Right now, I wish I were back in San Diego right now for the Traffic & Conversion Summit. Something about being in a room full of like minded people was motivating as hell for me.
Me at the conference!
Four of us from our company went out there to try and capture new top sellers (as our target market is essentially affiliate marketers and digital marketers). But besides speaking with attendees to try and capture leads, we also learned a lot from attending the seminars. And I wanted to discuss a few points that I took away from the event.
Traffic & Conversion Summit 2016
Things I learned from the Traffic & Conversion Summit 2016
1. There is no excuse NOT to succeed.
Though I’d have to say that most of the crowd were white males in their 30’s to 50’s, I noticed there were plenty of females and young people in their 20’s. I met more business owners in that week than I had in my whole life, and a handful of them were in my demographic. I tend to think that I’m an anomaly wanting freedom, entrepreneurship, and location independence. And being this anomaly doesn’t sit well with the rest of the world. Especially as a female, I feel like even my parents ingrain in me that I need to focus on getting married with someone good and smart. Sometimes my mom even tells me “you don’t need to be that successful”. When the whole world is telling me to be dependent rather than independent, and I’m around all these people who follow the norm, I forget there are a select group who DO think like me, who’ve achieved amazing things I would have only dreamed of.
Being at a conference with 4,000 of these people was ridiculously motivational. If I really think I’m an anomaly, it means I think I’m special. It means I think I’m meant for something more. I have to believe. And I can’t slow down even when people around me tell me to. I can’t stop because I think the dream is difficult. I can’t just give in to what I normally see around me – because there are plenty of people my age, my gender, who ARE achieving the dream.
2. Hustle. Hard.
Now to get to where these successful people are, I need to hustle. Gary Vaynerchuk’s speech motivated me cause of his anecdotes about how he worked from 7 AM to 10 PM Monday to Sunday while his friends would party their time away. People tell me to slow down saying I’m probably pushing myself too hard and doing too many things at once. But fuck it, if I want to get to where I need to be, I’ve got to put in those extra hours even when I’m tired. And I need to believe that’s the right way to go.
3. Networking by providing value with no expectations.
I think I’m going to create a whole other post on networking later. I’m starting to learn more about how to approach people and develop great connections. In the past, I used to fangirl a lot. I would meet people in the music space and glorify and say ridiculous things to them. I know. Embarrassing. What could have been budding relationships were severed through my actions.
At one of the opening ceremonies, Ryan Deiss touched on how to reach out to influencers. He said to just build a relationship, ask for nothing, and provide value when you can. Stay patient. I think the patience part is key. You don’t need to attain anything from that one point of contact. You just need to be a friend and offer anything if you can without anything in return. I’m still not that great at networking, but (I hope) I’m improving.
Me, my associate, & some cool dudes we met
4. Marketing funnels.
Marketing is not about one hit wonder campaigns. Make sure you’re creating numerous campaigns and understanding where your users go each step of the way. One of the main ones is having the consumer go through valuable content, retargeting, and a lead magnet. Promo and upsell funnels are crucial as well, after the consumer has purchased a product.
5. The importance of content.
The entire conference emphasized content and branding. At a point in my marketing career I started veering towards direct response and disregarding content. But now, I realize the importance of having both go hand in hand.
Besides those takeaways, here are some more pictures of things that happened in the conference. Daymond John made a surprise visit/book signing out at T&C! I literally ordered the book twice already – once during presale and another time as a gift to my friend. I decided I NEEDED to meet him so I bought another one (because it was required for entry). I was kind of sad to find he wasn’t completely enthusiastic and that he couldn’t answer my question about how to get your music out there in the industry. But I realize he’s probably been to book signing after book signing so he must have been super tired.
Speaking of books, I took a picture of all the books they were selling in case you wanted some new books to read:
During the last night, my associate and I got to attend the VIP dinner where Benji Bruce performed an amazingly entertaining show.
T&C was amazing, and I hope that I’ll have the chance to go again soon…perhaps when I become a true entrepreneur and digital nomad?
