Continued from part I

FINCON 18: The Recap from your friendly neighborhood Greenbacks Magnet (Pt. I)

FinCon: Day 2 (Thursday) 9/27

At 8 am, I get up and get ready to head down for breakfast with Gina.

We meet around 9:00 am.

I get an oatmeal which cost all of $3.50 and came with brown sugar and raisins. Please note that just yesterday breakfast cost over $20 bucks!

I’m a PF blogger and am frugal by nature. At times, I’m almost like a Quaker (they are plain-dressed and frugal by virtue).

I knew what I was having for breakfast for the rest of the trip.

Any who, we chatted for a while and along came Liz and Erin from dinner last night. I introduced them to Gina.

And just in case some of you out there were wondering, I met two scholarship winners at FinCon so it is very real and legitimate. They practice what they preach.

Liz said she remembered from dinner the other night that I wanted a picture with her and was kind enough to allow me to take a quick one with her before she darted off to her next workshop. Liz you rock!!!

After breakfast, I went to New Blog Strategies from Two Ancient Bloggers hosted by J.D. Roth (Get Rich Slowly) and Jim Wang (Wallet Hacker) around 1030 am.

Both gentlemen started blogs around 2005 or so and sold them for seven figures.

Here’s what I learned:

Build a blueprint for financial prosperity.

At one point, Jim Wang was putting out 20, 30, or 40 articles a day. Blogs used to be about volume, but now are more about quality. Personalize it. Make a connection. That is what keeps people hooked and coming back. Tell your story.

Pitch to people outside your niche. If you write an article about cars, see if Jalopnik will allow you to guest post it on their site or if advertisers will pay you to advertise their products.

Be selective about what programs you work with as they may not be a good fit. Network. It’s important.

Put your best work out front. Like in your About Page. It gets lost over time as you continue to write. Keep it up front.

Study how other people are monetizing their blogs. Take their courses and buy their books. See what they are doing and emulate it or put your own spin on it.

Practice the soft sell. Pitching. Like outside your niche. Offer something to others.

Hire out. Focus on your strengths. Delegate and hire out your weaknesses. Hire people. Build a team.

Build potential and then monetize. Pick partners that match your message. Prioritize big wins.  Think strategically as people can get paid to guest post.

Here are some notes:

• You could do 500 word posts and be ranked high on SEO in Google 10 years ago. Not today. Now you need 3,000 word posts
• Quality = excellence vs. Quantity = volume (choose quality)
• WordPress is good to use for blogs
• Start with a story
• Good quality class content
• Have a mission
• Social Media was not there in 2008 but here now so use it to get your message out there
• Be methodical and provide action steps
• Master one channel (podcast, blog, etc.) before opening another
• Use a personal approach to connect with people
• Use Newsletters and email lists
• Many bloggers don’t make it because they quit. DON’T QUIT
• Advertisers want your followers
• Build courses and eBooks
• Send shorter emails and very focused links
• Diversify (courses, books, speaking, and consulting)
• Do guest posts, reach new audience, showcase your best work

By noon, Michael and I met up and had lunch. We talked for a while. Thank you Michael for listening.

Then we went down to the EXPO.

We ran into so many people. I introduced him to all the new people I met and he introduced me to FinCon Founder, PT Money.

I also met J Money (Budgets are Sexy). He was super friendly. And Love the Mohawk!

After we hit up all the booths we wanted and walked away with free swag (I got 4 pens, 6 t-shirts, a journal, a selfie light and a few other items).

I also got a free drink ticket from Bloomly. (ticket number 1 of 5)

The rest of the evening I just went to go decompress. It was an exhausting day. But a great one!

FinCon: Day 3 (Friday) 9/28

I was drained. It took every ounce of strength I could muster to go to the 8 – 850 am workshop: Four Flavors of FIRE. I skipped breakfast as there was no time and rushed to get there.

Panel included Jillian Johnsrud (Montana Money Adventures), Carl Jensen (1500 Days), Physician on FIRE and Mr. Money Mustache. J.D Roth moderated.

Each discussed what they had done to FIRE.

They noticed that peers were spending all their money.

Jillian was on an Army Base and noticed a lot of new cars. She was like nope, not for me. You know how much each rank makes in the military. People walk around with their income on the uniforms.

She said many people working 9-to-5 are burned out and need a nap. Retirement also doesn’t fix your life. You have to decide what you want and reason you are doing what you do.

Have a money formula. Invest and save 25 times your income. That is your freedom number. For example, $40,000 x 25 = $ 1 million. That is the number you will need to retire.

FI (Financial Independence) is the goal and gives you permission to spend.

I asked one question and this would be the only question I asked at entire conference, which was to this panel.

I asked each panelists this: What was the catalyst that made them decide to FIRE?

Responses were:

1500 Days: At 37, I had a really bad day at work. My parents mismanaged money. I had nightmares of having no money, losing my job, and would wake up in a cold sweat. I decided I didn’t want that anymore.

Mr. Money Mustache: I worked a lot of minimum wage jobs (lots). I got a COOP for a $500 a week student engineer job. Thought this is pretty good money. Then surplus money when graduated and working as software engineer. Money started building up.

Then I asked myself this question: Would I do this for free? No.

No sense staying at a job that I don’t need the money for paid work anymore.

Physician on FIRE (POF): I was studying for a board exam. I was in my late 30’s. I would need to do this again in 10 years. I had been spending days at the library. I didn’t want to do this again in another 10 years. I didn’t want to study for another test. I wanted to spend time and do fun stuff with my family.

Montana Money Adventures: Slowly growing passive income with RE properties. Husband had a small military pension. Had to come up with a financial plan as too many responsibilities at home.

We grew our savings and had 3 sources of income: pension, investments, and rentals. 2 out of 3 enough to cover our bills. Didn’t need or want a 50-hour work week job. Did a 1-year experiment on mini retirement. And the rest is history.

After, this I was pretty wiped out.

I had to recharge.

So I did what any person visiting Florida would do. I went to Universal Studios. (I’ll tell you all about that in my next post)

How to navigate Universal Studios theme parks on a Budget and Like a Boss

Some notes:

• Purpose, passion, and philosophy. Write with meaning.
• You only need so much money. Once you have enough, you can decide to start giving it away to those in need.
• Goal is not to think about money, but to do more stuff. Have Freedom to choose.
• Use a 3% instead of 4% withdrawal rate for retirement.
• Amass wealth through RE (real estate) and stocks. When market goes down it’s the best time to buy. Stocks are on sale.
• Make sure spouse is on board with FI.
• Don’t ask spouse about money. Ask them about what they picture as their ideal life and their dreams such as traveling or other things they want.

PLUTUS Awards were also on Friday night. This is an award ceremony for excellence in blogging. There was also an after party.

Here is a tweet by Paulette Perhach of the winners

Congrats to all @PlutusAwards '18 winners, with a HUGE shoutout to the LADIES! 🥳 @LizOfficer @caitflanders @BrokeMillennial @half_banked @LifeZemplified @BitchesGetRich @HisandHerMoney @EmilyGuyBirken @picksuppennies @AffordAnything @our_nextlife @richandregular @TheBudgetnista https://t.co/qvQpb2L4jE

— WomensMoneyTalk (@WomensMoneyTalk) October 1, 2018

FinCon: Day 4 (Saturday) 9/29 The Last Day

The home stretch. Had a quick breakfast and went to see Grant from Millennial Money speak.

He was excellent. He was so passionate and shared his story with the audience.

I met him after the workshop and told him I really liked his speech. He was so humble and down to earth!

I also went to the house hacking workshop with Scott Trench and Mindy from Bigger Pockets, Chad Carson (Coach Carson) and Drew.

Scott said to make sure you have cash reserves. For every house he buys, he adds $10,000 in his reserves. Businesses need capital.

You can take out an expensive $1 million plus umbrella insurance policy to protect your assets.

Find people to help you such as real estate agents and create a formula for yourself to purchase new properties and manage them.

I also met Greg (Greg Chats Cash), Khaleef & Sherrian (Faithful with a Few), and so many others.

I learned about how to get booked and paid to speak and met Phylecia Jones from Keeping Up with Mrs. Jones. She also said people need to share what they know. So that is what I am doing here.

I also went to sessions by Chelsea Fagan (The Financial Diet), The Busy Budgeter, and Ellie Kay.

Then went to the close out keynote with Chris Hogan and several other speakers and finally the closing party.

I didn’t get back to my room until after midnight.

FinCon had come to an end.

With 2000 people at FinCon18, it was impossible to meet everyone, but I got as many cards or took as many photos of ID badges as I could.

And with over 100+ workshops it was impossible to go to every single one. Therefore, I would split them up and go to one session for 25 minutes and a second one for the last half.

I also took notes and took pictures of PowerPoint presentation slides that I wanted to review later. Since, I was unable to write down everything.

WHAT I DID WHEN I GOT HOME

• Organized all the business cards I got while there. At the end of every day, I would put all the business cards I had together and kept them together by date received. That is how I kept track of what I did and who I met when and where to write this post.
• I put the business cards in a portfolio binder so I can flip through them and look up all the people I met online.
• Created a FinCon Folder and placed every flyer, advertisement, receipt and ticket I purchased in it to keep it all in one place as place of reference.

Takeaways and Actions

• Take notes throughout the event
• Turn your blog into and think of it as a business
• Blogging is a long game. Don’t quit.
• Stand out
• Be unique. Tell a compelling story.
• Be yourself
• Create an avatar and write to them.
• Follow up with and reach out to people you want to work with

Thank you to everyone!!!

FinCon was incredible. I can’t wait until the next one.

I know this was a lot. Thank you for all those who stuck with me.

FinCon18 attendees, if you have any comments or feedback, please let me know. If we didn’t get a chance to meet, just reach out and let me know where can I find you online?

 I hope this post helps any future attendees out there. It has been my absolute pleasure to write this. Hope to see you next year at FinCon19.