Philip Taylor is the founder of FinCon, one of the largest conferences in the personal finance space. As a former CPA turned entrepreneur, Philip has been attending and organizing conferences for over two decades. In this interview, he shares his insights on overcoming the common barriers that prevent financial professionals from attending conferences and explains why these very hesitations might be the exact reasons you should go.
- Find your inner circle by choosing conferences where attendees share your mission because they’re just as tired of talking to their spouse about ideas that don’t land as you are.
- Volunteer at the event to bake in networking before the conference even starts. You’ll meet speakers, organizers, and other volunteers while having a purpose beyond just attending.
- The lifetime value of one conference connection can pay for the entire trip. Philip still relies on relationships from his first WordPress conference in 2004.
Too busy? That’s exactly why you need the forcing function of a conference to pull you out of worker bee mode and into CEO mode for a few days. - Google can’t break down exactly how someone implemented their strategy, but the person sitting next to you at lunch can (and they might even pull up their laptop to show you).
- If you think you’re not ready, find the other people who aren’t ready either and form a mastermind together.
- Conference speakers update their slides last minute with cutting-edge information, so you’re getting current strategies, not outdated online content.
Read Our Q&A Here:
Philip Taylor: I do. I went to a couple of conferences when I was a CPA and sort of my traditional career, but I was told to go to those conferences. So I won’t count those. The first conference I signed up for myself to go to was probably around 2004-2005, and it was for WordPress. So the website builder, website tool, blogging tool. And I was excited, because it seemed there were going to be a lot of other bloggers there, and I could really connect with them and talk about things that people who were early on in blogging cared about. So I was certainly nervous. I didn’t necessarily know anyone going in. I felt like I was excited though, a little nervous, probably, but excited to check it out.
Philip Taylor: It was big on the knowledge end for me. I learned a ton, and I was really trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible. I had a lot of takeaways to take to my blog building efforts. And then a few relationships that I formed there—folks that I still know today and rely on, and can look back on and think about those early days of making that connection. And it validated me too. It was early on in my entrepreneurial career, and so having gone to that event, now I felt I was a part of the tribe, and then I could go and sort of do it and be a part of it. So there was validation that happened, which was probably surprising. I didn’t realize I would have that coming out of it, but it was really beneficial. It really pushed me to take my idea forward.
Philip Taylor: That’s the initial answer to your first question: what if you don’t know someone at the event you’re going to go to. Well, are they on the same mission as you? If it’s the right conference you chose, they’re probably on the same mission. And so they’re tired of talking to their spouse about it. They’re tired of talking to the colleagues who don’t get it, or their employees. They need someone to really riff off of. And so if it’s the right conference, you’re going there to meet people who are on the same mission, which is cool. So set yourself up for success by choosing the right one, I would say, at the outset.
But also, I would say look for an organization who has a 24/7, year-round presence as well, and for a way to get involved in that community beforehand. That way you can join the Facebook group or the Discord channel or whatever networking arm they have online, so that when you get there, you’ll have some connections. So that’s my first tip, probably, is just to look for their online channels that probably already exist where you can start forming some of those relationships.
A second thing is to bring a friend. Find someone in the industry. If you don’t feel you’re going to know someone there, well, there’s probably someone, either on your team currently, or at an organization next door that you could say, “Hey, let’s go to this together,” and then you have at least one buddy baked in.
Good conferences will also have tools available to you beforehand. In fact, for FinCon – we’re coming up in September – we just released the app. And I would encourage everyone who has the app to just get in there and start finding those connections. And if it’s a good app, it can tell who you should probably be meeting at the event and make those suggestions. So tap into that and start connecting with people beforehand.
One more tip: volunteer at the event. Reach out to the organizers and say, “Hey, I’m not looking for a discount or anything. I just want to have a mission beyond going to the event itself while I’m there.” And other volunteers are doing the same thing to meet people. Before the conference, you get there, you get to help set up, you get to meet some of the speakers and the founders. So you’re baking in some initial good networking pre-conference, which then makes you feel the rest of the time you’re there, you’re walking around, you’re seeing people you already met, you already feel comfortable. So volunteering is another good thing.
Philip Taylor: There are two sides of this. Obviously, conferences are expensive, and as you mentioned, the ticket price for the event is only one part of it. It’s the getting there and staying there and all the extra food and things. So, yeah, they’re expensive. I do think you should see it as an investment and it’s a tax deduction, says the CPA, so you can write it off. It’s an ordinary and necessary part of growing a business to typically go to an industry show, or to go to a show that’s going to move you forward in your journey, in your career, take you from A to B.
So hopefully you can see the conference as something that’s going to pay off in some way, in terms of an education I’ll receive, certification I’ll get, some type of relationship I’ll build, some deal I’ll close. So have those things in mind and make those a part of your goal as you’re going to the conference…this is what I want to walk away from. I am investing in this, but this is the goal for it to result in XYZ. So have that mission in mind as you go to the conference. That’s the sort of lens I think certainly you should look at it through.
But being a frugal guy myself, I always look to cut down on the cost of the event, and we’re sensitive to that. Our customers at FinCon are sensitive to that, so we encourage room sharing, getting an Airbnb with a couple of friends that are also going to the industry show, doing some travel hacking, using some points to get there, saving those up throughout the rest of the year, and just maybe even reaching out—we mentioned the volunteer thing that might cut some cost from the event, and then also reaching out to the conference organizers to see if they have some kind of scholarship, or some kind of different payment option or something to basically make it more palatable for your finances.
Philip Taylor: You certainly can learn things online, and that’s why, as a conference, we never try to compete on education or the things we have on stage. That’s actually what helps sell us, but really what’s going to keep people coming back are the relationships. But I want to speak to education for a second, because context matters and depth matters. How deep can you go? How are the Q&A sessions at the conference?
And then probably the biggest factor, especially these days, is timeliness. So, yeah, you can learn some things online, and sometimes things can be put out there quickly. But if it’s a good conference, the speakers are being told, “Hey, your session topics and your slides need to be updated, last minute. Let’s get the most current cutting-edge stuff in there,” and the topics need to be cutting edge too.
For instance, at FinCon we’d be addressing a ton of AI topics. Maybe that’s a little trite now, but those, hopefully, are sessions that are right there on the edge—what is the latest product that’s working for people, that is out there? So timeliness is a big factor. And then you’re talking to the speaker right there, you can really nail it down, get the Q&A going.
So those are two big factors, and there’s just something about being in-person learning. There’s somewhat of a forcing function if you’re actually sitting there learning it versus, “Yeah, I’ll watch a video.” But sometimes we’re just distracted away from that type of learning. It’s hard for some people to learn in that way. I learn much better in a classroom. So for some people, that’s better. That’s what I’d say, the timeliness factor is there, and the extra Q&A time you get with people.
Philip Taylor: Similar to what I said about the sessions, it’s sort of a forcing function to come to a conference, to finally pause, take a break from the grind that you’re doing, and check those ideas against other people. Talk about those things you’re doing against your colleagues in person, and maybe they have a better way that you should be doing it. Or you can uncover something that will help you sort of switch things up. Or maybe you just need a break from the grind of it all and that time away from the actual work.
Or maybe you’re the type of person who, as an entrepreneur, I get this way. Sometimes I just get down in the work way too much, and I don’t necessarily have a time on my calendar where it’s “Okay, this is executive PT, let’s put that hat on and be the CEO for a couple days, and then I’ll go back to worker bee PT.” Sometimes I’m good about doing that, but a good conference will kind of force you into that CEO role for a couple of days, which is nice.
And also consider conferences that maybe happen over a weekend that wouldn’t take you away from your normal busy time. Consider conferences where you can couple it with family time. You could bring the family along and do something so that you’re not necessarily taking away time from family to go to this conference, you’re sort of coupling the two.
But ultimately, conferences help me to reset every year and to make me think differently about my business. I’m always taking something new away.
Philip Taylor: If you’re not ready to go to an event, I guarantee there are other people going to this event that are in that same boat. And so your job should be to go find who those people are. Talk about your goals together, share those ideas and dreams, formulate some plans and then potentially create a mastermind where you guys take that moment as your moment to then say, “All right, we’re going to be a part of this industry. We’re going to do this together. We’re going to now take this forward.” And because you all came together for that first one, it sort of seals you together. And it’s “Okay, now we can take what we know and move it forward.”
That’s why I started FinCon to begin with, because I wanted that. I wanted that moment for myself. I was having it online in forums a little bit, and I would do meetups, but until I had the first one, I really couldn’t have that. Really the “Okay, now we’re together. Now let’s take this idea and use it to move us all forward.” And so I guarantee there are people going to the conference you want to go to that are in that boat.
Hopefully the organizers can connect you with some. One of the things we do at FinCon is our first-timers orientation. So the literally first thing you can do at the conference is a chance to get to know other newbies, and you have some experienced folks come in and teach you how to do the event, which is cool. And you can leave that room with some buddies and some people who are at a similar level and sort of taking it forward. So it’s one part on you to find those people, but a good conference will help facilitate those relationships. And if they’re not doing it, reach out to the organizers and say, “Hey, can I be in charge of the committee for new people and meet up with all the new people while I’m there?” So take ownership of it and use it as a moment to move yourself forward.
Philip Taylor is a CPA, writer, podcaster, entrepreneur, and founder of FinCon. He also runs The Creator CPA, a firm specializing in accounting services for content creators.
Philip has been quoted and featured in multiple media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Fox Business, and more.
