ISES Eventworld -
San Francisco, CA August 6-8, 2009by Michelle Bromley, Allison’s Events
I applied for a scholarship to the annual ISES educational conference known as Eventworld and I won! I have given a lot of volunteer hours to my ISES chapter over the past six years and I am being paid back by being able to attend these conferences at little out-of-pocket expense. Wouldn’t you like to go to Hawaii, The Bahamas, or
San Francisco in repayment of your volunteer service? You CAN by getting involved and documenting that involvement.
There were many educational sessions to choose from, and I attended some sessions that blew me away. I took lots of notes and they deserve to be shared. So, I am going to submit one blog article per session each week for your review. I hope you enjoy the information as much as I did.
The Keynote Speaker that kicked off the conference was Simon T. Bailey founder of the Brilliance Institute. He used to work at Disney World or the “Mouse House” as he called it. The name of the session was “Releasing Your Brilliance”. How good does THAT sound? Take my word for it, it was phenomenal! Simon addressed what is on all of our minds: the event industry strain in a downturn economy.
First, he discussed our “brilliance” or insight, potential, genius. He said that when we live, work and play in an environment where we are operating in our brilliance, we are being CELEBRATED and not just tolerated. He said releasing your brilliance is about living from the inside out, or existing to leave an imprint. He said when we find our brilliance, we find our significance. Pretty profound, huh?
How do we find our brilliance? I’m glad you asked. He said change and even adversity (like this economy downturn) promotes our brilliance. There is a shift of loyalty going on from “to company”, “to selves”. It’s about making your personal brand sticky in times of change. Rewrite your job description in order to be sticky – upgrade your verbal software because words carry energy, Simon says. “At the end of the day the hand that will feed you is at the end of your wrist”.
Bailey told us that the secret of our brilliance is hidden in our habits and that our habits create our future daily routines. He said that we must break our crutches before they break us, and that we must focus on what we CAN do instead of what we CAN’T do. It’s all the internal chatter that causes our brilliance to dim. We talk ourselves out of our success! Are you familiar with the phrase…”yes, BUT”…? Of course, we all say it all the time. Simon suggests that we change that phrase to …”yes, AND…” when we notice the BUT coming and switch to something that we CAN do to adapt to the situation at hand.
He stated that part of the secret to brilliance is coming to a place of internal alignment and clarity…no longer being scattered. He used the completely awesome analogy of the formation of the diamond to releasing your brilliance: a diamond is formed by going through heat, pressure and change.
Bailey loves the made-up word “Vujade”. Do you know who coined that word? According to Simon, it was the famed comedian George Carlin. It’s “Déjà vu” (a feeling of having experienced something before, although in fact it is the first time that it has been experienced) backwards. Well, Simon has adapted a concept for the word Vujade and uses it to sustain his brilliance, and he sees this concept being used in other success stories as well. The concept of Vujade is “to take a fresh set of eyes to look at something in order to understand it differently”. He gave examples of companies that have done just that, and he sees the brilliance being measured by the fact that these companies have made their customers the unofficial marketing departments for their businesses. Examples are:
- Amazon
- Apple’s I-phone
- Google
- Zapos.com
He also spoke of companies during the Depression and how they used this concept of Vujade to later become Fortune 500 companies. Can you think of some examples?
Another tool that Simon has created and uses in his own life to sustain his brilliance is the 90/30/7/15 rule: Every 90 days have a meeting with me, myself, and I about how I’m going to function within that three month period, set a 30 day goal to be achieved within that 90 days, and take 15 minutes completely for myself 7 days a week. Here are the main anchor points of his presentation:
- Be a Storyteller – Every day you are telling a story about your belief system. Happiness is an inside job!
- Be Intentional – What are the new skills that you need to acquire to STAY relevant?
- Be Sticky – This has to do with personal branding. Your brand represents your future earnings. Not managing it means you are not taking control of your future.
- Be a Brilliandeer – A brilliandeer polishes and shapes diamonds. Become one with your own brilliance.
- Be a Sustainer – What impact will you make within the next 10 years? What do YOU want?
Here Simon made us do an exercise that I highly suggest you do as well. Write down ten goals that you will achieve within the next ten years. Now place those goals in order of importance from 1 to 10. Utilize Bailey’s 90/30/7/15 rule to release your brilliance and achieve these goals one by one. Create a new model for the new you in order to release and sustain YOUR BRILLIANCE!
His website is www.simontbailey.com and you can see a youtube video here: http://www.simontbailey.com/Videos/Simon-video.html
