If you are not attending expos and events, you miss out on potential opportunities, connections, and wisdom. Yet, truth be told, going to these events is an investment in that they take both your time and money. That is why it is just right to make the most ROI from them. If you’re heading to Philadelphia for the upcoming Expo East, you are in luck because Elliot Begoun has the episode for you! He is joined by our very own Brand Activation Director here at TIG Brands, WavenDean Fernandes, and together, they brainstorm how you can potentially maximize the experience in Expo East. From listening to key people in the industry, building relationships, and putting your business forward to availing yourself of those serendipitous moments of connection and opportunities for growth, Elliot and WavenDean have you covered. So, whether you’re attending the Expo East or any upcoming events in the future, tuning in to this conversation will bring you lots of tips and insights!

—

Listen to the podcast here

How To Maximize The Expo East Experience With Elliot Begoun And WavenDean Fernandes

We are here with my wingman, the one and only Portuguese-Hawaiian, Waven. He is here on the mainland. We are going to spend this episode riffing and brainstorming on how you can potentially maximize the experience that is Expo East coming up soon. If you are coming to Philadelphia, you are making a significant investment. It doesn’t matter whether you are displaying at a booth or walking the halls. To get there, you have to spend on hotels, travel, food, and for some of you, liquor. All of that is an investment and an expense, so how do you make the most of it? That’s what we are going to talk about in this episode. Waven, thanks for doing this with me.

You are welcome. I’m looking forward to it. This is a fun topic.

Before we jump into that, I have a couple of other things to update folks on. The TIG Venture Community is off to the races. We have been able to successfully raise some reasonable amounts of money for the first quarter here. We are always willing to entertain others who are interested in investing in the future of our industry, Tardigrades, and brands that are going to be nimble, capital-efficient, and resilient.

If you are an accredited investor and interested in participating in building these brands and helping to see these brands as they continue to grow and be a part of the solution to the funding gap that exists in our industry, please reach out. It’s a very easy process. We would love to have you join the venture community.

Also, I have an update on the TIG Collective. This is where advisors and entrepreneurs get to work together in a collaborative way where you have access to an amazing cadre of industry experts across all different functional areas. This is a great opportunity to get the support, advice, and leadership that could be the difference in the trajectory of your business.

It’s a program that, for those who are a part of our community, has no cost other than whatever advisor shares are issued. I would love to share more about that but it’s something we are proud of. We are running masterclasses to continue to help build the future advisors and board members of our industry that will be much more reflective of the diversity that exists in this industry as well as help entrepreneurs learn how to exact and extract as much wisdom, information, and support from those that they bring alongside them. Please consider.

At Expo East, we are going to be doing some cool things again. Through our partnership and good friends at New Hope, we will have a room available at the convention center. In that room on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, for the brands in our community, we are hosting a day-and-a-half-long retreat. It’s a deep dive into all the salient issues that exist, from the challenges of fundraising to the ever-changing dynamics in D2C to what’s going on in the retail landscape. We will be working through some heady issues and trying to walk into or lean into Expo East with clarity, excitement, and a sense of purpose.

Throughout the expo one of the incredible benefits of the Natural Products Expo is the fact that it is an aggregation point. We are bringing together all the key people in this industry like investors, retailers, founders who have the experience and track record, board members, advisors, and service providers, everybody. We are going to curate in our room as many of those folks as we can who will be graciously offering and donating their time to sit at a table.

We will put around them members of the community to ask questions, talk, and start nurturing a relationship. We did something similar at Expo West 2022 and had good outcomes. There were conversations and opportunities that continued. If you want to learn more about any of this stuff, please reach out to any of us at TIG Brands, and we will be happy to share.

What I wanted to do with you here is that we have been going to these shows for a lot of years. We have witnessed a lot of folks who have used the time effectively, pre-planned, and leveraged what this great aggregation is. We’ve conversely witnessed people who have shown up with that field of dreams mentality, “If we build it, they will come.” For whatever reason, maybe it’s because they didn’t proactively take steps to build the outcome they wanted. They walk away feeling like it wasn’t the show for them.

You and I have talked about it, and Jenny sent in some of her suggestions as well, what are some of the things that brands should be and could be doing when we are taping this and even more so when this gets released to maximize the way that they can leverage Expo East. For those who are a part of our live studio audience, please feel free to throw in your questions, suggestions or things that you’ve done as well. I know you’ve put together some thoughts, so why don’t we kick it off with Waven’s tips for an awesome Expo East?

I wish I had come up with the name of that list and had done this not so organically. For those brands that are in our community, number one, I would highly recommend that they get there for the day and a half retreat that we are going to have before the show opens. This is hearing from our brands that were at our retreat for Expo West. They felt that it was invaluable what was presented, prepared, provided, the room we had, and the ability to show face their products. We are going to be doing that again at Expo East and leverage best practices and learnings from that. That’s number one.

It’s going to be different as to whether somebody is an actual exhibitor at the show, has to be at the booth or they are going to be able to just attend and walk around. I’m going to give some macro general ones and then we can get into specific ones as we riff about whether people have a booth there or not. They are going to get this advice from enough other people, so I’m not going to cover that about making sure you plan about who you want to see and reach out to them. You are like, “If you are going, can we get a meeting scheduled?” You are doing all of that pre-planning.

What I like to share with our brands on an energetic level is to prepare for the serendipity and the magic, too. They should try not to have everything dialed in and preplanned so much that they don’t leave room for things to occur. Magic happens with these shows. If you are back-to-back with meetings, schedule this, schedule that, and you are not available to sometimes connect or bump into somebody or walk. If you are an exhibitor and you don’t even have any time to walk the aisles yourself, you are missing out on a great potential opportunity for the universe to bring into proximity to you somebody that you didn’t even know about that you should meet.

That’s so true. You and I have seen that every year. In some respects, we would go back to the serendipitous reality of how our relationship was kindled and formed. It was that type of activity. It’s like the old adage. You have to make your own luck. You have to be open to those things. You wouldn’t understand this as an extrovert but for those of us who are introverted, we got to push ourselves past our comfort zone. You’ve got to go to the gatherings, post-shows or pre-shows. Do that stuff. Go to some of the educational seminars. Speak up. Be willing to enter a conversation. If you don’t, you are not availing yourself of those serendipitous moments.

I’m going to use Alan Cohen of kokomio from the last Expo West as an interesting and nice example of best practices. He had a big booth there and a substantial investment that got deferred from day viewing and showcasing the brand at Expo West in March of 2020, the beginning of the pandemic. He had to put everything inside a storage container for two years until Expo West this 2022 and its debut. He had to be there at the booth but he also wanted to attend our retreat and watch what was going on. At the same time, some shows were going on.

When he didn’t have the luxury of having that happen before the actual show began because it was concurrent, and he had to be available for meetings and things that would come up. He had his crew there. His parents were there. He had a good crew that could back him up, represent, and speak for the brand in his stead. That is key. An entrepreneur should not be looking, if they can, in any way. If they are going to be exhibiting, to figure out how they can be available for all these other important things, too, and not be the only sole staffing person who is knowledgeable, intelligent, and can speak on behalf of the brand so that they are locked ball and chained having to be at the booth. That’s one point.

Alan had a strong crew there that he could leave and be confident. He knew that the kokomio brand would be represented. He was always on text. If something needed him, they could text him. He would be right back. Alan did another interesting thing. Instead of the typical T-shirt, he had a branded piece of apparel that he wore. He had a shirt that was made with the kokomio brand and design on it. It wasn’t just a logo. It’s like the VMG guy, Wayne Wu, who has the pants with all his brands on them. I know we love to say how impactful that is.

You don’t see that often that people have a cool piece of brand wear or fashion wear that they’ve done other than a logo on a T-shirt or a logo on a polo shirt. I thought he was a walking and talking visual example of his brand even when he wasn’t at the booth. People would know, “There’s the kokomio guy or the head coconut,” as he says.

The other thing is that he understood the virality potential. In a pandemic, there might be a different word. You look for as many ways to make a high human touch impact and delight as possible. Alan was sampling at the booth but he had created these little shots that he could carry around in a little, very cool refrigerated cooler next to him. He would carry a few shots with him anywhere he went, so if somebody said, “You are from kokomio,” if they read his shirt, he’s like, “Try it. Here’s one of my shots. Here’s one of the four flavor samples.”

Those shots were well-designed like a miniature representation of the actual retail bottle with a QR code on the top. People could try that shot either right there or take it away. He said a lot of people tried those shots and would bring the shot back to where the booth was. It could have the booth number on it so they could easily find it on a ledger for the show. Those little breadcrumbs he did were important because he could sample his brand easily and personably anywhere he went with those little shots. I know other brands that are not refrigerated. He had a refrigerated product to sample. Other brands are easier because they don’t have to be.

That’s all great advice and a good case study. I will start with a few thoughts that I have. I will start with the high and then work to the more tactical. First of all, I agree. You need to make room for serendipity and put yourself in situations that encourage that serendipity. At the same time, you also need to be prescriptive and proactive about trying to get in front of the people that you want. That should be going on.

Here’s the reality. This is where a lot of founders and entrepreneurs make mistakes in this setting. They go in for the kill. They think going into the expo, like, “I have been waiting all year for this. I’m having to go in guns blazing. I’m going to walk away with the deal, investment or commitment,” and so forth. Everybody else is expecting the same thing. What happens is that these people who are getting inundated by requests for meetings spend their entire day getting pitched to.

What I would do is change up the language a little bit, the intention, and your definition of success. You should be using these opportunities to meet people, start a relationship, and build a relationship. The cool thing would be to reach out to people and say, “I know the show is going to be busy. It’s probably not the time to try to hit you up for a meaningful conversation unless you are open to that or if that works for you but I would love to put a name to face and fist bump you or shake your hand, or whatever COVID protocol you allow. I would love to get to know you. It would be a shame not to at least be able to meet.” That approach is refreshing. Be super respectful of their time. Do that in five minutes or less.

Here’s the trick. You are like, “It’s great to meet you. I appreciate it. It’s so cool that we finally got to see each other face-to-face. I would love to chat with you. I know things are going to be crazy post-show while we are sitting here together. Do you want to put up the calendars on our phones and see if we can pick a date and a time in a couple of weeks so we can get back on Zoom to have a more in-depth conversation?” See if you can get that scheduled so that you are not then playing the inevitable email game. Sometimes, it won’t work but many times, it will. They will pull their calendar out right there and you can get something booked. You can send an invite, and they will be on their way and be gone.

The other thing that I would say is one of the great business strategies that I learned, and I learned as a coping mechanism to my own discomfort, is that for years, I truly hated networking. It did not sit well with me. I felt uncomfortable, almost sleazy doing it. I then had this shift in thinking. The best way I could describe it is that I went from trying to extract to trying to give. You know that this is a big part of our ethos as a team.

When I’m walking a show floor and meeting with people, my mind is not on, “I want to meet so-and-so, get this done, and do this,” and so forth. This sounds altruistic or woo-woo but it’s a good strategy. It feels good. It’s authentic. It’s true. It’s not fake. It’s not feigned. That is, I want to meet people and give. I want to figure out, “How I can help them. How can I connect to people who would be of benefit from knowing one another? Can I give some feedback or add some advice?” Whatever way I can help or give. That’s how I enter those halls. That’s how I enter those meetings. I’m always asking, “Is there anything I can do for you? Is there anything that you need? Is there anybody here at the show that you would like to meet that might be in my network?”

I would encourage everyone reading this to do the same, not because it’s the nice thing to do, which I hope it is, and not because I believe that this audience, that is, most of you, are wired anyways but because it works. It’s effective. It’s a refreshing way to interact with somebody. It doesn’t matter if you are walking up to somebody who’s starting their career in this industry and you say, “I’m so excited that you decided to be in the natural products industry. You are batshit crazy. Is there anybody you would like to meet here that I can introduce you to? Is there any way I can help you?” It doesn’t matter if it’s that person or Gary Hirshberg. You can ask anybody what you could do to help them, and you will be surprised.

The corresponding thing is to be clear in what you want to ask for. If you don’t ask, you don’t get it. As sometimes uncomfortable as that might be or as sometimes fearful of being rejected you may be, the worst outcome is a no. If you are not overly aggressive about it but you are also simultaneously offering to help and give, be very explicit, like, “I have been trying to meet this person for six months. I know that you are connected. Is there a way that you can maybe facilitate me meeting with them here at Expo East?” There is nothing wrong with that.

You could be doing that now. You could be reaching out to people in your network, saying, “If you are going to be at Expo East, could you do me a favor? Can you introduce me to so-and-so? I know you are connected. I would really like to meet that person. What can I do to help you? Is there anyone that you are trying to get ahold of there that I may know that I can do?” Those are some of the basics.

If you are exhibiting at a booth, you will have more serendipitous opportunities. You will have more time to interact but be cognizant, too. It’s the same thing. If you are sitting at your booth and all of a sudden, your Whole Foods buyer walks up to you, and you pounce on them, there’s a reason half of them try to turn their badges around. Have empathy. Approach them with some empathy. Have a conversation but read the room, so to speak.

If they are there to do business and they want to do it, then that’s great. Do it. If they are walking and want to say hi, then do that. Say, “I know this is a crazy show for you. Everybody is tugging at your shirt tails. I don’t want to be another one of those, but I would love to meet with you. Can we pull out our phones quickly and find a date a few weeks from now when that works?” That’s a good strategy too.

I have a couple of other things, and then I want to hear your thoughts. There are business cards. We did an experiment for Expo West and won’t ever go back. We went to digital business cards. What we did is we created nice-looking logoed QR codes that we can pull up on our phones. Anybody who wants our contact information just opens their phones, grabs the QR code, and gets all of our information, like phone numbers, addresses, emails, LinkedIn profiles, and so forth. They can press save, and it’s on their phone. Things like that are our benefit.

The other is that unless you are Waven, most people don’t want to carry crap around with them. Especially since there are QR readers embedded in both Android and iOS phones, have your sell sheets, pitch decks, pricing, and information attached to a QR code. Let them scan the QR code and then download whatever they want onto their phones, so they don’t have to carry it around.

Nobody wants to carry it around. If you give them something like a business card, a one-page or a deck, I guarantee you that even if it makes it back to their hotel room, it winds up going into the circuit or file there. It’s not going to go back into the carry-on bag. Take notes. These are some of the smaller things. Do you have thoughts on that? I then want to talk about the bigger picture.

You touched on the digital business cards, and I was going to bring up that anecdote because it ties into something here too. I advise our brands to take a perspective when they are looking at shows like this because it can be so daunting. You are going to try to cross the T’s and dot the I’s and get all caught up in the left-brain stuff. To balance that a little bit with the energy you talked about when you walked the aisle, look at this as an opportunity to have fun. Where can you interject delight and then create impact and a positive impression when you are walking, representing your brand? To the point about Alan wearing the kokomio shirt, etc., and handing out samples of his product, where can you be that Pied Piper or that Willy Wonka energy and create that?

The show is so stressful. It’s long hours. You are standing on your feet. Everybody is tired. After a few days, you are overwhelmed. Your sensory impact is overwhelmed. Look for those places where you can make a high, positive human touch. When Elliot came down with this edict, if you will, and I use that word strategically, we were not going to have paper business cards, I freaked out because I’m an OG kind of guy. I come from the world of old design, packaging design, and physical products, which I love the physical interaction and haptics of.

In fact, when you and I first met, your business card was an engraved tin business card, which was mind-blowing. Granted, I love business cards. I love the old-school business cards because there was a way to do that but it’s not sustainable.

I agree to a degree. Let me continue on this. When is the glass half empty or half full? When Elliot came down with his edict that TIG was not going to have physical business cards, I said, “How can I turn this into an opportunity?” I looked at creating an edible business card along the line of what could create more impact and delight in everything.

There are these amazing cookies that are only made in Hilo, where I’m from, on the big island. I got two boxes of those. I was going to hand it out to who it was appropriate to hand out. In the edible business cards, there was a label with our brand logo and the QR code. I didn’t get the pre-approval for this. This was a total skunkworks project. I branded the back of these amazing cookies. They became my business card because I didn’t use a physical business card anymore other than the leftover ones I had from the year before.

When I would meet somebody, I say, “Here’s my information. This QR code leads to a couple-page PDF on TIG. Here’s a little something from the island I’m from.” Every time I handed those out, there was a delight. If there were 2 or 3 people, they are like, “I want one.” The little label would be left over, and they could do it right on their phone. “Think outside the box,” is that common statement going. Is there a way to create delight in everything and not have a paper business card, a metal one or whatever the case might be? Is there a way to have an edible business card metaphorically? Is there a way to deliver your contact information and your essential information in a more delightful way?

I have one last point I will make before transitioning it over. One of the other things that I did prior to the show is I created a little text. If you guys want any examples of this stuff, please let us know. Reach out to us and I will share these examples and samples with you, including the label we made for the cookies. I made a little graphic that included a picture of the actual conference show floor of the hotel where our room was going to be in for the retreat. Hence, if you have a booth, they will have the schematics of the show floor, and you could circle the booth in red.

I put that in there with our brand logo and the QR code. It said, “Connect with Waven.” I had a little message and was saying, “At Expo West 2022, the TIG Brands will be in the sunset room. Come by. See me or text me at this number.” It had my contact information and a little bit about what I do on behalf of brand activation for TIG. I use that as a text graphic to send out to people either by email or text. It wasn’t a long email but it was a visually impactful thing. I try to use the 80/20 Rule, which is 80% of visual graphic impact and 20% or 10% of texts. The fewer words, the better. In fact, it’s the opposite of what I’m doing. The less speaking, the better. The more showing, the better.

The reptilian brain is fully engaged at these shows because it’s so overwhelming. The visual senses and all those things will still work long after the ears stop hearing what people say. The eyes will continue seeing while being queued up. There’s another little tip, trick or technique where you can create something like this that’s visually impactful. Use it by text. Right up to and including at the show, you can have this thing ready to send to people so that they will know what booth you are at, where it’s in proximity to other ones, etc. rather than just saying, “Booth whatever.” You give them the context for that information. The context for the information is key.

I have one last point I will make before I turn it over to Elliott. You are going to spend all this time, money, and energy being there. Please, for God’s sake, follow up with the contacts you have. If you get business cards, whether they be traditional, edible or text-based if you make a contact with somebody and you promise to follow up, do so. Maybe it’s not the week right after the show because everyone is in a coma but the week after that show’s back. There should be something in their inbox or text box. Follow up and continue to follow up in a proactive, respectful manner until you get a yes, no, maybe not now, or whatever the resolution to whatever the request or follow-up is.

Follow up with some information. Maybe you saw an article. To Elliot’s point, don’t always follow up with me and me, “What can I get? I wanted that meeting. What can you do for me?” Maybe you saw an article or something that came up. Maybe you saw an antidote or a quip. Share something proactively. That is part of your follow-up. Spend as much time and thought about the human touch and the positive impression that is possible to create with follow-up. I got to tell you. That’s one that is an Achilles heel, and most people drop the ball on this one big time. They will have all these business cards, and a percentage of those will get followed up on. That’s gold or truffles. You are stepping on truffles, and you don’t even know it.

First of all, there is only one flaw in Waven’s edible business card. It’s that it’s using twice as many cards because it’s always, “Here is one for you, one for me.”

That’s somewhat true.

I’m going to make the same point and take things higher. It should be fun. It should be wonderful. It’s a celebration of our industry. Being together is more special than ever before because we realized how precious it is to physically be in proximity of one another, etc. You need to use this time as an investment and use this wisely.

Too often, what happens is that you start a conversation to build a relationship. You get to know somebody in the industry that either you can help or they can help, or you don’t know yet but there’s something there of interest. The reality is that misses often in the cultivation and the nurturing of that relationship. What I want everyone to understand is that you need to be strategic about this and be committed.

Let’s start with doing it proactively. You are reaching out to buyers, investors, potential partners, industry partners or whatever you are trying to do to effect some change in the trajectory of your business. You are hoping people come by your booth and so forth. The reality is that most of you will send an email and do nothing. If you haven’t heard from them, maybe you will remember and send another email next week or the week after. The challenge with that is it’s starting in the starting line again. It’s like a false start the last time, and you are back at the starting line.

The reality is that for all of us, we are getting hundreds of emails a day. In most cases, if we don’t react to the email we get, at least by the next morning, it’s gone. It’s in the ether somewhere. It’s not going to be looked at again. If you wait seven more days or so to send another email, you are starting the process again because there’s no connection there.

What I want to encourage everybody to do is to take some time to look at things, whether it’s software like Boomerang, Reply.io, or using a CRM or some way to build sequences so that you don’t have to be doing this or be reliant upon both your memory to do and also the discipline and the allocating the time to do so.

When you send an email, send it as a sequence with 5 or 6 subsequent emails and set it to go out in 24 to 48 hours from the first one. It could be, “I’m going to be at Expo East. I’m hoping you will be as well. I would love to shake your hand, put a name to a face and a face to a name, and have a quick conversation. Let me know if you’ve got any time to meet.”

If Waven doesn’t respond in 24 hours, it would be, “It’s Elliot again. I’m keeping this at the top of your inbox.” Twenty four hours later, “I know it’s crazy busy but the show is getting close. I’m just keeping this top of mind.” You continue the process. You are not pushy. You are not shitty about it. You are not like, “Why aren’t you responding to me?” None of that is happening but what’s happening is two things.

Instead of you going back to the starting line each time, you are slowly moving downfield. What’s happening in the mind of the recipient is this cognitive dissonance like, “I’m being a jerk. I’m not responding.” Eventually, what they will do is like, “Elliot has been reaching out to me now for quite a bit. He’s being super patient. He wants to meet with me. I will give him ten minutes at the show,” and the email goes out.

If you don’t do it with that cadence, if you don’t do that with that consistent follow-up, maybe your fourth email is, “Maybe I will try giving you a call too.” You are letting them know nicely that you are not going to go quietly, and you are going to give everything you’ve got. The worst that can happen is that you get an email back from him saying, “Thanks for all your emails. Please stop emailing me. I don’t have time to meet with you at the expo or I’m not going to the expo.” You then know you are not dealing with ambiguity and move on. If you don’t do this stuff, you are going to miss these opportunities.

Flash forward, you have the meeting, shake hands, put a face to name and name to face, and then the opposite needs to happen. You need to nurture this relationship. The way I would encourage you there is to decide, “Is this a long-term nurture or short-term nurture?” in terms of what you need from them. If it’s like, “I met this person. I don’t know what they can do today for me or what I can do for them tomorrow but there’s something inherently there that I want to keep this relationship going.” or somebody is a buyer that you want to get a meeting with and want to get something done with, those are two different cadences of follow up.

What I would encourage is the same thing. This is a sequence, “It’s so great to finally meet you in person at the expo.” If this is somebody you want to get a scheduled meeting with, “I would love to get a meeting scheduled. Please let me know what works for you. Here’s a link to my calendar.” It’s the same thing. Within 24 hours, “I don’t know if you had a chance to look at my calendar link. I’m sending it again. Do any of these times work?” You are continuing to do that without being pushy and judgmental. It is with gentle nudges and reminders that you are not going away and that you are interested.

If this is somebody you are trying to cultivate a longer-term relationship with or something that you haven’t yet identified, I do this. It’s where I’ve got sequences that are set up bi-weekly. Some are monthly, and some are on a quarterly basis, where I know that they are going to get an email from me. It could be like, “I’m thinking of you. There is no need to respond if things are busy. I wanted to say hi. Let’s chat soon or hope our paths cross soon.”

The reason you do that thing is that maybe it’s the next expo that you want to meet with them in person or maybe something does come across your plate that gives you a reason for wanting to ask this person for help or information. If you have been cultivating the relationship to these emails and dialogue, then reaching out to them and saying, “I hope all is well. I was wondering if you could help me with this or this,” doesn’t seem as disingenuous. It doesn’t seem so out of the blue because you have been doing the part of taking an active interest. You can do that.

The other thing that I will say that’s another tip and trick for these relationships you build is that Google Alerts is your friend. Waven was making this point but if you’ve run into a few people who are super interested in RegenAg or who are interested in what’s going on in a category or in other subjects, you can put them in Google Alerts. If there’s an interesting article that you see, have it in your CRM or your database. You are like, “These are the fifteen people that I’ve identified that are interested in this thing. I’m going to send them this link. I saw this cool article and thought you might be interested. I hope all is well.”

We talk about the ten Tardigrade traits. These are things like being capital-efficient, being nimble, having a growth-hacking mindset, being guided by the growth hypothesis, knowing the importance of accountability and the importance of being able to scale, and paying attention to unit economics. All of those things are critical and important above and beyond all. What is foundational to everything we do as TIG Brands is the power of community. The entrepreneurs who have positioned themselves as part of a broader community who are both givers and benefactors of a true community outperform those that don’t have that. It’s that simple.

Events like Expo East, Expo West, and so forth are the opportunity to nourish, cultivate, and build that community. To not do that with commitment and the willingness to take action and follow through is diminishing your opportunities as an entrepreneur to succeed. It’s that simple. You need to build a community, and you build community through these types of events. We are switching gears a little bit.

I have two cents on that before you leave on this thing about cultivating and nurturing a relationship in responding to these emails that may not get responded to in a timely fashion. You mentioned this but I will reiterate it. Please do not take an attitude or a negative tone, or take these things personally. You have no idea what’s going on on the other person’s side of this, whether they are dealing with a child that went to a hospital, a caregiving situation or a life event. They might be on vacation for a week or two and turn their email off for the first time in many years. Don’t assume that they are not responding to you intentionally because you are the only thing in their inbox that is the most important thing they have to get to. Most likely, it’s not.

When you respond, maybe ask them if a different channel is better, “Would texting be better? If so, give me your mobile number, and I will text you.” Keep your emails, professional, warm, and respectful. Do not take a tone or an attitude that has any of, “This is the third time. If you don’t respond, I’m going to do this.” Don’t threaten them or whatever the case might be. Think about how you feel if you or when you get those emails.

To Elliot’s point about sending an article or something of interest, absolutely look, is there anything you can do to be a proactive interest with what you know about that person, their business, their interests, or whatever the case might be? Is there a common topic you might share or a discussion point you might want to have with them? Send it around that to let them know that you are thinking about them. They might have or might not have seen this article or informational report.

You can look at McKinsey. You can look at a lot of different places besides just the general typical things that we get our data from like Food Navigator, Food News, etc. Look outside the box. Look internationally. Look into Europe for some places that come across with packaging, news, and things of that sort. Have something that’s atypical that that person may or may not see in their typical feed.

It’s the same thing. Expo East and Expo West are expensive. They are expensive to produce. Understand that as well. I’m not doing this to try to defend my friends at New Hope because I don’t think it is something that needs to be defended. The reality is that it’s expensive to put on a show like this. Therefore, it’s expensive to attend a show like this. It’s expensive more so now than ever because airfares are expensive, hotels are expensive, travel’s inconvenient, and so forth. If you are going to go to the show, don’t just go. Don’t blow it. I would rather have you say, “I’m not going to be there,” and save yourself the money and the dollars.

If you’re going to be there, this is work. This needs to be taken on as an important project. It needs to be a strategic initiative. You need to work hard leading up to it, during it, and following up after it. It is not a vacation. It is not a junket. It is not something that you show up to and think that the world is going to provide to you and for you, and that’s what you paid for. You didn’t. You paid for the opportunity to have access to the people, the education, and so forth. You have to be the one to extract the value out of it.

I also think that it’s worth everybody going to if you can justify the expense and afford the time to put the effort in pre, during, and post. It’s very important. There’s no digital replacement for the analog ability to be together, meet people, and start friendships. That’s the other thing too. It’s a place to build friendships with other founders and other people.

This is a lonely endeavor often. Especially as an entrepreneur, you are working in isolation. You are working with your two constant companions, fear and doubt. To meet other founders who are on a similar journey and facing the same headwinds and meet people that you can talk to who get the struggle, that’s super restorative and important as well. Being that way and willing to be vulnerable.

We do a lot of posing. A lot of entrepreneurs put on what I would call their show veneer. It’s their costume that says, “I’ve raised a lot of money. I’m in a lot of doors. My LTV is up. My CAC is down. I’m great. I’m super confident. We are going to crush it.” They then go and cry themselves to sleep because they are panicked about their business. I would much rather you share with other people that it’s scary, hard, and tough. I promise you that 99.9% of them are feeling the same way.

In closing, for me, the expo is an incredible opportunity. It’s an incredible aggregation of the people that are difference makers in this industry. It’s a great place to learn. It’s a great place to build relationships. It’s a great place to change the trajectory of your business but that does not come by just showing up. It comes through intention, effort, focus, and commitment. What are your closing thoughts?

I will riff on that and say that in regards to this opportunity, it is the last major show for our industry for 2022. This is it unless there’s a surprise I don’t know about. To Elliot’s point, pretty much, we live in a digital Zoom world 80% of the time. Thank God for this 20% of the time we get to have these shows again in the last couple of years to interact. The things that you are able to do in this physical environment and the interactions are forced multipliers and activators if approached the right way.

While this show is only a few days in the totality of that 20% to 80% of the time you are spending on Zoom, phone, email, and all these digital communications, human interaction can be such a huge force multiplier and activator again. Approach it with that excitement for the opportunity. The other thing in closing, I will say is as you walk the floor, if you are an attendee this time but in the future, you hope to be an exhibitor and have your brand be at a place of success that you are going to have a booth, be an exhibitor, and be at that level “of presence and success,” take a little notebook and look at all of the tips, tricks, and ideas that these other brands are doing in terms of best practices. Make notes about that stuff, and don’t think you will remember it.

There are a lot of big brands that are spending a ton of money to do great things, high human touch, best practices, and success. Those little things you will not remember, make notes of that stuff. When your time comes to be an exhibitor and to have a booth, you can look back and be like, “I loved what so-and-so is doing and what they are sampling. How they did that their sampling. How they interacted in their booth or I loved the design of such and such. They had the LED lights,” or whatever caught your reptilian brain. All of these things are going to be on exhibit. Take advantage of noting those things to benefit you and your brand in the future.

With that incredible mic drop moment from the one and only WavenDean, we will call this episode done and dusted. Thank you, everyone, for joining us on this episode of TIG Talk. We look forward to seeing many of you at Expo East. If you want time, reach out and follow some of the things we suggested. We will be happy to be there and meet with you. We will be happy to assist and give in any way possible. There were two questions that popped up here. From Maniza, “Hard lines can be there. They are very much there.” From Himso, “It would be great to be at the expo.” We can talk about that shortly. I will see you next time.

Good catch, Elliot. Bye. Aloha.

Important Links

• WavenDean Fernandes – LinkedIn

• Tardigrades

• kokomio

• VMG

• Boomerang

• Reply.io

• Google Alerts

• McKinsey

About WavenDean Fernandes

I have to admit. I love to eat. And being a native of Hawaii, I grew up enjoying all kinds of foods and beverages from different cultures…they call Hawaii a ‘melting pot’ because of the diversity of its people, cultures, and their foods. And a key part of the ‘aloha spirit’ is sharing food.

Now after 25+ years of being a professional in the branding, design, marketing worlds, I get to bring that experience and expertise to The Intertwine Group and use it in service to help our Food & Beverage clients create their brands and grow their business. And hopefully along the way, continue to be exposed to innovative and tasty products. I can’t imagine a more fun, interesting and visceral industry to be a part of.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! tigbrands.com/tig-talks/