This weekend, I had the immense privilege of flying to warm, sunny Miami to attend the 10X Growth Conference 2019. I feel the need to begin this article with a bit of a disclaimer that I bought my ticket knowing I can only half-tolerate Grant Cardone and his empire. I find his personality abrasive and unnecessarily obnoxious (similar to Gary Vee - sorry, fans!), but both are well-known and making millions of dollars more than me, so they are doing things I want to pay attention to.
Similar to most conferences in this realm, the energy was high and the hype was real. The content didn’t necessarily feel new or novel (though there were some technical pieces for me that were excellent education), however, I am someone who sees daily study and listening to these kinds of principles as important as exercising or vegetable intake so I soaked it up.
Here are my biggest takeaways from the 2019 10X Conference. Where possible, I’ve done my best to identify which speaker shared a particular principle.
1) FIRST AND FOREMOST, USE YOUR GIFTS
Of recurring reference, perhaps memorable because it’s been on my mind of recent, is the counsel to identify your gift and focus on doing everything that will allow you do to ONLY that. What are your gifts, you ask? Steve Harvey described gifts as those are the things you do best with the least amount of effort; the things people praise you for and ask you questions about despite the fact that you might not have even considered it a skill.
The moment you start living your gift, your life will change.” - Steve Harvey
Take the time to identify what you are best at, and the things that come most naturally to you. They are probably within the areas of your life that your friends and family ask for advice or help in. Respond to those requests with an emphatic, “Thank you, watch this!” if you can help someone, it is your duty to share that gift with the world, and doing so is the fastest, most authentic, and easiest way to get money. There are a lot of people who do what you do, but NO ONE does it like you.
2) NEXT, LEVERAGE YOUR WEAKNESSES
Every single presenter who stood on the 10X stage made it to their level of success through leverage. After identifying your gifts and pursuing them wildly, and as soon as you can afford it hire your weaknesses. Jesse Itzler talked about figuring out how to do what you’re doing faster, and one of the best ways to do that is by hiring people who are better than you in the areas you struggle. Of course, this costs money, but over and over again the speakers talked about the need to spend money to make money. Put bluntly by Grant, “Your money should be working for you — to the degree that your money is sitting in a bank account, you aren’t free, you’re afraid.”
3) GET ATTENTION
This event could have just as easily been named the Attention Convention. There were fireworks, pyrotechnics, surprise performances by Snoop Dog and Lil Jon, Grant skydove into the Marlins stadium to kick off the freaking show! As previously mentioned, I find his in-your-face brand somewhat insufferable, but there’s no denying it’s memorable.
You need an audience. No audience: No offer. I grew up in a culture that praised modesty and humility, which makes it especially hard to toot my own horn, but if I don’t do it, no one else will. Where can you be seen? Money follows attention. How many people know you on the internet? It likely corresponds with you income. Grant says it best: “Haters gonna hate… But if you don’t have an enemy, you’re not playing the game.”
In order to get attention, you have to be attention-getting. Ordinary doesn’t build empires and you are not fit to be ordinary. Steve Harvey said one of my favorite things: “You are on this earth to be your boldest, biggest, truest self. People don’t pay ordinary people, people pay EXTRAORDINARY, CRAZY people to do things”
Bottom line: If people don’t know you, they aren’t going to do business with you.
4) TAKE ACTION
Another gem from Jesse Itzler: “You don’t need experience. You need action. Experience is a waste of time.” HIs wife, who followed him on stage, made it very clear that sometimes not having done something is actually an advantage… it means you can do it differently, with fresh eyes! But the point is, do the damn thing.
There are too many great direct quotes to minimize in a summary, so here they are:
“Just keep delivering.” - Grant Cardone
“Usually when you jump, you FLY.. if you really commit to it” - Bethenny Frankel
“The main habit you have to break is procrastination.” - Tai Lopez
“Ideas are a dime a dozen. Executors are not. WORK HARD. Most people don’t, so if you do you will crust the game. Just work your ass off.” - Bethenny Frankel
“You don’t have to have it all figured out to figure it out.” - Jesse Itzler
“Perfection is the enemy of money.” - Ryan Deiss
“If you don’t EXECUTE you’re not going to make any money." - Grant Cardone
“I’d rather have a good plan INSISTENTLY executed upon than a great plan formulated in the future.” - Grant Cardone
“Take MICROACTIONS all the time.” - Tai Lopez
“Consistency compounds.” - John Maxwell
“One of the biggest mistakes you can make in business is to find something that works and not repeat it.” - Grant Cardone
“Good strategy comes from getting all the information that you can and acting on it.” - Daymond John
“Criticism is easily avoided by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” - Grant Cardone
5) BE COMFORTABLE WITH DISCOMFORT // DON’T BE AFRAID OF EMBARRASSMENT
From Jesse Itzler, “When you get over the fear of being embarrassed, it’s the most liberating power.” He described the difference between the experience in high school of having a crush on a girl, but not having the courage to call her. Years later, when he was interested in his now wife, Sara Blakely, his confidence had grown and he got her attention by offering to run an ultramarathon wearing Spanx. He went from being too shy to talk to the girl (no results) to running 100 miles in underwear to end up marrying the first self-made female billionaire.
Sara followed him up with a reminder not to be afraid to embarrass yourself because the worst thing that can happen is that you become memorable. After announcing the wrong Miss Universe in 2017 in front of the entire world, Steve Harvey’s name was googled 4 billion times in the following weeks. How’s that for increasing attention?
John Maxwell knocked it out of the part when he opened is talk about leadership with a reminder that “Everything worthwhile is uphill. It’s all uphill, all the way.” No one ever got to the top of the hill easily or accidentally and then exclaimed in surprise and delight, “How did I get here?!”
The view from the top of the hill is always worth the discomfort.
6) NEVER GIVE UP
On the third day, Grant’s seven-year-old daughter stood on stage and said, “Giving up and quitting are very different things. One you might never try again + the other you will.” And she’s right. The only difference between success and failure is never giving up.
I was deeply motivated by the fact that not only had most presenters (all of them?) had come from humble beginnings, more than one had lost everything multiple times through bankruptcy, divorce, business failures, etc. But like John Maxwell advised, “Don’t count your losses, count your lessons.” Each and every one of them not only gained back what they had lost, but returned with more.
Embrace the lessons and opportunities of failure, and never stop having visions or dreams. Even 60-something year-old Steve Harvey, who is worth well over $100m, still has a vision board on his phone of the things he’d like to achieve and own.
According to Jesse Itzlers’s 40% rule: When your brain says you are done, you are only at 40%.
Keep delivering and never, ever, ever give up.
**
Overall, the conference was fantastic education and motivation. Improving yourself, daily, through study, action, and new experiences is absolutely essential to success and the path of learning and personal development I'll continue to walk every day.
Want to get a deeper look into what I learned this weekend? Download my full notes here.