Inspire and Succeed Conference 2019 Brisbane

Here I am in Sydney’s Virgin Australia Lounge again, reviewing my notes from another conference while I sip on a McLaren Vale red, and nibble on a fantastic sandwich.

Who could inspire me to jump on a plane to Brisbane? Who could top the amazing Gary V at the last conference? Who?

Sir Richard Branson, that’s who. The Sir Richard Branson. The man who famously trolled British Airways with a blimp that read ‘BA can’t get it up.’ The man who is a champion for all those kids that our current education system fails daily. Sir Richard Branson was the keynote speaker for this conference, and he didn’t disappoint.

The downside is the promoter took the opportunity to pad the speaking bill with more of the same perceived value offerings and pitch masters/amateurs from the last show.

So, in the interest of ending on a positive, I’ll briefly run through the negatives and then move onto the three speakers who genuinely offered value to an audience who, rightly or wrongly, felt like they’d been lured to an event under false pretenses.

In a clever piece of advertising, the promoter of the event failed to release the full speaker list prior to the event. The event was promoted as an opportunity to learn about:

· succeeding despite overwhelming challenges

· raising capital to fund your passion

· creating wealth through existing assets

· passion, purpose, and going global

· giving back; the true rewards of success

· leadership and creativity in entrepreneurship

But, and it is a disappointing but, the promoter used the draw-card of Sir Richard Branson to offer a group of speakers the opportunity to pitch to a captive audience. Three of the speakers were on the bill for the Gary V conference, and they ran through the same perceived value bullshit they did there, while attempting to sell coaching courses to a rightly skeptical audience.

One chap happened to walk out of one speaker at the same time as me and our mate Creative Bill. He was disillusioned by a speaker who tried to build rapport by continually calling himself a ‘chubby little bastard’ in a faux self-deprecating way. This punter muttered: ‘Rancid, that guy is absolutely rancid’ as he stormed out of the building only 20 minutes after the luncheon interval.

Those of us who have been to one of this promoter’s shows before were half expecting it. Feel free to see my blog about the recent Auckland show.

Imagine paying up to thousands of dollars to attend this event based on Sir Richard’s presence, with no forewarning of the pitch-fest that was to ensue. Imagine reading through the event highlights, being inspired to come and learn, swiping the credit card, and then having this event be your first impression.

So many people walked out of so many speakers. So many speakers just ran through their scripted pitch without taking the time to get a feel for the room. So many speakers asked for more than they offered in return while trying to convince the audience they were in fact providing outstanding value.

That’s the negatives covered, well almost. If the promoter reads this, please, I’m begging you, PLEASE find an MC that can relate to Australian audiences without bullshit clichés and clumsy sales primer manipulations. The MC on this one was like a Kraft single. Pretending to be cheese while being nothing like real cheese at all.

Now let’s dive into the positives that, believe it or not, do outweigh the negatives for this show.

Three speakers absolutely blew this place up with value. Michael Crossland, Lisa Messenger, and Sir Richard Branson. Three speakers who I hope above all hopes didn’t realise they would be on the bill with what one person near us described as: Dirty Salesmen

Michael Crossland

In a word: Incredible! Once the sour taste of the MC had left our mouths, Michael worked into his story with humility and passion. Michael started with a simple:

‘Ignore everything the MC said and lower your expectations, I’m a simple Aussie guy not some American celebrity.’

And then he overachieved beyond measure.

Have you ever watched a movie that you know nothing about? No previews. No word-of-mouth. Just walked into the cinema with no expectations.

I have. A friend of mine picked me up one night for a preview screening of The Matrix. I knew nothing about it. Needless to say; I had the top of my head removed and my brain was given a solid stir before I left the cinema a changed man.

This was Michael Crossland. I knew nothing about him, not a thing. If anything, I was feeling incredibly skeptical after seeing the speaker list and listening to the MC rabbit on for 20 minutes without saying anything.

Talk about flipping the script!!! How this guy is still alive, let alone succeeding beyond the average person’s wildest dreams, is beyond me. If I could book Michael to speak at every conference I ever attend or organise; I would.

Key takeaways:

· Adversity doesn’t define you, how you deal with it does

· Don’t wait until it’s too late to say what you feel

· Fail fast, fail forward, fail often

· Give without remembering, receive without forgetting

· The life we complain about is a dream for some

Michael hasn’t just been to Hell, he’s taken up residency for long periods of time, looked old Beezlebub square in the eyes and said: ‘You hit like a bitch you horned freak!’

I won’t give you the full blow by blow, but if you ever get an opportunity to see or hear Michael Crossland, DO IT!!!

After the highlight of Michael Crossland, we endured several very pitchy presenters who were on the bill for the recent Auckland show. One chap started with a video about Forex and a system for success. It was at this point our small party looked at each other and said: ‘Early lunch!’

We walked across the road to the Pig ‘N’ Whistle for a burger and a few wines (on tap no less). We watched as one presenter and his entourage of testimonials and crowd seeders sat down at a long table for their well-earned meal. It’s a tough gig travelling to conferences and spinning the yarns that will hopefully end with a few thousand in the back pocket.

We got back in time for the end of the lunch break, at which point I snuck in a quick Facebook Live about the event so far. You can see that here.

Break over, and the pitching continued with Australia’s self-proclaimed ‘Numero Uno’ of finance, not Scott Pape apparently?!? We walked out of that one and returned to our seats for:

Lisa Messenger

Lisa sashayed onto stage, complete with cape. It is a rare gift to look a million dollars and humble at the same time, but Lisa achieved this with grace and professionalism.

For those of you who are like me and don’t know Lisa Messenger, she is a serial entrepreneur and author of 17 books. Lisa launched The Collective Hub and disrupted the world of print in her own quirky way. How? By bringing it back to community.

She had my attention immediately. Her simple ideas of community driven business give me optimism for the future and align perfectly with the PlainBlack ethos. Moving away from transaction based business to sustainable business based on providing true value to communities. Start small, start where you are, create a free value exchange and move fast.

‘The big don’t devour the small; the fast devour the slow!’

Lisa’s idea of finding non-competing brand partners is fantastic. PlainBlack aims to take it one step further. Why just limit yourself to non-competing brand partners?

There is so much wealth in this world. We can all work together to create a global community of like-minded businesses whether we are competing or not. After all, there is only so much work each company can undertake before they lose sight of their core values and grow to unsustainable levels.

There is more than enough for us all to have food on the table, with enough food to share with every person. We just need to make the table bigger.

Lisa’s short set, only about 30 minutes, sparked more light bulb moments for me than anyone else on the bill. She didn’t try to sell a thing, and Lisa simply outlined a way of doing business better.

Nothing illustrated this better than her pitch to Sir Richard.

Lisa was invited to pitch to Branson along with several other businesses. Each business before her had the clear intent to become a Virgin brand. Lisa stepped up to the plate and asked a question. ‘Can I send you a box of magazines each month?’

And there it is. In a room of people asking: ‘what’s in it for me?’ Lisa offered: ‘what can I do for you?’ And put her money where her mouth is.

Lisa supplied more value than she asked in return and inspired a rebuilding of community driven business.

To finish, Lisa asked another question: ‘Are you a founder, or are you a CEO?’ Each business needs both. The founder is the ideas man, the dreamer, the creator. The CEO is the numbers guy, the details, the functionality. The founder sees the world, the CEO sees the sum of its parts.

I will end Lisa Messenger’s outstanding presentation with this key takeaway:

People want to do business with people. So in a world of automation and remote communication, let’s re-humanise our relationships.

If several of the other presenters could listen to that pearl of wisdom; the day would have been much more satisfying for all and sundry.

Next up for the audience was the friendly Amazon man, you will have seen him on YouTube with his re-targeting campaign. His initial 10 minutes was a clumsy attempt to help the finance guy sell more coaching. He used guilt and FOMO to try and inspire the audience to part with a thousand dollars for a seriously exaggerated benefit.

To be fair, once he got into his own presentation (the same as his Auckland gig), he spoke well and showed some results… BUT, it was all for his Amazon selling system. No actual advice, just results of others with a ‘you can do this too!’

This was all a pre-cursor to the main event:

Sir Richard Branson

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know who Sir Richard Branson is: He is the founder of Virgin Group. Sir Richard Branson has started more than 400 companies with over 60 currently in business serving more than 60 million customers globally. In other words: He’s kind of a big deal.

In three words: Humble. Happy. Hopeful.

Branson was brought out on stage by Lisa Messenger and the almost 90 minute show was in interview format.

From the very beginning, it was evident we were in the presence of one of the great human beings on this planet. Sir Richard has every right to be one of the arrogant folks we all know, but he is unassuming and humble to the core. I’ve been to plenty of events where the keynote speaker is keen to make it the ‘me me me’ show, and they finish on the dot or earlier.

Sir Richard was exceedingly generous with his time. And to hear the stories we’ve all read straight from the horse’s mouth was one of those watershed moments in my life.

Richard regaled us with stories of his life, business and relationships. At no point during his time on stage did he come across as arrogant or egocentric. Even while talking about his publicity stunts and his role as the figurehead of the Virgin brand, Richard was genuinely humble, almost embarrassed that the focus was on him. Sir Richard has a way of making everything about other people and including them in the narrative. It was outstanding!

Even the way Sir Richard speaks on stage is humble and inclusive. He is about as far away from pretentious as you could possibly get. It was a fantastic reinforcement of my internal monologue when reading Branson’s books. It is rare when your imagined persona of a celebrity matches up with the flesh, but Sir Richard’s on-stage presence confirmed my initial thoughts of the man all those years ago.

And that is why this blog is entitled: You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression.

My first impression of Richard Branson was years ago, via his publicity stunts. Here was a man who was interested in disrupting the status quo, saying ‘screw business as usual.’ If this was just a front, a fake persona, he would have come unstuck by now. Thirty years later, and he is still the same renegade, just with more reach and a heap more resources.

Compare that to several of the other speakers on stage and you can see where they will fail. It’s not a case of if, but when. So much chicanery and a lack of reality on stage will limit their audience as we move further into a new age of marketing and advertising.

With a bit of luck, they will listen to the lessons of their stage mates and learn the way to connecting to real people is to be a real person. It could happen.

All in all, this event was well worth the cost of admission. To sit in the same room with Sir Richard Branson, listen to his stories and vision, and feel the buzz of the crowd was amazing. To find a couple of hidden gems among the speakers was an absolute bonus, and one of the key benefits of attending these sorts of events.

I will finish with this simple piece of bravado:

Quite a few people have asked why I didn’t pay the extra money ($2,000) to meet Sir Richard in person. My simple answer is this: I’ll meet Sir Richard Branson when he asks to meet me. Anyone can pay to meet someone, earning the right to exchange ideas with someone like Sir Richard Branson will be much more fulfilling. Cheers.