Have you ever been to a conference before? I hadn’t until the fall of 2015. Tribe was my first conference. I was a conference virgin and I had no idea what lay in store for me; no clue what to expect. Truthfully, at the time I was a lost and lonely creative without community and desperate for direction in my career. There was nothing I wanted more than to find my creative calling and learn to make a living from it. After reading The Art of Work, Tribe seemed like the place to be.
Little did I know that Jeff Goins’ Tribe Conference would end up being where I would find some of the best friends I’ve ever had, the courage to move forward in life and make a bold career switch, the skills to write a book in 90 days and grow my email list, the courage to find my calling, and the ability to build a bridge out of my part-time job.
This conference is where I found my Tribe, and it’s where, I suspect, you might find yours too.
Deceptively simple
As I said, up until the end of 2015 I had never attended a conference before. There was nothing to measure this experience by, which has most likely ruined me for all other conferences. Thanks, Jeff. Since Tribe’s beginning, I have been attending and have seen it evolve, grow, and take shape. I’ve been exposed to speakers from every background and met dozens of wonderful people along the way.
Although it’s a modest and comfortable conference to attend, you shouldn’t let its simplicity and ease fool you. Tribe is about connection. Ultimately, it’s about the people. Tribe Conference is about being a part of a tribe. It’s a place to find others just like you with enormously scary dreams who need the heart to get started on their idea. It’s for published and unpublished authors, “aspiring” writers with no blog and zero technical know-how. It’s for painters, illustrators, screenwriters, fiction writers, graphic designers, flippers, world travelers, poets, stylists, journalists, cats, marketers, and podcasters.
It’s really for anyone who is looking to find their creative path and make money from their art.
How do I know that?
Every time I attend Tribe I meet incredibly lovely people with unique stories and experiences. I like to call it a “little slice of heaven” because, to me, it represents what I believe heaven will be like. A mingling of imperfect people simply happy to be in each other’s presence being inspired and focused on their dreams.
It’s a very caring atmosphere. A big family dinner spread out over a few days in a quaint city in middle-Tennessee.
Obviously, I’m a fan so I am biased. However, Tribe isn’t merely a nice place to mix with other writers, speakers, and creatives. No, it’s a conference where you can actually build your platform and business if you put in the work. Over the years that I’ve been attending Tribe, I’ve been able to quit my part-time job, grow my email list, and write an e-book that generated a thousand dollars in income.
It was here at Tribe that I first felt the nudge to switch gears and start focusing on Personal Styling and close my Health Coaching practice (something I was incredibly hesitant to do). With the help of the Tribe, I was able to finally get unstuck and make the switch. Sitting around the tables, my peers helped me to take the leap and start my YouTube channel that I had been putting off starting for years.
It’s not an understatement when I say that Tribe Conference has changed my life. And it’s not just my life either. Every time I would bump into someone during a break in the bathroom line, I would hear how much this conference had opened doors for them professionally, but also brought deep healing personally. People are genuinely affected by this place, by this event. Magic happens here.
Perfectly imperfect
But this doesn’t mean that Tribe is perfect. No conference or event is or ever could be. And that’s not the point. But the question is: is this conference effective? Does it move you? Like any conference, it can be draining after lunch to stay focused in a cold, dark room. It’s hard meeting new people at first and you almost always think of better networking techniques while your headed home. But the truth is, it’s one of the best places I know to find the tools, motivation, inspiration, and resources you need to carve out your creative path.
One of the most helpful and unique things about Tribe, in my opinion, is the ability to actually share a meaningful conversation with the speakers. It seems like Jeff is very intentional about who he invites on his stage. Though I deeply admire the speakers who have graced Tribe, I’ve learned from seeing them at lunch or talking with them at their book table that they are people too, just like me, who are and were figuring out their portfolio life.
That is a rare gift. And the fact that every year, each speaker makes themselves accessible and helpful to those of us in attendance, is huge.
Following the principles that Jeff and each of the speakers layout, year after year, is one aspect of my ongoing journey towards the moving target of success.
Herding tigers
But engaging in the community with you – that is the real reason why I’ve been able to create with courage and make progress towards reaching my dreams. As Jeff says, “Every story of success is a story of community.”
In fact, I wouldn’t be where I am today at all if it weren’t for the community of people who are Tribe.
Tribe isn’t Jeff. He’s the ringleader. The greatest showman. We are the talent; the creative tigers with raw potential who need help picking a lane and battling our inner gremlins who tell us the lie that success is too far out of reach.
He is responsible for corralling us into a room, feeding us insulin boosting uppers, and parading before us some of the world’s finest writers, entrepreneurs, and thinkers so that we can get the spark we need to move forward. He gets us there and get’s us thinking. He attracts you and me into one room because he knows that we’ll – for sure – be best friends. And that we’ll – for sure – walk away changed.
As he said throughout the entire weekend during this past conference, “Everything you need is in this room. Every answer to your question is in here.” And I doubt that anyone who attended would disagree.
The never-ending story
No one ever arrives at success. Clearly, I’d have a long way to go if that were the case. Making art is a never-ending story that, without community, is unbearable. So I will keep coming back to Tribe as long as there is such a thing, and I will keep doing the work.
2019 is going to be an incredibly important year to attend Tribe. If you’ve never been, it’s not too late to go. If you’ve been but missed a few, please come back for the class reunion. And if you were there in October, I’ll see you there next year.
What would your life be like if you actually dove into your creative calling? What would be possible for you if you went all in on this dream of yours, found your tribe, built your bridge, and helped the people that only you can serve? I highly encourage you to come and find your tribe with us.
[…] The Tribe of Jeff Goins Will Change Your Life Forever if You Let It by Brianna Lamberson […]