activity in a matter of minutes.

I also assigned a lot of creative homework assignments to be conducted outside the meeting room in the city of Las Vegas. One exercise involved walking up to a stranger and saying something ludicrous to them like “Excuse me… can you tell me what year it is?” This was an exercise on overcoming approach anxiety and fear of rejection. Hearing the feedback on this was REALLY FUNNY. I especially loved it when Darby went into a sea of slot machines and asked someone to direct him to the nearest slot machine. And shortly before that he asked a cop if gambling was legal in Las Vegas. And yet another story from a different attendee involved insisting that a woman’s green blouse was actually red.

I’m a stickler for staying on schedule, so we did a good job of staying on time and didn’t have any big snafus there. Sometimes it took a while to get everyone settled, especially when people were returning from lunch, but we didn’t suffer problems like running an hour behind schedule or anything like that.

Attendees

Every single attendee who registered showed up. I’d be told by my speaker friends that even for a workshop like this, I should expect at least a few no-shows. Not with this group.

The people who came to this workshop were just AMAZING. It was an absolute joy to hang out with them, and many people were sad to say goodbye at the end, including me.

I was super-impressed by just how social everyone was. Apparent about 40 people showed up to the 6:30pm pre-workshop meet-up at Caesar’s Palace, and I heard that some people didn’t leave till midnight. Shortly before I took the stage on Day 1, one person told me he already got his money’s worth just from that.

The ENERGY of having so many growth-oriented people together in the same place was WONDERFUL. I was so impressed at how dedicated everyone was to making this weekend a success. It was really unlike any conference or seminar I’ve ever been to. It felt more like a huge family reunion.

The LOVE being shared was also amazing. I was soaking it up and pouring it back out all weekend. There must have been thousands and thousands of hugs shared that weekend, even among people who wouldn’t normally consider themselves to be the huggy type. I definitely had more hugs that weekend than at any other weekend of my life — easily in the hundreds.

My Personal Experience

I really poured my heart and soul into this. Looking back, I can really say that I did my best. Today I feel totally spent.

Giving my best for 3 days straight was challenging to be sure. Quite honestly it was more tiring than doing a marathon. I feel like my mind and body were pushed to the limit. I am really looking forward to a couple days of downtime to rebuild my energy.

I didn’t get much sleep on the workshop nights… maybe 4 hours a night at most. Even though I was very tired at the end of each day, I was too keyed up to sleep much. When I slept I dreamt about the workshop, and my mind kept cycling through different permutations of how I could make things even better for the next day. One night I gave up trying to sleep and got up at 1am to go for a walk along the Vegas Strip.

This workshop was a real emotional roller coaster. There was so much love and connection, and I was definitely feeling that energy. We laughed a lot together and had a lot of fun.

Unexpected Lessons Learned

One thing I wasn’t prepared for was just how much energy I was burning on stage. I started out on Day 1 after a breakfast of 3 bananas (about 300 calories). I figured it was best to eat lightly throughout the workshop, so I’d be mentally alert and not bogged down digesting anything heavy. During some exercises I also took time to snack on more bananas and some grapes. I probably ate around 1500 calories before dinner on the first day. I figured that was reasonable because 2000 calories per day is about normal for me.

That turned out to be a big mistake though. I felt unusually tired at the end of the first day. I was famished at dinner time, gorged myself on more food than I thought I could fit in my stomach, and went to bed at 8:30pm.

The next morning I realized I needed to be eating a lot more, so I stuffed myself on a big breakfast, and my energy was significantly better that day. People noticed. Throughout the rest of the workshop, I stuffed myself with food at every meal. I even got up at 2am one night feeling very hungry, so I scarfed down an extra meal. I probably ate 3000-4000 calories on each of days 2 and 3. That really helped. I was burning through calories like I was doing 10-20 mile runs each day. This was quite a learning experience.

I also thought it would be best to eat 100% raw throughout the workshop so as to keep myself as clear and open as possible. That also turned out to be a mistake. When I ate fruit for breakfast, it made me too sensitive to other people’s emotions. It was causing me to yo-yo emotionally from the reactions people were having during each segment, which was very draining. So for breakfast on Day 2, I had a big salad with some oatmeal and cooked potatoes, and that helped a lot. The cooked food did a great job of buffering me from the various emotional spikes that were happening in the room, so I could focus on conducting the workshop.

I felt at my best mentally and physically when I delivered the final segment on spiritual growth. I felt an especially strong connection to the people in the room during that time as well. And I did that segment after a lunch consisting of two slices of vegan cheese and veggie pizza, a mixed greens and veggie salad, and a root beer. I doubt that segment would have gone nearly as well if I ate a raw meal before it. I’d have been too emotionally sensitive to people’s reactions, and it would have been harder to focus on the message.

This was a tremendous learning experience for me. My writing flows more easily and creatively when I eat 100% raw, but when I write, I’m usually cocooned in my office alone. Apparently for a live presentation, I practically need to do the opposite. I think I understand now why so many psychic mediums eat heavy meals and drink sodas after doing group readings. They need to disconnect from other people’s emotional energy, or they can’t function.

My body has that over-trained feeling right now, like it’s been pushed to the limit and needs to go into recovery mode.

Next time I do a live event, I’m going to remember to eat, eat, eat. And I’ll stick with mostly cooked food so I can avoid being bounced around by other people’s emotional waves.

This is actually a good example of how we align ourselves with the principle of Authority, which has to do with experimenting via trial and error to hone in on the sweet spot of effectiveness.

Keeping in Touch

Many workshop participants suggested creating and sharing a collective email list for all attendees that want to keep in touch. The intention behind this is great, but we had to reject that specific idea because it’s too risky. Internet marketers can too easily get a hold of such lists and start spamming them endlessly, and we can’t be responsible for that happening. Even a small list of 50 or 100 people who paid hundreds of dollars to attend a personal growth workshop would be considered juicy prospects by some.

A less risky solution is to use our existing discussion forums. Feel free to connect with other workshop attendees there. Then you can send private messages to each other and share contact info with whomever you wish, but your email address is otherwise kept private.

I’m thinking about creating a new subforum just for discussing this workshop and any other live events we do. There’s already a subforum for my book, so I think it’s reasonable to have a separate place to discuss events too. In the meantime, I think we can simply use the existing Steve Pavlina subforum to discuss the workshop. If you want to start new threads to discuss various elements of the workshop there, feel free.

Feedback

If you attended the workshop, I would LOVE to get your feedback on what you thought of it and how it impacted you.

The more detailed and specific your feedback, the better. Here are some of the questions I loved to have answers to:

• Which specific topics were most relevant and helpful to you (i.e. career, finances, habits, relationships, etc)?
• What did you think of the written exercises? The various creative exercises? The homework assignments? The one-on-one segments? The group sharing and feedback? The Q&A parts?
• What were you favorite parts of the workshop? What were your least favorite parts? What do you think we could improve?
• What did you think of the location and venue (Las Vegas, Harrah’s, the specific room we were in)?
• What did you think of the overall structure (Day 1 = principles, Days 2 and 3 = application)? Do you think there’s a better structure we could use?
• What did you think of the relationship segment that Erin and I co-delivered? Was it helpful for you to see how Erin and I relate to each other?
• What did you think of the other attendees? Would you have been interested in some structured social opportunities outside the workshop hours, such as having us host a big group party in the meeting room one evening? What if it required raising the price of the workshop a little?
• What did you think of the overall experience? How would you rate it on a scale of 1-10?
• How did this workshop impact you personally? Did it help you in your path of growth?
• What did you think of the price? Do you feel you received a good value from it?
• Would you recommend this workshop to someone else?
• Would you be interested in attending more workshops from us? If so, what topics are most relevant to you?

You don’t have to answer all these questions if it’s too much — just share your thoughts about it.

Even if you post your feedback online somewhere (a few bloggers have already posted their reviews), I’d really appreciate it if you could send me your feedback through the contact form. That way I can compile it all in one place, and Erin and I can use this info to make improvements for next time.

And remember, this is for posterity, so… be honest.

Financial Results

If you’re curious how well the workshop did from a financial standpoint, we grossed about $61K from it. About 90% of that was from workshop registrations with the remaining 10% coming from DVD pre-orders and book sales. Many people bought several copies of my book for their friends and family members. I sure signed a lot of books that weekend… way more than I signed when speaking at my book publishers’ conferences.

We didn’t spend a single dime to market or promote the workshop. All we did was announce on my blog, Erin’s blog, in our newsletters, and on our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

The cost to rent the room was $800 per day ($2400 total). Our biggest expense was for the video and sound guys and the three-camera setup. They were real pros and a pleasure to work with. We had had two paid staff members to handle the product table, mike running, etc. And there was the cost of various supplies (badges, handouts) and a few other odds and ends like stage decorations. Total expenses were in the neighborhood of $15K, so the net profit was about $46K. Not bad for a weekend.

If you divide the total revenue by the number of hours I was presenting the workshop, it turns out that I was earning about $1 per second while on stage. That’s a nice improvement upon the 17 cents per hour I earned during my first six months of blogging.

Obviously this event required many more hours of preparation and execution, but if we repeat it multiple times, then we stand to gain a lot of efficiency there. From a purely financial standpoint, it makes sense to do more workshops, even if we don’t spend any money at all to market them.

I’m sharing these figures for people who are curious about it. I figure people are going to ask me about it anyway, and I don’t have a problem being open about it.

Despite the financial success of the workshop, my primary motivation for doing this wasn’t financial — I think that would be obvious to anyone who attended it. This is simply something I really, really wanted to do. I thought it would be reasonable to share the financial results because I think it helps illustrate once again that it’s possible to enjoy financial abundance doing what you love.

These results don’t include the DVD sales from the workshop (other than the pre-orders from actual attendees). I expect the DVDs will sell extremely well, easily in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and probably in the millions long-term. For starters, I’m confident that this will be an outstanding course because I feel really good about the workshop itself. And secondly, I know lots of potential partners and affiliates who’d be happy to help promote it. I will very likely set up an affiliate program for those who want to help promote and sell the DVDs. I really want to get this material out there into the world far and wide, and this also gives me a way to help other bloggers and website owners (especially those in the personal growth field) earn more income. All of that aligns really well with my purpose. It’s nice to give people free advice on how to increase their financial abundance, but soon I’ll have the opportunity to help them more directly.

As you might know, one of the intentions I put out a few months ago was to boost my income to $100K per month. I didn’t work on that goal directly though. I simply held the intention, and then I focused on following the path with a heart. But now I can see how it’s all coming together rather elegantly. I really love how well the principles of Truth, Love, Power, Oneness, Authority, Courage, and Intelligence can create amazing growth in any area in which they’re applied.

I rather like that we can earn these kinds of sums for a weekend workshop. It suggests that we can expand in this direction and expect it to be financially sustainable for years to come. Keep in mind that if we repeat the workshop, our costs could go down because we don’t need to film the same workshop repeatedly, and the filming was the biggest single expense. On the other hand, it’s nice that we also have room to spend more if it helps us create an even better experience. For starters, I definitely think we could have used at least one or two more staff members.

Let’s see how many other bloggers start announcing workshops in the next year. I would imagine not too many though, since fear of public speaking (or lack of skill at it) is a big barrier to a lot of people.

Workshop DVDs

This workshop will soon be turned into a DVD home study course. I estimate it will take at least a couple more months to get it released. I’ve never done this before, so at this point I can’t predict how long it will take. It depends on how long it takes for James (our amazing video guy) to edit the footage and master the DVDs, and it depends on how long it takes to get the whole package produced. This will be my main project until it’s complete, so we’ll get this out as soon as we can.

I’m sure the DVDs cannot compare to the live experience, but I know they’ll provide a lot of value as well. I’m not set on the pricing yet, but most likely they’ll be offered at $297. I might do an introductory promotion for a short time at a discounted price, perhaps $197. Half of the attendees already pre-ordered the DVDs (at a special discount just for them).

I will post some video clips from the workshop as soon as they’re ready, partly to share some of the value and partly to make it easy for you to decide if you want to get the DVDs.

After the workshop we also recorded some video feedback from people who attended, so you’ll have the opportunity to hear the perspectives of people who were actually there.

Toastmasters

Since my Toastmasters club has a meeting tonight, we invited workshop attendees who are still in town to come along as guests and check it out. Sixteen people from the workshop are planning to attend, and some carpooling has been arranged. Fortunately, our club’s meeting location is pretty close to the Strip.

Erin and I will both be at the meeting tonight, which is in just a few hours. Erin is actually our Club President, so people will get to her in a leadership role. It will be fun to see how my club members react when we show up with 16 guests. Our club is already the largest in Las Vegas with about 50 members, although a typical meeting draws about 30 people. But I’ve never seen anyone bring anywhere close to 16 guests before. Many clubs don’t even have that many members total. Most of these guests aren’t prospects for joining this particular club because they live in other cities, but it will give them a taste of what Toastmasters is like.

I just hope people don’t expect me to be very “on” tonight. I’m pretty brain dead from 3 days of presenting extremely deep material and giving my very best to the people there, and my voice is a bit raspy today, so I didn’t sign up for a role at tonight’s meeting. I’m not sure how coherent I’ll be if I get called up for Table Topics (impromptu speaking). My body and mind are running on fumes right now.

Will There Be Another Workshop?

I’d say that all signs point to yes. Some people commented that they couldn’t believe this was our first live event. We definitely set the bar pretty high right out of the gate. Even if we made zero changes, I’d feel really good about repeating this workshop as-is. But of course we’ll aim to make it better each time.

First, however, I want to gather up all the feedback and review it. I’m DELIGHTED with how the workshop turned out, but I’m sure there’s room for improvement. I know how it went from my perspective, but I need to better understand the attendees’ perspective. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone today discussing the workshop with one of the attendees already.

I felt that three days was just about right for this workshop. I might one day go as high as five, but I really don’t know what that would do to you.

When I think about doing another workshop, my body says, “No, please… not that! Anything but that!” But my heart is already saying, “YES! YES! YES!” So I’m sure we’ll do another one. It’s just a question of time.

If there’s enough interest, we could also spin off a variety of related workshops that go deeper into specific topics, like the Conscious Career Workshop, Conscious Wealth Workshop, Conscious Relationships Workshop, Conscious Productivity Workshop, etc.

Since we need to give people enough advance notice for scheduling reasons, most likely the earliest we can do another workshop will be the first quarter of 2010. January might be tough though because we’ve got a week-long trip to Puerto Rico that month. The first limiting step is picking the date and booking the venue.

Most likely we’ll repeat the Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, at least for the very next one. I’m not sure it’s going to matter that much if we go to different cities because this workshop drew people from all over the world. The complexity goes up a lot when we start going to other cities.

The Big Picture

My ultimate long-term vision here is to help us create a more conscious planet. As I’ve stated before, one sub-goal is to establish a global non-profit organization similar in structure to Toastmasters International, with thousands of local clubs around the world. Each club would be a place where members would meet regularly to help each other with their personal growth, just as we did in the workshop. Conducting these workshops, improving the material, and refining the processes is a key step on this path.

I’m happy to report that some workshop attendees who discovered they live in the same city, such as L.A., are already looking to get such groups up and running. I am so delighted to see this vision gradually unfolding.

As we all saw at the workshop, the mere act of getting a lot of conscious, growth-oriented people together in the same place is itself enough to spawn lots of growth experiences (it’s the principle of Love in action). I suspect that if we did nothing but gather such people together and let them mingle for a few days, people would find it very valuable and worthwhile. This gives me the idea that it could be fun just to host an unstructured group gathering now and then. We can call it the Conscious Growth Schmooze.

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.

What to Wear

Wear whatever makes you feel comfortable. If you feel good in shorts and a t-shirt, that’s fine. If you want to wear something nicer, that’s fine too. As long as you feel comfortable, that’s what matters.

The temperature in Las Vegas is expected to be in the mid-80s Fahrenheit on Friday and Saturday with a high of 72 on Sunday. It’s been cooling off lately. Nighttime temps are expected to be down to the low 50s on Sunday night (low 60s on earlier days).

Inside our meeting room, the temp will be set to 70 degrees F. Inside the hotels and casinos on the Strip the temps are often set on the cool side, so even when it’s hot outside, you may feel cool if you stay indoors for a while.

Videotaping

Please be aware that this workshop is being professionally videotaped.

My intention is to turn the workshop recording into a set of DVDs to offer on this site for those who couldn’t attend. But first we’ll have to see how the final footage turns out.

Exercises

This workshop includes a variety of different exercises. However, this isn’t one of those large group awareness training events where intense social pressure is used to create false breakthroughs. Some of the exercises may be challenging, but you’re always free to decline anything that you feel may stretch you too far beyond your comfort zone.

Social Meet-up on Thursday

Some workshop attendees are planning a social meet-up at the food court in Caesar’s Palace on Thursday at 6:30pm. Caesar’s is across the street from Harrah’s, and the food court is located inside the casino near the interior entrance to the Caesar’s Forum Shops. I think they’re meeting near the coffee bar, which is on the leftmost side of the food court if you’re facing toward the food court from inside the casino. Someone will probably display a cover from my book to identify the meet-up area. I’m not sure how many people are going. If Erin and I have time, we’ll try to stop by and say hi, but I can’t guarantee it because we need to finalize a few things at the hotel close to that time. I’m not sure how crowded the food court will be on a Thursday evening, but it’s safe to say there will be plenty of other people there who aren’t part of the workshop.

For more details on the pre-workshop meet-up and who might be there, see this forum thread.

Some people also talked about hanging out together after hours and maybe seeing a show. It’s usually not difficult to get show tickets on the day of a performance. Just ask a hotel employee where you can buy show tickets, and they’ll direct you.

Twitter updates

A forum member suggested using the hashtag #pavlina if you want to post Twitter updates about the workshop, so people can search on it. That seems like a good idea.

Please don’t do any tweeting or texting during the workshop itself. I know this practice has become popular at tech conferences, but it can be distracting for other attendees if people are using laptops, PDAs, and cell phones to post text updates during this particular workshop. Feel free to post whatever you want during the breaks though. There will be three breaks each day, a short morning break, a 90-minute lunch break, and a short afternoon break. You won’t have to go more than 90-120 minutes before jacking back in if that’s your thing.

Bringing a laptop

We had to go with theater-style seating for this workshop (we sold too many seats to use classroom style). This means that there are chairs for everyone but no tables. So if you bring a laptop with you, it will truly be a LAP-top. Given the interactive nature of this workshop, I expect that a laptop will be more trouble than it’s worth. This is a pretty dense workshop content-wise, so it’s best that you stay focused and don’t get distracted. Also, you’ll be getting out of your seat sometimes to do exercises, so you’ll need to be careful your laptop doesn’t get knocked over. If it were me, I’d leave the laptop behind.

Taking notes

Whether or not you want to take notes during the workshop is a matter of personal preference. The hotel will provide paper and pens, but hotels usually have small pads of paper, so you might want to bring something larger if you tend to write a lot.

In general I wouldn’t expect you to be taking copious notes the whole time. There will be some written exercises, but mainly this workshop involves shifting your perspective and training you to use certain techniques. You’ll probably want to jot down some ideas here and there, but at other times you may feel inclined to just sit back and listen. There’s a lot of variety in this workshop.

Signing Books

Some people asked if I could sign their copies of Personal Development for Smart People at the workshop. If you bring a copy with you, I’ll be happy to sign it. We’ll also have some copies of the book in the room if you’d like to buy a copy (paperback or hardcover) at the workshop and have me sign it for you right there.

I’m relieved that the workshop is finally arriving — less than 36 hours away. It feels like I’ve been pregnant with this baby for months, and I’m more than ready to give birth to it. As Erin can attest, I’ve been rather obsessed with it for the past several weeks… talking about it incessantly, dreaming about it, waking up at 3am with an idea to tweak one of the exercises, etc. I’ve already delivered so many permutations of this workshop in my mind that it feels like I’ll be doing it for the 50th time this weekend.

You’re going to have an awesome weekend — of that I have no doubt.

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.

Conscious Growth Workshop

The Conscious Growth Workshop kicks off this Friday, October 2nd, in Las Vegas. We now have 113 people registered to attend.

The current registration price of $597 is good through Monday, September 28th. After that we’ll accept new sign-ups at the late registration price of $697.

You can also register at the door for $697 if you arrive by 8:30am on Friday (cash or major credit cards only).

See the Workshop FAQ if you need help with travel arrangements or accommodations.

There’s a recent thread in our discussion forums where some attendees are introducing themselves to each other in advance. I guess they couldn’t wait to get started.

Based on what I’ve seen at previous speaking events and meet-ups, I expect you’ll find this to be a very friendly and sociable group, so even if you come alone, you’ll probably find it easy to make some great new friends.

Man Transformation

The special offer for StevePavlina.com readers that I mentioned in my Man Transformation review expires at the end of today, so it’s only good for a few more hours.

The publisher has agreed to continue offering an exclusive discount for StevePavlina.com readers after that date, but the overall deal won’t include as many bonuses as it does now, so as far as I can tell, the current offer is the best it gets.

Keep in mind that this offer includes a free 30-day trial as well as a 100% money-back guarantee, so you can try everything in this course (and the free bonuses) for 30 days before you decide if you want to keep it. There’s also a payment plan should you wish to keep it and pay for it gradually over 3 months.

FYI I’ll probably be a bit quiet in terms of blogging this week due to the upcoming workshop. I’m really looking forward to it!

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.

The registration rate has been steadily increasing as that deadline gets closer, with more people signing up for the workshop every day now.

Someone recently asked in the forums if I could extend the deadline for the discount. This was my reply:

I can’t afford to make exceptions. I mean once word leaks out that a pirate has gone soft, people begin to disobey you, and it’s nothing but work, work, work all the time.  ;)

That’s a quote from The Princess Bride, but suffice it to say that I’m not flexing on the deadline. This isn’t a workshop that rewards procrastination. If you’re still on the fence, this would be a good time to make a decision. Why pay $100 more when you don’t have to?

Initially Erin wasn’t planning to speak at this event, but when she saw how much fun I was having mapping out the various exercises, she changed her mind. So now I expect she’ll be sharing a few personal stories at the workshop to help illustrate some of the ideas in action.

If you live outside the USA and are thinking about attending, you certainly won’t be alone. About a third of registered attendees are flying in from outside the USA. We have people coming from Canada, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Romania, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Italy, and Australia.

The workshop FAQ includes lots of information to assist you in making travel plans. Flights to and from Las Vegas are often cheaper than other cities, and the hotel rooms are very affordable, so your total trip cost may be less than you expect. Las Vegas is a fun city too. Erin and I came here on vacation about 30 times before we finally moved here in 2004.

How to Decide

If you’re still not sure about attending, here’s a simple exercise you can do to make the choice. I’m sharing this to help you make the right decision for you, so this isn’t a sneaky sales tactic or anything like that. I often use this method myself when I have to make an important decision.

Take some deep breaths and quiet your mind for a while. First, imagine that you decided not to attend. Visualize that you’re doing whatever you’d normally do that weekend, perhaps staying home or doing your usual weekend routine. You also keep the money you could have spent on the trip. Do your best not to be overly pessimistic or optimistic. Just imagine how you honestly expect to spend that weekend if you don’t attend the workshop.

Next, project the results of that weekend forward in time. What are the long-term consequences, and how do they play out? Include the consequences of keeping the money you might have spent on the trip. Just consider the most probable long-term outcomes.

Notice how that feels. What does your intuition say about that path? How would you label that feeling? Say those labels out loud.

Now take a few more deep breaths, and clear your mind. Do the same process, but this time imagine that you did attend the workshop. Imagine that you went to Las Vegas. If you’d be flying into the city, imagine seeing and hearing the slot machines in the airport when you get off the plane (there are indeed slot machines all over the Vegas airport). Imagine going to your hotel and checking in. Imagine picking up your badge at the registration table outside the room and chatting with some of the other attendees. Imagine sitting in the hotel ballroom with dozens of other people and listening to me (and Erin) share ideas with you. Imagine yourself doing a lot of interactive exercises with the other attendees. Imagine people up on stage sharing their stories. Perhaps even imagine yourself on stage sharing some of your challenges and getting help (if you expect that you’d raise your hand when I ask for a volunteer). Imagine going out and doing fun stuff in Las Vegas each evening and possibly hanging out with other attendees you’ve gotten to know during the workshop. Imagine being guided through various challenges and enduring a bit of an emotional rollercoaster as you see your life from different perspectives. Imagine yourself traveling home afterwards with time to reflect on the experience afterwards.

Next, project the results of that weekend forward in time. What are the long-term consequences, and how do they play out? Include the consequences of spending money for the trip. Just consider the most probable long-term outcomes.

Notice how this feels. What does your intuition say about this path? How would you label this feeling? Say these labels out loud.

I know my description of the Vegas weekend was more detailed — that’s because I can’t fill in the details of your normal weekend since I don’t know what that looks like for you. So you’ll have to fill in the details there based on your own experiences.

Now which path feels better to you? Pick the one that feels the most positive.

When I do this exercise to decide whether or not to attend a workshop in another city, it can go either way. Sometimes it’s clear that I should go because I can expect to gain a lot from it and meet some great people, even if it’s a bit of a hassle to get there. Other times I feel it just isn’t worth the time, energy, and cost to attend.

You may have some conflicted feelings regarding each path. Maybe staying home feels boring, but it also feels more safe and secure. Maybe attending the workshop feels scary because you can’t control what will happen, but it also excites and energizes you when you imagine yourself there. This means you have to look at the total package. How do the long-term consequences feel?

Again, try not to be overly optimistic or pessimistic. Be as realistic as you can. If this would be an expensive trip for you, don’t ignore the consequences of spending that money. Similarly, don’t overplay the hassle of getting to Vegas. About 35 million tourists come here each year, and this city was literally built to accommodate travelers.

Hope this helps you decide.

Some useful links:

Conscious Growth Workshop (all the details, who should attend, what you’ll learn, daily schedule)

Workshop FAQ (questions answered, travel advice, Las Vegas info)

Register NOW (take action, engage, make it so)

Would you rather spend a weekend with an amazing group of growth-oriented people while being pushed to think, feel, and stretch yourself in new ways, or would you rather stay home and do what you normally do? You decide.

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.

The feedback I received from people who listened to the free Paraliminal was very positive. You can listen to it over and over for relaxation or positive mental conditioning.

Paraliminals are personal development audio programs designed to condition your mind for enhanced results, such as greater productivity, positive behavioral changes, better health, and so on.

What’s unique about Paraliminals is that they deliver simultaneous but distinct messages to your left and right ears. One message is tailored to your left brain, the other to your right brain. No subliminal messages are used, so you can hear exactly what’s being said. The messages are of course very positive and uplifting. It feels good to listen to them.

Listening to a Paraliminal is a very relaxing experience, much like a guided meditation session. Paraliminals are recorded with special Holosync technology that uses binaural beats to put your mind into a relaxed and receptive state. This is one reason I recommend Paraliminals so highly — they never fail to put me into a deep state of relaxation.

I wrote a detailed Paraliminals review a while back, so please check it out if you want to learn more about them. I own the entire Paraliminals collection, and I didn’t write my review until I’d listened to most of the Paraliminals multiple times.

Download the free Paraliminal and give it a listen. I think you’ll really enjoy it.

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.

This retreat is hosted by the Transformational Leadership Council. TLC is a non-profit group that was started several years ago by Jack Canfield and many of his friends, and it grew organically since then. I think there are around 200 TLC members now, but that’s just a guesstimate. TLC isn’t open to the public; you can only join by being sponsored by an existing member. I became a TLC member earlier this year, and this is my first retreat with them.

The purpose of TLC is basically for teachers/leaders in the personal growth field to hang out together, share their best ideas, have fun, and encourage the heck out of each other. You could call it a lightworker networking group.

If you’ve seen the movie The Secret, it was filmed at a previous TLC retreat in Aspen, so many of the teachers from that film are here for the Bermuda retreat as well. The Secret was an independent project though, not part of TLC itself. I think The Secret was filmed at TLC because it was a convenient way to gather all those teachers in the same place for filming.

Since this is an invite-only gathering, not a public event, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to blog about all the details. Consequently, I’m intentionally being a bit vague. I’m not here to cover TLC for my blog. I’m here to catch up with old friends, make new friends, learn, grow, and have fun.

I will say that it’s been great to finally meet some people face to face that I’ve previously only connected with online or by phone. TLC has a very open, loving, family feel to it. Hugs are more common than handshakes as a standard greeting. Erin and I are feeling right at home here. It’s going to be hard to leave on Monday.

Bermuda itself has been amazing as well. We spent a lot of time at the beach yesterday, which was absolutely gorgeous. We have a busy few days ahead of us, but hopefully we can find time to take advantage of the local recreation as well — maybe explore the crystal caves, go jet skiing, or swim with the dolphins.

Although Bermuda is about 30 degrees cooler than Vegas, I felt more comfortable in the dry heat of the desert. You should see what the humidity does to Erin’s hair.

The chefs at the resort where we’re staying have been wonderfully accommodating of our diets, so we’re actually eating better than we normally do at home. They even made us some delicious banana ice cream for dessert this evening. I could really get used to this.

Henceforth we’ll be attending these week-long TLC retreats twice a year. The next one is in Puerto Rico in January, and after that we’ll be going to Santa Fe.

At least we finally made it outside the USA since Bermuda is technically part of the UK. It only took us about 20 minutes to go through customs and get our luggage. Pretty painless as far as airports go.

As a quick update on our October workshop, 24 people have registered for it so far, with about a third coming from outside the USA. Looks like we’re going to have a really awesome international group.

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.

I’m not going to give you a hard-sell pitch to try to convince you that you should attend. The workshop page is designed to explain what you can expect to learn and experience at this workshop, so you can decide whether it will be a good fit for you on your path of conscious growth. I’d rather speak to a smaller group of people who really want to be there than a larger, less committed group of people who have to be sold on the idea.

Internet marketers will probably shake their heads in disgust at the way I’m promoting this workshop since I’m breaking most of their “rules” for how to launch and promote a live event. I’m doing that intentionally though. I thought long and hard about which people I can really help and which people I don’t feel I can help as much. I decided to create a workshop to benefit the people I believe I can help most, so this isn’t a mass-market seminar that will appeal to everyone. It would not be a good fit for the average person. Consequently, I designed the main workshop page to filter out the people I don’t think will gain as much from working with me in person. I wrote that page with a sense of what the ideal attendee would be like. Once you read that page, I think it should be fairly easy for you to decide if you’re meant to be there.

I considered a number of different names for this workshop. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you may have seen some of my joke tweets when I was trying to figure out what to call it. In the end I decided to go with “Conscious Growth Workshop” because it’s a straightforward description of what the workshop is about. The whole point of this workshop is to help you overcome blocks and step up your conscious growth.

Workshop Details

All the workshop details can be found on the Conscious Growth Workshop page, including the specific topics we’ll be covering each day.

This will be a very holistic workshop, blending high-level ideas with practical application. We’re going to cover career development, money, health, mental development, habits, productivity, emotions, relationships, spirituality, and more. I’ll be sharing the best insights I have on each of these topics. My goal is not to send you home with pages and pages of notes that you’ll hopefully implement later. This workshop is geared to create many a-ha moments that shift your thinking right there in the workshop.

This will be a very interactive workshop with a good mix of left- and right-brained learning. Rest assured you won’t be sitting through 3 days of solid lecture. It won’t be filled with rah-rah fluff either.

Workshop FAQ

If you have questions about the workshop, please consult the Workshop FAQ first. It packs in a lot of info.

I did my best to anticipate any questions you may have about the workshop, travel arrangements, hotels, and staying in Las Vegas. If you have a question that isn’t answered there or on the main workshop page, please submit it via my contact form. I’ll probably expand the FAQ over time as new questions come in.

Events Page

I also added a new events page to this site, which is now linked from the navigation bar. The Conscious Growth Workshop is the only event listed so far. I expect this will be the first of many future live events, so I’ll use the events page to keep you up to date on what’s coming up. So far this workshop is the only public event on my agenda. There are no solid plans to repeat this workshop or do it in other cities as of yet.

I’m very excited about this workshop. Ever since I made the decision to go forward with it about a month ago, everything has been falling into place beautifully.

Several people have already registered for the workshop since the registration pages went live last night. I expect we’ll have a really awesome group of people in the room.

Take a look at the Conscious Growth Workshop page, and see if you think it’s a good fit for you. If you decide to attend, I suggest you register early because there’s a possibility it could sell out.

Achieve new breakthroughs in your habits, career, finances, relationships, health, and spiritual development. Register now to attend the transformational 3-day Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas, January 15-17, 2010.

© 2009 by Steve Pavlina.