Nearly every person who achieves great success always knows the moment momentum swung in their direction. I remember my moment well. A hot and humid June in New Orleans … in 2005, just a few months before Hurricane Katrina hit. What happened in the Bayou?

PubCon happened.

While I had ten years of experience in web design in SEO at the time, I was just doing “okay” in my business … not great. I wanted greatness. I knew I had the knowledge and the drive, but I was missing a few key pieces. But I had no idea what those pieces were.

I had been a member of Webmaster World for about four years and I was always impressed with the knowledge the senior members shared. People like tedster, pageoneresults, incrediBILL, engine, g1smd, and countless others.

It just made sense that if I was going to turn the corner, I had to go to where all these people were. And go I did.

I still remember walking into the kick-off session an hour early and seeing Brett Tabke, who runs Webmaster World. I walked up and introduced myself. While I expected a brief chat, Brett took the time to ask about me, my business and what I hoped to get out of PubCon. “It’s not about attending all the sessions that you can Jerry, it is about meeting people, asking questions, meeting vendors and building relationships. You can’t just sit in the back of the room and expect people to come to you, you have to go them. PubCon started as a networking event and it still is. You have to take what you learn and actually do something with it.”

Taking what you learn and actually do something with it…those words stuck with me.

Almost every session I attended, I sat in the front, took notes, asked questions, followed up with the speakers afterwards and also those around me. I was bound and determined to figure out what I was missing. Before going to the next session I wrote down at least one thing I would do that night with my campaigns.

After the first day concluded, I went back to my room and the temptation was there to go to Bourbon Street and have a great time. But I had to keep my focus and apply what I had learned while it was fresh in my mind. Despite the obvious distraction, I kept my focus and applied each technique I had written down to my campaigns, closed my laptop and went out.

Upon returning back to the hotel, I checked email and usually I have 2-3 notices of sales during the evening, but this night I had 16. Seriously? 16? Awesome!!

I did the same thing on Day Two … sat in the front, asked questions, met more people, exchanged contact information, but today the exhibit hall was open. I spent a few hours talking to new merchants and building new relationships. That night was the “Meet the Google Engineers” party. Since I had preregistered, I was the first one through the door. I had more than 20 minutes of uninterrupted time with an engineer over search and I showed him all the issues and problems I was having. He gave me insight I hadn’t considered and once again, I returned to the room, applied the things I had learned to my campaigns and then went out.

When I got back to the room, I had 23 more orders than usual. First night 16, then 23, and after the third day, I had 28 more orders during a span when I would normally have 2-3. Was PubCon worth it? Absolutely. But the key was taking what I learned, molding it to my industry, applying it as soon as possible, tracking the results and making modifications where needed.

The bottom line is, I would not be where I am in my career today without the help of Brett Tabke and PubCon. So, if you’re stuck and you’re struggling with your campaigns, get to PubCon in Austin March 8-9. It could be the best decision of your career like it was mine.

If you go, make sure you go and introduce yourself. I’ll be presenting my “SEO in a Box” technique live. See you there!

Register for PubCon Austin