Live Your Extraordinary Life With Michelle Rios

Collaborative Entrepreneurship with Mitzi Campbell and Renee Vee

• Michelle Rios

Share episode

Send us a text

Ever wondered how a simple lunch could turn into a transformative experience? Join our conversation with Renee Vee and Mitzi Campbell, the visionary minds behind the Rich Thinking Conference in Philadelphia. They take us through their inspiring journey from a casual conversation to hosting a significant event focused on mindset, personal development, and abundance. Discover their motivations and the surprising hurdles they encountered, like the unexpectedly tough task of selling tickets despite featuring top-notch speakers. Renee shares what it means to live an extraordinary life through fulfillment in various facets, while Mitzi highlights the essence of freedom.

Uncover the meticulous process Renee and Mitzi used to handpick their speakers and how networking played a pivotal role. From leveraging personal connections to attending other live events, their efforts brought unique perspectives to their conference. They also discuss financial challenges and the importance of energetic returns over immediate monetary gains. Hear about the power of building genuine relationships and the immense value of being present at networking events, as these connections turned out to be the rocket fuel for their success.

Experience heartfelt moments as Renee and Mitzi reflect on impactful parenting and the joys of seamless speaker collaboration. Learn about their intentional efforts to avoid speaker overlap and how mutual encouragement and accountability played into their successful partnership. Mitzi further elaborates on creating an exceptional VIP experience with attention to detail and introduces the Rich Thinking Mastermind for ongoing support. Celebrate with us as we shine a light on the importance of collaboration, self-confidence, and the rewarding feeling of seeing a well-laid plan come together, leaving you inspired and motivated for your own entrepreneurial endeavors.

WAYS TO CONNECT WITH ME:

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. I'm your host, michelle Rios, and I am thrilled to have with me today two dear friends who've been on this entrepreneurial journey with me now for some time my friend Renee Vee and Mitzi Campbell. Let me tell you a little bit about both of them before we delve in. Renee is the founder of Mighty Minds Academy. She's a speech language pathologist and a mindset and communication specialist, as well as an author, speaker and conference host. She specializes in building, maintaining and protecting confidence in teens by implementing mindset strategies and nurturing advanced communication skills. All right Now Mitzi.

Speaker 1:

Mitzi also comes from the academic community. Mitzi came into the entrepreneurial space after about three decades as a college professor and she's also dealt with some very debilitating health crises. So Mitzi felt really called to move outside of the Ivy Tower, as they say, and she is now a transformational teacher and the host of the Blessings podcast, and she works with people to help them go after their desires, self-actualize and extract powerful lessons and blessings from life's experiences so they can identify blind spots, release their false foundational beliefs and learn the life lessons that are holding them back from living their true potential. Ladies, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show today.

Speaker 2:

Thank, you Michelle.

Speaker 1:

Pleasure is ours, all right. So motivation by having you both on today is that you just came off a phenomenal first-time inaugural conference in Philadelphia called the Rich Thinking Conference, and I thought it would be really fabulous to have you come and talk about the inspiration behind this conference, some of the behind the scenes, so that those folks that are thinking about their entrepreneurial journey can think about what goes into something like this and learn a little bit about what your plans are for the future. So let's delve in. I'm going to start where I start with all my guests, though Mitzi already knows this, so we're going to start with Renee first. Okay, what does it mean to you to live your extraordinary life?

Speaker 3:

To live my extraordinary life. Okay, I think fulfillment in all the pieces of the puzzle, all of the facets of our wheel of life, if you want to call it so, spiritually, health-wise, our family. When we're fulfilled in all those pieces of the pie, we live an extraordinary life.

Speaker 1:

Very good, Mitzi. Any updates from the last time we had this conversation?

Speaker 2:

I think I'm going to say the same thing I said before, which was freedom, sweet freedom. That's what living an extraordinary life means to me complete freedom in all ways.

Speaker 1:

Well, my hats are off to both of you, because the authenticity that's required to show up and do this kind of work goes without saying. You have to be your best true self or else it just doesn't work. It's too hard to maintain and I think when you're in other lines of work you can kind of muddle through with a little bit of the mask right. But when you're on this personal development journey and you've chosen it as your life's work, there really can't be any masks. You have to show up with all the vulnerability, with all the things right that go on in your life, and I just think the stuff that you guys have accomplished in a very short amount of time is just incredible. So congratulations to both of you.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, let's delve in a little.

Speaker 1:

I want to hear a little bit about what inspired the both of you to come together to create the Rich Thinking Conference. What was the vision behind it initially?

Speaker 2:

Well, it happened because we were at lunch. We just, you know, when you're at, you're, you're at lunch and you're just enjoying a nice conversation and good food and you're just like, huh, we should keep this feeling going, we should do something. And we were sitting there having lunch and we said let's do something together. What would it look like if we did something together? We just started brainstorming and then, as we're brainstorming, we thought, all right, it's an event. If it's an event, great, what does that look like? What's it called? And then we started brainstorming names. We came up with the name Rich Thinking and tagline Unlocking the Wealth of Wisdom. And from there we just said, all right, if we did it, where would it take place? And then we started looking at venues and it just progressed naturally from there. We just got into venues and it just progressed naturally. From there, we just we just got into it and it just started rolling. It was really. It was really kind of natural and organic.

Speaker 1:

Did you envision that it would be as big as it turned out to be, with the kind of speakers that you ended up with, which were just phenomenal, when you first started having this conversation?

Speaker 3:

you first started having this conversation, I personally pictured it bigger than what it was, only because I didn't know really what goes into it.

Speaker 3:

And even trying to sell tickets is something that a mentor of mine said was the most difficult part of the process, which he was one of the first people to buy a ticket because he throws conferences and he was our first, you know, paid ticket to come because he.

Speaker 3:

And then he told me he said you know, if I can, if I can give you any advice, it's you cannot promote enough. And you're going to think people the tickets are going to fly off the shelf, especially with the, the quality and caliber of speakers that you're planning on having. But he said that's just not true. So I want to just let you know that. And so I had then had that in my mind of okay, if someone who's been hosting conferences for a while say it's a struggle, I believe them. I'm not going to try and challenge it, I just hope for the best. And you know, put it out there. And we had a lot of people that were pining for us and helping us to spread the word and a big part of our community to those who really pushed this the message out that we were hosting this and the people that were able to be in the room that day with us, even though there was two other huge events happening that weekend.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there was a lot going on.

Speaker 3:

A lot going on yeah.

Speaker 1:

Talk to me a little bit about how you went about identifying speakers, because I know, with conferences of this caliber, when you're looking for something that's really going to draw in a lot of folks and be have something for everybody, right In that vein of personal development and abundance, and thinking beyond where you are today, how did you go about thinking about speaker selection? And then what did you hope that each of them would bring to the conference?

Speaker 2:

Well, we drew from our personal networks to start. We immediately started thinking about who we knew, who we made connections with over time that we could ask to speak at this event, and that's where we started. And we literally started with one Renee had one big name, I had one big name, and we started there. And then we started to think about how we wanted to make sure that every speaker had a unique bend on the theme of mindset. Every speaker had a unique bend on the theme of mindset and we very intentionally then began to choose the final round of speakers based on people we knew that could approach mindset from unique angles. And we just ended up with this amazingly curated list. And it was interesting, I think, the process of finding speakers in that, you know, there were some people that we kind of had, that I kind of had in mind and asked and it wasn't the right fit for them, and there were other people who we thought we could never get and we got them. So it's really interesting the way that it turns out and I just encourage people who are thinking about doing this to just go for it, just ask. I mean, the worst something someone can say is no, and so what you know, then you move on and find someone else.

Speaker 2:

The other key to this is that the people that we ended up, you know, drawing in as speakers for the event, were all people we made connections with because we went to other live events. And that's the key Going to other live events, making connections, asking your friends what live events are you going to? Like, I've seen other people going to events I didn't know about and I would have loved to know about those because I probably would have gone. You know this has happened to me a few times. So, getting the word out, because it's so important to attend events, to make connections so that you can then collaborate in whatever ways is a fit for you, whether it's planning an event or doing something on your own. It's just, you never know how these things are going to play out and how your connections are going to be able to benefit you and others and the world at large.

Speaker 1:

It's really cool able to benefit you and others and the world at large. It's really cool. One of our mentors, craig Siegel, always says you need to get in the room. Right, you need to get in the room where everybody else is so that you can be part of that camaraderie and getting to know people and networking. So absolutely, I 100% agree with you on that. Get to as many places as possible, even if you don't know anybody. Go with that mindset of I'm just going to meet a couple more new people to add to my network and you never know what can come of it. Talk to me, renee. I'm curious what would you say were the biggest challenges along the way? Because obviously, when you're building something like this, it takes resources. You're going to have to put deposits on spaces and think about everything from, I'm sure, bringing certain speakers in to speaker fees to all of the things. What were some of the biggest challenges that you and Mitzi had to navigate?

Speaker 3:

So this is going to sound crazy, but there weren't that many challenges.

Speaker 1:

I mean financial challenge.

Speaker 3:

I think probably, if I had to name one, it would be financial, because we are both entrepreneurs. Mitzi actually sold her place, moved somewhere else, was moving her daughter. She was all over the place this summer and giving herself to her family and buying a house with her partner, and I'm an entrepreneur. That's hot and cold with what comes in every month, but I understood the importance of putting it out there and making it happen, regardless of what it looks like in the in your bank account. Only because the return from an event like this you can't look at it as a financial return. It's more a return on your energy and your network and your, I guess, your energetic investment. So when you provide a space for people to gather, to feel the energy and the excitement that cultivates from that, that's worth it. For me, hands down.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say. I have to imagine that at this point, the ability to be able to call on some of those folks that you were able to have speak and were able to promote and help expand their networks, the ability to call on them to say, hey, I'd love to be part of your event at some point, becomes sort of like a no-brainer, like, over time, they're going to just think of you as not only an organizer, but a speaker, a panelist, someone I want to have in my mastermind or what have you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. But I think it's really important for people to know that these connections that we had with these speakers was not by accident and there was already a relationship there for almost all of them. So it's really about building the relationships, and Jim Morris always says that relationships are rocket ships. When he said that to me last year I said now I use it because it's so true that there was only six main speakers included. I mean Misty and I did our speaking as well, but six main speakers that were given and all of those relationships were built through our network, through groups of folks that that we already had an established relationship with.

Speaker 3:

So I think it's really important for people to know that being included and or involved with any kind of networking, community business masterminds going to these events so people actually know who you are in person, as opposed to just throw on the flat screen that we're all seem to be on all the time, because the relationships build when you're in those rooms. People take you seriously, they know that you're. You are serious about developing yourself, your business, your family, whatever it is. Your goals are to to go to these conferences People. If you're in those rooms, people know you're serious.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no a hundred percent.

Speaker 2:

And also I just want to add that they know you're serious because you have taken the steps to bring it to fruition. And the point that Renee made was really important the financial piece. You do have to put skin in the game, and that is when people typically quit. When it comes down to making that decision. About putting the skin in the game and I mean the financial skin, that's when people, because it's it, does it's an investment we're not making. We didn't make any money on this.

Speaker 1:

Well, and it's daunting to have this event. Yeah, it's like it's daunting.

Speaker 2:

It's daunting, and and, and it is. It is a for us. Having an event was enabled us to position ourselves in a light that we wanted to be seen in, in a way that we wanted to to, to position ourselves moving forward. So it was a way of us establishing ourselves in that thought leadership community alongside those speakers that we brought in. And anyone can do that, anyone can do that.

Speaker 1:

I mean everybody listening sage words here. Listen up. I mean, we all started a few years ago and at some point you have to put a stake in the ground, and I know that can feel very intimidating for a lot of folks. But until you're willing to take that leap of faith, you're not going to grow to the extent that you really want to, and that's regardless of whether you're putting on some event or you're investing in a mastermind or you're going to go travel, to go to an event. You got to take that leap of faith and recognize the investments you're making in yourself and in your business are necessary. They're just part of going down this journey.

Speaker 1:

Talk to me a little bit about the standout moments, because I know there was a lot going on that day, and obviously you had some really wonderful feedback from the attendees. I was able to talk to some of them myself. I got a lot of phone calls of where are you? So I want to hear from you, though, as the organizers You've spent all these months planning for this what were some of the standout moments or key takeaways for you?

Speaker 2:

Do you want to go? First was when I had the father of Neil Bakshi, one of our speakers, come up to me and tell me he'd been receiving my newsletter and he was so excited about meeting me in person and he held my hands and looked in my eyes he's probably out in his 80s and I was in tears when I was talking to him because I just it was so moving the way that he spoke to me and how appreciative he was to be there and to just be in the energy of the day, like how much it meant to him because you know he was kind of a you can read Neil's story to hear. You know his family background is a lot of heartbreak and it was really just a beautiful moment just meeting this guy in the audience.

Speaker 1:

And very genuine. He's there probably to support his son. He was yeah, yeah, he was the cutest man ever.

Speaker 2:

Love him.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so mine, mine is also probably not obvious, but obvious to Mitzi, because I kept saying it all day that my husband and my son were there. So you guys are parents, you know, going through these journeys. It's important that we are passing on our wisdom to our kids and also the possibilities that are out there and exposing not only my husband, because he's got an engineer mind and all he thing, and you know I've talked to you both about this, you know, for him to be able to be in a room with with these humans and he was making connections. So that was one. But the my best part of my day was my son taking notes the whole day and telling me how he's learning so much. And that is where it's at for me.

Speaker 3:

You know the kiddos are my jam, so for me it was like I invited him. I said I would love for you to be there, I want to expose you to my world. When he said, yes, I know, know, he started high school, sophomore year of high school. So I was like it's the beginning of the school year, so if it's hard for you to, you know, if you don't want to miss, I get it. He said, no, I want to be there. I said okay. So I'm thinking in my head how's he going to stay busy all day? Is he going to just be on his?

Speaker 3:

phone all day. You know you're always trying to like make it comfortable for them and so they feel accepted and happy, and that wasn't. I didn't even need to do that. He was there front row watching and taking his notes and talking to people and the speakers were speaking to him. So for me it was that moment of to be back at 15 years old and be exposed to something like this Can you imagine years old and be exposed to something like this.

Speaker 3:

Can you imagine and I think it just brought it full circle as to what my mission has been? And that's just to impact, and whether or not it's through throwing an event or working with teens or collaborating in a joint venture with somebody with curriculum, whatever it is, the bottom line is that the impact and how we can help each other and how you always give without expecting something in return, and that's really what I'm teaching him and I it just. It just made my whole day. It was the best.

Speaker 1:

Well, these are beautiful takeaways. I love that and you know, it's one of those things where you know the that, the genuineness. You can't fake a 15 year old taking notes at a conference.

Speaker 3:

Right, you can't, you know, and I wasn't like giving him like you must pay attention, I mean he, it was all intrinsic and I was, it was engaged, he was engaged with what was happening.

Speaker 1:

Well, let's talk a little bit about that, because you did have six really impressive speakers that you were able to bring into the fold, Were you? Did you work with them in advance? I know that you all you knew them in terms of making sure they're all very different, but kind of giving them their own space or what to talk about. How was that process of working with the speakers in advance? You?

Speaker 2:

know it was very easy. We allowed everything to flow very naturally when we also gave them a little bit of parameters around a theme. So we just identified it, we gave them the overall theme of mindset and we gave them some basic parameters that we would like you to focus on this aspect and most of them were able to take their normal speech, the things that they already are experts at and love to talk about, and just tailor it, maybe tweak it just a smidge so that it fit in our venue, and they all appreciated that very much. And I actually it's interesting because when we were planning this, I saw Amy Purdy online made a comment about how she went to an event and she felt she had overlap with the other speakers too much overlap and I commented to her and she commented back to me that I was doing an event and that we were making sure that our speakers would have no overlap and she responded I don't know her, but she responded you know that she thought that was amazing and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2:

So the idea of having be able to provide that for your speakers as well, so they don't go into it feeling nervous like, oh, is someone else going to be talking about something that I'm bringing up that didn't happen. It was almost like, honestly, it was so, so serendipitous how the entire day unfolded, and I think that's because both of us began to take the steps and we just allowed the steps to progress. We were not married to any outcome, we were totally detached and we let it unfold and everything came together like in the most beautiful way. Everything worked out perfectly, I have to say it really did.

Speaker 1:

I know you both pretty well, I think, and I'm curious if you would share with us how fully baked this was in terms of your speaker lineup four months ago, or was it still? I know that sometimes getting the commitments takes time, and so you got to put it out there and you got to take the leap of faith and say, well, we've got this many. It's a go when were you guys like we're going, it came together quickly.

Speaker 2:

I mean, we did. It came together very quickly and we were just confident. I don't know what it was behind us, but we just had some kind of like golden guide that was behind us, just moving us along. I think when you're doing something alone it's more difficult. When you're doing something with a partner, you have accountability for each other and you also have the motivation we cause. You know, Renee is so enthusiastic and so encouraging and the messages she would send me. I would send something and she'd be like, oh, you're fantastic. She would just send me these great messages. I was like, oh, we really can do this. It's just having a partner in the game is, I think, essential in you know, keeping you going in it to make it easier.

Speaker 3:

I think it'd be a lot harder if you're doing it alone yeah, no so without a doubt, yes, and what's ironic and and fun is that you know, mitzi and I, we know each other, but not that much. I mean we do. We had no idea, we no idea, we do now. Yeah, now we do. But it's almost like Michelle, when I met you, like we didn't know when we roomed together, you know, in LA.

Speaker 1:

We didn't know each other, but by the end of the weekend we were very close.

Speaker 3:

Yes, and but also that's the power of our network right, there's an automatic know, like and trust. So I knew, I knew that I know what I'm capable of doing. So I knew that I could carry it. If, let's say, mitzi, she was going through a lot of life change this summer between her kids and herself, that if that was happening, that I would still be able to carry on and do the tasks that needed to be done. But Mitzi pulled through in every facet possible. She was a light in showing me how to make our event very special and very polished and I learned a lot from her and I think it worked out for the best.

Speaker 3:

So sometimes having a partner might not, so you have to be really cognizant and aware of who you're partnering with and make sure that you have the same vision and mission and goal. And we did so. It was very you know, and I'm excited to start planning next year's already because I know where we can take this now that we've already done it. One under the belt, right, and I think when back to the speakers, it was all universally aligned between. You know how we decided on. The date was because that's when coach was available, right, so we initially had an August 23rd date in mind which, by the way, is not a good idea because everyone's away. So it worked out universally that he said, hey, if you want coach there, 23rd is not going to work. And I said, well, what works, because we'll put it then. And that's what happened. So September 6th was when he was available. So we kind of built it around his availability because I knew if at least we had him, we could, we could get more people in there. You know, like to experience him.

Speaker 3:

And I had a friend, brian Galky, who was my. He was in my back of my head as somebody that I spoke with on stage. We met at a conference. We maintained a friendship for the past year. I was just on his podcast. So you see the connections they just build and they I was just on his podcast. So you see the connections they just build and they, they're so valuable, they're so valuable. And when he said he could do it, I said, oh, we are good, we are, we are good, you know, and and we, just from there I would download people. I'm like, oh, I'm going to try that. And there was a lot of people that weren't available and that was fine. They weren't meant to be there for this one right. This is. The ones who were able to be there were the ones that were there and delivered beyond your wildest dreams. People walked out of that room. I keep getting texts. I don't know, mitzi, if you're getting them, but people are just so grateful that we provided that space for them.

Speaker 1:

Well, I want to jump in there because I want to hear more. I've gotten some feedback myself from some of the friends we have in common that it was just a phenomenal experience and it was very transformative. Tell me a little bit more, maybe some of the savvy behind the nuance, behind some of the feedback you've received from attendees the nuance behind some of the feedback you've received from attendees.

Speaker 2:

You know, interestingly, the day of, I had many people come up to me and talk about various synchronicities they were experiencing that day, things that kind of came out of nowhere. You know, from the more esoteric like oh I've been seeing a lot of angel numbers today to the relatability of. Oh, I was just thinking about how I needed to work on X, y or Z and this speaker was speaking directly to me. You know so much of that. I had a really interesting synchronicity with a girl who was the assistant to Coach Burt and I haven't talked about it, but we had a few moments that were so crazy, off the charts, like magical moments, and we didn't even know each other. So just things like this happening all all day long was was a form of natural feedback, like energetic feedback that was happening in the moment.

Speaker 2:

And then everybody I mean so many people had so many amazing things to say very upscale. We wanted it to feel like everyone was a VIP. We wanted it to feel like every person who stepped into that room was of the highest and most equal value to everyone else, and that's what we achieved. I think everybody who came into that room felt, seen and appreciated and that was really one of my highest goals to really provide that service for people.

Speaker 1:

What were the ways, what were the primary ways that you went about that, Mitzi?

Speaker 2:

Um, you know, I think that the biggest way was providing an experience where people felt like they were getting the best service. So we chose this venue the live casino and hotel for a lot of reasons, and one of the reasons was that they had five-star food, which I think is very important. I have been to conferences where they have had a box of chips and you pull out a bag of chips or they've had, you know, served a pizza and there's not enough for everyone. Stuff like that does not go over well. When you are paying, you know a ticket price to see speakers and you want your experience, your hospitality experience, to be at the same level as the speakers you're providing as the other stuff that you're providing for the day. So that was really important. We did that. We hired help where it was necessary. We had to hire a tech person, for example. Some people will try and finagle it and do that on their own. Now you can if you have experience. But so these are things you have to make investments in to provide the five-star experience for your guests. That's really important.

Speaker 2:

Having good tablecloths, having good we didn't. We also were very intentional about our swag. We didn't want to have just like a gift bag full of tchotchkes like sometimes you get. We had a really cool little set of boxing gloves. We did like a Rocky theme because of Philadelphia Rocky. So we were thematically driven. I mean, all of these little details which many of them came naturally, I think, to me and to Renee just they came naturally. But when I look back at all the things, as I've been sort of debriefing myself, I'm like wow, I can't believe how that happened, how we did that and it worked so well and how that just naturally was. So the decorations, the we did have high level print materials.

Speaker 3:

Yep. We made a. How about the sign, Mitzi? You have to.

Speaker 2:

Oh, the sign, oh my God. Well, yes, we wanted to rent marquee letters, right? So we wanted these marquee letters. Sorry, I have bugs. We rented these marquee letters. Well, the marquee letters couldn't really find the right size that I wanted, couldn't really find exactly what I wanted, and then when we found them, they were really expensive. And so I said, all right, I can make these, and I can make them just as nice or better. So I ended up buying marquee letters from Amazon that were made of cardboard, put them together and then my partner, jonathan, and I spray painted them gold, which you can't find. So they were customized to our event and we use them as a backdrop.

Speaker 2:

Rich thinking People took pictures in front of it. It was like this, it was like this it was, it was the focal point, it was so cool. And the people at the venue said to me where did you rent those? And I said I made them. And she said those are nicer than the one. She said people rent them all the time and we've never seen any that look like that. They are amazing.

Speaker 1:

You should go into business doing this. I'm like if you saw how long I took you went.

Speaker 2:

I'd have to charge a lot. I had to lug all these here and we did. We split them up. I brought half of them to Renee. We carried them. It's like all these behind the scenes things that happen. You know, renee bought the flowers and we brought the flowers in. She had the vases. These are all very important things and that's definitely my wheelhouse and I love making an event look like there's some cachet there at the event. Your style is important and style is not necessarily something. Everyone has Even inspirational photographs of other events. I was constantly sending Renee and we were sending back and forth pictures of other events, what we liked about it, the look, what we didn't like, that kind of stuff. So you do have to think about all of that. It's a very comprehensive plan that you have to put together but at the same time you're letting go and detaching from. You know you're going to trust that it's all going to come together and it does.

Speaker 1:

So for everyone listening, I will, of course, have the links in the show notes, but I really encourage you to go to it's richthinkingorg.

Speaker 2:

They will have photos. Tell them about the mastermind, Renee. Tell them about the mastermind.

Speaker 3:

We made a decision to host a mastermind once a month, where it and it's called the Rich Thinking Mastermind because what we want to do is cultivate community. We want to extend the experience from rich thinking throughout the year until our next event next year. And building that community is really important for us because you know, you've been to conferences. You leave it's like okay, that was wonderful. You float for a couple of days on all the fumes of fabulousness and then it just goes away and then you're on to the next thing. But we want to make sure that this is a we build a community around this where people can go. As you both know how powerful masterminds are, and being a part of a community is really important for especially entrepreneurs, because you're oftentimes doing things by yourself and it doesn't work that way. It's very hard to do things by yourself. So if we could provide a space for people to get together to discuss ideas, to joint partner on things together, that is a goal of ours to provide. So we don't have the details yet 100%. We just know it's going to be a once a month thing, because I'm part of other calls that are every week. It's hard to get there every week and then you feel like you're missing out. But if we really and I know how busy everybody is so if we are able to even get together for an hour once a month, it would, I feel that people will make more of a point to be there because it's only once a month and the value they'll get out of that will be worth their time. So so much more worth their time if they make a point to be there. So that's in the works. We have already a list of people signed up to be a part of this. We're going to host it for free for a while, see how it goes and then eventually, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe have people pay for it. That's still kind of up in the air, but everyone who is at our conference gets six months for free with us for those meetings and then and then we'll see how it goes from there.

Speaker 3:

But the goal is to provide and cultivate a community around rich thinking, which, for those of you listening, it's not about money, although money is very much a part of our lives, because we can't live without money. But the focus is not money. The focus. When we titled this it was loosely based on Think and Grow Rich, rich thinking, thinking outside of the financial part of the piece of the puzzle. It's more of wealth in your mindset, wealth in your family life, wealth in your health and how we can expand ourselves and grow to reach really big goals that we have and that hopefully do lead to a lot of money. But yes, you know, we don't want to. We don't want people to think off the bat that it's all about money, because it's not. I've been to conferences where it is all about money and, yes, do we need to know? Yes, if someone's giving me advice on taxes or where to invest, I think that's really valuable. I don't want to hear about it all day.

Speaker 1:

Right? Well, it's like you said. It's part of the life wheel. We're looking at this from a holistic perspective and I love that you are loosely basing it off from Napoleon Hill's Thinking Grow Rich, because everyone knows that there's familiarity and it is beyond the financial aspect. It really is about a life that's rich in experiences and a mindset that's amplified, and health abundant health and relationships. So it is really holistic. So, again, we'll put this in the show notes, but please go and visit richthinkingorg, because I know they're going to have some wonderful photos. There were so many taken from the event that I had FOMO the whole time since I couldn't be there, but I know that you'll want to have it on your list for something to think about for next year, so please go and take a look at that. All right, I want to talk a little bit about really what the conference and experience of putting something together, this magnitude, did for your own personal growth. Mitzi, do you want to jump in first?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sure, you know. I think that one of the things that stood out to me was that there were pieces of the puzzle as we were going through the process of actually planning the details, the practical details like working with the hotel. I think we realized after the fact we could have negotiated differently. We didn't realize, um, you know things like this that you just don't know until you do. Um, that was a big uh piece for me, um, for my personal growth, I mean. Other than that, I felt, I think, a sense of validation. I have planned other events, I've planned much, much bigger events and hadn't done it in a while, and so, having that kind of personal validation that, yeah, things do actually come together. You plan and plan and you put these pieces into in place, but when you get there, the puzzle really does form in front of your eyes.

Speaker 2:

And just reiterating that, like self-confidence, self-trust was was a really nice thing to have.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. I like that. How about you, Renee?

Speaker 3:

Sure, I agree with what Mitzi said. I think for my own personal, it's another thing that I can say that I am able to do. So it's like a personal accomplishment to say that I'm a conference host, and every time I say it I said it at the event I was at this weekend when they said, you know, tell us about what you did yesterday, I said I'm a newly minted conference host. So that to me is really cool to be able to say and I plan on, you know, helping other people plan theirs, because a lot of people have come up and said I wanted to do this. I've just been putting it off on the back burner and I said well, if you have all the ideas, well, what's stopping you? You know, because there's going to be something stopping you. It's either your schedule stopping you money, stopping you your own self Fear that people won't show up.

Speaker 1:

Right, right.

Speaker 3:

And we had. I don't think we ever had that fear. I think we knew who that people were going to come because of what we were offering them and and for the first time to to have almost like 60 people in the room is other. Other other people who have thrown events were like oh my gosh, that's amazing for your first one. And I said yeah, because I think the energy at Missy and I were putting out about it and around it is what matters. We weren't pushing sales, we weren't saying you know, buy a ticket, buy a ticket. But it was more of we want you in the room, we want you to experience the collective energy that comes with being in a room, and a lot of some of our tickets were sponsored by somebody and we were able to invite folks for free to come, which was really an amazing experience for us, because money is a topic and not every, especially entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say with entrepreneurs absolutely.

Speaker 3:

But it's so important for entrepreneurs to be in those rooms and to be connected, because that's how you progress as a human, that's how you progress in business, that's how you progress in life. So we were able to gift several people a seat to be in the room, and that, for me, is everything, because I was gifted a ticket to go to LA.

Speaker 3:

So for me, I wouldn't have been able to go otherwise. So for us to be able to provide that for people is. I can't wait to be able to do that again and maybe get some teenagers in there or young entrepreneurs right out of school that don't know about the importance of the network.

Speaker 1:

Right? Well, with that, I'm going to come to my final question here, and that is what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs or new entrepreneurs who are looking to host their own event and start their own ventures?

Speaker 2:

oh I, I would say make a commitment and follow through. Keep going and ask for help as you need it along the way. Do whatever it takes, but do not quit, do not get scared. Push through the fear and ask for help.

Speaker 3:

you know, I asked my neighbor across the street. I said you know he owns a couple of businesses. I was like do you guys sponsor things? You know? He said, send me the list. I sent them the list, bang. I had a check in my hand the next day.

Speaker 3:

So, a lot of people fear asking. They don't, you know, so the answer is no, regardless. If you don't ask, the answer is no. If they don't you know, so the answer is no regardless. If you don't ask, the answer is no. If you do ask and they say no, okay well, if I didn't ask it would have been no anyway. But you will find along the way people want to give back and if conversations with someone I don't even know what they look like, about sponsorship or being in the room and that it you can't be shy about it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And you can't be shy.

Speaker 3:

You can't be shy. You have to ask, and if they say no, great. If they say yes, even better. But yes, I think it's really important that when you're planning something, don't try and put all the weights on your shoulders. Spread them out. Make sure you go to a venue that is like the one we did. I will talk every day about Philly Live because the service was impeccable. The people who were working it, they took the weights off of our shoulders. Between the AV, the banquet manager, we had gluten-free people eating and we were serving Philly cheesesteaks, so we had people with dietary restrictions. They were on it. What do you need? We'll do it for you, and I think that that made a huge difference for us too. Is that the day Mitzi and I were able to be present in the day we didn't have to worry about anything else.

Speaker 3:

We didn't have to worry about if there's a glitch, what's going to happen. We didn't have to worry about who's going to clean up the food after they eat. We didn't have to worry about anything but being present in our event.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you do that by being proactive and setting it up like that from the start, like if you're trying to do all that, your event's not going to be as successful you need to delegate that. Yes, yeah Well ladies very impressive.

Speaker 1:

I'm incredibly happy for you both. I'm very proud of you. Watching your journeys has been nothing short of just exhilarating. It's exciting to see people you love and care about do great things. So congratulations again. And to everyone listening, my final plug here go check them out. I'll make sure we have links to Renee V's contact info as well as Mitzi's contact info. And then, of course, on this phenomenal new conference that they've just got underway, richthinkingorg. And again, thank you for your time, ladies. It's been an absolute pleasure to come back together and have this conversation.

Speaker 3:

Lots of learning. Thank you for having us. Thank you, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Michelle, love you. You're so generous. Love you. Yes, thank you, michelle.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Michelle Rios

Host