Digital Banter goes LIVE this week, diving deep into the world of B2B event marketing with a fresh perspective. Tim Davidson will be our special guest, and he’s here to shatter conventional event strategies and inspire you to take a bold new approach. Let’s face it, most B2B marketers struggle when it comes to events. They invest huge sums in booths, chase after badge scans, and often find themselves questioning the ROI. But not Tim. This week, we’re peeling back the curtain on his game-changing strategies for making the most out of B2B events without breaking the bank. If you’re tired of the same old event routines and want to learn how to extract the maximum value from your B2B events, this show is a must-watch. Get ready to unleash your creativity, break free from the norm, and make your B2B events stand out.
Podcast Transcript
You’re listening to the Digital Banter Podcast, the show where we tackle the challenges of B2B marketing head on and aren’t afraid to tell it like it is. Join us weekly as we talk to industry leaders, explore opportunities that impact the bottom line, and rev your company’s marketing engine with actionable insights and tips.
It’s time to burn the old B2B playbook and build something that makes an impact. Here are your hosts, Andy and James.
We are back for another episode of digital banter live. As anyone knows that joined us last week, we’ve hit 50 episodes of digital banter podcast, and we said, forget it. We’re taking it live from now on. So joining us today is another special guest, Tim Davidson, director of marketing at directive fruit cutting extraordinaire.
Apparently I did it wrong in my promo video as I’m being called out on right now on LinkedIn. Uh, also as a guy that dumpster dives for cardboard and takes them to events. Really? He brings a knife to everything. Tim, thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me. I am excited. This is the second live second second live, not the first, but it’s all right.
Second is the best. So I’m excited. You weren’t the Guinea pig. You were the next step up from doing to get the kinks out for you. You know, that’s awesome. So today we are talking about events, B2B events, and really. At the end of the day, are they even worth it? And the reason we wanted to bring Tim on is he’s cracked the code in our, in our opinion, he’s burned that playbook that so many brands have used over the years for event marketing and event participation and has taken it to the next level of squeezing more out of events and really an event budget that isn’t as big as you think it is.
Uh, I mean, I don’t think we’re going to get into that today necessarily, but I think it’s a, it’s a [00:02:00] really thing, uh, important point that I want to bring out here is that, you know, it’s a scrappy, it’s a creative approach to event marketing and that I think anybody can think about and approach differently for their own brands.
And that’s why I felt. And James felt that it would be great to bring Tim on today. So as we get into the meat of the conversations, I just want to throw it out there that if you have any questions during today’s show, throw them in the chat, we’ll try to get to them, uh, near the end of the show. So James, I did a lot of talk in there.
You want to kind of set the stage here a little bit. I mean, I guess the, the main thing that I’ve been impressed with and watching is the shift that you guys have taken from, I don’t know, the very expensive booths to. The more gorilla type tactics. So, I mean, first I just want to hear how that’s been going for you.
Like what you’ve learned, what’s worked, what hasn’t worked. And thank you from there. You also, why don’t we start with the bad stuff? What’s like the, what’s the worst, what’s the worst thing that you’ve seen at a [00:03:00] B2B event so far? Uh, it’s, it’s a, it’s actually a tough question. Cause there’s a lot. So I’ll group them all together.
Um, cause it’s, it’s, it’s interesting. You, I went to, it’s about seven events in the last two months. And, uh, I know how much the booths are. I talked to people. I know I just, I’ve done, I looked at the sponsorships. I know how much they are. So if you have a booth. There’s probably, probably 22 percent of the companies are doing decent stuff.
It’s more than just the classic, you know, sit back. This is where the bad comes in is, I know you’re spending 6, 000 in a booth and you’re just sitting there with, you got your pens, you got a shirt that has a huge logo on it of your company. And it’s probably not even the best brand type of shirt. You know, the ones that like shrink in the wash immediately.
And then, yeah, it’s not good. And then like maybe a notebook. Uh, and that’s probably like 80 percent of the booths. And then there’s just someone behind there, usually on your phone when you walk by. Or they’re just standing there just kind of looking at you and they’ll like basically scan anyone. I mean, [00:04:00] I’ll actually, you can walk through the booths and there’ll be people just like, Hey, they don’t know your title.
They don’t know who you are. Like, they don’t know if you’re even close to who they should talk to. They give you the pitch, they scan your badge and then that’s pretty much it. And obviously the, the follow up is pretty bad too. Um, but the bad is like how much people are spending in booths and you’re sitting there.
Literally like just on your phone or just waiting to scan as many badges as you can, despite of who it is. Your whole, cause your whole goal is just badge scans. The event that we were at is we were all there Monday. I remember the main thing. The only reason I went to booths because, uh, they ran out of water and I just needed like a cup of water and they all had water bottles.
And, and quite frankly, I just went to the booths with water bottles and got one. So I had something to drink. So I know, uh, I know that feeling for sure. Yeah. And you’ve seen that. I’ve seen that a couple of events where this is kind of smart in my [00:05:00] opinion, um, to an extent is where, so there’s some events where you have to like, almost pay for coffee or the coffee is really bad.
And so people bring their own kind of like a special machine or hire a company to do it. And I’ll have like, really good coffee. Um, and obviously there’s a line, so everyone’s getting the scan, the badges scanned, which is fine. You know, you kind of weed through that. Uh, some people do a good in the sense of, you know, they make sure it’s a longer line, basically getting free coffee, free cappuccino, whatever you want, and they can have those conversations based on the title.
Like I never, like some of these companies, they were like cybersecurity companies, so I never had to conversation, but I got my free coffee, which is great. Um, but. I think there’s a play there with the coffee. It’s just figuring that out. Yeah. There’s definitely some, I’ve seen some very good, interesting stuff too.
Just from having food snacks. I mean, that’s like a easy one. Uh, was it, there was one that had puppies recently. So that was mine. That’s like a, that [00:06:00] I’ll draw anybody there, but also at the same time, it’s one thing to like draw people to your draw people over, but then how do you draw the right people?
Yeah, it’s um, truthfully it’s tough and I say that because if you’ve walked through these Maybe the one we were just at didn’t have like a lot of booths So it’s it’s a little different and everything was actually you had to walk through it anyway But some of these places where you have like the big booth areas, right?
It’s like it’s just basically all booths It’s almost scary as an attendee to walk through that because you just you know Like if you go through it, you’re either gonna get approached or if you want like a shirt if you want anything You’d have to go through the pitch or there’s some sort of awkward conversation.
It’s like, I’m only there for the shirt and you know, I don’t really want to sit through the pitch, but I will. And sometimes it takes a while and you just don’t want to do that. Um, so it’s, it’s really hard for the attendees. So sorry, what was your question? I just kind of want to roll there. [00:07:00] I don’t know if he had one.
I don’t even remember at this point. I think I share your, your kind of feel though, because I, every event that I go to where there’s like the expo hall, the only reason I walked through it is because I’m probably trying to kill time because I don’t like one of the sessions or I have nothing else to do between then and lunch or something like that.
It’s not like I’m going in there with a purpose. And I think to your point, Tim, like that’s the, that’s the big thing. When you think about it from like a promoter perspective on the event side, like what is the compelling reason somebody wants to go into an expo hall? It’s not to go get pitched or sold.
Maybe it’s to get some free swag. You know, if it’s good swag. Like this dragon 360 mug, but, or the, or the directive stuff that you guys have, like it’s, but otherwise, like, what’s the compelling reason? Like, what’s, what’s the triggering event for somebody to go on the expo hall? I don’t know what it is.
Yeah, the only thing I’ve seen that might work is like if there’s a booth that has That’s creating content. And so maybe that and I [00:08:00] just remember your question James So now maybe that’s like the play right like you have something that where you’re creating content You’re interviewing like your exact buyers that brings them to your booth and you actually create content with them That’s how you get the right title the right people Um, there’s obviously a little upfront work.
You gotta, you know, find out who’s going to be there or why you’re there. Just kind of talk to them. I think you’d be surprised how easy it is for the right person, uh, to come and talk to you. Um, if you, you know, whether it’s to create content, I mean, yeah, it makes sense. I mean, let’s, so let’s take that to transition into the good stuff, right?
So, I mean, what you have been using events for. Is essentially making content. Um, I guess, how has that been going? What kind of made you decide to take a different approach and what do you recommend for everybody else? Yeah, so that, that has been my whole approach, right, is content, no booth. Um, and the reason I didn’t want a booth is because it costs 60, 000 for one booth.
I’d rather, and you asked about the, we were talking about like the price earlier, [00:09:00] um, to send me to seven events was under 20, 000. Um, and so if I can be at all these events and create a bunch of content, whether it’s interviewing, like talking to someone and I want to be clear, I have a personal brand on LinkedIn, so it could be easier for me in some of these areas where I can actually like leverage that kind of, uh, post to get, you know, a certain amount of impressions or something like that, or start the conversation like that.
Um, but you could still go there and interview your buyers. Without a booth. You don’t need that. There’s a lot of people actually starting to do that. Um, it’s, it’s actually, or your customers, especially, and it’s an easy, um, it’s a very easy introduction, right? So I think just figuring out how to create content is like one of the biggest ones because it’s obviously more than just the event.
It’s after the event and you also just building relationships, kind of like a podcast. That’s how you kind of start the conversation with someone. So here’s like part of the [00:10:00] conversation that we actually had the other day is like creating content. In general is hard. Like the, the reason we started this podcast because I didn’t want to stand there and videotape myself, uh, takes a lot of guts in order to do that.
And I think that when you do that in a public setting, like there’s a lot of. Honestly, there’s got to be a lot of concerns going through somebody’s house, head, right? So like, Andy actually said to me before the last event, should we like, try to create some content there? And I was like, I don’t know. I’ve never been to this event before.
Is it weird? Like, is it like, all these are all the things like going through my head. And I imagine that’s probably going through everybody else’s head. Where if you have a booth, like. It’s okay. Right. So what advice would you give to somebody that has that same, that same thing running through their heads?
It’s the worst advice ever, but it’s the truth. You just got to do it a couple of times. You get so used to it. Like, [00:11:00] so the reason I, the first event I started doing, I went there with like three different things I was going to try. And one of the ones was huddling like a sign like that meme. The, I was so scared.
I still get very scared of it because it’s like awkward. You’re sitting there in sunglasses oddly enough the sunglasses help because you kind of like get in here like oh No one can see my eyes. It’s weird, but you’re just sitting there with a sign and It’s extremely awkward. Very very awkward. But if you do it a couple times it gets a lot easier.
So the Honest kind of thing to do is actually just do it a couple times With sunglasses. Yeah. I mean, that could help, but, or, or like, actually one thing that has helped me is if there’s someone I know that’s there and I could do that, do something with them or have them like, yeah, like, like some Nick done it.
I remember the first one I did, he photobombed me or he was there. So it was easier. Cause I was like, Nick, take a quick picture or like Nick, you know, and then it’s evolved to like having other people have a sign and like, we’ll do like a sign war or something like that. That [00:12:00] actually helps with the kind of giddiness because you’re doing it with someone else.
But the true answer is like, you got to just start somewhere. So I think something that I’d like to dig into here is a little bit is you have your personal brand and directive is not a corporate brand by any means, right? But there’s a balance here. When we think about outside of our ecosystem of agencies or even those folks that we, you know, network with on LinkedIn, right.
They’re very outgoing in the sense of they, they understand the need to be entertaining, to drive demand and awareness and actually get the most out of events. As James cuts his finger here on a fricking pineapple. Um, anyway, where I was going with this is like, what’s your advice for somebody that is kind of in that more traditional playbook mode and mindset of events?
Like, how do you break outside of that cycle of, to James point, like just sitting there at a booth waiting for somebody to come up, yeah. It doesn’t always have to be entertaining, right? Creating content doesn’t always have [00:13:00] to be some sort of edutainment or funny or some sort of like, you know, skit or anything like that.
If you’re in a, especially like cyber security, I think you could still create a bunch of content interview style though. It doesn’t have to be, and it could just be asking about like, and I’m just making stuff up here because I don’t really know that space that well, SOC 2 compliance, like just talking about that stuff and like asking questions on like, maybe it’s a trend.
Maybe it’s like how you’ve gotten around or something or how you, what do you think that, you know, the next thing, whatever that is, there’s a play to make content, regardless, it doesn’t have to be funny. It can just be, it can be serious, but you’re the, there is an effect of like the public part. I think they’re like, this is more on the B2C side, but you see those trends of the people in New York City.
They just go up to people and talk like those things hit because it’s like real conversations. It’s kind of like, you know, Q and A. It’s like that kind of real time feedback type of, um, content. And I think that would do really well in spaces where there’s [00:14:00] no, you know, maybe people don’t really care for the funny or they don’t care for some sort of like outlandish thing.
But you could still talk to people and interview and, um, record it for content. And then just edit that post after it, or, you know, just put it out there. It’s still, it makes great content. Yeah. The authenticity shines through pretty evidently there. I think the struggle that people in the B2B side of things struggle with is the fact that like they focus so much on the event rather than the larger picture of how do I take the event and make it more of a long term strategy than just a three day input, output, followup sequence on the back end of things.
So I’m curious to get your perspective on, so you go to these seven events, right? What do you, uh, you create content. So there’s a distribution channel and an asset on the backend of things. But like, what is, what is your actual follow process and procedure? Or do you not have one? I don’t have a email follow up process or anything like that.
Like [00:15:00] the classics. Um, there’s relationships I’ve built from meeting people, whether it’s, I’ve only known from digital and now I see them in real life or just from these events. Um, I think those have strengthened that. Whether it’s also like directive customers also just like perspectives that we’ve like been able to talk in person.
There’s not a touch point there. The truth is I don’t have a follow up sequence. I didn’t write down a list of people I should DM after or anything like that. Um, my follow up sequence I guess is more just the content after. And I still have in my phone like three to four weeks piece of content. I just got to get to it.
Um, there is a lot of content I was able to create over those events that That’s more of my follow up process. Um, yeah, we just don’t have, it’s just, and we also not thinking of it as like an event is like the, well, it’s not the only thing we’re doing, right. It’s one touch point. It’s just one thing in the rest of everything else.
So we don’t need it to be like this and I’ll be all because we’re doing other things too. It’s just one touch point that kind of [00:16:00] ties into it. Right. And I think that’s the struggle that many brands kind of fall into the trap of is like. On the P and L events is one of the huge line items from an expense perspective.
Well, it’s gotta be like a core foundational pillar of our entire strategy rather than to your point, Tim, it’s a touch point along that buyer journey that we want to have an impact. And that’s why it’s important. That’s why, that’s why I liked going the gorilla aspect because on the P and L 20, 000 is a lot for seven events is a lot less than.
6, 000 for one event, right? And obviously there’s a different mindset you have to, but you know, if you’re looking, if finance is looking in the CS 6, 000 and when I say 60, 000, that’s just for the booth, everything else is not included, swag, all that, not cheap. So. It makes it hard, in my opinion, it just makes it hard to justify those things because you’re spending so much on one booth or one thing like that.
So what are your thoughts on sponsorship then? And to give some context to that [00:17:00] question, you know, in many of the events that you and us look at, there’s a pay to play. Aspect to getting a speaking gig. And that’s just runs rampant across so many of the event schedule now. And in that pay to play, sure.
You have to pony up money for a sponsorship that comes with a speaking gig. But like, what are your thoughts on that when it gets wrapped into there, rather than just, you know, being on the cover of whatever brochure agenda it is. Yeah, so I, we, I mean, just recently this last past week, I’ve been thinking about that and kind of, because we’re looking for like, how our CEO can get a more speak engagements.
Even myself, I’ve done that too. And a lot of them do come back with, you know, here’s our sponsorship opportunities. You can speak if you spend this much, we’re probably going to pay for some of those. And it’s not, it’s not going to be 20, 000 for seven events. It’s going to be maybe 20, 000 for one event.
Um, and maybe we’ll test that. I don’t think we’ll do 15 of them. I just don’t think that’s going to make sense. Um, and we’re, none of us are, I don’t know. At least myself and my CEO are [00:18:00] not the, you know, grand fishkins of the world that can get paid to speak everywhere. Um, maybe one day, maybe one day. But I do think speaking actually does give you kind of a, even though I don’t go to speeches a lot, I do think it does give you a different, I don’t know, there’s something there that might be beneficial if you, especially if you create content with it.
Like create, you can get a lot of pieces of content from this. Speaking engagement, right? Um, but also if you’re already there, then you create more content with it. So it’s something I’m looking into, I would say. Um, and I probably will pay. You know, to have, uh, my, my CEO speak. Um, I don’t think I really want to speak that much to be honest.
Uh, but it’s still less than 6, 000 a booth. And it’s, I mean, in our experience, like back in the day, pre COVID, you know, we had people speaking at conferences that drove business, it drove awareness. I think it’s just, but a lot of that, or all of that was free, right? You put it in, you created, create a great [00:19:00] pitch for a session and you either got selected or you didn’t, you paid your own way.
Um, and I think that’s a big difference that I’m seeing just when you look back over the years of how the progression of monetization of speaking has changed, like, especially in the B2B world, right? I look at events now and 50 to 75 percent of them are pay to play. For speaking, maybe they get wrapped in the sponsorships or maybe they’re standalone, but it’s like, okay, well, what happened to actually creating good content and getting great speakers out there that know their stuff rather than just the people that are going to pony up to speak and be boring as hell.
Yeah, the thing is people pay. That’s probably why, right? Like even though some of it’s going to be boring, they’re just trying to monetize. I don’t, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s interesting. Someone else mentioned that to me the other day. It’s like. You’re getting boring speaking speakers because they’re paying to do it.
Yeah. It’s, it’s [00:20:00] actually very interesting. I don’t have an answer for it either. It’s just like, if I was in that shoes, like, would I do that? I don’t know. Yeah. You know, I’m, I’m, I’m all on the same lines that you guys are looking at. Like, okay, what’s a pay to play that makes sense, but I’m not going to blow my budget on one event just because it’s, you know, just because it’s faster.
And I get in front of 10, 000 people. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a beneficial thing. Yeah, exactly. And there’s, you know, there’s other things you could do too, right, that I’m not a good host, but you could do dinners around them. You can, like, Dreamforce is one that I thought everyone did, the people that didn’t actually go to the event.
Did really well as they, they like rented out a bar and grill or they ran out a restaurant for the day because I didn’t know this until this year, but dream sports food sucked. It just did. Um, the free food sucked in the line. It was like crazy. So a lot of people would leave and they’d go to the next door to the target or they’d go to Chipotle next door.
So a lot of these companies actually like rented out a restaurant or something around that and [00:21:00] obviously it’s San Francisco. So you can everything’s walkable. I thought that was a brilliant play. Um, to an extent. I don’t know that I didn’t go to any of those. So I only went to like 1. Um, so I don’t know the logistics of it, but that’s an interesting play.
And I don’t know what the cost either, but that is an interesting play that you don’t even have to go to the event, but there’s all those people there. An activation play there. Yeah. And Dreamforce is the one that you got , that you were forced to take your sign down, right? Yeah. Yeah. And after that, I’ve learned that Salesforce was notorious for doing crazy things like that.
So like, what the heck? What else you should’ve stolen? A golf cart just drove around. Like Marshawn Lynch, he spoke there, right? Was that the one? No, he spoke at Domo. Oh yeah, it was Domopalooza. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so we talked a lot about in-person events, Tim. Right. And then there’s the whole virtual side of things, right?
Uh, demand 2023 put up by metadata was a whole virtual event. Curious to get [00:22:00] your thoughts on digital versus in person also kind of laying in and, you know, long tailed question here, right? How do you approach those differently? Impacts results. How do you think about them? And I got some, so the, what people say is why go to these in person events when you can make digital content every day as someone who is making digital content at these events, I’m curious.
That’s where I’m curious to hear like your position on that. I think it’s what we talked about earlier. Those that genuine kind of authenticity, like conversations in real life are just so much different. I, I, until this year, I was not a big fan of just kind of going events or anything like that, just because I’m not someone that’s going to go up to someone and just that I don’t know, and just make a conversation out of it.
It’s not my kind of personality, but as I’ve been doing it, it’s so interesting to see these people that you only knew [00:23:00] online. And you actually like talk to them in person. It’s, it’s just such a different dynamic in the relationship that you build in this, with your customers, this, your prospects is with, you know, anything like that, there’s a different dynamic to it.
Um, it’s just in real life. It does have a lot of benefits that. I don’t know why people might like bash it. I don’t think anyone does really digital gives you scale, but those in person and those in person opportunities are very impactful, uh, in a different level than digital. I think it’s about the time more than anything.
Right? So, like, Busy executives don’t really have time to I mean, you have to spend time running your business running or I mean, you run a small marketing department, right? So, like, you’re doing a lot more than just events and content, but you have paid programs running. You have other internal stuff that I’m sure you’re part of.
And I think that’s where people are like, I just don’t have time for this [00:24:00] anymore. I’m not paying to speak at these events, which is what you used to get. I don’t know, used to get everything out of when I can speak and build my audience online and do it that way. It’s all about priorities, to be honest.
Like, there’s probably some stuff that you didn’t, you know, myself included. There’s a lot of stuff I maybe don’t have the best impact on what I want to do. Maybe I don’t need to do those, right? Like there’s, there’s a lot of things everyone does that, and don’t get me wrong, my email and slacks are a must after these events.
I’m not going to deny that either. Uh, it’s, it can be chaotic trying to get everything on the plane and the wifi doesn’t work. Um, but yeah, and, and, you know, your whole team doesn’t have to go. You can, you know, send one or two people and figure out what the best way is to kind of get the impact you’re looking for.
Um, in my opinion, they’re very impactful. So it’s just finding the kind of balance you shouldn’t go to. Like I went to seven in the last two months, I’m not going to do that again. [00:25:00] That was chaos. I got COVID twice. Like that was not smart, but I wanted to learn. I went with a purge because I wanted to learn about these in a, in a short period of time.
Yeah. Makes sense. And I think like what you’ve been doing, pairing the two makes a huge difference. Cause we, as Andy said, like I haven’t up until. Was it this month? I don’t think I’d been to an in person event since like 2019 pre COVID. And in the last two, like I’ve met a lot of people who I’m now connected with on LinkedIn.
And like you said, it’s not about like getting their name, getting their lead and following up and trying to sell to them. But like now I have actual genuine relationships with people that I built in person and now they help engage with my content on LinkedIn. We stay in touch, like whether or not they’re a customer in the future or not.
Like, you know, that’s. I don’t really care about that as much. I mean, of course I do, but, um, you know, it’s helped me build digitally as [00:26:00] well, because up until that, like, you kind of have like fake friends online, right? Like, you’re just like, Oh, like I’m liking all of this person’s content and I do really like their content, but like, they have no idea who I am.
They have no idea, like anything about me. So there’s no reason for them to actually engage. And now like, Hey, I had an hour long dinner with three people after this event last time in order. Connected now. So it’s a lot different. Yeah. A hundred percent. I mean, you get to just know people. It’s so much easier to get to know people in person because you have those little, like, um, you know, there’s always those little situations, like maybe it’s at a dinner and like you sit next to them and you actually like, Oh, why are you a vegetarian?
I didn’t know you were vegetarian. And there’s like those little conversations that you just have that are in person or those shoes are cool or whatever that is. It’s like, um, That’s the power of in person that said, I’m not going to go. I like work from home. That’s my thing. But you know, there’s a, there’s a balance of kind of figuring that out.
Um, at these events. [00:27:00] So as we start to kind of bring today’s episode to the close, I just want to hit some Q and a here that, uh, are between your posts and, and just some of the audience kind of reached out to. So. What, when you look ahead to 2024, right? What are some of the conferences that you feel like you’re prioritizing over others?
So this is, I’m still compiling a list. I’m actually going to post it soon because I want to like, cause there’s, there’s always events I don’t figure out. So I’m gonna post and be like, Hey, what, what events am I missing here? So I’m excited for that. Um, There’s a couple that I really want to get to this coming year.
Um, which is HubSpot Inbound. I only went for one day. It was partner day because for whatever reason, Sats are in Inbound in the same week. That was a big miss by them, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about Inbound, so I’m really trying to, if they are the same week again, I’ll be bummed, but I’ll probably do Inbound, because I want to have that kind of experience.
Uh, I guess Ascent, the one that we [00:28:00] just went to, they’re having one in San Francisco in April, so that’d be interesting. Uh, that’s a new one that like, That, uh, I never heard about until this year. So that, you know, they’ve been doing it for six years. Um, honestly, it’s, it’s pretty much all of them that I can go to.
I’m probably not going to, again, I’m not going to do, you know, back to back to back again. Um, but, oh, here’s another one. Sixth sense breakthrough. Uh, I didn’t get to go cause I was a SAS tech Dublin, but that’s another one I want to go to. Um, that was when I had puppies. So,
uh, you kind of addressed this, but I would like to go back to it as. Jason Hasenberg asked you in your post kind of leading up today’s event. Is there a nervousness that comes into play as an attendee? When you know the event is right around the corner, how do you deal with it?
I am actually excited when I, when I know it’s coming up. It’s, it’s while I’m there that I [00:29:00] get a little bit nervous. Um, so even if I’m going to like hold a sign or do something, I’m definitely nervous for the first, you know, 10 seconds or whatever it is. Just, just for whatever reason. It’s just, you know, it’s embarrassing or it’s my fly down or.
You know, if I’m going to take away my knife, like if I’m cutting fruit or something like that, or like, they’re not going to let me in because of that, that stuff is very nerve wracking for me because it does kind of just, it’s just, you know, nerve, you know, it’s just something that, um, you have to deal with, but you do get over it.
Um, but as like an attendee overall. It’s probably like what I think. I’m just trying to think of it like holistically. I think it’s just like, who am I going to talk to? Or like, who’s going to be there? You don’t really know. Or how am I going to find out meet this person? Or how am I going to get whatever that your goal is?
I think there’s just a nervousness overall. I’m personally excited for them, but, you know, a lot of things can go wrong [00:30:00] always. Especially planes. That’s what always nerves me because I always get screwed over with a layover every single time. Oh my goodness. How many times you slept in Atlanta? Not in Atlanta, but uh, actually I was coming back from Dreamforce in my Philadelphia, or I was coming back from Saster.
I had to fly into Philadelphia before coming to Rochester, New York, where I live. And all the flights were canceled and I had to fly out back to Dreamforce in like a day. And so I did freaking rent a car, drive up home, wait for my bag, which came like three hours before I had to leave. Wow. Every time.
Always happens. Nice. Uh, and then the last question is the one I like to ask all our guests. So you have, you can wave the magic wand and change anything you can, uh, about B2B marketing. What are you changing this instance? That’s wrong with a P to B marketing. Um, [00:31:00] I kind of want things to go back to the four
- I want to have, I want everyone like willy nilly, just throwing money out there, having fun. I want, I want everyone to buy, start buying. Let’s do that. That’d be great. You can come back here. That’d be great. We’re with you on that. Yeah. Consumer side and everything’s gotta be great. Let’s just do that.
Make everything great again. So Tim to wrap up today’s episode, we always like to ask our guests to give three actionable takeaways that our listeners can, can use. You have three, you want to share? Yeah. Um, one is, uh, is kind of like a, I don’t know, a saying, I guess people I’ve always found, um, it’s better to be.
Um, so I think there’s, there’s a lot of opportunity in being different, whether it’s weird shirts or doing, you know, whatever that is, uh, acting a little different. Um, I think that’s just much better than better for [00:32:00] these days, um, to ask for forgiveness, not permission. And when I say that, obviously do not get fired.
Don’t don’t come back and say, Oh, Tim got me fired. Try things. So like the first event I went to, I actually, I’m a points guy, but I, um, went to it on my, my dime, basically it was cheap because I, um, I have like 50 credit cards that do all the points, but that’s where I tested all my testing grounds and made it much easier to, uh, get things approved after I had a little bit of traction.
Um, three things are gonna come back to 20, you know, 2024 will be great. I don’t know. I don’t have anything actionable there, but, um, just start whatever you’re just, you’re trying to do, just start. Yeah. That budget that you’re holding onto and, you know, not sure about. Come back at some point. I have a good one.
If you’re going to use a sign, but have a mirrored camera, make sure you write it backwards. [00:33:00] Unlike somebody else on this podcast that did not come prepared. That sign says that events are better than digital events. And like, this is like priming. Sample of right, like, trying to do like, try to do anything and then I hold this up and it’s backwards.
I’ve been like, Tim, I watched like the tutorial video. I did like the pencil. I mean, you probably can’t tell because it’s so bad and then I double aligned it. So it would stand out a lot of effort into this and. Zero impact. You can’t read it. That’s my problem. There’s an option. There’s a setting in here.
You can, you can mirror your camera. Just like next time. Oh, that’s what I did. There you go. Right there. That’s my greatest saying. I’m a great scan.
Uh, all right, Tim, where can people connect with you and see more of your content? Yeah. I mean, it’s definitely LinkedIn. Um, I have glasses in my [00:34:00] profile picture, Tim Davidson, blue background. You got fruit in your name. Oh, I do now. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Forgot about that. It’s a thing now. All right, man, Tim, thanks so much for joining us today.
Really appreciate it. Like subscribe to digital banter. Check out Tim’s content on LinkedIn. Let us know if you have any questions and we’ll catch you next time. Awesome. Thank you.
Thanks for listening to the Digital Vanter podcast. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss an episode. For more resources and to keep up with the show, visit dragon360. com. Until next time.