How In-Person Events Accelerate Business Growth — What Happened When I Got in the Room

Okay, so I wanna start with something that I think gets really underestimated in a world where everything is online, everything is virtual, everything is a Zoom call or a podcast episode or a DM conversation.

There is something that happens when you physically are in the room with people who are operating at a level that you want to reach, something that doesn't happen on a screen.

This is something that you can't download or stream and watch later, and I call that the proximity effect.

And I've experienced it over the last couple of days at Called to Lead.

This was a premier women's leadership event created by Kelly Roach and Sandy Glant.

Five hundred plus women in one room, speakers who were not there to be polished or to perform.

In fact, these speakers did not even make an offer on stage.

They were there to tell the truth, and I'm still really processing it.

Like, I literally, at the time that I'm recording this, I just got back less than an hour ago from day two, and I'm like, "This is what today's episode is going to be about." So I wanna do two things.

I wanna talk about the real cost and the real value of investing in proximity, and I wanna walk you through some teachable moments that I took out of the room.

So let me ask you something.

When was the last time you invested in being in a room? Not watching a replay, okay? I'm not talking about, like, investing in the virtual recording or investing in the live virtual stream of events like this.

So not attending virtually with your camera off while you've answered emails, like actually being in the room, present, uncomfortable sometimes, in proximity with people who are already where you want to go.

Because here's what I know after twenty-four years of doing this.

Online will get you information.

Online, you will get the tactics.

Online, you will get access to ideas and frameworks and strategies.

I share them all of the time.

But the room gives you something different.

The room gives you energy.

It gives you momentum.

It gives you the kind of clarity that comes from being surrounded with people who are not talking about whether it is possible.

They're just doing it.

And the thing about proximity that most people underestimate, you do not just learn from the speaker on stage.

You learn from the person sitting next to you on your right or on your left.