7 Things To Do Immediately Following World Domination Summit – How To Capitalize On Your WDS Experience

World Domination Summit 2015 is officially over and in the books – the Guinness Book of World Records that is.

Yet another successful world record attempt.

World Wide Waffles – the biggest breakfast in bed party. There were actually 5 world record attempts this years, but who’s counting?

It was World Domination Summit’s 5th year anniversary and it didn’t disappoint.

Tons of laughs, cries (lots of cries actually), stories, connections, pictures, and good times.

WDS 2015 may be over, but there’s still work to be done.

Let’s get to it.

7 Things To Do Immediately Following WDS

1) Register For Next Year

If you’ve ever experienced WDS, you’ll agree that this is a no brainer.

When you commit to attend again the following year and purchase your tickets a year in advance, you’ll get to take advantage of a discount which equates to a few hundred dollars in savings.

Every year, the number of WDS tickets sold are limited so by purchasing them in advance, you won’t have to worry about getting your tickets.

UPDATE: Due to recent changes made by WDS this year, tickets for 2016 are even more limited now. In fact, they’re sold out at the moment.

Stay updated on all that’s to come and how to score WDS tickets by subscribing to Chris Guillebeau’s blog, The Art of Non-Conformity. 

Luckily for me (and hopefully for you as well) I jumped at the change to buy my tickets as soon as they were announced. Bring on WDS2016!

2) Take One Action

The speakers at WDS this year were all incredible (as they are every year) and so were their messages.

Whether it’s Jon Acuff’s message of sharing your voice, or Megan Devine’s message of not trying to fix things but instead, bearing witness, or Lewis Howes’s message of asking yourself, “who are you?”

Pick one message, the one that resonated most with you and take action on it immediately. Don’t wait until next week, next month, or when the time is right. 

As Derek Sivers, WDS’s closing speaker put it, “if you’re not launching too soon, you’re launching too late“.

Same applies to taking action on that one message, idea, thought that resonated most with you.

For me, the power of story and seeing each speaker share, connect, and inspire all the attendees resonated most with me.

I have begun reaching out to friends and mentors (2 emails / 2 verbal mentions so far) inquiring about public speaking. That’s currently my one action.

What will your one action be?

3) Thank The Speakers

Did I mention this years speakers were incredible? They were.

Chances are you feel the same way so why not let them know it?

Reach out to each one of them, whether it’s through email, Facebook, or Twitter and thank them.

Let them know what resonated with you most.

Share with them how their words and message made you feel and how it helped you specifically.

I sent each speaker a Tweet thanking them for their time and a snip-it of what resonated with me most.

I received replies from each one of them thanking me for my message.

Aside from offering gratitude, it’s also a great way to connect and build rapport with great people.

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

4) Follow-Up With People You Met

I’m going to guess you met some pretty cool people at WDS and had some great conversations.

Chances are you may have even exchanged contact information.

As I mentioned in a previous WDS post on how to get the most out of your WDS experience…

“meeting people and making lots of new friends and connections at WDS and not following up with them afterwards is like holding a winning lottery ticket and not cashing it in.”

Make it a point to reach out to everyone you met who you really connected with.

Let them know how great it was to meet them and thank them for taking the time to speak with you and share their ideas and thoughts with you.

An email, text, Tweet, Facebook message, phone call, even a good ole’ fashion hand written note will do the trick.

Make the effort, reach out, and connect.

I used a combination of email, text, Facebook messages, and phone calls to reach out to all the wonderful people I met and connected with.

I’ve also followed several of them on Twitter, “liked” their Facebook page, and subscribed to their blogs so that I can support them throughout the year.

5) Write A WDS Recap Post

A few days after WDS concludes, there’s a blog post round-up done by Chris Guillebeau where he collects and publishes blog posts for those who create a summary of their experience at WDS.

Take everything you heard, felt, and experienced during WDS and share it by writing and submitting your own WDS recap blog post to concierge@wds.fm.

Here’s mine from last year.

It’s an awesome way to give back to Chris, the entire WDS community, and others who may be interested in finding out more about what the World Domination Summit is all about.

In addition, you’ll also get your blog post listed on Chris’s blog – how cool is that!

6) Support One Person, Project, Or Idea

Consider all the academies, speakers, meet-ups, attendees stories and conversations you had.

What person, project, or idea inspired you the most?

Maybe there were several of them (which was the case for me).

Maybe it’s someone you met whose work you loved. Share their work with others, comment on their posts, subscribe to their newsletter, buy their eBook.

Maybe is was a specific project that caught your attention and inspired you. Get involved, volunteer your time, ideas, and expertise to the project or help fund their campaign.

Maybe it was an idea someone shared with you where you know someone you can connect them with to help get them started.

Pick one (I decided on two) and commit some of your time and effort to help.

Helping financially isn’t necessary either unless you can and want to.

I supported Valerie Groth’s Ryan Banks Academy by creating this video and also made a contribution to The Wayfinding Academy fundraising campaign.

7) Start Or Join Your Own WDS Community

Just because WDS comes around once a year doesn’t mean you have to wait that entire time to connect and collaborate with other WDS peeps.

You can make it happen right now where you live.

New this year, World Domination Summit is forming monthly community groups throughout North America, Europe, Australia & New Zealand, and even Japan.

Here’s something even cooler… you can help get it started! They’re currently looking for hosts, venues, and logistical support.

These WDS groups will begin meeting in Fall 2015. 

I would love to become a local host for WDS in San Diego (which is where I am currently en route to on my drive across country) although there’s already a local WDS group established there that I’m excited to meet up with and be a part of.

Action Always Beats Intention

Intentions are cheap and won’t get you (or anyone else for that matter) anywhere.

I highly encourage you to take action on several, if not all of these.

WDS is big-time exciting and motivating. The best way to ride the wave of momentum and motivation from an incredible WDS weekend is to continue taking action as I’ve mentioned here.

Avoid putting it off until “later” because later has a funny way of turning into “never“.

Opportunity waits for no one.

Make it happen!

Cheers!

Mike