I just spent 4 days fully immersed in my first Tony Robbins event.
[ TRIGGER WARNING ] This might make some of you upset. If you are easily offended, please be near your safe space.
PS. This is long, stop here if you don’t have the mental stamina to read it.
First, let me set the stage.
1️⃣ I have never consumed a single piece of Tony Robbins content in my life. (No joke)
2️⃣ I make fun of “Life Coaches” often, but I have quite a few in my network and I call many of them friends (and clients).
3️⃣ I’m a “realist” and while I’m spiritual and religious, I am not a “meditation” guy.
4️⃣ I’m not superstitious.
5️⃣ I am a skeptic of everything.
6️⃣ I have heard a lot of GOOD things about Tony Robbins & his events.
7️⃣ I have heard many BAD things about Tony Robbins events.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s continue.
I got a call Tuesday last week from a client who is/was a Platinum Partner (which is like Tony’s “inner circle”) with an invite to come to the event as his guest.
It comes with a hefty price tag, but a truly unique experience.
You guys probably saw my pictures and video and the access I got as a guest.
I really got an “inside look” at how it runs.
I’m going to give you what I saw, and my own thoughts for you to decide for yourself.
? It was hard to not think of how much $ was spent on the event, nor how much it generated.
The bottom rows on the floor ranged from $3995 to $100k+
THEN there were 3 completely full FLOORS of bleechers.
It was packed, and those bleechers were starting at $500 a ticket.
Realistically, even if you didn’t include the ground floor of $4k-100k tickets….
13,000 x $500 = $6.5M
Whoa. ?
Not to mention the sponsors and vendors…?
Now, let’s get to the part you want to hear about.
? The “CULT”
The crowd was insanely motivated and the energy was inescapable.
The Crowd was truly all-in on Tony, and most of the people who go to these events seem to really love Tony. Even in my network, I made a Facebook Post with a picture of me and Tony from Day 1 and it had crazy engagement (and the one in the Tony Robbins FB Group got almost 700 likes)
There were MANY times I felt like I was at church.
For anyone who is atheist, or agnostic, this could be tough.
They were very inclusive, they would often use phrases like “whatever you believe, God, Mother Nature, the Universe”.
I felt this was probably smart considering there were 13,000 people with tons of Faiths
On the last day I was next to a great guy named Abdul, a commercial pilot from Saudi Arabia who was Muslim.
Anyway, some spiritual observations:
? There was a lot of meditation.
I mean a LOT.
As someone who never meditated before in my life outside of a long prayer…
This was hard for me to get.
But I really wanted to give my all and truly give it my “all-in” effort.
I did find myself doing some very deep thought and prayer.
The guided prayers / Meditation were actually very calming.
I did feel many times as though I had been “day dreaming” for long periods of time and yet they were only 10-15 minute meditations.
The important thing is I didn’t compromise my values as a Christian, and they didn’t want you to.
They encouraged whatever your beliefs to dive deeper into them.
There was a colleague of mine who spoke at an event a few months ago who left the event early and wrote a scathing article on LinkedIn yesterday…
She brought up her struggle with the spirituality part and obviously if you believe that life was not created, that we are a random set of occuring positive genetic mutations over millions of years and there is no life force or Creator, this isn’t for you. Be warned.
I found some of it to be useful, especially the physiological “priming” of your body.
The meditation & breathing exercises were actually some of the most valuable things I learned from a “body” standpoint.
?? Personal Development
This was my favorite part. They went through a great process of human needs and I found myself nodding my head a lot in agreement.
I have been working on myself for the past 16 months through masterminds and coaching so a lot of this was more a “validation” that I’m on the right track.
My belief system in the past was mainly led by my own need to feel “significant” and “growth”.
I remember in 2016 my actual “goal” was to grow my team to 100.
Talk about a stupid goal.
It had no real deep purpose.
Over the past few years I’ve learned that by focusing on “contribution” is key to both my growth and need for significance.
It also helped me better understand some specific relationships and how I can make them stronger by learning to identify their needs.
? How to get in “PEAK STATE”
This was very intriguing to me scientifically. I was pretty blown away how much the body does influence the mind.
Tony showed some simple techniques that help alter your mood, and attitude quickly…
And it worked.
I have never in my life been to an event that started at 7am and ended at 2am and the only thing I felt after was “hungry”.
The energy was high, but my body felt great.
My feet definitely got a good workout considering my weight but Sunday was a meditation day and I felt like I recovered really fast.
Just look at the energy in this crowd ALL DAY:
? Firewalk
One of the most contentious things people talk about and to be honest I was very skeptical.
I thought “how convenient, we do the walk in the pitch black so we can’t see the supposed “hot coals”…
I figured it was rigged or there was something over them.
But when the girl in front of me walked over the coals and I saw one fly out burning hot I was like… oh damn here we go.
Jake got his right foot singed a little but not bad…. They just put fresh coals on the right side and I definitely felt it on the right side of the walk.
? The “Cool Kids” aka Platinums
These are the elites, they spent some coin. ? Most of them like to do business witbin their own circle, and it makes sense…
So do I.
They were really a great group and to be able to go to their platinum party and get a “behind the scenes” look into how they hold themselves and work with each other was inspiring.
I went to a “Platinum Party” hosted by some of the big dogs that pay $100K+ to hang with Tony and his team and the connections at the party were truly invaluable.
? MY THOUGHTS
As most events go, I’ve always tried to make the most out of them.
I definitely got more than I expected out of it.
There were some things that I didn’t quite get and buy into from Master Coh…
But there were some valuable breathing techniques and some undeniable truths about the power of the mind and how it can make you feel things that aren’t “physically” there. (Or in his case, feel an energy force)
It was definitely a unique experience and I enjoyed it.
It’s definitely got a “cult” vibe but at the end of the day I learned a lot.
The way they motivated the crowd.
How they sold the crowd.
How they kept people engaged.
How they used a lot of great “mind-hacks” and NLP to make people take action to buy was something that inspired me to implement in my business right away.
So there it is.
Have you gone? If so what was your experience?
Responses have been pretty intense over on my Facebook Post here: https://www.facebook.com/jhunter101/posts/2204184929882407