Serious People Pay to Be in Serious Rooms

Free networking events are full of broke business owners trying to make money off other broke business owners. That's not shade — that's just the math.

In this solo episode of the Un-Traditional Entrepreneur Podcast, host Juming Delmas comes fresh off speaking at Podfest — one of the biggest podcast conferences in the country — to break down the real difference between people who invest in their business and people who make excuses not to.

Bed bugs, rental car drama, bad tires, no hotel until 4am — the universe threw everything at Juming trying to keep him from getting to that stage. He showed up anyway. And that's exactly his point.

Topics covered:
- Why serious entrepreneurs pay for conferences — and what free networking events actually cost you
- Juming's experience speaking at Podfest and what he observed about the room
- What David Shands taught him without saying a single word (networking vs. rubbing elbows with sponsors)
- The real reason most business owners skip paid conferences: they're broke
- Paid conferences vs. free networking events: who's actually in the room
- Why five-plus year business owners still attending free events are stuck
- How the obstacles getting to a conference mirror the obstacles of running a business
- Why avoiding investment guarantees stagnation — always
- Free access creates free results: the mindset shift every growing business needs

If you've ever made an excuse for not investing in your business — this episode is going to make you uncomfortable. Good.

The Un-Traditional Entrepreneur Podcast with Juming Delmas. Serious people pay to be in serious rooms.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

What's up? What's up? What's up, my people? What's going on, family? And welcome back to the untraditional entrepreneur. Um, if this is your first time here, my name is Jameen Delmas, and this page is where we have real conversations about business growth and what people don't actually want to fucking talk about. Um just a uh quick favor if you don't got if you guys don't mind hitting that follow for our page and also share this live with someone who is trying to build a business or someone who's serious about their business. Um, if you're watching this from a replay, just let us know that you're here by hitting the by dropping it in the comments. I'm here. Um tonight I want to talk about um Podfest. I did a Podfest event this this weekend at a conferencing, and just a couple of things that I started noticing over the years when it comes to um conferencings. Serious people pay to be in serious rooms. That's like my that's like my my thing that I want to talk about today. This isn't about flexing, this isn't about shaming anyone. This is simply about understanding the difference between people who consume information and people who just who people who want to invest into their future. If you're building a podcast, a media, a business, or any industry, this conversation is for you. If the desire to win was enough, then everybody would win, right? Welcome to the other side of motivation. Let's dive in. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. So today um I'm really I the the podfest was really cool for me. You know what I mean? I want to talk a little bit about my experience with with Podfest, right? Um I'm gonna be honest, man. This shit, it was kind of tough starting out. Starting out, it was kind of tough. Um, it was kind of tough when we came in and just from just from the just from the beginning, right? Um, I mean, I had planned for this shit for for months. And um even just going to go get the rental car, rental car wasn't ready, shit had started happening, it was about to take the personal vehicle, then we saw that the tires were bad, it's a lot of bad shit going on, so we had to run back and forth. But listen, uh Podfest was, you know, if people don't know about Podfest, it's like one of the biggest podcast conferences um out. Um and for me, like Podfest is where I believe real podcasters are gonna go. I believe any real podcaster is going to invest time into a podcast conference. I mean, I really don't like the business sense if they don't like attend conferences. We're gonna talk about like the difference here between like networking advanced and business conferencing and the difference in like the type of people that I try to uh acclimate or associate myself around. Um for me, I don't know, man. I feel like the podfast was good. It was full of white people. You know what I'm saying? I love white people. They, you know, they they they they got it going on. Um, but I think that for me, Podfast was, you know, I feel like I was getting challenged all over. Like the first day, I'm not gonna lie, like I was getting, you know, how they have us is on this Hoover app, what the fuck ever this thing is. And like, you know, we talking to our attendees. Man, I kid you not. Like maybe 10 minutes before I was supposed to speak, because I I came there to speak. I came there to be on like the the speaking side of it. 10 minutes before I get there, you know, um, I like two people showed up in my room. I was like, ah shit. So I had to go get something to eat. I was like, man, this is about to be crazy. Like, I'm thinking we're probably gonna get a maximum of like 10 people come into the room and shit. And right when I was getting ready to walk stage, because I was supposed to walk at at 4:15. Man, I kid you not, this dude doing this introduction or whatever, who I am, like what I got going on. Man, we had a packed house when I walked on that fucking stage. It was a packed house. It was such a packed house that people was lined up on the wall. I kid you not. I was like, oh shit. 10 minutes before I was speaking, we had two people show up in my studio. When I got out there, it was a packed house. And I was thoroughly, thoroughly surprised. And you know, it was it was a good experience. You know, Podfest really put, you know, it puts people on the map of you know, if you if you bring it, you know, if you bring it. And I'm glad that people were wanted to hear what I had to say. We had one of the biggest rooms, we had one of the biggest audiences in of the entire fest. So I was you know, shouts out to Podfest on that. Um, but today we're talking about like really the difference between people who attend conferences, people who attend networks, and obviously the PodFest is something that you pay for, it's very expensive. Any conference for the most part is expensive, but people pay for conferences for reasons, and we're here to talk about some of those reasons why people invest into conferences versus just going to like a free networking event because like free networking event is just that, it's just a free event. Um, so the first thing we're gonna talk about here is you know Podfest was Podfest and what I why I went to Podfest. Like, obviously, I wanted to go to PodPat Fest to be honest, because I know it's a lot of white people. I wanted to be around different demographic of people because I usually go to this thing called Podcast Summit, and that's full of black people. And so I wanted to see what that that crowd looked like. And um it was alright, you know what I mean? Like, I felt like it's what I'm gonna say, shit. Let me be a honey. It it was good the first day. The last two days was fucking ass, not gonna lie. It was ass. Like the first day, which is the day that I came, which is the day that I spoke, it was it was full, it was packed. It it I mean, it had to be like a couple thousand people out there, it was packed. And then, like, you know, the second day it just kind of like died down. Um, but you know, for me, I knew that when I was going out to Podfest, my job wasn't to go out here to necessarily network. It was to work, it was to learn, it was to get information that I didn't get before or learn things I didn't learn before. Because as business owners, like you know, like the key to a successful business is constantly learning how you could be, you know, successful in your specific field of what you're aiming for. So for me, that's why I went to PodFest. You know, that's why I go to conferences because it's about learning. People make all the fucking excuses in the world why they can't attend something. That's excuses, man. That's the excuses is for the week. I like I don't make excuses as a business owner, I don't make excuses as a person. It's either like I'm there or I'm not. There ain't no excuse. Like, as you don't, but and like I I could have made all the excuses in the world not to show up. Like I felt like I was being tested, like the universe was testing me going to the podfast. Like, I kid you not. Look, the first night, at uh the first night of the podcast, after I finished speaking, like this is a three-day conference event. Man, I had bed bugs in my fucking bed. Bad bugs. That shit was disgusting. Like, that shit was disgusting. We left the same night. Fuck that. What? Bad bug. Not only did we leave that same night, but we had nowhere to go. We didn't have nowhere to go that night. And what was so what was even crazier is hotels was booked out because the you know, there was some type of golfing tournament happening in Orlando. So everything, all the hotels was booked out. So when we so we left that hotel about one o'clock in the morning, right? One o'clock in the morning. We didn't get a hotel until about 4 a.m. that morning. We didn't get settled in until about 4 a.m. that morning. Just looking, searching for hotels. I just knew one thing. I wasn't about to stand on my fucking hotel with no motherfucking bed bugs. And then, like, they tried us too, making it seem like we was lying. I called the room service and said, Hey man, we gotta get up out of here. There's bed bugs. Okay, y'all wanna switch rooms? Fuck no. You just told me you had bed bugs. Why would I switch to another room? I'm just gonna leave. We out. We're gonna find something else. We know that there ain't shit else out there, but we're gonna find something. Shit, I would rather sleep in the car than sleep in one of your fucking hotels with bed bugs and that shit. That's crazy. Hell nah. So, anyways, that was the first night, right? I make no excuses. I told you first day, like before I even went to the pod fest, I had to get the rental car. They didn't have cars available. Tires were like my personal tire was bad. I didn't really trust it on the road like that. So they, I mean, I need to get the tires swapped out. And it just, it was like, but that didn't stop me. I didn't that didn't stop me from getting to the destination. I had so many roadblocks going on to get into this destination. Um, I had personal things happening in my personal life, you know, that was prohibiting me from getting to the destination. But I'm like, fuck it. I'm gonna get there at any means necessary because I'm the type of person I don't make excuses. I'm gonna get there. I don't care about what everybody else got going on. I'm gonna get there. And I ain't make no excuses. I found a way to get there. I found a car. Hotels had bad buzz, we had hotels, it was a bad accident. We had no, we made no excuses. I was supposed to go to the hotel first, get a shower, get dressed, then go to the podfest uh before I spoke. Just didn't happen that way, you know, because had so many hiccups. But I think that that's what life does. It tests you with these hiccups to see who's strong. A lot of people probably would have been like, fuck it, I'm done. I'm done with this. I ain't doing it. I can't get a car, I can't get nothing, things ain't going as planned. This is just overwhelming. But as business owners, we don't play that shit. Naturally, naturally, we pivot. Naturally, we probably we solve problems. And I ain't gonna lie, somebody tried me. I ain't gonna even hold you now. Like one person was like, you know, um, I'm about to go. I ain't you know, I ain't gonna do it. I ain't gonna talk shit because I'm about to talk shit because like people test people who like the chosen one for real. And I'm telling you right now, when you the chosen one, listen, the universe will play in your favor. I will always find a way to shit that I'm not able to do. I'm telling you. So, anyways, you know, anyways, for that, what I'm saying is people made excuses why they couldn't show up to this conference. People will always make excuses why they can't show up to the conference. And you to be fair, the real excuse why they really not showing up on some real shit is because they fucking broke. That's why they're not showing up. They're not gonna come to something that they gotta pay for. They only gonna come to some shit that's free networking or whatever the case is. And I don't even get down like that. Like, people ain't for real about their business. Everybody, most people in business, most people in business who in business, they like they looking for, they looking for handouts. Nobody wants to spend money to grow shit. They just looking for ways to hand shit out. And like, it's crazy because I'm in, I was part of this podcast community. Um I mean, you're talking about a community full of podcasters. How about I ain't seen not one person in this community attend this conference, but everybody wants to be for real podcasters. Like, why you ain't there? You supposed to be at this conference. Why you not there? There's no excuses why you can't be there. And I just don't, you know, like people talk. Like, if you in business, if you're a business owner, you should be attending business conferences. Why the fuck ain't you attending it? Because you're talking about you ain't got no money. That's crazy. You ain't attending it because you ain't got no money. You you bro, I'm sorry. That's the truth, man. I don't care what nobody says. You can never convince me. How you in business and ain't trying to learn shit about your industry? That's crazy to me. That's crazy talking. You ain't a real business owner. You should be out here really trying to go to conferences, understanding your business, right? That's how I feel about that. Not one of them people was out there. There's over a hundred people who was in this community. Not one of them was out there. Anyways, so here's the here's the truth, right? I'm gonna be 100 with you. When it comes to free conferences versus paid conferences, this is what I, this is how I look at this. Free conferencing is like networking to me. Like, that's like networking opportunity. If that shit is free, I'm probably not gonna show up. Like, if it's free, I'm probably not gonna show up. If I'm showing up, I'm showing up for somebody. I'm not showing up for the event itself. Um, why is that? Because, man, people who go to free events, you're you're in a room full of motherfucking people who seek an opportunity. Like everybody in there seeking a way to make, you know, a way to get make money off of each other. But the problem with free events is you in there with a whole bunch of broke business owners, a whole bunch of broke people. You all are broke people trying to make money off of broke people. Like, how many millionaires do you see attending free webinars or free free uh networking events? Most of the time, these motherfuckers are at conferences, they're speaking. There's, you know, people are paying thousands of dollars to attend a conference versus somebody who's paying no dollars to attend a networking event. I mean, let's be real, like you have two demographic people, and like you wanna, if you wanna go where the opportunities are where they're endless, what you need to go to conferences that pay. Why? Because now you're sitting in a room with a whole bunch of motherfuckers like you, like you, who paid thousands of dollars to attend this conference, that means y'all serious. All these free events, free networking shit, these motherfuckers ain't serious. These motherfuckers are typically looking for hand-me outs, gimmicks. They like, this is what they doing. Like, you go out there, people always looking for free shit at networking events, free networking events. If I ain't paying for it, I ain't going for it. I ain't going. I know that. I know the kind of people I'm going to. I know the kind of people that's out there. Same and the same analogy I use with hotel, I mean apartments. When people be like, hey, you know, this apartment, you know, I found an apartment for you, man. That shit like$650 a month.$650 a month. What the fuck?$650 a month for the apartment? I know that shit ain't in the suburbs. I know that shit ain't in the good neighborhood. I know that shit somewhere. I know that shit somewhere it don't need to be at. And so for me, like, it's the same way thing with conferencing. If it's free, it ain't always good. If you ain't paying a little bit of money towards something, it ain't always good. You know, there is there's some good things too free shit, but not for me. People who go to free conferences, they dare to watch, take notes, and be entertained. People who do paid conferences go for questions, they already have goals, they have business cards, and they have offers. Man, so anyhow, I bumped into David Shans. David Shans was um present at the podfest, and we just bumped into each other. David Shans is a well-known podcaster, and I learned something from him, and he didn't even like tell me nothing. It was just something that I had picked up that I had learned just by watching him do it. David Shans didn't go there to necessarily like rub elbows with the podcasters. Man, he went there to like rub elbows with the sponsors. He didn't tell me that. I just started watching them, started paying attention to him. And then I'm like, oh shit. Wait a minute. Maybe I'm doing this wrong. Maybe I shouldn't be here rubbing elbows with podcasters. I should be out here rubbing elbows with sponsors. I need to find out what's what. I need to find out how I'm gonna grow my business. I need to find out where I'm gonna put my business at. And that's what that's so that's what I like to learn from him. So like that was that was that was a lesson for me out there. Like, it's good to have the relationships, but it's also good to have um connecting points for your business. Like the people who are out there sponsoring at conferences, let me tell you something, man. It would make only it would make only sense for you to rub elbows with them people, right? They spend upwards of like tens to thousands, tens of thousands of dollars just to get a booth. Tens to thousands of dollars just to get a booth. Why wouldn't you rub elbows with these people? They already showing you they got the bread, they already showing you you know the value of their business. Why wouldn't you rub elbows with the sponsors out there? Learn what you need to learn. So if you need to do your own kind of event or own kind of conference, you got all the right connections you need, man. That's real. So, anyhow, um, so that's what I like got from that one from David Shans. Um, so the next thing is just paid conferences versus like again free events, right? So, paid conferences, I feel like you're gonna get more quality people, you're gonna get more quality relationships, things are gonna be more collaborative. Um, there's gonna be a bunch of you guys again invested in something. And you guys typically stay within the same. I met a cool ass dude, man, white dude named uh Robert, Robert Riggs. Shout out to my man, and he he does a podcast, but my man focuses on like AI related shit. I mean, by the way, I'm bringing him on my podcast, bruv smart. He knows what time it is, and you know, he said shit about AI, about how they're taking over the world. So that might be a podcast episode y'all want to tune into because that shit gonna be that shit gonna be for real. That shit gonna be lit. And um, I was just so fascinated with this dude and his podcast. I mean, bro's been podcasting for a minute. You know, he ain't really monetize, and that's funny because most podcasts aren't monetized by people trying to go to find out how to monetize on podcasts. David Jans told me something, and I had I give I gotta give him props on that shit. He said, the best way to monetize on podcasts is not like just through sponsors and just through my through um uh monetization on social media, it's just selling your product. You have to also sell something. That's why when you see most of these influencers, they're selling you courses, selling you classes and shit. That's how they make money. They sell you shit. They ain't really necessarily making money on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram. They selling you shit. You know what I'm saying? So for me, you gotta know, you gotta know like what you go into a conference for. Like, I ain't going to no motherfucking conference if I don't have like a game plan. I know, like, I'm not going there for a hope and an opportunity. I'm going there with intentions. I know exactly what I'm about to do before I do that shit because I know what I'm looking for. You know, free events, when you're talking about free conferences, they stay stuck in learning mode, right? I'm still figuring things out. They're rarely, um, they rarely execute on shit. They just go there and take a lot of notes at these free events. People who attend free events, they ain't for real, man. They just stay stuck learning. They just continuously learn, learning, learning, learning, but they're not executors. They ain't out here trying to execute. And you know that because they ain't even attending paid versions of conferences because they so worried about their money tight and this, that, and the third. Free access create free results. You know what I'm saying? And to be fair, information is free. You get your ass on Chat GPT and get all kinds of information. The real purpose for you going to a conference is not just for information, like what these free events do, is to rub elbows, is to connect with other individuals who understand about investing into their business just like you do. Because then you develop partnerships like that. Can't develop a partnership with a broke motherfucker, can't do that, can't do it. Um, the next thing that I want to cover is, you know, yeah, you know, is it worth it? Right. In the end, for me, I'm gonna say it was worth it because I got the opportunity to connect with motherfuckers. Like, I learned so much about like I ain't gonna even lie. I probably attended three classes when I was at PodFest. There's a lot of classes going on. There's some people I already Googled them before I even like showed up to their shit. And for me, I wasn't impressed with everybody. Some of them don't got the followers, some of them don't have the engagement. I'm like, it goes back to that wealth shit that I talked to you guys about, about wealthy people or people who are not wealthy teaching other people how to be wealthy. How the fuck are you wealthy and you work a nine to five? It's not, it's not, you're not wealthy. I'm sorry, you're just not. You might be comfortable, you might be well off, but you're not wealthy. You know what I mean? So, like that's to me that's crazy. Serious people find a way, no matter what. Like I told you guys the shit that I was going through with the bed bugs, with the rental, car rental, with the hotel, with with the flat tire. Like, like we find a way. And don't get me wrong, like some people will look, and that's why I go to free conferences because I know some of these guys had obstacles that they had to go through to get to this conference. I know people traveled from across the country to get to this conference. I know people had to deal with delay um flights to get to this conference. I know that people had ticketing issues, hotel issues. Like people who go to conferences, there's it's usually not a smooth process where if you go into a free event, you're literally leaving your house. Jumping in a car like you're going to the store. So it's not like a lot of friction. But people who go to conferences are always met with friction. And then with that friction, how do they persevere through the friction? And that's important because a lot of people don't know how to persevere through struggles. They're like, fuck it, I'm just not gonna go. And that's the wrong mentality, right? Like that shows that that shows, to me, that shows real entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs do not make excuses, they find ways to get where they need to get to under no circumstances. Why? Because when we thinking about like if you make an excuse why you can't make it somewhere or why you can't do something, you're gonna make an excuse for your business too. Like that's just that ain't that ain't a business ownership, entrepreneurship. That's that's a that's a personality trait. Like, I don't make excuses for a damn thing. Like if the money ain't there, I'm gonna find out how to get the money. It ain't like it ain't my job to press somebody else about the money. If this ticket for the conference is$2,000, I'm not gonna make it my problem. I mean, I'm not gonna make it somebody else's problem that I can't pay for it. I need to find a way to pay for it. Because as business owners, that's our job is to find a way to pay for it. You know what I'm saying? And that's why I feel like conferencing is more than just it's more than just um attending something to learn. It's showing you the grit that it takes to get through the financial struggles, to get through the travels, to get through the noise and the mess, to get to the destination. Because that's that is the blueprint of business ownership. Like the way I look at that. And the conference is such a small, minute thing in business ownership. If you can't get to conferences, you're gonna have a problem running a business. Like you can't run no fucking business if you can't make it to a conference. You sound crazy as hell. How you gonna run a business? How are we gonna trust you to run a business for the community if you can't make it to a conference? I'm sorry, man. Serious people find a way. No matter what. Serious people will find a way. No one accidentally builds a career. No one. Serious people find a way to make it to these conferences. And that's what I did. I didn't care what the fuck was going on. I'm built like that. And like I told y'all in the last session, we lost three clients. I'm built like that. If we lose another one, I'm built like that. Because at the end of the day, I don't make excuses. We figure out a way. Like we lost three clients and re-pivoted our entire structure for our business so that we start getting quality clients and quality things with our business. I'm telling you, man, like instead of letting it defeat me and tear me down, what the fuck I do? I say, Bet. They leaving. This is what they do. They feel like this is something you can hold over my head. I don't make excuses for anything. Business owners, business owners make excuses. Entrepreneurs don't make an excuse for shit. They say, What do we gotta do? What do we gotta do to get it done? What do we gotta do to get it done? And that's the mentality that you gotta have. The conference is just a conference. It's really the mentality that it takes to get to that conference. People are fighting all the time to get through things. They don't make excuses. But the week, the week, the the week will show of the show. Some people look at a conference and event, they'll look at that ticket and say, oh shit, no. That's telling you, a business owner would do that. An entrepreneur would not do that. Entrepreneur might not look at a ticket and go, oh shit, no. No, I can't do that. Entrepreneur is gonna be like, okay, how am I get there? How am I gonna make this happen? It's it's it's almost not it's almost not even an option. It's like they gotta do it. It's gotta get done. It's not an option. I gotta get out there. A business owner is gonna say, look at that and say, I can't afford that. I can't make it because I got this going on. I can't do this because my mom or my sister or my wife told me I gotta hold off for a little bit. Uh or they might make an excuse as, you know, I just don't got the budget right now. Yeah. Conferences are expensive. So people who ain't attending conferences, what's really happening, you think about the cost, right? The cost for the hotel, because most of the time these conferences are these big fancy ass hotels, and then they give you discounts for attending it or whatever the case is. So that's already probably a ban. The conference itself is gonna be like another two band. And then if you're flying, depending on where you're flying from, that could be like$500 to a band, right? So like people are spending thousands of dollars to attend these conferences, and only the only the real ones will show up. Only the real ones will show up. And those would be why would I not attend a conference where the real ones are at? I know that this ain't a cheap, cheap deal, but I also but it also shows me that these are serious people. That's what this showed me. These are serious people. And if you ain't serious, I ain't trying to work with you. And that's real, you know what I'm saying? So travel is big. Travel is your biggest challenge in conferencing. But if you're getting through that travel and you make a way to still make it there on time, be present while you're there, man. That shows a lot, man. This is the these are just stepping stones, stepping blocks to to entrepreneurship. The next thing, man, I want to talk about is, you know, you know, representation, right? Like, like when we think about conferencing, it's it's it's conferencing are about identity, not just information. I just told y'all what it represents. It it represents you as a person. It's uh affirmation, um, networking, um, door, you know, it's it's it's getting in position not to just take notes. It's getting in position to get something out of this. I feel like true entrepreneurs are going to already know what they're going there for, and then they're gonna leave. They've already come there with a mission. They're not coming there with hope and opportunities like a networking event. They've already got a mission. And they got a mission because they reviewed the agenda from this conferencing event. They reviewed the agenda, so now they're gonna make a move on it. And I think that that's like key. See, that but that tells you something about that person. Like, right? If you're attending a conferencing event, you're already showing me that you're an organizer. Like you already know what what workshops you're going to attend. There is no running around, scrambling around, figuring that shit out. You you not only paid hella money to get to this conference, you also got yourself organized, which is smart because if I'm gonna play all this money, I might as well organize and get all I can out of this conference event. Those are the real ones, man. Broke people are not gonna think like that. Broke people are gonna attend shit for free. Broke business owners. I'm and you know, I'm just being real. I don't give a fuck if I'm shitting on every networking event that's free. So fucking what? Start charging them. Charge some motherfuckers$50 if you have to. Charge them. Don't do that shit for free. Charge people to come. Get people to get people used to spending money on their business. Because this is where it starts. It starts with understanding that it takes money to make money. And business ownership is not an is not a cheap job. It's a very expensive job. It's expensive, and you have to be alright with that. Because if you want your business to truly grow, you don't know all of the information. You gotta go out and get the information from different resources. You're making an excuse why you don't want to go get these resources because deep down in reality, you know you're fucking broke. You know you broke. You know you're struggling, you know, and that's all right. I ain't trying to come at you for that. Be broke. Be like I can't afford it, but don't make that an excuse why you ain't going. Find a way to make it happen. There's too much money out here to make for you to not know how to make something happen. It's too much money not to make, not to not figure out how you're gonna pay this person, how you're gonna get this done. It's just too much. I'm sorry. I don't I don't make excuses. Y'all, y'all will see me down in the dump. You um you will never see me like in the gutter. I I will you will see me down in the dump with business. You will I will be down to my last client, and you will still see me sitting here saying, we're gonna figure it out. Because that's what it's about. It ain't about talking that crazy shit. It's about understanding that as a business owner, we understand we gotta fight. It's a constant fight. It's a constant, constant, constant fight to be an entrepreneur. And business owners, they want to fight, they fight. It's a constant fight, but not they can't keep up the fight. Entrepreneurs keep fighting, they figure out a way. It's like Rocky Balboa and Drago. You stronger, you bigger, you stronger. But Rocky won from perseverance. He kept fighting. He ain't stopped fighting. Drago got tired. Rocky kept going. Break them down. That's what they do in boxing, too. They wear their opponent out, let them keep punching. Most people are punchers. When you think about business owners, most of them are punchers, like a boxer. But like true fighters, strategize. They understand. They understand it's not just about throwing the most punches, it's about execution, it's about patience, it's about being ready and consistency, right? That's what's gonna get people to where they want to be at. That's real. Um, all right. Um I'm wrapping up with some of these here. Uh, the next one I want to kind of just kind of go over. This is this is important for me, right? So for me, um it free isn't always bad because I know I done bashed it a little bit, but it still is limited. So, what free works for? Like it works for entry-level access. I feel like free is for businesses that are literally just starting out within their first year, within their first year, two years maybe. I feel like after three years, you should be paying for some type of event. Free is for like individuals who just got into the industry, don't know where to go, just trying to figure shit out so that they can get to where they're trying to get you. If you were in business for five years, whatever the case is, three, four, five years plus, and you still attending free networking events, you're tripping. You're tripping. You should be at conferencings, not networking events for free. No, I don't give a fuck who wants to argue that. I will get anybody on this podcast to argue me that, and I will break that shit down where you'll never, you'll you won't go toe-to-toe with that. Free events are for learning businesses and to start establishing yourself with people. Now, don't get me wrong, you're learning, you you with a whole bunch of other people who are kind of learning with you, but that's what it's about. You guys come in it together, you guys kind of start developing some form of partnership, get used to developing partners. So by the time you get to the big dogs, which is conferences, you you you've already you've already accustomed yourself to talking, to connecting, because the networking event is just your training ground. The conferencing event should be where you're trying to get to. Just like anything else. Like you're in college football, you're trying to get to the NFL, right? You're in your training, right? You're in your proven grounds here so that you can get to the NFL so you can know how to talk and rub elbows with the big dogs. When you think about paid conferences, you talk about relationships, right? Um, trust, you talk about clarity on what happens next. You talk about fast tracking goals. You're talking about people who know exactly what they're looking for when you come to these events versus people who are learning. Now, if you five, six years and you still attending a free networking event, you're broke. You're broke. Get your ass up and take your ass to a paid conferencing event. Go start connecting and start big building your business out. Stop making excuses why you can't attend a conference. That's unacceptable. Get your ass up and get to work. Anyhow, so I just want to end with, you know, uh, my final takeaway is, you know, just remembering that, you know, it starts with you, right? Conferences don't guarantee success. But avoiding investment guarantees stagnation. So that's why you'll see people who at a networking event, to me, that's a red flag. If I'm at a networking event and it's free, and I'm like, yo, how long have you been in business? And you say seven years, six years, my first question is, what the fuck are you doing here? Why what why are you still attending a free conferencing event? Why are you a 12th grader sitting in a fifth grade classroom? What the hell's going on? What? You should be up with the big dogs. Something's wrong. I can't talk to you. I can't talk to you. I can't do it. The other thing is the room you choose shapes your thinking, shapes your network, and shapes your trajectory. If you choose the free room, expect what you're gonna get out of the free room. If you choose the room that you have to pay for, understand that you're paying for not just a network in advance. You're paying for quality people. You're paying for quality leads for your business, potential leads. If they spend thousands of dollars to attend a conference, if you're a business, they may be willing to spend thousands of dollars on your product or services. You're not gonna get that at a networking event. I mean, you might have a few stragglers here and there, but you're let me here, here, this is the best way to put it. So anybody who try to argue me on this, do this here. Think about all the think about a conferencing event and think about all the vendors and sponsors you see at a conferencing event, right? All these major businesses that you'll see at like a conference. You like, you'll like see big, like you'll see you'll walk in a conference and you'll see all these businesses with booths. And you'll and some of these booths, you know the names. You don't see that shit at a free networking event. You don't see these major businesses attending free networking events. Why don't you see that? Because they already understand that going to a free networking event as a business, they're not gonna get their money back, they're not gonna get their return on investments, they're gonna go to a conferencing event where people pay thousands of dollars for their business because those people are serious. They're not if if I'm a fucking, let me just give an example. If I'm a fucking um Pro Tools, which is a recording platform for artists, if I'm or whatever. And if I'm if I'm Pro Tools, I'm not about to go to a free networking event. I because like I know that to sponsor this, I have to pay money. And I'm paying thousand tens of thousands of dollars to sponsor my business at this conference. I'm not gonna pay tens of thousands of dollars to put myself in front of people who came here for free. Doesn't make sense. Because if they come here for free, that means their pockets are probably weak. That's why you don't see these major organizations sitting at these networking events for free unless they got a relationship with somebody. But that's just for them, it's not a wise business choice. They're gonna take their ass to a conference where people are spending the dollars to attend this, right? You would do the same thing. You would not pay tens of thousands of dollars for your business and sponsor your business at a networking event, knowing you're in front of broke people, knowing you're in front of people who's just learning. You're not gonna do that. You're not gonna spend that kind of money because you're gonna be wasting your money. You're gonna spend tens of thousands of dollars at this event and come back in the hole. At least if you go to a paid conferencing event, you have a greater chance of getting a return back on your investment on what you spent. Because you got now quality attendees attending this conference. And that's real. You know what I'm saying? Um, listen, man, this was this was this was um this was great. You know, I hope you guys learned something today. I hope that today was not just me rambling, but I hope that today was something that um everyone was able to get from today. I'm not saying, you know, don't attend a networking event. I'm saying don't take your ass to a motherfucking networking event. That's what I'm saying. That's what that's basically what I'm saying. It is if you especially if you're a business that's been five years and plus, whatever. Get your ass out of these networking events, take your ass to conferences. You know, I want to I want to be around like-minded business owners, business owners who understand this is what I need to invest in. Now, if you're really smart, you will attend a networking event your first year, but after that, you'll just start attending conferences. Like, be in the room with people who make decisions, be in the room with key decision makers. Be there, be that person. You know what I mean? And and just remember that like at the end of the day, people are gonna have their opinions about what they have, their opinions about. I just got my opinions. I will not attend a networking event. I will not do it. There's no benefit to me. If I attend it, I'm there to be a resource to the business that's trying to assist other businesses or industries. I'm just there to be a resource. I'm not there to necessarily well be able to not say that I'm better. It's just at the end of the day, the chances of me getting something out of a free networking event is literally slim enough. I ain't got time for that shit. You know what I'm saying? So um I hope that you guys learned a lot from this today. I'm your host, Jamine Delmus. Listen, listen, listen. I want to leave you with this. Like, conferences don't guarantee success, right? That's what I want to first off with. But avoiding investment guarantees stagnation, right? The rooms you choose shape how you think, who you're connected to, and the direction your life and business go. Free information is everywhere. It's everywhere. Access is not. If this conversation challenged you, helped you, or made you think differently, follow this page, share the live, and stay connected because this is what we do here, right? We talk about the other side of entrepreneurship, the side that requires intention, discipline, and ownership. I'll leave you with this. I've been saying it all show. Serious people pay to be in serious rooms. Appreciate y'all tapping in. I'm your host, Jamie Dumblings. And until then, we'll see you guys on the other side. Thank you guys, and I will talk soon.