🎩 How to not be lazy: BE IN THE SCENE: Pieces come together. Pitching people gives you clarity. Find out why here: 🗣

Getting out of the building and meeting people in your industry (and beyond) feels somewhat contrarian to me. I’m a big fan of the Will Smith quote,

“While the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working”.

Expand that to when the other guy’s going to beginner networking events, getting pissed, checking Facebook, having a big lunch and feeling tired all afternoon, feeling a post-coffee slump, and having a loss of focus due to dehydration, and that’s a whole heap of advantages just by sitting at your laptop and working the hours they should be.

HOWEVER the more time I spent in America among smart/successful people, the more I realized how important it is to get out of the building: Speak to other people killing it in different areas. Ask them how they make money or what their secret sauce is. Ask them what their biggest problems are, and were they see the industry going in the next few years. Pitch them your idea(s). By doing all of this you start to see things in new ways, and come up with new ideas for companies, partnerships, and marketing ideas.

What’s strange here is there is no exact science to make this happen. As a general rule, the more expensive the ticket price to attend the conference, the better the quality of attendees. If you’re doing public talks, this is a great way to force yourself to meet people in different locations around the world, and notice trends and ideas that wouldn’t be possible from behind your laptop.

Pitfalls to avoid:

- Pitching amateurs and getting bad advice from people who are “copying the copiers”.

- Asking people “Would you buy this” — No-one knows what they want until they have their wallets out.

- Forgetting that most advice is projection. For instance I might tell you selling adspace to fortune 500 companies is hard as I barely got any to buy adspace for Planet Ivy and “anecdotally I haven’t seen many others do it”. People are doing it.

Questions:

What scene do you need to be part of?

How are you going to get in with the power players who can change your business overnight?

DISCUSS!