Elite Retreat: Should I Have Applied?

One thing that has now passed me by, as it is officially sold out is the Elite Retreat.

What would be the ultimate in valuable communication with a leader or instructor? One-on-one time. It’s why people mob good speakers after a conference talk: everyone wants to have that few minutes of valuable interaction, that ability to talk about their own situation and hope to gain some insight, even if just a tiny taste. The Elite Retreat. It’s unlike any marketing and business event you’ve ever attended, and it’s going to be amazing.

First off, a warning! We’re capping attendance at 35, regardless of how many apply to join us, so if you’re interested, you need to apply right now so you don’t miss your chance! We will only have ONE retreat each year. You can find out more about this years speakers and agenda here. Cost for participating in the Elite Retreat? $4,950 per person.

If you wanted to sit down in a room and spend even an hour with me, or any of the other leaders, you’d be looking at a multi-thousand dollar invoice and a value far, far above that.

Two days of us collectively exploring your business ideas, vision and plans, helping you crystalize and set up solid partnerships with other attendees and growing your business by leaps and bounds and suddenly seems like the great deal you know it is.

My wife and I discussed the event at great length and while she thought it would be great if I could go, the money involved made me think harder and longer. The biggest issue is that I didn’t have that kind of money handy, and would have had to borrow it, and if I was going to invest that kind of money in myself, shouldn’t I take one of my ideas and use the money to get working on it?

The first thing to note is that I don’t really have much of a business on my own. Most of my time, energy and devotion is currently tied into Splashpress Media and the work I do for them, and while I love working on their brand, I don’t think a conference like this would help me in my current capacity as Head of Marketing for Splashpress Media.

The second thing that I wanted to mention is that while I have a lot of ideas, if I don’t have the funds sitting around to pay for such a conference, then I probably wouldn’t have the money necessary to put any plans developed at the event into action.

It was really hard for me to ignore the event though, with such great people leading the event. This year the talent pool is Guy Kawasaki, Jeremy Schoemaker, Neil Patel, Aaron Wall, Andy Liu, Brian Clark and Matt Mullenweg.

What it came down to for me though was the value for what I could possibly learn, and put into action. Learning new things is great, but if you can’t put the things you learn into action, then they become fairly useless. The cost of me attending this event would go beyond the admission ticket and require a flight, hotel, food, and transportation. And once the two day session was over, I would have a list of focused business ideas and a strategy, but no money or time to enact the plans put forth by the experts in attendance and that would be a serious shame, and feel like a waste of their valuable time.

Maybe in a few more years, once I have developed my own business a little further, the Elite Retreat can teach me how to put the proverbial cherry on my business sundae. Until then, this blogger will stick to the more reasonably priced and blogger focused conferences and events.

Originally posted on March 19, 2008 @ 1:45 pm

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