Attending Conferences and Trade Shows Like a Pro – Small Business Show 208

The Small business show, episode 208 for Wednesday, January 30, 2019. Greetings, folks, and welcome to the Small Business show here at BusinessShow Co, the show that is by, for and about small business owners. Sponsors for this episode include textexpander@textexpander.com podcast and Abby Connect at abby connect.com SBS we'll talk about both of those in more detail shortly. Here. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And out on the West Coast, I am Shannon Jean. How are you, man?

I am good. Yeah. Yeah. It's cold here. Colder than it is for you.

Very, very much so. I was just going to comment, but I don't. You know, it's such a. I feel like it's such an old man thing to. About the weather.

Yeah.

But it's fascinating here in California. I live in the Bay Area, and we kind of go from winter to spring, like within a couple of days.

Yeah.

And, you know, it was cold. We got a ton of weather. It's been snowing up in Tahoe, which is great. And then all of a sudden you walk out and you're like, hey, you know, I could probably wear shorts over a period of about two weeks. And we're kind of in that where like, the. The trees are blooming. I saw daffodils popping up the other day at my buddy's house. And, you know, it is fascinating.

I. I noticed that when I lived in Austin, Texas, because we were there about six years and same kind of thing. Especially after having grown up here in New England, where there are four distinct seasons and they each last, you know, basically the same amount of time.

Same.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was always sort of strange to have, you know, two weeks of winter, but we would also only really get two weeks of. Of fall, too, which really bummed me out because, you know, having grown up here, like, fall is freaking amazing here.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

You know, and that feel to the air. And we would get enough of it in Austin that it was like, oh, man, I missed this. And then it's over, you know, and then it just rains like crazy and then it's spring. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's right.

That's here. And like you said, it's like the cycle, you know, and you made a cut. We were talking before the show about business cycles, too, and it just comes to mind we need to do a show about kind of the traditional cycle of businesses. You and I have been involved in the whole circle of life, if you will. Of a small business to startup phase, rapid growth and then managing everything. And certainly part of the cycle sometimes either comes decline or acquisition or death. Or death. So that would be great. But I'm going to make some notes and we'll come back and revisit that in a few weeks. But today we're going to talk about trade shows and conferences, which is a topic that we both have had some experience with. I think you deeper than I have, but I've been an exhibitor, but, you know, which is maybe a little bit different. Yeah, but you've also, you've gone as the press and everything else, but it's, it's a great topic and they've been around forever, but I think they're still very relevant to connect with people. And so we're gonna talk about that today.

Cool. Yeah, sounds good. Yes, I think they are arguably more relevant today than perhaps they ever have been in a certain way. Yeah.

Okay, great. I'm really interested on your take on it, and we can jump right in. And I was looking at your notes, kind of comparing to mine, and it seemed like a big thing that stood out is the planning for the show. Right. Getting yourself ready and this kind of thing, which always seems to be a critically important part of it, what to take, what you're going to do about the conference. So let's talk about that a little bit.

Yeah. And I'm going to talk about this from the standpoint of just an attendee. And like you, I've been more than an attendee at some conferences in different ways. But let's just take it from the standpoint of an attendee. I think if you're exhibiting or if, like, you know, we used to throw a big party or anything like those kinds of things, you know, you have to plan for.

Right?

Yeah.

But when you're just an attendee, it seems like you could just like, oh, I mean, I need to book my hotel and my flights. Those are sort of table stakes.

Right.

But. And you got to, you know, sign up for the conference too, or the trade show, and those are two different things. And we'll talk about that.

But.

But there's more to it than that. And you know, my, my planning starts with researching the conference.

Right.

How many people are going to be there, how many buildings is it, how many days is it, you know, what's the vibe of the show? And sometimes I'll go and look for pictures. If I haven't been to the show before, I'll look for pictures of, you know, other people. That are posting.

That's a great idea.

And just get a feel like, how do I need to dress for this? There are some shows where, you know, a, a shirt and tie is the, the norm for, you know, for men to wear. And there are somewhere, if you showed up in a shirt and tie, you would stand out like a sore thumb. Right, right. You know, and so it's like, is this a shirt and tie conference? Is this a shorts and sandals conference, or is it something in between?

Right.

And most, most conferences, to be fair, in between. But you, you kind of want to know this going in, how do you dress, how do you pack and just how do you think about it? You know, I mentioned the number of. Go ahead.

Well, I think and for me, all this things you're talking about right now is that are going to make you feel more comfortable at the show. Right. And you're going to be, you know, confident. You know what, you know, you're not going to show up in a shirt and a tie in a show. You know, the folks are wearing shorts and sandals and stand out. So you want to have that feel comfortable, be confident. I think you'll have a better experience based on having this planning. It's like prepping for a presentation, if you will.

It is. That's right. And you're right. That confidence and comfort is really what you're going after there. And then the next part is knowing what you're going to be doing there. Is there a big expo hall? Are there four big expo halls? How much time would you spend at those versus in meetings and, and you know, that sort of thing? How many people are going to be there? Is it the type of thing where you can see everyone and see everything? Or is it, you know, is it not that at all? I mean, I went to. In the last three months, I've been to two different conferences slash conventions. I was at MacTech, which has about 300 people and is all in the same hotel. And I could easily see and say hello to everyone and catch everything. And then also I went to CES, which is 180,000 people. It's spread across basically the entire city of Las Vegas. And there's just no way I could see everything. And if you think you're going to, or if you go in without a plan to either one of those, you're not going to get your full value out of it. I don't want to say it's going to be worthless, but you want to get your full value out of the thing.

I've Definitely made that mistake where I didn't plan enough and I was too busy and I thought, oh, I'll just hit the ground and make things happen. It is far more difficult to make the kind of connections that you'd like to make and to have what I would say a successful show and meeting whatever goals you have. And some of that can just be kind of wandering around. But if you let that wandering around kind of take too much time, I think you're going to be disappointed in the outcome.

It's true. Deciding upon your goals up front, to me, is the key.

Right.

And for those of you that either have done this and haven't figured it out yet or haven't done it, rarely is booking new business going to be the result of attending a trade show or a conference. Some shows are geared for that and that's great, but most shows are just. I treat them as gravity.

Right.

They're bringing lots of relevant people together. I can count on. I was going to say certainly one hand. It might be one finger. The number of deals that I've signed at a trade show show like that meaningful in any way. It's just not how it is to me. The goals of these things are meeting new people, deepening relationships with your existing contacts, reminding each other that you're humans, not just email addresses. I can cut a deal with you. That's a big deal any time of the year, but it's got a better chance of happening if you and I remember that. Oh, yeah, we're human beings. We saw each other. You're building trust. To me, that's the reason to get out of the house and get on the plane and go to one of these things is you're building trust with other people in your industry. And that, to me, that's the. That's the one, right?

Yeah, it's a big deal. And, you know, like say, putting a face to a name, you know, getting a chance to connect on a human level, I think that it's. You just can't understate how powerful that is and get an opportunity now, you know, some people don't like that aspect of it and, you know, but it, you know, that one on one can make all the difference in future business. And I agree. If you're chasing deals at the show, I think you're going to be disappointed. And I think that if you look at it a little with a little different perspective, it's kind of like brand building, you know, but you're building your own brand, if you will. Yeah. As an Attendee, you may be talking to distributors or whatever, manufacturers, other people in your industry, you know, of course, that are maybe in the same, you know, business, the niche that you're in. And those are great. You just never know who you're going to meet. And I would say we talk a lot about planning and all this kind of stuff. And planning meetings are. It's really important if you have an opportunity to try to connect with people. But that serendipitous bumping into people. You know, you had a comment in your note about hanging out in the hallway, and I thought that was. Makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, there's. There's various different things, right. There's some shows that are just an expo floor. There's some, some shows that are just conference sessions, and some that are a mix of both of those. If the conference sessions are any part of it, chances are there's going to be a few sessions that are totally relevant to you and you definitely want to be there and maybe you want to be in all of them, and that's fine. But there's always going to be time in between them. Or if there's no session happening that interests you, don't just hole up in your hotel room. And I say this as I know this comes as a surprise to anybody listening, but I really am an introvert. I know I hide it well, but I really like my own time. I need to recharge on my own. I generally don't let myself do that at these trade shows.

Right.

Or conferences, because this hallway track that I call it is so valuable because if there's a session happening and it's not for you, go hang out in the hallway around where the sessions are, there will be other people there. And now you're doing the same thing, right? You've got a common bond, like, oh, yeah, I'm not interested in that. Okay, cool. Well, what are you interested in? And talk. And. And I think, you know, that's another big thing is listen to people. Rarely.

Yeah.

Do people go to a show and expect to hear your great story.

Right.

I mean, maybe, maybe. But generally we like to talk about ourselves. And when someone actually listens and actively takes interest in something, you're saying, you like them more. So. And it's the easiest way to get somebody to like you and remember you is to listen to what they have to say, listen to their story, whatever it is, and ask them about it, you know, and if you see them again, ask them, you know, hey, you were telling me about that thing you did, how did that turn out?

Right.

People love that kind of thing, and it builds trust. It's.

Yeah, yeah, I would agree. And if you go to big shows, if you have time there, you know, there's always sections of the show floor that maybe don't get as much traction, if you will, or, you know, not a lot of maybe attendees are walking around and they're easy to ignore. You can kind of, you know, we always used to joke around, don't make eye contact, because they're going to come over and talk to you, you know, these guys from the booth or whatever, and you're not. Not interested. But sometimes, you know, if you have the time and again, listening to some of these people, maybe you're. You don'. Have a connection or not, you know, in that same business or something like that, but you just never know who they may be able to introduce you to. When you explain what you do, they may say, oh, you should go visit, you know, so and so over in the booth, whatever, and tell them, I told you to come on. I mean, I've had that happen time after time. If you go over and express a little interest, especially at shows like ces, where there's. There could be hundreds of booths that are basically selling the same or, you know, representing the same thing.

Yeah, right.

And. And if you are able to connect with some of those people, that human connection can be really, really powerful.

It can. Yeah. And, you know, I always say that I like to plan about 85% of my time. I want to know before I leave that my trip is going to be valuable.

Right.

So I book myself up to about the 85% mark for anything that I'm doing if I can. Some conferences, you know, you don't necessarily get all the right information up front. You sort of have to play it by earnings. And then I. But I intentionally leave some time for those, like you said, serendipitous moments. But I also allow myself to maybe sacrifice some. Some of that 85% if something comes up. You know, at the most recent show I was at, I had a dinner booked with somebody that was booked for like three weeks, maybe even more. And I felt bad about canceling on it, but, you know, a different opportunity presented itself. It's like, oh, yeah, no, I'm going to do that instead. And you just kind of have to be, you know, to yourself. You don't necessarily want to tell people you're doing this, but to yourself, you want to be ruthless with your time. You know, every minute on the ground, wherever you are. Again, treating the conference like gravity. That is valuable and you need to make the absolute most of it. And it will require some on the fly juggling and all of that. Yeah. So just be ready for it. Just be ready for it. Yeah.

Because you're looking for a certain return on investment.

Right.

On your time, you're investing your time, you're flying or whatever to these shows. You got to go to hotel and you do have to kind of pick and choose sometimes. What's the best opportunity for you to connect with people.

It's true. It's absolutely true. I want to take a break here and talk about our sponsors. We have some other great things to go through here, including what to do after the conference ends, both each day and also when you get home. But. And I have some more tips and I know you do too. But first, I want to talk about our first sponsor, which is Abby connect. We're@abbyconnect.com SBS. You can get a team of receptionists that will answer the phone for you and sound like they work at your business when in fact they are not at your business at all. They're based here in the United States. They are trained on your business because you train them. But they cost far less than paying a full timer to sit in an office for you that you may or may not even have because you might be a virtual company and you don't even have an office. And this is the beauty of Abby Connect, because just like we're saying with trade shows here, you know that human connection is important. Well, one place that it's super important is when someone calls your business, they are a human on that end of the phone. The last thing they want is a robot on the other end. They want to talk to someone that takes care of them, that listens to them. Just like we were saying in trade shows.

Right.

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Right.

And some of the time when you're in your office, you want to be the one answering your phone. That's fine. You can turn this on or off at will. It's so flexible just for you. And Again, you get to pay them for what you use. You're not paying a full timer to just sit there all the time. Fraction of the cost. Super professional, courteous, motivated and specifically trained on your business. So they have a special offer here. They want to help you. We want to help you impress your clients and customers with Abbyy Connect. So you can get a no obligation free trial with Abby Connect. Plus after your initial trial, you get 95 bucks off your first bill. The only way to get that offer though is to go to the special link I mentioned, which is Abby connect.com SBS that is a B B Y connect.com SBS so sign up today to get the special offer. Abbyconnect.com SBS Our thanks to Abby Connect for sponsoring this episode. Our next sponsor, my friends, is textexpander@textexpander.com podcast. Shannon, I know you are perhaps, and I don't say this lightly, you might actually be a bigger fan of textexpander than me. And that's saying something because you use it all the time too, right?

I've used it for years. It is a life changing app that I love having them as a sponsor because I'm a true believer. And we've run entire customer service departments with it. With seven or eight people all on the same page, using the same information, relating the same messages to your customers. Customers that I want to, I can sit there and create the snippets that go out to the customers and responding in the manner that I'd like to see. And then once I do it, they can send it over and over and over. It's awesome.

And that's the beauty of textexpander. You have these snippets that either you've created or someone else on your team has created and you can share them and then you just invoke them with either a click of a mouse or a quick keystroke and boom. That that perfectly crafted reply is now there and ready to go. You don't have to proofread it anymore. You just do it. Proofread it the one time, right? Once it's in, it's in. And you don't have to worry about it. You know that it is right 100% of the time and the headache that takes away is huge. It really, it saves a ton of time and energy. It's just, it's crazy. So you got to check this out. Go to textexpander.com podcast. That's where you can go to get 20% off your first year. So that's textexpander.com podcast. I know that sounds generic. It is. But once you're there and you're going through checkout and all that stuff, they'll ask where you heard about it. Choose small business show. Or at least that's the idea. So that they know we sent you. We know we sent you. It's all good. Thanks to textexpander@textexpander.com podcast for sponsoring this episode. All right. Yeah, it is good stuff. I know we're fortunate to have sponsors that, that really fit what we do here. It's pretty awesome. I like it. Yeah. So we were talking about what happens after the show ends. I, I want to kind of get granular with that because every day the show is going to end officially at 5 o', clock, 6 o', clock, whatever that time is. To me, that's when things begin. Certainly there's, you know.

Right.

The hallway track. We talked about that, all of that stuff. It is valuable time. I don't mean to dismiss that at these shows. However, if you're there to build trust, these after hour parties, dinners, cocktail gatherings.

Right.

Go to as many of these as possible. And I know I'm saying this as a self proclaimed introvert, pretend you're not an introvert. Go to these things, say hi to people. This is where trust is increased exponentially. Because now you're going to a different type of experience with these people. It might just be a cocktail party, it might be a concert.

Right.

There might be some kind of a show happening. Whatever it is, like do as many of these things as you can and talk to people while you're there. Because then with six. Go ahead.

Yeah. So I'm going to ask you a question about it and I really agree. But let's say it's somebody just starting out and they're going to their, one of their first conferences or they've been to a few, or they, you know, a new type of conference and they're following this step. How do they get connected with, you know, these types of events? Do they, you know, reach out beforehand to start to tell people, I'm going to be at this show? I mean, what would your advice be for that? I mean, you get kind of hooked up because of some of your positions of awesomeness, but the rest of us that are business owners in a small business, let's say that's a little different. You're kind of walking around and maybe by at the end of the day, if you haven't made any plans, you're like, well, I don't have anything to do. I'm going to go back to my. My thing or go out with people that I've tried to connect.

You already know. Yeah. Yeah.

That you already know. So how would you put yourself out there to get plugged into these types of events?

That's actually a great question. So I would. And I do some of this too. Yes. I get invited to some amazing things and I'm really fortunate for all of that. None of that's by accident, right. It's charmed life. No, it totally is.

Right.

I. To see the Foo Fighters with a thousand people a couple of weeks ago. Friggin amazing, right? That. But it doesn't happen by accident. You know, the first thing to do if you. If you don't know anyone and, and you aren't, you know, automatically on these lists or whatever, go ahead and search for the name of your conference and parties.

Right.

Look on the. A lot of conferences realize the benefit of this and have their own parties that they'll throw that are kind of the officially sanctioned things. And then there's the unofficial things that it maybe sprout up as you go year after year. You want to pay attention, search just Google is your friend. At some of the larger conferences people. There's little cottage industries of people that put together websites that list all the parties.

Right.

You know, and they make money on advertising or whatever it is. That's definitely the way to go. And just ask people, what are you doing tonight? You know.

Yeah, yeah.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Right.

You know, that's. That's one way.

That's great. Yeah. And especially if you have like larger suppliers and representative. Like we used to get invited all over because we advertised all over.

Right.

You know, that's a huge way to get an in on, oh, you're an advertiser in this magazine. Well, magazine probably dating myself here. But on the web or whatever you're doing, leverage those relationships because not only, you know, does it connect you with those people hosting, but you may be able to bring a plus one that you're like, hey, I got an invite to this show, Foo Fighters, whatever. And you bring someone else, you look like a big shot and you get to make a great impression. And at those events, like Dave is saying, you know, people let their guard down.

That's it.

Significantly more than when they're on the show floor and they're representing something like that. So you get a chance to meet them, maybe have a cocktail. And I think, Dave, you have Something to say about that. And, you know, so let's talk about alcohol.

Yeah. You need to leverage alcohol properly.

Right.

I love that phrase.

Yeah. And if you're someone who doesn't drink alcohol, then I'm certainly not going to recommend that you drink alcohol at a show.

Right.

But if you do drink alcohol, it is helpful that other people see you drinking alcohol. And if you don't drink or you don't want to drink, make a deal with the bartender. Say, look, I just want seltzer and lime all night. If somebody buys me a drink, take the extra money, put it in your tip jar, whatever it is. I've done this as a musician where it's like, if everybody buys me drinks, I'm going to be hammered. I can't do that. So cut a deal with the bartender. Have something that makes you blend in. That's all you need.

Right?

Sure.

But alcohol can be a good thing because it loosens people up a little bit. Obviously, you don't want to overdo it. You don't necessarily want to encourage other people to overdo it, but it is the social lubricant of America right now. Or of the world, perhaps. You know your limits, right?

Absolutely. Know what you can drink, you know, and like, drinking clear liquid is a great. I mean, you know, I've been known to enjoy a vodka, you know, something or other every once in a while. So when you're at those kind of events, nobody knows, like Dave's saying, you know, you have soda and lemon or something like that, or if someone buys you a big stiff drink. I know some guys I do some business with that are, you know, hey, let's go. And they're, you know, want to really tie it on, have a great time. And, you know, occasionally be a trip to the restroom with your drink and you can refresh it in the sink.

Yeah.

And walk back. It's true. And, you know, I've totally done it. Because you're like, okay, well, I'm kind of on point or I'm at my limit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you just need to manage it correctly and. But you can have a great time and you can make some great connections and have good things to talk about after the show.

Right.

When you're all laughing at the other guy, the junior salesperson that.

Yeah, that overdid it. Yeah.

That blew through their expense account and, you know, everybody has something to talk about.

It happens. Yeah, that's right. No, but then those stories become the things that bond you.

Right?

Absolutely.

And if you don't know of any parties or even if you do, there's a lot of benefit in you throwing your own.

Right.

Just like Shannon, you were saying, essentially, I'll paraphrase what you were saying. Find the people with whom you spend money and get them to invite you to their party.

Right.

If you're giving them money and they're throwing a party, they should invite you. And that's a no brainer that'll happen. But if there's people there that have spent money with you or do spend money with you throughout the year for whatever reason, throw your own cocktail party or even just a dinner or. And it doesn't need to be a huge thing. Like, you know, we look at and this is like anything, you know, you look at like an established cocktail party and there's 200 people there and you're like, well, I can't compete with that. You don't have to, you know, just say, look, I'm going to get five of us together and we're going to go, you know, have a couple of drinks at such and such a bar. I will be there from 5:30 to 7:30 on Tuesday night. I'd love to see you come by. You might get one person, you might get five people, you might get 10 people. It's fine. Figure it out. Kind of pace it as you go the next year. Yep, we're doing it again. And it doesn't have to start out as a huge thing.

It's probably better if it doesn't, especially if you're right. No, I think it's a great idea. A casual event where you can just try to meet up, if you will.

Yeah, just a meetup. People can come and go. It's fine. You don't have to put on. You don't have to be the one that brings the Foo Fighters in.

Right.

Like, that's crazy. That's right. Right. Yeah.

Great goal to work towards, but you can start off, hey, I'm over at this table in the corner of the bar at the MGM or whatever and come on by and, you know, stop by and say hello. I mean, that's it. And if nobody shows up, well, then just try it again and just try again on it. Someone is. People are eventually going to come and you'll get some good stories out of it and be able to make the connection.

That's it.

I spent years going to CES and I loved it, but dreaded walking the show floor, but always seemed to get dragged out there. We'd have meetings and all kinds of stuff. And try to be productive. And parts of the show floor are actually pretty fun to walk because there's some just crazy stuff. And if you want to see all the TVs, I mean, it's just insane. But you're going to feel it after a while. We used to joke that the exhibitors that really had the money, you could tell because you'd walk onto their carpet and you could feel it in the, the padding that they would use because your lower back is sore. You've been out hustling for a couple days and everything. And I can remember walking around the corner one year and the business partner that I was with at the time was positioned in a massage chair, one of these real high end massage chairs. And I walked over and he was filling out some paperwork and I said, hey man, what are you doing? He's like, I'm buying one of these chairs. I'm like, no, no, no. That's like going to the grocery store when you're hungry. Do not buy this chair. Know, rip that form up and you know your wife will be very happy when, you know, you tell her you didn't spend five grand on this chair. So be prepared to do a lot of walking and yeah, comfortable shoes.

If it's a big show. No one will judge you if you're there in your tennis shoes or your sneakers or whatever. Like it happens all the time. Everybody knows it. Yep, yep. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's just how it, it's how it goes and you know, to the kind of going back to the parties thing and all of that. Make it a rule that you eat no meals alone. I love that I fail at this. I, you know, I always wind up eating something alone largely because I'm just moving so quickly or whatever. But it like this can be a great way again to have an opportunity to really have a captive audience with someone. And it again, you don't want to be pitching necessarily unless that's the expectation, but just again that human time. You need to be careful with these though, because meals are, you know, not. You can't bail out after five minutes if the conversation isn't going the way you want.

Right.

So you gotta be really judicious about whom you allow yourself to spend meal time with. You know, at ces there's a lot of folks that are, you know, I call them the old home, Old home week group. It's the people that I've known for years from Macworld Expo and some of them are people with whom I still do business. So it certainly, certainly valuable to see them from a business standpoint, but really I just like to see them because I like to see them. They're my friends. I've known them longer than I've known my kids. And it's too easy to just say, oh, yeah, we'll all do dinner every night. Yes, I allow myself one of those because I gotta mix it up. But you gotta mix it up. And I always wanna have dinner with new people that I don't know. And, and the same with breakfast and even lunch. And it wasn't a trade show. It was actually I was out in la. I was in LA for a trade show, but I was meeting with some folks that weren't at the show and one of my meetings fell through and it was like, oh, crap, that sucks. So I texted or I emailed someone else that was nearby. I'm like, oh, maybe I'll be able to meet with this person. I thought, well, I've got some time. I'm just going to duck into this little pizza by the slice place and grab a slice of pizz so that I know that I've got food in me and I'm not starving. And I'm in there and my phone rings and I'm eating my slice of pizza and this person calls and says, oh, hey, I'm so glad you called. You know, I wouldn't have had time later to get together, but I've got time now. Have you eaten lunch yet? And the answer, and you said no, of course, of course, hoping that she wouldn't hear me chewing on this pizza, you know, as I'd answer the phone. And then I went and had lunch and all I had for lunch was like a salad or whatever. It didn't matter. It was just like I wanted to meet with this person. They asked me if I had lunch and the answer is no. There have been days at conferences where I've eaten lunch three times and it's fine. Like, it's great. If I want quality time with people, man, I'll eat meals all day long. I don't care. It's fine.

Yep. No, it's cool. So we're running a little long on time, but I do want to get to a couple of points. One of the things that I liked that you mentioned was the collecting of the business cards, right. Which may seem kind of old school, but really, really important because that kind of lead us to the post conference. You know what, what do you do after the show when you get back home?

So business cards seem like such an antiquated thing until you're in one of these environments and then they are the most important thing that you can ever have.

Right.

You want to get your own business, you want to bring your own cards with you. Maybe the cards you bring with you are just your normal generic business cards. There's nothing wrong with that. That if there's a reason where it would make sense for you to create very specific business cards for whatever it is you are talking about at that conference or something. Like if I'm at a conference and I'm speaking about WI Fi, I might be, you know, I might have cards made up that say, you know, the guy that talked about Mesh WI Fi and it's just right there on the card and I'll give those out. And that way when people are doing their follow ups afterwards, they look at that and they remember, oh, right, right. If you're there for like, I see this with a lot of PR people, but it might be true. If you're a consultant or something, you know, you've got your own company, that's great. But if you're there on behalf of Citibank or, you know, Hewlett Packard or whatever, put that on your card so that when you give it to people, they, when they look at it a week later, they remember what they. Why they talk to you. Yeah, Dave was, Dave was a nice guy, I'm sure, but I don't remember him. When they see Hewlett Packard on there. Oh, I talked to him at the Hewlett Packard thing. Thing, that's right. You know, and when you get business cards from people, make sure they have the right information on them because not everybody's going to listen to this podcast episode and know to do this. Make sure, have a pen with you, write them down and guard those things with your life because that's the only way you're going to remember who you saw. I know you had a in depth conversation with that guy about, you know, your favorite hobby together and there's no way you're going to forget that person. Person. You are definitely going to forget their email address or phone number. There's just no way that's going to stick in your memory.

And trying to pull out your phone and write and exchange this stuff is just not as, you know, quick and easy as the old school. Here, here's my card. Can I get your card? Take the card, just exchange it.

That's it. I have two pockets that are dedicated to business cards at all time. One is my cards. So that I Can flip them out really fast. And the other are cards that I've gotten from people. And that pocket, I make sure I empty it out. Obviously every night I put it in my suitcase, actually my carry on right away. Like as soon as I get back to the hotel room, I put it in my carry on so that there's nothing that's going to happen. Last thing you want to do is leave a pile of business cards on the table. One of them or all of them fall into the trash can. Housekeeping comes and boom.

Right.

You won't even know that it's gone because there's so much going on. I know in the moment you think you've got it. You don't. There's just too much. You're in sensory overload at these things. You need some record. And then when you get home or back to the office, I make it a rule. My rule is three days. If I've been home for three days and I haven't followed up, that's the day that I do all my follow ups. But I'll say a week. You definitely don't want to let it go more than a week where you've been home and just go through that pile of cards, enter them into your CRM or however you track people, and then send every single one of them an email. Thanks for meeting. It was great to meet. Even if the meeting was officially beneficial to them, you want to thank them for meeting anyway. It doesn't hurt for sure. You don't need to put your ego in here. It's irrelevant. You just want to be a nice person and they'll remember that. Yeah, that's really powerful.

That's awesome. Some great tips. And there's a lot more we can talk about, but that's a great start. And maybe we'll do a show one time about being an exhibitor or part of the press.

Yeah.

And discuss those different aspects of it and what's important. Because as a small business owner, if you're exhibiting, you want to know how to position yourself to get some press. And Dave can certainly give us some insight into that. And then I can talk about, you know, what type of exhibiting you may want to do and some of the pitfalls and why paying 1000 bucks for an Internet drop might be worth it. And it's crazy. It is crazy.

Yeah, that would be good. I would love to pick your brain about being an exhibitor. I've exhibited, but I've never been the one that coordinated any of that. I was just a, you know, I was a hired gun or whatever that just showed up and talked about the product. But it.

Sure.

And that was a long time ago, too, so.

Yeah. And I, and I think that, you know, they can be very worthwhile if you focus on your niche. And the more narrow, the better on some of these shows. If you're selling into the education market, you know, finding the. Where the conferences and trade shows for teachers are, administrators or it people, I mean, we can go, you know, we'll definitely come back and revisit, you know, maybe next month. We've got a bunch of great guests coming on the show in the coming weeks. Everything from a real estate guy to a guy running a really cool farm. And I'm looking forward to sharing it with you.

Yeah, that should be fun. I'm looking forward to. Yeah. Yeah.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening, folks. We thanks to our sponsors, of course. Abby connect.com SBS textexpander.com podcast feedback at business show co. We'd love to hear from you. As always, keep living that charm life. See you next week.