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How 'Thrive' Changed My Life

How 'Thrive' Changed My Life
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I owe my success over the past two years to a conference. Pretty crazy, right?

It was September, 2015. It was a shot in the dark to head to Vegas for Thrive, an event geared toward ‘making your money matter’. I had just quit my boring lawyer job to be a full-time real estate investor, and I was excited to meet some other people who were in a similar boat.

The speaker lineup included dozens of upper-echelon business builders, like Robert Herjavec, Tai Lopez and Gary Vaynerchuk. Certainly I was excited to see these guys… some of them I had followed for years. But I also knew it was important to build relationships with other attendees. Sure enough, the incredible speaker lineup brought in an influx of other serial entrepreneurs; corporate & solo, men & women, newbies & veterans.

Before arriving in Las Vegas, I listened to the Tim Ferriss podcast, where he gave tactical relationship advice for conferences. I remember him saying, “You never know who’s who at these conferences” “Treat everyone as if they are important” and “Make deep connections with a handful of people, instead of trying to meet everyone in a weekend.”

So, I made it a point to make deep connections with a handful of people.

When I arrived on Thursday there were a handful of early-arrivals pooling around each other. I heard things like:

“Hey, what’s your name? So, what’s going on in your world? No way, that’s so cool!”

It was the complete opposite of the corporate attitude I had to deal with at lawyer events. I was used to the demeaning question, “So, what do you do?” before people even asked my name. Now, I was in an environment where people were interested in what ‘Jared’ was up to. Pretty cool.

I was myself and let conversation happen organically. The relationships flowed from there...

I met Tommy, a business owner from Houston, who inspired me to try my hand at stand-up comedy. I met Raymond, an Instagram marketer who taught me how to build my @JaredLichtin Instagram profile, and also connected me to Jack, a video producer who I’m working with now. I met Kevin & Devona, an inspiring couple that run their own brand-building empire. I met real hustlers in video production, tech, Facebook ads, and non-profits. I connected with a real estate investor that invested in a future project. A sponsor of the event, a real estate lender, even funded a few of my projects.

I met dozens of people that still impact my life today. They helped me build my business, realize my passion, and give back to the world in a meaningful way.

Thrive’s motto, “Make Money Matter” comes full-circle, inspiring entrepreneurs like myself, to look at the bigger picture... to really make a difference in the world. That was exactly what I needed at a time in my life, when I felt I had plateaued.

Here’s my pitch on why you should attend Thrive this year.

The speakers will go in-depth.

If you’re a fan of past speakers like Gary Vaynerchuk and Grant Cardone, you’ll be inspired by this year’s lineup. Some of this year’s speakers I’m super pumped for are Ann Le, Naveen Jain, Billy Gene, Les Brown, Claire Wineland, Shaun T, and obviously Thrive’s founder, Cole Hatter. Dozens of other amazing entrepreneurs are going to ignite the stage and empower you to be aggressive and smart about your business goals.

But they share really good stuff. Insight they don’t give everyday online. They dig deep into the tactics, logic, and skill it takes to succeed in the uber-competitive business environment that exists in 2017.

Ultimately, your learning curve will be shortened with a ton of high-level, actionable business advice that you can immediately take away.

Connect with successful people that can actually help you.

Many people attend to build their business. Even if you don’t have a business yet, you might have a personal brand, or a business idea. You should have a plan pertaining to the kind of connections you’d like to make before you go though. Do you need a mentor, a software engineer, a videographer, or connections within your industry?

Whatever your plan, look through the speaker list, and ask yourself, “Who else will be attending this event?” You have an entire weekend to introduce yourself and let others know what you’re about.

There are incredible opportunities if you open your eyes, smile, and be friendly. You might meet a coach that can scale your business, a digital marketer to manage your Facebook ads, or a book publisher that sees potential in you. The possibilities are endless if you put yourself out there.

A ton of connections are made before the event even happens, too. Before Thrive, I’d already eaten lunch with a few attendees from Houston. Before these events, you’ll be excited about the speakers. But afterwards, you’ll mostly be following up with other attendees you met.

Speakers might be your inspiration for going to an event (and maybe taking a selfie.) But afterwards, you’ll have made business relationships with other attendees… it’s inevitable.

A new perspective on money and influence.

My main takeaway from the event was to care less about how I make money, and focus on what I do with it. For better or worse, many entrepreneurs live unfulfilled lives because their business isn’t really solving some critical world problem. I myself will admit it, I like investing in real estate. But for years I felt unfulfilled. After Thrive, I realized that my purpose is to energize and inspire others to do the same.

Humans often try to loop their ‘success-narrative’ into what they “do” for work. However, if you can re-define what success means to you, making an impact outside of work is way easier. Sure, you might crunch numbers. But the money you make can fuel real change in the world.

Ultimately, people are the answer. Building real connections and leveraging others to build your empire. We can’t get there without each other, without embarrassment, aggressiveness, and optimism.

Since Thrive in 2015, I healed a debilitating back injury without surgery, built my real estate business to the point where I’m flipping houses across the country, moved to Los Angeles, got engaged to the love of my life, and am ready grow my personal brand into heights I never even thought possible.

And unless I took that leap of faith two years ago... I wouldn’t be thriving today.

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