Vince Reed describes skydiving in Fiji to confront his fear of flying, then using that momentum to commit $20,000 to his first paid live event in San Diego. He frames the experience as a turning point in overcoming limiting beliefs as an entrepreneur.
So now I'm kind of a big deal in the industry. You know, a lot of people that are, you know, having live events and, you know, doing certain things and making a lot of money are starting to take note because their people are starting to become part of our system, and they're all making money. And I remember I get a call from, you know, my buddy who I met at the VIP party, and he calls me and he says, hey, man, I'm having a big event, and it's going to be in Fiji. I want you to come and speak and bring your wife. You can have a lot of fun. And I'm like, all right, cool. Now I can be not only a speaker that spoke in the U.S. now I can be a speaker that spoke all over the world, right? So I go there, we fly out to Fiji. It's amazing. And this is before kids, so we're having a lot of fun, and I meet a lot of people. And again, it was crazy because everybody that was at this particular event had paid several thousands of dollars to be there, and I knew that I had to bring it. And I remember I was thinking to myself as I was on the plane, I, at this point, I'm teaching lead generation. I know people that are, you know, making a lot of money are using the strategies that I'm teaching them to make millions of dollars, but yet I'm still not getting invited to speak at really any of the events out there. You know, in the digital marketing world, it's kind of me speaking, you know, at my buddy's events, and me just doing my little local webinars here or there. And I started to think, man, what's. What's the deal here? People just kind of take taking the information and basically using it as if it's their own, which is fine, but that was the first time I started to think about it. But anyhow, in Fiji, it was cool because I was able to really break through a lot of different issues that I was having with myself that I didn't even know I had. So, for example, before that trip, I was terrified. I mean, terrified of just flying in an airplane to the point where, you know, I remember we would go to take off to go somewhere on a plane, and I would put my hand, you know, on my wife's leg, her knee. And then if I'd lift my hand, like, there'd be a sweat print on her leg. I'd be that nervous to fly. And when I was in Fiji, my buddy's like, hey, man, we're Going to go skydiving. I'm like, what? You're talking to the guy that's afraid to fly. There's no way I'm jumping out of the plane. He's like, you're coming. So I'm like, all right. I don't want to, like, wuss out. So I'm like, okay, I'll do it. So I get up bright and early, and I'm just freaking out. And we get to the place, it's old equipment. It's this little propeller plane that takes you up. I'm like, what the heck are you doing? But I remember something happened. I wasn't the first to go. The first group went. So I saw people coming down, and I saw the instructors. Not only were they coming down and landing, they were doing, like, tricks as they were landing, and they seemed like. Like it was nothing. It was just like this, no big deal, and everybody was coming down. People that I knew from the event had just finished. And then I remember thinking to myself, if people were going splat from skydiving, they probably wouldn't be skydiving, right? It started to let me think about these limiting beliefs and, like, these fears that people make up in their head. And I can tell you, when I jumped out of that plane and I hit the ground, it completely changed my life. And I've told people this before, and people go, you're nuts. But I'm serious. You know, I had this new level of confidence. I knew for a fact when I hit the ground that I was going to be extremely successful in whatever I wanted to do. And I started to realize that a lot of the fears that people have are simply made up. Like, for example, may not believe that these stories I'm telling you are true, but hopefully by listening to these things, you can start to change limiting beliefs that you may have to say, yes, they are possible, and I can achieve them. But it definitely changed my life and really got me thinking differently. And then I get back, I speak, I have a great time, and I meet the guy in the VIP party for dinner, and he says, hey, hey, what do you think about the event? Do you ever see yourself doing events? I'm like, man, no, I would never do this. This them a lot of work. And here I go again, falling victim to these limiting beliefs. He goes, you know, you should have events. I'm like, it just seems like so much work. It's not. It's not a lot of work. You should do it. You're going to do an event. And he's Like, I'm like, okay, I'm going to do it. He's like, when? I'm like, I don't know. Like, he said, no, no, give me a time. And he, like, held me to a time to do it. I'm like, I'm going to do one this year. He's like, all right. And he gave me all of his contacts, and we kind of left it at that. And I remember, you know, when I got back home and I started, like, kind of freaking out because I'm like, oh, crap, now I got to have this event. So I remember we got back, and the system's going crazy. We're making money. And we had this group on Facebook with all of our members, and I asked them the question. I'm like, hey, if I were to have a live event, would you come? And, like, instantly, everyone's like, yes, I'd be there. We're gonna all get together. Everybody's going crazy. And I'm like, I guess we're gonna have an event. So I remember I picked up the phone, and I called some of the contacts that my buddy from the VIP party told me about in terms of people to call when you have an event. And I called them, and they were asking me where, you know, I wanted to have it. And, you know, we finally come up with, we're going to do it in San Diego. And I remember I had to put this crazy deposit down, like, $20,000. And then there was all these, like, things in the contract. If you don't have X number of people in terms of your room block, you have to pay all this extra money. And I just remember being so, so stressed out. And, you know, I just took one step at a time. And as I started to do it, I started to again, just KN all these limiting beliefs. And it just made me a better entrepreneur and a business owner to realize that a lot of the things that you are fearful of are just not real. And, you know, I looked up, and we were literally, you know, months away from a live event. We had all of the materials, we had all these, you know, the little signs, and it was going down.
