AP 0638: What Are Your Favorite Live Events and Conferences?

AskPat 638 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 638 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions, five days a week.

We have a great question today from Jillian, but before we get to her question, I want to thank FreshBooks, today's sponsor because they're awesome. They're a company I've been using for such a long time to manage my books and another cool thing about them is they automate your expenses so you can connect your credit card, your business credit card to the software so that every time you charge for something, it's there already. That just is another step you don't have to worry about in the whole thing that you have to do for organizing your finances. Come tax season, I know it's June right now, by the time this episode comes out, but tax season, it always creeps up on us and it's so much better when you have software like this to help you manage things once it's time to finally get things in order and get your taxes done and all that stuff. So, do yourself a favor, get FreshBooks, for free for 30 days and check it out, try it out by going to FreshBooks.com/askpat and make sure you enter “Ask Pat” in the “how did you hear about us” section.

Alright, here's today's question from Jillian.

Jillian: Hey Pat, this is Jillian, this is now my third time trying to record a question for you so hopefully I get it right soon. I just started listening to your podcast, I called it a blog before, I'm sorry. I was wondering what are some of your favorite live conferences or networking events to attend? Either ones that were great for you in the past or ones that you're really excited about and looking forward to in the future. Thanks so much.

Pat Flynn: Hey Jillian, thank you so much for the question today. I love this because just as I record this, I've just gotten back from a conference that I spoke at. This was the Everything Food Conference. It was in Utah and it was out first one they put on. I want to give a big shout-out to the whole team who put that together, especially Kami, who was just so kind and really made sure that I was taken care of. I was their opening keynote speaker and that was a food blogger conference so if you're a food blogger, you definitely want to check that out. They're already selling tickets for next year. That's the everything food blogger conference. But, if you're not a food blogger, that one might not be the right one for you, might be too niche for you. There's still some great information in regards to marketing, social media, billing your email list, and great, just amazing people to network with. Anyways, that's the first one that came to mind cause it was the last one I spoke at.

But, another one that is great that I already spoke at too, that I attended every year since the beginning that it started is Social Media Marketing World. This one is put on by Michael Stelzner and the whole team over at Social Media Examiner, the worlds largest, sort of, magazine for social media. I love that event. It's huge. 2500 people. It was at the San Diego Convention Center. It's in San Diego every year. It's huge and it's the same place where they have Comic Con every year. And no, nobody was in cosplay, not this year at least at Social Media Marketing World. It was a great event and they talk about everything to social media to podcasting to business marketing email lists, automation, all that kinda stuff. So, you can check them out, I believe they're selling tickets for next year already if you go to socialmediaexaminer.com you'll find information about it. Again, that event is called Social Media Marketing World, the world's largest media event and that's for sure. I'm happy to say it's in my home town in San Diego.

Another event that's happening very soon, that I'm excited to speak at is Podcast Movement. I went last year, so thankful to have won a business podcast award there which is really cool and I got to do the opening keynote, which was a blast. Thank you everybody who had attended and who had left me comments about my presentation. It's up on YouTube, if you'll want to check it out. Anyways, Podcast Movement's fantastic, this year it's in Chicago and “PM16” is the hashtag, and I don't know why that came across my mind. But, you want to check it out. Podcast Movement. Just look that up in Google and you'll find the page and the page for 2016 which is happening in just a few days actually, so, if you're in and around the Chicago area, just check to see if there's tickets left and check that out. Jared and Dan, over there, put on a great show.

I am also excited about FinCon this year, the Financial Blogger Conference, which was actually, fun fact, the very first conference I every spoke at. In 2011, actually Chicago, quite interestingly enough. Now this one actually goes to different places every year and I went on the third year in St. Louis in 2013 and I think, or 2014. This year, 2016, it's gonna be in San Diego, all the great events are in San Diego. I forget that, when I live here that it is a destination city. So, San Diego, FinCon, happening September 22. Podcast Movement was July 6 to 8, FinCon, the Financial Blogger Conference, was September 22 or is September 22. Now, you might be like, oh, well financial blogging, I'm not a financial blogger or a personal financial person. Well it started out that way, it was a very tight group of people who I spoke to back in 2011 but since then its grown to, I want to say close to 1,000 people now every year that I've been. It's a lot more than just finance bloggers. The finance bloggers are great, it's centered around that but there's a lot of great conference speakers who show up and of course just the people, which for me is the most important thing when it comes to these events.

I take into account a number of things, when I'm asked to speak at an event. The first thing is the timing, does it actually fit into my schedule. If not, then there's no reason for me to go any deeper. Then, I look at what does it cost to get there and what are the fees. Do I get anything if I speak. What is being offered in exchange for me speaking there and I pitch them my feed and whatnot. You can all check out my speaking page, actually, if you want to get a list of some of my more upcoming events that are happening. Do go to smartpassiveincome.com/speaking. You can even get information about what kinds of presentations I talk about and that sort of thing. The other things I weigh beyond that are who's gonna be there. Who do I want to learn from but also who that I know is gonna be there. Or who do I want to speak to that's gonna be there. Those are all very important things.

Now, a few more events are, at least one more that comes to mind that I really enjoy, this is Smart Success Summit. This is with Chalene Johnson. Chalene has been on the Smart Passive Income Podcast before, she's amazing. She has, probably, I would say, besides my audience for SPI, Smart Passive Income, the most rabid fan base over there for her brand. That event is great. It is just so energetic and it is by far the most lively, energetic crowd I ever spoken in front of, about 1500 people. Mostly women, but some men, mostly in the fitness industry cause that's where Chalene comes from. She's there to level up your life to really build your drive and to just learn about how to run a business and that is a great event too. Again, that one happens, typically, in March or April. So that one just passed. Again, that's the Smart Success Summit with Chalene Johnson.

That's kind of all that comes to mind right now. I speak at various events over the year so just keep track of myself on Instagram. If you go to Instagram.com/patflynn or just look @ PatFlynn on your app. You can find me and you'll see any sort of notices or any videos or pictures of me at different conferences or when certain things are happening. And of course, if you go to smartpassincome.com/speaking I update that list of things that I speak at every time a new one is done. I add a new one on there and you'll see my calendar, it's gonna be changing and new iterations of the website. You might see a yearly calendar so you could see where I'm gonna be at all year. You might be able to follow me.

And, lastly, the last thing I want to say is that before FinCon, there's an event that I'm most likely gonna be putting on. I'm, sort of, in the planning process right now. It's gonna be called Flynn Con. F-L-Y-N-N Con. It'll be a half day event that I'll be putting on and you'll get more information about that soon. Just make sure you sign up to the email list, just go to smartpassincome.com and sign up at the bottom of the page there. You'll get more information about that, but you and I might be able to hang out at some point during that time, it will be in San Diego since FinCon is in San Diego. It'll be right before that.

So, thank you all for listening and Jillian thank you so much for the question, for you, if you are in a particular industry, I would also look toward what other conferences or gatherings or events are related to your industry that you could attend to. Those are very important because you want to know people in your space, get to know more about the industry, stay on the cutting edge of what's happening, and that's some I would also recommend doing too. So, thank you all so much, I appreciate it. Jillian, I want to send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here in the show. You can just head over to my . . . Actually you're gonna get an email from Jessica in a couple of weeks so that we can send you that t-shirt right to your doorstep. And for those of you who are listening if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show just head on over to AskPat.com. You can ask right there on that page.

I also want to thank again FreshBooks for being awesome, helping manage my business finances. And for those of you who do any invoicing if you have any students or if you are a coach or you do any consultation, they make invoicing super easy and professional. In less then 30 seconds, you can have a professional invoice sent for a bill that you have to send out to somebody and it's really easy for that person to pay you through that service as well. So, if you want to check out FreshBooks, for free, for 30 days, just go to freshbooks.com/askpat and don't forget to make sure you enter “Ask Pat” in the how did you hear about us section.

Thanks so much once again, and here's a quote to finish off the day by Socrates. He says, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.”

Cheers and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat.