My “Why” and “What” for Vegas 2009

Why should I win and what do I hope to get out of the event?  That is the question that John Chow poses to anybody interested in winning one of his extremely limited and exclusive six passes to the 2009 Blog World Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.  An event that is attended by the leading bloggers in the industry who share their knowledge with those interested enough to attend and in turn grow their brand as well.

It is no secret that branding is a key factor in establishing a successful business, whether it is blogging or real estate.  If your brand fails to be recognized so will your business.  What this opportunity offers is a chance for me to in fact grow the TGTmoney brand as well as network not only with the “pros” of the blogosphere but also other likeminded, up and coming individuals like myself.  So back to the issue, why should I win?

I should win because I will bring a very unique and friendly perspective to the event.  You cannot speak about life whether it is on a blog or a stage until you lived it and boy have I lived it!  My experiences in my 23 years can help shape and inspire ideas from others and my sense of humor is something that will make any event a worthwhile experience!  So that is the “why”, now on to the “what”.

I actually look forward to meeting more bloggers that are flying under the radar than I am to meeting the pros.  Do not get me wrong, I would leap at the opportunity to meet with Mr. Chow or Mr. Rowse personally and would absorb any and all information that they share with me.  But it is the undiscovered people who are in the trenches everyday along with me trying to break through to the “pros” that I want to meet.

These undiscovered people who I would be more likely to build a one-on-one relationship with, trade ideas, and potentially joint-venture with in the future are what interest me.  Instead of fighting and competing with the numerous people in attendance for a select fews attention, I could potentially network and learn small tid bits from the masses.  Instead of using 80% of my effort to talk with 20% of the population, I could use 20% of the effort to mingle with 80% of the population!  What I hope to get out of the event is a new perspective to look at things related to the business side of my blog.

What I hope to get out of this is the chance to bounce my ideas off people in the industry and not have them shot down by family and friends who have no idea where I am coming from with this whole “internet marketing” thing.  For any internet marketer, you surely understand that unless you are actually putting in the effort to learn and fail, you do not have the slightest clue of the struggle to make something out of nothing.

I feel I can only learn so much through online presentations and seminars.  Interaction is what I need at this point.  Previously, I was at school at Purdue University.  For those unfamiliar it is in West Lafayette, IN.  You can probably imagine that there is not much in West Lafayette (the place where I spent the last 3 years of my life), so when I went looking for locals to bounce ideas around with and learn from I came up pretty short.

So what did I do, I put a hold on school and my electrical and computer engineering degree and relocated to Denver.  Now there were numerous reasons for relocation, but one of the most pressing reasons was for an opportunity where I could truly invest all my effort and time into my blogging as well as have a better location to find likeminded people.  Not to disrespect anyone but the comedian Daniel Tosh said it best “The Midwest is where people go when they give up on their dreams.”  This particularly hit home once I arrived in Colorado.  It was not that I gave up on my dreams in Indiana, but the change reinvigorated me as well as inspired me by having beautiful scenery around me every day to wake up too.

So I hope I was pretty clear to Mr. Chow and whoever else reads this post about why I should win and what I hope to gain from this event.  I also want to be clear that if I do get chosen that transportation and lodging would not be an issue.  Flight would be covered by the frequent flyer miles accumulated though many, many flights and hotel would simply come from my pocket.  I would love to push Purdue’s homecoming aside (which I originally planned on using the miles for) to attend this event with so much opportunity.

Now that this post is at its end, all I can do is wait.  Wait and continue to work.  No reason to stop pursing my goals while hoping to win.  I must bring value to the table FIRST before I can expect anything in return from anybody else.

Photo Credit: EZDiyElectricity

Tagged as: blog world 2009, blogging, john chow contest, trade show