5 Reasons to Attend No Longer Virtual

I've been avoiding the listicle for years now; it seems putting a number in the title almost guarantees people will click on it. I find that kind of sad, but if that's what it takes to help people avoid missing a great opportunity, I'm willing to make the sacrifice.

We're working hard on the agenda to make sure NLV2018 is as inspiring, motivating, and engaging as #NLV2017 was. Sign up for updates so you don't miss early registration, opening in October!

5) Hotel Indigo, Downtown Denver

This city is a great place to explore, even in February. The location of the hotel makes it easy to get around without having to rent a car. It's a 40 minute train ride directly from the airport to Union Station, across the street from the hotel, and adjacent to the 16th Street Mall, which is chock full of great restaurants, shopping, galleries, and microbreweries. Hotel Indigo opened its doors in January this year, and is sure to be an outstanding, un-boxed, non-traditional conference host. Make it a longer trip and visit the area's world class ski resorts!

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Dustin McKissen & John White enjoy an NLV2017 session

4) Entrepreneurial Development

Sessions include hard and soft skills, facilitated by people who really get it. If you want to be successful, you need to learn, practice, and maintain your people skills and your ability to leverage online relationships in your offline life. Even those with the best skills can use some reminders and time to practice truly connecting with an audience, whether that's a potential client, a current client, an employee, or members of your community.

3) No Keynotes, No Awkward "Networking", No Over-filled Conference Rooms

Why no keynotes? Because everyone in the room has something to contribute to every topic. Sessions are designed for interaction, to leverage the experience and insights in the room. No Longer Virtual uses the side-conversations and after-hours connections and makes them the foundation of the experience. With a registration limit of 50 participants, you can expect real value in content and interaction. As a good friend wisely noted, there's a difference between networking and building a network.

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There's nothing like a Heather Younger smile!

2) Face-to-Face Meeting with Your Favorite LinkedIn Connections

This is your opportunity to meet some of your favorite LinkedIn connections face-to-face. There is no better way to truly explore where a relationship can take you and your business than to meet face-to-face. Articles have been written about the first #NLV, and the incredible experiences resulting from meeting face-to-face, find links below.

The number 1 reason to attend #NLVDenver, #NLV2018...

1) Surrounded by Curious, Perceptive, Honest, Generous, Intelligent People

How often do you surround yourself with people who genuinely care about each other and their success? The people participating in NLV aren't there to sell you anything; they're part of something much bigger than themselves, and they embrace it. This will be one of the most inspiring events you've ever experienced, not because of the outstanding content being delivered, but because of the people in the room.

Read some of the articles written by participants:

• Would You Travel 2461.9 Miles to Connect with Your LinkedIn Network? Amy Blaschka
• I came for content. I left with a tribe. Zach Messler
• Lessons from No Longer Virtual. Your Chance in 2018. Christian Farber
• And a Voice to Speak With, The Circle of Humanity Thomas Jackson

Don't believe me? Ask them in the comments below.

Join us at No Longer Virtual in Denver on February 22 and 23, 2018. Sign up to receive periodic updates, including early registration opening date... don't miss this opportunity!

Follow me on Twitter, @sarahelkins, and watch for the hashtags #NLV2018, #NLVDenver, and #NoLongerVirtual

Be a sponsor for No Longer Virtual 2018, contact me for details!

It's the Journey

The inaugural No Longer Virtual was exactly what it was supposed to be.

I'm excited, but pretty stressed, Ginger. I know I'm on the right track, I can feel it in every breath I take. I'm just questioning whether the timing is right. This is a big financial and personal risk I'm taking, and I'm good with that, it's just stressful trying to get registrations and hotel reservations to where they need to be.

Sarah, NLV will be exactly what it is supposed to be. Trust yourself, trust your network.

I knew she was right; I knew I had done a lot of work to make this happen, and that there was little more I could do at that point to ensure the event's success. Still, my brain told me I could have worked harder, spent more time on it.

Self Doubt

It wasn't just about the risks I was taking, and that my family was experiencing through me; it was about making sure the participants and facilitators had opportunity for real value in their investment to be there. That's where I was feeling the pressure, it wasn't about our financial risk. I had a vision for truly connecting people, for bringing something unique and special into the lives of my guests.

Even after the conference had ended, and I felt the incredible energy in the room as people hugged goodbye, making plans for calls and future visits before leaving, I still wondered if the vision for the conference had been carried through to the participants.

Confirmation

Sometimes we're lucky, and we receive confirmation that what we're doing is good, right, and having a positive impact on others. I've been pretty lucky. Within 48 hours of the end of the conference, Thomas Jackson posted an article about the initial emotional response he had immediately following the event. He posted an article almost immediately after the final session, when the group brainstormed ideas for the next NLV.

This was a day no one wanted to end. There were suggestions of what worked and what didn't for certain people.

Two days later, Amy Blaschka shared her thoughts about the adventure, and the investment's value to her.

I knew she was on to something special; I could feel it in my bones. I needed to be there. In fact, I was so moved I wrote an article about it.

Six days after the start of the inaugural No Longer Virtual, Zach Messler posted an article about the value of those face-to-face interactions.

For months I've been writing about my concerns related to the disconnect among us. The biggest, most important goal for the conference was to help others realize the importance of face-to-face communication. It was about choosing to leverage our online relationships, our incredible opportunities through technology, to actually improve our face-to-face lives.

I wasn't completely convinced that this was what came out of the conference, until I read this from Zach's post:

But…here’s the thing…Even if you take advantage of all those communication channels, you still miss out on something much better…much deeper.

For lasting, meaningful personal connection, there is nothing like live and in person.

Lessons Learned, What's Next

Pages could be written about the lessons in this journey, and it's nowhere near its end. Here are the keys for me:

1. When you believe in something so deeply, and you build a network of people who believe in you, anything is possible.
2. When you choose to help others, and you work with intention and your whole heart, no matter what happens, you can be satisfied with that effort.
3. If you want to make an impact, and you want to find deep satisfaction in life, STAY CURIOUS.

It takes a long time to absorb something so deep, so life-changing, which is why I'll be taking my time to dig into my thoughts about the inaugural No Longer Virtual. In the meantime, I'll be planning the next one.

Are you ready to take this step, to realize the depth of your online relationships by meeting face-to-face?

Join us at No Longer Virtual in Denver on February 22 and 23, 2018. Sign up to receive periodic updates, including early registration opening date... don't miss this opportunity!

There are great sponsorship opportunities for No Longer Virtual 2018, contact me for details.

No Such Thing as Work/Life Balance

Every time I hear someone profess to know the secret to work/life balance, I bristle. First, there is no such thing as work/life balance, and second, there are no easy answers to finding a comfortable position in life when you are continually growing and changing.

No Work/Life Balance, Only Life Balance

I'm not sure it was ever possible to separate your personal and professional lives, but it was probably more likely before the age of the Internet and social media. In the past, people had their jobs, and then they went home to family and friends. You never really knew what went on behind closed doors, once an employee left the office, the only way for his colleagues to see his misbehavior is if they came to the family BBQ and witnessed his behavior after a few too many beers.

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Unless you are one of those people for whom this equation works comfort=happiness, you are going to have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. When you put yourself in a place of discomfort, doing something out of your normal routine, you grow. As long as you stay in your routine, comfortable and generally unchallenged, you will stagnate. The only way to grow and improve, the only way to reach your goals and make your dream life is to step out of that comfort zone and take some risks.

Work/Life Balance Means Something is Missing

If you feel like your work and life are balanced, it may mean you are compartmentalizing. That's not always a bad thing, but it isn't something that is  sustainable. When we compartmentalize, we are separating our thoughts and feelings into distinct categories, home vs. work, which means that we are not addressing the underlying issues and concerns in our overall lives. Our brains are most effective and efficient when all of the parts are interacting and engaging. According to Melissa Hughes in her book, Happy Hour with Einstein:

While specific regions of the brain are responsible for specific things, we are aware that the brain functions as a whole system. The better the regions integrate with each other, the better they all work independently.

If you really want change; if you really want to do something different with your life, stop working so hard for balance, and try being unbalanced for a while. Take risks; take the leap, and realize true growth.

don't miss this opportunity to grow. Register for No Longer virtual today!

After Conference Hangover

So excited to begin implementing ideas, I actually arrived early to work the morning I returned from the conference. That's a big deal for me; I love to sleep and rarely choose to get up an earlier than I have to. But that morning was different. That week would be different. My JOB would be different. I was on fire.

The conference had been full of great topics, from sales to leadership, from marketing to financial analysis. My favorite sessions were the keynote and breakout session on marketing in our industry, hosted by the keynote speaker. He reminded me why I loved that class when I was going through my undergraduate business program. His excitement for the planning process, implementation, and follow up analysis was contagious; I couldn't wait to get back to work and start my own project!

That Monday, I sat down at my desk and penciled in time on my busy calendar to work on a formal marketing plan. Allowing myself 30 minutes to get started by looking at available online templates, I found myself selecting a simple but solid format and downloading it to my desktop. My boss walked in as I was saving it; he was surprised to see me already settled into my day, a bit earlier than usual. In an uneasy, suspicious, fake-happy tone:

What are you so happily working on first thing this morning?

"You know that break-out session I went to at the conference last week? The one on marketing plans and implementation? I'm working on a marketing plan for us, to formalize some of what I've been doing, and to make it easier to budget and analyze the success of what we're doing here. I've been so busy since I started, trying to build business, I completely forgot how important this tool can be!"

Why do we need a marketing plan? You should be pounding the pavement. Didn't we have this conversation, that you need to spend less time onsite and more time selling?

In less than ten seconds, my boss had me nearly deflated. I didn't give up, though, I just knew I was on the right track. Every time I had 15 minutes alone in the office, I worked on that marketing plan. I knew I needed the document to help me stay on track and see results in my efforts at that job. In my optimistic mind, when I presented the finished product to my boss, he'd appreciate it -- he'd realized why we needed it. I'll save the results of that work for another blog post; let's just say it wasn't pretty.

I tried to keep my enthusiasm that week and the next. Interactions with staff included some discussion of things I learned and ideas I wanted to share; some were motivated to work on them. Most just nodded and smiled, assuming the ideas would go away and they could get back to their routines without having to work too hard.

Within two weeks, I may as well have not gone to that conference at all.

Have you been to conferences that got you all excited, only to return to your routine and lose momentum within days or weeks? Why is that? Is it the conference itself, setting up unreasonable expectations? Is it your colleagues who didn't attend, who aren't motivated to step things up and improve?

How do we fix this?

I have an idea about that and I'm implementing it at the No Longer Virtual conference in February. Because the participation is limited to 50 people, every person will have the opportunity to meet the facilitators and other participants and truly connect. Think about the value of that roomful of advocates for you, your career, and your business. Participants will keep in contact via the No Longer Virtual Facebook group and via LinkedIn, solidifying not only the learning and motivation from the event itself, but the relationships that were built in those 48 hours.

Think about the opportunity. Think about the value. Can you afford to miss this?

Watch my enthusiastic interview about NLV with Chris Spurvey here:

Do You Value Yourself? How Much?

Do you value yourself? Do you value your professional and personal development? How much?

What is your budget for inspiration, encouragement, and solid strategy for improvement? I want to know, because I want to help.

"Hope is not a strategy."

Wiser words have rarely been spoken, and thanks to Trent Selbrede, those words are burned into my mind and have dramatically changed the way I write and think. Instead of writing hope, hopeful, or hopefully, I write intend, plan, and will.

"Fear is a liar."

This sentence is next in line in my current thought process, thanks to Trish Goff. When I find myself falling into my gerbil-like mind with circular thinking about what could go wrong, that is the sentence that I will into my consciousness.

If someone else had planned something like the No Longer Virtual conference, I would invest quite a lot to attend. As a matter of fact, I AM investing quite a lot to attend, and here's why:

The people facilitating these interactive sessions are some of the most competent, motivated, inspiring and inspired people I've had the pleasure to meet; I've only met one of them face-to-face. The people already registered are some of the smartest, most self-aware, kind, ambitious and motivated people I've met, and I've only met one of them face-to-face.

I know that to maximize my learning from these incredible people I must meet them face-to-face. It is worth the investment I'm making to have this experience because I know that -

what I put into it is exactly what I'll get out of it.

And I intend (not hope) to make this a life-changing experience.

I know that I need to continue to learn strategies to leverage my online network in my offline life. This agenda is full of topics I know will help me move my business and my life forward, and I know it will be worth the investment.

The question is, how much can you - should you - invest to avoid missing this opportunity?

Real Life in Real Time

Just imagine: You've been emailing, texting and talking on the phone with someone you met online. You feel so connected, the relationship feels real and true. It has been months and you've talked about everything under the sun, you've had weekly video chats, so you know her picture matches her profile.

Where do you go next? How long do you wait before you meet? Maybe you live thousands of miles apart, so you're trying to figure out how to meet somewhere in the middle. How long will you keep up this "virtual" relationship without meeting each other face-to-face? Do you have to meet? Of course you do! An online relationship can only go so far, right?

Here's another scenario: You've been talking about a beach vacation for years. You've never been to the beautiful beaches on the Gulf side of Florida. You look at pictures, you read stories, you watch movies that were filmed nearby. You reach out to contacts in the area and hear stories and descriptions of the white, soft sand, the bath-like temperature of the water, the bright blue-green of the ocean. But you still haven't SEEN it, TOUCHED it, EXPERIENCED it for yourself. You can only experience part of the story if you never actually visit, right?

Your online network is the same. How many years will you go without ever meeting those people you've been interacting with online? How long can a relationship withstand the distance? Without meeting face-to-face, an online relationship can only reach a certain level. To build trust and long-term value, at some point you have to meet.

No Longer Virtual is that opportunity. The entire structure of the event is interactive, engaging workshops so you have the opportunity to meet and get to know every person involved, including the facilitators.

This is not your mother's professional development conference. This is about innovative thinking, improving your relationships in business and life, and finally connecting the dots to connect beyond the keyboard.

It's time to #makeitreal at #NoLongerVirtual. Register today and meet me in Atlanta February 23 & 24, 2017!

I climbed a mountain to help you make your decision to come to NLV!