3 Things I'm taking away from VeeCon and applying to Day One

I just returned from an exhilarating four days in Indianapolis where I attended VeeCon 2023.  Launched last year as a web3-forward, NFT-ticketed super conference, this year’s VeeCon was geared more towards a business and entrepreneurship-oriented audience.

The throughline across attendees was entrepreneurial energy just looking for ways to bust out.  Over the course of the weekend, I met hundreds of small business owners, content creators, side-hustlers, and freelancers looking to build their network and learn tips and tricks on how to build their businesses more quickly and efficiently.

VeeCon is the brainchild of Gary Vaynerchuk , who has been consistently building a following of entrepreneurs across the world over the last 20+ years.  I’ve been attending and presenting at tradeshows and conferences for over 20 years and there’s just something different about VeeCon.

Here are my three biggest takeways from VeeCon 2023:

Trust your community to set the tone

I was lucky enough to be selected as a Community Stage speaker, which kicked off the entire weekend.  At some conferences, a Community Stage may be far off in some corner of the basement while there are a million other things going on. Not at VeeCon.  The Community kicked everything off, without any other distractions, and set the tone for the rest of the conference. Conversations spilled over from the stage to the audience and the message was loud and clear.  There were going to be some interesting people speaking on stage, but there were also going to be interesting people sitting on either side of you. Talk to them.

Up your content game to share your story far and wide

This is one that’s a little tough to write, since I run an entrepreneur community at Day One and give this advice out to others on a daily basis.  It seems like everyone around me had an eye on capturing content so share out with their audiences during and after VeeCon.  Some had camera crews with them, some had a friend with a cell phone, but either way, they came with a plan to execute.  I didn't, but was fortunate enough to have many Day One community members and friends around me that I didn't leave empty handed. But there was a deeper lesson learned.  People want to hear other perspectives and are excited to hear more about what we’re building at Day One. I need to stop coming up with excuses and just start shipping.  It doesn't matter if it's a newsletter, blog post (like this), podcast or whatever, just get it out there. People want to learn from you.

There’s just no substitute for "in real life"

Day One was born in the middle of the COVID pandemic, in the summer of 2020.  We’ve been remote first since inception.  The mission of Day One lends itself heavily to the idea of remote-first so that opportunities to build networks and start businesses aren't predicated on your geographical location.  And it’s worked.  The nearly 600 Day One Fellows hail from more than 40 US states and 25 countries.  

But now that the world has opened back up, we’ve thought about getting Day One Fellows together once a year to celebrate one another and meet in person.  But this past weekend did it for me, meeting dozens of Day One Fellows was priceless.  People I’ve known on Zoom for years, I was meeting for the first time.  And they felt like friends.  I’m motivated more than ever to get this off the ground in 2023.  It doesn’t have to be fancy and splashy.  It just needs to happen.

Trust your community, create and ship content, and get together IRL every now and then. Those are three tips that apply to almost everyone, everywhere in 2023.

I’m grateful for the hundreds of new friends I met last weekend.  There were so many conversations that I’d love to continue - please reach out to me directly to keep them going, to learn more about Day One, or anything in between.

Any other takeaways from VeeCon?