Connections are the driving force for all businesses. Although some business owners focus too much on making a sale; they overlook the value of nurturing relationships. In this episode, we’ll share insights about business building through connections.
Gary Schuller is the founder of The Business Marketplace Global, where he highlights the importance of growing a network for companies, and facilitates building connections for his clients. When the right connections are formed, it opens up opportunities for business growth.
Connecting with others may seem like an effortless task but a lot of people struggle to build and maintain rapport. Gary shares the most common challenges entrepreneurs and negotiators face and how to address them.
Good business relationships begin with connecting with the right people. If you know this is an area for more focus, Gary’s vast business background and expertise will help point you in the direction of your next step.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- The journey to becoming a professional speaker (03:33)
- The top 3 challenges for negotiators (06:17)
- The power of connections (13:15)
- How to explore and initiate business connections (17:40)
- Understanding the point of difference when running events (27:36)
- The Virtual Expo – What is it? And what can you expect? (30:33)
QUOTES:
- “When you build good connections and rapport, you can have those connections for life.” -Gary Schuller
- “Connections when looked after, are the lifeblood of any business.” -Gary Schuller
RESOURCES MENTIONED
WHERE TO FIND GARY SCHULLER
- LinkedIn: Gary Schuller
- Website: https://thebusinessmarketplaceglobal.com/
- Podcast: The Business Marketplace Global Podcast
- Facebook: The Business Marketplace Global
- LinkedIn: The Business Marketplace
Book your FREE tickets for The Virtual Expo here.
SHOW SPONSOR
This episode is sponsored by Your Podcast Concierge. Affordable podcast production for coaches and speakers who want to increase their authority and generate leads from their show. You press record, and let them do the rest.
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ABOUT GARY SCHULLER
Gary Schuller is the founder of The Business Marketplace Global created it for this very purpose because after 30 years on the world circuit as a prolific speaker on ‘How to make more Sales’, Gary saw too often people attend seminars, workshops, and training courses for thousands of dollars – yet do nothing with what they heard. In other words, they ‘failed to implement’.
Gary had an epiphany in 2013 as he walked past The South Melbourne Market. ‘What if there was a Business Marketplace with the hustle and bustle and excitement of a thriving Market where people in Business could meet-buy-sell-connect’. That was the beginning of what is now The Business Marketplace Global phenomenon.
TRANSCRIPTION
00:00
Gary Schuller: Connections are so important. What have I observed over the last 30-35 years? To answer your question, an outstanding will stand out is that when you build good connections and you build rapport, you can have those connections for life. And so it’s hard to give you one standout. But I just would say that connections when looked after are the lifeblood of any business.
00:23
Samantha Riley: My name is Samantha Riley, and this is the podcast for coaches, course creators, and experts who wants to grow their influence, income and impact to take their coaching business to a million dollars and beyond. We’re going to share the latest business growth, marketing, and leadership strategies, as well as discussing how you can use your human design to create success in business and life. Inside and out, create the influence, income and impact you need to build your business so you can create your ideal lifestyle, it’s time to make a difference and scale-up. This is the Influence By design Podcast.
01:01
Samantha: Welcome to today’s episode of influence by design. I’m your host for today, Samantha Riley, and looking forward to today’s conversation, which is all-around business building through connections, and I’ve invited Gary Schuller to join me today. So welcome to the show, Gary.
01:17
Gary: Thank you for having me, Sam.
01:19
Samantha: I’m really looking forward to this conversation. We’ve just been having a chat before we recorded and you’ve been around the traps for quite a while you’ve been speaking for 35 years, I would love you to tell us a little bit about where you’ve come from, to be where you are today, because I really want to dive into your very extensive business background.
01:42
Gary: So it all started back in 1986. I was working for rank Xerox in those days a large corporation. And on one particular occasion back in September 1986. I’ve been in secured a road. And a gentleman who had an ergonomic furniture business had just purchased a photocopier off me, because I was actually negotiating copies in those days. And as he was writing out a check for the photocopier, he asked me to spell my name.
So I started to spell it. And as I was spelling it, he was writing the second check. So one check was for the photocopy and the other one was for $500 in my name. And the two came across the desk and I said, I get the first one for the copier. But why have you written one out of my name? He said, Well when you came in here, I had no intention of buying a photocopier. So whatever you’ve just done to me, there’s $500 to teach my people exactly how you’ve just done what you’ve done.
02:33
Samantha: That is awesome.
02:35
Gary: So for five consecutive mornings on my way to Richmond, which is where Xerox were in those days, I would call in and from 6 am to 8 am. For five consecutive mornings, I would teach his team how to negotiate. The interesting thing was his to IC was the lady who was in a relationship with the gentleman at Dun and Bradstreet. She had said to him how valuable the five days had been. He then called me in, and he said, had great reviews, what would it take for you to want to train my people.
So the one thing led to another, and I decided that there was an opportunity to go into my own business, and start to help people understand fundamentally the power of negotiation. So in 1986 36 odd years ago, now I started my own business.
03:20
Samantha: Awesome. That is such a cool story. I love hearing people’s transition stories, because they’re usually very interesting. Just as that one was. Now you’ve been speaking on the circuit, or you were for 35 years. How did you transition from selling photocopiers to speaking? And you know, how did that transition occur?
03:41
Gary: So one of the things I realized and recognized was that most people in sales really didn’t have any idea how to negotiate. They were too busy telling or not asking. So I decided that if I started my own business, and I was literally a one-person practitioner, then I would teach people through sales training, how to negotiate. And that’s what I did in 1987. I took an office in Bank Street, South Melbourne next to in those days, I think it was called enough II on FM radio station. And my first office was in Bank Street, South Melbourne.
And there’s an interesting story as to how I recruited the second person. And if you’re interested, I’ll share a little bit about that. But the point is that I recognized and realized that what I had to do was get a name. So after a few weeks and months, I decided I had to write my first book. And I’ve had a bit of adversity in my life. I’d lost my left eye when I was 19. My dad committed suicide not much later. And then I got divorced. But a part of that was a good time in my life.
I realized I’d write my first book and I decided to call it bouncing back. And on the front cover was some red balls. And then those days there were no mobile phones are barely mobile phones, and they were still the facsimile. So I took a photocopy of the picture of my book, and I sent a fax to channel 10, nine seven and two and I wrote on the Gary show Who’s got the biggest balls in Australia, if you want to see Yeah, ring now, literally that day channel 10 rang and said, mate, we want to get you up to date live on the dawn Lane show.
Wow. So as low and up to the dawn Lane show on that particular day for that evening to do a live show, which started to get me a little bit of reputation. A few days later, I got contacted from a lady by the ABC, who had seen the show she Oh my gosh, you’re amazing. We’d like to a documentary come on you back to back with the famous Tom Hopkins. And sort of before I knew within a few months, the whole thing had spiraled.
And now I started to get street cred. And the doors started to open and when the ABC documentary went to where the phones just rang off the hook, with large organizations engaging and wanting to fly me around and basically speak all over Australia and overseas for these organizations to fundamentally teach people how to transition from selling and telling to negotiating and understanding how to ask what the customer really wants.
06:03
Samantha: And that is such a valuable skill, that every single business owner really needs to be able to take their business to the vision that they normally have for it. I’d love you to start off by sharing what is the number one but I’d love to know the top three things, I guess, that you see, that are symptoms from these businesses, when you first go and meet with them.
06:30
Gary: I think most people when they represent their own business, whether a sole practitioner or representing a corporation, they get excited, got a great product, or a great service and they ring you up say Sam, I want to come and talk to you about this. You grant them an opportunity and an audience. And when they come to see you, you say okay, tell me about what you’re here for. And almost without exception, they say, well, thank you. Look, I want to tell you how great my new products and services are and they go on and on and on. They haven’t identified anything about who you are what you’re looking for, what would it take for you to make an executive decision? Do you make the decision? If you don’t? Who does? What would it take to get that person involved? etc.
So the first challenge I think, for people in businesses, they don’t actually understand that their product or service is not as important as the customer’s requirements, their needs and wants, and desires. So they ask the appropriate questions and then thread the conversation back to a response.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. So I might say to you, so tell me, what would you need to know about this product or service to want to know more? And you might say at this point that I’m not really that interested, because I don’t have any money. And at that point, they go well, okay, because I can make really make a special deal for you. Now, if you think about what’s just happened, I’ve completely and utterly contradicted what you’ve just said, I’ve cut you out of the conversation. But I’ve gone into something to do with which is irrelevant. It wasn’t about cutting the price base. So that’s interesting. Let’s just park that for a moment. Sam, let’s imagine that cash flow of money was not an issue. What would you be looking for from this product or service for you to want to potentially?
So in other words, what I’m saying is get back to the key factors. Because until you can identify what’s really important to you what you want, what you desire, and how I may be of some service to you. The product or service and the price is irrelevant.
08:20
Samantha: Absolutely.
08:23
Gary: So that’s the biggest challenge. The second biggest challenge is because you are also three. People don’t understand the power of connections. Connections are crucial. Connections. When you build a good relationship and rapport, you have the ability to say, Sam, how have I served you? And you say, really well, Gary, I love you. Fantastic. What is it exactly? You love about me? While you always deliver on your promise? Is that important? You absolutely why? Blah, blah, blah, Sam, I’d love to ask you a favor, I need your help.
I’d like to tell you what my vision is my vision is to get to x y Zed. And to do that, I need your help. What would it take for you to potentially introduce me to two or three of the people that you believe will profit and prosper from the way I’ve looked after you? So that’s a second example. So firstly, knowing how to ask the right question. Secondly, knowing how to build connections. And the third, I think is to understand that the old adage, the customer’s always right is true. Although one can argue it’s not true.
At the end of the day, it’s holding one’s tongue when a customer client makes a comment whether it’s right wrong, or indifferent. It’s always about Okay, sir. Madam, I’m hearing what you’re saying. What do I need to do for you? To change the perception I’ll give you a more pleasurable experience. This the your listener right now may sound sounds very cliche contrived and technique, but it’s not. It’s actually human fundamental nature. It’s no different to being in a personal relationship with the husband or wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, or whatever.
It’s always about, what are you looking for? How can I help you? What would you like to do? You seem a little upset. What can I do that it’s always about put Bring the other person first. And then in turn, if you can delight him or her, there’s a very good chance you’ll get an end result too.
10:09
Samantha: I find that when you go through that, I understand the perception of the customer’s always right. Because when you come from that idea, you are able to see things from someone else’s perspective. So something happened the other day where someone reached out to me and said, Hey, look, I would love X, Y Zed.
For me, to be able to see her perspective was really helpful for me to actually then share my perspective, and how they fit together. And what actually opened up was not I’m right, or you’re right, but a really great conversation around how it could work for us as a team better. Because really, our clients are our team players, you know, we’ve got to fit in with them. Otherwise, we’re not serving them.
10:53
Gary: 100% Right. So you may recall, many years ago, there was an organization startup in Queensland called the results Corporation. And it was headed by Paul, Dan and Chris knew, and they really pioneered and revolutionized the way we all do business in Australia now. And some of your listeners may not even be aware of that, but how to answer the phone, how to do this, and how to do that. And they were all about delighting clients. The other day I, I get scrambled eggs as digressing that you’ll get the point I get scrambled eggs, and tomato and crispy bacon from one particular cafe, on a regular basis.
And I spend I worked out I spent a lot of money, probably five to 6000 a year on just these little bits and pieces. Anyway, this particular the was not particularly nice. The bacon was horrible. So not so crispy. It was in fact quite the contrary. So I rang up and the young lady answered the phone, I said, Oh, hi, my name is I spend it and I invest with you.
And I delight I made a comment, I love your service. But today and she said, Oh, okay, I’ll give the feedback to the kitchen. So that was almost the end. And I said, I don’t mean to be rude. But how does that actually help me? I’m great that you’re going to give feedback to the kitchen. But what if she said, Well, what do you want compensation like a coffee? And I said, No, I don’t actually want a coffee. But thank you anyway. So she hung up. And I decided I didn’t write a review, I decided I’d write an email and send it to the owner.
And basically what I said in the email was, hey, listen, I love your service, I think what you do is amazing food and service is always excellent. On this particular occasion. What I would have loved your young lady to have that she said is, well, it’s disappointed to hear that on this occasion, what because you’re such a valuable client, what we would love to do for you is right now cook your new breakfast and have it delivered. Now, one could argue, oh my gosh, had cost us money, and it’d be a waste. But the long-term value of a customer. You know, if you look at the fact that I spend $20, maybe four or five times a week, that’s $100 a week, four times a month, $400 say 10 months 4000 over a 30-40 year lifespan, you’re talking potentially 80 to 100,000 A year over that time.
Now, if you look at it from that point of view, you realize that flippant comment
13:01
Samantha: Is so irrelevant.
13:03
Gary: And yet, if they taken a different approach, and that’s an example of where I feel customer service, client retention, and the long-term value of a customer so important.
13:15
Samantha: Let’s go into talking about connections. Because this to me is so important. And I’m pretty sure that this would have come across in the very first time you and I spoke, which was only a few weeks ago. And I don’t know if you remember I was actually in the car. I was on a road trip. And you had called because we’d been connected by a mutual colleague of ours. And I remember saying to you at the end of the call, how else can I help? What else can I do? And you shared your vision? And I said, actually, there are two people I can connect you with? Would you like that connection? This is what they do. And we went on and did that. And I’d never met you before I value connections in business. I’d love to hear from you. What is some way because I’ve just shared a story, what is a way that the power of connection has helped you sometime in the last 35 years? That’s a standout?
14:12
Gary: That’s a great question. And there are so many scenarios there. But if when you make it, I’m going to digress for a moment by saying this, if you get a connection and you look after them, they will be with you for life. We’ve got clients and connections from 30 years ago. And we still can talk to those people and negotiate and do things together.
But in 2013, I transitioned from the stage to do exactly what you just said, because I saw that connections are so important, and people weren’t getting that point. And it started in a workshop I was conducting in 2013 in South Melbourne. And one of the gentlemen that were in this particular workshop as a client, and at one point I said to him, I’ve got a problem with you and he said what is it I said, I’m more excited about your business than you are.
Nervously hmm I was distressed by this I walked back to my car and it was parked at the South Melbourne market. And as I walk past self Melbourne market, I had one of those epiphanies, what if it’s always a great two questions or two words? What if I could start up a thing called the Business marketplace, and have the buzz and the hype and the excitement of a market, and then all the thrills, but connect people in business. And I decided to transition from stage to actually create a connecting platform, called the Business marketplace, now known as the business marketplace global because we’ve gone global. And the idea is that we facilitate the connections on behalf of our clients. So when somebody becomes a member, we find out what he or she does, who their ideal demographic and client is. And we facilitate those connections. Why? Because connections are so important.
What have I observed over the last 30-35 years to answer your question, and outstanding will stand out is that when you build good connections, and you build rapport, you can have those connections for life, and those doors will continue.
You’re one of our keynotes at an event, which I’m sure you’re going to mention at the end of this podcast. And you’re world-class. So we’ve got 24, world-class speakers, some of the people that are going to be speaking on this platform are people I’ve been or known for a long, long time, and they still come back and work with us, because it’s good for them. It’s good for the audience. And everybody wins.
So it’s hard to give you one standout. But I just would say that connections, when looked after are the lifeblood of any business.
16:33
Samantha: I guess where I was going with that is I wanted to give the context to share that sometimes what people think is a seemingly tiny, little, almost irrelevant moment, can turn into a huge business, let’s say use the word deal because there’s not another word that’s coming into my head. But they can turn into huge business moments that reap the rewards over and over and over again. So that was the context. Now a lot of people struggle.
And I see this, and I’m sure you do, too, to understand how to even open up connections, how to have the conversations with people how to make a connection from we’ve just met to, you know, let’s do something together, whatever that might be exactly like you said before, with the person where you were more excited about their business, which is funny because I often feel that same way I get excited about other people’s businesses. Obviously, you’ve been in this field since 2013. What are some of the things that as business owners, we need to pay attention to be able to open up these business connections and explore how they can turn into really lasting relationships moving forward?
17:48
Gary: So it’s interesting, before I started my business, and before I worked for Xerox, I was in England in London, and I worked for a large company that’s still in business. They’ve probably been around now for 140 years called Romans, Roman contract stationery. And at the age of 19, as I mentioned, I’d lost my left eye. And I got out of the hospital when I was a skinhead. In those days, I’m returning that way, but not by choice. heavily tattooed, and I had earrings in my ear, so you can picture the look and the field. When I got to the hospital, I was pretty angry with the world because I’ve lost my left eye. And I was looking for a labor job. I was 19. I was pretty muscular.
And I ended up going for an interview for a sales position but no idea. And the gentleman that interviewed me saw something in me and the job was for 25 year old. I was 19 it gave me a salary commission in the car cut long story short, I got the job. And within six months, I was the number one salesperson, in the whole of England for this company, money, one transaction to purchase a flat in Oxbridge outside of London. But I’ll tell you the story because this probably encapsulates everything you’ve asked.
It’s calling on a company in those days called Marathon Oil. I had a briefcase and a catalog and we had 1000s and 1000s of items. We had 100 retail stores. So we’re a fairly large organization. And I was calling on a lady called Linda ship, and I recall and I would call on her every Tuesday at 7 am because she liked to start early. And I’d go in there very meek and mild because I was relatively green.
And we’d let go into say thank you for coming in nothing for you today. And I’d go out and after about seven weeks, I thought you know this isn’t working. Maybe I need to ask her a better question. So one particular day I walked in, I said, Linda, what would I have to do to win your business? Should you want my business and I want you’re busy.
So Gary, come here so she got out of pencil she pushed down on the top and out bounce, deletes. While I call this stuff, the story, the crumbs, and this will you’ll understand why it’s called crumbs in a moment and bounce the lid. Anyway, scoop the lid up, she said. I’d like one of those. I said one should Yes. From this fight my favorite pencil I buy all my stationery from your competitor Cartwright price and this is not an item they could sell. Now we had 100 retail stores and massive warehousing and this was not even one of our stock items. But I decided that I’d go out and I walked the streets of London and I found a rickety old stationery shop found this particular lead in a box, bought the box will lead, took it back and said thank you.
The following week, I came back. Sure Gary, come over, I’ve gotten a box of envelopes for you. So my order went from a pencil lead to a box of envelopes. After about another six or seven weeks around week 13. My orders got bigger. But I asked him more sensible question. I said then dry coming every Tuesday at 7 am. When does my competitor come in? She said I was wondering when you’d asked me that. Yeah, he comes in every Tuesday like you but it’s 630. He’s always there before you. I said, What time do you start at six? I said, Well, what if I’m here next week at six. She said, well, then you will be half an hour ahead of him, won’t you?
The orders got bigger until one particular day. And this changed my life. I walked in and she was red with anger. And I said Linda, what’s the matter? She knows you wouldn’t understand. And she was right, because I hadn’t learned to ask better questions. She said I’ve been given a directive from America, I’m no longer allowed to buy stationery on an ad hoc basis, I’ve got to get the whole of this floor, which is huge. took up half of London. And I’ve got to buy all the stuff in one, go and then supply my respective satellite offices.
So I can’t buy it on an ad hoc basis. I gave the order to your competitor, they promised delivery and they can’t deliver. So I nervously said can I have a look at the order and it was reams and reams and reams of stationery. I quickly scanned it with one eye, you got to work pretty hard.
21:45
Samantha: You’re working at 50% harder than the rest of us.
21:47
Gary: Absolutely. And I realized this was stock inventory. And I said we can supply it. And then she said to look to me. See if you can supply you can have the order. Well, I have to say I nearly peed my pants. I was that excited. I know those days there were no mobile phones. We used to have to ring our office from a red telephone box in London. I went to the red telephone box. I said it sounds a little old lady in there.
So I had to pull her head butter. Make the call? No, I didn’t do that actually kick her in the guts. But that’s another story. Yeah, let’s see is the cell came and the Commission on that cell was astronomical. And it put me at number one, I could have probably not bothered to work for the rest of the year. The moral to the story, the story is called the crumbs is sometimes people can’t be bothered with the little things. They go in for the jugular. They say give me your business. And you may say, Gary, I’d love to give you the business. But I’m already dealing with somebody and I’ve got a great relationship with.
That’s the time to honor that and say, I’m delighted you do that’s great to see that, you know, your honor, that relationship just out of interest. Is there one or two things that your current supply doesn’t provide that maybe I could just have that opportunity. That’s the crumb. So that’s the outstanding story. That’s one that I can remember, that changed my life forever. And I carried that all the way through. It’s about doing the little things, the crumbs, serving and serving and delighting continually. And you know, you never know where things could eventuate.
23:15
Samantha: I love that story so much. Because as you were telling it, I’ve got a very similar story where I was the person behind the counter. So when we had our retail stores, we weren’t even the little fish. We were the tiny fish. You know, when we first started and I remember, there was our biggest supplier in Australia, the warehouse burnt down.
And they had to supply as small bits of, you know, small suppliers were coming into the country. And what was happening is that one of the reps was supplying straight to the bigger stores instead of sort of, you know, making sure that everyone was okay. And I remember at the time, there was a conversation around us being one of the tiny fish. And I’ll never forget this rep. And I remember her name, her name was Meredith, that went back to the CEO and said, but tiny fish grow into big fish. And it was only about four years later that we were one of the top 10 retailers in that niche in the country.
And I will never forget Meredith because if it wasn’t for her at that time, we would never have been able to grow to what we did, we would have grown Absolutely, because there was a lot, you know, that we did to build the business. But I guess I’m telling the other side that again, it’s all about relationships. And the reason that she looked after us was because we were also very loyal to her. So there was a relationship that was a two-way relationship that was being built well before this problem ever happened.
And for me, it’s something that I learned from my very first boss back when I was 15. He always talks about relationships and the people he knew and you know, he would talk about connections that he’d made at church and how they sort of helped each other in business. And I was so so lucky to learn that A lesson, I guess, right from day one before I was even in business, and have found building relationships quite easy, but a lot of people do struggle with it.
25:12
Gary: And that’s a great story. And I love that, you know, and again, it’s when people have that desire to serve, that’s when it comes through. It’s not always about the dollar. You know, it’s, there’s a sense of excitement when you can deliver something that’s going to change somebody’s life. In this particular case, Meredith served you, she went back and she said, look after the little fish. And as a result of that, look, what happened to you and your growth, and you remembered her.
So, look, I feel that the transition in 2013 to help people connect was based on all of this, it was based on the past based on understanding that connections are everything. And as I mentioned to you before we started recording, if you ask the question, why are you in business and you take out the vision, mission, and purpose fundamentally at the Royal Park? It’s to be viable, and profitable? How do you become viable, and profitable, you’ve got to raise an invoice, and you’ve got to get paid.
So how do you raise an invoice, you’ve got to have more customers, clients relationships, you’ve got to have clients, or customers or become clients and then become advocates, who they need to refer you or invest more heavily in you. And to do that, you’ve got to look after them and give them that awesome service. So that’s basically what we did. In 2013, we became the business marketplace. And it’s interesting, we started to in conjunction with that run a live physical Expo each year at the Melbourne Showgrounds at Telstra dome, as it was then called now, Marvel stadium. So we ran these big events. And of course, that all changed in COVID, when suddenly we were no longer at that moment able to run the types of events we’d actually used to do.
26:47
Samantha: And that’s definitely where I believe, obviously, there’s been a lot of hard times, and I don’t want to minimize any of those. But what I do want to touch on is the benefits that the last couple of years have brought into the business landscape from what I’ve noticed, and that is that people have realized that it is now a lot easier to do business globally, that we have this amazing technology that’s at our fingertips. That means that we can be sitting in our home office, we don’t even need to put on pants these days, and be able to build connections all over the world. And I know that this is something that you’ve done is you’ve taken this huge Expo that you were running in a big stadium, and you’re about to take that virtually. So can you tell us sort of how you’ve transitioned over the last couple of years to be where you are?
27:38
Gary: Yes, absolutely. And we I was just talking prior to this recording with a mutual friend Louise, and she wants to podcast with me. She said, Gary, one of the things I’d like to discuss with you if it’s okay with you is something that happened to me personally only a few months ago. And it was I had an amputation of my leg. And it came out of the blue, nothing to do with anything particular I’d caught this thing in Mornington. Suppose it was an ulcer eating virus. And as a result, I went in thinking I’d come out with a bandage. And two months later, I came out with one leg missing.
Now, why do I share that with your listener? Because I decided within probably two or three minutes of that happening, that I was blessed to be alive. And I just started to celebrate my life rather than look at what I didn’t have. I looked at what I did. The reason I tell you that is that back in January of this year, and this answers your question about the transition, I was sitting in home thinking what’s my point of difference, because without being rude every man and his dog is now running a virtual event online, you and I time, you know time committed and to be on this event and that event, you know, you never get off the roundabout if you’re on every single event. And I realized that as good as our events are, we had probably no point of difference anymore.
Anyway, a gentleman a serendipity would have it from England contacted me, we got into a conversation, he introduced me to some software that he’d use to run a virtual Expo. And they got they got a total of 37,000 attendees. And he introduced me to the founder, the creator of the software. And to cut a long story short, we did a deal. We purchased the software for 100,000 to have the rights in Australia to this particular software. And what it is it’s literally in I took me a bit of time to get my head around it.
It’s literally a physical Expo but virtually so in other words, you and I can be at our PC on our phone on the beach, in the office in a cafe and we can tap in we can visit booth stores. We can go and listen to speakers like you and we can have one on one meetings, cat coffee on virtually networks, etc. It’s absolutely incredible.
And I got excited because I saw what was possible. And as a result may be May I just decided to run with it and then I’d work out as I was running with it how it’s gonna make it work. You know, it’s always like everything in life. You’ve got to have a vision because it says in the old test A month without a vision the people perish. So what does that mean? It means that you and I are continuing need to have a new vision, A New Hope, or a retake on the vision we originally had that needs to be, you know, occasionally just looked at again and refined to so what can we do to take it to market?
So I transitioned or we transition from the physical Expo of the last few years, to now a virtual Expo that we’re about to run in July of which you’re one of our keynotes. Totally. That’s how it all came about.
30:35
Samantha: Tell us a little bit more about the expo, who is it for? Who should come to this expo? And you know, what can they expect from it?
30:41
Gary: So our demographics of business owners, people who are in his or her own business with a small, medium or corporate, that’s our demographics, the so anyone who’s in business anywhere in the world would be welcomed, because it would be right up their alley, why would they come they’re gonna get education and learning experiences from people like you and 23 other keynotes, we’ve also got 24 workshops on all sorts of things like how to build a LinkedIn profile, how to podcast how to trade on the stock exchange, how to do this how to or how to is in business, across a whole section, a plethora of information, we’re going to have 400 exhibitors with booths.
So as an attendee, you can go and literally physically visit as many of those booths as you want, we’re going to encourage all the booth holders to have downloadables, there’s a thing called a briefcase that each attendee gets virtually, so he or she can go to each booth and they can literally download whatever’s available into their briefcase and take it away. So from an attendees point of view, and by the way, the Tickets are free. So there’s no barrier financially, we’ve purposely made the tickets free, the booths, you have to invest in and purchase. But if somebody said, Well, I just want to attend, then the Tickets are free, we’re going to run it for 72 consecutive hours over three days, across the world.
We’ve already got people in England registering. So people in England on a different timeline talk timezone to us, they will probably visit us when you and I may be asleep. But they can literally visit your booth, they can leave a whatsapp or a message or a connection point. So you can literally at your own time and leisure, get in contact back with them, and find out what it was about your booth that prompted them to leave a message. And you can have and create a phenomenal database.
So to answer your question, the demographics are business owners, why would they attend, they’re going to get to hear some amazing speakers, they’re going to be able to visit booths get downloaded was that will potentially help build their business give them a different paradigm and reference to the way they think. And it’s really a complete business building opportunity. And if you choose not to have a booth, it’s at no cost, you can actually attend this free and at your own time at your own convenience. And that’s it in a nutshell.
32:59
Samantha: 400 booths is incredible. This is going to be huge. Tell us where people can go to get their tickets for this.
33:09
Gary: Yeah. So again, the Tickets are free, and they can go to our website, which is theexpo.com.au, And there, there are two links. One is for a free ticket. And the other is if for an expression of interest in a booth if people want to potentially showcase instruct their stuff. But we’re not placing any requests or requirements on that people need to find their own way. But we would urge people to take advantage of a free ticket and come and hear people like to speak and present and learn from the things that you’ve acquired over the years.
33:45
Samantha: And build business through connections, meet people and connect with them. That’s what I loved about it when you presented this, to me was the idea that we can actually build connections in different ways and leave messages for each other and have meetings because I’m all about connecting with people.
34:03
Gary: We would believe that. And again, we’ve never done this. So we’re pioneering new ground, but we believe that everyone and anyone that attends can build his or her database, you know, buy 110 2050 100 1000 Who knows. The other thing about this particular software has what they call a footprint.
So for example, if you said to me at the end of the three days, Gary, I couldn’t get on the PC but something transpired. Can you tell me who visited my booth, we would have a footprint of every person that came to your booth, his or her email, phone number, and details because that’s all part of the connection is that to get our ticket, they get a login so the login enables people to add their own convenience login, visit the stores that boost come go.
There’s no barrier, you know again COVID presented we had to reschedule the physical Expo that we had four times why because each time you date, the guard MIT said, you know, correctly, look sorry, you can’t run this. So we had to. And that’s what led us to then look for some other alternatives. But the good thing about it, there’s no travel expense with the COVID here or there. It’s irrelevant. You don’t have to wear a mask, you’re online, and you can do it from wherever you want. You can visit people, and you can start to create business opportunities through connections.
35:23
Samantha: Totally. So we’ll pop the link for that in the show notes over at influence by design podcast.com. So that if you are on the treadmill right now, and you don’t want to go into your phone to register, that you won’t faceplant into the treadmill, you can just go and get that link later on.
Gary, it’s been such a pleasure to chat with you today. And I certainly look forward to hanging out with you more in July at the Expo. But thank you so much for sharing all your stories today. It’s been fantastic.
35:50
Gary: It’s been my pleasure and honour. Thank you, Sam.
35:51
Samantha: Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Influence By Design podcast. If you want more head over to samanthariley.global/podcast for the show notes and links to today’s gifts and sponsors. And if you’re looking to connect with other coaches and experts who are growing and scaling their business to come and join the coaches course creators and speakers group on Facebook, the links are all waiting for you over at samanthariley.global
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