MBA1264 5 Takeaways From MicroConf 2019

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But honestly a lot of other types of businesses are attending this conference now because it's so, so good. This is the first time I've attended microconf. I've heard so much about it. It's the 19th microconf actually and I had the honor and really the pleasure to be invited to speak at microconf. But I attended all the sessions there which is a rarity for anybody at any conference. And I spent every moment I could with the other attendees because it was that good. And I want to share with you the five biggest takeaways I got from this conference. Some of the takeaways are from the people I've met through small conversations between L or what they call the hallway track. Some of them are from the actual speeches that I attended. Some of them are just from the perspectives I've gained by being in that space. I took down more notes than I can remember in this conference, but I wanted to distill it to five takeaways. And that's what I'll be sharing with you in today's episode. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So like I said, this is my first microconf conference. Microconf was started by Rob Walling and Mike Taber, both very successful entrepreneurs. You might have heard of Drip, which is an email marketing software. The founder is Rob Walling, who sold it to LeadPages a few years ago. He now runs Tinyseed, which is a self funded incubator for small businesses. And they've been running the show again for 19 different conferences. They do one in Europe as well. This year, like many years, it's in Las Vegas. I think they've done it in Vegas every year. That's when they held the conference in the US and this is by far one of the best conferences I've been to. And it's not in any fancy location. It's just, you know, the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. Not some sort of, you know, exclusive resort or island. But what makes it so great is the people, the people that attend this conference, the crowd, the community, everybody from the attendees to the speakers themselves to the organizers, everybody was just great. Everybody was just wonderful to talk to. They were kind, they were patient, they were. They check their egos at the door. I mean, these are all people that are doing great things, successful businesses. I was floored by the humility that was in the room. And we're talking about people that have, you know, seven and eight and nine figure businesses. People like Chris Savage, the founder of Wistia. Jason Free, the founder of Basecamp, Patrick Campbell, the founder of ProfitWell. So I mean, these people are running some great companies and yet I felt like I was just talking to old friends, which was interesting. So let's jump into my five takeaways from this conference. Takeaway number one is everybody is going through something. Okay? That was kind of like the theme I got from many of the speeches and many of the conversations I had on the side. People sharing stories of their struggle. We're talking about successful companies, companies that we all look up to that are going through something. They have just gone through something. People like Sahil Avangia, who's the founder of Gumroad, shared the rise and Fall of his company and his, you know, re immersion. Having to lay off, you know, 75% of their staff all the way till he was just himself running the business for quite some time. And then, you know, built it back up. The founder of Wistia, Chris Savage, sharing how they took on millions of dollars in debt so they can buy out their investors and a challenge they have ahead of them. And how do they get to that place in the first place? What's the mistakes they've made? Having side conversations at a lunch or a dinner with other founders of other SaaS, companies and businesses, trying to get it off the ground or trying to hit 10,000 mrr. Everybody at every stage of the way has a challenge, is going through something. And that's a perspective I never had before. Like, I just thought, you know, I had my own issues, I had to work through them. You know, I looked at other people and maybe thought, hey, they have it solved. But really, everybody's going through a challenge wherever they are in their business, whatever stage they are in, whatever. Whether it's growth challenges, whether it's hiring challenges, whether it's debt challenges, whether it's financial challenges, whether it's reinventing yourself, whether it's dealing with competitors. All this was talked about in conversations, in lunches, in group conversations on stage. And it gave you this feeling like, okay, I may have some problems, I may have some challenges. I may have some things I need to get over, but I'm not alone. Everybody goes through something, and everybody's going through something. So that's a huge perspective that we all need to have when we're growing our businesses. Just because you're struggling doesn't mean that, like, you're the only one struggling or everybody has it figured out. No, everybody's got their own challenges, just like in life, you know, just like in our personal lives. The second big takeaway I have from Microconf 2015 deals with being a little bit mindful about your personal finances when it comes to your business. Many of us, we are so driven to grow our business as fast as possible that. That we take all the profits we make and we reinvest them as soon as possible. We make hires, we buy new tools, we spend more money on marketing, and we don't realize, hey, we need to have some sort of security net just for our own self, for our own families. What if something happens in the industry, in the marketplace, where your business is just not doing as well as it used to be, Some sort of innovation cannibalizes your business you need to be prepared for that. So instead of spending all your profits, you know, one of the suggestions that Jason Freed, the founder of Basecamp, then a multi New York Times best selling author, said, put some money back in your pocket. So say for example, this is just an example. He didn't give this example. But just to illustrate, let's say you make $5,000 in profit this month. Instead of reinvesting all 5,000, reinvest three and put two in your bank account. Now you're gonna have to pay taxes on your gains and all that stuff, but you need to, you know, blind your pockets a little bit for those rainy days. This will give you peace of mind. This will give you a chance to have some breathing room. This will allow you to maybe even reward yourself once in a while, maybe with a nice vacation or trip with some of the money that you've made instead of just working yourself to the bone. So this idea of, hey, don't think that growth is the ultimate thing. Like, hey, I gotta grow as fast as possible. Grow and reinvest in your business, but think about yourself as. And that was a takeaway I just never heard before, never thought about, you know, we're in a world where, especially in the software business and the SaaS business, where it's like, grow, grow, grow. I'm in a highly competitive space with webinar ninja or webinar software. So it's like I got to beat out the competition, I got to try to edge closer. But at what cost? You have to be a little bit balanced. You have to keep in consideration the whole picture, not just the idea of growth. The third takeaway was a reoccurring theme that was being talked about during the conference, even after the conference, online, on Twitter, on stage. And it was a concept of how much you're charging your customers your prices. Are you charging enough? And most of the talk was most likely not. Most likely you're not charging enough or you're not even testing the limits of your prices. Now this is really, really prevalent and important when it comes to, you know, if you have a business that's a reoccurring charging business, like a SaaS model, they have a subscription every month, they get charged something. Even increasing your prices, you know, 15, 20% will make a dramatic difference in your overall growth and revenue and will make the difference between your business surviving and thriving and having the chance to make it to the next year. But a lot of us are worried about sending our customers and of course you can grandfather your customers in so current customers are not in this pricing, just new customers. But a lot of us are afraid to do this, but we're not charging enough. Now in conversations outside the talks, inside the speech, some people say, well, maybe, you know, lower cost products are better because there's lower churn. People won't cancel a $10 product a month. This is why Spotify, Netflix and all those guys make so much money. But you're going to be dependent on a lot of volume, which is very hard. Takes you a lot of money and time to acquire a customer. You might as well try to capitalize on each one. But then there's the other conversation when it comes to price about lifetime value, how much money you actually make on each customer in their life cycle. And that's really where pricing plays in. What's the price? Well, how much can I charge per month to maximize the lifetime value of that customer so I can sustain my business, so I can grow my business, so I can provide a better service? So pricing and charging enough was a huge, huge topic. Something that made me reevaluate our own businesses. Even if you don't make a change, even if you don't change your prices, it makes you take a look and say, hey, I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. I mentioned Sahil, the founder of Gumroad, earlier, and in his speech he had something very profound to share, very important to share. The title of his speech was very interesting. It was my failure to build Gumroad into a billion dollar company. And that was his goal, to make it a billion dollar company. He had investors and a lot of promise for the company was supposed to be the PayPal killer. Gumroad is a great product and it's a great solution. It's going strong today. But Sal's point was like, I set this goal up thinking that if it's not a billion dollar company, if I don't have a billion dollar company on my hands, then I failed, then I don't have a good business. And he realized the hard way, through a rise and fall and then a resurgence again, that that's wrong. There's plenty of ways to succeed. You don't need to have a billion dollar company. But he was in San Francisco, he's in Silicon Valley. He had investors. That was the environment he was in. But he got disillusioned a bit. He actually moved to Utah in a rural town and got some perspective and realized, hey, money isn't everything. A billion dollar company isn't anything isn't everything. Your lifestyle and how you live and the community you're around and all that kind of stuff matters a lot. And you can have a successful company and have a successful business and be profitable and be proud of your work without having this astronomical goal where it's like all or nothing. And if it's not that, then I've lost. So you gotta define your own success as the message. You gotta make sure that success is something beyond a number, beyond a metric. What do you really want out of your business and your life? What do you want to live or how do you want to live? Most of us wanted to live comfortably in a home with shelter and food and some extra cash for some trips maybe, and some little luxury things and a car and things like that, and we're good to go. Anything beyond that, we're really just nitpicking. And you don't need a billion dollar company to have those comforts and those essentials. Now, he's not saying, you know, lower your ambition. He's saying, build a great product, build a great business. That should be the goal, not building a billion dollar company. Now, my fifth takeaway. Now, it's not my final takeaway. I've had lots of takeaways, but I had to keep it down to five. For today's episode is one from Patrick Campbell. Patrick Campbell is the founder of ProfitWell, a free and easy way for you to track your business's metrics, things like your monthly recurring revenue, your churn, all that kind of stuff. And Patrick shared a very personal experience where he had some disagreement with some of his competitors and he felt very hurt and he really wanted to be defensive. Now this hit me very personally because I tend to honestly be defensive. I'm defensive at times because I'm so passionate about my business and what I believe in, what I want, that sometimes I will react instead of listen and really have a proper reaction, an appropriate reaction. And one of the lines he had in his speech was, have the most charitable interpretation of the situation of the person. The most charitable interpretation, meaning giving the benefit of the doubt, being in that person's shoes, and try to give them the benefit of hopefully them being a good person. So if you're in a conflict, if you're in a situation where you're going toe to toe in a discussion or an argument, pause for a second and think, hey, maybe this person has a point. Maybe they're coming from this perspective because this is how they feel. This is what they've been through. Maybe they had a bad situation in the past where they feel they want to get their away. This time around it's going to help you resolve the situation and even get a benefit, even maybe even get your way. At the end of the day, we want a resolution to our problems, to our situations. So the easiest way to get a resolution is to understand what the other party needs and wants, what their motives are and try to come somewhere in between or at least empathize with them so they understand that you are listening, that you get them. But you can't do that if you react, you can't do that if you're defensive. And this is incredibly, incredibly important in business because business is definitely a mental game, an emotional game where you have to be able to have control over your own emotions and the way you react to things. So I love that takeaway by Patrick Campbell. He actually motivated me, inspired me to, you know, look up his content, his videos, his blogs on ProfitWell's website. I encourage you to do the same. Great content, good guy and was really vulnerable in sharing some of the experiences he had in business where he had to use this concept, the most charitable interpretation.

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Guys to wrap up today's lesson. I had a fantastic experience and time at microconf 2019. It was just a lot of fun. Great people. I loved the crowd. I love the community there. Everybody was super nice and open and humble and I just loved it. And I highly recommend you sign up on their mailing list to attend the next microconf. I'm not getting paid a dime for this. It's not an affiliate thing, nothing. I just really had a great time and I want to pass that on and would love to see some of our listeners, some of the people that are like minded to come to this conference. They also run one in Europe, so if you're in Europe, they have one in Europe every year, so check that out as well. I tip my hat to Mike Tabor and to Rob Walling. Great job. It's definitely worth the investment to go to a conference and meet great people. I made so many great friends and make new connections. I feel like I have a new family. Really. I know that sounds cheesy and corny, but it's true. I've met so many great people now that I'm in touch with and I feel like I just got some new friends and it's fantastic and I really would love for you to experience that. So check out this conference or any great conference that has a great community. If you hear somebody say, hey, go to this conference. Great people, great atmosphere, jump on it. You're not going to regret it. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show that wraps up today's lesson. Don't forget to hit subscribe on whatever you love to use to listen to podcasts. Whether it's Spotify or Stitcher Radio or Apple itunes or Apple Podcasts, whatever it's called these days, or Overcast or Himalaya, we're on them all. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically downloaded to your device so it's ready for you when you're ready to listen. Also, it opens you to our archives over 1200 episodes lessons of the $100 NBA show. By hitting subscribe, you have exclusive access to it. That's the only way to get access to our archives, so go ahead and do that. Thank you so much for listening to the Hunter OMVA show. I will check you in tomorrow's episode, but before that I want to leave you with this. Any conference, any experience, any meeting, any meetup, any conversation, whatever it is that gives you perspective, that's priceless. If you go away from that situation, that experience and feel like, okay, I see things a little bit differently now. I feel better or I feel more enlightened about my situation. You can't put a price tag on that. You just can't because it changes your mindset, it helps you move forward, it affects your work and the way you approach your work. So seek out opportunities that will allow you to do that. I know it's hard sometimes. You're working on your business, you're, you know, plowing away your office or your home office or wherever you're at, and we forget to kind of go to these conferences or meet up or go to some sort of event that's local. Make an effort. I'm glad that we made our way over to Vegas for microconf. I had a blast and I hope to see you in tomorrow's episode Q and A Wednesday where I answer the question what my biggest regrets are in business. Great question from one of our listeners. I'll be answering it tomorrow, so I'll see you then. Take care.

Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals like business management, strategic planning, and effective communication, and you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.