“If you’ve got a billion dollars and you’re not grateful, you’re poor as hell.” - Tony Robbins

So it’s been a few days now since I left the Unleash the Power Within (UPW) seminar with Tony Robbins and I am still reeling. I’m a fan of Tony Robbins and found a lot of amazing insight from his book Money: Master the Game and from watching the Netflix documentary, I Am Not Your Guru, but nothing really prepared me to experience Tony Robbins live.

This post contains affiliate links. See Disclosures for details.

If you are not familiar, Tony Robbins is a personal development coach. He is touted as one of the top performance coaches in the world and has worked with the likes of Oprah, Serena Williams, Hugh Jackman and so many more. A few friends have gone to Unleash the Power Within and they’ve raved about the experience. Unleash the Power Within is his flagship seminar. It is 4 days and depending on what tier ticket you get, it can cost you around $800 and above for a ticket. A bit expensive, but worth it.

My husband and I both went. To be honest, I had to convince my husband and I am so glad we experienced it together. I believe it was life changing, but of course, only time will tell what kind of changes we go through in the next few months post UPW. I knew that the days at UPW were going to be long, but I honestly did not know how emotionally, mentally and physically draining it can get, but all for the good of getting you amazing clarity in the end.

I know people are going to say personal development is all a bunch of hooey, but I completely disagree. I think we have to face the fact that many of our old beliefs and mindsets have influenced who we are today and for many of us, it is limiting our true nature. As Mark Manson says in his book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, “Personal development is finding better things to give a fuck about.”

One thing I learned early on was to start a personal education savings account for me to be used to further my skills or work on passions without feeling guilty about it. Think about how many of us have spent thousands of dollars getting a degree and aren’t even using it. As we age, we all need to learn new skills, be exposed to new ideas and creating space and having money to do that makes it easier to pursue new avenues of learning.

UPW Days

I’ll share Day 1 and Day 3 as they were the most powerful days for me. Day 2 and Day 4 give you more practice into understanding your musts and how to take massive action. They introduced a few speakers during Day 2 and Day 4 and found all of them to be informative. The Business Mastery was eye opening even though they were just a one hour intro. [Update February 2020: My husband and I just came back from Business Mastery and it was amazing! I’ll have a full write-up of that shortly. The future of this site is now evolving based on what I learned from that workshop immersion. It was amazing to be surrounded by people who not only want to create value and get paid for it, but also want to leave a big impact on the world for the better. Stay tuned.]

Day 1 - The Firewalk

Day 1 is your first real-life introduction to Tony Robbins. He is a man with energy. At 58, he can speak for more than 12 hours, jump up and down on stage and still remain on point. Day 1 is also when you do the Firewalk, which is a symbolic walk over hot, burning coals to let go of fear and get into your state. We started Day 1 at 12pm and didn’t end until 1am. The Firewalk didn’t happen until 10pm. I think being present at Tony’s live events is one of the things that many of us need to experience. It’s one thing to watch Tony Robbins on YouTube or read his books, but damn, being present with 12,000 people exerting so much energy and power will shake you to your core.

The first half of Day 1 is all about Gratitude and there was so much love in that room when we did this exercise. One thing you will also notice at the event is lots of hugging, high fives and looking at people in the eye. A strange act no doubt since we are mostly on our phones most of the time.

I will share with you my moment on this day. We are lining up for the Firewalk. In front of us are a few thousand people and the back of us are another set of a few thousand people. We all walk down to the outside of the venue, chanting “YES!” I’m getting myself into State (which Tony will explain and guide you through) and I finally step up to the line. Mind you, were are also in Newark, NJ, which isn’t really the most accommodating city, but the energy that night was electrifying. Before you first step foot on to the coals, there’s a crew that continues to hype you up and there’s someone that has been designated to give the go ahead once he thinks you are ready. So imagine for a moment, 12,000 people chanting “YES! YES! YES! …” in the back of you. In front, screams of celebration, high gives and laughter in front of you as you continue down the line. Before it’s my turn, one of the hype crew says to me “He will know when you are ready.” And then, it’s me right in front of the coals. I do my thing to get into state, screaming “YES! YES! YES! ” but in the back of my mind, my mind is screaming “How does he know when I am ready, how does he know?!” Then he says GO and I step into those coals like nothing and complete the Firewalk. The Firewalk is short, but my mind wasn’t even thinking about heat or pain, just feeling of determination and victory. It was a surreal experience. The lesson there is that even though you think you are not ready for a lot of things because your mind plays tricks on you and self-doubt creeps in, you can overcome it.

On that day, I became a literal FIREWALKER.

Day 3 - Release of Limiting Beliefs

Whoa! Another day of raw emotion. Tony Robbins is skilled at really getting you to face your truths. I wish I could also say it was just me, but there were 12,000 people there that felt the pain of their own limiting beliefs and the release was cathartic overall. This day was a bit overwhelming for me, tough to face some of the beliefs that you’ve centered your whole life on, but again very powerful in the end.

Interestingly, we shared our beliefs with our neighbors and some of the themes I recognized were about money, about not having the experience, about being too young or too old to make a massive change, about not being loved and so on. I saw a lot of parallels with the journey to Financial Independence. How many of us had to actually let go of old mindsets that told us we can’t reach FI or change our mindsets of why we deserve money, security and financial freedom.

In the FI community, we always bring up changing our money mindset and that requires delving into the past and drawing out situations that many of us may have buried about why our relationship with money is the way it is. It’s about removing the blame and shame and really moving forward. It’s such an eye opening exercise that you feel relief when you finally let go of those limiting beliefs.

We included a money mindset section The Money Journal because we found this to be a common theme in our own lives. If you pick it up, let us know which particular exercise spark something for you. Grab a copy of The Money Journal. It’s part book, part workbook, part journal to explore your money thoughts and convert them into action.

Tips for Attending UPW

UPW is a 4-day event. The days are intense so energy is important. Here are some tips if you go.

1. Be in the moment. You’ve paid all of this money. You’ve sacrificed all of this time away from your family, from work, from friends. I know we are all about sharing online, but I believe an experience like this requires your full attention. My husband was very adamant on this and I’m glad I listened to him. I didn’t take a lot of pictures or videos or live streamed the event. I do believe you have to be there to have the full experience.

2. Open your mind. If you have not been exposed to a lot of personal development practices, a lot of this stuff is going to be strange and crazy to you, but try out the exercises, work through the silliness that you may feel and try it out.

3. Yes, they do keep the room cold so be prepared with layers and maybe some gloves.

4. Bring an empty reusable water bottle with you and make sure you fill up before you sit down. Stay hydrated because you will be doing lots of jumping, dancing, hugging and mental exercises and you may not realize how much energy you are expending.

5. Pee before you sit down. The one thing you don’t want to do is to leave your seat when Tony is in the zone. Being there in-person is what brings the event to a whole new level.

6. Bring snacks. They recommend at least 2 single-size snacks. Depending on the venue, they can be very strict about what you bring in, but try to bring as many healthy snacks as possible. The days are long and sometimes the venue doesn’t have the best option for food so be prepared.

7. You don’t necessarily have to be there exactly when it starts. There’s a good amount of buffer time during each sessions to hype everyone up before Tony or another speaker goes up.

8. Tony does not do all 4 Days. His voice would be shot if he did. He does the First and Third Day.

More Tony Robbins

We met a lot of interesting people at the event. A few who had been there a few times. We met a couple who was gifted the event. We met a few teams trying to take it to the next level. We met employees who had seen positive changes with their boss after the UPW event. It does take getting outside of the box and out of your head to fully understand what Tony Robbins is all about, but I’d highly recommend going with an open mind and an open heart. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll learn about yourself.

The ticket price can be pricey, but if you break it down and save weekly or monthly, it’s a fairly achievable goal. Many of us probably spend $1000 on alcohol or clothes or fast food alone per year which results in minimal happiness so sometimes it’s really just about prioritizing where you want your money to go.

Grant Sabatier of Millenial Money (a review of Grant’s book “Financial Freedom” can be found here) just interviewed Tony Robbins and you can listen to that here. Here’s Tony Robbins in a similar insight I had with money.

The next UPW is in LA and they are running a 2 for 1 deal on the tickets.

Here are some Tony Robbin’s Books if you want to read more.

• Awaken the Giant

• Money Master the Game: 7 Steps to Financial Freedom

• Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook