The Behavior Gap

There aren’t many financial planners that I would feel comfortable calling a “visionary”.

Carl Richards is one of them.

When I first saw the sketch to the right, I knew immediately that Carl was on to something. And something big.

Carl is now a columnist for the NY Times (see his articles here) and his first book is set to release Jan 3rd.

I was so excited when Carl agreed to sit down with me for this candid interview. The highlights include:

• How we got into the business: security vs. securities
• How the napkin sketches began
• His controversial article in the NY Times regarding losing his house. Read it here.
• More on his book. Buy it here.
• Carl’s quote that gave me the chills.  Literally.

The Behavior Gap Book Promotion

Carl has extended a gracious offering to the Good Financial Cents readers by offering one of his popular sketches.   See info and sketch below:

A year after graduating high school, I remember throwing one of the biggest parties while my mom and step-dad were out of town one weekend.   There were tons of people and for one night I felt like “the man”.

It was short lived as the police showed up to shut it down.

Nonetheless, it feels pretty cool to take a chance and throw an event that gets people excited to show up.

This past October I attended the first annual Financial Blogger Conference and it was, by far, one of the coolest events I’ve ever attended. It’s organizer, Phil Taylor, took a chance on putting on the event and to say it was successful is a major understatement.

For us personal finance bloggers, it was the “party of the year” and for that weekend Phil was “the man”.

Putting on a conference is a huge undertaking and I wanted to get the nitty gritty details on how to do it right.

If you ever wanted to put on a conference, get ready to take some notes.

Phil also did an awesome recap of organizing the conference on his own site. It includes every little detail you ever wanted to know in planning a conference.

The transcription is below…..

What’s going on everybody?  Jeff Rose, goodfinancialcents.com and soldieroffinance.com hitting you again with another interview.  I’m excited to have a friend and blogging ally on the show.  His name is Phil Taylor.  You may know him as PT Money or PTMoney.com.  Phil and I have known each other for some time.  We actually met in San Antonio for the first time for a little USAA conference, but nothing compared to the financial blogger conference which we are going to be talking about.

Just to put this into perspective so people understand what I’m talking about here; if you can remember whether it was in high school or maybe it was in college and you had your friend or a classmate that threw the sickest party, meaning that everybody that was anybody was there.  Any guys that you wanted to be there or the hottest chicks that you wanted to be there, anybody that was the coolest showed up, and it was the event that everybody was talking about up until the actual party.

Everybody had a blast during the entire time, and then afterwards it was that party that you didn’t want to end.  My friends, that was the Financial Blogger Conference for me.  I want to say to Phil thank you for taking all this time and that is what I want to learn about today is how much time it really was, but truly just for taking it on your shoulders and throwing a really kick-ass conference or kick-ass party for us financial bloggers, us geeks out here.

Here’s a recap of the conference:

JEFF:  I just want to say thank you Phil for doing that.

PHIL:  Well, you’re welcome Jeff.  It was definitely my pleasure and that was a wonderful way to describe it.  I appreciate that.  Yeah, it was a blast for me as well to plan, to be at and hearing all the recaps and reviews have been wonderful as well.  People were really energized to be there and like you say it was the party everyone was ready to go to and it went down in a positive way.  Yeah, I’m really thankful.

JEFF:  It’s huge, man.  Before I get ahead of myself, for those that aren’t really with you and what you’re doing on line, tell us a little bit about your blog and what got you started in the blogging scene.

PHIL:  I started reading personal finance blogs back in ’05-’06 sort of to get my own financial situation together.  Then in 2007 about April of that year I decided I should probably do this for myself, start my own blog.  So I started PT Money.  My name is Phillip Taylor so P-T and my friends from high school used to call me PT so PT Money just sort of worked.  My blog is about my journey with money whether that is dealing with debt, figuring out ways to make extra money, how to save your money better or how to spend it more wisely.  Just the whole realm of personal finance, not only my story, but information to help others.  Maybe people that are younger than me who are just starting to save for a house or pay off some debt or figure out a side income project they want to get into.

That is what my blog is about.  I have been doing it since ’07.  I really enjoy it.  One of the best aspects of being a personal finance blogger is getting to interact with people like you, people who are also doing it.  I really took to that part of it as well, not only in my own community in my own voice reaching out to my audience, but also connecting with other bloggers themselves because often times that is a big portion of my audience anyway, my dedicated audience, other people who are doing what I’m doing.  So that’s me.  That’s PT Money.

JEFF:  Yeah, I’m definitely going to have some links and screen shots.  I think one of the coolest posts I think you converted to an ebook was your 52 ways to make extra money or side income.  Can you share a little bit about that post and what that did for your site?

PHIL:  Yeah, to be honest with you thinking back I don’t really remember why exactly I wrote that article other than to try to be helpful and to put together a resource for people who are just looking for little extra ways to make money, right.  Whether it be to have more money to pay off your debts, whether it be to supplement your full-time job.  People I guess are looking for that extra and as the economy has worsened it seems like that post has only gained traction.  People are all looking for that type of information.  I wrote that post and somehow I got picked up on MSN.com.  It’s been a very popular post on my site for a long time.

Eventually, I did take that idea, that concept and expand it into a full ebook, which you can download for free on my website as long as you sign up for the email list.  That’s been interesting.  It’s been a big part of my site, I guess.  A lot of my focus of my blog has started to shift toward helpful ideas to help people make money, sort of the next level of after you get out of debt, after you maybe learn how to save, then maybe what’s some ways to ramp up your income so you can get to retirement quicker or if you are still working on some debt how to get out of that situation quicker.

My blog, I feel like it’s shifting toward this- I don’t want to call it a make-money blog but- more entrepreneurial, extra money making ideas-type blog.  That is sort of where I want to shift.  Entrepreneurial stuff.  Small business.  That’s what’s starting to interest me so that is where I see my blog shifting.

JEFF:  You have a podcast that you’re doing as well.  Is that some of the topics you’re talking about?

PHIL:  Right, yeah that’s what I do with the podcast.  The part-time money podcast, which I talk about ways that people can make extra money with their part time.  A famous author calls it the other eight hours.  I’m sure you’ve heard that before.  Basically, what are you doing with your part time, whether that be a part-time job you’re taking on, or whether that be some kind of part-time business that you want to start up.  I’m exploring some of those ideas and interviewing people who are having success doing those things.  Yeah, that’s a new area for me.

JEFF:  So you’ve been blogging since 2007.  You’ve made some good on-line contacts.  At what point in time did you start thinking wow, it would be neat to have a conference?  What gave you those ideas?

PHIL:  Honestly, I like the blogging community.  I started interacting with them in on-line forums.  Emailing, commenting on their sites.  Things like that.  I also started attending a few conferences.  I attended some WordCamps and some affiliate marketing summits.  These were opportunities where I could actually meet some of the bloggers face to face.  It was great.  I left those off-line meetings feeling re-energized about my blog, more educated about how to treat my blog like a business and actually make some money off of it.

Also, I felt like the people who are also doing financial blogging were my kind of people.  There was almost like an instant connection when I talk to these folks.  I put those two things together and I said okay, well I want to have that feeling x10 and I want to have that educational level x10.  Let’s get all these people together in one spot and then we can all just celebrate the fact that we’re all each other’s people.  Here we are together and then we’re also helping each other learn and progress with our on-line businesses.  That was the two-fold reason for putting it together.

JEFF:  Can you recall approximately when was the month or the year that you said okay, I’m going to do it.  I’m going to do a financial blogger conference.

Getting the Conference Itch

PHIL:  Well, I would say back in ’08 I went to a WordCamp and I left that feeling like okay, we need to have a meet up.  Since that point I have felt let’s have a meet up of some type.  It just really never happened.  I live in Dallas and there’s not really a lot of other bloggers in this area.  They were having meet ups in D.C.  They were having meet ups in the Bay area of California.  That was cool, but I would have liked to have seen everyone come together.  I would say after my blog started doing really well in 2010, then in the first part of this year I had some breathing room.

My blog was doing so well that I started looking at other projects and one of those was this conference and I said now that I have time and I have the freedom.  I had left my full-time job so blogging was all I was doing and I said this is perfect.  I have time to do it.  Why don’t we do it?  I think I read an article that January that said 2011 would be the year of the niche blogging conference.  That sort of gave me permission.  That sort of said okay, well that means you can do the financial blogger conference if you want to.  There’s the beer bloggers conference.  There’s the food bloggers conference.  There’s all these niche conferences that are starting up.

JEFF:  You can combine those for next year if you want.

PHIL:  Let’s talk to the beer bloggers guys and see if they want to get together and do it at once.  Yeah, so that was what sort of gave me permission.  I tested it in conversations and emails with different people and their response was positive so I said well let’s do it.  I had an energy behind it and I’ve learned when I think about something three or four nights in a row as I’m going to bed and I can’t get that idea out of my head……

JEFF:  I have too many of those.

PHIL:  Yeah, you want to act on that energy.  I found that I’m most effective whenever I stop what I’m doing.  So I sort of stopped PT Money for a little bit and said alright, I’m going to do this 100% because I have a lot of energy and passion behind this.  As testing the waters with other people I could tell they were energetic about it too.  I just knew it was right.

JEFF:  For somebody else that’s in another niche and let’s say they haven’t put on a conference in that niche yet, what were some of the things that maybe the initial test or some feelers that you felt okay, there really is something here.  Whereas if somebody was going to start in their niche and realized before they got too far, too much time and too much money invested, how did you really know okay, there’s really something here?

Deciding if Your Niche is Ready for a Conference

PHIL:  Well, first there wasn’t any competition.  There is Blog World Expo, which is the big blogger conference, but there really wasn’t any other type of financial blogger conference at this level.  I knew if I did it I would be the only one, right.  Secondly, I feel like I was connected to the right people.  I started my blog with the second phase of personal finance bloggers and so I’m not “a big blogger” or an old-school blogger, but I know those people.  I’ve had email conversations with those people.  I’ve commented on those people’s blogs.  They know me.  They are aware of me so I had that connection.  I also haven’t lost touch with the blogosphere as a whole.  I have participated in the community.  I’ve been a part of forums.  Even the new networks that are starting up, even though I may not be a member of some of those, I try to reach out to some of those people and connect with some of those people.  I feel like I was positioned in the middle and I could reach up to the people who had been doing it longer than me and they would respect me enough to feel like I could pull something like this off.

Also, I knew the community as a whole and could reach out to everyone and everyone new PT Money.  They were at least aware of me.  I had that going for me.  Obviously in any kind of business or organization connection is powerful.  I was able to leverage that.  Not only that, but I reached out to the critical mass to get people.  I held it in Chicago.  I live in Dallas.  I decided to hold it in Chicago because I knew I could get 10 or 15 pretty big bloggers that live in that area to literally drive in.  It was within driving distance or a short plane flight.  I knew if I could get those people on board then everything would domino after that.  What I did is I took that information and I said okay, I’m going to get 10-15 people there.  I know I can get those people there.

Get Some Big Names

Then I reached out to maybe one or two big bloggers and said here’s what I’m doing and here’s who has already committed to coming.  For instance, when I showed that to J.D. Roth (Get Rich Slowly) he said, “Oh, I’m all about it.  Let’s do it.  If people are coming and it’s going to be a thing, then I’m going to do it.”  Once I had J.D. Roth that was all I really needed.  You need one super star at least to kick things off.  Well, you don’t need it, but for me to take it from meet-up level to full blown conference I needed that.  Once J.D. got on board that validated what I was doing.  It linked credibility to the whole thing and it was what it really needed.  For anyone who is doing this I would say sacrifice your own, I guess wishes to make sure that the people who need to be there can be there.

Do whatever it takes to get those first people and then it will build upon itself.  That’s sort of what I thought I needed to happen and people in hindsight are like you didn’t need to do that.  You could have had it anywhere you wanted.  The energy was high enough.  Just hold it and people will come.  From my point of view that’s how I chose to build it and that’s how I built confidence with the event, sort of building it at an organic level like that.  That helped to market it I guess.

JEFF:  From the day that you said okay, I’m going to do the conference, I think you had thought maybe we’ll have 30-50 people attend.  I’m not sure what your initial goal was and you ended up having around 280 people show up.  I believe you had to turn people away if my understanding is correct.  Walk us through the okay, I’m hoping to get 50 people here to I have to send people away and hope they return next year.  How did that metamorphosis?

Marketing for Your Conference

PHIL:  Well, first and foremost, as I said earlier I’m not the best marketer in the world.  I’ll be honest with you.  I’m not a sales guy.  I’m not a marketing guy, but what I sensed was an energy from the community.  This community was ready for this.  They were looking for an excuse to get together and really that’s what I provided.

From the outset, I really just tapped into the market that was ready.  I could have put together the worst thing in the world and people still would’ve showed up.  I would’ve had more than 50 people there, I feel like.  What I feel like the good things I feel like I did was first off I put together a decent looking website so I had an on-line presence.  These are bloggers so you have to have an on-line presence for these people to associate to.

Secondly, I started an email list from day one.  I said I don’t have ticket sales yet.  I can’t ask people to register so when people hit this site for the first time I have to capture that email.  I have to say if you want to be a part of this, sign up for the email list and you’ll get all the information.  You’ll help build this event.  You’ll help create what we are trying to build.  I took that posture.  I didn’t take the posture of this is my event.  You can come attend my event.  The posture I took was help me build something that we all want to be a part of.  I think that message was well received in the community.  They came to the site.  They signed up for the email list.  By the end of that first week, without even having a ticket to sell or even a location picked out- well, I had a location in general.  I had Chicago area, but I didn’t have a specific location or a date.  By the end of that first week we had 100 people sign up for the email list.  At that point I said this is more than a 50-blogger deal because these people were serious about learning about this event and being a part of it.  I really didn’t market it.  I sent a couple of emails out.  I told a couple of forums about it.  Other than that, I didn’t mass email a bunch of people.  I didn’t advertise for it.

Like I said the community was ready.  That was the first big thing, the email campaign and the capture of that.  Then it slowly built from there.  I allowed people to sign up for the Facebook page and then I created the Twitter hash tag.  I did these things which bloggers are comfortable with.  Bloggers are naturally going to talk about an event like this.  We’re bloggers, right?  I didn’t necessarily need press because we are the press now.  The message was getting out slowly.  I just slowly got people involved, helped to build the conference.  We picked the date.  We narrowed down the hotel.  We did a pre-conference content survey.  I did all these things which helped engage the pre-conference community and get them energized about it and thinking about it before hand.  It was like the best email marketing campaign I have ever imagined driving.  That worked out to my benefit or all of our benefit.  When I eventually opened up registration I rewarded those people who were on that email list with a discount code, only a limited number of those so those people signed up really quick.  It just kept blowing up from that point.

JEFF:  Like you said locking in J.D. who I refer to as the god father of personal finance bloggers, I think what really impressed me was I started seeing the speaker panel really evolve.  The two names that really resonated with me personally were Ramit Sethi, IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com and also Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income who is not so much a personal finance blogger, but if you are in the blogosphere you know Pat Flynn.  Everyone knows Pat Flynn now.  What was it like contacting those and others that weren’t really in the niche and getting them excited to fly in to speak to personal finance bloggers?

Outside the Box Invites

PHIL:  That’s a good question.  You’ve picked up on that well.  Pat, I did have to contact.  He’s not necessarily in our niche, but he is a rising star and you know that.  This guy is the real deal.  We both know that.  I said if there is someone outside of our community to come who do I want to come and he is the first person I thought of.  He is very, very, tactical, real, personable, and I felt like he could do a good job of presenting real information.  That’s what I wanted at this conference.  No fluff, no people pushing something, not a lot of high-level stuff.  I wanted people that could give me tactical information.  He is one of the first people I thought of outside of our niche.  I emailed Pat and I said, “Pat, the community really likes you.  I know a lot of people in the personal finance community comment on your blog.  We all respect what you’re doing.  We’d love to have you there.”

So I presented it to him that way and that our community wanted him there, which I feel was not a false statement.  Then we just worked it out to where he could come.  He was very on board from day one.  I caught him at the right time.  You want to catch these rising stars early on.  He is speaking at Blog World Expo so he wants to make this the next phase for him, and I think we were a good initial stepping stone for him to take his own personal brand to the next level.  He completely performed.  This guy had never really been on stage before and he closed our conference out, which is this great inspirational, motivational message that left everyone leaving that conference just inspired and ready to take on the world.

JEFF:  I think I mentioned this to you before attending, but if there was one guy who I was intimidate in meeting, for me it was Ramit.  I don’t know why that is.  I’m actually writing a blog post to just express the reasoning.  Ramit is just one of those guys that you might have a point, but he’ll take your point and make it that much better and make it seem as it was his point originally where you’re like oh yeah, that’s a great idea when it really wasn’t his idea initially; it was yours.  He’s uber successful.  He has a great blog.  He’s making bookoo bucks, New York Times Best Seller.  Was it any different approaching him with coming to the conference.

PHIL:  What I did with Ramit was I reached out to some of my contacts and I think at some point they mentioned it to Ramit.  We just eventually connected on the idea.  He was just as fired up.  It’s something he has wanted to do for a long time.  He actually helped craft some of the final details of the event, which I thought were spot on.  He’s a great blogger, and he’s a great idea guy and marketer as well.  He helped put some of the final touches on the event, which is really great.  He did an excellent job as well I think of bringing his message as our keynote speaker and also helping throw the party on Saturday night.

Two events, the key note was great and then the party just really made the conference.  Like you said, really the party you wanted to be a part of and go to.  Yeah, I owe a lot to those guys for just wanting to be a part of it.  Ramit really added a lot to it.  I guess I’ve had my own intimidation or whatever, but I guess just after conversations with him and learning more about him he is a really nice, practical guy.  He’s like, five years younger than me so I can’t be intimidated that long.

JEFF:  How old is he?  I don’t even know.

PHIL:   I think he like, 27 or something.  He’s a whiz kid dude.  He really made the event great.

JEFF:  So you got some of the key personal finance bloggers to attend.  You got some outside the niche to bring it all together.  Now let’s flip the script and talk about how obviously to put on a conference of this magnitude takes some money.  People were buying tickets so that was good, but then sponsorships also play another key part in making this a truly successful conference.  Can you share some of those struggles or learning processes of approaching sponsors and just getting them fired up for this first annual Financial Blogger Conference.

How to Get Sponsors For Your Conference

PHIL:  Sure.  Sure.  When I announced it the advertisers and cooperate bloggers who are probably well entrenched in our niche already, a lot of those just reached out to me directly and said hey, we don’t know what you’re going to have involved with this yet, what opportunities but we want to be a part of it.  So from day one I had people interested because they knew our community was buzzing about it.  So you had those types and for them it was just finding the right fit in terms of where they fit in for the sponsorship.

Secondly, I reached out to some of my business connections.  Over the years I have built relationships with financial companies and I had some connections there and reached out to a lot of those.  Many of those people came through for me and really pushed this idea of this conference up to their higher corporate levels to make sure they could participate in this and be a part of it financially and help support us.  I really owe a lot to those people and those relationships.

Then I think next what I did was when I finally initially set up the sponsorship opportunities, what I did was created two phases.  I said we’re growing this thing organically okay so if we just have this conference with 100 people this is what it will look like.  This is our financial needs.  I almost created two budgets, but if this thing keeps growing and blows up and we need a big hotel and we need all these other things then here’s what that conference level looks like.  What I did was I created these opportunities and I said these are going to exist and be available until we reach 100 tickets sales.  When we reach 100 tickets sales this next level of sponsorships is going to open up, right.  The ideas for these sponsorships I basically just stole from other conferences.  I just went and looked at other conferences and what they were doing, what opportunities they were giving to sponsors.  Things like being on the lanyard, being on the tote bag, being the gold sponsor so really you have big coverage everywhere getting to speak on stage.

What else?  Having an exhibit table, things like that.  I just explored these different avenues and I also talked with people.  Some of them were like I don’t want to do any of that.  I just want to throw a party.  Let me throw a party.  I found what worked for different companies, right.  It was a little flexible.  This was my first year and I was just glad that they were involved.  I was very giving in terms of here’s the opportunities.  Oh, you want to do this.  Okay, we can do that too and we can do that too.  As we grew it I really didn’t know.  I had my budget and hotel expenses are up there.  Food, AV (audio/visual), those things at hotels; they have you captured in one place.

JEFF:  What did you say your food bill was, like 37?  Did I read that correctly?

How Much Does Throwing a Conference Really Cost?

PHIL:  Yeah, it was like, 37 grand and AV on top of that was another 15 grand.  For AV!  And you can’t get around those expenses.  Once you’re at that hotel you can’t go with anybody else or you can’t bring in an outside group or anything like that.  You have to work with the hotel people.  They are only going to be as flexible as they need to.  They know they have you where they want you.  Anybody who has done their own wedding or done their own event is aware of this.  The hotel market is just got you where they want you.

Anyway, I really appreciate our sponsors who did come forward and that was a learning process for me.  I am not a sales guy like I said earlier so I just tried to work with the people who I had relationships with and I just tried to present it matter-of-factly and tried to present an opportunity that would be valuable to them.  I got some feed back early on like well, it’s just a smallish conference.  It’s 100 people or so.  Yeah, but we are not just 100 consumers.

Essentially, we are 100 press organizations, right.  We are 100 media.  We all have these huge audiences.  What I did was I took some of that information and tried to show that to these companies.  I took our subscriber numbers.  I took our Twitter followers.  I really took our whole on-line influence and tried to present that versus here’s 100 people.  A typical conference, yeah it’s 100 people attending to learn about whatever, but we have huge audiences and big influences on line.  When I presented it to these companies that way it was like okay, we have to be involved with this.  The companies who got it, they got it and they got in early.  They got really cheap sponsorships.  As the conference grew people started saying oh, this is something I need to be a part of.

Next year it’s not going to be…… well I don’t want to say that, but I really appreciate our sponsors being involved early on in this first year.  They took a chance on me.  It’s not like this was some corporation putting on a sponsorship for the bloggers.  It was me.  It was under my LLC.  A lot of our community helped build it, but I did it basically from my house here.  There was a lot of financial risk.  I signed a big contract with a hotel basically putting me on the hook for 25 grand if this thing didn’t happen, so I really appreciate those guys putting a lot of faith in me and really wanting to be a part of it.  I thought they did great at the conference.  It didn’t overshadow the conference.  I felt like it was a good mix.  I’m open to your feedback on that whether we even need them in the future.  Should I raise ticket prices to a level where we don’t need sponsorships, or do we want cheap ticket prices to allow more bloggers to come and then have some of the cost subsidized by sponsor companies?

JEFF:  I think the sponsorship there was almost perfect.  It was there.  It was there if you wanted to ask questions.  It wasn’t too pushy.  There was that one sponsor that kind of got a razzing on stage.  Poor guy.  For the most part I thought it was good.  Some of them did approach me during some of the after hours, but it wasn’t too sales-y.  It wasn’t too bad.  It was just more of an introduction.  I think especially with a lot of personal finance bloggers buying into the frugality of things, they would prefer to buy cheaper tickets and have some sponsorships there.  I’m from a different mindset.  I would’ve paid more.  I think whatever I paid- $89 is what the price was, maybe I got a discount- I would’ve paid more.  I would’ve paid more to be there because like you said I was yearning for this.  I was ready for this to happen and I was more than excited.  I would’ve paid another $200 for it to last two more days.

PHIL:  I’ll send you an invoice.

JEFF:  I’ll direct that somewhere else, but anyway.  I think the sponsors almost have to be.  I think also a lot of these companies are a pivotal point of the personal finance blogs community.  A lot of them are on-line banks or credit scoring programs or whoever else was there.  These were real life products and services that people need.  Other than one, it wasn’t as if they were there trying to sell you something that had nothing to do with our niche whatsoever.  I was going to ask a little bit about on the hook for the hotel, the 25 grand.  Obviously, you have to take a big swallow and hope that it all works out.  I was asking some people some feedback on the conference and even from my point of view I never saw anything go wrong.  I was always looking around seeing if you were nervous or freaking out, maybe the audio wasn’t working or a microphone wasn’t working.  I never noticed one hitch through the entire conference.  I think a lot of people just want to know did it work out exactly the way you looked at it or that you hoped it would?  Was there any glitches and if there were how did you overcome those?  Shoot from the hip.

PHIL:  That’s a good question.  I would say overall my vision for the conference came true and then some.  I had this picture in my head of how it would work out logistically, what the people would be doing in different phases and how things would build upon themselves.  It all really worked out.  I have really no complaints.  At a certain point you have to put faith in the hotel.  They’re a big part of this, putting on the food, making sure the tables are set up.  The hotel did an excellent job of making sure everything was in place where it needed to be.  The staff, about a month before the conference I decided I needed basically full-time staff that weekend and people who live close to me so I could connect with them a few weeks before to really work out all the details face to face and really get this conference literally scripted.

That’s what we did; we built a script for the conference.  That’s what you have to do with any event like this that has a lot of people moving around from thing to thing, especially on Saturday where we had a lot of stuff crammed into one day.  Some people said too much, but I wanted it to be action packed.  I wanted people to get a lot of content over a short amount of time.  I didn’t want a lot of fluff and so when someone was on stage they were presenting their best stuff.  There wasn’t a lot of dead air up there.  What we needed to do was move those people on and off the stage quickly.  That happened well.

We had a couple technical things go wrong.  Some of the slides got messed up for some of the speakers.  We didn’t do a good job of communicating Ramit Sehti and Justin Premick from AWeber’s session on Saturday at 1:00 so we had some people still left at the ask-the-expert tables who wanted to also be at that and they didn’t realize they were going on at the same time.  We probably didn’t do a good job of communicating what the Saturday night party was.  I called it an after party.  I assumed that meant people would know that it was a party and that it would be kind of a fun atmosphere, not a laid back atmosphere.  We didn’t communicate that it was a happening scene at this club.

Other than that, I think maybe just a few small things here and there, but my staff did such a good job of picking up those little pieces that occasionally did fall through.  They did a good job of fixing those for me.  I felt like my role for the weekend was to remain calm.  I said to myself before the weekend no matter what happens you be the calm guy.  You be the guys that says it’s going to work out and it’s going to be okay, because I had the confidence that everyone their just wanted to be together.  They just wanted to be in the same room together.  I literally could have rented a big high school gymnasium or something for five hours and everyone would’ve loved me that I did this thing.  The bar was really low for me in terms of making the event happen.  I think that’s a big part of it.  Hopefully there won’t be a sophomore slump next year and hopefully everything won’t fall apart next year.

Yeah, so there were a few minor things, but for the most part I feel lucky that it went off as well as it did.  That’s a testament to the community and the staff we had involved and the hotel and everyone played their part.  I can only do so much.  Once this thing gets set in motion it’s going to happen, but for the most part people know what to expect at a conference, what to do, how to conduct themselves, and people did a good job of that.  That’s why it went off so effectively I think.

JEFF:  So you kind of alluded to it a little bit.  FinCon 2011 huge success.  I’m already ready for FinCon 2012.  From your stand point do you expect it to get bigger?  Do you want to keep it a certain level?  Also, how do you bring that same energy, same excitement so people want to come back for next year?

Managing Your Conference’s Growth

PHIL:  Sure.  Well, as far as keeping the same energy, I feel like we left this previous one wanting more.  I don’t know if you felt that way.  I know a lot of people were telling me I just wish it was longer.  I just wish it was longer.  Then there was a lot of people who missed out and didn’t get to come and I’ve heard nothing but man, I’m going to be there next year for sure.  I’m going to be there.  I feel like there is this left-over energy from the first one that will extend to number two.  I feel like we’ve got that going for us.  Not only that but I feel like this community is naturally wanting more of this.  I feel like the energy will be there for next year.

As far as next year goes, I definitely want to do it.  I am planning to do it.  The post conference survey showed- I’ll give you a little preview- there are four cities that scored high on the post-conference survey that people want to have this thing at next year.  Obviously we can have it in Chicago again.  A lot of people like that location, but if we did it in Chicago it’s going to be down town.  People want it to be closer to the city.  Other cities that scored high were Las Vegas of course.  Everyone thinks of Las Vegas when they think of a conference.  If we did it in Vegas though I don’t know if it would maintain that tight-knit community feel.  I feel like people would maybe want to go do things too much while they are there, but Vegas is a good alternative.  It’s a cheap hotel, cheap flight.  San Diego also scored high and also Dallas scored high.  Dallas where I’m from, I think people were sort of paying homage to me with that vote and saying it would be okay if we had it in the Dallas area next year where I live, where I could maybe create an event that’s maybe a little more special, a little more unique and put my local touch on it.

JEFF:  Yeah, and you have In-and-Out in Dallas, correct?

PHIL:  That’s right, man we do.  Yeah.

JEFF:  Got my vote.

PHIL:  Okay.  Alright, good to know.  For next year I mentioned how we left it with people wanting more.  I feel like it maybe needs to be extended by a day and spread out a little bit.  I feel like we maybe crammed too much into 2 1/2 days.

JEFF:  I know for me I didn’t get there until Friday afternoon and I missed the Phil’s Friends, the Love Drop thing and I kicked myself for it.  If I could do it over again I would’ve got there Thursday evening and just networked a little bit Friday.  I would’ve loved for it to be three days.  If you did that for next year I would do everything in my power to make sure that I could be there.

PHIL:  Yeah, so that’s what I’m thinking is three days at least and then that means we need to keep the hotel cheap, right.  I’m going to do everything I can to keep the hotel at a reasonable price, of course the ticket price at a reasonable price, except for you.  I’ll charge you an extra $200.  Then we’ll get together and we’ll have fun.  I think people want to do it again so I’m excited to be in this place.  I’m honored that I can have a chance to plan it.

JEFF:  On behalf of me and the personal finance blogging community, we thank you for putting on this party, this conference for us.  Is there anything you want to close with the conference or anything?

PHIL:  Just thank you.  Thank you to the community for wanting to be a part of it and for putting so much energy behind it and helping me to plan it.  Thank you for making it a great event.  It’s an event where everyone contributed both on stage and off from our community.  I would just say a challenge to everyone out there; think about what you want to get out of next year’s conference, whether you want to be a presenter, whether you want to play some other type of role or what you want to get out of it as an attendee.  Let’s make this our event that we look forward to every year that helps not only us individually but helps our whole community grow together and ultimately the consumer on the financial end of things to be more educated about how to handle their finances.  That would be what I would say.  Get ready for next year.  Let’s do it again.

JEFF:  I’m ready baby, I’m ready.  Phil, PT, appreciate the time and we’ll definitely check you again.  I appreciate all that you’ve done for the conference and the community and all that stuff.  I appreciate it, buddy.  We’ll talk to you again soon.

PHIL:  Alright Jeff.  Thanks man.

JEFF:  See you, buddy.

P.S.  Did you know Phil can rap? 

Warning: If you don’t think mohawks or budgets are sexy, you might not like this interview.

Just kidding. You, in fact, are going to LOVE this interview.

J. Money who runs the cleverly named blog Budgets Are Sexy was awesome enough to do a Skype interview (His first ever!!!) with me. We talk about his journey of blogging about personal finance, dealing with power outages, and his awesome hairdo.

Kickin' It with J. Money

More importantly, J. shares the story about his philanthropy project Love Drop.

Ladies and gentleman, Love Drop is one of the coolest projects that I’ve ever encountered. J., his biz partner, Nate, and the entire Love Drop team are making huge impacts on people’s lives.

Here are just a few of the many lives that they have touched so far.

The very first drop:

The first drop I saw: (Have tissues handy)

The latest drop (#8):

Get involved in Love Drop today!

Love Drop is by far one of the coolest and heartfelt projects I’ve seen. If you want to get involved, go here and start touching people’s lives today.

Get involved and share some love

Below is the transcript from the interview…..

This is Jeff Rose of Good Financial Cents and Soldieroffinance.com doing something fun and different today. As you can see I’m actually sitting in a make-up studio with Emily Eddington who is a WSIL TV3 morning news anchor. This is actually a different, flip-the-script-type thing. Typically, I am on the morning news being interviewed by Emily. I have to wake up quite early for that, which she does every single day. Today though, I wanted to do something different and I wanted to interview her for something that she does. It’s a passion of hers. It involves some pink. It involves a lot of makeup, some lipstick, gloss, mascara, and some other makeup terms I’m probably not quite familiar with. What I really wanted to do first is just give an intro of how I stumble upon Emily and this passion of hers that she is doing. I had been on the News 3 for a few times being interviewed and one of her co-anchors had mentioned to me her Youtube channel. I had no idea what he was talking about. I knew of Emily as being the morning News 3 anchor, but did not know of her being a makeup expert.

I went to her Youtube channel with curiosity and saw that she had hundreds of videos uploaded – I was blown away! What really caught my attention was she had just up uploaded a video not 17 hours prior and it already had between 15-20,000 views. I thought, “Oh my gosh, this is incredible!” To actually put a brand new video on there and to have that many people watch it in that short of time span, I knew that she was on to something. She had a very strong following, and I was just intrigue to learn more about it. That’s why I wanted to come today and just find more about Emily or her Beauty Broadcast, which is her Youtube channel.

Beauty Broadcast YouTube Channel

How It Began

JEFF: First, I guess I’ll just start, when did you get interested in makeup and when did that start for you?

EMILY: For me, makeup was just one of those natural things that girls get into around high school age. I was always interested in it. Anytime, I went with mom to the drugstore or to Wal-Mart, I would start to get this interest in trying something new and picking something up, seeing how I liked it, and the whole trial and error of makeup was really something I got hooked on. I remember helping my friends out in college, doing other people’s makeup just became one of those things that I started to do. Then, slowly I guess I started to realize what a makeup community there is online. A lot of that centers around Youtube. I started to stumble upon that, and that’s really when I got going.

JEFF: You had mentioned you watching some Youtube videos of some other makeup artist, and you thought you could do this.

EMILY: Yeah, I was just looking up information on a product. I Googled something and a video came up, so I watched that. I’m like, “This is great to not just go through and read something, but to hear someone explain it.” I don’t know. The information stayed with me a little bit more, and I just really took an interest in that, watched a lot of videos before I thought maybe I will try this. I was back in my apartment before we moved here and just got a really cheap little camera. The audio was bad. The video quality was not that good, but I just decided to start making a few videos and slowly built up a following on there.

JEFF: Can you actually watch some of those earlier videos? Are they still live?

EMILY: They’re still on there. Some people take down their earlier stuff and kind of try to pretend like that never happen, but I think it is sort of cool to see how it’s grown and see where it began and let people see that people don’t start out perfect on Youtube. It does take some time to build it up.

JEFF: I think a lot of what you’ve done with your Youtube channel is a testament of you just have to go for it. You have to try it. You have to just jump right into it and learn as you go. I can apply that with the blog, Good Financial Cents to where I had no idea what I was doing. You just start. You watch, read a lot of blogs. I read a lot of tutorials and self taught myself. If I go back and look at some of my earlier articles and just how I did it, how it was formatted. I don’t want to say it’s embarrassing, but what you know now you can go back into the tools you have so that neat.

A Very Cool Self Portrait

Building Her Tribe

EMILY: A lot of people will ask me how do you build up that following? How do you get people to come to your site and watch? I think some people expect that that’s going to happen in a matter of a few videos. Then they’re going to know, “Hey, I can do this or I can’t do it.” I kind of think of it as people trying to maybe open up a store and not having the shelves fully stocked. You just need to make a lot of videos and put a lot of stuff out there and just consistently do it. Then people will start to catch on and want to tweet it or link it or share it with their friends and give them something that they want to share.

JEFF: You mentioned earlier about how you got to 2,000 subscribers on your channel. Can you remember as far as how many videos that took or how much time had passed to actually get to that first level?

EMILY: Not for sure, but I’m thinking it was a little under a year before I got to that point. That was really exciting with every person that subscribed how exciting that was thinking, “Wow, this is really catching on!” Becoming a partner was sort of the next big step there.

JEFF: So to actually become a Youtube partner you have to generate so many views on your channel, correct?

EMILY: Yeah, you kind of need to show Youtube, I guess that you’re getting a decent amount of views and your making videos consistently so they don’t have the idea that once you make partner you’re not going to uphold your end of the deal. That allows them to post advertisements on your site and you can get some ad revenue if people click on those ads.

No Excuses. Just Get Started

JEFF: Actually, that was another thing I wanted to get to. I think the one thing I love about having a blog or any venture for that matter is if it is a passion of yours and it’s something that’s like a hobby almost. You do it and it’s not like work, it’s just because you want to do it because you enjoy doing it. To actually make revenue from that, that’s like living the dream. When you started Beauty Broadcast, that wasn’t your intent, that was just a side wind fall that came about, correct?

EMILY: Yeah, it was really like that hobby that I wanted outside of my job. Doing news related stuff, while I really enjoy that, you’re not covering always stories that are maybe so uplifting or really leave you pumped up at the end of the day, if you know what I mean. I just wanted that hobby back. I’m out of college. I wasn’t doing cheerleading anymore. I wasn’t doing some of the things that I was used to doing, and I just wanted that thing to funnel some energy into and potentially help people. What keeps me doing it and what makes me keep feeling the need to make a new video every couple days is that I hear so much feedback from people that it really has helped them in their everyday life, so that’s what’s been really fun.

"The Office"

Some Pretty Impressive Stats

JEFF: I know with the blog anytime I get an email from someone and they say, “Thank you for putting together that information to help me make that important financial decision,” that’s the payback. That’s the beauty of being able to do that and actually put information out there for people to help them out. That’s great.

She's Got a Mad Following!

(The screen shot was taken over the weekend and the interview was done in January.  She’s gained almost 10,000 subscribers in two months!)

Some of the stats I hadn’t shared yet with her channel are you have over 105,000 subscribers, which I can’t even digest that. That’s just insane to me to have that many people that are dedicated, that they want the latest and greatest Beauty Broadcast. Then, you’ve had over 14 million visits on all your videos combined. Insane! That is tremendous. It just shows to have a true passion and having a want to do it and what the results can be.

EMILY: Yeah, I have made a lot of videos to do that too. I’m well up over 500 videos now. Like I said, I’m not one of those real Youtube sensations that have put out some crazy video of their cat doing something amazing and then everybody in the world tunes in to watch it. Over the course of a lot of videos word has spread I think. I do hear from a lot of people that say a girl finds it, they tell their mom, their mom tells the rest of their family and then their all communicating about what they just saw or what they are going to try and go out and find based on what I’ve talked about, so that’s really cool.

JEFF: It is cool. I remember my first month that I had my blog I was so excited when I cracked 25 visits for the day and how crazy that was. Then you get to 100 visits per day and it’s like you’re on top of the world.

EMILY: That’s the neat thing about all this web-related stuff is that you do have hard numbers that you can look at and see exactly where it’s going. It’s very exciting and, I think really encouraging for people who do this kind of thing to be able to see word is spreading and it’s going somewhere.

What’s the Next Step?

JEFF: Do you have any next steps or any projections of where you see Beauty Broadcast going to the next level?

Action Shot

EMILY: One of the great things that has helped me so has been getting to be part of that on-the-rise pole. It was the first one that Youtube had done, and they asked me to be part of that. That gave me a jump in viewers and a little more exposure. I think more people were finding me that weren’t already in this just for makeup, but were stumbling upon the channel, just outsiders, I think. From there, I just hoped to continue making videos at the rate I am now. I try to put out three or four ever week and just continue doing the blogging and see where it goes. I do love it, and it does consume a lot of my time outside of my already full-time job, but like you said when you enjoy it, it doesn’t seem like really work. It’s more like you’re just fueling that hobby that you love.

JEFF: Just for people that maybe are interesting to maybe doing a Youtube channel or blog, I know me personally when I first started my blog it was almost a secondary full-time job. Just having to learn how to do it and all the tips and tricks, and setting up a camera and learning how to edit. Now where I have kind of mastered the craft, I can probably do it in probably 10, maybe 15 hours depending on how much content I’m putting out. What would you say for you doing 3-4 videos per week how much time that takes up?

EMILY: Strangely, it’s started taking me more time to produce my videos just because I’ve gotten a little more in depth with editing them. While I’ve got plenty of ideas floating through my head and the ideas video to video- usually a subscriber will say, “Hey, can you do something about this or I had a question about this.”- I’ve always got the ideas coming. That started cranking out faster. When it comes down to actually sitting down and putting the video together, I’m trying to get more creative with the process and that’s consumed a little more time. From the time that I sit down here to shoot something to the time that it’s edited and online, it could be five hours. I’m starting to do it in HD, so everything is slow on my computer now. Time consuming, but fun.

JEFF: I’m not sure if you’ve read, but Tim Ferriss has his book “Four-hour Workweek” and then Gary Vaynerchuk’s book called “Crush It”. Gary talks a lot about your passion and when it’s your passion it doesn’t matter what you do because you enjoy it. With Tim Ferriss, his big thing with the “Four-hour Workweek” the concept is you spend four hours doing stuff you don’t want to do, but if you’re spending 30, 40, 50 hours a week doing Beauty Broadcast then time flies by because you enjoy the whole process.

EMILY: Oh yeah! I’ll sit down, start doing something, turn around and be like, “How many hours have just past here that I’ve been doing this?” But yeah, I like it.

JEFF: Anything else you want to add about the channel or anything else you want to say?

EMILY: Thank you for asking to talk to me about it. It’s great to have you here and be in my pink room with me. I just thank anybody that has stumbled upon my channel and letting me know what they want to see because that is again what drives my content, is people telling me what videos they want. One of the biggest questions I get is, “How do you come up with video #515 or whatever?” It is from people just giving me ideas, so that’s where it comes from.

JEFF: That’s great. If you want more from Emily, you can go to her Youtube channel, which is Beauty Broadcast. You can also follow her on Twitter at Emilynoel83 and then she also has a corresponding blog, beautybroadcast.net. I will have some links here so you can see that. I appreciate the time and hopefully I can walk out of here without having any mascara or makeup on.

EMILY: We’ll work on that after.

JEFF: Sounds good. Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you next time.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing

You’ve been waiting in long lines and you’ve finally made it to the cashier.  You finally have the gift that you’ve been on the hunting for having been in every store in the area.  Luckily, you spotted the deal of the decade in the newspaper and you feel really proud of your accomplishment as you’re pulling out your wallet to pay.

The cashier then asks you, “Do you want to purchase the extended warranty on that?”  Crap.  Another sales pitch.  Or is it?

I’ve often wondered if extended sales warranties are worth it.   When I was in college, I had a certain Pentax camera that I was fond of (yeah, I’m dating myself here a bit).  For an extra $30 – if I recall correctly – I could buy an extended warranty that would allow me to bring it back directly to the store to swap it out immediately.   I was sold.

And you know what?  It paid off.  While on a hiking trip, I slipped and busted my camera’s lens.  Sure enough, the retailer took it back no questions asked.  Score for me.

As I get older now, I start to question if the newer extended warranties are really worth it.   What is also a growing trend our third-party extended warranties.  In some cases, third-party warranties might be cheaper and easier to claim.  Don’t just take my word for it though.

I had a chance to interview Steve Abernethy, CEO of SquareTrade.  SquareTrade’s mission is to provide excellent and affordable warranty coverage to consumers. Our warranties are offered by many fine consumer-oriented retailers such as Amazon.com, Crutchfield and Buy.com.  Their site claims to offer warranties up to 70% lower than their competitors.

I did a quick tour of their site and for a recent item that I purchased – my Flip Ultra HD camera – at Best Buy the extended warranty would cost $22.98 vs. $19.99 at Square Trade – for a savings of 14.9%.

I was curious to learn more about SquareTrade and extended warranties so I asked Steve the following questions.   Introducing Steve……

1 What’s the biggest misconception regarding in-store warranty policies?

Most stores’ salespeople want you to believe that you don’t have a choice on warranties. Ironically, they offer 20 TVs but you only have 1 warranty choice at the checkout. They also want you to believe that you have 1 chance to buy at the counter, with no ability to research, and that their offer is your only chance at protecting your device.

You do have a choice. Providers like SquareTrade allow you to research and buy without pressure, for much lower prices usually.  You can also make more informed decisions – compare prices, read customer reviews, and understand what is actually covered by the contract.  Most of all, you have up to 30 days to decide if a warranty is right.

2Are there any times or products that it may make sense for?

Warranties make the most sense when:

3Tell me a little bit about third party warranties and how they came to exist?

SquareTrade recognized consumers were paying too much for warranties and getting mediocre service. We realized there was an enormous opportunity to create a more sensible service with much greater consumer controls.

SquareTrade also saw a huge opportunity to use the internet to be more open to consumers vs. being opaque and hard to research like the status quo.

SquareTrade believes that warranties are no different from other products – but they are sold by stores in a way that makes it so that consumers don’t really have this knowledge. Therefore, the stores don’t have to offer competitive prices, nor do they have any incentive to deliver amazing service.

So SquareTrade built its whole service around allowing consumers to research and easily rate us (good or bad) for others to truly understand the real service experience. This is how consumers buy everything today, so why not warranties? The status quo has made research really hard as it exposes their service as dreadfully slow and hassle filled.

We also saw the internet as critical to do price research. And finally we saw the internet as a better way to help consumers store, manage and find their warranties vs. losing the paperwork in a shoe box.

4Who is the ideal client for your company? How can they know that will honor the policy?

Any consumer who has ever considered a warranty at the store should know about SquareTrade.  Anyone who does their research will see SquareTrade is both dramatically less expensive and a much better service than the store warranty.

We believe in transparency and make it very easy for customers to review our service for others to see.  A customer can google “SquareTrade Reviews” and see what tens of thousands of other SquareTrade customers – who have experienced our claim service – have said about it.

You can read our reviews on sites like:

• Reseller Ratings:  http://www.resellerratings.com/store/SquareTrade
• NexTag: http://www.nextag.com/SquareTrade~3300135zzzreviewsz1zmainz17-htm
• Google Product Reviews: http://www.google.com/products/seller?zmi=squaretrade.com
• iTunes App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/warranty-this-device-squaretrade/id340816768?mt=8

5Are there any “buyer bewares” that consumers should know about third party warranties?

Most warranties that you buy at the store are actually administered by third party companies – they are just white labeled by the store, so you think you are buying the store’s brand.  Consumers should be cautious when buying these warranties

3 things a consumer should ask about a warranty:

1. Does it have a service guarantee? Most warranties don’t guarantee speed.  You may be without your laptop for 2 months while they track down a part.  SquareTrade has a 5-day service guarantee – if your item isn’t fixed, replaced, or reimbursed within 5 business days, we haven’t lived up to our standard of service and we will refund you the cost of your warranty.
2. What kind of paperwork is required? Most warranties require tons of paperwork.  Some even required a notarized affidavit to file a claim.  SquareTrade requires zero paperwork – all of your information is stored online.  We even make it easy to store your proof of purchase online, so you never have to worry about digging up your item receipt.
3. What is actually covered? Many warranties have hidden gotchas.  Some don’t cover shipping fees to the depot.  Some don’t cover failures from a power surge.  Best Buy’s accidental damage protection plan covers spills, but not full immersion – so if you’ve dropped your phone in the sink, you’re out of luck.  SquareTrade makes it very clear what is covered – including all of the above.

6Closing thoughts?

We are warranties for the 21st century.  We make it extremely easy for customers to take care of their warranty online.  From the time of purchase, we make it easy to find what other customers are saying about SquareTrade – both the good and the bad.  We also help them compare prices so they know they’re getting the best deal.

We then make it easy to do everything online – store their receipt, file a claim, transfer their warranty, cancel their warranty, view their contract.  It’s all there, so there’s never any paperwork required.  Other extended warranties require significant paperwork to be dug up, some even require a notarized affidavit from a consumer to file a claim!

We are also the only warranty company with a 5-day service guarantee.  We don’t believe it’s reasonable for you to have to wait for more than 5 days for service.  If it takes more than 5 days, we will refund you the cost of your warranty in addition to your claim – we haven’t delivered on our promise of great service, so you shouldn’t have to pay for it.

Thanks for Steve for the interview! If you’re a techy like myself, it won’t hurt to price shop SquareTrade vs. your other retailer.  I”m always about saving a few buck here and there and I’m sure you are, too.

SquareTrade is not endorsed or affiliate by LPL Financial.

photo credit: JVCAmerica

Entrepreneur and marketing stud David Siteman Garland is the Founder of The Rise To The Top, The #1 Non-Boring Resource For Building Your Business Smarter, Faster, Cheaper and has an upcoming book with that title . He writes/hosts RISE, a daily online web show for entrepreneurs and marketers, and The Rise To The Top TV show on ABC.  This guy does it all and he hasn’t even turned 30 yet.  On top of that, I’ve even heard that Chuck Norris is slightly scared of him.  Chuck – if you’re reading this – that’s just what I heard.  Don’t hurt the messenger.

I had the pleasure of meeting David at one of his “Rise” Entrepreneurial lunches up in St. Louis and I’m here to say that HE IS LEGIT.  I was so pumped to meet him, that I filmed my own thoughts on what it takes to become an entrepreneur…..while I was driving.  Kids, don’t try that at home.  This guy is a firecracker and he knows his stuff.  David was nice enough to answer some questions with anticipation of his upcoming book Smarter, Faster, Cheaper.  Just in case you were curious, even though the book isn’t out (but should be by the time you read this), I pre-ordered it a few months ago.  Yeah, I’m that excited.

1. David, can you share a little about your background and what led you to becoming “the source” for small business marketing and entrepreneurship?

My background is a crazy one with a common theme of turning passions and interests into profitable businesses. After graduating from college with no job, I decided to take a risk and jump into the random world of inline hockey and help start a pro league in the Midwest. It was essentially like getting a two-year-real-world-entrepreneurial-MBA filled with awesome highs and brutal lows. After two years with the league, I moved onto my true calling which was the creation of The Rise To The Top. The vision was pretty simple in retrospect: Create a non-boring resource for entrepreneurs to learn from those that are making it happen in unique ways through interviews. It started as a local TV show in St. Louis and had has evolved to a web show where over 100,000 people tune in monthly to hear from some of the world’s most unique and interesting entrepreneurs. I’m lucky and proud to say that it has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and also led to a book deal with Wiley Publishing.

2. You’ve interviewed A TON of entrepreneurs.  Can you identify THE ONE that impacted you the most where you were able to implement some of their ideas in your own business?

That is sort of like picking between children! I guess in terms of impact for my own business it would have to be the founder of Wine Library TV Gary Vaynerchuk. I resonate with his style and respect how he decided to tape himself drinking wine every day and build/leverage his personal brand into all kinds of amazing things. He has several hugely successful companies, but the real success is he is so excited to do what he gets to do every day. That excitement is contagious.

3. Reflecting back when you started your own business, do you have any “Home Simpson Doh!” moments that future entrepreneur’s can learn from and prevent from repeating.

Hah, tough one to answer since there are SO many. I think one of the key mistakes I made was underestimating the costs of starting a local TV show vs. a web show. A local TV show has all kinds of things you wouldn’t even think about when planning it out. An example would be closed captioning adding a few thousand dollars onto the cost. But, I think the lesson here is that if you want something bad enough, being naive and not knowing all the answers can often be a good thing. Perhaps if I would have known all of those hidden costs early on, I would have talked myself out of the idea and The Rise To The Top wouldn’t be what it is today.

4. What’s your #1 tip to an upcoming entrepreneur wanting to get their idea off the ground today?

#1 tip might sound a little cliche, but I’ve found it to be true from personal experience and also hundreds of interviews. The happiest, most interesting and fulfilled entrepreneurs follow passion as opposed to money. And that passion might not be a product. Example: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos is not in love with women’s shoes. However, he wanted to build a company with a unique culture where he was excited to go to work every day…so he did that. On top of that, don’t let the details talk you out of your idea. “How” isn’t nearly as important as “why.”

5. Okay, have to ask.  One of your clever catch phrases is, “If you want some fluff, go pet a bunny”.  Where did that originate?  And is your bunny at all related to the Energizer Bunny?

Never been asked this before! Great question. It just sort of popped out of my mouth one day on a show and it just sort of stuck like super glue. While it isn’t related to the Energizer Bunny, there WILL be t shirts made up due to popular request!

Get The Book

This book rocks!

If you want to check out David’s book, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper, go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble to pick up your copy today.  I was smart and pre-ordered my copy and got it just in time to read it over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Let me tell you, this book is IT.  For any inspiring small business owner with an entrepreneur bug, this book is for you.  David shares many great examples of every day folks that were able to follow their passion, do what they love and make money doing it. Definitely add this to your bookshelf today.

Thanks, David, for the awesome interview!

Are you a young professional that finds themselves with an advanced degree and high paying job, yet you struggle to manage your finances from day to day? If so, don’t worry; you’re not alone. My generation is unique in that we our making more than our parents ever dreamed they could, but there’s no denying that we lack certain money management skills that hinder us from financial independence. In attempt to give our generation the skills they need, Kimberly Palmer, Alpha Consumer columnist and blogger for US News & World Report, just released her book entitled Generation Earn. Her book looks to give you a plan for every big decision you’ll have to make to create a successful life—in whatever form it takes for you. Kimberly was gracious enough to sit down and answer a few questions.

1. What inspired you to become passionate about personal finance?

Personal Finance Guru Kimberly Palmer

I love how empowering money can be. It can help us to feel secure – financially but also emotionally – as well as enable us to support the causes and values that are important to us. It can let us pursue dreams like starting our own businesses or retiring early… the possibilities are endless. In pop culture and the media we focus so much on the negative side of money, but I like focusing instead on what it can do for us, instead of the ways it can be limiting.

2. How did those passions influence your book?

I was frustrated with the negative stereotype about our generation – people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, those of us usually called “gen Y” or “gen X.” We’re often told we’re bad with money and referred to as “generation debt,” but I don’t think we’re all as incompetent as we get credit for. In fact, I think the recession really inspired a lot of us to get more on top of our money. So I wanted to write a guide that would help people do that and take their money management to the next level.

3. What would you say is your mission statement for your book?

I want to help people make smart decisions so they can be financially secure, support their families, and give back to the causes they support.

4. When you look at our generation, what are some of the positives you see with managing our money?

The recession and overall green movement really helped shape us into being smarter, more frugal-minded consumers. That doesn’t mean denying ourselves pleasures, but just being more aware of how the choices we make everyday can add up. We’re more interested in researching our investments and understanding just where our money is. We also want to know about the companies we’re supporting with our purchases, such as whether they treat their workers well, support green causes, and otherwise behave ethically.

5. What’s your most crucial piece of advice for the young professional?

To save like crazy! It is shocking to hear but I really think we need to save about one-third of our income – including for retirement, emergency savings and long-term goals. That means living below our means but in exchange we get a plan for financial independence, which can provide such deep feelings of satisfaction.

He can get her book here on Amazon.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

photo credit: George Jonathan

If there is one thing that has surprised me over the years of years of being a financial planner is how much you need to know about taxes. Taxes revolve around almost everything in the financial planning process. Retirement account contributions, Roth IRA conversions, required minimum distributions are just a few of the many examples of conversations I’ve had in the past week were that beloved three letter word came up: TAX. As much as taxes do come up, I’ve always had an itch in becoming a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). I’m always jealous of the wealth of tax info that my CPA can spit out on a whim.

I know. I’m weird. Raise your hand if your like me and our jealous of someone and the tax know how.

Anyone?

Yeah, didn’t think so.

Unfortunately, as many projects as I have going right now, the thought of going down that path will have to be for another life and I’ll just continue to rely on my CPA for all the tax stuff I would ever need.

For those of you that are ambitious and are interested in becoming a CPA, I have a special treat. I released encountered someone who just passed the CPA exam I thought it would be neat for her to share her experiences. Introducing Amber….

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My name is Amber and I blog over at Blonde & Balanced. My blog discusses striking a balance in life, health, and money. Fitness and personal finance are two of my passions and I’m always trying to balance the two in my life, while also balancing a busy schedule. I absolutely adore writing and have even started doing some freelance personal finance and tax writing on the side. I’m also getting married next June, so much of my time right is spent planning the wedding. It’s a lot of work, but I must say it’s a nice change from hitting the CPA books every day after work!

1. What inspired you to want to become a CPA?

I became frustrated that I wasn’t being challenged enough at work. After college, I landed a stable full-time job. After a few years, I stopped learning anything new and my mind was basically on cruise control. At first, I thought this was awesome! But eventually, I became anxious and realized I didn’t want to stop learning in my mid-20s. I didn’t want to fall behind my colleagues or the newest waves of college graduates that were hitting the accounting scene. I also didn’t want to become pigeon-holed in my accounting expertise. I’ve been working in the same type of accounting for 5 years and I wanted to expand my skills. For an accountant, getting your CPA license is the ultimate goal, so I just decided to go for it!

2. What type of study program did you go through to take the CPA exam?

Preparing for CPA Exam

I actually purchased a older version of the Becker materials. Then, I supplemented with Wiley books. The Becker program is very expensive (around $3-4,000 brand new), but it is the best of the best. The Becker books come with pre-recorded lecture CDs that allow you to learn at your own pace. I LOVED this! And even though they were a year old, I was still able to pass all four exams on the first try. I had the Wiley books close at hand for those topics that I knew had changed over the past year (for the tax/regulation exam, for example).

3. Would you have done anything different preparing for CPA exam?

If you can share, borrow, or buy used Becker materials for the CPA exam, I would definitely recommend this. I think you can still pass if you just use Wiley or other less expensive programs, but it might be more difficult to learn the material. I don’t think I would have done anything differently – Becker and Wiley together seemed to be the best combination for me.

4. What was the hardest thing about preparing for the CPA exam?

Without a doubt, the hardest part about preparing for the exam was the amount of time I had to sacrifice. I spent many, many Friday and Saturday evenings at home with the books while my fiance was out having fun. To be blunt: It sucked! I vented about it a lot on my blog. I studied probably 10-15 hours every weekend and 1-4 hours every weekday for about a year. It was so difficult; the only thing keeping me going was the $1,000+ I had paid to take the exams. I figured I had already paid the money for the certification, I might as well pass the tests!

5. What was the hardest thing about taking the CPA exam(s)?

I’ve always been a good test taker, so I never had a problem with information overload or anything like that. So, for me, the hardest part about taking the exam was the stamina it takes to complete a four-hour test without taking one break. I remember hitting walls about 2-3 hours in and just digging really deep to focus and work my butt off for the next hour or two. My mind never stopped thinking, analyzing, calculating, etc. I never let myself do mediocre work during the exams. I put every last drop of energy into each question and essay. I remember feeling like my mind was buzzing when I left the testing center, but being mentally exhausted at the same time. My fiance would always take me out for dinner and drinks afterwards, so that was definitely something that I looked forward to!

6. Now that you have the CPA designation, what are your future plans?

Become a Certified Public Accountant

My next move is to edit my resume and put those three letters behind my name! After that, I am not 100% sure. The best part about having the certification is that so many doors open for you. I’d love to get into tax, but I still want to maintain a healthy work-life balance. I’d also like to see where my tax and personal finance writing takes me. If I could do taxes 50% of the time and write the other 50%, I’d be the happiest girl in the world. I’m currently working with several connections to see what kind of opportunities are out there. But that is just the greatest feeling – knowing that I have almost endless amounts of opportunities now.

7. Any last tips for someone wanting to become a CPA?

People always say to take the CPA right out of college. I’m not sure I agree with that. If I would have taken it right out of college, I probably would have failed because my mind was not in the right place. It was not difficult at all for me to pick up the concepts that I had learned in college that are tested on the exam. But, I would recommend taking the exam before you get married and have kids. It would be pretty difficult to study that much with kids and a husband/wife (I know there are some people that do, though!).

Also, if you can afford it or are able to buy a used version, I would go with Becker. I really do think it’s the best CPA program. (I promise I don’t work for Becker, I just know from experience. ) One last thing: You’ll have ups and downs during your study sessions. Some days you’ll think you can’t pass. I thought that SO many times. You CAN pass the exam if you put enough work into it. I was never the curve-setter or straight-A student in college, but I passed all 4 parts the first time. If you focus on the big concepts and learn them well, you’ll do great!

Thanks to Amber for doing this interview. You can read more from her at her blog Blonde and Balanced for follow her on Twitter.

photo credit: Doun Dounell

To be an excellent writer is a true craft; an art that many only hope to master one day.   For me, writing is a constant chore (I do enjoy it!) and I’m constantly envious of those that just have “it“.   One blogger/writer who, in my humble opinion, has “it” is a man named J.D. Roth. [I have to take a quick break to give a shout out to my man Les O'Dell who is co-authoring my book.  Les has "it", too.  Another man to be jealous of ] J.D. is the creator and founder of Get Rich Slowly which is one of the most recognized personal finance blogs, being nominated by Money Magazine as one of the “best money blogs” on more than one occasion.  Recently, J.D. took the plunge and added the title “published author” to his resume with his inaugural book release Your Money: The Missing Manual.  Not only is J.D. an awesome writer, but he’s also one cool and generous dude.   He graciously forwarded me a copy of his book and I’ve enjoyed pouring through it and learning some neat tips along the way.   J.D. took some time away to answer a few questions for me and I’m excited to share.

1 Most personal finance blogs begin with a journey, and the blogger shares what they have learned through their journey which you’ve an awesome job on GRS.  Out of curiosity, in writing the book, is there anything else that you have learned in the personal finance realm through your book writing journey?

I *did* learn a lot about personal finance through writing Your Money: The Missing Manual. I’m not sure most of it is interesting, though. Mainly, I was forced to dig in and learn the details about things like insurance and retirement accounts, and so on. I also had to find *actual* stats about various claims (like what the average American spends on housing, for example). I found it very frustrating that there are often contradictory sets of data out there. If you want to make a claim, you can find numbers to support it. So how are we to know what’s right?

The biggest thing I learned in writing the book, however, is that money *does* have an effect on happiness. Like many people, I’ve always believed that this isn’t the case. In fact, I’ve written a lot at Get Rich Slowly about how money and happiness aren’t related. Oops. Turns out I was wrong. In fact, I had to re-write the entire first chapter after my research into happiness revealed there’s absolutely a clear connection between the financial well-being and personal well-being: People in wealthier countries tend to be happier, and wealthier individuals within a country tend to be happier, too. (But there’s an important caveat: Money buys the most happiness when people are poorest. If you earn $20,000 a year and get a $10,000 windfall, it’s going to contribute a lot to your well-being. But if you earn $200,000 a year and get that same $10,000 windfall, it’s not going to mean nearly as much.) Once you have the basics in life (and maybe a few luxuries), more money does increase your happiness, but not by as much as you’d expect.

2 Having a blog that has been around for over four years, where you have written hundreds of articles, what was most challenging of the book writing experience versus the blog.

Great question.

The most noticeable difference was in length. Most of my blog posts are between 1000 and 2000 words. They take an hour to write and maybe a couple of more hours to edit. I can write one or two of these each day for weeks or months at a time. But writing a book is much different. My chapters were between 10,000 and 12,000 words, and each one took a week to write. (Plus there was more editing at the end of the process.) It was much more difficult to develop a cohesive chapter than it is to write a tight blog post. The analogy I use all the time is: Writing a blog is like sprinting every day, and writing a book is like running a marathon. Turns out, I’m a sprinter, not a long-distance runner. Sure, I can do the long-distance stuff, but it’s not what I excel at.

One other challenging aspect was balancing the needs of my existing blog readers with those of folks who will pick up the book without ever having heard of Get Rich Slowly. I needed to have a few bits and pieces that my readers could relate to, but not too many. (Turns out I probably erred too much on the side of caution; existing readers wanted more of J.D. in the book.) Plus there was the question of how much material to re-use from the blog. It doesn’t make sense to re-invent the wheel, right? In the end, very little was re-used wholesale. Instead, I’d try to take an existing article (on grocery shopping, for instance) and then re-write it for use in the book — taking out some stuff and adding other material. I think I did a great job of not making the book just a blogdump.

3 This is somewhat of a self-serving question, but for someone that is looking to write a book, what are three things that completely surprised you about the book-writing process that every new or wanna be author should know.

This is a minefield, so I’m going to try to tread carefully.

I’d say that my number one frustration — and this seems to be true of many first-time blog-to-book authors — was with the entrenched “system” my publisher had. O’Reilly is great, and I’m glad to have worked with them, but like all publishers, they have a way of doing things, and it’s sometimes tough for them to think outside of the box. (I know I’m being vague here, but I don’t want to make anyone cranky.) I feel like the book could have been much, much better if we’d had more than four months to produce it. And I feel like we could have reached many more readers if we’d had some sort of co-ordinated marketing plan that began *before* the book was on store shelves. So, my number one warning to potential writers is to be prepared to have your great expectations slammed into the brick wall of publishing reality. (Again, I’ve heard this warning from many authors. Fortunately, I heard these warnings before I started working on my book, so I was ready for a lot of the frustration.)

Second, I was very surprised at just how taxing the book-writing process was for me. As I mentioned earlier, I write every day. I enjoy it, and I think I’m good at it. I expected writing a book to be a piece of cake. Hahahahaha. It turns out that it’s actually a stressful experience, full of deadlines and quick decisions. I gained 20 pounds in the four months it took to write the book, and it was all from stress eating.

Finally, I think authors have got to realize that their book isn’t going to sell itself. To be successful, *you* must take responsibility for promoting it. I’ve done an okay job at it, I think — maybe a grade of B or B-. Somebody like Ramit gets an A+, though. That man is a self-promotion machine (and I don’t mean that in a bad way). I just can’t do that. It’s not who I am. I wish it were, though, because it would help me sell books. So, new authors have to realize that writing a book is only part of the battle; after that, you still have to sell the damn thing.

4 Having one book under your belt, do you foresee a second book in your future?

After my complaints in the last question, you might think my answer would be, “No way!” But actually, I *do* see another book in the future. I’d be happy to work on a “Money Hacks” book with O’Reilly, if that were something they were interested in and thought would sell. Plus, I’ve been approached by a much larger publisher to do a “Get Rich Slowly” book, one that featured stories and anecdotes more explicitly (not just of my life, but of others’ lives, as well).

But I’m not ready to start any time soon. In fact, I’ve promised my wife not to commit to anything for a year. That means we’ll have a few months without me being a nutjob from the stress. But maybe sometime in 2011, I’ll start working on book number two. No promises.

5 From your standpoint, how has the book done since it’s release? Are you satisfied with your efforts?

I don’t have exact numbers for how many copies have been sold, but I do know that we did our first print run in mid-March. In mid-May, we did a second print run. The publisher seems very pleased with that, so I guess I should be pleased, too. I’m also very pleased with the positive reviews for Your Money: The Missing Manual. All of the printed reviews I’ve seen have been good (with some valid criticisms here and there), and the book has 4-1/2 stars on 16 reviews at Amazon. (I should note there are two 2-star reviews at Amazon.)

So, from the little info I have, it seems like the book is doing well.

Thanks J.D. for taking some time to share some good info.  If you haven’t checked out his book yet, be sure to.  You can preview it here on Amazon.

Have you ever wanted to fulfill a dream but was just too scared of what could happen? We’ve all tasted a bit of that in our lifetime.  For those that take that giant leap of faith, the end result can be an exciting story to share.  I had the opportunity to interview Steve from the blog  MyWife Quit Her Job.com who, as you can imagine, blogs about how his wife quit her job to become a stay at home mom.  While that doesn’t sound that exciting, what makes their story special is that his wife was able to develop a web based business from home that has replaced her former salary and currently brings in a 6 figure income.  If you’ve ever considered starting an online store, I strongly suggest you check out their site.   They have tons of good information for anyone that is looking to get started.   Now on to the interview…..

1 For anybody that hasn’t visited your site, tell us what prompted you to start My Wife Quit Her Job.com?

Way back when my wife and I were still dating, she told me upfront that she was going to quit her job as soon as we had our first child. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure whether she was serious because the
cost of living here in the Silicon Valley is extremely high. Most families need 2 incomes over here just to get by with an average lifestyle.

But 5 years later after we got married and she finally did become pregnant, the reality of my wife quitting and us losing 50% of our income hit me like a ton of bricks. Realistically, my wife could have kept her job if absolutely necessary, but we both believed in having a parent stay at home with the kids especially during the early stages of childhood.

In any case, instead of forgoing 50% of our income, we decided to start an online business with the goal of supplanting her income within a year. Hence our store Bumblebee Linens was born.

2 What has been the three biggest challenges in becoming an internet entrepreneur?

The biggest challenge was probably the learning curve. My wife and I started with absolutely no knowledge about the web. Back then, we had no clue how to write html or php and had to learn everything from scratch. We also had no idea how to run a store let alone an internet business. Because the learning curve was so high, it was hard even getting started. But fortunately, our child provided us with the necessary motivation to get over this first hump.

The second biggest challenge was finding the time. Because we wanted to play it safe and save as much money as possible, both my wife and I kept our full time jobs while incubating our online business. Normally during the week, my wife and I would get home from work, relax a little bit, eat dinner and then watch tv until it was time for  bed. With our business added to the mix, we had to give up something to make time to work on the store.

Giving up leisurely activities is tough to do because quite frankly, we are lazy and like to relax. But gradually over time, we got into this habit of working on our business for a few hours every night and on one day of the weekend. But settling into this routine took a lot of willpower.

The final challenge was launching the store only to find that no one was visiting our website. Sales were extremely slow for several months and we were really disheartened early on. In fact at several points, my wife and I wanted to call it quits because we weren’t seeing the results of our labor.

3 From you and your wife’s own experience, what would you say are some of the common reasons that people don’t make it with their online business?

Most people don’t make it because they expect instant gratification. Most people read a blog like JohnChow.com and think that it’s easy to launch an online business. As a result, when things don’t go that well early on, they give up. Starting a business takes perseverance and constant tweaking. You can’t just launch something, let it go on autopilot and still hope to be competitive.

The problem is that most people don’t treat their business like a living entity. You have to nurture it and give it constant care way before you are able to see the results.

4 I see that you welcomed another child. Congrats! As a father of two, I  know it’s tough to manage life and business. What has been some of your  struggles as a business owner and raising a family?

The toughest part is getting sleep. Thank goodness, our second one is sleeping through the night now so my wife and I can work on the business again without feeling exhausted. Outside of getting rest, the beauty of running a business online is that you can timeshift your schedule and work on it only when it is convenient to work. Having two kids hasn’t changed things much. My wife and I basically work on the business after the kids go to sleep around 8pm.

Back then when we were starting the business however, it was a different story. If you can help it, you should start your business ASAP before the kids come. Starting a business with kids is doable but you have to be extremely disciplined. I’m not so sure that we could have pulled it off if we had two kids running around right off the bat.

5 Was there ever a moment in your online venture that you thought you  might not make it? If so, what did you do to get yourself through it?
There were many occasions when we both wanted to give up especially during the first 3 months. Back when we first launched, we weren’t selling much, web traffic was abysmal and we felt as though we devoted all of this time towards our business for nothing.

When you work so hard on something, you really want to see results. And when you don’t get any, it’s really tough. I can’t really describe the feeling in words. Fortunately, there were two things that kept us going. For one thing, I didn’t want to take a 50% hit to our household income. I wanted my wife to stay at home with our newborn because it was extremely important to the both of us. The second thing was that maintaining the business required very little money. At about 40 bucks a month, we could keep the online store up indefinitely even if we didn’t sell a single thing. That’s one of the beauties of the web. Starting and maintaining a business is extremely cheap to do with very little risk.

6 Any last tips for someone interested in starting an online business?

The best tip I can offer is to start a business now especially if you are young with no responsibilities. Starting a business is exponentially easier when you don’t have to worry about making your next mortgage payment or putting food on the table for your family.

Things have changed since the old days. One, starting a business is cheap. Hell, you can throw up something for as little as 5 bucks a month. Two, since the expenses are so low, you can ride out your business until it starts getting some traction. And three, you can easily reach billions of customers across the globe. The money making potential for an online business is exponential unlike a traditional brick and mortar business.

If you are interested in running an online store, I have written up detailed tutorials on how to begin. Come check them out at Online Store Tutorials.