What I learned at Atomicon 2024

Michelle spent a few days this week at Atomicon – the self-professed “must-attend” sales and marketing conference for small business owners. Here’s her perspective – what she learned, and what actions she’ll be taking from it.

Disclosure: this post contains an Atomicon affiliate link, meaning we get a commission if you decide to purchase with this link, at no cost to you.

Finding Atomicon

I first came across Andrew and Pete and their Atomic brand a few years ago at a webinar, and was instantly enthused about my own business by their big personalities! They provide great advice with super friendly, funny delivery and takeaway actions for you to get on and do afterwards. So after that webinar, I joined their Atomic programme, and then I found myself at Atomicon 2024.

There’s not a lot of ways to dress this up. Atomicon is… a LOT. Not in an expensive way, but in a giant pink palm trees kind of way. The hype, the epic videos from previous years, people preparing to come in festival bright colours, pre AND post-event parties… it all contributes to a lot of positive energy from hundreds of excited business owners eager to learn and share on the day.

Although there were a lot there, it wasn’t just aimed at marketers, there were plenty of other small business owners, and there was advice both on how to approach your business and promote it, but also about how to be the best business owner you can be.

My nine initial takeaways from Atomicon speakers

  1. Have courage… it leads to confidence. Not the other way round.
  2. Think about what your end goal is for your business, and then work towards that. Smaller tasks should only be done if they contribute towards your ultimate goal.
  3. Treat all of your customers like Brad Pitt. Bridging that gap is the difference between a service being a 7 and a 10.
  4. Capacity = delight. Protect your capacity if you want to retain that delight for your customers.
  5. AI is coming, nobody is an expert. Just start using it.
  6. Data remains king when it comes to AI.
  7. Practice, practice, practice. You’ll become great.
  8. Understand your reason for your business. It will help you navigate tricky times.
  9. Don’t divorce your husband if you’re perimenopausal!

My highlights

The best speakers I saw were:

  • Andrew and Pete on finding your Big Domino and how to approach knocking it down
  • Geoff Ramm on the power of celebrity service and how we can augment experiences with our brands
  • Jen Gottlieb on building a brand with connection
  • Lisa Bilyeu on radical confidence – and how it comes from action, not the other way round
  • Daniel Priestley on how to be oversubscribed
  • Davina McCall being very authentic and honest about finding opportunities, and women in the workplace
  • Molly Mahoney with all of the AI and automation advice
  • Eman Ismail on email marketing automation

There were many more speakers than this, so I have a lot of watching replays to do in the next few weeks!

There was also the networking element – I attended some fringe events and the parties, and spoke to dozens of people throughout the days I was there. Most people were just lovely, very friendly, and eager to share and learn.

Seven Atomicon actions

It’s the day after I’ve got back – here are my seven actions…

1. Play bigger

Andrew and Pete spoke about aiming for The Big Domino – the huge goal for your business. For them, it was speaking at Social Media Marketing World. Then ensure that every task you do for your business has this end goal in mind. It will wipe years off that timeline if you aim big from the start. My head is still spinning from the trip, so I don’t have mine… yet!

2. Think of Elliot’s magic ticket

Geoff Ramm (who was my favourite speaker of the day, shhh!) had the loveliest anecdote in his speech about how much his son loved trains. Taking him on a train journey to anywhere (Berwick, as it turned out), and with tickets being electronic now, the lady at customer service wrote “Elliot’s magic ticket” on a blank ticket for him, and it was an enchanting and poignant example of how even simple things can augment experiences, if you know your customer.

3. Protect my capacity

Daniel Priestley was talking about how only oversubscribed businesses make profit… and yet you have to protect your capacity in order to delight your customers. He was enthusiastic about maintaining waiting lists to ensure the best levels of service. Think like Rolex!

4. Do more with AI

Molly Mahoney had some crazy custom GPTs set up to automatically carry out marketing tasks – I took so many screenshots from her talk as she whizzed through it so quickly! I’d like to find out more about these and how they can support both me and my business… and my clients’ businesses.

5. Consider increasing email frequency

I don’t like being ‘salesy’ in my own business, so this does go against my natural inclinations, but Eman was describing how she sends out three marketing emails a week. It is proven to increase sales. This might be one I pass onto my clients, rather than use myself though!

6. Read all of the things

A lot of the speakers had books they gave away for free and emails to sign up to, etc. Molly had a lot of free AI tools, which was brilliant, and I need to spend time investigating those.

7. Find the value

Finally, Lisa Bilyeu talked about finding the value when things go wrong, making the best of your failures, and always adopting the attitude of the learner.

The people

Of course, I can’t neglect to mention that I met lots of wonderful new connections at the event. From business to parenting, to the talks, to holidays, to music, I chatted to a lot of people about a whole lot of things!

I’ve signed up for next year already, and while it’s tempting to watch it in my pyjamas from home, I think I get much more value from it by going in person, and having these conversations.

Let me know if I’ll see you at Atomicon in 2025!