I am fresh back from the Underground Seminar 6, hosted by Yanik Silver in Washington DC. As usual, I have some observations from the event that I thought I’d share.
One might ask… “David, you’re a blogger. Why are you at an internet marketing event and not at SXSW where all the other bloggers are?”
The fast answer is because the two events conflicted and I had to make a choice. The slightly longer answer is that I made that choice because I realize what is important for business. I could be in Austin chugging beers, or I could be in Washington strategizing to expand my business and my brand. It is obvious which I chose.
I hope everybody at SXSW had a lot of fun. I’ve actually never been to that event and I know it is a big annual event for my industry. Perhaps I’ll make it in 2011.
What is Underground Seminar?
Simply put, it is an internet marketing conference. Yanik hosts it every year as a themed event. The theme always revolves around spying, and this year the theme was 007, James Bond. They had one hell of a set on the stage, too, to back it up. I’ve never been to any conference where the opening was full of music, fog and lasers. Yes, lasers.
This event isn’t cheap. I paid $2K to attend. The truth of the matter, though, is that this means only serious players bother coming. It weeds out people who aren’t serious, and that is reflected in the crowd. I haven’t hung out with such a brilliant, more successful group of folks in a long time.
Changing Face of Internet Marketing
I am detecting a definite sea shift in this field of internet marketing.
In my opinion, the words “internet marketing” have been tainted by those douchebags who are doing it all wrong. Obviously, there are always those who try to pull a fast one for a quick buck. They’ll try to manipulate people into buying shit, and it has created a bad taste in the mouth of some with regard to internet marketing.
Things are changing. 2009 saw some major regulatory changes with the FTC rule changes and then Visa/MC cracking down on shady marketing practices. A lot of the dishonest marketers are falling away.
At the same time, many of the traditional “gurus” of internet marketing are shifting their emphasis. Frank Kern has gone more into the background role of helping clients orchestrate huge launches. He still does launches (as seen with the recent List Control launch), but not as much. John Reese and Mike Filsaime are both shifting into the software market, so my understanding is they’ll be working on software services as opposed to the usual “make money” stuff.
As I noticed at Underground, there is a very definite vibe toward both personal development as well as philanthropy. I’m seeing a lot more emphasis on being better people, on helping the world and giving back. We’re talking about a very real balance between successful business, fun, and giving back.
All in all, these are some of the best, most brilliant people I’ve hung out with in a long time. What it also shows me is that it is MINDSET which is most important to success.
There is nothing better than surrounding yourself with smart, successful, driven people who also like to have fun and give back to the world.
This is what is so great about conferences. And why I bother to hop on planes and travel to these things.
Thoughts on Attending Conferences
My guess is that many in my audience look at this and think something like “Must be nice to be able to attend a conference.” As if it is just luck on my part that I was fortunate to be able to make it.
No, it was just a decision.
In my opinion, people who say they’re going to have to wait to attend conferences like this until they can afford it are making a mistake. You’re saying that you’ll stay in the trap until the trap lets you out. Well, it won’t happen. Not unless you make it happen. You’ve got to open the door to that trap, walk outside, then look back at the cage and realize what a load of bullshit it was. Surround yourself with people who are doing what you want to accomplish.
It makes all the difference.
Perhaps a $2K conference like Underground is too much for you. Well, try to make it to BlogWorld in October perhaps. There are great people at that event as well.
Some High-Level Take-Away’s From Underground
As I wrap up this post, I thought I would leave you with some avenues of focus that I took away from this event. These are things I’ll be working on.
- More Outsourcing. I’m realizing more and more what a bottleneck I’m allowing myself to be. Sure, I’ve got people working for me, but I should not only utilize them more, but bring on new people with skills that I don’t have. One of the speakers described his own 95/5 rule. In other words, pick the 5% of tasks that you’re good at and do those, then hire people to do the other 95%. It is a sound principle. One of the most common things among the most successful people at Underground was the efficient use of others as well as attracting the right people to work with.
- I’m going to be doing more webinars. More on this later.
- Live a more balanced life. I was really happy to see such a strong emphasis at this conference of life balance. I was inspired not only to purposely inject more non-work stuff into my life, but also to find more ways to give back. Life is not about the big bank accounts. It is about constant giving, constant personal growth, and keeping focus on what really matters. Underground served as a good reminder for me on this, and I think it also hit me at a good moment seeing as I just had my second child a few weeks ago.
- We’re all in the customer service business. This was a message from Gary Vaynerchuk and one I’ve heard him make before. Sell things to your audience, and treat your customers like gold.
I have a bunch of notes on various marketing strategies and resources, but that’s all much more than will fit in a blog post.
Overall, great event. And, yes, I do plan to attend again next year.
Bloggers, if you are serious about living the internet lifestyle, then you need to branch out. This business means nothing if you only focus on blogging and social media. If you can’t utilize those things for selling, you’ll be broke. So, I think bloggers should attend both social media conferences, but also marketing conferences. I saw very few bloggers at Underground, and I hope to see more next year.
The information is out there. Lots of people are showing the way (including me, quite frankly). It serves you no good to look the other way just because it might be offered on a long-form sales letter. Those kinds of knee-jerk reactions can rob you of some golden opportunities.
And those are my thoughts.
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