I work from home now and my online job took me to the most amazing event of my life. I’ve joined the ranks of the army of women working from home since I joined CarbonCopyPRO, a world leader in online marketing education, entrepreneurialism and ready built business systems. With my background in sales and marketing, I appreciate the huge benefits of attending a ‘live’, event so when I found out PRO were holding their seventh Master Marketing Event on 21st and 22nd May 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona, I knew in an instant that I just had to make the journey from England and go.

I wasn’t quite sure how I’d do it but I knew it would be worth it even though it meant asking my partner Hugh if he would look after our family in my absence, taking on all my responsibilities on top of his normal workload, including looking after my invalid mum with all her complex needs.  Naturally, I’d wanted him to come but there was no possible chance of that happening. Instead, he stayed behind so I could go and make the most of every second and learn as much as possible to implement into my own Internet business.

Held in the stunning air-conditioned Arizona Grand Resort, amidst a backdrop of tropical plants and beautiful scenery in the 90 degree heat, I was privileged to join more than 600 motivated entrepreneurs from all corners of the globe. I knew we were in for a real eye-opener.

It was to be a golden opportunity to mix with the movers and shakers in CarbonCopyPRO, most of whom are multi-millionaires at the top of their game and on a mission to inspire others to do the same.  Successful in their own right and inspirational to those following on in their footsteps. And to think, we were going to get a whole weekend of masterminding with these experts. What a boost to our businesses this was going to be.

Jay Kubassek, CarbonCopyPRO Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer and John Jackson, VP of Leadership Development, affectionately known by the PRO community as ‘JJ’, took to the stage to start proceedings and began by welcoming everyone to the event and thanked us for our time and commitment in travelling huge distances to attend. My journey from England had been a long one but others had flown in from further afield like Australia, New Zealand, South America, Asia and Europe.

Held bi-annually, these events are designed for PRO members to mastermind with the top seven figure earning industry leaders, receive the latest in cutting-edge marketing training, techniques and strategies and find out about the latest innovations.

It was to be at this event that we would witness the unveiling of the brand new PRO Elite program, specifically designed by Jay and the leaders collaborating to offer their additional help and support to PRO’s aspiring entrepreneurs as part of the companies’ mission to create 100 millionaires by 2012.  This new initiative will see leaders giving themselves selflessly to help every member of PRO on their own journey to financial freedom and success. Each PRO member would effectively, get to copy the experts with direct help from the expert leaders. What could be better than that? Helping others is an ethos that’s firmly embedded in the culture of CarbonCopyPRO and it’s a fundamental reason to their success.

Inspirational presentations from many of the industry superstars were given including Jay Kubassek, Alan Moore, JJ – John Jackson, Jeff Lerner, Anthony Busciglio, Frank Scott, Lena Bjorna, Sophia and Aaron Rashkin, Brian Parsley, Justin Woolf, Andrew Cass, Michael Force, Gregg Davidson and Dr Charlie Smithdeal.

During the breaks, we got to mingle, chat and have photos with the leaders. There was very much a community spirit amongst the 600 or so gathering and the top earners were more than happy to share their experiences over coffee and lunch. They seemed just like ordinary people, approachable, friendly and committed to helping the members.   To my astonishment and delight, I got to chat to Jay Kubassek, Michael Force, John Jackson and Lena Bjorna.  Those were special moments for sure.

Recent successful up and coming leaders in the PRO community were recognised for outstanding achievement including the team of six experts I’m working with called iGlobalPros. Earlier in 2011, PRO members Karen Newman from Canada, Aaron Chen from Malaysia, Dominik Mikula from Australia, Simon Guilliard from England, Jenni Ryan from Australia and Kameron George from Canada had partnered together to become a driving force to help other aspiring entrepreneurs and in doing so, had achieved accelerated levels of success and have subsequently been awarded Marketing Partner status in line with the leaders and top earners. They will now be instrumental in helping the new and less experienced PRO members on an accelerated program to success.

Following the event, a select group of around fifty PRO Elite members including myself, were invited to a private VIP reception with the leaders, where we were given champagne, cocktails and delicious food.  This was another great opportunity to share feedback, ask the leaders questions and take more photos. The atmosphere was amazing and it was obvious that everybody was excited to be a part of it. I actually thought to myself, am I dreaming this or is this real?  Rubbing shoulders with the top brass in this amazing company of entrepreneurs was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

The following day, the same group of PRO Elite members and I had the opportunity to have a more private, intimate and intensive four hour mastermind session with the leaders  on their marketing strategies. This gave us a huge insight into the reasons for their success giving us so much to take away and implement immediately in our own businesses.

It was the perfect end to what had been an incredible life changing event. Meeting people that I’d never met before and feeling like we’d been friends for ever and saying our goodbyes and all flying off in different directions was surreal. We none of us wanted it to end.  I know for sure that by making the journey to Phoenix and being there in person was of huge benefit to me. Far more so than by watching a video or listening to recordings.

Those moments when you meet true professionals face to face and learn from them directly makes such a lasting impact on you. Not least in inspiring you to be the best you can be and to aspire to be like them and to be able to pay it forward by making a difference to others, just like they do.  It’s taken me to a whole new level of determination to help others following in my footsteps.

So if you work from home in an online job, going to an event like this will change your life too.  It did for me.