Every post that I’ve written about my experiences at Affiliate Summit East (ASE) has been about how each one was better than the last, and this one was no different.
It may very well have to do with the trajectory of my company, having grown year over year, and particularly this past year, we’ve been growing double digits percentage-wise every month.
Thrive has been seeing huge traction since it’s initial launch in October 2014. I was humbled and excited to hear that so many affiliates were seeing the trend and hearing great things about our product and customer support. We’ve gotten some of the largest affiliates due to our unique solutions for the problems that our competitors have.
Nonetheless, it’s simply that I’ve been in the industry long enough now to enjoy some of the fruits of the labor that I’ve put into networking with those who first look to provide value for others, and for that, I am very grateful.
This time, I got in a little earlier on a Friday, mainly to have dinner with some old college friends, who are all so very successful in their own right. I went to a very good school, and I’m very humbled by the peers I have. The network is getting stronger every single day.
My Affiliate Summits are mainly consisting of meetings nowadays, and each year, I still manage to meet dozens of new people. This time it consisted of potential new customers, current users of ours, and big companies for potential partnerships.
The whirlwind of meetings were very impactful on my business already, as I’ve followed up with many of the contacts, and they are all delivering as they’ve promised. This is another new effect that I am discovering as you stay in the game longer and longer.
In the beginning, when you are newer and smaller, people may flake on you more often. As you’ve built up your relationships over the years and you’ve worked hard to grow your company, your network simply becomes that much more resilient and responsive.
Having gone to the Summit so many times and having benefited from it so greatly, I decided to give back a little, so I volunteered for the Newcomer Program, where you show a first time attendee around a bit, give a few tips on how to navigate the conference, and also simply network and see how you can help each other.
I had an amazing experience with it and came out with someone I’d call an industry friend. Although he was relatively new to our industry, he was a big time executive at formerly Motorola.
I’m just glad that I was able to introduce him to a few valuable contacts. I think I’ll be doing the Newcomer Program again.
Overall, New York isn’t my favorite place, but every single time I go to ASE, I am so so glad that I went and was a little scared after the fact that I considered not attending, as the ASW show is so much bigger.
In any case, our business is showing such strong traction that the next challenge is going to be how to scale the company. If you’re looking for tracking and want to understand how the power users and high volume affiliates do it and why specifically to choose Thrive over our competitors, please get in touch!
Thanks so much for coming and participating in the Newcomer Program.