It is officially conference season. There seem to be a new and amazing conference being raved about and shared with me almost every single day. I love conferences for the following reasons:
- You get to connect with like-minded people
- Conferences provide an opportunity to showcase and highlight your expertise
- All of the amazing resources!!
- The potential to travel to cool new places.
- The crazy energy boost when you attend a conference. If a conference is done really well, most attendees leave PUMPED UP!
Conferences are wonderful…until they aren’t. And, increasingly this year I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting a bit irritated with each trip because I’ve realized something extremely important:
Conferences are wonderful until they get in the way of
implementing what you’ve learned!
Think about it, everytime you plan any kind of trip there is the pre-trip planning and excitement, then you’re actually taking your trip, and then finally, you return home. I’ve actually noticed that for every week that I’m gone I need a week to recover physically, etc. I also need time to absorb all of the new information that I’ve learned and the energy to connect with the people that I would like to connect with from the event.
2018…
At this point, I’m very reluctant to attend any conferences in 2018 unless I’ve hit my business focused goals for the next 12 months. And, I only plan on going to 2 conferences: FinCon and Podcast Movement. The only other conference I would be interested in attending is Social Media Marketing World (great content and it’s in San Diego).
Reasons Why You May Need to Reconsider Going to Your
Next Conference
Related Post: Figuring Out My Conference ROI–
Was FinCon17 Worth It?
- They are expensive-Conferences seem to average a minimum of $1000. I’m pretty good at keeping my costs low and working hard to at least connect with paying opportunities to have a good return on investment (ROI)
- Ticket/Pass
- Plane
- Food
- Fun
- Lost productivity
- Not all conferences are created equal-Some conferences are so well run you know that you’re going to get back more than you paid for in terms of : networking, paid opportunities, and knowledge. Other conferences have wonderful people but may not have enough content to prioritize going.
- Time-You’re away from home and the potential to lose focus on your business is a very real issue.
- You may lose focus on previously set goals-Conferences introduce new and amazing ways to approach your business. The problem is…if you haven’t met previously set goals..introducing new ideas may keep you from moving forward and achieving successful outcomes. Basically, SQUIRREL!!
- Comparison is the thief of joy-I try not to compare my business model to anyone else’s…but, it’s hard not to begin to wonder why you’re not achieving the same successful outcomes that other people are achieving…especially if they started their business around the time that you did.
Being Intentional
Moves the needle forward with whatever projects you choose to work on. My current disinterest in attending conferences also has everything to do with moving forward with my business. It’s not enough to set an intention anymore, focused sustained action is the other part of growing a business.
I literally have no desire to do anything other than spend the next 12 months really working on my business. I don’t want to travel, I just want to stay at home and focus-so that I can get things done! With the exception of visiting my Grandma and FinCon, I’m basically done with conferences and travel for the next 9-12 months.
My goal is to focus on a couple of areas in my business, then once I’ve mastered them, move on to the next area of my business. I’m very fortunate to have a number of people in my life who have achieved quite a bit of success online and all of them have done the following:
Set an intention, focused on deliberate action, had measurable outcomes,
worked like ninjas
Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m actually quite excited about this! Staying at home just means that you will see a ton of shots of me enjoying Colorado and snowboarding.
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