Eric Siu and Neil Patel spoke at This Is Marketing conference in Frankfurt, which had 5,000 daily attendees. Neil initially planned to speak at three events monthly across three continents but scaled back to prioritize family time, arguing personal well-being matters more than incremental growth.
We're recording from Frankfurt, Germany right now. We just came back from our talk. We did it at This Is Marketing, which is a tremendous event. That was a 5,000-person event. It was actually 5,000 people there. It was a loaded audience. What are some key lessons we can call out? Like, what did we talk about there? Let's start with that. You go first and then I'll go.
So I'll start with the lesson that I learned from the conference organizer. Before we get into our own lessons, the first lesson is when you go to an event, of course, you're looking for the right audience. On top of that, you're looking for more people to attend. Most conferences, when they say they have 5,000 attendees, have— and if it's a 2-day event, they have 2,500 attendees per day, so they add it up to 5,000.
Fake news.
It's the same people over and over going to the event. So it's really in my eyes 2,500. But this event, they actually had 5,000 attendees per day. And I learned this from the organizer because they were breaking down a lot of the events Eric and I go to or know about and how they skew the numbers. I'm like, oh, this is really important for us to know as marketers. If you're going for networking or speaking or sponsorships, anything like that, you want to make sure you're going to events that have A real number, so you want to ask them how many people per day are going to the event versus what's the total number.
And by the way, Marcel and his wife Luisa, so they threw this conference and they've been growing this conference every year. Last year was actually 2,500 people. This year is 5,000 people concurrent at the event today. And I think what's also inspirational is that Marcel watched one of the biggest marketing conferences in the United States grow. And he's actually surpassed them in terms of size this year, right? And it just goes to show you that as long as you continue to focus on a thing, it will eventually compound. And all of a sudden he's like, oh my God, it's bigger than what inspired me to start this in the first place. And having a conversation too, he loves doing this event, but his main business is growing. And we did have the conversation about focus is what we've been talking about over and over. And even at dinner yesterday, we had a dinner and there's a 20-year-old kid, very smart kid, right? And he was asking, you know, what's, what's kind of the secret? Like, what do I need to know to be successful? And then we kind of all just said the same thing to him. Like, you guys focus on one thing and just do it for a very long time. And we're seeing the same thing play out here too. Yeah. Yep. All right. So I wanted to take a second to tell you about the Agency Owners Association. So this is an agency peer group ran by my podcast co-host, Neil Patel, and myself, Eric Siu. And these were 9 and 8-figure agency owners respectively. And what I will say is at the end of the day, you want to learn from people that have been there, done that. You want to grow your agency to 7 figures, 8 figures, and beyond, this is the group for you. And we bring in other agency owners to speak as well, and it's a great peer group where you can help each other out. And you're going to learn how to acquire more clients, you're going to learn how to take yourself out of the day-to-day and to build the business of your dreams. And the cool thing, till November 30th, we are holding a special price, and you can apply at marketingschool.io/agency. And the great thing about it as well, if you try to get into group, there's a 7-day free trial, right? So once November 30th hits, we're gonna increase the price by $200 per month. So right now you're getting it at the lowest price possible. So go to marketingschool.io/agency to learn more and we'll see you inside. You guys even do events yourself too, right?
We do events, although we're slowing down on the conferences and events for 2025.
That's my goal.
We should talk about that.
So interestingly enough, we did an episode maybe like a month ago or so. And Neil was like, you know, I think I'm gonna do 3 events a month and, you know, I'm gonna set a budget aside for it and let's just go, right? And then we had a conversation a couple of days ago. He's like, yeah, you know, I think I'm going to dial it back. So go ahead.
Yeah, I think events are amazing place to generate business. And I do think if I spoke at one event in EMEA, one event in North America or in Americas, and one event in APAC on a monthly basis, my business would grow much faster. But then I also look at family and how me traveling so much impacts family. And at the end of the day, I was like, is the extra money not worth not being home? And I'd rather not have the cash or the growth or the net worth than seeing my kids grow up.
Yeah, that is it for today. Again, from Frankfurt, Germany, this is Marketing School. Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, and go to marketingschool.io/agency if you wanna join the Agency Owners Association, and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
