I’ve been a reader of Bob Beverly’sThe Dig weekly newsletter for years, and finally reached out to him to see if he would join me on the podcast. He warmly agreed, so here we have a fun conversation (sans video) about how to deal with “overwhelm” when planning to exhibit at or attend a tradeshow. Or frankly, whenever you are facing a lot of things that could just overwhelm you!
It was a couple of months ago that we featured Dominic Rubino on the TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee video blog/podcast. This month the interview Dominic did with me appeared on his Profit Toolbelt Podcast, which is aimed at the ‘growth-minded contractors,’ who often end up attending or exhibiting at home shows.
Our conversation focus was on how to stand out at a Home Show. Fun conversation. Click the image below or this link and head on over to the interview.
The first time I walked “backstage” at a tradeshow, I realized how nuts it really was. A thousand different things going ten thousand different ways. Thousand of exhibitors, laborers, electricians, forklift operators, scissor lift operators, and so much more are all involved in an elaborate dance that takes place over a few days until opening day when everything looks perfect. Then once the show is over the same crazy dance happens in reverse.
Most people don’t think about what goes on behind the scenes, as long as it happens and their exhibit looks great for the show. But, oh, the things that have to happen for the show to take place.
For this week’s TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, I sat down with Jim Wurm, Executive Director of the Exhibitor Appointed Contractor Association. The EACA is the main organization that advocates for all of those behind-the-scenes companies and employers. And there are a lot of different ones. Really good conversation and yes, I learned quite a bit:
I’ve known Kathleen Gage of PowerUp for Profits for years and she recently asked me to be on her podcast. Like me, she posts both audio on her podcast page and video on her YouTube channel. Kathleen knows how to get to the center of what is helpful to listeners, and this time was no different:
If you’d like to click through to the post that is specific to this interview, click here. She has broken down the conversation into the topics we covered, including Foundation for Success, Follow Up, Make Your Booth Time Engaging, Pre-Show Marketing, Swag and more. We covered a lot of ground in a short conversation.
How does taking a stand on what might be a controversial issue affect a business? Are there places where you can take a stand and make your viewpoint known without stepping into controversy? This week’s TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee takes a look at taking a stand:
It’s a holiday here in the US as we honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Are you taking the day off? Are you working? How do you get downtime when you need it? And yes, you really do need it! What is motivation? And do you really need it? What about focus? Is that better?
So many questions. I take on a few of them on this morning’s TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee:
Do you need motivation to get something done, or do you need focus? Or is there something more? On this week’s TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, I dig into both concepts to see what it all means.
I first crossed paths with David Meerman Scott over a dozen years ago. Since then he’s written several books and been a keynote speaker at countless conferences, discussing the changing world of marketing and public relations. On this week’s TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, David joins me to talk about his just-released book, Fanocracy, co-written with his daughter Reiko Scott.
This week’s ONE GOOD THING. Actually, four of them!
It’s a little hackneyed, I know, but how often do you say to
yourself, “Where does the time go?”
I said it again just a day or two ago when I noticed the calendar, did the math, and said, Holy Smoke, where does the time go?
2020 beckons. Are you ready?
I don’t usually do a formal year-end assessment of my
business, TradeshowGuy Exhibits. In the past I have shared on these pages and
in the weekly podcast, the state of the business. And I don’t plan to do a
formal assessment this year.
But, having said that, I can safely say that 2019 was the
best year yet for TradeshowGuy Exhibits. In terms of new business, new clients,
and total dollars. Which means we must be doing something right.
The challenge of running your own business, and specifically
a business in the tradeshow world, is that cycles often determine the amount of
business and the number of clients we work with at any given time.
Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!
For example, the first four months of the year were
incredible. New projects, new clients galore. The next four months were good,
not great. Certainly not like the first four months. And the last four months
have seen us hunting and wishing for more business. But like the cycles that we
end up living with, I can already see a few months into the future and see
things picking up. Perhaps not as grand as it was 12 months ago, but still
good.
Another 100 or so articles, along with the podcast, were posted on this blog, bringing the total posts to over 1000. In November the blog also celebrated its eleventh birthday. If you’d have told me I’d still be blogging eleven years later, I would have probably choked. But wow, here we are.
And personally, I kept up a consistent exercise routine of
daily yoga, daily walks (with the dog who insists!), lots of bicycle riding and
lots of skiing.
How about you? How was your year? Was it what you expected? What
do you have planned for 2020?
Whatever you are looking for next year, buckle up – it should
be a wild ride!
What is fun? Why are some things fun to you but not to others, or vice versa? Why do some people appear to have more fun that you, even though they’re doing the same thing?
Lots of things to explore on the nature of FUN on this week’s TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee. Also, today is ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons’ 70th birthday, so he gets a little shoutout!
