4 Step Post-Conference Guide

by Mark Johnson | May 31, 2019 | Conference Guide, Conference Tips, Guide to Success, JPAR, Mindset For Success, Real Estate, Taking Action

Professional conferences are an unparalleled opportunity to build your network, get new ideas, deepen connections and get out of your routine and shake things up.

Yet so many of us fail to act… why?

Because you probably went home with loads of information to digest and a feeling of being overwhelmed. So plan a post-conference action plan that empowers you.

The key is taking ACTION.

Here are 4 steps to maximize your conference investment:

1. Network post the event – Don’t forget those connections you made. Close the loop, follow up and build relationships for referrals, accountability and more.

2. Leverage your social channels – How can you communicate your time investment to show potential customers your commitment to excellence and serving them at the highest levels? Make your public posts about serving your customers and potential customers better.

3. Organize your notes into a checklist for the items you are committed to act on and share them with an accountability partner, mentor or coach. Do you have a checklist? A checklist not only helps you get more done, but your brain loves them. According to research summarized by best-selling author Maria Konnikova, here are some of the reasons why:

• Your mind seeks organization. Lists tap into our preferred way of receiving and organizing information at a subconscious level; from an information-processing standpoint, they often hit our attentional sweet spot.
• When we process information, we do so spatially. For instance, it’s hard to memorize through brute force the groceries we need to buy. It’s easier to remember everything if we write it down in bulleted or numbered points.
• Your mind wants to categorize. We can’t process information quickly when it’s clustered and undifferentiated (like in standard paragraphs). A list feels more intuitive.
• Your mind wants to know how long this will take. The more we know about something—including precisely how much time it will consume—the greater the chance we will commit to it.
• List completion is self-reinforcing. We recall with pleasure that we were able to check something off the list. This makes us want to go back to the list for another dopamine hit.

Do your brain a favor and break down what you learned and your action steps into a series of checklists.

4. Take action NOW! – Don’t wait! Nothing good happens when you wait.

So there you have it, 4 steps to win the post-conference game.