Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] What are you looking for in a conference or a workshop or a retreat?
[00:00:06] What works for you and what doesn't?
[00:00:08] Bradley Schravano here. Thursday Thunder. I haven't done like a Thursday Thunder style Thursday Thunder in a while. Believe me, I get a video up every single Thursday. But today I'm in Viareggio in Northern Italy. I'll give you a little tour here for the next few minutes as we talk about what should or could a retreat or workshop or conference be for you and how does it work best? What are the elements that you want and what is that and what do you not want?
[00:00:42] For example, today I'm here, I'm at a conference. It's a very small conference, about 26 of us. Really cool.
[00:00:48] And one thing to me is extremely clear, and that is that the interactive sessions are the most memorable and efficient and effective and fun and connecting and get to know your neighbor. And yes, we all moan and groan when we hear, oh, you have to talk to your neighbor. But guess which ones are the most memorable. Guess which ones make the most impact.
[00:01:15] And how do we rate and judge and gauge the success of an event like this?
[00:01:23] In my humble opinion, it's the connection.
[00:01:26] What kind of connection do you feel to the other people? What connection might you feel, maybe with yourself? What are you learning? What are you getting out of it? What are you giving? Who are you meeting?
[00:01:40] So how much is it about you? How much is it about them? How much is it about us and we in the group and together and what we're learning and who we're meeting and might become friends?
[00:01:51] I'm at a. At a. This conference was recommended to me by a dear friend who knows me quite well. And I didn't really know what I was getting into, and yet I trusted her to. To guide me, to invite me to something that I would enjoy and appreciate. And sure enough, she's right.
[00:02:11] It's about leadership. It's about. There's definitely a spiritual element and it's entrepreneurship as well. There's a lot going on. It's good. But I think the main element are the people. Okay, I not think the element are the people.
[00:02:27] I know the main element are the people, and that is then the connection. And so because I'm a new kid on the block, then how do I get to know the others?
[00:02:39] And you get to know the others, but by doing the exercises during the event.
[00:02:46] So it's not by sitting in the chairs and listening to the speaker for 45 minutes, although if the speaker is awesome enough and the content is compelling enough. It can work, but you've got to get a really good speaker and compelling content that is really relatable to the audience. And that's a tall request, right? That's a. That's a big demand.
[00:03:13] Whereas if you can get the audience standing up or talking to their neighbors or making some connection. And ideally, the deeper the better. If you can make some sort of.
[00:03:28] Yeah, get out of your comfort zone, get a little scary, get a little dicey, share a little bit more than you might on a regular basis, and then see how that connection works.
[00:03:41] Perfect example. I went to Elizabeth Gilbert's workshop, or weekend or whatever you want to call it, a few weeks ago in Amsterdam, and I met Delia Monk, for example, who I then had on my podcast and channel. We really hit it off. She's got great ideas, and we had a fantastic interview and all of that because.
[00:04:04] Not just because we sat next to each other at the conference, but because at the conference, Elizabeth Gilbert forced us to exchange. It was actually pretty. It was pretty intense. Something like, what are you. Something like, what are you most struggling with right now? Or whatever. And she wanted you to go deep and just let it all out. And it was pretty fun because you're total strangers, and it's kind of like. I don't know if you ever have this on airplanes, but I tend to, I mean, feel like I'm never going to see this person again. Who cares? And sometimes you just let it out and in a way that can.
[00:04:43] That can be more. What's the word?
[00:04:47] Relieving. More.
[00:04:49] Yeah. Beneficial than someone, you know, because some of, you know, you might. You might hold back. You might watch your words. You might think twice, or you might.
[00:04:59] Yeah, you get the idea. So at this conference, for these potential strangers, or maybe they might be friends, but you know what? Maybe they're gonna be friends. Maybe they're gonna be someone you. You get to know better if you open up a bit, if you share the. The Something more personal, something more deep.
[00:05:20] Not that you're giving away your family secrets, but something that, yeah, deepens the connection from the otherwise maybe superficial.
[00:05:32] Sitting next to the other participant at the event. Now, of course, Elizabeth Gilbert was hundreds of people, and now I'm with 26. And so we're getting to know each other whether we want to or not. And that's a good thing, because then we see. I mean, what's the reason we're doing these anyway? Right? Why am I here? It's honestly for the human connection. It is live in person, over not just three, four days. It is Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Right. And today's Thursday. I'm just getting started, but because it's Thursday, Thunder. And because I have a dedicated commitment to posting every single Thursday I do.
[00:06:16] So what are your thoughts on a conference? Because if you follow my world a little bit, you'll know that we are planning on moving to Southern Italy, at least for some period of time. Someone said recently. Yeah, for some time.
[00:06:35] I like that number. Like for some time.
[00:06:39] Yes. And so one of the plans is to host workshops or conferences or retreats or whatever you want to call them. Maybe I should narrow down what I'm going to call them. But here's my goal, and you can tell me what you think.
[00:06:51] I want to have personal development weekends or long weekends. Maybe. Maybe like this. Because this is going to be three, four days. This is going to be. Maybe it's enough. I sometimes think about a week. Maybe a week's too long. So first of all, how many days or. Or weeks would you. Would you want it. Would you want it to be a weekend? Two and a half? Do you want three? Do you want four? So that's one option or more. Do you want two, three, four, five, six, seven? What's the number of days that you would like for a conference?
[00:07:20] And then what content would you want? Like, first there's the idea of content.
[00:07:27] What do you want finance? Do you want life stuff? Do you want business stuff? Do you want habits? Do you want art? Do you want culinary? Do you want to learn something? Do you want to drink wine all day? What do you want to do?
[00:07:44] What do you want to do for the days?
[00:07:46] And then what do you want to get out of it? When you walk away? What do you want to have achieved or have created that you did not have before it started? Do you want to write or. Or sing or create or make art or whoa, maybe make an ice cream. Maybe do an ice cream course.
[00:08:08] What do you want to get at it? Or you learn a skill or you take Italian class or, I don't know, what do you want for me? Nonfiction guy, Personal development guy. I'm probably going to want to learn some kind of skill or achieve something or get the idea what else we got.
[00:08:28] Who do you want to learn from?
[00:08:30] Do you want to learn from your peers? Do you want to be, like a mastermind where it's, I don't know, 10, 20, 30 people, and you and the audience are other guides and teachers and stuff like that? So do you want smaller like that? Do you want 10, 20 people?
[00:08:48] 5, 10, 20, 30 people, and it's smaller, or would you rather have a bigger event where you.
[00:08:58] Yeah, like. Like I say, you're sitting in the audience. Of course, you now know my bias. I don't want to just sit in the audience and lecture.
[00:09:06] So that's probably not what's going to happen. What's going to happen if I'm involved. But what would you like? Would you like to just sit there and listen? Or would you rather be more interactive and involved?
[00:09:17] What else? What kind of things? When you walk away, what do you want? Do you want more?
[00:09:22] Here, I'm going to pick three of my words. You want clarity or courage and confidence? Maybe you want some clarity and courage? Maybe you want courage and confidence. You want two of the three? One of the three, all three?
[00:09:33] What do you want? What do you want? All right, I'm keeping my time of 10 minutes. I'm almost there. I'm in Viareggio, south of Genoa, north of Pisa, on the western coast of Italy, enjoying the blue skies and the beautiful weather and the new friends I'm making as we speak. All right, see you next week. Let me know in your comments what you think, what you want for a conference. Bye for now.
