How to Sip Water From a FIREhose, Throw a Party for 200+ strangers, & Make 2500 New Friends in 4 days!

I am simultaneously absolutely exhausted and FIRE’d UP. My feet hurt, my eyes hurt, I have no voice, and there is smoke coming out of my ears. Thank goodness for Jillian Johnsrud‘s granola bars and Certs. I will heed the call to bring throat lozenges next year.

I made friendships and connections with 2500 people in 4 days. The Virtual network otherwise know by my wife as my “Invisible Friends” that I networked with in and outside of this community became very, very Real. My goal was to connect with everyone that I had met online. The great part was, we shared the same goal. This conference was the complete inverse of all the professional conferences I had gone to for my day job. It was about the people. The people are the content! It felt like being in the eye of a hurricane. My phone never really left my pocket except to take pictures for the memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Oddly enough, I felt like I was in digital detox in the middle of a “Revenge of The Money Nerds” Reality Drama. I even got to enjoy an unhurried chill chat with surfless Doug Nordman in our Hawaiian Shirts. I vow to take him up on his offer of a surf lesson not only next year in Long Beach, but on our next slow travel HawaiiFI Style.

I chose my first year get involved in throwing a little party, why not! When they were running into a roadblock, I lept to help Doc Green and Paul Thompson of The What’s Up Next Podcast throw a TeamUp2MeetUp Party for anywhere from 3 to 60 community members. We were quite overwhelmed with the turnout (peaked at crowded frat party level), estimated by a few at over 200, but then again we were drinking craft beer in a dive bar so who really knows! A shout out goes to The Big Hunt for rolling with our flow and helping us celebrate what was to be a Triumphant Plutus Win for Best New Personal Finance Podcast the very next night. Moral of the story is you may have a “small market”, but high value content in a new panel format attempting to answer a diverse array of the most challenging questions in the Personal Finance and Investing Space can still climax! Also, always throw your victory party for your super fan man crushes the night before the awards!

I am absolutely blown away by what I have experienced & learned and the universal sincere generosity of the people that find their way to #FinCon. I hung out at the Podcasting Booth and in the Podcasting Didactic Chanel. I recorded a few promos for new friends like One Million Apples and a riff with my friend Ryan Inman on why a intentional and frugal Registered Life Planner would buy a New Truck! Stay tuned for that one on his podcast Financial Residency! Whenever I got lost, Nick True was there with a map and a compass to show me the way.

I got to meet may of the leaders who have been my virtual mentors on my path to getting FinLit and FI in my sub tribe of FinPhysicians that Rock! I shared Real Estate with Peter Kim aka Passive Income MD. I PracticeBalance with Dawn Baker and wore her new brand to Choosefi and Afford Anything International Foundation Fundraiser. I spoke German with BC Krygowski. I drank beer with Leif Dahleen aka Physician on FIRE. I pretended to keep up with Letizia Alto and Kenji Asakura who for being Semi-Retired MD sure do move fast – thanks Tony Robins! Cory Fawcett taught me “How to Camino”! Eliza Minimalmd killed me with kindness and minimal sunscreen. Bonnie Koo aka Wealthy Mom MD and I Afforded Everything to fan-“girl” and fan-“boy” the PodOprah in our midst Paula Pant! Doc McFrugal and I solved the universal passive asset allocation puzzle over gelato. B.L. Guinto and I followed each other tying to out selfie each other.