Blog Post 001 and the Ecom Millionaire Conference Event
Childhood friends, business partners, or two guys who look like they're ready to dance? You tell me.
What’s up, everyone? This is exciting as it’s my first blog post! This past weekend, Richard and I were invited to speak at the Ecom Millionaire conference at the Hyatt Regency in Miami, FL. It was good to finally be back home and especially exciting because this was my first in-person presentation! I can’t thank Gabriel from the Ecom Millionaire enough for the invitation. Not only were Richard and I able to share our expertise on Google Ads, but I learned a lot too.
If you guys haven’t been to an ecom conference yet, I highly recommend it. It’s all about taking opportunities when they come and making the most of it. Not only are there valuable presentations for you to learn from (you may think you know everything or that the information is available elsewhere, but there’s always room to learn!), the Q&As are personalized and the people you meet and connections you make are priceless. Gabriel kicked us off with a live performance of his band and then the weekend was followed by speaker after speaker sharing insights on optimizing email strategies, product research, how to style ads, and more! Most importantly though, there were a LOT of networking opportunities. I met people in real estate, blockchain, celebrity endorsement,...the list goes on, and I even met students of mine and Richards in person who are in our Ecom Profit Masterclass course who we’ve only ever talked to through Facebook (that really meant a lot!). We even met a couple of 15 year olds who were making $200k a month. Wtf?!? I’m pretty sure I was still trying to lose my baby fat and just playing video games when I was that age. The event photographer even got some photos and video footage of our presentation and offered to make a promo video for us! Going to these conferences and masterminds are actually really important if you want to further your growth in the industry and I highly suggest you guys take the opportunity to go if you ever get invited - it’s well worth the money and time.
What the conference room looked like during our presentation
That being said, the entire weekend was exhausting. I don’t think I got more than 4 hours of sleep a night and I didn’t even end up going out at night and regrettably didn’t have enough time to spend with my family or friends. But our presentation went really well and I think we got a lot of audience engagement and answered a ton of questions. At first glance, we asked the audience who was using both Facebook and Google ads and I think only 3-4 hands went up. Hopefully that will change now that we’ve kind of gone over the introduction of Google Ads and our “Cash Machine” model. There was continued interest in our use of Virtual Assistants (VA’s) - so much so that Richard and I are discussing ways we can better compile and explain our relationship with our VA’s and what they do for our business - be on the lookout for more information on that! We showed one of our winning products in person and actually gave a handful of them out to audience members who showed active participation. We were only allotted an hour to talk and I think we went over that by a hefty amount - whoops! But everyone was so engaged and had a ton of questions we were happy to answer. A huge thank you to those who came.
If you guys do plan on attending conferences in the future, here are some tips to help you get the most out of the experience:
DRESS THE PART. Listen, I don’t really find myself caring all too much what people are wearing or what they look like, but when you’re trying to network with people, at least look presentable! No need for a suit or tie, but for guys, maybe dark jeans, a tshirt, and a sports jacket. Or just dark jeans and a button down. For ladies, pants and a blouse or a casual (but not too casual) dress with comfortable shoes. I would probably advise going against shorts or sweats or hoodies, but do what makes you feel comfortable and like yourself. What you wear should provide what kind of vibe you want to give off to complete strangers you might want to do business with in the future. If you normally don’t wear full blown suits, then don’t wear a suit. I basically wear gym clothes on a regular basis, but for this type of event, I didn’t want people to even possibly refer to me as the “guy in gym shorts”. That being said, whatever you decide to wear, make sure if fits and works for you. We all notice if a suit is too loose or pants are too long. Do some planning and take the time to make sure everything looks good.
MAKE BUSINESS CARDS. It’s better to be safe and have then handy than being asked if you have a business card and not having one. In addition, your business card, like how you dress, is something you can control. You are in control of how people look at you and your business card can send off the type of vibe you want people to know. Funny story - my girlfriend actually suggested I make business cards for the event but I kept pushing it off thinking it wasn’t really necessary. We weren’t speaking until the second day of the conference and thankfully, too, because we noticed that after every presenter on the first day, people went up to exchange contact information. A huge shout out to my girlfriend for designing our business cards the night before our presentation and another huge shout out to Staples for having same-day pick up.
DO YOUR RESEARCH. Before you leave for the conference, ask yourself what things you want to learn (have a list of well-formulated questions you want to ask presenters) and what you want to get out of attending. Also ask yourself what things YOU can offer. More often than not, nothing is for free. If you want to make business connections, it’s more advantageous for you to know exactly what you can offer. After you know what you can offer and what skills make you unique, think about how to pitch yourself. Richard and I have a ton of new project ideas from this conference because we didn’t realize how diverse the ecom community is. We’ve been interested in getting involved with real estate for awhile now and met a real estate guy this past weekend who’s interested in getting more involved with Google Ads and Shopify. We’re now planning on visiting him in Maryland in the upcoming weeks to exchange our expertise. Know what you can offer and know what you want and make it happen.
PLAN TO STAY LONGER. Believe it or not, you’ll be exhausted at the end of conferences and there are usually post-dinners or happy hours that you can attend that might not have been on the itinerary. Or this might also be a good time to get drinks or dinner with your newly made connections if they don’t have plans already! Plan to stay longer. I’d also suggest that if it’s your first time in whatever city the event takes place in, that you plan some time before or after the conference to enjoy yourself and sight see. There were far too many people in the conference who had never been to Miami and it wasn’t like we were there to go to the beach all day! I would definitely recommend taking advantage of being in a new city and take a couple more days off to explore.
A huge thank you to Gabriel from the Ecom Millionaire for inviting us to present!
Do you guys have any more conference tips? Let me know and share your thoughts in the comments! All in all, this weekend was a blast and was a good dose of inspiration. I’m so grateful for these opportunities and for everyone who I was able to meet! I’m really excited for what the future holds!