Episode 188: Is Passion Necessary? How to Find Deeper Meaning and Purpose in Your Life

[INTERVIEW]

 

Jon: All right. Hey, Achieve Your Goals Podcast listeners, I know some of you are watching right now on the Miracle Morning live stream. This is a treat for me personally because I’m here today with Carey Smolensky. Before I introduce Carey, I just want to drive everybody’s attention. We had a special episode last week. If you missed it, we had a special episode last week where Hal Elrod came on. And by the way, exciting news. If you haven’t heard, Hal is doing great in his fight, his winning fight against cancer. He’s doing really well. He and I had been talking every day. We’re getting ready to be with many of you coming up in San Diego next month. But here’s the deal, last week Hal and I we did an episode that served as a preview for our live event and when I say a preview, really, we talked about some specific questions that you can use in your life to immediately improve your ability to connect with your strengths, to reconnect with a greater sense of purpose in your work, to create visions for the future and many of you sent us notes and cards and thank yous out of the blue. It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t prepared but I led a guided visualization on last week’s episode and based on the feedback, I’m just going to encourage any of you if you haven’t heard it yet to go listen to it and you’ll hear Hal and I talking about four questions that can be really life-changing.

 

But today, I’m here with Carey Smolensky. If you’re watching on the live stream, you see that Carey is tuning in from Maryland overlooking the Potomac River. Actually, just behind Carey on the other side of the river is George Washington’s estate which is a pretty cool place. If you haven’t been, you got to visit it but this episode is not yet about George Washington. It could turn into that but it is with an equally impressive human being, Carey Smolensky. Carey, I want everyone here in this community to get to know you and we’re going to talk about your life, we’re going to talk about your career, we’re going to talk about your book, we’re going to talk about your Passion Summit. I’m certain we’ll end up talking about the Best Year Ever Blueprint Event. But I met you 20 years ago, Carey. When I met you, I was a young lad at the time when I was 17, 18 years old and I remember I was coming into an event to speak and I at that stage in my life there were a lot of lessons that I had not yet learned about being respectful of new friends and partnerships and relationships. And I used to walk into the meeting room and minutes before a big event with 500 people would start, I would ask Carey if he could just maybe move all of the chairs or reassemble the stage in some unique configuration or remove the podium and all of the equipment attached to it.

 

And, Carey, one of the things I always love is that you handled these crazy requests with an incredible attitude and I look back and realize how impressive it was that you did that knowing that it was literally moments before hundreds and hundreds of people are going to walk into a room. But over the years, some things have changed, some haven’t, Carey. Carey, you and your team you handle all of our events here at the Flourishing Leadership Institute and all we do in our business is put on events for corporations and communities. And you are out here in Cleveland last week. You helped us put on an event for 600 people that came into the public auditorium to design the future of the city. You’re going to be here next week helping with all the production for our Leaf Certification Program. We certify folks in learning how to facilitate using our methodology and our social technology that we use in corporations. And I’m pretty sure Carey will be at every event that I’m at for every week for the rest of my life because his team is a central figure in everything that we do. So, Carey, let’s start with just a really simple, easy, basic question. Who are you as a human being, Carey? Who is Carey Smolensky?

 

Carey: Well, everyone has labels but I would say that I am a husband, a father, a person who lives life with passion and wants to help others and someone who is reliable, to be counted on and just wants to continually evolve and become a better person and make a difference in our world so I guess that kind of summed it up.

 

Jon: Hey, I would love to hear you share the story of how you got into the business that you’re in because you’ve grown your business really organically over the last 35 years and I think there’s a ton of lessons that we can learn, hearing about the journey that you’ve been on, what you’ve learned, growing a business from just being a kid who is a DJ to putting on hundreds of events around the world every year now globally. So, start wherever you want and bring us wherever you want. How did you get into the business that you’re in?

 

Carey: So, the cool thing is I was at a high school that had a radio station and I really gravitated to that. In high school, I was a swimmer, a wrestler and a radio station guy. So, I had a music staff. I got into and really loving music as a passion and started doing parties when I was somewhat 14 years old. So, that’s something that continued through high school, through college. Well, I’ve got a Bachelor of Science in Biology which I’m not sure why but after that, I made a decision that I wanted to go into my business full-time. And when I made that decision then it really opened up a whole world of opportunity because not only was it providing entertainment, but we were really on the forefront of something called interactive entertainment where we didn’t just have a DJ playing music. We have DJs, we have emcees, we have interactive dancers, crowd facilitators and it became more and more of a production over the years until we finally added on live musicians and beatboxers and rappers and cert performers.

 

So, I really started at a basic level and expanded over the years into developing that end into another form of interactive entertainment. And as time went on, I really wanted to focus on a wider market and I wanted to be a one-stop source for all of our clients. So, we expanded into the production end so that’s audiovisual, sound and lighting and stage sets and management of it. We expanded into promotional products. So, anything imprinted, embedded, designed, embroidered, any product for social and corporate clients. And we’re still evolving. Recently, we added a division called the Experts Bureau which provides speakers and professionals for keynotes, conferences as well as podcasts. So, it’s always evolving and I’m always excited about it because there’s always a niche that we can tap into, provide value and be a one-stop source to our clients where we actually have a better control over the entire event. I remember years ago, we were reliant on many other vendors and that’s where the problems came in. So, kind of a control freak but at the same time in a way where we can delegate to the right people in the right divisions for our company and we have an amazing team and that’s really what holds it all together. But we’re always evolving and always excited about the next level of where we’re going.

 

Jon: So, I want to ask about this when you say we’re always evolving, Carey, you and I and Hal, we’re such big believers in how important it is that every one of us is constantly asking ourselves how are we managing our own evolution as a person, not just as a business and I’m really inspired by how you’ve done that. So, we might come back to that but actually, Carey, where I want to go with this is I happen to know firsthand that in the line of work that you are in, I happen to know firsthand that you deal with tremendous amounts of I’m going to call it adversity. You probably just call it doing your job.

 

Carey: Challenges.

 

Jon: Challenges, yeah, and you deal with a lot of things that come up really on the spot. It’s last minute. It’s in real-time you deal with incredible challenges. I’d be curious if you have a favorite story or example and I could ask you to tell a few but I’ll just let you pick of situations that you’ve been in where something goes crazy and you have to find a way to deliver for a client. And you might be thinking about a story, you might already have one. I’d encourage everybody when you hear, Carey, to share a story or two about this to think about when you face your own adversities, how do you respond? How do you show up? How do you react? So, Carey, any that you want to start with?

 

Carey: Absolutely. The most recent is just dealing with the signal here on the podcast so we’re doing the right thing. But one of the larger issues that I’ve come across was actually doing a national conference for the same company I’m doing it right here in Baltimore, Maryland right now. And this was an event in Florida and I always arrive the night before my crew and then my crew arrives. We set up the conference and the night before my crew is arriving, I get a phone call and it was after 10 o’clock at night that the truck that is containing all the sound equipment, all the LED video wall panels, all the lighting, all the breakout equipment, all the set design, everything was on that truck was in an accident. The driver was okay but that gear and that truck would not make it the next morning. So, with that being said and having a major conference that starts within 48 or at this point less than 40 hours, I had to go into motion and figure out a way to not only not disappoint my clients but exceed their expectations which is what we do on a regular basis. And I talk about the five-minute rule in my book, Living Life with Passion and Helping Others. The five-minute rule is that no matter what happens in your life, it could be a tragedy, it could be bad news. It could be someone just laying into you and making you feel lousy, whatever that situation is, take five minutes, analyze it, process it, deal with it and then realize there’s nothing more you can do. It’s not going to change. It’s in the past so it’s a waste of your energy to even focus on it because you can’t make a cognitive decision with an emotional mindset. And it’s really a process of getting out of that emotional mindset and being able to think of the options.

 

So, if I stayed in that emotional state of, “Oh, my God, what am I going to do? How are we going to do this?” and I kept questioning, I would never find a solution. So, I processed it probably a little bit longer than just five minutes and I really went into action and contacted my relationships, my vendor partners, my people that I knew were within 100 miles and really within the next 24 hours, I started to get deliveries of everything that I needed. And this wasn’t an easy task because we had a big video wall. We had to hang it with appropriate trussing and rigging and we made it happen. So, the bottom line is I approached my client and told him what was going on and I also mentioned that event will continue as scheduled. And something that I’ll never forget is when my client, Scott, told me is like, “How are you doing, Carey?” And that’s volumes of the relationship that we have and this is a company that’s been a client for 28 years and it just speaks volumes about the people that I want to spend my life with, the people that I enjoy work with. That’s why we had such a great relationship in work and in teaming with each other because we don’t, you and I, we don’t have to spell everything out. We know what’s in each other’s minds. We know the expectations and we know that it’ll just be handled. So, there are so many ways to value relationship. There are so many ways of dealing with adversity and that’s why I call it a challenge and not a problem because a problem has negative connotations immediately and a challenge allows itself to present solutions.

 

Jon: Okay. I love what you just shared. By the way, this is a great segue. I want you to share with our listeners some of the lessons that you’ve learned or however you would answer this about I want to know what do you do to build relationships. Because if everyone’s listening, they just heard you, you just mentioned the client you had for 28 years. I happen to know of other clients that you have had for over 20 years. You and I have worked together for years and years and years and the way that you treat us is in a way where it is unthinkable for us to ever work with somebody else. So, for someone who’s an entrepreneur, there’s almost, you almost couldn’t ask for a better outcome than to be in a business where people want to be a client for life if you’re in a business where that can actually work. And, Carey, you’ve succeeded at that. So, in a second here, I’d love for you to share some of your lessons that would help any of us in excelling in our relationships.

 

And while you’re thinking of that, Carey, before we get to that, I wrote down something you said a second ago about adversity that I just wanted to shine a light on because it might be simple for some, maybe not, but it seems like such a profound piece of wisdom, the idea that when we do face a challenge, I love the way you said it, Carey, that you have to get yourself in an emotional skin and an emotional state where you’re now able to understand that you have choices. You have options and I think that there’s some deep wisdom embedded within that especially when we look at what we’ve learned from the fields of positive psychology or the science of emotional intelligence which if you want to go learn about these things we’ll post in the show notes different links to different resources but one of the things of the work from emotional intelligence has shown us is that when we’re in a negative state of mind what Carey just said, there’s actually a biological answer for that. We cannot see options when we are under stress and so it’s not until we’re able to change our emotional state that our brain is now able to understand I have more choices right now than I was seeing before. It’s okay. I love that point and I want to hear about some of your lessons about relationship building because I feel like you’re someone who’s done that exceptionally.

 

Carey: I think it’s different for every person and it’s really a matter of listening. Too many people in different professions no matter what profession they are, tend to pontificate and say what they think people want to hear and especially in a business where we’re customizing an event to fit a culture, to deliver a message, to create an experience. It’s not the vision of what I think it should be if it’s not my event. It’s the vision of the person who owns that event and what I do is translate that vision into reality. So, I think a big part of it is being genuine, a big part of it is really asking the right questions to know the direction and then taking years of experience and doing whatever it takes to translate that into the experience for the attendees. And because I started my business on the entertainment side, everything that I look at has an entertainment aspect to it. In other words, we’re not just a rental company. We’re not just an AV company. We integrate all of these different things so that there are the sounds, the video, the emotion, the atmosphere that all play into reinforcing what’s happening on stage, reinforcing the message of a speaker. We can be taking someone where a speaker is bringing an audience from a meditative state to a breakthrough state, to a celebratory state, to an emotional state and there has to be the support in the vibe and the feel and the look of the room and the sound of the room that you really can’t script. A lot of this is spontaneous and the same thing when we have to do a thing and it’s off-the-cuff and come up with an immediate solution to a challenge, we have to be spontaneous. So, again, it’s getting to that cognitive space and not being emotional about a decision and really building relationships have to have sincerity. It’s not something you can fake.

 

If you don’t like what you’re doing, you don’t like the people you’re doing it with, it’s not going to work. It’s not going to be genuine. I truly love the space I’m in. I’m loving my life, my work because of the people I deal with on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, less than two years ago, we changed or I changed the direction of our clients. We no longer focus on clients who really don’t appreciate the value of what we bring. And that’s not a pompous attitude. It’s just a realistic attitude because if we’re going to spend time investing time and energy into creating events, we want to do it where the people understand the value and it’s not just, well, we’re shopping around, we’re getting five bids, we’re going with the cheapest one and we’re not at a race to the bottom. We’re to race to grow with our partners. We become a partner to that team and only understand people’s needs and their budgets and we customize something to fit those needs and budgets and grow with them and offer suggestions but not do it just because it’s a profit center but knowing that there is an intrinsic value to the event, to that person, to that relationship and that’s really what it’s about.

 

Jon: Yeah. What I think as a really important reminder there especially those of us that are entrepreneurs but really this just has to do for all of us with how we choose to spend our time and who we spend it with. Like, Carey, when you said, “Hey, I’m not going to work with people who don’t understand the value of what we bring,” I think that’s one of those courageous decisions that we all need to eventually learn how to make is and if it’s in business, it’s whom I going to do business with, whom I going to partner with and it’s having the courage to say, “I’m not just going to do business with somebody because they’re going to pay.” I’m going to do business with somebody because they really understand the value of what we bring. It takes I think maturity. It takes courage to see things that way. I love that. Carey, one of the things that I appreciated about you is contribution and giving back in your community, giving back to causes that you’re passionate about. It has been a big part of your life and I’d love to know where did that come from? Where did you learn that? Where did you learn to be somebody who cared about giving back and why does that matter for you? What role does that play in your life?

 

Carey: Well, I don’t know if there’s a specific moment in time where that became important to me but I know through high school and college, I was always involved in charitable dance and helping other people and just wanting to make a difference because I think from an early age on, I realized the brevity of our life and it doesn’t matter what age you’re at. Life is just way too short and I’ve heard people say, you know, when I’m at a certain age it will be enough. I mean, if I could live forever, it would never be enough because I want to soak in the knowledge and the experiences and all that but I think that from an early point, my helping others and being part of that aspect of giving and living started in a wide variety of areas. And then there was a point where one of my daughter’s friends was stricken by a neuroblastoma and he was a little boy and eventually passed away. And Steven was an inspiration to so many people, this boy that passed away, and we started an organization called Friends for Steven and for years and years we were raising money to benefit a neuroblastoma cancer research and then really from that I was involved in different charities. I’m the board of directors, the president or whatever role it was to help make a difference.

 

Then there was that point in Myrtle Beach where a number of us all got together to talk about the name, Front Row, and what does that mean and what can we do with it, and that was the impetus of Front Row Foundation starting and you know the rest after over a decade later and helping so many people. And really part of giving back is not only knowing that you’re making a difference in the lives of others but the lives of the people around them and whether that’s a community, whether it’s family, words really can’t express what you get back from giving to others. So, it’s really something that comes full circle and very proud to be able to do that and be able to be fortunate enough to be in situations to be able to offer that assistance whether it’s time, whether it’s a production value, whether it’s monitoring, whether it’s anything and very, very proud of the organizations I’ve been affiliated with over the years.

 

Jon: Yeah. It’s cool, Carey. You wrote a book about living with passion and giving back and yet the quality that I see you embodying authentically that have served you and others is your compassion for others. So, that’s awesome. Carey, if somebody grabs a copy of your book, tell us which chapter to go to first and maybe start from the beginning. But is there a story, an example or a lesson in that book? If you knew somebody was only going to read a couple of pages, is there one core idea out of that book that you think embodies more than any of the others what you want people to hear from you? Thoughts on that?

 

Carey: I think that it’s a cumulative story of my life, my experiences, the knowledge that I’ve gained. So, I would honestly say to look at the contents, the directory of contents and pick something that resonates because the names of the chapters and what I talk about all resonate for different things like there are these concepts in there to feed your body like a thoroughbred and those are the types of things where you can’t help others if you can’t help yourself. You’re not going to feed a thoroughbred if you just purchased one and you want that thoroughbred to win and be healthy. You’re not going to feed them junk food but yet these are the things we put in our body. So, there’s a chapter about giving back and what it means to get back. There are chapters on helping yourself be a better person and also how to identify your passions. So, really, when I wrote the book, it was done in a very unconventional way of writing a book in the sense of you’re usually taught to make an outline and then put contents in each of the outlines. Well, with me, I was struggling for so many years of what did I really want to do in life because I’m involved in so many different things, I’m excited about it and then some people say you can only do one thing in life and be good at it. And my attitude is I could be good in a number of things as long as I’m only doing them one at a time. Multitask is a misnomer and it’s really not something that the human condition can benefit from. It’s actually a negative situation.

 

But when I finally arrived at what I wanted to do, it was in December of 2014 when I was leading your Best Year Ever Blueprint conference that you put together with Hal and it was when I got on the plane in San Diego to come back to Chicago, it just hit me. It was based on that year, the relationships I’ve made, the content that I talked to different people about, the ideas that I was thinking about and they all came to me that I needed to share the knowledge that I’ve been collecting, the knowledge that I have, again, because there’s only a short time on earth. And what good is all this knowledge I’ve amassed if I can’t share it and I can’t benefit other people? So, literally, I sat down on my seat and I started writing the entire trip to Chicago and a year of that process of writing different stories and sharing it and then assembling it where this story would go with this one and that could be in one chapter. And I really did it organically. I want to do it on my own. I had a proofer and I had someone handling the digital look of it. But other than that, it was an amazing process that took me a year and I literally finished it on the way back from the next year’s conference. So, a really cool bookend to how that was done but I would say that wherever you just pick up the book and open it, there’s going to be nuggets and there’s going to be stories. I share stories of other amazing people that change the world and just knowing that anything you do sends ripples to people around you and fire them to the world and one person can make a difference.

 

Jon: Carey, at our Best Year Ever Event last year, you shared a story on stage. Do you remember the story I’m referencing?

 

Carey: Sure.

 

Jon: Do you mind sharing that with our audience?

 

Carey: So, I don’t remember how you got into it but I had a situation where my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and I didn’t know when that was happening. I just know that all of a sudden there were these arguments that were coming up for no reason. She wasn’t really acting herself. She was the one between both of my parents that would remember all the birthdays and all those things and certain things were kind of slipping through the cracks. And then there was a point where my father had to go in for some knee surgery and I went to pick up my mom and bring her back to our house to stay with us for a couple of days and it was in the car on the expressway that my mother started talking to me about her son, Carey. So, that realization that just hit me like a ton of bricks was the start of a 16-year fight, and I say fight because it’s a horrendous disease. It takes the person away from you and it was at that point I really lost my mom. Even though she was still there throughout the remaining years, she would lose memory of things from the present and her mental timestamp would be further back in time. So, there was a point where she would look in the mirror and no longer recognize the woman in the mirror because in her mind she was much younger. That was just a friend or someone. Then there was a point that she relived Nazi Germany and the escape from Nazi Germany and it was just insane. It was something I wouldn’t wish on anyone but after she went through those periods back in time when it was a calmer period, that was before I was born.

 

So, the thing about Alzheimer’s is that the person at that point was at peace. They were not aware of those things. It was everybody around them that was dealing with it and they didn’t have a care in the world. Unfortunately, as the disease progressed, there was a finite time after my mother forgot how to eat or swallow liquids and there was a window of how much time she had left. And between events and everything else, I would rush back because at this point my father had passed away and we had moved my mother and a caregiver into her home and do that in addition. So, we had someone with her at all times and I came home and I was with her when she passed. And I was holding her in my arms and I honestly believe that when she took her last breath in my arms that this veil, the cloudiness was lifted and I know we connected. I know that after those 16 years of that fog that we connected and she was at peace and I write in my book that it was, honest, one of the most beautiful moments of my life.  

 

So, you have to take from life whatever life gives you and you have to be positive about it. We have to make the most of it and that’s something that really, I want to resonate because only you can allow yourself to feel a certain way. And if someone says something to you, you have the choice to take it to heart, to live by what they said or you can listen and hear it but not accept it because your values are higher or you believe something that is different. So, if you’ve never done that, it takes some practice and training but once you’ve achieved that then that comes full circle into the question you asked earlier. How do you deal with those last-minute challenges? It becomes crystal clear and you get in the zone and I can tell you, there have been times I thrive on it because it pushes me to be the best version of myself and it pushes me to do the best that I possibly can and then the rewards and the sense of accomplishment after that feed on into wanting to be in that space again and again and again. So, it’s an amazing creative space. It’s an amazing cognitive space and that’s why when I’m working, I’m working. When I’m not working, sometimes I like to just turn off and other times I’m just creative in thinking of how else can I expand what we’re doing and offer more value.

 

Jon: Carey, that’s an incredible story and really touching and really, really meaningful. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you sharing that with us. I’m listening by the way and I know you know this but I can relate in that my mother was recently diagnosed with dementia. And in fact, just this last weekend, it was the first time I had a chance to see her since she was diagnosed and we had kind of a celebration of life at her home because the effects are starting to kick in and I was planning on going on my own. To fly our whole family from Cleveland out to California when they’ve got school and sports and all that, it didn’t make any sense. And then on Friday morning at 1 AM, keep in mind I had a 7 AM flight, at 1 AM I’m lying awake thinking about my mom and Mara is there and we decide right then and there I should bring the kids with me. So, we bought tickets for our older two kids, Ace and Sierra. They’re seven and six and we woke them up four hours later at five o’clock and they’re like, “Wait. It’s too early to go to school.” I said, “You’re getting on an airplane to go to California,” which of course they immediately thought it was the coolest day of their life. And I took my kids out there, Carey, because I wanted them to remember because they’re certainly old enough. I wanted them to remember the weekend and really their grandmother for the courage that she has because she’s showing a lot of courage to have a big party at her house to really publicly raise awareness for the form of dementia that she has.

 

And so, our kids went out there and we had a big beautiful celebration. I got to see friends of our family that had been friends of ours since I was born and they loved on our kids. The biggest thing that was being around my mom where even though some of the effects have kicked in, where every handful of words she just forgets what she’s talking about, she’s still there with it right now for the most part but it’s weird when you see a timer starts. It’s weird when you see that you basically know that her mental capacities, physical capacities are just going to start diminishing relatively quickly. The whole time though is surreal for me because it just made us really present. And I’ll finish by just saying it reminded me off I think Victor Franklin in his book Man Search for Meaning and I’m sure I’m going to misquote this but I think he talked about how in life we find meaning or purpose one of three different ways and one of them can be through appreciating. I can’t remember what the second one is and the third one is, and I’m going to use my own words here, but it talks about how in life sometimes we find meaning or purpose through uncontrollable circumstances or in other words, when we’re dealt a deck of cards that we had no control over that and that sometimes that is one of the ways where we find deeper meaning in life. I think about our good friend, Hal, and for how many of us who were close friends of his, it just made our sense of presence so much more real when we all of a sudden realize that we could think we could control everything but I love the essence of what you’re teaching us, Carey, through who you are, what you’ve shared today and through your book that we have to be ready for how we’re going to deal with all these things that we really can’t control and you…

 

Carey: Life is not fair and sometimes…

 

Jon: Yeah.

 

Carey: And that’s the bottom line. And there’s no way to sugarcoat it and especially when you’re dealing with the person who raised you, when you’re dealing with the parents who all of a sudden, roles are changing and there’s a role reversal and you get blindsided. And no, it’s not fair but it is what it is and you want to treat that person with dignity and respect and honor them even if they don’t know who you are.

 

Jon: Yes.

 

Carey: That’s the toughest part.

 

Jon: Carey, here’s what I want to finish with. You’ve been a part of our Best Year Ever Blueprint Event since the very beginning and that event as you just shared had an impact on you and the direction you’ve gone in your life. I would love for you to leave us with as the person who is really orchestrating, you are orchestrating all of our production. Last year we brought and we’re doing it again this year, we bring nature into the room by bringing a lot of live trees and plants.

 

Carey: A lot of proof planning in that. A lot of…

 

Jon: Yeah. That’s another story, Carey, for another time. Carey and his team bring music exceptionally into our events. There’s music playing probably 30% of the time because we really believe in the power of great music to be transformative as we’re going through a process to figure out who we want to be and how we want to create our best year ever during this weekend. And, again, if you’re listening and you’re joining us, great. If you’re planning on joining us, go to BestYearEverLive.com. I think there’s still payment plans up available but bring a friend.

 

Carey: If you have not been to it and you value improving your life, you value inspiration and you want to be with like-minded people, you need to be there.

 

Jon: That’s awesome. Well, that’s what I was going to ask you, Carey, is why should they be there. You’re right. If you value being around like-minded people, it’s an incredible community that we’ve created together. Carey Smolensky, where could people follow up with you? Can you give out your cell phone number? How do you want them to find you?

 

Carey: Well, first of all, just google me. I’m all over the place and you might find all kinds of different things out there but the thing that I’m super excited about that is coming up is my very first summit. It’s a two-day summit called The Passion Summit which is really an extension and the next step after my book, Living Life with Passion and Helping Others. I’m bringing amazing speakers such as Hal Elrod, Jon Vroman, I’ve got a whole list and it’s going to be an amazing epic experience because like the Best Year Ever Community, I’m creating a community that is revolving around being passionate for life, for living it to its fullest, for giving back and there’s going to be a very unique component of ways to give back for the people while they’re bonding with the other attendees that are there. So, I’m most excited about the community that’s going to come from this and the website is ThePassionSummit.com and it’s going to be May 7 and 8 of 2018 in the Chicago area at the Hyatt in Schaumburg and there’s all kinds of cool stuff aside from two days of incredible content and a great package that we’re bringing, there’s also a Monday night networking cast and party and all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to be going on that is designed to inspire, to fuel, to replenish, to allow for great conversations and great abilities to even find accountability partners and learn what it takes to get your life to the next level regardless of what you’re doing right now. Because, again, perception is reality and as long as you have the control of what you’re perceiving then you can change your reality and just like the old adage whether you think you’re right or you think you’re wrong, either way, you’re correct whether you think you could do something or not do something. So, it’s all positive mental attitude. It’s about your perception of life and the cool thing is I’ve involved in so many different communities. It’s really an honor to bring all these people together so that they can even network further and send those ripples to the world and just really excited about what we’re doing.

 

Jon: Carey, it’s awesome, buddy. Hey, appreciate you, man. I’ll see you in a few days.

 

Carey: Awesome. Look forward to it. Otherwise, CareysPassion.com or CareySmolensky.com and look forward to seeing you soon. Love you, buddy.

 

Jon: Awesome. Love you, buddy. Take care.

[END]