FinCon23 Recap: Meeting Magic

I was in Chiang Mai, Thailand last week. And my time at #CMSEO was truly mind-expanding. But it's been an amazing year overall for meeting brilliant people and discovering new opportunities.

There is no substitute for attending these in-person conferences, and meeting with real people in real life.

This conference season has been so jam-packed I've hardly had time yet to digest all the awesomeness encountered in October at #FinCon23 in New Orleans.

I'm going with Linkedin for my recap of this one, since this is the best intersection point for most of these peeps (also a good opp to experiment with Linkedin articles ??).

This was my first #FinCon but also an absolute pleasure getting back to New Orleans after so long. This 4 day, multi-track content creator fest is hard to sum up in a few words. And I did not set out to do one of my usual lengthy recaps (but it got long anyway). Regardless, there were just too many good talks (on stage, in the hallways and at the bars).

There is no substitute for attending these in-person conferences, and meeting with real people in real life. Here are just a few of the folks I was lucky and grateful to hang out with.

Doug Cunnington - I've followed Doug and interacted remotely for years. And more recently he consulted with me on my saas project, SERP Sonar. But I never met him in person.. Until FinCon! He also asked if I was interested in doing an interview (and it just dropped - posting that separately)!

Spencer Haws - I didn't realize he would be here but I have been following him forever. Coincidentally, I just started a new site for his AI site challenge. Spencer was such a nice guy, as was his team! I had some great convos with the Link Whisper biz dev, ops and dev team members, Josh Blackburn, Matt Bissett and others. Excited to see what's coming with Rank Logic too!

Andrew Fiebert - the Lasso founder is another OG finance content guy that has also been an SEO smarty and SaaS startuper I've followed for a long time. He gave a killer talk with an actual peregrine falcon (if you were there you know). He and the rest of Team Lasso were really great to hang out and share ideas with. Great connecting with Zach Reed and, of course, the infamous man of mystery, Jamie IF. Jamie also gave a great, info-packed talk (and held up well in the after hours).

There were so many other chance encounters with people I had long followed and learned much from over the years.

I was strolling by the ConvertKit booth and decided to check what's new and interesting there. The man himself, Nathan Barry, was right there doing booth duty with his team. We ended up having a lengthy discussion about all sorts of recent and potential changes (for the company and the creator space in general). Super insightful (and highly investable IMO)! Good to connect with Haley Janicek from the team there as well.

He dropped some juicy SEO knowledge nuggets and really channeled the collective frustration with Google.

Meeting and chatting with Nick Loper, host of The Side Hustle Show, was an unexpected pleasure, after consuming soooo many episodes of his show.

Pete McPherson of Do You Even Blog fame spoke on a panel with some other interesting folks but (as is often the case) my brief meeting with him in the lobby bar was equally valuable. Excited to see how the AI-based tool develops also!

But there were even more meetings with people I didn't know I needed to know! In some cases I had in-depth discussions and in others only a brief meet and greet. But in all cases my world expanded. So... mission accomplished!

Denise Cruz was a Doug C connection and a great conference pal. Denise also happens to be a brilliant brand and marketing pro, and fellow online business builder. Great meeting (and learning from) you!

Garit Boothe was another speaker at the conference. He dropped some juicy SEO knowledge nuggets and really channeled the collective frustration with Google. And he did it while wearing a classic gold Captain Kirk tunic. But his biggest impact would be when he stopped me in Chiang Mai and reminded me we met in NOLA! So glad you did, bro!

With all the FI talk at FinCon it was great to see the many creators trying to bring their knowledge to those most in need.

Paula Pant is a major fin-fluencer that gave a great main stage talk and was also very gracious when I met her at Doug C's podcast panel later. Thanks for the tips!

Mark Lancia seems to have a bottomless box of skills. I was left feeling both inspired and intimidated...

Tom Harrigan shared some very cool site acquisition stories. And I also now know where to buy hay bales near me!

Mark Bolton has a fascinating career shift story that spoke to my institutional finance bg. Great follow…

Katherine Fan knows all the power players in the credit card points game…and is super chill. Fun and knowledgeable!

Logan Smyth is another sharp founder, building a very cool platform at Tradr. It was great knocking around product ideas with you!

Another talk I really liked was by Elaine Miranda, Founder of Plata con Plática, who shared how she helps bring financial literacy to people in lower income brackets and folks in crisis. With all the FI talk at FinCon it was great to see the many creators trying to bring their knowledge to those most in need.

And even the meals are a feast of information and insights. Great chatting with Jenny Phan over a lunch shindig I got randomly invited to. Super smart and building some cool stuff. And at another lunch I was lucky to sit with Dave Ahern and Andrew Sather of The Investing for Beginners Podcast.?Inspiring partnership there, producing great content.

Great, talented and experienced writers abound at FinCon...

The preset meetings with founders all went off as planned. But I met some other great startup teams as well, including from ProjectionLab (smart portfolio tracker alternative), Blackhedge and Waterlily (which is taking on the growing long term care crisis).?Also spoke with the MooMoo team.. IMO they have an uphill climb given the company bg and the business cycle, but they've got a solid marketing plan (and team).

And part of my objective at FinCon was to connect with writers to help me with some ongoing projects. Great, talented and experienced writers abound at FinCon and I know I'll miss some people in the list below (sorry, in advance!). Wonderful meeting you all.

Rebecca Neubauer (who has mastered income stream stacking with online and offline businesses, both!), Paulette Perhach, David Safford, Alene Laney, Lindsey Olsen, Reyna Gobel and so many more!

I've posted a few more pics below but there were way too many to share here. If anyone was there and missed some slide or other do let me know (I may be able to help).

And for my many colleagues and associates that have never done FinCon, check it out! Next year is in Atlanta, GA... It's not New Orleans (sorry, Doug) but a great conference is about the people. Real people in real life.

Keep in touch, all!