In this live Facebook video recorded at the Marriott Marquis in San Diego, Joshua Nelson, founder of a 30‑employee digital marketing agency that manages $4‑5 million in annual Google Ads spend, explains why he invests time and money in attending industry conferences such as the Traffic & Conversion Summit. He outlines three core reasons: (1) Information – gaining up‑to‑date knowledge on SEO, PPC, social, email, chatbots and other tactics to stay on the cutting edge; (2) Relationships – networking with like‑minded agency owners and forming lasting friendships that can’t be cultivated in day‑to‑day work; and (3) Energy – the motivational boost from being surrounded by successful, proactive peers. He acknowledges the personal cost of leaving family and a large team, but frames the investment as “sharpening the saw,” quoting Abraham Lincoln. Nelson also announces that he will spend a pre‑summit mastermind day with PPC expert Mike Rhodes, will compile his summit notes into a webinar for the 7‑Figure Agency community, and will present on the “Ultimate Agency Funnel,” a shift from cold outreach to inbound client acquisition that helped his agency reach the Inc. 5000. Throughout, he greets several community members, emphasizes note‑taking and action planning, and invites feedback on the proposed webinar.
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Good morning, guys. Good morning, 7 Figure Agency members. It is 6:57 in San Diego. I'm here at the Marriott Marquis for the Traffic Conversion Summit. I'm in a day early because I'm going to be doing a mastermind day with Mike Rhodes of The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords with Perry Marshall. You know, we're really invested in paid search, pay-per-click advertising for our clients. I believe right now we're doing— what's up, Dave Abrams? Thanks for joining me. I think we're doing about $4 or $5 million per year in AdWords spend for our clients. And so I want to get with the very best of the best in paid search and really spend time and make sure what we're doing for our clients is world-class. So I get the opportunity to spend a day with him and some of the other paid search ninjas in his mastermind group. Excited about that. And, um, the T&C starts tomorrow, and I thought it'd be interesting just to kind of pop on this and kind of share why I believe attending these types of events is worth the investment in terms of time. You know, you're leaving the family, leaving work, and why I think it's worth the investment in terms of the expense. You know, right now the T&C costs about $1,500 for a ticket, and then by the time you pay for the hotel and the travel, you're probably into it for at least $2,000 to $3,000. I kinda think there's really 3 reasons. Dean and I have been doing these types of events and conferences for the greater part of 6 years. Hi, Yesenia! Glad to have you on here. And, you know, it isn't, it isn't, it's not, you know, it's not a small investment. You know, for me, we run a 30-employee business, to leave that team ideally operating without us, that's, that's a big investment. To leave our family, that's probably the biggest investment. You know, I've got, I've got two sons, and you know, I like to be with my family. So leaving on these trips has always been, you know, a sad time to leave the family. But I really think there's three key reasons. The first is information. You know, you come to the events like this and you get great information. You can get in one day or two or three days, you can get a lot of key insights in terms of what's really working with internet marketing, whether it's, uh, SEO, pay-per-click, social media, email marketing, chatbots, right there. The game is constantly changing. If you're not aware of what's going on, you can fall behind, right? And we're digital marketing agencies. You know, we need to be really good at serving our clients. We need to know how to serve them at the highest level possible. So I think that's, that's one critical piece, is to remain on the cutting edge. The other second piece is, is relationships, right? It— the other people that attend these types of events are typically on a similar track to you, right? They're, they're, they're wanting to learn, they're wanting to grow, they're wanting to expand their mind. And the relationships you can develop at events like this and the, and the, um, the Agency Acceleration Intensive that we did a couple weeks ago are powerful. Like, some of my greatest friends came from people I met at these types of conferences. And you don't meet these kind of people out in the day-to-day world, right? There's something powerful about meeting people in a live environment like this. So that's the second. The third is the energy. There's something powerful about being around other successful people that are moving things forward, that are being proactive, that are investing in themselves and their future. And there's an intangible element of energy that you get from being in that kind of environment. So that's why we've always done it. Obviously it's worked pretty well for us. I highly recommend that you invest in sharpening your saw. I was in a conversation about this with Nicholas and I think it was Mark on Facebook over the last couple days, and Abraham Lincoln was once quoted as saying, "If I had," I think it's like, "If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first 3 sharpening my saw." And to me that means investing in making sure that you've got the right information, that you've got the right plan, that you're on the cutting edge so that when you go to market you can serve your clients at the highest level. So when you go to get clients, you've got the right strategies to land them effectively and efficiently. What's up, Danny? Glad to have you on this quick live video this morning. So yeah, that's why I invest the time in these trips. I really work hard to make sure I get the information I need and I get the insights so I'm not just sitting in sessions, you know, half paying attention. Like, I take notes, I make action plans, and I make sure that we get the most out of it possible. So what I'm gonna do, and I'd like to hear from you guys here in the Facebook groups, for those of you that didn't make it, would it be useful if I kind of compile my notes and do a webinar of some sort, key insights from the Traffic Conversion Summit 2019? Would love to hear in the comments if that would be useful. Just put in comments TNC if you'd like me to do that, and I'll make sure to take my key learnings, my key insights, and share them with you guys. And then of course on Thursday, I'm gonna be speaking on Wednesday at 12:30 Eastern time. I'm gonna be sharing the Ultimate Agency Funnel, kind of what we unpacked at the intensive a couple weeks ago. So that's what Ryan and the TNC team wanted. They were like, what is it, Josh, that's helped you grow your agency to the Inc. 5000 and that would have the biggest impact on the attendees? And I said, you know, I think it was the transition from just chasing prospects via cold calling and direct outreach and shifting to getting clients coming to us pre-positioned to buy. And so that's what I'm going to be talking about. Of course, you guys got a much deeper dive in a whole day intensive than the TNC members will. But I'm excited about it. I'm excited about sharing some of the key insights. I'm going to go spend the, spend the day with Mike Rhodes and a couple of his PPC ninjas now. And of course, I'll share some insights from that as well. And I hope you guys have an awesome day. Danny, couple of you, thanks for joining me on this Facebook Live, and I look forward to talking to you guys later.
