A speaker stayed 90 minutes after his Ahrefs talk in San Diego to talk with attendees one-on-one. He argues the real value at events happens in those conversations, not the presentation itself. People he met as beginners years ago are now successful, and that dopamine hit from watching others grow is what keeps him coming back.
I believe that you should go to everyone or you should be available for majority of the people. It's hard with everyone depending on the event size and answer their questions. It's the right thing to do. You know, I don't care who you are. You could be worth billions of dollars. If someone's taking their time to listen to you, you should try to help them out. So here's the funny thing. The Ahrefs event, because it's San Diego, right? And it was raining on Tuesday. I was like, okay, I'm going to speak and then I'm going to peel out and go home, right? But I was like, no, but I still left 90 minutes afterwards to stop and speak to people, right? Because that's actually where the alpha is. The people that you talk to afterwards, you're actually building a relationship. And you never know where these people are going to end up later, right? Some of these people that came out, it's like, oh, I was watching your stuff, our stuff in the very beginning since they're like 19 years old or whatever. And like, look at where they are in their career, right? I think for me, like one of the biggest dopamine hits I get from it is seeing people grow and I enjoy helping people. I think you enjoy helping people too. And so the right way isn't to just appear and then disappear and act like you have— you're too important for the crowd because you're there to— you're there to deliver value, right? And that's part of the value delivering piece.
