Detailed Notes
Welcome back to the Building Better Developers podcast recap! This season, Building Better Businesses is all about practical ways to improve your entrepreneurial journey. In this episode, “Pitch Party: Pitching Your Business,” hosts Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche unpack what it means to pitch your business — and how to do it effectively.
Whether you’re refining your elevator pitch or creating a full pitch event, this episode explains why authentic conversations are the heart of successful business growth.
Read More... https://develpreneur.com/pitching-your-business/
*Challenge: Design Your Pitching Event*
This week’s challenge is to brainstorm your pitch party. Whether it’s a roundtable, online panel, or a casual coffee chat, think about how you can create a space where business owners discuss real problems — and where you can naturally pitch your business as a solution.
Consider:
* Who your ideal audience is * What problems they’re facing * How you can bring them together for a low-pressure conversation
Even if your first event is small or informal, it’s a great way to practice pitching your business and refining your messaging.
*Additional Resources*
* Pitching Your Services To Your Customers (https://develpreneur.com/pitching-your-services-to-your-customers/) * Elevator Pitch Strategies: Perfect Your Pitch and Boost Your Brand (https://develpreneur.com/elevator-pitch-strategies-perfect-your-pitch-and-boost-your-brand/) * Niche Broad vs. Deep Expertise (https://develpreneur.com/niche-broad-vs-deep-expertise/) * Business Networking Strategies: How to Build Real Relationships That Grow Your Business (https://develpreneur.com/business-networking-strategies-how-to-build-real-relationships-that-grow-your-business/)
*Follow-us on:*
* https://develpreneur.com/ * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOuFN_LhczvGyT2KSItH_g/featured * https://facebook.com/Develpreneur * https://twitter.com/develpreneur * http://linkedin.com/develpreneur
Transcript Text
[Music] All right, let's hit record. Take a shot of caffeine that way. And oh, we are talking about basically like pitch parties. we'll call them is like how do we I think that's what we want to do is talk a little bit about like how do we get together what are some ways to get customers to pitch to us uh and for us to get out there outside of this is a little bit thinking outside of the box in in marketing you know as well um but and we've talked about it a little bit we've talked about some of this stuff but I think I want to go back to that and be like okay what are some ways that we can really get customers to to open up and make it less of less networking and more working session, I guess, for lack of a better term. So, if there's no objections, then we're going to three, two, one. Well, hello and welcome back. We are here. We are building better businesses. We are building better developers. We are developer the podcast as seen on TV if you're watching it on YouTube. I am Rob Broadhead, one of the founders of developure and on my second cup of tea at this point. So, a little bit like pumped with the caffeine that's in there. I am not only a founder of developer, I'm also a founder of RB Consulting where we sit down, have a conversation about your business, your customers, your goals, and your technology sprawl or your technology not at all. whatever it happens to be. We've discussed things like simplification, automation, integration, innovation, and how to leverage technology to meet the needs of you and your customers so you have a custom recipe for success for you that is not only going to help you today, but six months and hopefully even six years or more down the road. because we're going to help you build something that is not just solving the problem but also that roadmap or the processes and procedures or the team or the things that you need in place to actually grow with your business. Now, good thing and bad thing. Wow. Again, this has been a week full of good thing and bad things. A bad thing is uh this is it is not April 15th yet as we record this, but it is getting close to that date and I still have to do one of my taxes at least. And that is probably going to be the good thing is I think I have the bandwidth today to sit down and have a fun old doing my taxes session. Uh I may end up drinking a lot at the end of it because I'm just sick of it. But that's I guess the good thing is I do have an opportunity to get it done. So, I will I will try to put a little silver lining around that dark cloud. Another silver lining is that I get to have some time doing a podcast with Michael and he's going to introduce him and his silver surfer self. Hey everyone, my name is Michael Malashsh. I'm one of the co-founders of developer building better developers and this season building better businesses. I'm also the founder of a company called Envision QA where if you're a passionate entrepreneur or business looking for help with a software solution, be it a problem you already have or something you need built, we recognize your desire for reliable, high-erforming solutions that set you apart from your competitors. We offer tailored software and quality assurance solutions to optimize the performance and reliability of your e-commerce platform. you know, picture a flawless user experience, increased sales, and a competitive edge in the market. That's what Envision QA will bring to you. Uh, highs and lows. Well, uh, still in the lows of we are still getting storms. I'm getting tired of spring. We are actually getting a spring again this year, and with that comes a lot of water. On the positive side of that, um, spring is almost done. My allergies are almost over, so I'm starting to feel better. I can start getting off of that uh drug induced medication high uh from too much benadryil. But uh medicine head is a real thing and a real pain in the butt when you're trying to focus on work. So this episode I want to talk about some ways to talk to your customers, some ways to work with them to get ideas of how you can help them. This is starting the conversation. Uh the idea that sort of was the germ for this topic was the idea of like pitch parties and there are there are definitely situations there are uh events out there and things like that that are effectively that it may be like you know it may be something local it may be uh like a venture capital group or something like that where it's basically a hey we're going to have a a day or an event where you bring your ideas out much like uh you know the the sharks on TV or you know something like that where it's basically like hey you know talk to us what is it you need and then we will you know we can help. Now usually that's done from a a venture capital kind of approach or you know maybe signing up for some sort of a a program or something like that like the co-starters that Michael has mentioned. But you can do that as part of your company and I want to throw some ideas out there and we can sort of talk through a little bit of these on this episode. Now, one of the things is you could actually create a podcast or a blog that is an interview kind of format where you go and talk to either an existing or a prospective customer and just talk about what are their challenges. And you don't really have to do much in those other than just say, "Hey, here's some of the challenges." And maybe you wrap up that thing with a little five minute like here's some things that we could do or how we could work to move you forward. You could even make it like a um you could have a theme like a I'm stuck prog uh podcast or something like that that is you help somebody over uh you're helping them over the hump. You're helping them through some barrier or some blocking thing with them. The other thing you can do is make it part of a meetup. Uh it could be we've talked about meetups before and and things like that, but it may be something where the whole point is that the meetup is almost like a a support group of some sort where people come in and they just say, "Hey, here's some things that we are struggling with." Because the elevator pitch that we've talked about is great for you to say, "Hey, I do this." What is more valuable is when your customers say, "Hey, I need this." If you can get that, then you can look at whether you're going to be able to solve that problem for you for them, whether that makes sense. And it also may allow you to help them not directly, but by saying, "Hey, I know somebody that does this that solves that problem." And then you get a little, you know, karma or, you know, whatever it is that you want to think of. You know, you get a little bit of of positive feedback because you helped somebody. Even if you didn't directly, you did help point them in the right direction, which is not a bad person to be. If you're a company, a person where people say, "Hey, if you go to this person or this company, they will either help you or they're also very good at helping you even if it's not directly of a benefit to them." Then that makes you a, you know, an expert in a field or something like that. That is definitely useful. It also allows you to uh show what working with you looks like. you sort of get to show off a little bit what your skills are and what you bring to the table. Now, this can be very uh this could be very specific. So, it could be and you you can look out there. There are uh YouTube channels that are developers recording themselves writing code. That may sound like the most boring thing on the face of the earth to you, but to some people that is very valuable and it does allow particularly for that developer allows, you know, somebody that's a potential employer could say, "Oh, well, this is how this person thinks. this is how they solve this problem. Wow, they have solved this problem before. This happens to be a problem that we need solved. There are a lot of opportunities now, particularly when you think of all of the the YouTubes and blogs and and podcasts and all the different things are out there. There are a lot of different forums for you to have those conversations. And so, and that's where I want you to like, you know, start thinking about instead of waiting for them to come to you is provide an opportunity for them to do so. And this could be things like, and which are some of them could be great charity events where it's things like, hey, you get, you know, the best business idea wins, you know, 10 free hours of consulting or something like that or, you know, you can do things where you can make it more than just a meetup. You can make it an event. You can work with somebody like work with a small business group in your area and say, "Hey, we want to um we're going to help small businesses move forward. We're going to help them get unstuck with the thing that they're working on. We want to help them get over the hump or we want to help them, you know, take the first step, whatever your your specialty is." and have like something that's maybe it's a little contest that you work with that local small business group and say, "Hey, we're going to take, you know, the number one the the winner. We're gonna, you know, as many people want to apply and then they're going to have this contest and then the the winner gets a free week of consultation or a free website or whatever your thing is that you, you know, a free product, whatever, or licenses for their company, whatever it is that you sell. Think about the idea of giving away stuff as more than just giving it away, but instead being something where it's like you're not just it's not just that one company that's receiving what you're giving. It's actually all of the other people in an attendance and now you're not you're like it's a little bit bragging about saying, "Hey, look, I'm giving this something to this person and look how good I am." But it really is more about like this is how we work with people and we are willing to give back. We are willing to work and that allows other people to see and they'll be like, "Wow, I I like how you guys think." I like how Michael thinks. I I want to hear your thoughts on this one. So, I'm going to pivot. So, you you've touched on the podcast, the blogs, doing the elevator pitch, uh you know, talking to customers, giving them incentives to kind of pitch to them. Um, I kind of want to tap into some other avenues that you could use to kind of perfect your pitch or do these pitch parties. One of the things that I recently ran into a couple years ago was my local uh the co or it's like a wei work. It's a great place to go work but also meet other business people, other business owners in your area and kind of get introduce yourself to them. you kind of get a feel for what type of businesses are in your area, who's running them, and they kind of already have established businesses. So, sometimes that's a great way to figure out, okay, what is in my area that will I I can kind of tap into for my idea, for the pitch, am I going to be able to find customers in my area? The other thing is to go to your standard basics. you know, you've got the Better Business Bureau, which is in almost every single state, city, whatever. They have a lot of networking uh meetings and things you can go to, can sign up for uh other things, too, like your local uh chambers, uh your local small business uh ventures. A lot of them have these networking groups where it's good to go out and talk to people. It's not necessarily always the great way to pitch, but what's interesting is a lot of them give you the opportunity or give you the resources you need to create these pitch parties. So what you can do is through like the Better Business Bureau, through the chamber, you host a small TED talk or some talk on the topic that of the problem you're trying to solve. Get the ideal people in front of you that you're trying to solve their problem. Walk through the problem. You know how you know it affects your target customer. Walk through and then get to how the problem is solved and get the feedback from your audience to say, "Hey, is this what you're looking for?" You know, you have hopefully the customer base in front of you that you can kind of do a Q&A session with them and figure out, you know, is your idea the right idea or are you off track. So that's another good way to kind of tweak your pitch there. Uh other things um which you have to be a little more cautious of is social events uh be it like uh Java um user groups um networking groups things of that nature. Yes, those are great for networking and meeting but be careful to go into a non uh or basically a new environment and just expect everyone to want to hear your idea. It takes a little bit of skill and patience to first introduce yourself, get a rapport with the person, and then slowly bring in your what you it is you do. Don't just start right off the top because you're going to basically freeze the room out and they're going to ask you to leave or by the end of the day, you'll be standing in the corner and being the only one drinking uh ginger ale. That being said, you just have to kind of read the room and be careful with that. Same goes with online social media. you know, TED talks, Facebook, all all those things are fine, but if you don't take the time to introduce yourself and get embedded in the channel first, you're going to come in as a spammer and people aren't going to listen to you and they're going to ask you to leave. So, talking to people is what we need and what we want to do to figure out if our idea works. But you need to make sure that you're one hitting the right target audience. Two, you're in the right situation. And three, are you reading the room? Are you really with people that you need to be talking about your ideas with? Or are you in a situation where maybe you pivot instead of talking about your pitch, you talk about, hey, how did you get your business going? you know, maybe turn it into a information gathering on how to grow my business or how to build up my idea without actually pitching your idea. What are your thoughts on that? I really think it does go down to it comes back to people buy from those that they know, they trust, and you know that that hear them that and that they like basically. And so it's not none of those three things, no trust and like have anything to do really with your pitch or the problem. No trust and like are all relationship words. Now, you may be unlikable, in which case you're out of luck. You better find a way to be likable. But the knowing and the trusting, as Michael said, like you're not going to have somebody bust into a room and be like, "Hey, look at me. I'm awesome." It doesn't matter how awesome they are. You're not going to trust him. Like if the rock walks into a room, there is a presence and everybody knows that he's walked into the room, but you're not necessarily going to trust him right there because you don't know. You're just like, "Okay, he makes a you know, I know who he is, but I I may not even like that, but I, you know, I'm definitely not to the trust stage." So that's I think where you want to go with these things is what what really is you know the goal. What is it besides solving the problem is how can you as part of solving the problem make that an enjoyable experience for them and then show that off to other people to be sort of like hey look this is this is not scary or intimidating or or anything like that. this is actually we're going to make this maybe even a a fun process solving your problem. But if not fun, but at least something where they're like, "Okay, I I trust that approach and I I like how you do this." Because sometimes that's it. I' I've definitely had customers that have said, um, you know, I don't know if this is in your wheelhouse, but I like working with you, so here's something else I want to want to pitch. The other thing too is you have to understand how to read the room. You know, it's yes, it is about trust, but the other thing is you're trying to pitch your idea, but in the same token, you need to have the ability to switch that off and listen to your customer because your solution to their problem may not be the solution. and they're trying to tell you how to fix their problem and you're not listening because you're so focused on how your solution will fix their problem. So there are times where you do need to step back and listen, not just pitch. And I think that's it is it's it goes back to it it goes back to there was and I forget who it was is there was somebody that was interviewed a couple of great people uh back almost 100 years ago probably and they said there was one person that when they talked to him that they felt like they were talking to the smartest person in the world and the other person that they talked to made them feel like the listener was the smartest person in the world. And so I think that's those are two little nuggets of wisdom basically. And something to consider is that, you know, you you need to, this goes back to the trust. It's like you can solve the problem, but you can solve it in such a a over-the-top way that they're really just like I I love that you solve my problem, but I really just don't like working with you because it's uncomfortable in some way, form, or fashion. So, it does come back to it goes back to the relationship side of things is finding a way to make this um like I said, if nothing else, enjoyable. I mean, ideally enjoyable, but if nothing else, something that they're like, "Okay, this is worth the time." Thoughts? Yeah. I mean, we've covered kind of both sides of this, but at the end of the day, you need to get comfortable in your own skin talking about your product, your solution to a problem. Pitching to people is the number one easiest way, free advertisement, free information gathering to talk to people to get what you need or get the information you need other than just mining online useless websites or maybe not useless but mining websites and static information that does not give you the emotion of how this problem impacts your end user or your your customer. So, you're going to have to break out of your shell a little bit and get a little more social and go talk to people. And the last thing I I'll note on this is if you are just if you're not a company yet and you're just building an idea, be careful about the um is this something you will buy versus buy now because if you're not talking to the right people, you may hear, "Oh, that's a wonderful idea, but they won't buy it." They'll tell you all day long that, "Yeah, go for it. Go build but they won't buy it. So, make sure that your audience that you're talking to is the people that will buy the product to give you the feedback to their problems. I think I'm going to leave it at that and we'll move into the challenge. So, the challenge this episode is to come up with an idea. just sit there and and kick back for a little bit like what would be you do a little spend a little time brainstorming whether it's just you your team your whoever it is your drinking buddies your poker people I don't care it's just like you know sit there and and brainstorm a little bit ideas like how could we get some people together to talk about the business problems that are the that are in the line of our ideal customers because I think just the exercise even if you don't come up with a real good solution I think it's a start I think it's one of those things that We don't um I think most of us don't leverage that option often enough and I think it's a really valuable challenge. Side note, the challenge would be send us an email at info developer.com because we would love to hear from you. This is we do this for you. I mean we have a good time but we also do this for you guys. So definitely let us know what you think and where you would like us to go in future topics. And as always you can reach to us at an on x formally. We're finally getting to the point where we can formally say Twitter, but still on ecstasy developer. You can see us on the developer channel on YouTube, actually see us, or you can, you know, put it on a non-visual side, so you just have to hear us instead if that's more preferable. It may be uh you can check it. We have a Facebook page. We have, of course, developer.com. Leave us comments wherever you do that. Wherever you uh, you know, likes or dislikes, whatever it is, feedback on wherever you you know, listen to podcasts, we would love to get that feedback. so that we can make this better for you, so we can be building better podcasts as well along the way. That being said, go out there and build yourself a better you. Have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time. Bonus material. I covered a lot during the podcast. Uh, the thing I'll throw out is if you are unsure what your pitch is, AI is a great example of kind of words smmithing or at least playing around bouncing ideas off of someone if you don't have someone in front of you. Uh, maybe just throw in your ideas, kind of word smith it, and get to the point where you get something that you can tailor to a pitch. Uh, pitching is not easy. Uh, as you see from our multiple intros, I vary from time to time, unlike Rob with the description of my company. It it's still hard to pitch unless the person's in front of you so you know your audience. So, sometimes you will need to come up with a generic pitch and then sometimes you'll need to come up with a more personal pitch. So, that's kind of my two cents on this one. My bonus I think the bonus I'll follow up to that is that it does help. Well, AI is is actually an excellent suggestion. I do think that there is a level of uh doing an inface pitch to somebody and being able to see their reactions and the the emotions that it does is going to help you quite a bit. Um getting that kind of feedback from somebody that you know and trust yourself uh I think can be very insightful particularly if they are in some way related to or know something about your customer. Maybe they are an ideal customer or they know something about your customer base. So um you know definitely getting that feedback is is always helpful. That being said, thank you so much for your time. We're going to wrap this one up and let you get out there because you have an email to send us, of course, as always. Um, and thank you for those that you of you that do give us the feedback. We appreciate that. We love it and uh we do as much as we can to try to get you, you know, responses back to let you know that we got it and we loved it. And thank you so much. As I always say, that being said, go out there and have yourself a great one and we will talk to you guys next time. [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
All right, let's hit
record. Take a shot of caffeine that
way. And oh, we are talking
about basically like pitch parties.
we'll call them is like how do we I
think that's what we want to do is talk
a little bit about like how do we get
together what are some ways to get
customers to pitch to us uh and for us
to get out there outside of this is a
little bit thinking outside of the box
in in marketing you know as well um
but and we've talked about it a little
bit we've talked about some of this
stuff but I think I want to go back to
that and be like okay what are some ways
that we can really get customers to to
open up and make it less of less
networking and more working session, I
guess, for lack of a better term. So, if
there's no objections, then we're going
to three, two, one. Well, hello and
welcome back. We are here. We are
building better businesses. We are
building better developers. We are
developer the podcast as seen on TV if
you're watching it on
YouTube. I am Rob Broadhead, one of the
founders of developure and on my second
cup of tea at this point. So, a little
bit like pumped with the caffeine that's
in there. I am not only a founder of
developer, I'm also a founder of RB
Consulting where we sit down, have a
conversation about your business, your
customers, your goals, and your
technology sprawl or your technology not
at all. whatever it happens to be. We've
discussed things like simplification,
automation, integration, innovation, and
how to leverage technology to meet the
needs of you and your customers so you
have a custom recipe for success for you
that is not only going to help you
today, but six months and hopefully even
six years or more down the road. because
we're going to help you build something
that is not just solving the problem but
also that roadmap or the processes and
procedures or the team or the things
that you need in place to actually grow
with your business. Now, good thing and
bad
thing. Wow. Again, this has been a week
full of good thing and bad things. A bad
thing is uh this is it is not April 15th
yet as we record this, but it is getting
close to that date and I still have to
do one of my taxes at least. And that is
probably going to be the good thing is I
think I have the bandwidth today to sit
down and have a fun old doing my taxes
session. Uh I may end up drinking a lot
at the end of it because I'm just sick
of it. But that's I guess the good thing
is I do have an opportunity to get it
done. So, I will I will try to put a
little silver lining around that dark
cloud. Another silver lining is that I
get to have some time doing a podcast
with Michael and he's going to introduce
him and his silver surfer self. Hey
everyone, my name is Michael Malashsh.
I'm one of the co-founders of developer
building better developers and this
season building better businesses. I'm
also the founder of a company called
Envision QA where if you're a passionate
entrepreneur or business looking for
help with a software solution, be it a
problem you already have or something
you need built, we recognize your desire
for reliable, high-erforming solutions
that set you apart from your
competitors. We offer tailored software
and quality assurance solutions to
optimize the performance and reliability
of your e-commerce platform. you know,
picture a flawless user experience,
increased sales, and a competitive edge
in the market. That's what Envision QA
will bring to you. Uh, highs and lows.
Well, uh, still in the lows of we are
still getting storms. I'm getting tired
of spring. We are actually getting a
spring again this year, and with that
comes a lot of water. On the positive
side of that, um, spring is almost done.
My allergies are almost over, so I'm
starting to feel better. I can start
getting off of that uh drug induced
medication high uh from too much
benadryil. But uh medicine head is a
real thing and a real pain in the butt
when you're trying to focus on
work. So this episode I want to talk
about some ways to talk to your
customers, some ways to work with them
to get ideas of how you can help them.
This is starting the conversation. Uh
the idea that sort of was the germ for
this topic was the idea of like pitch
parties and there are there are
definitely situations there are uh
events out there and things like that
that are effectively that it may be like
you know it may be something local it
may be uh like a venture capital group
or something like that where it's
basically a hey we're going to have a a
day or an event where you bring your
ideas out much like uh you know the the
sharks on TV or you know something like
that where it's basically like hey you
know talk to us what is it you need and
then we will you know we can help. Now
usually that's done from a a venture
capital kind of approach or you know
maybe signing up for some sort of a a
program or something like that like the
co-starters that Michael has mentioned.
But you can do that as part of your
company and I want to throw some ideas
out there and we can sort of talk
through a little bit of these on this
episode. Now, one of the things is you
could actually create a podcast or a
blog that is an interview kind of format
where you go and talk to either an
existing or a prospective customer and
just talk about what are their
challenges. And you don't really have to
do much in those other than just say,
"Hey, here's some of the challenges."
And maybe you wrap up that thing with a
little five minute like here's some
things that we could do or how we could
work to move you forward. You could even
make it like a um you could have a theme
like a I'm stuck prog uh podcast or
something like that that is you help
somebody over uh you're helping them
over the hump. You're helping them
through some barrier or some blocking
thing with them. The other thing you can
do is make it part of a meetup. Uh it
could be we've talked about meetups
before and and things like that, but it
may be something where the whole point
is that the meetup is almost like a a
support group of some sort where people
come in and they just say, "Hey, here's
some things that we are struggling
with." Because the elevator pitch that
we've talked about is great for you to
say, "Hey, I do this." What is more
valuable is when your customers say,
"Hey, I need this." If you can get that,
then you can look at whether you're
going to be able to solve that problem
for you for them, whether that makes
sense. And it also may allow you to help
them not directly, but by saying, "Hey,
I know somebody that does this that
solves that problem." And then you get a
little, you know, karma or, you know,
whatever it is that you want to think
of. You know, you get a little bit of of
positive feedback because you helped
somebody. Even if you didn't directly,
you did help point them in the right
direction, which is not a bad person to
be. If you're a company, a person where
people say, "Hey, if you go to this
person or this company, they will either
help you or they're also very good at
helping you even if it's not directly of
a benefit to them." Then that makes you
a, you know, an expert in a field or
something like that. That is definitely
useful. It also allows you to
uh show what working with you looks
like. you sort of get to show off a
little bit what your skills are and what
you bring to the table. Now, this can be
very uh this could be very specific. So,
it could be and you you can look out
there. There are uh YouTube channels
that are developers recording themselves
writing code. That may sound like the
most boring thing on the face of the
earth to you, but to some people that is
very valuable and it does allow
particularly for that developer allows,
you know, somebody that's a potential
employer could say, "Oh, well, this is
how this person thinks. this is how they
solve this problem. Wow, they have
solved this problem before. This happens
to be a problem that we need
solved. There are a lot of opportunities
now, particularly when you think of all
of the the YouTubes and blogs and and
podcasts and all the different things
are out there. There are a lot of
different forums for you to have those
conversations.
And so, and that's where I want you to
like, you know, start thinking about
instead of waiting for them to come to
you is provide an opportunity for them
to do so. And this could be things like,
and which are some of them could be
great charity events where it's things
like, hey, you get, you know, the best
business idea wins, you know, 10 free
hours of consulting or something like
that or, you know, you can do things
where you can make it more than just a
meetup. You can make it an event. You
can work with somebody like work with a
small business group in your area and
say, "Hey, we want to um we're going to
help small businesses move forward.
We're going to help them get unstuck
with the thing that they're working on.
We want to help them get over the hump
or we want to help them, you know, take
the first step, whatever your your
specialty is." and have like something
that's maybe it's a little contest that
you work with that local small business
group and say, "Hey, we're going to
take, you know, the number one the the
winner. We're gonna, you know, as many
people want to apply and then they're
going to have this contest and then the
the winner gets a free week of
consultation or a free website or
whatever your thing is that you, you
know, a free product, whatever, or
licenses for their company, whatever it
is that you sell. Think about the idea
of giving away stuff as more than just
giving it away, but instead being
something where it's like you're not
just it's not just that one company
that's receiving what you're giving.
It's actually all of the other people in
an attendance and now you're not you're
like it's a little bit bragging about
saying, "Hey, look, I'm giving this
something to this person and look how
good I am." But it really is more about
like this is how we work with people and
we are willing to give back. We are
willing to work and that allows other
people to see and they'll be like, "Wow,
I I like how you guys think." I like how
Michael thinks. I I want to hear your
thoughts on this one. So, I'm going to
pivot. So, you you've touched on the
podcast, the blogs, doing the elevator
pitch, uh you know, talking to
customers, giving them incentives to
kind of pitch to them. Um, I kind of
want to tap into some other avenues that
you could use to kind of perfect your
pitch or do these pitch
parties. One of the things that I
recently ran into a couple years ago was
my local uh the co or it's like a wei
work. It's a great place to go work but
also meet other business people, other
business owners in your area and kind of
get introduce yourself to them. you kind
of get a feel for what type of
businesses are in your area, who's
running them, and they kind of already
have established businesses. So,
sometimes that's a great way to figure
out, okay, what is in my area that will
I I can kind of tap into for my idea,
for the pitch, am I going to be able to
find customers in my area? The other
thing is to go to your standard basics.
you know, you've got the Better Business
Bureau, which is in almost every single
state, city, whatever. They have a lot
of networking uh meetings and things you
can go to, can sign up for uh other
things, too, like your local uh
chambers, uh your local small business
uh ventures. A lot of them have these
networking groups where it's good to go
out and talk to people. It's not
necessarily always the great way to
pitch,
but what's interesting is a lot of them
give you the opportunity or give you the
resources you need to create these pitch
parties. So what you can do is through
like the Better Business Bureau, through
the chamber, you host a small TED talk
or some talk on the topic that of the
problem you're trying to solve. Get the
ideal people in front of you that you're
trying to solve their problem. Walk
through the problem. You know how you
know it affects your target customer.
Walk through and then get to how the
problem is solved and get the feedback
from your audience to say, "Hey, is this
what you're looking for?" You know, you
have hopefully the customer base in
front of you that you can kind of do a
Q&A session with them and figure out,
you know, is your idea the right idea or
are you off track. So that's another
good way to kind of tweak your pitch
there. Uh other things um which you have
to be a little more cautious of is
social events uh be it like uh Java um
user groups um networking groups things
of that nature. Yes, those are great for
networking and meeting but be careful to
go into a non
uh or basically a new environment and
just expect everyone to want to hear
your idea. It takes a little bit of
skill and patience to first introduce
yourself, get a rapport with the person,
and then slowly bring in your what you
it is you do. Don't just start right off
the top because you're going to
basically freeze the room out and
they're going to ask you to leave or by
the end of the day, you'll be standing
in the corner and being the only one
drinking uh ginger ale. That being said,
you just have to kind of read the room
and be careful with that. Same goes with
online social media. you know, TED
talks, Facebook, all all those things
are fine, but if you don't take the time
to introduce yourself and get embedded
in the channel first, you're going to
come in as a spammer and people aren't
going to listen to you and they're going
to ask you to leave.
So, talking to people is what we need
and what we want to do to figure out if
our idea works. But you need to make
sure that you're one hitting the right
target audience. Two, you're in the
right situation. And
three, are you reading the room? Are you
really with people that you need to be
talking about your ideas with? Or are
you in a situation where maybe you pivot
instead of talking about your pitch, you
talk about, hey, how did you get your
business going? you know, maybe turn it
into a information gathering on how to
grow my business or how to build up my
idea without actually pitching your
idea. What are your thoughts on that? I
really think it does go down to it comes
back to people buy from those that they
know, they trust, and you know that that
hear them that and that they like
basically. And so it's not none of those
three things, no trust and like have
anything to do really with your pitch or
the problem. No trust and like are all
relationship words. Now, you may be
unlikable, in which case you're out of
luck. You better find a way to be
likable. But the knowing and the
trusting, as Michael said, like you're
not going to have somebody bust into a
room and be like, "Hey, look at me. I'm
awesome." It doesn't matter how awesome
they are. You're not going to trust him.
Like if the rock walks into a room,
there is a presence and everybody knows
that he's walked into the room, but
you're not necessarily going to trust
him right there because you don't know.
You're just like, "Okay, he makes a you
know, I know who he is, but I I may not
even like that, but I, you know, I'm
definitely not to the trust stage."
So that's I think where you want to go
with these things
is
what what really is you know the goal.
What is it besides solving the problem
is how can you as part of solving the
problem make that an enjoyable
experience for them and then show that
off to other people to be sort of like
hey look this is this is not scary or
intimidating or or anything like that.
this is actually we're going to make
this maybe even a a fun process solving
your problem. But if not fun, but at
least something where they're like,
"Okay, I I trust that approach and I I
like how you do this." Because sometimes
that's it. I' I've definitely had
customers that have said, um, you know,
I don't know if this is in your
wheelhouse, but I like working with you,
so here's something else I want to want
to pitch. The other thing too
is you have to understand how to read
the room. You know, it's yes, it is
about trust, but the other thing is
you're trying to pitch your idea, but in
the same token, you need to have the
ability to switch that off and listen to
your customer because your solution to
their problem may not be the solution.
and they're trying to tell you how to
fix their problem and you're not
listening because you're so focused on
how your solution will fix their
problem. So there are times where you do
need to step back and listen, not just
pitch. And I think that's it is
it's it goes back
to it it goes back to there was and I
forget who it was is there was somebody
that was interviewed a couple of great
people uh back almost 100 years ago
probably and they said there was one
person that when they talked to him that
they felt like they were talking to the
smartest person in the world and the
other person that they talked to made
them feel like the listener was the
smartest person in the world. And so I
think that's those are two little
nuggets of wisdom basically. And
something to consider is
that, you know, you you need to, this
goes back to the trust. It's like you
can solve the problem, but you can solve
it in such a a over-the-top way that
they're really just like I I love that
you solve my problem, but I really just
don't like working with you because it's
uncomfortable in some way, form, or
fashion. So, it does come back to it
goes back to the relationship side of
things is finding a way to make this
um like I said, if nothing else,
enjoyable. I mean, ideally enjoyable,
but if nothing else, something that
they're like, "Okay, this is worth the
time."
Thoughts? Yeah. I
mean, we've covered kind of both sides
of this, but at the end of the
day, you need to get comfortable in your
own skin talking about your product,
your solution to a problem.
Pitching to people is the number one
easiest way, free advertisement, free
information gathering to talk to people
to get what you need or get the
information you need other than just
mining online useless websites or maybe
not useless but mining websites and
static information that does not give
you the emotion of how this problem
impacts your end user or your your
customer.
So, you're going to have to break out of
your shell a little bit and get a little
more social and go talk to people. And
the last thing I I'll note on this
is if you are just if you're not a
company yet and you're just building an
idea, be careful about the um is this
something you will buy versus buy now
because if you're not talking to the
right people, you may hear, "Oh, that's
a wonderful idea, but they won't buy
it." They'll tell you all day long that,
"Yeah, go for it. Go build but they
won't buy it. So, make sure that your
audience that you're talking
to is the people that will buy the
product to give you the feedback to
their
problems. I think I'm going to leave it
at that and we'll move into the
challenge. So, the challenge this
episode is to come up with an idea. just
sit there and and kick back for a little
bit like what would be you do a little
spend a little time brainstorming
whether it's just you your team your
whoever it is your drinking buddies your
poker people I don't care it's just like
you know sit there and and brainstorm a
little bit ideas like how could we get
some people together to talk about the
business problems that are the that are
in the line of our ideal
customers because I think just the
exercise even if you don't come up with
a real good solution I think it's a
start I think it's one of those things
that We don't um I think most of us
don't leverage that option often enough
and I think it's a really valuable
challenge. Side note, the challenge
would be send us an email at info
developer.com because we would love to
hear from you. This is we do this for
you. I mean we have a good time but we
also do this for you guys. So definitely
let us know what you think and where you
would like us to go in future topics.
And as always you can reach to us at an
on x formally. We're finally getting to
the point where we can formally say
Twitter, but still on ecstasy developer.
You can see us on the developer channel
on YouTube, actually see us, or you can,
you know, put it on a non-visual side,
so you just have to hear us instead if
that's more preferable. It may be uh you
can check it. We have a Facebook page.
We have, of course, developer.com. Leave
us comments wherever you do that.
Wherever you uh, you know, likes or
dislikes, whatever it is, feedback on
wherever you you know, listen to
podcasts, we would love to get that
feedback. so that we can make this
better for you, so we can be building
better podcasts as well along the way.
That being said, go out there and build
yourself a better you. Have yourself a
great day, a great week, and we will
talk to you next
time. Bonus
material. I covered a lot during the
podcast. Uh, the thing I'll throw out
is if you are unsure what your pitch is,
AI is a great example of kind of words
smmithing or at least playing around
bouncing ideas off of someone if you
don't have someone in front of you. Uh,
maybe just throw in your ideas, kind of
word smith it, and get to the point
where you get something that you can
tailor to a pitch. Uh, pitching is not
easy. Uh, as you see from our multiple
intros, I vary from time to time, unlike
Rob with the description of my company.
It it's still hard to pitch unless the
person's in front of you so you know
your audience. So, sometimes you will
need to come up with a generic pitch and
then sometimes you'll need to come up
with a more personal pitch. So, that's
kind of my two cents on this one. My
bonus I think the bonus I'll follow up
to that is that it does help. Well, AI
is is actually an excellent suggestion.
I do think that there is a level of
uh doing an inface pitch to somebody and
being able to see their reactions and
the the emotions that it does is going
to help you quite a bit. Um getting that
kind of feedback from somebody that you
know and trust yourself uh I think can
be very insightful particularly if they
are in some way related to or know
something about your customer. Maybe
they are an ideal customer or they know
something about your customer base. So
um you know definitely getting that
feedback is is always helpful.
That being said, thank you so much for
your time. We're going to wrap this one
up and let you get out there because you
have an email to send us, of course, as
always. Um, and thank you for those that
you of you that do give us the feedback.
We appreciate that. We love it and uh we
do as much as we can to try to get you,
you know, responses back to let you know
that we got it and we loved it. And
thank you so much. As I always say, that
being said, go out there and have
yourself a great one and we will talk to
you guys next time.
[Music]