If you didn’t get paid for the work you do now, would you do it anyways?

Honestly…

Would you?

You might have said “yes” to this pre-pandemic, without much hesitation.

However, personally and professionally, most of us have experienced some of the most turbulent periods of our lives these past two years.

The deck of cards that is our careers has been reshuffled.

Hard decisions must be made (or likely have been made already).

So, do you have a “lifestyle” business, that you’d run even if you made no money from it, and it was part of who you are and how you live, even if you can’t rely on it financially? (By the way…it’s more than OK if the answer is “no”).

Pictured above with MOTM alumni and good friend Matt Thomas at a recent Miami Heat vs Atlanta Hawks game. Matt got us courtside for the second half, and as a die-hard Miami Heat fan, I was in heaven! Thanks again, Matt.

I can honestly say that Meeting of the Minds is something I’d do even if I made no money for my time, effort, and expertise.

That is why I’m excited to announce our next summit is taking place April 9-10, 2022 in Miami, FL (with an optional, but highly-recommended kickoff dinner on the 8th) and you can register for 50% off your ticket if you qualify by emailing me before end-of-day Friday, January 21.

Personally, the long list of benefits I’ve received from hosting Meeting of the Minds since January 2018 include:

meeting my co-founder for Offsite,
acquiring Network Under 40,
angel investing in several high-growth tech startups at favorable terms during their earliest fundraising rounds,
finding multiple angel investors for Offsite,
getting into bitcoin at a $10,000 average buy-in (#hodl),
meeting several high-skilled contractors for work ranging from design to negotiation,
and so much more…

These connections, breakthrough ideas, and investments have already made me hundreds of thousands of dollars, with millions in potential unrealized upside.

And that’s just my personal experience.

Other clients have also bought and sold companies through Meeting of the Minds, earned tens (and even hundreds) of thousands of dollars in new business, developed incredible competencies in public-speaking, marketing, and sales, and met life-long best friends in addition to having bucket-list type fun at our summits in Napa Valley, Bermuda, New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.

You should join us in Miami if you want to be around an invite/application only group of high-integrity, diverse, and curated business owners running high-growth companies, who are world-class at their craft, and avail themselves for the weekend to building deep, meaningful relationships with you that could lead to referrals, breakthrough ideas in strategy for how you run your business, meaningful friendships, partnerships, and more.

If you have not been to Meeting of the Minds before, you can watch almost 20 minutes of video testimonials at motm.co, learn more about what the experience is like, and email me directly with any questions.

If you’d like to attend the summit, email me before end-of-day Friday, January 21 for more information and to claim 50% off.

Normally, these events cost $3000 per person to attend, but the discount means you’ll be able to join us for only $1500. This does not include accommodations typically, but if we book a massive Airbnb/VRBO mansion as we sometimes do, I’ll make rooms available to those who register early.

Truthfully, I’m not looking to make money on Meeting of the Minds anymore.

We’ve only hosted two summits since February 2020.

We’ve hit pause on our annual membership program, which was the bedrock of our business financially.

Plus, we’ve scrapped our pre-pandemic plans to launch different mastermind groups (including a higher-end membership starting at $50,000 annually and a corporate membership program).

There are many reasons for this…

For one, getting your clients sick isn’t a good business model, and so during the first year of the pandemic, we hosted zero in-person summits and opted for monthly virtual summits instead.

Also, I started a new company in late 2020 called Offsite, which plans retreats for high-growth startups, Inc 5000s, VC firms, and publicly-traded corporations, and that company has taken off like a rocket ship.

We’ll soon be raising a seed round, publicly launch our software product in a few months, and triple our headcount as a company by end of year, which means that - without getting into the specifics - my stock in Offsite will make me a millionaire by the summer (on paper at least…it doesn’t mean jack s**t and I won’t be liquid until we sell the company or IPO…meaning there’s little to celebrate post-fundraise and more work ahead, all of which takes time from growing the Meeting of the Minds business).

As currently constructed, Network Under 40 is also a scalable and sellable asset (which is technically owned by Meeting of the Minds, but would be sold in the future independent of the holding company).

Our plan is to rebuild the business to its pre-pandemic glory (at one point, Network Under 40 had 8 chapters around the country, and a valuation I’d peg at 6x-10x what I purchased the company for during its pandemic lows), and possibly scale the business to even greater heights, before potentially selling the business again in 3-5 years.

This will also take priority over growing Meeting of the Minds, at least financially, which means there’s now multiple reasons why I don’t (perhaps even shouldn’t) host regular summits IF the main goal was to profit.

Finally, I have a new book being released soon after many months of delay, refinement, and finishing touches. Books don’t sell themselves, which means I’ll have to take time to promote the new publication, which further takes away from investing time into growing Meeting of the Minds in the short-term.

…

I share all this to reiterate that I do not need to run Meeting of the Minds for financial gain. Truly, it has become a “lifestyle” business for me.

I’ll host Meeting of the Minds summits for decades to come because it is fun.

It is insightful.

It is valuable.

It allows me to travel, host and facilitate sessions for brilliant entrepreneurs for whom I have great admiration, and provide them with meaningful access to other diverse “Minds” who can help them.

It is impactful on society.

If we turn a slight profit, fantastic!

If we break-even, awesome.

Honestly, I’ve paid a lot of money to attend summits like Meeting of the Minds over the last decade, so even if I lost money in the short term, I’d still host these events.

If you’ve experienced one of our summits the past, I hope you consider joining us in Miami, and if you’ve never attended an event in the past, please consider doing so.

It may be one of the best things you do for yourself and your business in 2022…

In short, your only regret will be not attending one of our summits sooner. Email me before Friday if you’re interested so you can save 50% on your ticket if you qualify!

-Jared

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20.

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

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Meeting of the Minds

What Is A "Lifestyle" Business, Anyways?