World Domination Summit 2015: Live A Remarkable Life In A Conventional World

Photo by Armosa Studios
Photo by Armosa Studios

To say that CreativeLive loves the World Domination Summit (WDS) would be an understatement. This yearly gathering of remarkable people brings together many of our instructors, students, and the ethos that CreativeLive aims for everyday. Two years ago our CEO and Co-Founder Chase Jarvis gave a talk on the WDS main stage about the crisis of creativity and the need to blow up broken education systems, which was met with standing ovation. Chase returned this year, and the result was a memorable moment for WDS attendees as well as CreativeLive as a whole.

On top of a motivating speech on creativity, we decided to surprise the WDS audience with what we internally called Chase’s Oprah moment. Chase got on stage and gave away $400,000 of free CreativeLive education as we handed out a $150 gift card to everyone in attendance. Our goal partnering with WDS is to invest in a community of remarkable individuals who are already on their way to living an unconventional life. In order to be unconventional and build a life outside the norm of what may be expected of you, you have to be creative and we offer the tools and inspiration. We’ve even curated a series of CreativeLive classes for the WDS community, including many WDS speakers who have taught on CL—check them out at creativelive.com/wds.

As Chase describes, “Many people screamed, cheered, high fived, jumped up and down, hooted and hollered…and a couple people literally wept telling me their stories of success they’ve already had and what is to come in the future for them with their CreativeLive education.” For me as a CreativeLive Host, it was the physical representation of what I experience virtually during our live events when I read and share the a-ha moments and  comments from creatives all over the globe, and I was humbled.

CreativeLive’s gift to the community was obviously a huge highlight for me as well as my fellow WDS attendees, and I’m excited to share some other highlights from the experience. Imagine what it would it be like for you to hang out in person with 3000 CreativeLive learners for four days, all of us eager to connect, learn, and grow? Pretty magical, right? That magic is exactly what I experienced throughout the entire WDS event.

Photo by Kenna Klosterman
Photo by Kenna Klosterman

The underlying question that guides speakers, meet-ups, and spontaneous conversations at the annual WDS conference run by NYTimes best-selling author and CL instructor Chris Guillebeau is:

How do you live a remarkable life in a conventional world?

The WDS core values of community, adventure, and service are tightly aligned with our own CreativeLive values, so it’s not surprising there is a huge overlap in our communities. As you could guess, that same energy of a like-minded community seeking tools to make hard decisions to move forward in their lives is incredibly inspiring, yet also forced us all to dig deep.

The magic of WDS doesn’t just happen during main stage sessions where amazing speakers tell us stories of overcoming adversities to become the people they are today. The magic happens in the sparks of random conversations—every single person at WDS has a story of overcoming adversity. When you’re asking yourself to be vulnerable with strangers, hold their hands and cry in public, feel the intense weight of the fears we all share as human beings, you also need to let your hair down a little and dance to shake off that heaviness. In fact we even broke a world record for the longest chain of high fives, and that was just one of the five world record attempts this year, including the world record for the most people simultaneously eating breakfast in bed.

Photo by Armosa Studios
Photo by Armosa Studios

Here are my Top 7 A-ha moments from WDS 2015:

  1. Your voice is never lost. It’s always waiting to be found. ~ Jon Acuff
  1. Instead of asking what’s the worst that can happen, ask what’s the best that can happen? ~ Tess Vigeland
  1. Uncertainty is the gateway to possibility. ~ Lissa Rankin
  1. People remember you more for the little ways you make them smile, than the tech/biz/marketing stuff you do.  ~ Derek Sivers
  1. Don’t believe ‘I can’t.’ ~ Jeremy Cowart
  1. There is always a reason to complain. There is always a reason to dance. Choose dancing. ~ Kid President (Robby Novak) and Brad Montague
  1. You’ve got everything you need right now. ~ Asha Dornfest

Like our CreativeLive events where we are learning in a social classroom, WDS is a shared human experience. I felt to my core that I was part of something much bigger than myself. I left asking myself, “Will I face the fear of today or the regret of forever?” as Jon Acuff challenged us all to do. If you have the opportunity to attend the 2016 World Domination Summit, do not miss it – you will not regret it. Be sure to get on the mailing list to find out when tickets go on sale – the event always sells out right away.

Photo by Armosa Studios
Photo by Armosa Studios
Kenna Klosterman

Kenna is the Lead Host of CreativeLive. She's a travel photographer, tour leader, and connects the dots between members of our CL global community. @KennaKPhoto