Many entrepreneurs attribute a lot of their success to attending conferences. More specifically to the relationships they build at those events.
This weekend I visited my own first conference, DNX Global in Berlin.
I got invited to come by Natalie Sisson as she was giving a talk. We met almost two years ago and over time became online friends. Now was the first opportunity to meet in person 🙂
The moment she mentioned she would come to Berlin I got my conference ticket and booked a room at Airbnb.
Attending a conference just to meet one person?
You bet!
As it turned out, I met countless amazing digital nomads in these three days.
When attending a conference though, you should set some goals for yourself and create a plan of how to achieve them.
For me, those goals were:
Spoiler alert: I achieved those goals.
I wanted to write this short post to let you know about my most important takeaways from attending DNX Global:
Especially as online entrepreneurs we tend to connect with people all over the world. This is great, and I still haven't met the vast majority of my online friends in person.
However, getting to know someone in person that you've been following online for a reasonable time feels amazing. You can get to know each other way better in person than you ever could through social media.
That's a line of Derek's keynote that really stuck with me.
In the past, I've been focusing on the wrong ideas for too long. I tried to make things work that weren't supposed to work.
I'll remind myself of a songwriter analogy more often now:
If a song doesn't become a hit instantly, write another one.
Or to quote Derek:
"Any feedback besides a "I need this! Take my money now!" is a polite NO." (Click to tweet)
Natalie is amazing at engaging with her followers and getting them excited about her business.
She mentioned students of her Freedom Plan in the keynote, gave me a shout-out because I converted my Airbnb host into a soon-to-be digital nomad and held a fun meetup the day before the conference started.
We met every day during the conference, and it was amazing to see her get approached by people almost constantly. That's a feeling I could get used to as well 😉
Thomas Jackel first cycled to India. Then he decided to build waterless toilets in India to help with better hygiene.
He's an incredible example of pursuing your goals despite not knowing what to do. He even started his cycling trip by riding in the wrong direction, because he didn't know how to get out of Berlin.
Yet he always pursued his goals. Thanks to his passion and work, people in India now have toilets and are at less risk to get diseases due to lack of hygiene.
(Let this show you how blessed we are to live in countries with high standards!)
The last speaker Till Gross showed why expanding our comfort zones is so crucial to our success.
We all know these situations where we grab our phone and check email for the 325th time, just to avoid speaking to strangers or taking an action we're afraid of.
He challenged us to stand up, put up our arms and to either scream "I'm the king of the world" or to howle like a wolf. It felt amazing.
Once you have an established relationship with the experts at a conference and are in a quiet place, take the chance for having a more serious conversation.
For example, Natalie and I talked about product launch strategies, setting up funnels and discussed whether affiliate marketing or paid traffic is the way to go.
Brian and I chatted about his most recent launch of SEO That Works, how he could generate more leads from his website, and whether he can leverage ABCD Impact for his business.
Don't ask for all the details about what they do, but about why they do what they do. Figure out the details on your own, you can do the research. Knowing the steps they take and resources they use is far more important in conversations like these.
If you're a digital nomad, I can highly recommend attending the next DNX Global.
You can meet amazing people that travel the world with Pianos and campervans, give yoga retreats, and do all sorts of amazing things.
I didn't know what to expect from this conference, as it was my first.
However, it turned out that this conference was exactly what I needed.
Not only did I connect with Natalie, Jasper, Brian, Marcus, Joe, Nayar, and many other fantastic digital nomads. I also got a much clearer vision of the audience I'm actually serving.
In the conversations I had throughout the three days of being in Berlin, I learned how digital nomads use WordPress, and what resources they need. Now I know exactly what I have to do in order to make their lives easier 🙂
Long story short:
DNX Global has been amazing. It's definitely not going to be the last conference I attended.
Here are some impressions of the conference 🙂
All speakers crushing their comfort zones
Derek Sivers talking about deathbed regrets
It's pictures like these that make people think we're on vacation all the time
One of many selfies with Natalie Sisson
Noel Tock rocking the stage
