I’m 100% Self-Employed – My Plans For the Future

Hey everyone! Some of you were wondering where I was yesterday.

Well, I was recovering from all of the craziness after #FinCon13. I still can’t believe how awesome it was, and I learned many things that I want to apply to my work.

For anyone who is thinking about going to FinCon in 2014, I definitely think you should go. I feel dumb for skipping the past couple of years, when I clearly should have gone.

The networking alone is one reason for why you should go, and the sessions are equally amazing as well. PT did a great job planning FinCon! And Ashley Jacobs is a great rapper.

I met so many awesome people. Seriously, the list goes on forever. I am so happy to have met so many of you. There were a couple that I didn’t have a chance to meet who I wish I could have. Hopefully next year!

And to those of you who met me, I am so sorry that I was sick the whole conference. I’m sure everyone was sick of  hearing my raspy voice and my coughing (I was on medicine though, so I was not contagious!).

FinCon was in St. Louis this year, and I’m very happy for that. I live 15 miles from the hotel, so it didn’t take me long to get to the conference. Luckily W drove me on some days as well. It was definitely a very cheap conference for me.

One big positive of having this conference in St. Louis is that it finally brought people to the city that I live in. I truly believe that St. Louis is very underrated (there are a ton of fun things to do here in St. Louis).

I remember when it was first announced that FinCon13 would be in St. Louis, and I heard some complaints from other bloggers. It really made me sad because so many people have such a bad attitude about St. Louis. However, I had many people come up to me and tell me that they actually LOVE St. Louis after visiting. They loved the architecture, they loved the restaurants, they loved the vibe, and they loved how lively the city was when the Cardinals won.

I’m finally self-employed!

Yes, you read that correctly. I am finally self-employed. Some of you already know, but I haven’t announced it directly on Making Sense of Cents until right now. I will be publishing a more detailed post on this soon.

Wish me luck 🙂 There are many things that I want to work on that I learned about while at FinCon. I’m hoping that this will help me grow and make my work successful.

I want to start working on an eBook.

There are many reasons for why I want to start working on an eBook. I want to give something to my readers, I want to help others, and it would help me look more professional when I am trying to build my brand (see below).

I’m not saying whether this will be a free eBook or a paid one, because I’m not even sure yet. Money isn’t my main reason for an eBook because, let’s be honest, the amount of time it would take to write a quality eBook is very long and the amount of money I would most likely make is very small. Most writers say that when they average out their time with how much money they make with an eBook that it is most likely around minimum wage.

Many writers say that the main positive of writing is that it helps build your brand and makes you more professional to potential readers, clients, advertisers, and so on.

I want to work on building my brand.

One thing that I learned from the keynote from Jean Chatzky is that I need to work on building my brand. I’m not sure what I want to do, or how I will get there, but this is definitely on my long list of things that I need to do.

I need to promote more effectively.

One big mistake that I do is create content, but I don’t promote it enough. Promoting is very important, and it’s something that I really slack off in. Yes, I will tweet my article once or twice a day and post a link to the article on Facebook, but beyond that I don’t do much else.

Accept more interviews.

I have something to admit. I have been asked to do interviews (such as through a podcast), and I have said no. Online interviews don’t make me nervous, because I am able to think about what I am about to say and not have too much word vomit.

Luckily Jeff Rose found me and asked me yet again to let him interview me for a podcast, and I said yes. He asked me a couple of months ago but I said no – because I am a very nervous person.

I often engage in word vomit, and this is what makes me nervous about a “live” interview. That is something that I need to work on.

Eventually speak at FinCon.

I attended many sessions while I was at FinCon, and everyone was a great speaker. There was no one whose session I attended where I didn’t learn anything or thought they haven’t been speaking for years.

I would love to someday be able to do this. I always did good (maybe just “okay”) with speaking in classes in high school and college. However, speaking in front of a bunch of very intelligent people who I admire?

That scares the crap out of me. However, I really want to make this a goal of mine. I’m not saying that I will speak next year (AHH!), but eventually I would love to do this. If you have spoken at a conference before, how did you prepare? Were you scared at first?

What are your business plans for the short-term and long-term?

Did you enjoy FinCon? Are you attending next year?