#108 5 Reasons To Attend Medical And Non-Medical Conferences

Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. I'm your host, Peter Kim. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe so I can bring it to you every week. Now let's get on with the show. Hey, everyone. Hope you're having another amazing week. I know so many of you, in fact, all of us. We're all busy people between jobs, family, friends, passions and hobbies. And sometimes it seems like it's hard to find any time to fit anything in, but somehow you're taking the time to invest in yourself, educate yourself, hopefully through this podcast, many others. And I just really want to honor you for that. And I know that so many of you have shared it with your friends. We've seen the number of people on this podcast just really explode over the last several months. And so I want to thank you for sharing that with people and I want to thank you for being part of this community. You know, so many of the things that I do, it's online these days. I mean, obviously with the pandemic, everything happening, all these things went virtual. And I think in some ways it was a blessing because we all learned how to connect even better all across the world on a virtual format, whether it's through zoom, whether it's through Facebook. And we got so much better at it. I will tell you that I missed getting together in person so much. Yes, I'm an extrovert versus my wife, who likes to consider herself more of an introvert. I think I just get so much energy around being around people and I learned so much this week. I'm gonna be talking about the top reasons I enjoy conferences. I mean, no matter what field you're in, I'm assuming that most people here are in the medical field. You're definitely no stranger to conferences. I mean, we medical conferences all year round. Well, typically, again with pandemic, things have been different. But we all have medical conferences that we go to probably every year. We try to get our CME in and then we have maybe even subspecialty conferences. I will tell you that I've gone to the anesthesia conferences in the past and then just for my fellowship or my own specialty training, the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia. I would go to that conference as well. And so I would do at least one or two conferences, I'd say every year until I obviously recently. So, you know, I put that on my calendar every year. But the thought of going to like a non medical conference it had never even crossed my mind. And it was that way until I went to a conference called fincon. It's an annual convention for financial bloggers. I know it sounds crazy, sounds very niche, but it's something. It's a community that I was part of. And so somebody recommended that I go to Learn and network. And I was like, really new to blogging at that time. And I remember people talking about this conference, and I was like, you know what, Maybe I should go and check it out and see how it is. So I stepped out of my comfort zone. I went to that conference, this was back in 2017, and it was just an amazing conference. I learned so much, I met so many cool people, ideas were exchanged, and I felt like my world was expanding. And so I was hooked from that point on. And I remember there was a stretch. And almost since that time, to be honest with you, I'd say I average maybe a conference every other month since. And of course, not all those are in person. Some of them are virtual. And maybe I find a way to kind of jam in some of the content for those conferences afterwards. And that might seem like a lot, but I found these conferences to be, like, an invaluable resource for my personal financial and business growth. And so I definitely attribute so much of what's happened over the last few years to a lot of the things that have happened at these conferences. So I'm guessing many of you have not attended a conference for a while. So if you're thinking about it both virtually and in person, I'm going to talk about some reasons today why I think that you should definitely put the time, energy, and effort to attend these things. Number one, they're packed with curated content, meaning no matter what subject that you're interested in, it can be tough to find useful information on the Internet. I mean, I don't think that we have an issue of having, you know, the access at our fingertips. The issue today is figuring out what's important, what's relevant and what's trustworthy, and. And I know that can take a ton of extra time and energy, and I know that we pretty much rely on Google for that, But I know this has happened to everyone. Like, you're looking for a certain topic and you type in Google and you just start scrolling through these posts and you're not sure which one makes sense or this that. And you spend so much time trying to figure out the answer to your question. Now, I think that conferences are a great resource for learning because rather than having to go out and find this information like knowledgeable people in the industry, the experts, they're really brought to you in one setting. So once you trust, you know, the host of the conference, you trust that the conference itself, the committee, they picked good people and you know that they've had a great reputation of putting on a great event. You can pretty much rest easy knowing that you're gonna get amazing content all in one place, just curated over a couple days, over a weekend, whatever it might be. So you just have to show up and learn from the people around you. It's extremely high yield and I think for us as busy professionals, we need high yield type events and information and it's a super efficient way to learn. I found, especially compared to going out and searching for it yourself, if that's at the top of my list. Number two is the networking. I mean, I think the content's awesome and I think that again, the information is out there if we want to find it. I found that sometimes if I think about the most important thing that happened at any conference, or the, or the single biggest takeaway, it usually is not actually from one of the speakers at the conference or summit or event. It's usually from a conversation I've had with somebody at the event. I mean these conversations, they happen again and again over lunch breaks, over coffee after session and almost at random. And it's not something that I necessarily expect, but it happens during the event by being there in person. I mean, I think it's powerful to meet with like minded people all in one space. And then you find that people are at all different points of the journey. For example, if you want to learn about real estate and maybe you're early on in your journey, well, you go to real estate event and you learn from other people around you, how are they doing it? You get to hear from real life experience, you see them talking about it, you know it's genuine. And maybe they're not at the super expert level, but maybe they're just one or two steps ahead of you. I mean that can be extremely valuable because a lot of times you won't find that kind of content online from people that are maybe just one step ahead of you, two steps ahead of you. And that can be extremely powerful to know what that step might be. I mean, again, these people have been where you're you've been and they're probably going where you're going. So why not learn from them, Find mentors in that space. I mean, this kind of advice can be invaluable. And I absolutely believe it's the most important thing for, for going to an in person conference. I've also made some awesome friendships that started at these events. I mean, these friendships have carried on through today. And I don't know if you've been doing a lot of connections over Facebook and you know, people online virtually. I mean, it's so different when you meet them in person. It's so cool to find that it almost feels like you've known them forever. But I mean, just seeing a person, there's an energy that exists when you network with them in real life. Number three, there are a ton of ideas that get tossed around at these events. I mean, between presentations, between the content and then also the conversations that you have with others. I mean, again, I've been presented with tons of new ideas that, I mean, just had never even occurred to me. I mean, there's so many people there, each with their own unique take on their field, their industry, their goals, whatever it might be. It'd be almost impossible to walk out of an event like that without having come up with some new ideas or having some new way of thinking about maybe a problem that you have or something that you're trying to solve. For example, I went to a real estate conference before and I remember at that conference for the first time I heard of self storage investing. I never even thought of investing in self storage, but there was somebody there that was doing it and they were quite successful. And I remember learning from them and hearing about it and thinking this is like fascinating. And it kind of opened up my world to other types of investing beyond just like in multifamily apartment buildings, which I absolutely love. But it's really cool to see the different asset classes out there. I mean, in my daily life, I don't know about you. When I'm, especially when I'm at work at the hospital, it's not like I meet and talk to a lot of people that are doing all sorts of innovative and cool things and trying new things on a daily basis. So if you're looking for like fresh ways to engage with people, you, you want to have a ton of new ideas. Maybe you feel like tapped out when it comes to ideas, you want a different perspective. Going to a conference may just be the thing for you. Okay, number four, inspiration and motivation. Now, I think one of the greatest things you can get from a conference really just comes from being around like minded people. I mean, you're going to learn, you're going to network, you're going to get a Ton of ideas, as I mentioned. But when there's a gathering of people all there for the same reason, it can provide so much energy and it can be so invigorating, I think. I mean, you're going to hear stories of success, you're going to hear lessons learned, you're going to hear about mistakes, you're going to hear about milestones achieved. I mean, just about everyone at these conferences, summits, they're eager to share the journey they made, the time to come out. And so they're there to learn and share with each other. And it can be a huge source of inspiration. I mean, I've heard it said so many times that success is 80% mindset and 20% strategies. I think for most of us, even myself included, I've thought that if I just had the right strategy, I could solve that issue. And we all think it's about strategies, but I've learned over time that the strategies are all out there. In fact, most of us probably know what they are. But we don't take action. We don't figure out how it, you know, it fits within our goals. We don't, we don't go and take, you know, the action necessary to meet the right people to make it happen. And it just goes to show that most of it is not about having the knowledge necessarily. It's about taking that next step, believing yourself, having the right mindset, figuring out what you really want and making it happen. And so I think going to these summits and hearing from other people and what they're doing, why they're doing it, it's just been so motivating for me. And I know I've walked away from these things, taking action right away, and it's completely changed the trajectory of where I wanted to go. So if you, like, feel like you've hit a wall, like you're not growing, you're not getting closer to your goals, again, hearing others experiences might be very motivating for you. I mean, that's what we primarily do on some of the online summits that we do. The Leverage and Growth Summit, even pimdcon or the Financial Freedom Through Real Estate Conference. In the past, what we've done is not only do we share strategies, but we've shared like, like stories. Because I think I want people to know that this isn't, you know, some pie in the sky type thing. These are real people who are working like you and me, same background, same challenges, who are achieving things by just taking action. And you can learn from these people. And I will tell you that these communities that form around these events and summits, I mean, it's like a total giving environment where people are just really trying to contribute to others. And I think sometimes in our day jobs, I don't know if it feels like that, whether it's competitive at work or everyone's just trying to grind and get through the day and finish and just survive. I mean, it's not like this way at these events. People are energized and they want to make things happen and they want to find the right people, resources and connections to make it happen. And that can all happen in one place. And lastly, that other 20% you can get practical strategies there. You're going to get the inspiration, you're going to hear some basic content and education, you're going to be able to network with others and get some ideas. But what it really comes down to is what are the next steps that I need to take to make this happen? After all, you're taking time, which is money, and you are paying money as well, so might as well get the most out of it. So I make sure that I walk away from every conference, every event, every summit with these three things. One great new connection, one new great idea to explore and try, and then one way that I would change how I currently live based on what I've known and what I know now. So having these goals always in my mind, like while I'm at the summit or conference, it really helps me kind of frame everything, Helps me network better, helps me keep an open mind. And then I can always think about whenever anybody's speaking again. I may not take in everything, but I may be able to find that one thing that I can apply from that to ultimately change my life. And so if you can keep those things in mind, this has helped me get a ton out of every conference I go to again, even if it's in person, maybe it's virtual, and it's made each one really worth the time and expense. So I'll tell you, if your only experience with conferences has been in the medical field, I'm telling you, you're missing out. You may be hesitant to venture out into other things because maybe you don't feel quite comfortable there. Maybe it's not, you know, maybe your community, you think I will say, give it a shot. Attending one of these things can be hugely beneficial to your personal and professional life. And even as a lot of these conferences have gone online, there's even more opportunities to get in there to not only learn the content get exposed to new ideas, even network online, make those new connections, learn new things, get inspired. I think you're gonna be extremely glad you did, I will tell you that because I know how valuable these summits, conferences, events are. We've created our own as well. So twice a year we have these big summits. Number one, it's a leverage and growth summit for people who are interested in learning about entrepreneurship and learning other streams of income. And then the second one is the one you definitely don't want to miss if you're interested in real estate investing at all. It's a Financial Freedom through Real Estate conference. It happens in the fall every single year. We've done virtual last couple of years. This year we're going to do live and virtual. It's going to be September 23rd through 25th in Los Angeles, California. I will tell you that again, many of us are hesitant to go to some of these summits because it may not be our community. Well, this is a one that's built for our community. We also call it pimdcon is for physicians and high net worth individuals to talk about real estate, how to use real estate investing to get where you want to be in life. I hope to see you there. We have limited number of seats, we, we've already started filling up and I want to make sure that the people that are listening to this podcast are there. You can go to www.pimdcon2022.com to get your ticket there to find out more information. If you're looking for that network, the connections, the ideas, the resources, the inspiration, it's definitely gonna be there in one place and hope to see you there. And if you can't make it in person, we'd love to see you virtually in any case. Have an amazing weekend and and let's talk again soon. Take care, enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in. And if you haven't already, make sure to hit subscribe. Are you a part of our community yet? Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal lives through multiple streams of income. You can join us on our Facebook group Passive Income Docs and you can always learn more at our website, Passive Income. Incomemd. Com. Thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey. See you next time.