Our Takeaways From FinCon 2025
FinCon was unquestionably a memorable event that both of us were glad to have experienced. We each went into the conference with our own expectations and left a few days later with unique observations and reflections, shaped by our personal experiences throughout the event.
Beyond our individual impressions, we did learn a lot about the topic of content creation, especially some of the new trends, but most importantly how it all relates to money and community. In addition, we also figured out where Epic Financial Journey fits into the grand scheme of things within the wide world of financial media, while gaining confidence & reaffirmation of our own Mission Statement which is to “make sure YOU achieve your financial goals.”
We took away so many great concepts & ideas that we just had to share with our readers. While this may not be applicable or even of interest to 99% of y’all out there, hopefully this will provide a little peek behind the curtain for the remaining 1% who care.
Our Top Takeaways From FinCon 2025
- Blogging is the vinyl of the content creation community
- We’re collaborators, not competitors
- We all have unique voices that resonate with distinct people
- We have an important mission
- We are committed to being authentic
The Vinyl of Content Creation
We fully acknowledge that long-form content, and in particular blogging, is a dying art-form. This point was made vividly clear to us within the very first hour of FinCon when a well-known speaker adamantly declared in front of a packed audience that “long-form content is dead and the future is short-form (video clips)”.
Of course blogging is considered a type of long-form content, so why do we even bother?
Because we’re confident that we can still make an impact.
Although we may never go viral, grow exponentially, or reach a maximum audience, that’s never been our goal. We know there are still people out there who prefer to consume written content. We also know that we have unique voices here at Epic Financial Journey that will resonate loudly with a very niche set of people. If we can reach that specific audience, however large or small, and help them then that’s what really matters to us.
After initially being bummed to hear about the death of long-form content and even wondering if it was still worth attending Fincon, Scout flipped these thoughts on their head and came up with an astute metaphor – Blogging is the vinyl of the content creation world! While this medium had its heyday long ago, there’s still an audience out there and perhaps there will even be a resurgence in the future, just like vinyl records in the music industry. And here at Epic Financial Journey we want to be frontrunners of that blogging revival!
After all, who doesn’t listen to music on vinyl anymore? Plenty of people.
But then again, who does listen to music on vinyl these days? Plenty of people.
Argument won.
Case closed.
Blogging is back baby!
Note: For those wondering why we choose to blog over other forms of content creation such as podcasting or video, the written word just seems to suit us best. We’re not quick-thinkers at all and prefer the ability to take our time crafting & editing our content. Plus neither of us are good public-speakers. And at the moment we’ve chosen to keep our identities predominantly hidden, which is easiest to do via blogging.
Collaborators, Not Competitors
Prior to FinCon we knew that this conference was going to be a little different from the other FI events that we’ve attended such as EconoMe, CampFI, or Camp Mustache. While FI events are composed primarily of attendees looking to build a sense of community & learn from each other, our initial assumption was that FinCon may have more of a cold, business-like feel.
It didn’t help when a speaker reminded everyone at the very first session of the conference that “if you’re not talking to someone at all times” and “if you’re eating lunch by yourself then you’re wasting an opportunity”. In addition there was further encouragement to “get out there and start seeing what the brands had to offer us creators”. It immediately felt like this conference was purely transactional and everyone was there for business only. In our interpretation that meant all of us content creators were fighting over market share to see who could build the biggest audience while doing everything possible to protect trade secrets.
Boy were we wrong.
As we started attending various breakout sessions and talking to others over the next few days, we were pleasantly surprised.
What we thought might be a competitive environment actually turned out to be a very collaborative one. Everyone we met was nice & friendly, shared a genuine interest in what we were trying to create here at Epic Financial Journey, and were more than willing to help. Many of the larger, well-known content creators even readily shared tips & tricks and lessons learned regarding what made their platforms successful.
Joe Saul-Sehy from Stacking Benjamins frequently espouses that although many people are hesitant to become new financial content creators due to perceived oversaturation of the market, there’s actually a huge need for more voices. Finance & money is such a small segment of available media that there’s room for all of us in this space – the more voices the better.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
We’re collaborators, not competitors.
Unique Voices
Throughout our lives all of us have different people that we relate to best, as well as those with specific voices that seem to speak directly to us. Sometimes we simply share similar backgrounds or experiences with some people that perhaps others just wouldn’t understand. For example there are many people in the personal finance community who are single or married with no kids, and their lives are completely unrelatable to those with families, especially those with young children.
As part of the FI community sometimes this uniqueness gets lost because most of us share a strong bond of personal finance/Financial Independence which makes us a tight-knit group from the start. In addition, many of us in the community also discover that we have similar goals, similar habits, similar lifestyle choices, and perhaps even similar values.
This aura of distinctiveness really stood out to both of us during FinCon as we spent a few days meeting new people and getting to know them. Not only did we meet content creators and hear about their backgrounds & interests, but perhaps more importantly we learned about their audiences and the types of individuals they were trying to reach & connect with.
We came away with a greater appreciation for the broad spectrum of people in the world of personal finance from all different walks of life, all different money preferences, all different financial interests, and all different goals. In fact, it’s truly amazing how different everyone is yet we all share a commonality of being conscious about money and working to improve our lives.
An Important Mission
Embracing our unique voices and realizing that we could actually make a difference to a distinct audience, we left FinCon feeling more confident and filled with a greater sense of purpose.
Our mission from Day 1 has always been to “make sure YOU achieve your financial goals” by “accompanying you on your (financial) journey”. Up until now, we didn’t know exactly who the “you” was. And at times we’ve even felt like our content may be repetitive or redundant. But after learning about the wide-range of people within the personal finance space and their specific wants & needs, from content creators to consumers, we’ve finally found our specific audience.
It just so happens that both of us are members of the FI community, we are each married with kids, we come from W-2 (work) backgrounds, our primary method of growing net worth is through stock market (index fund) investing, and we live in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. In addition, our primary method of communication is via blogging and long-form content.
That’s who we are and what we know. We fully acknowledge that our content is very niche and may only be applicable to a very specific subset of people, but whoever that group of people may be, we want to be here for you. We want to provide a unique voice that you can connect with that perhaps you won’t find anywhere else. We get you. We know what you’re going through. We’d like to provide a safe space to come hang out, learn with us, and build a community of like-minded individuals.
For those who may have little in common with us or can’t relate, we’d still like to welcome you here. It’s always beneficial to hear different points of view and at the end of the day, we probably share more commonalities than differences. In addition, hopefully we can even help connect you with those that you may relate to better.
Commitment to Authenticity
Hearing from other creators about their success in being themselves and how they’ve built a community around trust has inspired us to do the same. Knowing that we have an important mission and that we can realistically only connect with a specific group of people within the finance community, our goal is to always be authentic. We want to build a community based on genuine connection with our readers and hope you feel the same way.
To this end, we are committed to being 100% authentic with our audience by ALWAYS being open and honest. Will everyone appreciate this? Probably not, but that’s okay. We’d rather share our true thoughts & feelings and accept any resulting criticism instead of pretending to be people we’re not, all in an effort to gain readers and/or grow our business.
Links/Resources
Reader Questions
- Is there anything in your life that you enjoy, but is seemingly outdated? If so, does it ever bother you or could you care less what other people think?
- How would you categorize your unique voice? Have you found others, whether in the personal finance community or other areas of life, that you can relate to?
Leave your answers or comments below – or email us directly at info@epicfinancialjourney.com