Reflections from the Conference
I had the best time at the conference! The only way to describe it is like being on Twitter… but live! A live Twitter event. Every time I turned around there was another totally amazing person to talk to. I said ”Oh My Gosh! Hi!” about 50 times a day. My cheeks are actually sore from smiling. I’m still smiling!
Oddly enough, being at a blogging conference actually helped motivate me to move away from focusing on the blog. Isn’t that weird? I think the reason is because every single person there is an entrepreneur. Every blogger is an entrepreneur. We seek to create. And while spending time creating a blog is wonderful and a lot of fun, and it can be also be extremely profitable, it’s not what I originally set out to do. I set out to help people, one on one, with their money. This conference let me know that I’ve gotten a bit off track.
A lot of the presentations and conversations that I participated in were about passion. Passion not just for blog building but passion in living our lives by our own rules. I talked to person after person who is out there living a life they designed. Not a life they fell into, but a life they built with purpose! How can you be in a room of people with that kind of spirit and not walk away full of plans and motivation? You can’t! I’ve already started the ball rolling on some projects outside of the blog.
Another thing that was interesting was to have a bunch of frugal, money minded, people all in one place. Normally I have to kind of hide my frugality, but not at this conference! No way! Asking someone I just met to split a dessert with me because I didn’t want to spend $6 on a slice of cheesecake, done! Packing 5 people into a coupe to save on cab fare, check! Putting cookies into my purse for later, embarrassingly yes!
I’m also sure that the hotel bar didn’t sell quite as many drinks to a group of 280 young party animals as they expected. This group is too frugal for that kind of shenanigans. I’ll probably write more about some of my thoughts about this frugal group later.
I don’t feel I did the conference justice in my description, which is one reason this post is a little late. The conference blew my mind! I’m still picking up the pieces. I can barely form a thought at the moment. All I can really say is THANK YOU! If you had a hand in organizing the conference THANK YOU! If you presented at the conference THANK YOU! If you spoke to me THANK YOU.
Ashley
Hi, I'm primary author and founder of Money Talks. My passion in life is to help you make the most of your money. If you enjoy this site I encourage you to sign up for our newsletter.
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Comments
I’m sure the hotel made plenty of money off the drink tickets we got free, so thank you to the sponsors for that!
I was actually surprised that less people than I thought hoped to earn money from their blog or take it full-time. I admire that your #1 goal isn’t to build an extremely profitable blog, but why not have both a business and help people? I think 3 of the most successful bloggers there (Baker, Ramit, and Pat Flynn) all help people a TON and make a great living, too. Obviously, Dave Ramsey doesn’t do so badly, either. Just something to think about 
Jeff: Oh yeah, I didn’t mean that I don’t want the blog to make money, or anything like that. And you can certainly help people with a blog. I think I have too many commas in that sentence “I want to help people one on one with their money.” The one on one part I can’t really do online. That’s all I meant. I was getting away from the one on one help because the blog is so time consuming.
It was definitely an inspiring weekend. Great meeting you, and everyone. I’m excited to see how we all grow over the next year.
Thanks fo rthe recap. Whether you earn money or not, this is an entrepreneural venture. You are developing a brand and you have an audience.
I smiled at your frugality reflections….splitting cheesecake (I was there!), 5 people in a coupe to save cab fare (Vonnie’s feet extending into the front seat of the car! I never gave a second thought to these things going on at a financial blogger conference – it just seems “natural” for people of our type, doesn’t it?
I think next year there should be a contest for the “most creative way money was saved” at the conference.
Sounds like a wonderful time. Basking in frugalness and getting inspired. I am going next year. See ya there!