Learning Soup - How I went to three business conferences in a week and what I thought of them
This month I’ve been immersed in conferences.
I didn’t mean it to be that way, but three opportunities
came up – and guess what! They were all in the same seven-day time frame.
I live in rural South Australia and it’s a two-hour drive to
Adelaide, where two of the conferences were being staged – the other was in the
Barossa, slightly closer to home. I’d always dreamt of being able to afford a
unit in the city which would allow us to stay over if we wanted to attend
concerts or other events. Lucky for us we have a daughter living in an outer
suburb and a son in the Barossa, so we can zip into the city, stay over and
take advantage of their location. So glad we have a wonderful family, who is
happy for me to drop in, sleep and leave!
Knowing I had accommodation sorted made the decision to attend
these learning events easier. I just had to organise my business schedule and make
sure my clients were still covered while I was off learning things.
The three conferences were each unique and entirely different
events – the first, a two-and-a-half day, women-focused, affair was the Artful
Business Conference, organised by the amazing Elle Roberts and her team. The
second was a free day of business tips by Dale Beaumont from Business Blueprint
– a slick presentation which included a sales element, and only had the one
speaker for the day – Dale Beaumont – who was excellent. The first SA Business
Conference delivered by the Gawler Business Development Group was the last of
my three events and featured a lot of industry information and trade stalls.
I can’t even remember how I found out about Artful, but it was
probably from Facebook, and I’m so glad I did. I booked in, making one of the
biggest investments I’d ever made in my business self – it was really great value
and well within my budget, but I simply wasn’t used to spending money on my own
business development and I have realised over the past week that this was
simply a mindset thing on my behalf, which I need to get over.
Artful has been running for several years and has been held
in different locations around Australia. I’m only sorry I only found out about
it for the first time this year. There was an amazing line-up of speakers,
everyone was so very friendly and supportive, and the business and mindset
takeaways were of such huge value it will take me a while to absorb everything
as I go back to my notes over and over again.
The first day was opened by Elle Roberts and I’m in awe of
this woman who has achieved so much and then taken her generous spirit to
develop and organise Artful with her fabulous team. It was a comfortable environment,
where we sat around tables and were able to meet several other attendees right
at the start and were easily able to write notes and have refreshments on hand.
Elle spoke about the Change we Want to See in the World and
how we can focus on our business and client outcomes while also having big
picture values to create a business we are proud of. She reminded us of the
importance of self-care and investing back into our businesses. Elle talked
about taking small steps, sustainability and resilience.
“If you haven’t made mistakes,
you’re not trying hard enough”
– Elle Roberts
Linda Reed Enever from ThoughtSpot PR made us consider
making Marketing Part of Our Day and shared her ideas of what we could do in five minutes to propel our business forward. Taking these small steps towards
bigger goals would get us there consistently and she gave us a great raft of
tips and tools to help us maintain momentum.
We had choices for the next session, and it was so hard to
decide where to go, but part of the Artful experience is that the sessions were
videoed and will be available to attendees later. Did I mention how well
organised everything was? I chose to listen to Jay Crisp Crow, Crisp Copy, on
the topic of Find Your Voice, Make Some Noise – and weaving our personal brand
into our business message.
You need to suspend belief –
believe in possibilities – Jay
Crisp Crow
One of the great takeaways I had from this session was ‘Once
you’ve written really great copy, no one can copy you” and your best USP (unique
selling point) is you!
What I couldn’t attend was a session by Linda Reed-Enever on
Optimising Your Facebook Profile and Page, which I’m looking forward to
catching up on, as those who attended said how much they had learned!
The Truth About Profit delivered by Laura Elkaslassy, CEO of
Profit First, was delivered after lunch and made us think about our income
goals and the need to know our breakeven points. One of the key takeaways was understanding
that we need to pay ourselves, to be clear about our mindset and be comfortable
about making money.
Profit with a Purpose –
be comfortable with making money – Laura Elkaslassy
Renee Hasseldine from Share Your Passion has developed a step by step signature
system which takes what you do and puts it into a way others can easily follow
using visual models, which boost your credibility in business and help create a
range of products to get your message across. The presentation was supplemented
by Renee’s book, which we all received in our conference packs, and is another
thing on my long list of strategies to work on.
Take what you know –
and turn it into pictures – Renee Hasseldine
Building a Magnetic Business Beyond the Online Space was presented by
Shannon Bush, who started her business in the days before the world of social
media, and talked about the many strategies which still work without the use of
the internet – snail mail, speaking to real humans, print media, networking and
word of mouth. We learned about the value of networking and follow up, and how
to manage life as a business entrepreneur and introvert as well as how to
survive the lure of shiny objects!
If you don’t ask –
the answer will always be no – Shannon Bush
The afternoon finished with a panel featuring Elle Roberts, Mikaela
Danvers, Stasha Washburn and Angela Henderson, who generously answered a raft
of questions from the audience.
Day 2 was equally amazing and filled with knowledge. It began with Kate
Toon urging us to be more Shark – Be a Shark or a Misfit but be You! Valuing
ourselves and our time and not comparing ourselves or our fees to others were
key takeaways. Kate said it was hard to take ourselves seriously without having
a defined workspace, and I agree – I had to move beyond the kitchen table and
into an office of my own, and the mere setting up of my business space made me
more confident!
Setting boundaries, creating rules for work times and setting up
templates and systems were part of our learnings, as well as many other great
tips, including overcoming self-limiting beliefs.
I am good enough – Angela
Henderson
We split up again, and this time had to choose one of three sessions –
again, another hard decision, and I picked Elle Roberts for a Business Brain
Dump and First Steps to Productivity and Organisation. Came away with plenty of
fresh ideas, including creating a ‘shit list’ of jobs with no deadline which
have gone into a notebook for tackling when I have free moments. Elle reminded
us that we need to make a mind shift to delegate and outsource and could start
with something as simple as getting a cleaner for a few hours a week to free us
to do work which gave us joy and income.
The other two choices, which I’m looking forward to viewing were Stasha
Washburn on how to integrate your feminine cycle into your quarterly plan so
you can show up in your business as the best version of yourself and look after
your body, and Laura Elkaslassy on money matters.
Morning tea was followed by another multiple choice – I chose Angela
Henderson’s Content Marketing Mastermind. We learned about the importance of
content and where to find it (everywhere) as well as tools to use to create and
distribute it. The other sessions were Using Video to Grow Your Personal Brand
by small business video marketing coach Jenny de Lacy and Your Story Matters by
book writing and marketing mentor Shilpa Agarwal.
Most recent studies have concluded that your customers are human
– Angela Henderson
Choices kicked off the afternoon sessions with Shannon Bush on Mindsets
and Marketing Styles, Renee Hasseldine on Own Your Zone and Mikaela Danvers on
Move Your Business to the Next Level. I chose Mikaela and again walked away
with some excellent information and strategies, which I’ll be working on and
putting into place.
Angela Henderson followed on How to Humanise Your Business with
Facebook Groups and Zero Paid Advertising – and again we were given huge value
in another excellent presentation, which was particularly relevant given
current changes in the wind with Facebook and an increasing emphasis for
businesses to operate within the Groups framework.
Another excellent panel on Sustainability, Profitability and Growth
with Elle Roberts, Kate Toon, Shannon Bush, Laura Elkaslassy and Linda
Reed-Enever completed the day.
Monday was an additional brainstorming and mastermind day, which was
again full of amazing takeaways.
My second foray into business conferences this month was with Dale
Beaumont from the Business Blueprint and his 52 ways tour, which came on Thursday.
This was a really long day but packed with great information. Dale generously
shared many tools and information (52 to be exact) on how to take our
businesses to the next level. This was a row seating affair, so it was hard to
take notes, and I found it quite tiring. I only got to speak to the two men to
the right of me (I chose to sit in the aisle) and used my tote bag as a table
on my knees so I could rest my notebook on it. As well as some great takeaways
there was the sales component where we were encouraged to sign up for the
Business Blueprint – and I know that this was a free event and needed to have
some kind of sales component, but I found it was a bit too salesy as the pitches
came often throughout the day. Still, I stuck it out, because the information
was excellent. Dale was the only speaker but was fluent and engaging.
The last conference was the day after, a paid event, organised by the
Gawler Business Development Group. I was able to do some excellent networking,
both at the table and in the breaks. A different style of event again, with an
entertaining keynote speaker – Justin Herald, managing director of Major Motivation
and creator of the Attitude brand. Justin could make a new career as a standup
comedian and spoke entertainingly for over an hour on how he started his
business and its growth. Interestingly, I found a YouTube video of him from
five years ago where he gave the same speech, pretty much word for word, when
he was a guest on stage with Dale Beaumont from the Business Blueprint!
Although Justin spoke for over an hour on how he grew his multi-million
dollar business without any advertising spend, I only wrote down a dozen words
in my notes, with the biggest takeaway being to trademark my business name, and
that customers buy from people they like (which I knew).
The remainder of the day featured an accountant, a solicitor (social
media law), technology issues (cybersecurity) and funding for entrepreneurs.
There were some trade stalls from government departments including the Taxation
Office, a bank and a real estate agent!
Out of all three conferences the one which will stay in my mind and
which gave me the most value was the Artful Business Conference. Filled with
excellent and qualified speakers who generously gave us information and
insights which everyone would have found helpful in moving their businesses
forward in one way or another.
I’ve booked myself into the Artful Retreat at Magnetic Island,
Queensland in 2020 and can’t wait! And with any luck will find myself at the
2021 Artful conference in Perth.
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