I attended the Landmark forum this past weekend and was amazed of how perfectly they engineered virality into their concept, specially given that everything takes place offline. For those unfamiliar with it, the basic facts are that it’s a personal development and coaching course that runs over three days in London, and also in many other countries. You’re in a room with around 130 others and a forum leader. The idea is that only rich people can afford the best coaches since they cost about £400-£500 per hour. But if you share a coach of that quality with others then you can afford it yourself.

The Landmark forum and its sharing mechanism is the most brilliant form of offline growth engineering I have ever seen. The viral aspect is that participants get most out of it if they share their experience with others. If a participant realises he’s been a jerk to someone, that’s great, but only apologising will allow people to get a true breakthrough (Landmark lingo) and grow personally as it requires courage to pick up the phone.

Another aspect of sharing is that it helps to break the vicious cycle of people blaming each other. Even if a fight wasn’t someone’s fault, by apologising to the other person one can break that cycle and give the other person the chance to apologise as well. The Landmark coach always encourages participants to call people during the breaks or in the evening to apologise or share breakthroughs and realisations with others. Guess what those people will ask: “How come you apologise now?” Response: “You know, I've been to this event, and …” That’s where virality comes into play.

Why Do People Share? The Science & Psychology Behind Viral Content by Aimee Joseph

Below I'm applying the 6 steps for creating viral content or STEPPS[E], a concept carved out by Jonah Berger the author of ‘Contagious’, to sharing experiences at the Landmark forum:

Social Currency — This relates to our inner narcissist and gratification. What will make us look good?

Calling someone apologising for being a bit of a jerk earns tremendous respect in their eyes. By sharing that you have been scared for years of bringing this up and by apologising sincerely (and meaning it) you grow as a person.

Triggers – These are stimuli that help prompt people to take action. Why are they doing it?

The trigger here is your desire to put that argument to rest and seek a better relationship. These triggers must be extremely powerful as calling someone you haven’t spoken with for years and apologising for things you have done in the past requires a lot of balls.

Emotion – This is relates to appealing to an audience’s emotion. Why should we care?

Oh boy believe me, this is extremely emotional. Many people cried at the forum. Not much more to add here.

Public – This is about conformity. Are other people doing it?

129 other people in the room are doing it — or are supposed to call their friends and colleagues to put an argument to rest. However, not many people outside of Landmark do it. That’s why many people think it’s a cult. It’s just a perfectly engineered viral loop and people inside the loop experience conformity.

Practical Value – This is how valuable it is. Will it help others?

The sharing of experiences is very practical as your family starts talking again and enjoying time together. Professionally, resting arguments with business partners leads to a much better relationship at work which directly translates into improved organisational success.

Stories – This is about storytelling. Does it have an interesting narrative?

The story usually goes like this: “Remember I told you that my boss sent me away to this management offsite … you probably think I’m nuts, but the truth is I voluntarily signed up for a course about self-expression and integrity. There I came to the realisation that I’ve been a bit of a jerk all these years… “ — it can’t get any better

I’m adding one more step:

Ease of use — This relates to the simplicity. How easy is it to share the content?

The coach encourages the participants to call and mentions that there are phones available in the Landmark event space that participants can use for calls within the UK. International calling cards can be purchased at a corner store.

The Landmark forum is an amazing piece of growth engineering. Nothing is a coincidence. The chairs are set up before the course using a measuring tape to ensure perfect alignment. Name tags are collected and given back after each break allowing to keep track exactly of who drops out when. This allows to tweak each section of the course based on hard data collected. 2.2 million people have already attended it and the course content went through many iterations. Each time the viral sharing mechanism was perfected. From a business point of view, Landmark standardises and optimises life coaching the same way Henry Ford standardised how cars were made. They have honed the script for decades and know what works in the business of “helping you to be a better person”. They lower the cost of each individual work unit and therefore make coaching accessible to the broad market as hardly anyone can afford a personal coach.

There is an information session and graduation party on Tuesday evening following the weekend. The coach encourages everyone to bring friends and family along to share the participants’ success and to see their transformation. I personally didn’t have any new realisations but it was nice seeing everyone again. It is a joyful atmosphere further reinforcing the group’s cohesiveness. As to virality, participants can see other participants bringing their friends along and hearing about their reactions. This encourages them to invite their own friends. This last session fully concludes Landmark’s viral loop.

The outcome is a truly unique offline version of a viral loop. As with every growth hack, PR comes for free and outbound sales is hardly needed. Landmark got covered in London’s Mayfair magazine in April. Landmark states to have no outbound sales team except for the corporate courses. My guess is that the cost of the forum would be significantly higher if Landmark would have a dedicated commission based sales force.

Many online reviews claim Landmark is a scam. That would imply that participants get nothing for their money, when in fact they get valuable life coaching. It’s also not a pyramid scheme since participants don’t get any monetary reward if people they refer sign up. Another complaint is that Landmark is a for profit company that uses shady techniques to trick people into giving them money. It’s not shady, it’s called growth hacking and is done by many successful companies. Landmark being in the coaching business just makes it much more emotional and polarising.

Anyone interested in growth hacking should attend a forum not just to get coached but to learn from the best and find out what makes adults cry in front of 100+ people and share their deepest emotions. You’ll learn a lot about growth hacking, human behaviour and your very own self. Scary? Yes, but only people who go beyond their comfort zone can grow. The only thing you need to keep in mind there is to be open and coachable.