Community.
Adventure.
Service.
Unconventional.
Record setting.
The World Domination Summit isn’t just another ordinary event. It’s definitely not a convention or some sort of networking event.
WDS is a gathering of many unique and dynamic minds, all in the same place at the same time.
3,000 people from 30+ different countries consisting of artists, students, entrepreneurs, world travelers, leaders of numerous different non-profit organizations of all ages and from all walks of life.
All together for an entire weekend to share and learn from each other.
An entire weekend focused on…
COMMUNITY. ADVENTURE. SERVICE.
This past weekend, Kristen and I attended World Domination Summit held in Portland, OR. Telling people we were going to “World Domination Summit” drew many confused and concerned looks from those we told as you can imagine given the events name.
Although the name implies some sort of hostile worldly take-over, I assure you it’s anything but that. WDS is an annual gathering put on by Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non Conformity that looks to answer the following question:
How Do We Live A Remarkable Life In A Conventional World?
Did I mention there was a record setting attempt? There was and that’s exactly what we did. What better way to start the weekend off than to be part of a world record breaking yoga chain, The Great Namaste. On Friday morning, Kristen and I joined 806 other people who gathered in Pioneer Courtyard Square and together, we shattered the previous record of 696 people. It was an incredible experience and a reminder of the amazing things people can do when they come together and unite for a common goal.
This was the first World Domination Summit Kristen and I have attended and I assure you it isn’t our last. We’ve committed to go again next year and have already purchased our tickets for 2015 since tickets are limited and there’s just NO WAY we would miss such an amazing, mind-blowing few days with incredible people from all over the world.
Go Where You’re Celebrated, Not Tolerated.
It’s amazing to be around 3,000 remarkable individuals who all believe in themselves, what they are up to, what they’re doing, creating, exploring, and the most remarkable part of it all is that they also believe in what I’m doing as well and are ready and willing to help me in any way possible to help make my wild and crazy ideas possible.
You want to visit every country in the world, do it! Chris Guillebeau did. You want to be the youngest person to play all of the top 100 golf courses in the country, awesome! That’s what Sean Ogle from Location Rebel is up to and he’s darn close to completing that feat too. You want to sail around the world, love it! That’s what Bo is up to. There’s nothing too crazy, too outrageous, too unheard of, too childish, too anything. Just different ideas, visions, quests that focus on community, adventure, and service.
When I created The Wellness Bucket, I did so with a vision of creating a community focused on feeling, looking, and most importantly, living our best. A place where anyone who wants to be at their best can come to and be welcomed and supported immediately. A place where you’re celebrated and where others understand you and believe in you. A community that refuses to let you fail, give up, or quite but instead encourages, motivates, and inspires you to keep moving forward and believing in yourself. This was and still is the vision I had when I created The Wellness Bucket. A similar vision to that of WDS.
I was overwhelmed the entire weekend with this surreal sense of happiness, excitement, and thoughts that anything really is possible if you believe it is and surround yourself with people who believe it’s possible too. I even found myself a bit emotional at times thinking about this amazing group of people I was surrounded by who all believed in each other and who believed in me. I haven’t always had that, in fact, I’ve never had that and now, I had 3,000 people cheering for me, supporting me, and motivating me with their words and their actions.
During this incredible weekend, I wrote down lots and lots of notes from all the speakers that spoke so that I could share it with all of you upon my return. The speakers and their messages were too awesome not to shared with you guys. Below you will find little snippets of messages, thoughts, and ideas that were shared with me throughout the weekend that I believe are of value and that I would like to share with you all here as well.
FOLLOW YOUR DREAM AND MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE
Gavin Aung Than – Zen Pencils
Had a crazy dream of becoming a cartoonist
Laughed at, discouraged, and told he wouldn’t make it.
Zen Pencils was named one of the top 100 websites of 2013
“Don’t be afraid to fail at something.”
Elise Blaha Cripe – Blogger, Crafter, Goal Setter in San Diego
Tired of being asked the question, “so what do you do?”, Elise decided to begin answering with “I make stuff.”
Great people do things before they are ready.
When stuck, watch a video, read a book, call someone.
If you’re not good at something, who cares. Now you know something about yourself.
Get uncomfortable.
Failure is info. Take it, learn from it, and move forward.
Ideas grow and magic happens.
If we waited until we knew everything, we’d never do anything.
Break down huge goals into smaller steps.
If it stops being enjoyable, just stop and move onto something else.
Leave space to grow because things change. Leave flexibility for adaptability.
Share your idea so that it’s on someone else’s radar for accountability.
Make the unreal, real. Say it… Loudly!
Just Start!
John Francis – The Planetwalker
Took a vow of silence for 17 years and gave up use of motorized vehicles after witnessing an oil spill in San Francisco Bay back in 1971.
When we aren’t talking, we’re listening. If we’re not listening, we’re not learning.
Just start, show up, and you’ll make a difference.
“Head in the path of your passions and the plan will reveal itself.”
Michael Hyatt – Chairman & CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers
There are three types of lives that we are currently living:
The Drifting Life – A life we are not consciously taking control over, letting everything happen on its own and letting everything just come to us.
The Driven Life – The over correction to the drifting life. Overdoing it in any aspect of life as a way to make up for being caught up in The Drifting Life for a while.
The Default Life – The life we feel we should be living that we just end up falling into.
The Designed Life – Being conscience of the life we’re living. Choosing our destination and living an intentional life.
Live a more designed life by asking yourself the following three questions:
1. How Do I Want To Be Remembered?
Become an architect of the memories others will have of us.
2. What Is Important To Me?
You can do anything you want, just not everything. Priorities.
Take care of yourself first before trying you take care of others.
Don’t let urgent take over what’s important.
3. What Single Brave Decision Do I Need To Make Today?
Planning is just a fancy way of defining procrastination.
If you’re going to get fired, cause it. Always do what you think is right regardless of the circumstances.
“Life is a gift. Do what maters.”
A.J. Jacobs – Human guinea pig and author of four New York Times bestsellers
Be bold, be experimental, be strategic.
Say thanks for everything in your life.
Focus on what goes right and not just on what goes wrong.
Act until you think, don’t think until you act (Fake it until you make it).
The way you hold your body effects your mind.
Do not let your dreams be deferred.
According to genealogy, we’re all the same family.
We’re all cousins.
We’re all invited to a Global Family Reunion on 6/6/2015
John Jantsch – Best selling author and Creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System & Consulting
Make good choices.
All great business serve others.
Creating loyal customers is about choosing the right customers.
A failing bakery finds success. When asked how, owner said he finally started serving bread instead of just making it.
“Are you serving bread or just making it?”
“The only people who can change the world are the people who want to. And not everyone does.”
~ Hugh MacLeod ~
“True life is lived when tiny changes occur.”
~ Leo Tolstoy ~
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom.”
~ Viktor Frankl ~
Jadah Sellner – Co-Founder of Simple Green Smoothies
Building a business is like a relationship.
Say your dream out loud, take imperfect action, let go.
Write stuff down and say it out loud.
Create harmony between thinking and doing.
Create a vision board.
The only way to move through fear is to take imperfect action.
A good business should never compromise your health or relationships.
Dreams do matter, they take time.
Letting go it hard, holding on is harder.
5 RULES TO BUILD A COMMUNITY WITH HEART
1. Take consistent ninja-focused action.
2. Stay insanely curious and see what sticks.
3. Court your community.
4. Created hyper-engaged connection.
5. Choose love over metrics.
“Be in the business of changing one life at a time.”
Dee Williams – Author of The Big Tiny and Co-owner of Portland Alternative Dwellings
At times we lack courage to follow our heart.
We all have the courage we need.
Live a life of frivolity.
Turn the lens on ourselves.
Show up differently.
Pay attention differently.
Measure success with how you show up.
Show up!
Other Notable World Domination Mentions
Earlier this year, I completed an awesome 8 week training course called Connect With Anyone that was offered by Scott Dinsmore at Live Your Legend. It was an amazing course that provided me very helpful material and content and also the opportunity to meet and connect with some very cool and amazing people from all over the world. Scott was also at WDS this year.
I got the opportunity to meet him in person which was awesome, and personally thank him for all of his help and inspiration. Scott is one of the most genuine people you’ll ever meet
During my early stages of creating The Wellness Bucket, I got the opportunity to work with Leah Hynes and Naz Murphie from Rock Your Purpose Live. These two amazing ladies led an online mastermind and accountability meetup every week.
Their influence, support, ideas, and belief in me and all I was creating rocked my world (pun intended). Lots of my unreasonable thinking and fight against the impossible stems from my interaction with these two awesome individuals.
I was so fortunate to get the opportunity to meet them as well at WDS and thank them for all they’ve done for me and most importantly, believing in me and what I was creating at The Wellness Bucket.
When I first moved to Boston about 10 months ago, I knew I wanted to create an online wellness community but the problem was, I just had no idea where to begin. The online world of doing business, creating communities, and offering services that help others was all new and foreign to me. After several months of researching online on how and where to best begin creating The Wellness Bucket, I got lucky and somehow came across Sean Ogle’s Location 180 site. His content, message, ideas, and help were instrumental in giving me the confidence, tools, and resources I needed to create the vision I had for The Wellness Bucket. Sean is an awesome guy who’s online business makes him location independent which means he can pretty much work from any place in the world. I’m jealous to say the least.
5K Fun Run
Friday morning, before being part of a record-breaking yoga chain The Great Namaste, Kristen and I signed up for a 5K Run and joined a group of about 50 or so other people as well who also ran. It was a very cool 5K race that took us through the city of Portland, over a few bridges, through some parks, and back by the waterfront. The run provided us with a great view of the city while we were on the bridges and across the water.
Nicole Antoinette from Lifelessbullshit.com organized the run and did a fantastic job. Just a little tidbit on Nicole, she’s currently training to run from LA to NYC in 2015. That’s not a typo either, she’s going to RUN across the country. See what I mean? Nothing it too crazy, too nuts, or too impossible for the WDS Community.
Well that pretty much sums up my experience from WDS 2014. It was an amazing experience and one I will always appreciate and be grateful for.
Surround yourself with people who believe in you, inspire you, motivate you, encourage you, and refuse to let you slow down, give up, or fail. Remember to go where you are celebrated and not tolerated. In addition to The Wellness Bucket, I encourage you to be a part of one, if not all these wonderful people and communities I’ve mentioned above.
Community is everything. Environment is everything.
You, all of you, the entire Wellness Bucket community means the world to me and I want nothing but the best for each and every one of us. I believe in us and in all that we are capable of achieving. Together, nothing is impossible. Know that here, within this community, The Wellness Bucket, you will ALWAYS be celebrated because you truly are awesome! Thanks for being you and being a part of what we’re building here. We’re just getting started.
The best has yet to come.
Mike, It’s so exciting to hear about this adventure. I imagine it will have a huge impact on you and The Wellness Bucket!
Environment is Everthing. You can but yourself in with vampires or places like WDS. So much easier to create when life is being infusesed into your being and not sucked out.
Thanks for the post.
John
Thanks for your comments John, always appreciated! Being around other inspiring individuals doing amazing things for an entire weekend was incredible. It’s amazing what we begin to think is possible when you see, talk, and work with others who are doing incredible things already. No question, environment is indeed everything!
Mike,
Great recap of an amazing weekend at my first World Domination Summit.
Thanks for detailed notes from each speaker. I’m still trying to sort through my chicken scratch notes from the conference!
Keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing you at WDS 2015.
DG Gregory
Thanks for your comment and words DG, much appreciated. That’s awesome that you were there as well. What an incredible few days. Have a great weekend and all the best to you as well. I’ll definitely see you at WDS 2015. Cheers!
You are a superstar Mike. The community you have around you now is one you deserve and have always deserved.
We are not going anywhere; what you are up to is too important.
Hugs,
Leah xo
You’re awesome Leah! Thanks for your words, they mean everything to me. I am so very grateful for you and the rest of this wonderful Wellness Bucket community. I see some very big and awesome things to come for us all. This is only the beginning!