Random Thoughts on an Interesting Paradox: The Price of Free

1.1 million views and counting- how’s that for “social proof”?

Since wrapping up T21C 2009, I’ve spoken on and off with various friends about the event. This is natural of course- it’s a huge aspect of my life and everyone hears about it.

While everyone is supportive, there have been a few comments that have peaked my curiosity into “group thinking” and conventional (usually false, but widely accepted) wisdom.

In this post, I’m going to attempt to string my thoughts together on (one of) these remarks- hopefully into something cohesive, that I believe many will find interesting.

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The one we will discuss today comes from a friend who lives locally in Orlando. I can’t remember the exact wording, but it went something like this

You should look into becoming an event planner, they can make some serious cash.

This didn’t sit well with me, for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, “event planning” education- from what I have seen of it in a full semester of the class at UCF- is as drenched in conventional wisdom as any other field.

The ideas promoted are often ridiculous- from my 3 years experience with 5 different events (3 international conventions and 2 camping trips for close to 20 friends)- and rarely play out in real life.

In fact I would estimate the majority of conventional ideas in this field simply feed into old (outdated) business structures- or IOW, will only work with an external head start or catalyst of some sort- the catalyst many people believe they need, when in fact all they really need is their brains and the guts to recognize (and take action) when opportunity knocks.

I won’t name names, but there are excellent- and numerous- examples of this (companies entrenched in archaic business models) found in the pickup community. And of those examples, a surprising amount lack good intentions and simply exist to collect money (by manipulating “marketing” variables as I call it, such as gimmicky sales copy).

This is why I’m a huge fan of independent guys- or companies that build themselves (by what I can tell) from the ground up.

Guys like DJ Fuji, El Topo, Julian Foxx- and The Social Man as an example of the latter.

These people have put in the leg work to make it- not only as businesses that actually have value to offer their clients, but in their personal (dating) lives as well.

This is not a coincidence.

Now, this isn’t meant to discredit larger corporations like Love Systems, Real Social Dynamics, Venusian Arts, and so on- these companies are all awesome (and I’m sure, have put in mountains of hard work over the years)- 2 of them have been represented at my event- but the former group from the “ground up” corner of the ring, hit a lot closer to home with me personally.

I believe they also, better represent the changing face of this industry- knowingly or unknowingly.

And perhaps “industry” is to narrow a term- the way information is traveling has been rapidly changing for years now, in every field.

I think “success” advice in particular has been shifting to video format for some time now- but like the music industry, many of the people putting these products out fail to appreciate that that type of content will ALWAYS be ripped, and pirated all over the Internet.

Neil Strauss’s Annihilation Method being a prime example (a limited quantity DVD set costing multiple thousands of dollars), with it’s grossly excessive detail to protecting the data- which is now floating around the Internet freely.

I think a critical piece of info he missed is that the more aggressively you “resist” pirating and the like, the harder you stab yourself in the foot. Going to the lengths he did only motivated those qualified to distribute his product freely, more vigorously than ever. The same could be said about the Wolverine leak a full month before the movie released- assuming it wasn’t “leaked” on purpose as a promotional experiment, of course.

Now, this isn’t to say that protecting your content isn’t important- it is.

Despite the current fad- a result of “the pendulum swinging to far in one direction” as a friend recently commented- of “everything should be free free free”, it really shouldn’t (all the time anyway).

People deserve credit for their hard work- everyone, even the people who want everything for free believe this on some level- knowingly, or probably unknowingly in the more “passionate” cases.

I think the best result is a happy medium- and I know this sounds unavoidably biased- but the convention footage  is great example.

It’s free to the world- yes- and it will remain so as long as I’m around to defend and maintain that notion. But at the same time, you can’t download it, and it’s only available on The21Convention.com.

The videos literally do not play anywhere else (unless I unlock the individual video, for an individual site), not even on the hosting service site.

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I think the same can be said about coaching- guys like DJ Fuji and El Topo do frequent, free lair talks around the country- and sometimes even a brief session of in field coaching at no cost (like at the convention).

But these guys are professionals- and the only reason it’s even possible to perform those events/services free of charge, is because they value themselves- and their time (everyone should)- literally, with a dollar amount.

I’m sure if it were possible for them, they would do everything for free- but as my old room mate and close friend Ratisse found out not long ago- it’s simply not possible. He tried to coach around the country- with the only cost being his travel expenses- but he discovered first hand it simply doesn’t work that way.

He had a a fair number of students, but it wasn’t until he began charging an amount he felt to be appropriate for his coaching, did business really take off- and as a result more people are helped every month.

It’s a weird paradox- but free can often come at a hefty price.

For example, I believe if I were to load the videos from the convention on YouTube in low quality, and in annoying, hard to find segments, it would be a disaster.

YouTube would get all the traffic instead of the convention site, and as a result attendance would drop- an absolute no no for continuing this event.

Not to mention, again, the videos would be a major pain all split up floating around YouTube or a similar service. This, by my estimation, would result in more “views”, but less people actually learning something from the speech- the ultimate point of the speaker presenting in the first place.

This event thrives, literally, because the live event is so awesome.

So awesome in fact, that moderators on various forums have been marking genuine reports of the event (not even reviews) as spam- in thinking that I have started some sort of conspiracy to market my event on their forum. Paranoia from years of dealing with complete weirdos anyone?

And without a lot of people living that awesome experience, popularity would dwindle, and the funds to host the event every year would disappear- bam, no more T21C.

The cost of “free”, would be the end of the convention.

I believe the same can be said for most independent coaches that have a good heart (Ratisse as a brief example- luckily he learned from his mistake).

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Anyway, I think it’s wise to leave the ideas I just presented as the bulk of this post. But to finish what I started concerning becoming an “event planner”…yikes! (This type of thinking scares me, more in a sec).

The convention is a success every year because it’s a true passion of mine- and hosting an annual camping trip for my close friends to a slightly less extent.

I have literally, no official education for event planning/hosting- outside of that one rogue class I took on it, where I learned nothing useful about planning events.

I would never be able to muster the same zeal, determination, focus, and relatively calm demeanor, hosting another large event. Sure, the experience I posses would be incredibly useful, but when it came down to the practical application nothing would replace the heart and soul I pour into the event- nothing.

Going further- not to say anything bad about my friend- but it baffles me to see that as a first comment about an event like The 21 Convention taking off.

I may be on a laptop more frequently than I would like, making sure the things I love actually happen, but the last thing I ever plan on doing is working an arbitrary job behind a desk simply because I sat through college for a few years- financially lucrative or not.

This may sound unavoidably arrogant- maybe not- but I’ve been fiercely independent from a young age- and I while I have great interest in working with others, I have no interest in plugging away 40 hours a week of my time for another individual.

A devoted group like you guys (the readers of my blog), and convention supporters? In a heart beat.

A boss I don’t enjoy even being around? Not even a snowballs chance in hell. Or, better put, never again- and it’s been some time (even considering jump rope at UCF, which I abruptly stopped in April of 2009).

To re-iterate before signing off, it’s startling to see this idea presented as a knee jerk reaction to The 21 Convention 2009 being a success. But, then again, I certainly would not have had the mental “altitude” to recognize that type of response as… well, not cool- without years of experience (albeit, perhaps a bit premature in comparison to most people).

This isn’t usually content for TDL, but any and all thoughts would be greatly appreciated on these subjects.

thanks

-Dream