Last Thursday I flew out to St. Louis to go to a financial blogging conference called FinCon. I have been blogging for almost four years now, however, I had never been to a blogging conference up to this point. I didn’t know what to expect, however, the next four days would blow my mind. Here are some of my highlights from FinCon 2013.
Ashley Jacobs’ rap parody of Thrift Shop was priceless
There is nothing like a well thought out rap parody, especially one that is flawlessly done to Macklemore’s Thrift Shop. Ashley Jacobs from Wisebread has mad rap skills and she did not miss a beat. I hope that someone uploads it to YouTube soon because it will be a great go-to video for inspiration on my own pursuit to be a rapper.
Image Credit: Carrie Smith from Careful Cents
Pat Flynn’s keynote about first impressions was a trip
Have you ever tripped and fell to the ground right before meeting someone for the first time? Well, that is exactly what Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income did in his presentation, however, he did it on purpose. Then, all of a sudden, he got up and went into re-wind mode like watching an old VHS tape that you would re-wind to go back to the beginning. His point: you don’t get a second chance at first impressions. I took several tips away from his presentation that I will be implementing over the next few weeks to make a better impression when people visit Well Kept Wallet for the first time.
Image Credit: Peter Anderson at Bible Money Matters
My first real speaking gig ever on SEO
I was humbled by the opportunity to have my very first speaking gig at FinCon 2013. I spoke on SEO 101: How to get to #1 in Google. This is kind of an oxymoron as it takes a little more than 101 level material to get to the top of the search results, but regardless the tips that I gave will help other financial bloggers increase their rankings in the search engines. If you missed the presentation, no worries, check out my SEO 101 page where I put notes from the session. You can also get the Virtual Pass to watch the video of my presentation as well as others from the conference. In addition, I will be sure to update the SEO 101 page as I come across additional search engine optimization tips since SEO standards seem to change on a monthly, if not weekly basis these days.
Image Credit: Steve of Money Plan SOS
A winner has been found for the best BBQ in St Louis
At the conference I connected with Joel Larsgaard from Save Outside the Box who was one a mission to find the best BBQ in St Louis. We went to three different BBQ joints and determining who was the best was a challenge because two of them were AMAZINGLY good. It was a toss up between Pappy’s and Bogart’s Smoke House, but as you can tell from the picture, Bogart’s got first place. It was a privilege to experience this BBQ journey with Jacob from I Heart Budgets, Mike from Renting Out Rooms, Mario from DebtBlag, and John (and the Mrs.) from Frugal Rules.
Derek Halpern’s keynote speech – “Quality not Quantity”
When Derek Halpern was talking I felt like he was speaking directly to me. He shared how there is such a rush for blogger to publish content on a regular basis that we sacrifice quality by pumping out quantity. Instead he encouraged us to make content that is so good that people WANT to share it. So if you know someone that can benefit from this post please share it with them 🙂
The Gateway Arch tour with Joel and Mike “I work at IBM” Choi
On the last day of FinCon, Joel, Mike and myself attempted to go up to the top of the Gateway Arch that is right next to the Mississippi river in St. Louis. When we got to the ticket booth, we realized that the time we were planning on going up was sold out and we all had flights to catch where it just didn’t make sense. We decided to just walk around and tour the museum. Who knew that the arch was twice the size of the Statue of Liberty?
I met an amazing group of like-minded people offline
Being a personal finance blogger I have engaged with hundreds of people online but very rarely do I get to meet these people in person. FinCon was a great opportunity to put a face to Twitter handles. In this pic we have Stephanie (Plutus Award winning blogger from The Empowered Dollar), Joel from Save Outside the box (Plutus Award nominee), and Ben from Money Smart Life who is about to change the self-publishing world with his new online project.
I also got a chance to meet Pat Flynn and tell him about how he helped inspire me to quit my 9-5 job to officially become an entrepreneur and run my own business full-time back in February of 2013. If it wasn’t for him, I probably would not have had the courage to go out on my own. If you haven’t had a chance to hear his story, check out his about page to see how he went from being laid off from an architecture firm to creating a very successful online business.
Lastly, I want to send a special shout out to PT Money and everyone else that made FinCon this year possible. It was evident how much work was put into pulling this off…THANK YOU!!!
If you went to FinCon 2013, What is your favorite highlight?
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I am jealous now, Deacon. I had my tickets and my bags packed, but got pulled away the last minute for a business trip. I was, and still am, a little pissed about it. I really wanted to meet up with everyone. I am glad it was awesome and I hope I can make it to the next one.
Oh man, that is such a bummer. It would have been great to finally meet you in person, but hopefully we can connect at FinCon next year!
I saw your name tag sitting there looking unused and got a little sad.
Thanks, Deacon! I’m glad you enjoyed my rap. Here’s a shout out to Kevin McKee from Thousandaire for all his help in making that rap possible. 🙂
Oh snap! I forgot to mention Kevin. He did do an awesome job as well!
Deacon, it was a pleasure to meet you at FINCON and to hear about some of the projects that you’re working on for the site, including the course. It’s inspiring to hear about what other folks are working on – and motivating to work even harder on my own ventures! I look forward to working with you in the future.
Oh, and one of my co-workers says Pappy’s is still the best – but I’ll have to reserve my opinion until I can visit those places next time!
It was great meeting you as well, Peter! Pappy’s was really good, but I think the customer service at Bogart’s put them over the top. Let’s stay in touch!
It was great meeting you in person this weekend. I had an absolute blast, and I’m probably going to sleep for a week to get my energy back. I even lost my voice and still haven’t totally gotten it back. It was the best party of the year for sure. I’m definitely going to keep in touch!
I know what you mean. I slept like 11 hours last night AND my voice is still recovering as well. I had such a great time, though, that it was worth it!
Thanks for the mention, Deacon – and that was some pretty good BBQ, wasn’t it? 🙂 I really enjoyed our time there as well, especially getting to put faces with those I’ve “met” online. The highlights for me, beyond the networking, were Pat’s talk and Jean Chatzky’s talk. I have quite the list of ideas now that I plan on implementing once I decompress.
Yeah, I have a lot of takeaways from this conference as well that it will take some time to process. By the way, did your VA write this comment or did you? 😉
Lol, no it was me. 🙂
It was truly a pleasure. I’ve still got the meat sweats…and it’s totally worth it.
It was a pleasure meeting you too. I agree – the food was definitely worth it!
It was so nice to meet you, kind sir! After you said goodbye on Sunday, I tried to hunt you down and introduce you to Jen!
It was nice to meet you as well. Oh, yeah Jen! That would have been awesome to connect with her. We’ll have to meet up at FinCon next year!
I’m sad that we didn’t hang out! FinCon was awesome and I can’t wait for future years. 🙂
That is such a bummer that we didn’t get a chance to hang out. You are like one of my biggest personal finance heroes! I do look forward to meeting up next year!
FinCon was awesome, but obviously not long enough since I missed out on meeting you face-to-face, Deacon.
I totally know what you mean. I feel like there were so many people that I didn’t get a chance to meet that I wanted to AND you were definitely one of them. Let’s make it a point to connect next year!
It looks like an amazing time. I’ve always been super impressed with Pat Flynn. It must have been really cool to meet him in person. I’m hoping I’ll make it to the next FinCon so I can finally meet all the people “behind” the blogs I read.
Hey, KK! Pat is an amazing presenter and he is definitely worth seeing live. I hope to meet you next year at FinCon!
That was your first time speaking? Because that was my favorite presentation of the weekend. I’ve got a long list of stuff I need to go fix , so thanks for the tips.
Thanks for the kind words. That was my first “real” speaking gig. I have spoken before in front of groups of people but never like at FinCon. Feel free to drop me a line any time if you have any questions about what I shared!
It’s hard to choose a favorite part of FinCon, I learned something from every single presentation — and definitely from yours. Thank you!
Thanks, Rebecca for attending my session. I am glad to hear that you got something out of it. I learned from the one’s I went to as well. Let me know if you ever have any questions as I would be glad to help!
I didn’t make it this year, but we were well represented. 🙂 I am sure the lessons will be trickling down. I followed the proceedings though on social media and Pat Flynn'[s keynote was certainly my best moment! The lessons were simple, yet powerful!
I couldn’t agree more, Simon!
Thanks for posting your notes. I’m not sure why I missed your talk. I heard it was great. I will sit down next week and sort out all the things I learned. It was a great experience.
Hi, Kim! Yeah, I feel the same way. I learned so much from FinCon that it will take me a while to process it all. Let me know if you have any SEO questions!
Hi, Deacon. It’s nice to meet you! I’m relatively new to the personal financial blogging community and just watched your interview from the FinCon conference. I also just subscribed to your podcast…after a quick preview, it sounds like you produce a good show.
I love to hear of people not letting their own fears get in the way of their success!
Cheers,
Ree
Hi Ree! Its nice to meet you as well. Thanks for watching my deal from FinCon and for subscribing to the podcast. If you ever need anything, feel free to drop me a line!