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Mark Landon Jarvis's avatar

I'm an avid follower of your content, and as an event coordinator, I find THIS POST just so very, very valuable. Thank you for freely sharing this hard-earned advice and insight. I'm taking this to my design team immediately. Brilliant.

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Russell Nohelty's avatar

You’re welcome :) Glad it could be helpful.

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Kevin Potter's avatar

What can I even say?

I knew from the first time I heard about the idea behind it that WriterMBA was going to be unique and amazing. Even though my usual style is to be a fly on the wall, this conference managed to pull me out of my shell and connect me with a number of people who have really opened up the locks that have been holding me back.

And truthfully, seeing your transparency here about the financial and energetic realities of the conference makes me see it in a whole new light. What I can say without hesitation is if I had the means I would have been more than happy to pay 5-10x the ticket price for this experience.

Transformative is an excellent way to put it.

It was amazing to finally meet you and Monica and everyone else that made the conference incredible.

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Russell Nohelty's avatar

That’s amazing. I so love hearing that you had a transformative experience. I love it .

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Zoë Routh's avatar

How is the trust built? With posts like this! The extraordinary honesty and transparency is not only refreshing, it’s unprecedented. To be so open with the money/energy required to pull off an event like this is counter-culture, and worthy of deep respect. Reading this post BTW made me have massive FOMO because it sounds exactly what I need right now, and should have stumped up the time and money to travel from Australia. I too need to reinvent the whole shape of my work and could have done with like-minded sounding board. Thanks for continuing to show up Russell!

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Kevin Potter's avatar

As one of the 19 who were there just for WriterMBA I can tell you it was absolutely the single best conference experience I've ever had. I generally come away with a few nebulous ideas about how to progress but so much uncertainty paralysis that I never actually use any of it, but in the weeks since the conference I've already implemented so many new ideas and am working on building so much more than I thought I could.

If I had to use one word to identify what separated WriterMBA from every other conference out there it would be confidence.

It was easily worth 10x what I spent to be there.

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Zoë Routh's avatar

You're doing NOTHING for my FOMO Kevin!

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Kevin Potter's avatar

😂😂😂

I can live with that.

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David Bruns's avatar

Wow, just got to this post and there's about 5 posts worth of ideas inside. I like your take on AI and focusing on what an AI cannot replicate: trust in quality and curation of the experience.

Be well, my friend

Signed, one of the 19

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Russell Nohelty's avatar

You are the best. I am so glad we got to connect :)

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Tiffany Chu's avatar

I trust you, Russell.

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Russell Nohelty's avatar

:)

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Rhonda Lane's avatar

Hi, Russell. I think you're onto something in this "experience curation" concept. Very Forest-y!

Novels have always transported people either on their way somewhere, or waiting to be somewhere, or unable--for whatever the reason--to go somewhere.

Thank you for your update and analysis.

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Russell Nohelty's avatar

Yay! So glad it resonated. I think experiental things as more aquatic than foresty, who are about building shared language and community, but it’s a bit squishy between them honestly. If you build an experience, you will have to do it for a community, and a community needs experiences. So, however it works for you is great :)

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