Atomicon2024 Highlights (Part 1)

352 days after buying my ticket for Atomicon 2024 I was in Newcastle for the jazzy shirt pre-party, the conference and the after party and I can 100% confirm it was worth the wait.

If you’ve not heard of Atomicon I’ll give you a quick rundown. 

It’s an annual sales and marketing conference aimed at small businesses hosted by Andrew Pickering and Pete Gartland. And as a 1^st time attendee I can say it was brilliant.

It’s a conference to listen to inspiration guest speakers across a range of topics (you get to pick and choose) as well as make connections. 

I’m splitting this post into two parts as I’ve still got several of the sessions I didn’t get to attend to catch up on recording.

Let’s get to my highlights

• Take big action – Andrew and Pete talk about this as knocking over your Big Domino first to get to accelerate your progress and leapfrog the smaller steps. I spent some time on the long train ride home thinking about my big domino – I went BIG, then I started to overthink my idea, and now I’m back to the drawing board. I’ve set a deadline though of 28^th June to have my Big Domino nailed. 

• Happiness is a measure of success – I think every single person (over 1000 live attendees) agreed when Davina McCall gave this as an answer when she was asked “how do you measure success”. When I’m having a rough week (we all do as small business owners) I give myself the option of ‘getting a proper job’ or continue to push through the treacle. I don’t go and get a ‘proper job’ as I’m happiest having control of how my day shapes up. 

• Do the job before you get the job – Jen Gottleib told the story of how she was going to play the role of Linda in the stage play of The Wedding Singer on Broadway. She took us all on the journey of how she dressed in Linda’s costume, sang her part every day, secured a role as her under study and then got the opportunity to play the role, and continue in the role. It’s time to act as if you already have the job, what behaviours would you need to adopt?

• H.O.P E (Help One Person Everyday), another golden nugget from Jen Gottleib, and Help Someone Elses Dream First from Simon Squibb where two phrases which have really resonated with me. I would score myself a sold 7/10 on doing this but I am upping my game. When these types of statements are made, I think our natural reaction is to say “I can’t afford to help” whether it be in the form of money and time. I would ask you to ask yourself how much time it takes to share one person’s post on social media, which is free to do.  

• We all started at zero. I didn’t note who said this in my notes or captured it 1 of the 130 photos I took but I still wanted to share the message. I’ve started some new services this year, yes, it’s taking time to build but from a zero start I’m making progress. Just do the work and don’t compare yourself to someone 20 steps ahead. 

• Give Without Take – a very powerful message from Simon Squibb. I’ll be honest I had no idea who he was until I sat next to a gentleman in an earlier session who was raving about him. I had to go and watch his session. If you’ve not heard of him go check him out on Instagram or TikTok – you’ve been warned, you’ll go down a rabbit hole of videos for about an hour. 

• 80.7 years is the average lifespan of an adult in UK so take action now, not tomorrow, next month or next year. This was the key message from Katy Hill (ex Blue Peter) As my 55^th birthday is looming in 3 months’ time this one was a smack in the face. 

• Share your experiences –Elizabeth Goddard took us on a journey of how she used her experience to build a business that worked for her and her adopted family. We’ve all got experiences that we can share to help others, learn from their feedback of taking the action we recommend and then become the expert in the topic (from the feedback). We don’t have to be the expert from the start.  

• Having a great shape to a speaker presentation – Dani Wallace described this as her boobies – you need to see the image to understand the reference. It’s a great flow as to how to put together a great speaker presentation. I’ve already used the flow for a presentation coming soon and it’s a game changer for me already. 

• Connecting IRL (in real life) – I finally got to connect with Meghan Downs from Ayrshire who wrote all the case studies that you’ll find on my website, and Lucy Critchley from Leeds who worked with for 2 years as a VA. I met up with Hazel Woodward who I had been in a group with, and kindly invited me to join her and a group for dinner, as well as Kirsty Holden who I’m starting a course with very soon. It was awesome to meet in the flesh, they now all know how short I really am. 

What’s Next 

Post conference Andrew and Pete have already hosted an implementation session and within the Atomicon Power Group on Facebook businesses are already helping each other. This continues all the way to Atomicon 2025, and beyond. 

I can now go back and watch any of the amazing sessions I attended, plus catch up the sessions I couldn’t see live on catch up. So, part 2 of my #attomicon24 highlights will be coming soon.

If you’re planning on attending #atomicon25 then you can grab a ticket for just £199*. This is an affiliate link. (*offer ends 28^th June 2024)

The price includes: 

Full access pass to the conference and all of next year’s epic speakers

• Professional replay recordings of ALL sessions 
• 2 Epic networking parties
• Fringe day with meetups and masterminds
• Implementation workshop
• Table discussion sessions
• Bonus virtual workshops with industry leaders
• ‘Business Matchmaker’ personalised introductions
• Monthly Hot Seat Masterminds with us for a whole year
• Supportive community all year round
• Bonuses that we throw in along the way
• Goodie bags and even a free lunch! 

You can pay in 6 instalments of £34.
You can switch between in-person and virtual attendance at any point.
You can get a full refund up until 1st February 2025 if you change your mind.

If you’d like to chat with me to see if Atomicon would be beneficial for your business, then drop me an email to vicky@vickylabinger.com and pop Atomicon in the title.