Welcome
to
Be you. Be happy. Achieve world peace. It's easy!
It's Time to Take a Vacation.
I'm not talking about one of those one-night getaways to a shady motel, where corporate's sent you.
I'm not talking about a"family getaway" that turns out to be more exhausting than invigorating.
Forget all that, and close your eyes. Imagine one perfect month...one perfect week...
It's finally here: The vacation of your dreams.
WE'VE WORKED WITH THE BEST
The Vacation of Your Dreams
Imagine waking up to a glass of fresh-squeezed OJ.
You slip on your bathrobe, wander into the great outdoors...or maybe you just stay inside, and enjoy a spa day.
Your kids are eager to run outside and play...and so are you.
You always thought you might have a book in you, a message. Something to say.
And you can do it in-person, or virtually.
SO YOU CAN RELAX & REST
A Golden Opportunity
Thanks to today's multi-sensory technology, you can take your bucket list trip...
not miss a single day of work...bring the whole family...and if you really want, not even leave your bed.
Your every experience has been meticulously planned.
From the moment you receive your first story-crafting guidebook, first map of the world, to lift-off, to landing.
You know this is what your heart's been craving.
Trip Highlights
Eager Anticipation
From the moment you book, you're part of the Me Experience. Claim your personalized guide, connect to your odyssey tribe, and explore your membership.
Your Discovery Departure!
Welcome aboard! This isn't like any trip you've experienced...our map and private island have been chosen...but YOU get to choose how we pilot your ship.
Week 1:
Prepare Your Power!
Whether you're a kid or adult, or someone of a certain age, you deserve to be treated like a me-llionaire. And you owe yourself the discovery of your true story, a remarkable tale that's been passed through time, from caveman to dynasty to silent films to Disney.
Week 2:
Begin my Bestsel(f)er!
Your story officially begins! Learn how to quickly go from blank page and blank slate to the best version of you...or simply lay back and relax, watching the waves.
Weeks 3 & 4:
The Chapter Islands Charter
Get picked up from Discovery Island and travel from fantastical isle to isle—Birthday Island, Rocket-Me Reef—as you go chapter to chapter, higher and higher.
Week 5:
Exhilaration Atoll
The ending of your story has come...though the real adventure has just begun! Learn the three secret words that keep your audience or reader's hearts and minds unlocked forever...guaranteed.
Week 6:
Revision Reef
Here's where all those little fish start swimming around in your head, and things get murky. Learn how to spot the sparkling gems—the shining star(fish) in the craggy reef!
Week 7:
Package Me!
Discover how to create not just the book of your dreams, but the covers and promos of your dreams—and not only that, but the YOU of your dreams—using accessible technology.
Week 8:
Publish Me!
Visit Antarctica to see just exactly what it's like to publish at Penguin Random House—the titan of the story industry. Or follow your own exciting map in self-publishing.
Grand Finale:
Launch Party!
Celebrate your dream cruise on Sundae Island with your captain, comrades, piña coladas and ice cream! See who has won The Great Read! Collect rave reviews from your community.
Return to Your Dream
Guess what? You thought you were going on an island getaway, so you could live your dream. And now? You return home. And discover that in discovering yourself—your "me"—everything seems just a little bit more rosy. You're living the dream already—you ARE the dream.
Your Trip in Detail
(For those who like all the juicy details)
Each week you receive:
Welcome to Me!
It's time to Celebrate YOU!
Celebrations are in order! You've just committed to set sail on your grand adventure. If that voice inside is whispering, "It all seems too good to be true!"—you will quickly discover that the best things in life ARE true. In the weeks leading up to departure, you'll receive your welcome video, personalized onboarding, and trip details.
Meet Your Fellow Travelers: The Member "Ship"
It's time to explore your membership. Part of the joy in traveling is meeting new people. Create your custom profile. Say hi! After years of voyaging with Royal Caribbean, Viking, Princess & Celebrity Cruises, we can tell you the best part of the cruise experience is being able to share your daily adventures with your tribe.
Your Personalized Map
& Story-Live Guide
As part of your customized experience, you get to choose key moments of where exactly we're going. So don't be shy—let your fancy take flight! This is your chance to go to your dream exotic places! With our story-live guide, you also have the peace of mind of knowing exactly where you're headed.
Claim Your Ticket...It's Time!
For the last month, you've eagerly anticipated this moment! You've got your member ID, map and storyliver's guide, and everyone's watches are synced...the doorbell rings...it's time to begin your Discovery!
Get Picked Up!
You've been waiting for this moment, ever since you first signed up. You've got your ticket, heard your bell *ping* for pick-up, decided to finally pursue your dreams and let yourself...GO! After a leisurely trip through green pastures, you've arrived on this picture-perfect day at the loading dock.
Board Your Ship
All aboard! We hope you've got your sea legs ready! Your ship crew is happy to welcome you aboard. They'll take your luggage, give you your room key, and take you to your member suite. Head to the top deck, where the captain of your trip appears on the big screen!
Meet Your Captain
This is your captain speaking! Over the next few weeks, you'll be going on quite the experience...your dream vacation...a life-changing journey. Paradise awaits! Who knew your "member ship" was also a PanAm seaplane?
Welcome to Paradise!
You've finally made it! Disembark on your private island and come together for a campfire party with your tribe. The Captain has some surprises in store, parting gifts and bonuses. You'll learn about the Gala that awaits you at the end, and the Great Read.
Soar Across the World
Leading up to your vacation, we've taken some suggestions of what places you want to see. Now you get to experience that customized route, as we sail through the sky over...who knows? The Great Pyramids, the Great Wall, the Amazon, Angel Falls, the Serengeti?
What You've Always Craved: A Great Night's Sleep
It's a wonderful feeling to know you're exactly where you need to be. To know you're surrounded by the love of others, on the exact same journey. Maybe you're taking this trip to escape from stress, work, or you simply crave a new adventure—take comfort in finally knowing you're exactly where you need to be.
Breathing Up a Brainstorm: The No-Fail Secret of Getting Inspired
It’s time to make writing a breeze and crack the code of message, whether you're writing just for yourself, or to reach the masses—whether you’re writing a story, a resume, or a business letter. Wake up to morning inspiration, take a hammer to smash that dreaded writer's block for good (and for gold)—take a walk around the real writer’s block, and learn why you’re never truly alone.
Your Creative Toolkit: (Re)Awaken Your Inner Creator!
Here's the secret to why you can't write: As children, we had no fear, but no know-how. As adults, we have experience, but plenty of fear. It's time to fuse your adult self's sagacity with the breathless joy of your inner kid. Re-acquaint yourself with the simple writing and illustrating tools of your youth—pencils, pens, crayons, imagine markers, a blank page—it's time to fall in love, to live again.
The Secret Sauce of Story
Gather 'round the table and have dinner with your peers as we discuss the endless possibilities of genre. We all have our favorites—adventure, literary, fantasy, self-help and inspirational, travel, business, something else—the truth is all the best stories contain a little bit of everything. And we do, too. Begin, too, to crack open the code of story structure—as well as the Hero’s Journey, which, with your new friends, you are about to embark on.
De-Stress Your Tech
Knowing how to read used to be THE essential tool to life. Now, knowing how to use your computer is. Who knew your retreat came with your very own geek squad? Familiarize yourself with all the digital tech that can help free you from the tech nightmares of daily life, from free word processors to Microsoft Word, clean-computer best practices, book-outlining Bibles such as Scrivener, and far beyond.
The Front Matters!
Discovering your story should be easy as 1 2 3. And now it is…with our signature paint-by-page, point-by-point approach. You’ll start from the absolute beginning (what is known in the publishing industry as the “front matter”), with the paradoxically-named endpages (even though they come at the beginning), copyright, title page, foreword, preface…all the things that most new writers overlook…and culminate with your pivotal About the Author.
About the Author
This is a key point in your journey. Using our fun-filled media and ideation templates, you’ll start to craft who you are right now. Are you fun? Silly? Calm? Leadership material? Colorful? Pastel? In business school, this would be creating your "brand"—but it's much more that. It's finally realizing who you are. And it's not just about you right now—it's about creating your ideal vision of your future self: the kind of person you want to be in your incredible life moving forward, the story you want to tell.
Table of Contents
There's kind of a fantastic fib that happens with the Table of Contents, and that scares off many a new author. What you see in a published book doesn't just spring straight from the author's wild genius at the very beginning. The TOC, usually, comes last. But it still can be a useful technique, to outline where you THINK you might be going using your brainstorm from Week One, and dream BIG about your character’s goal (which, there’s no hiding—is your own, you know)!
Acknowledgements
& Prologue
There's a wonderful line from White Christmas: "Count your blessings, instead of sheep." Now's the chance to recall the people who have led you to this incredible point in your life. These are your sweet dreams, your "Acknowledge Mints." It leaves a wonderful taste in your mouth. You'll go to bed surrounded by their smiling faces, as you slip into wonderful dreams, and even start something resembling a prologue, as you look forward to the true start of your odyssey tomorrow...
Birthday Island
& Rocket Reef
Here at Me, we believe every day should feel like a birthday. You should be someone you'd want to marry. What better way, then, to fulfill this belief—than by throwing YOU your very own birthday party? Celebrate your joyous start—then, launch into the rest of your story with a riotous rocket launch. This is what authors call the 'Inciting' Incident—it's more like turning on the keys to your ignition, really.
The "Chapter Me!"
Island Chains
Travel from isle to isle as you take a deep dive into how to construct your message and meaning chapter to chapter, using your own interests and personal background. You'll realize it's easy to write when you have not just yourself to draw from...but your family...and nearly 14 billion years of history, drifting through the archipelago. And it's natural to be scared. We are constantly evolving, after all.
Amusement Island:
Destroy Your Dragons & Discover Your Theme
Dream big! Come together on Amusement Island, home to a theme park quite unlike one you've ever seen—here, you'll ride the rides, and discover your THEME. That is, the connective tissue of your story. Watch the fireworks go off, and stoke the heart that makes you sing. Travel with your tribe into the innermost cave, and slay the dragons that have been controlling you for far too long. Return home worry-free.
Sleep in the Forest of Dreams
Sleep peacefully tonight, for perhaps the first time, in a long, long time. (These are lessons we can use throughout our life.) You've created an incredible life, a marvelous story so far. Your vacation has been...so fun and easy. Your life is filled with countless pages, so many leaves. There's a good chance your sleep will be filled with dreams. So as you drift off, dream of happy days before, now, and yet to come...zzzzzzzzz........
Paradise (Elephant Island)
Emerge from your blissful sleep to see the world as it was meant to be seen. The elephant's off your back. Walk with elephants, run with monkeys, roar with the lion kings. You are fully in yourself now, whether your heart is in India or the Serengeti. It's wonderful to know your meaning.
Climax and Companions: Push to the Peak!
Make the final push to your perfect story. You have to know by now that everyone is cheering. They've all been waiting for you to succeed. The parade winds up the peak, to an incredible view. You've reached the top now.
Acknowledgements,
Afterword &
Three Magical Words
The End Matters
If you open a book, you'll see that sometimes the Acknowledgements goes at the beginning, sometimes at the ending...it turns out it never really mattered, as the greatest epiphany comes when you finally realize that everyone you've ever interacted with has brought you to your story, the place where you're meant to be now. It's time to look off the cliff, over the wildflower meadow below, and acknowledge just how amazing you are—because YOU are a pretty darn amazing story. And you always have been. There is no THE END. There is only TO BE CONTINUED. Can you finally see it now?
Just like there's a North Pole and South Pole, all the Front Matter in a story comes with its opposite: the End Matter! If you had a prologue...how would you like to hew your Epic Log? Have anything more to say? Guide your readers to the Appendix, Endnotes and Index. You learned how to write your About the Author in the beginning...now re-phrase it in your Author Bio. Plus, make sure you include those impressive words: Coming Soon/Read More! So people want to know more. Return home, always knowing there's so much more!
Imagination Re-Ignited: How to Satisfy Your Left Brain, and Revise Right!
Big Picture Editing:
The Whole Enchilada
Now that you’ve concluded your epic hero’s journey, there are probably two things racing through your head: that was INCREDIBLE, and…what comes next? Well, we’ve made that easy for you, and made editing in the present and the future as easy as pie. (The straight-from-the-counter kind.)
Starting with the widest scope, you’ll start with the big ideas and themes, then hone down to structure, parts, and larger arcs, then chapter by chapter best practices. This isn't just useful for writing a book—it's useful for being able to pick out the key points of an article, a business whitepaper, and life.
Line Editing:
Peeling the Onion
Time to launch into line editing, where you get to add all the vibrant details that really make your story sing. Here's where characters go from being 2D to leaping off the page. (And I don't have to mention that showing is almost always better than telling—especially on a resumé.)
Proofreading:
Taste-Test Time!
Finally, after supper, you’ll revel in your final read of your story, simply proofreading. We’ll also give you our nifty editor's cheat sheet, where you'll learn all the handy tricks of the trade: "stets," "sic", "transpose"—we'll start to peel back the curtain on New York's exclusive publishing enclave.
Craft My Dream Cover
You know what “they” say…don’t judge a book by its cover. Well, the truth is, that’s the first thing that people see! Having completed your book, you now get to put on your designer’s hat, and re-awaken your creativity and artistry. Learn how to use the full suite of tools that the powerhouse publishers use: the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc), Canva, and even AI. While the rest of the world changes, know that the story at your core will ALWAYS be the story the whole world needs, and make sure that in these rapidly evolving times, you are never left behind.
Put My Pages Together
You've got a bunch of pages that, depending on how you've composed yourself on your vacation, may be already fairly well put-together in Word...or maybe you have to scrounge them up as you scramble out of bed, like so many loose leaves. In either case, it's time to polish them and make yourself—I mean, them—presentable! And there are a wealth of tools to do exactly that, ranging from native tools within Word or Pages, to Adobe InDesign, to straight-to-Kindle platforms like Nook or Atticus.
Dust Off Your Jacket
Some people "read" visually, some "read" traditionally. What matters is you dust yourself off and stride confidently onto the scene, so anyone walking by a) sees you b) taps you on your shoulder c) reads what you're selling, and buys—because you've just made that decision process oh so easy.
Become Your Beacon
This may be the best part! This is where the payoff happens. This is where you get to dream. Imagine what all your favorite celebrities would say about you...what they will be saying...your friends...your family...the President...Oprah Winfrey....
Choose Your Adventure!
My Paths to Published
You've made it! Now that your story is written, it's been revised and packaged to perfection, it's time to think about how you're going to publish it! Will you go the traditional route, really bet on yourself, or go hybrid?
Traditional Publishing:
Choose Someone Else!
It’s time to Choose Your Own Adventure! What is your biggest dream? To get a publishing deal with one of the “Big 4” publishers—Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster? You’ll learn how to research and query agents, land a publisher…and maybe even land a deal in the 6—or 7—figures.
Self Publishing:
Choose Yourself!
Or perhaps, like me, you’ve got that entrepreneurial blood. You love to have control of your story, and watch your creativity blossom as you learn how to publish to Amazon, create exciting serial subscriptions that people crave reading and kids gobble up like their favorite cereals, and market using your own special gifts and abilities. Rather than publishing with Random House, you dream of going from household to household.
Hybrid Publishing:
Choose the World!
You'll return to your room, with your trip nearly complete. Armed with intimate insider knowledge of both the self- and trad-publishing industries, you'll have everything you need to live the laidback author lifestyle. Choose one or the other, or leave your options open and fuse to become a new hybrid species. After all, you're many things.
...And now, it's time to party!
Celebrate!
Can you believe it? It’s the Going-Away Grand Closing Gala and Launch Party you’ve been waiting for! Come together, gather 'round the fire and celebrate all your great times on your Discovery Retreat. You've never been alone. On this LIVE! group call, we're throwing a MASSIVE party. ...Who's up for island ice cream?
Share Your Fruits!
The New Freedom of You
Share your books and stories with all the friends who’ve joined you on this incredible journey. Some people may have trended more toward romance. Some lives may be filled with more history or fantasy, thriller or comedy. You might never have to hit the library again! And you've done more than just write a story. You've unearthed latent talents and passions that you once had, and now are ready to finally act.
Collect Social Proof
You've shared your stories...now, gain your first reads and 5-star testimonials to set you up for the future. The world craves social proof, and every member of our community will be happy to give it to you, whether to display on your book, on Amazon, or to prospective agents. Upon completing the Discovery Retreat, you'll receive a certificate that you can proudly display, wherever you choose, letting the world know that you haven't just told—you've LIVED your story.
Leave Your Lasting Legacy
Sadly, soon enough it will be time to leave. But you will never forget the island, and the island will never forget you—your books stay preserved in the Library of Me.™ Because this isn't THE ENDing...the book you now hold in your hands, the unearthed story in your heart, it's only the start of the first day of the rest of your wonderful life—an epic, bright new beginning for your lifetime.
It's time to catch your flight.
Departure! Your LIVE! Discover Me Return
It's time to return home. Your Discovery Retreat ends with a trip back across the world. Ride with your friends and say your goodbyes, and hellos to new friends for life. Be personally dropped off to a safe return to your doorstep. Receive your key to Me, and re-enter your new daily life.
Until We Meet Again...
If you've chosen to continue onward on the Trip of a Lifetime, or perhaps The Greatest Story Ever Told, get excited — we'll be in touch! For now? Enjoy the rest of your spectacular days. See you soon!
Available Packages
Alright! You've seen the world of marvels and endless possibilities that lay before you. Now you're ready to book. Each tier comes with its own special benefits, and no matter which option you choose, rest assured that you'll receive our best, so you can be your best.
Next to each ticket you will see a "MESRP." In the normal world, the MSRP is the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. This is what the maker of a good determines is the real-world value. However, in the real world, people have different economic backgrounds. Does it make sense for someone whose net worth is $1000 to pay the same as someone whose net worth is $1 million?
We are committed to a world where everybody succeeds.
So it's simple. Give less if you can't. (You'll choose when you click "Claim Now.")
Use the MESRP to guide you. Give more if you can.
Bonuses
Available for Early Bookings
The Complete & Customized Storyliver's Suite
Everyone who signs up for the Discovery Retreat gets a complete storyliver's suite, filled with templates, worksheets, blueprints, and story starters designed to light a fire under you, and stoke the one deep within you. For a limited time, you get a completely personalized guide.
Premier Placement in the Library of Me™
Upon leaving the Retreat, you will have a book and story in your hands you are proud of. Everyone who participates gets a chance to publish their story in the Library of Me™, for the world to see (if they so desire—though it's highly encouraged! Because you deserve to be seen). Although anyone can browse a bookshelf, for a limited time, your books will be placed so they are first to see.
Package Exclusive Experiences in the Trip of a Lifetime—Mine!™
The vast majority of our Discovery Retreaters choose to continue to the One Transformative Year: "A Trip of a Lifetime!" Experience. By booking your ticket as a package, you ensure a place in our lodgings, on the Ice Breaker™ cruise ships, and in the Academy, where you and your kids can learn anything you've ever dreamed.
Your 100% Risk-Free Guarantee
Or, Why This Is Even a Bigger No-Brainer Than You Realize
Hint: It Has To Do With Achieving World Peace
Way better than any booking.
How great would it feel to know that there's no flight to miss...no plane to catch...no kid kicking at your headrest...everything at your fingertips, just to...relax......
If at any point on your vacation, you get bitten by a crab, stung by a jellyfish, get poisoned by some questionable drinking water—or simply find that your private island isn't for you, we'll make it right.
Even if that means giving you 100% your money back! :)
But it doesn't stop there...
Even if you love it...even if it's the best experience of your entire life...even if you just can't stop raving about how amazing you feel to all your friends...
If you need it, we'll still give you your money back.
Because the goal is world peace, in you and the world, at the end.
- Austin "Me" Diamond
Be You. Be Happy. Achieve World Peace...It's Easy!
