My Mindvalley Adventure - takeaways, insights and frustrations
Hi everyone! I feel like right after Alta I got sucked into a wormhole and spat out again. It's time to reconnect. Many of you know that I took a leap of faith and invested in attending Mindvalley U in Amsterdam this August (https://www.mindvalley.com - for those of you who are not familiar, Mindvalley is a personal growth platform that sells different courses and in-person events). I have A LOT of thoughts about this experience. One one hand, it was amazing to connect with people who are serious about their personal growth, wellness, and spirituality. It was really cool to see some of the big names of wellness and personal development on stage like Human Garage, Sahara Rose, etc. During the week, I ran a small morning meditation group and also spent a lot of time networking with others. In terms of finding hubs and leads, I would say this event is ripe with opportunity and well worth the investment if you are a wellness pro. Many people travel from all over the world to meet each other. I met with two people who are seriously interested in running retreats with me in Japan and India, interviewed 4 people for my podcast, and accumulated a handful of leads and people interested in the work that I do. Many people come to Mindvalley not necessarily for the conference, but to network, hold their own events, collaborate and find clients. While others are new to personal growth and wellness and come genuinely to learn from the experts and have breakthroughs. In terms of the programming and structure of Mindvalley itself I wasn't particularly impressed and the impression I got was that they sell their programs by capitalizing on the glamorization of wellness and spirituality. Rather than selling balanced health, wealth, abundance and spirituality, I felt like the overall message they were selling was get infinitely wealthy, live longer, grow bigger businesses...go big go big go big. Women teaching Kundalini in ball gowns and exclusive VIP parties for those who pay for more expensive tickets. Programming promoting AI to grow faster, outsource innate intelligence, accelerate growth. But I guess people still have shiny object syndrome...and I get a sense that to stay profitable Mindvalley is opting to become the McDonald's of personal growth...a for-the-masses entry level and somewhat surface level introduction to spirituality.