Hey, Bernardo Moya here, founder of The Best You.
And this video’s called From Six to 14,000. And it’s based on my story, on the story, the life of The Best You and The Best You expo and what it’s become. So, remember I was already NLP trained. I was an NLP promoter, and I understand that NLP is the study of excellence, how do successful people do what they do? And I was looking for events where there was a lot of people to learn from. And I’ve always seen it as a very fragmented business where everyone would do their own thing, but there wasn’t a place where everyone could get together. I didn’t know of one. So I created one. I came up with the whole idea of The Best You. And one of the main focuses… We were going to do all sorts of things, or we’ve done all sorts of things, the magazine. The magazine, The Best You online, The Best You store, The Best You TV, now. So all these things have really opened up.
But originally, the main thing for me was about the expos. So I wanted to do a big event and I had to do it in a big conference hall. I remember I hired the ExCeL Center outside London, very expensive. It was around 60,000 square feet, around 6,000 square meters. And I remember I could only fill half of it. And people didn’t really understand what I was doing. People didn’t get it. I had to give a lot of it away. It was me basically selling it pretty much on my own. I remember connecting people on LinkedIn and it was a battle. I didn’t sleep for four months. I share that. I didn’t sleep for four months. It was so much stress. And so much hassle, because remember, it was like three, four breakout rooms, 55 speakers. Each room had AV engineers. Each room had also, obviously, kind of the speakers. We had the videos, we were filming, recording everything. We had the main stage. We obviously had all the expo. So it was a big gig for me. It was my first big one.
And I remember the event happened after four months of a lot of stress. It happened and we had 55 speakers [inaudible 00:01:46]. I think we had around 4,000 or 5,000 people pre-register. And I remember I went out through the door, looking, hoping to see thousands of people. I remember I when out, and there was six people out the door. Literally, that was it, six people. And there was only six. And I think I had my team, which I had… I normally put a lot of people to registration. I think it was around 10 or 12. So there were so many more on registration than there was actually in the queue.
And it was tough. The next year we doubled. We doubled. We went from 3,000 to 6,000 people show up and we went to 110 speakers. It was getting a little bit easier, but still very stressful. 6,000 people was out in ExCeL. And then year three, which I swore I would never do it again, we had around 12,000, 12,500 people show up. It was 160 speakers. And that kind of caught me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting so many people to show up. And I thought wow, people are actually starting to get it now. And the 14,000 comes from is that in my last expo in London, I had around 14,000, 14,500 people show, register, show up.
And I remember I walked out that day. It was like walking out to see how registration going. It’s got to be smooth. And I remember I walked out and I couldn’t see the end of the queue. And I had to walk out to the other side of the road and I still couldn’t see the end of the queue. I remember it was such a great feeling. It was amazing. It must have been at least 2,500, 3,000 people in the queue waiting to get in. And I was so nervous, I didn’t even do a photograph, which I should have done. I wish I had’ve shared, for myself, and put it on social media. It was a great, beautiful turning point and a wake up call for me. And I remember so many people kind of congratulated me and thanking me for, and having seen the show grow.
So it’s been a beautiful experience. And what I want to share with you is that it’s all down to hard work. It’s down to hard work. It’s down to vision. It’s down to keeping your eye on the prize and making sure that you work with people and you contribute and you provide service.
And that’s what I did. I’ve literally put a platform together for people and I’m the conduit. I bring people together. People are looking, seeking for inspiration and those that want to share ideas. And then together, it’s about collaborating. About all of us together, we can bring a lot of people. Better than doing it on your own.
And if you have the opportunity, either to get involved in The Best You expo or to work with me, I highly recommend because, look, we’ve got the platform. I’ve lost the hair already in the process. It’s gone gray also in the process. So we have the expertise, we’ve got the know-how, we’ve done it before. And now, now beautifully, our virtual expos are going literally online all over the world. We have now six scheduled all over the world, LA, Dallas, London, Miami, Dubai, and there’s so many more locations coming. So it’s just getting very, very exciting. So thank you so much. I hope to see you soon. Take care.