Seminars and the Unseminar

One summer, 1987, maybe 1988? Fuzzy details. I worked as an industrial audio roadie. The company I freelanced for did on-the-spot audio duplication for speakers and self-help workshops. I recall Chicago, Boston, Salt Lake and San Diego that summer. Don’t recall too much in between. A few years later, I embarked on this current venture, the present iteration of taking a set of tarot cards, then a notebook computer, and doing readings, selling my own tapes and audio files.

I’ve worked big shows, mammoth expositions, all the way down to events that were nothing more than me and a card table in the corner of a store. I’ve stuck to nothing but the proven and reliable Texas events in the last few years, more due to economic needs than anything else. Go where it pays best. Where I feel most welcome.

Half a dozen years ago, I released Two Meat Tuesday (the book), and its expanded material includes my “road scholar ten-year” materials. I’m up to almost two-decades of evidence. This blog alone is more than a decade old. (Z-list blogger)

So another psychic encouraged me to look at Pat O’Bryan’s Cash Army.

The hook, for me, was a claim that he could make money with just internet access. That lead to the FourDollarSite.com. I tried the steps outlined in that video, the “homeless guy” makes money. I must’ve missed a step. Didn’t spend a dime, and – although the site was getting traffic – haven’t made one thin dime. Yet.

However.

There’s a spirit, an energy, an expectancy about some of the material. I ponied up the miserly sum to attend the most recent “Unseminar.”

Part revival. Part camp meeting. There’s an air, sounds like, feels like a cross between one of those MLM meetings and a joyous religious celebration. Self-help, spirituality, dollars loosely sprinkled about? All there.

I started out with my own experience. When I was that industrial roadie, we would take a mike, clip it to the speaker (not a presenter as they are now called), hit record on a cassette deck, and flip the tape at half an hour. Collect the cassettes at the end, and go back to the booth – nestled among a row of high-speed cassette duplicators.

I’m sure every angle of the most recent Unseminar is available on DVD, as it was all recorded. I’ve sat through enough Self-Help Seminars to be thoroughly burned out on the topic.

As a participant, I’ve been on both sides of the convention tables. The Unseminar is, simply put, the best run, most efficiently organized event I’ve attended.

The schedule for the speakers? Consider it a guideline. Chalk lines, as all the speakers run long, and there’s much personal interaction.

Joe Vitale was the dynamic headliner. Professional motivational speaker. Good stuff.

But the details, all kinds of material. What font color sells best for advertising copy headlines. What background colors to avoid. One of my favorite lines? “Get right with God.” Guy didn’t preach faith, pick one that works, but get on a path with that. Which lead to fascinating tidbits about SEO.

20, almost 30 years of trade shows, conventions and exhibits. The Unseminar is better than anything else I’ve been to.