Last week was New Media Expo, three power-packed days worthy of the time and money for any blogger, podcaster or web video producer. If you weren’t there, I encourage you to go next year.
I could give you many reasons why, but you really only need one.
I could say to come for the world-class presenters, valuable case studies, access to industry leaders, Vegas buffets, cheap flights, bargain hotels or night-time thrills. All those are good reasons.
In the end, there’s really only one reason you need to attend New Media Expo.
The People
Your relationships with people in your market (both your audience and your colleagues) is one of the most important assets for your business. Investing in this asset regularly is critical in order for your business to continually grow and succeed.
Here’s why you want to be one of those people at New Media Expo next year.
1. Your Income is Directly Related to the People You Hang Out With
If you want to make money from your content and leave your mark on the world, you need to hang out with people who have already done that or are actively pursuing it.
This means finding new friends to associate with on a regular basis. While that *can* be done through Skype, Twitter, Facebook etc., there’s nothing like sharing a race on Go-Karts or a sword-swallowing evening (more on this below).
Those in-person connections build relationships. Businesses are built on relationships.
Without getting out to events, I would have never had my first book deal. I would have never met Jeremy. Internet Business Mastery would not exist!
2. Beat the Solopreneur Blues
It’s lonely at times sitting at home, staring at a computer screen and cranking out your content. Many of the people around you don’t understand this “strange little Internet thing” that you do.
But when you enter a in a room with over 500 people who have the same lofty goals and face the same challenges, a weight lifts off your shoulders. Your dreams and efforts are validated. You belong to a community that understands you.
This alone goes a long way to keeping overwhelm and discouragement at bay. Make sure you get regular doses of it.
3. You Can’t Do it Alone
Back when I was a recording musician, I had the delusion that I was an “island” as an artist. I was so amazingly creative that I could write the perfect lyrics, melody and hook all by myself.
Then I’d go to the studio with the idea that I knew all the best settings for the mixer, the best mics and the secret sauce processing to get the ultimate recording. This thinking held my art back for years.
It wasn’t until one of my mentors told me to get a producer that I finally humbled myself enough to get outside perspective.
You know what happened? The next CD was the best one I’d ever made…by a long shot.
Collaboration is key. Accountability is a must. Outside perspective will free you from your own blinders.
Whether you get it from partners, masterminds or mentors, one of the best ways to find the people you need on your team is attending live events.
4. Be a Catalyst for Change
Nowhere will you find such a concentration of passionate content creators than at New Media Expo. Each with a story worth telling, a fire inside to share their message and vast goals for making their mark on the world.
It’s exciting to think about all the potential energy for change that converges at one time in one place during NMX.
Imagine if each person at the event goes on to change the life of three people this year because of things they learned. Then imagine the impact each of those three people will have.
The effect is exponential. This is why I love working with entrepreneurs, specifically content-creating entrepreneurs. There’s no better place surround yourself with those kinds of game changers than at New Media Expo.
Big Takeaways
OK. I think you get the point. If you went to NMX and didn’t even attend a single session, it would still be worth your time. That’s not to say that there isn’t quality info in the presentations. There’s certainly no lack of tips and takeaways.
I make it a goal to come away from an event with just three big takeaways to put into action right away.
Here are my three takeaways from this year.
- The more prolific you are as a content creator, the faster your business and brand will grow.
- The two most important things you can do for your business are create (i.e. add value to the Internet with your content and perspective) and relate (i.e. spend time building key business relationships and earning fans one at a time.)
- If you want an easy way to create content, attract traffic and build a brand fast, do interviews. Take a look at what Jaime Tardy and John Dumas are doing.
A Summary of Our Presentation
Presentation (Thanks to Walt Ford for the Photo)
Our presentation was 5 Action Plans for Profiting from Your Blog, Podcast or Web TV Show. From the people standing up at the back of the packed room, it’s clear people want to know how to finally make money from their content.
So we broke it down and made it super simple with a five-step plan for making money from your content.
- Identify and audience with a pain that you can solve
- Embrace your story
- Build a relationship with your audience
- Choose a money model
- Outline the solution
In step four we shared five action guides (i.e. easy-to-follow recipes) for making money with your content in the next 60 days (no matter how big or small your audience is).
We’ll send an audio recording of the presentation out to our Academy members.
Highlight: Internet Business Mastery Meetup
Hands down our favorite part was hanging out with over thirty Internet Business Mastery listeners and students. We are so fortunate to have quality people following our podcast. We spent five hours chatting! I enjoyed every minute.
Our thanks go to Jared Easley for his help in planning it.
“Have you tried the rice pudding?”
Highlight: Go Karts at Pole Position
On the last day, a group of our business friends went to a nearby Go-Kart track. It was a blast. Business is just better after you’ve passed your colleagues up on the track and run them into the siderail (though, I’m not saying that happened To Jaime Tardy nor that Pat Flynn was at all involved :).
Here’s who was there…
Back Row (L-to-R): Roderick Russell, Jeremy Frandsen, Pat Flynn, Jaime Tardy, Todd Tressider, Andy Drish , Katherine Salt
Front Row (L-to-R): Elijah Young, Jason Van Orden, John Dumas
Photo Credit: Leslie Samuel
Highlight: Sword Swallowing
26-Inch Blade Down the Hatch
Apparently there are only fifty people in the world that know how to swallow a sword. Monday night we had the privilege of watching one of them, Roderick Russell, perform this amazing feet in a private suite.
Just as amazing were the mind reading and magic tricks he subjected us to. Most amazing of all is the fact that there are explanations based in reality for everything he did, skills that he has worked hard for years.
Highlight: Penn and Teller
Penn and Teller are masters of their art. I’m pretty hard to please when it comes to live shows, but I was thoroughly entertained by their brand of magic and comedy. I highly recommend it if you are in Vegas.
What Do You Think?
Were you at New Media Expo? What was your favorite part? Will you be there next year?
Any Go-Kart tips for me? I really need to redeem myself.
Voicemail Line: 877-877-7507
Wow awesome post! Looks like a fantastic event. Would have loved to catch your talk. Do you prepare you speeches differently from podcasts? What do you see as the difference?
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Jason Van Orden Reply:
Thank, Dan. Preparing a live presentation starts out as a similar outline to an episode of the show. The fact that we have done this together for seven years helps us to play off each other live when speaking.
We spend more time preparing when we speak live. Live we don’t have our outline in front of us. I don’t like using slides (at least not many of them and certainly not bullet points), so we run the presentation a few times to practice. We each had a few 3×5 cards in our hands with notes.
As I’m sure you have noticed, my energy is higher when I speak live and have the audience in front of me. It really taps into the performer in me. It feels a lot like when I played live with a band.
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Jeremy Frandsen Reply:
The not having the mind map outline in front of me was the hardest part for me, though I did enjoy going through the presentation multiple times as it helped us loosen up and get to more of the essence of what it is to play off of each other.
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Hey Jason — Great summary of NMX. It was nice finally meeting you at Pat’s buffet dinner. I totally agree with you – and I’m so glad I went to NMX this year. Often your family and friends at home don’t understand what you are trying to do, so there is real value in terms of both concrete idea-building and inspiration in gathering face-to-face with a group of hundreds who are trying to do something similar to you.
Hope to see you again in Portland at WDS in July.
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Jason Van Orden Reply:
Thanks, John. Nice to meet you as well. See you in Portland!
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Jeremy Frandsen Reply:
I agree John, I’m now really looking forward to events like this. The presenting was fun, but I most enjoyed the 5 hours hanging with awesome people at our meetup and the friendships growing with others that do this crazy thing we do! I can hardly wait till WDS, for those 2 reasons!
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I agree, my fav part is meeting people too it does mean now I can’t bare to miss one! I work on a little rock and find such inspiration and it helps my confidence knowing there are others who face similar challenges. Thanks for the mention and until next year, a bientot. Katherine
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Jason Van Orden Reply:
I hope we get more of a chance to chat next time. Hard to converse when you have the petal to the metal :).
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Katherine Salt Reply:
Ha true I am much better lent against the bar with a cheeky glass wine ;)
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It was great to meet you guys in Vegas. And yes – Go karting was tons of fun.
My only regret is that I missed out on the knife swallowing. I was kinda hungry too!
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Jeremy Frandsen Reply:
It was really nice meeting you! I wish we had more time to chat, maybe next event! Are you going to be at WDS?
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This pics are great. It was fantastic meeting you guys. I’m thankful for what I learned from your session. I look forward to hearing more from you and learning from your hungry audience approach.
Thank you for helping me to learn better how to help others.
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Jason Van Orden Reply:
Thanks, Monty. Did you get the guide and video we sent out yesterday for people that attended the presentation?
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Monty Campbell Reply:
Yes Sir, I did get the “Lifestyle Design Chart.” Yes I most certainly watched the video. I also have listened to every audio delivered via your e-mail (both your content and content referred from others). Love the information you provided and I’m taking it to heart.
Thanks again.
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Jeremy Frandsen Reply:
Thanks for the note! I was also wondering if you, or anyone, had go through the guide and video!
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Monty Campbell Reply:
First I am a huge Napoleon Hill fan. I appreciate your push toward a DMP. I love to of his quotes
“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” & “Action is the real measure of intelligence.” To me it helps show thinking is the part that matters.
I missed your 2013 Tactics to grow your business at the end of the January. Are you guys doing that again. Have a blessed day.
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Jeremy Frandsen Reply:
I’m glad you found it useful!
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I really enjoyed the Vegas expo, but unfortunately I was unable to meet you guys while I was there. I had to leave at noon the second day. I will watch your presentations as soon as the virtual replays come out. This year seemed a little more big business than the LA expo. I noticed a lot of new players and lack of some of the old ones. Internet business is constantly changing. Like you said this is a great place to meet people that share your passion for the internet lifestyle. I was able to meet many interesting people and learn a lot of new stuff. I would have loved to do the go-kart thing. I will try to meet you guys at the next expo. What other expos do you attend?
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Jason Van Orden Reply:
Hi Warren,
The next conference we will be at is Internet Prophets Live. We will be speaking there along with Pat Flynn, Brendon Burchard and many others. This is our first time to this event. We’ll see how it goes.
Then we will be at World Domination Summit in Portland in July. Lots of quality, passionate people attend this event. It is definitely not short on inspiration.
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Cool post a good reminder to me that I must get back to going to seminars to continue to learn but expand my network as well.
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Jeremy Frandsen Reply:
After a mastermind group, I think seminars/conferences are the next priority on meeting like-minded people!
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J & J,
Thanks for the recap and advice. Many good points. You’ve both had a big influence on my life (diving into a new career with stuff that lights me up). Easy? No… but, totally worth is and you’re expertise and perspective have made it so much quicker, funner, and purposeful. Again, thanks for the takeaways from NMX. See you there one day!
Tom
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Jeremy Frandsen Reply:
You are very welcome, Tom. I cannot wait to see you there next year!
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Thanks for sharing; looks like you enjoyed yourself, and that’s what life is all about.
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Jeremy Frandsen Reply:
Yeah, it was a great time! Are you coming next year?
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Blog world was great. Derek and I had never been to Vegas before so we made a vacation out of the conference. We didn’t get a chance to see Penn and Teller though. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to go back.
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Jeremy Frandsen Reply:
Penn and Teller were fun to see, for sure. I like to listen to Penn’s podcast from time to time as well.
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I was so glad I went to MNX. It was great to hang out with others who get what I do! I also met someone who lives close to me and we’ve decided to beat the solopreneuer blues by becoming accountability partners and meeting once a month. Finally, it was in your presentation where I got the courage to ask a question. As a result, someone in the audience connected with me and gave an a hew way to expand my business! Hope to see you next year!
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