B2B Business Development with Livestreaming

In this, The Faces of Business, Curt Anderson, Founder, B2Btail, Jedi Master of helping B2B Businesses and specifically, manufacturers “Stop Being the Best Kept Secret”, a #GirlDad, and friend, is sharing his experience with using livestreaming for impactful B2B business development to build community, trust, and share information with your perfect customers.

In this, The Faces of Business, Curt Anderson, Founder, B2Btail, Jedi Master of helping B2B Businesses and specifically, manufacturers “Stop Being the Best Kept Secret”, a #GirlDad, and friend, is sharing his experience with using livestreaming for impactful B2B business development to build community, trust, and share information with your perfect customers.

Curt has built his business by using livestreaming to meet people, build community, find opportunities, and share valuable information with potential soulmate customers. A veteran with hundreds of livestream episodes to his credit, Curt knows how powerful livestreaming can be to build your business, community, and trust.

At B2B Tail, Curt helps B2B businesses “Stop Being the Best Kept Secret” to attract and engage their perfect clients.

Download our free business valuation guide here to understand more about business valuations and view our business valuation FAQs to answer the most common valuation questions.

Curt is an expert in putting strategies and the team together to get a B2B Business’ true essence shining through to their ideal customers. Curt’s extensive business experience allows him to develop practical and proven strategies to help businesses reach their goals. Curt also has a large network of highly skilled partners he brings to bear so companies get the help they need quickly from pre-vetted specialists.

Curt has been an entrepreneur since graduating from the Ohio State University College of Business and taking over the family floral business. After being in the family business for a bit, Curt recognized an opportunity to take advantage of ecommerce sales and founded Afloral.com in 1995 as an ecommerce online supplier of silk flowers and floral supplies.

Curt was president of Afloral.com for 17 years, generating annual double-digit growth for the entire time, and was recognized as an Internet Retailer Top 1000 eCommerce company for three straight years. Curt sold the company to help companies “Stop Being the Best Kept Secret.”

Do you want to know if your business is ready for your exit or what you should do to prepare? Learn this and more with our business exit assessment here.

Damon is pleased to welcome his longstanding friend Curt to his show. They talk about the experts they bring onto their livestreams. Curt mentions a recent livestream where he felt overwhelmed by the positivity. He is excited about an upcoming deep dive into AI with Kara Goldin. Curt marvels at the wealth of knowledge they gain, describing it as almost unfair.

Damon steers the conversation to discuss B2B business development through livestreaming. Curt thanks Damon for his friendship and the joy and honor it brings him. They’ve been livestreaming together for years without hesitation, and he hopes the enthusiasm continues. “It’s just such a thing of beauty,” remarks Curt.

Damon brings into discussion the fears and camera shyness people have about livestreaming. He requests Curt to share his thoughts on overcoming these fears.

Get the most value for your business by understanding the process and preparing for the sale with information here on our Selling a Business page.

Curt compares the nervousness some guests feel before going live to pre-game jitters in sports. Despite initial anxiety, they often receive positive feedback from guests who enjoyed the experience. He shares a recent experience with guests from previous shows that opened a gateway to marketing and networking. The guest advises stepping out of one’s comfort zone, whether in live streaming, LinkedIn, or other areas, to discover new opportunities and connections.

Citing his own early experiences, Damon agrees with the guest. He compares it to learning to drive or training for a marathon which takes time and practice.

“Information tells, stories sell,” Curt shares a catchy saying. He discusses the emotional aspect of decision-making and the power of storytelling in influencing buying decisions. He reflects on his experience selling a business and acknowledges the emotional journey involved. Curt finds inspiration in the stories shared by guests, citing examples of drastic career pivots and overcoming self-defeating thoughts. He views the opportunity to hear these stories as a gift and believes it has made him a better person through mutual learning and growth.

Damon believes their livestreaming efforts are indeed great work for business development.

Curt draws a symbiotic relationship between their livestream show and business development. He discusses how booking guests based on topics he wants to learn more about lets him expand his knowledge and network. Curt sees this exchange as a form of giving back and hopes it benefits both parties in terms of business development.

Damon adds that the collaborative nature of livestreaming facilitates learning from industry experts and allows knowledge-sharing with a wider audience. He illustrates how businesses, regardless of their products, can become industry resources by leveraging livestreaming to showcase expertise and build relationships, particularly in light of advancements in AI.

Damon says that even landing a few significant clients annually can make a substantial impact.
Curt agrees that just three new customers could dramatically alter the course of a manufacturer’s trajectory. Livestreaming makes business endeavors more enjoyable. He compares the experience of attending a trade show to participating in a livestream. While trade shows require contingencies, livestreaming offers a more controlled environment.

Similarly, the guest discusses the concept of “AI proofing” businesses through content creation and becoming a thought leader in the industry. He shares an anecdote about a friend’s job title as a “thought leader liaison” in the pharmaceutical industry.

Curt also thanks Joe Sullivan, Wendy Covey, and Adam Beck for their support at the Industrial Marketing Summit.

Meanwhile, Damon encourages businesses to use their platform to build a positive impact around their community.

Curt shares a story about a teacher friend, Pat, who used grant funds to create a studio for high school students, allowing them to interview professionals. Curt sees this initiative’s positive impact on student development.
Damon, pleased, talks about the effectiveness of using livestreaming for B2B business development, contrasting it with the discomfort of cold calling.

Agreeing with the host, Curt illustrates the concept of being like a warm blanket to one’s ideal customer. He suggests the idea of showcasing customers on a livestream, not just for self-promotion but to genuinely bring out their excellence and the positive impact they’ve had.

Before parting, Curt expresses gratitude for Damon’s great friendship and the camaraderie they’ve developed through their livestream show. He recounts instances where they’ve helped introverted clients shine by interviewing them to share their stories.

The show ends with Damon thanking Curt for his time.

The Faces of Business

Learn about the strategies that have allowed other business owners to overcome all kinds of adversities and limitations to achieve their business goals successfully.

All The Faces of Business episodes are

 

Check out this episode on LinkedIn
The Faces of Business on Twitter:
Listen to this episode of The Faces of Business on these podcast channels

ABOUT EXIT YOUR WAY®

Exit Your Way® provides a structured process and skilled resources to grow business value and allow business owners to leave with 2X+ more money when they are ready.

You can find more information about the Exit Your Way® process and our team on our website.

You can contact us by phone:  822-BIZ-EXIT (249-3948)   Or by Email:  info@exityourway.us

Find us on LinkedIn:  Damon PistulkaAndrew Cross

Find our Companies on LinkedIn: Exit Your Way®,  Cross Northwest Mergers & Acquisitions, Bowman digital Media 

Follow Us on Twitter: @dpistulka  @exityourway

Visit our YouTube Channel: Exit Your Way®

Service Professionals Network:  Damon PistulkaAndrew Cross

Facebook:  Exit Your Way® Cross Northwest Mergers & Acquisitions

Other websites to check out:  Cross Northwest Mergers & AcquisitionsDamon PistulkaIra BowmanService Professionals Network (SPN)Fangled TechnologiesB2B TailDenver Consulting FirmWarren ResearchStellar Insight, Now CFO, Excel Management Systems  & Project Help You Grow

44:49
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, years, damon, customers, interviewing, live streaming, great, business, talk, kurt, work, manufacturer, helping, live stream, ai, person, development, learn, expert, sell
SPEAKERS
Curt Anderson, Damon Pistulka

Damon Pistulka 00:01
Man, all right, everyone, welcome once again in the face of the business, I am your host, and boy do we have a special guest with us today, multiple repeat offender, founder, B to B, tail E, commerce expert, live streamer extraordinaire, Kurt Anderson and I are going to be talking about B to B business development with live streaming. Kurt, welcome my friend,

Curt Anderson 00:28
dude. What is up, brother? Happy Thursday Happy Friday Eve. I don’t get to see you too often. We usually don’t chat on many Thursdays. Nope. So Happy Friday Eve to you, buddy,

Damon Pistulka 00:40
it’s all good. It’s all good. And we are, man, do we love live streamer or what

Curt Anderson 00:49
we just, you know what I think, I think we just love learning.

Damon Pistulka 00:55
That’s what it is. It’s not live stream. It’s what we get to do because of a live stream and what we get to learn because, yeah, better way,

Curt Anderson 01:03
the people that we learn from. And the thing, you know, Monday we had, we run a we did a live stream on Monday, and I was just smiling when we got out the program. I was like, David, My cheeks hurt because I was just beating of just this energy, this enthusiasm, this passion, we’re so incredibly blessed to bring on experts. We’re doing AI next week, dude, we’re doing a deep dive AI on Monday and next Friday. I spoke with our coming up speaker, Carla Gregory. I talked to her yesterday, dude, like, get ready, man, is going to be fired, but it’s just like what we get to learn. It’s almost unfair. It is almost unfair, almost

Damon Pistulka 01:47
unfair. I agree with that 100% you know. So today we wanted to talk about B to B business development with live streaming, because I think this is something that people don’t realize. That is a pretty natural result of having these conversations and and I thought for us to go through a few of the things that you’ve learned, the things that you’ve you’ve really helped to real, to more, live out your values, because one of the things you talk about is out teaching your competition. We’ll talk about that a little bit. Yeah, and, and then how, as you, you said, making friends and building community and and just building this ecosystem of people that know you have got to see you enough. So they they trust you with what, what they may have challenges with, and how that really has helped with business development. So

Curt Anderson 02:49
yeah, with that No, like trust. Now I, I’m not sure if anybody likes me. I’m just teasing. But anyway, it’s the the no and hopefully the trust. But just you know, and I want to say this, you know, you and I have been first off. Thank you, dude, we like, just what a friendship relationship, just what an honor, privilege. I just so look forward. You know, this is part of our it’s my week. Yeah, it’s Monday. Oh, we do, hey, we go live. And we’ve been doing it for years and years, and there’s never a hesitation or, Oh, geez, you know, like, I like, I don’t know, I’m hoping the honeymoon just keeps going for a while. Yeah, when it, you know, when we lose that spark, we’ll, you know, we’ll figure that out. But it’s just, it’s just such an incredible blessing. And a big thing is I, and I know, and I feel comfortable speaking for you, because we’re, we’re talking a lot about this, we have a huge hunger to learn and to get better at this, you know, like we have so, you know, I’m hanging on my basement. I’ve got a bad, you know, we have so far to go, but we just, I have a deep longing and desire to get better at this, but in the same regard of just shining a bright light on other people. And I just, I love not being the expert. I love that you and I can bring on other folks and just let them just perform their magic. It’s just such a thing of beauty.

Damon Pistulka 04:12
You know, yes, yes. And I think that’s one of the things that when we look at this and we talk about live streaming, people go, Oh, yeah, but I’m afraid to get in front of the camera, or, I don’t know what I would do if I got in front of the camera. And, you know, these fears that, that, that, you know, plague us. Talk a little bit about that. What do you think about how that really works? Hey,

Curt Anderson 04:38
we, you know, we’ve had, we just this past week, you know, we’ve had guests that, you know, we come on before a few, you know, 510, minutes before, and we’ve had guests where they’re like, you know, you know, I don’t remember, back in the day playing sports were like, before, a big football game or a big ball, yeah, those butterflies and you feel like you’re going to toss your cookie. And stuff. Like, we’ve had a few people that have come on right before the show. They’re, I feel what I’m hearing, that they’re at that place, you know, they’re like, oh my god, I’m ready to, you know, like, you know, I’m panicking right now. And what, what we hear, or the response that we’ve gotten from client, you know, we get tons of notes after this was so much fun I didn’t know, you know. And we, I did a webinar earlier today, one of our jam sessions, had a bunch of my all folks that have been on our show. You know, Megan Militello from Alaska. You know Jacqueline from iMac and Jeanette from Gen edge. I had Julie from Purdue MEP, and we were talking about, you know, I always tell my daughters, matter of fact, I’m going to have dinner, my daughter, when you and I are done, I always preach, my daughter, I say, you know, man, try any and every food. Try just if it looks just try it. You know, because you never know your next favorite meal until you try it. Right? Right? Well, just like here with marketing or with live streaming or LinkedIn, like you just don’t know your next best connection, your next best customer, your best you know the friendship that you and I have created, created, if you just put yourself out there, get out of that comfort zone. So I think that’s a big thing, whether it’s live streaming, whether it’s getting on LinkedIn for the first time, putting out a post, or just really putting yourself out there, whatever that might be. And it’s just having the courage to try that next best, that next that next dish of food, to find out if I don’t like it. Hey, so be it. I can at least now say I tried it right, trying to

Damon Pistulka 06:42
Yeah, yeah. And that’s great. And I think as as we talk about those fears, it’s like anything, it’s normal. It’s normal to be it’s normal to be nervous. It’s normal to be nervous about it, right? And think back, I can still remember my first and it wasn’t even live stream. Is a video I recorded in my office. Here. It was like a minute, and it was, you look back, you know, you we look back those early episodes and we go, whoo. We were kind of rough. And that’s normal. Yeah, still are, right. So it’s normal though. You think about, Hey, first time driving a car, from never driving a car to driving a car to driving a car for 20 years. I mean, we forget that. Like anything like training for a marathon, you can’t get up tomorrow and run a marathon, right? Well, some people maybe, but not me and you can’t, yeah, not me. But you think about that and you go, Okay, now this is like anything else. There’s going to be some nerves, there’s going to be a learning curve, but it’s but it is a very rewarding way to be able to meet people. And I think, as we’re talking today, Business Development for B to B people using this medium to meet people that can share great information or share great stories within your industry, is such a

Curt Anderson 08:10
powerful way to

Damon Pistulka 08:13
meet these people, first of all, right, and share some awesome information, and you get to learn that when you’re talking to them, and then when others look for information, they’re going to come and look at you and those people that you highlighted, right? And it’s, it’s just interesting how that happened. So as you’ve been doing this, what are some of those things that you know, you didn’t realize were going to happen, but they happen now all the time. Gosh, that’s

Curt Anderson 08:45
a great question. What did I not, you know, I, I don’t think I realized the the camaraderie, the bonding that we’ve had with folks. You know, there’s a great line, man, I Where’s this line been for the past 30 years, or whatever, right? I heard a line that it says, information tells stories sell. You heard that one I like where? No,

Damon Pistulka 09:12
I just write it down.

Curt Anderson 09:14
I just heard it a week ago. Information tells stories. So, right? Yeah, every decision that we make from a buying decision is emotional, whether we want to admit or not. You know, for years I would like, you know, you know you think of like The Godfather. You know, it’s not personal. You know, it’s not personal. Remove the emotion. You know you’re an exit strategy specialist when you know, I was blessed, fortunate. I had a business years ago, when I sold it. My biggest criticism of myself, why I wish I knew you back then was, I was like, man, I was just so emotional. It was just so emotional selling my business, my baby, you know. But you know what? No matter if I had no emotion, that’s still an emotion, you know. Like, yeah, everything that you make is is emotional. So to answer your question, I think the the. The power of the stories that we’ve heard, the ins, the inspiration we’ve heard people that have made drastic career pivots. We just interviewed Wendy Covey just recently, and her father back whatever many years ago, took a huge pivot in his career, became a college professor, you know? And it was just, it’s just so inspiring to hear. You know, you’re never too old, you’re never too this. You’re never you know all these, I won’t speak for everybody else you know, but the self defeating thoughts or scarcity mindset, or whatever you want to say that we tell ourselves, what’s truth? What is the real truth is? Is it my truth? Or is it so you know? So I’m going on a diatribe. But the to get to your point, I think getting into these stories of every single person that we’ve interviewed is just such a gift, such a blessing, such an honor. And I just feel iron sharpens iron. I just, I’m, I feel I’m a better human being by just doing this live stream show. You know, I don’t know how was that. It was that little, little

Damon Pistulka 11:01
that was, that was great. And I think, I think this, you hit on one thing that I believe, using live streaming for business development. Now, let’s be, let’s be clear here you’re talking about, we live stream at least partially for business development, right?

Curt Anderson 11:23
You know what? So it’s really 100% because, like, if, if I’m working on my, you know, like, I, so I booked most of our probably 90, yeah, you book them. So you book, you know, but you book off, you book 100% your guests here on faces of business. And I appreciate you give me freedom, flexibility. So I book, you know, 99% of our guests right on our show. And so the cool thing is, is just, you know, if there’s a subject that I feel weak on, or I’d like to learn more, and I just did it this week, I booked somebody in July on a topic that I’m like, You know what? I really don’t know a lot about that, and I’d like to know more from that person. So I, you know, we connected on LinkedIn. Had a great we did a one on one call, and I usually don’t do this on the first, you know, virtual cup of coffee. I’m like, Hey, dude, I go my co host, and I have this great live show. Do you want to come on it? So he booked a gig in in July, and I’m thrilled because now I could get on a one on one call. And you know, that person might be, you know, well, who’s this guy? Like, I’m giving him a free coaching lesson. But now, if I have tried to be the Go Giver and let them come in our show, we Shane was like, I’m gonna learn some, like, great thing next week. We’re gonna learn a ton about AI from two experts that would probably cost us, like, you know, a lot of money to get a one on one call with these folks. I don’t know. I’m not sure how that sounds or sounds or what people but, but, but sharing that information and letting these people shine and letting them and hopefully that business development for them benefits us. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka 12:53
I think you’ve hit on it is, it’s, it builds a collaboration that’s hard to do in other ways, because we get to learn from them about things that we wouldn’t normally learn about, or that we really need to learn about, and we share it with the world in these and you think of this, I could be a B to B live Streamer with a contract manufacturing company. I could be making Street Sweepers. I could be, you know, make snow plows. It doesn’t really matter the product that you’re making, or SaaS product, or anything like that, but you then could be the industry resource that everyone knows, because you have gone to all the industry experts that you want to learn from, but you’re sharing their story, sharing their information with your industry, and along the way, you’re talking about your company, you’re talking about the products you make, and weaving that into the stories so that it is 100% business development. It’s you get to learn the people you have on the show. Get to get their words out to more people. And as we know, I mean, we’re we’re big, they ask you answer people. You’re helping your customers learn more. You’re out teaching your competition. And that is almost natural business development completely. So yeah, so I think you know that, yes, let’s just, let’s just put the hands up. We know a lot of people think is as corny and egotistical to do live streaming. Some people that’s just the way they think, right? And yeah, I guess if you’re not in it and you don’t know about it and haven’t felt the power like you just described a bit ago. It could look that way. But when you see from a business development standpoint, if I am that contract manufacturer and I have a great project that comes to me, a great opportunity comes to me, and. Because whatever relationship I’ve built, because I’ve I’ve I’ve actually talked to my customers to highlight them, I’ve talked to suppliers to highlight them, I’ve talked to industry experts to highlight them. And I’ve learned all this stuff because now I’ve taken all that information, I’ve been listening to this new project comes to me, and it’s got, maybe I’m pretty familiar with most of it, but I’ve got two or three special things that I have not done before, but I’ve talked to the industry experts that no Right, right? It just this thing brought the whole full circle of the effort in live streaming to be as a, as a B to B contract manufacturer, to be able to now take on that project, get an estimate on that and be able to give your potential customer the satisfaction or comfort that you can handle it, because you can openly say we are collaborating on this part, this part and this part with these people, and if you want to talk about them, you can watch our live streams where they’re on, to learn more about how they would help us in this situation, and why we think we make a good team. It’s just, I look at this, and I think about it more and more about how AI is changing, you know, and there’s there the the amount of AI content that’s coming out now, and how people want to do business, especially in B to B, human to human. And this is a way that I think you’re going to almost AI proof your, yeah, your business, yeah. Oh,

Curt Anderson 16:38
phenomenal, point, and so, so let’s, let’s run for that, with that for a minute. So let’s say, you know, you’re in the service sector, manufacturer, what you know, whatever you do, okay? And be like, Well, geez, I’m, you know, so content, everything’s like, oh, we gotta put out content. We gotta put out content, right? Well, and unfortunately, you do. You’ve gotta put out content in some capacity. So you know, if you went to journalism school, you’re a gifted, you know, typer, writer, whatever, man, go all in on blogging, right? Yeah, but if you didn’t, you know if that wasn’t your jam, and you’re a talker, you know, we’ve had painful introverts. I just did a subject matter interview with a client this morning, kicking and screaming. He wanted like, man, he’s been fighting me left and right, and we finally, this morning, we jumped on, we did a, it was just a zoom, did a recording, and we got done, and he was like, I didn’t realize how fun that would be. Like, I didn’t realize this is what you wanted. I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t. And again, always try that next favorite food, because you don’t know what it’s gonna be, you know that next favorite dish. So let’s take the contract manufacturer, or you’re in service sector. Say I have a lamp next to me, if I manufacture lamps, who would be a great person to interview? Well, how about the person who sells the light bulbs, right? How about the person that sells the lampshade? How about the person that sells the nightstand that I’m going to put the lamp on. How about the person who sells the bed next? You know, like the idea, the concept is, who are your people that are going to be around you that could be just a wonderful, incredible your sewn to the same, ICP, that same ideal customer. You and I call them soul mates. You know, you’re selling to the same soul mate, but there’s no competition whatsoever. Why not be the leader of the pack? Build that community and just just a vibrant referral network by shining a bright light on the lab shade, person on the light bulb, person on the nightstand, and just everybody, everybody that would help support me sell my lamp. Let me just get, let me collaborate with those guys, those folks, those people, right? So, yeah, that it’s endless, yeah.

Damon Pistulka 18:48
And you know, when you think about that, if I’m the lamp manufacturer in that instance, and I want to, you know, my end customers say, could be interior designers? Yeah, right. We could, we could bring somebody on about the lampshades, and we could talk about the new fabrics that come out that are really hot and trending, and why they are, and what, where they work the best, and how they work with the lights. And, you know, there’s just so many ideas, when you look at that seemingly, you know, plain product, and you could become the expert in light and same thing with a light bulb. A light bulb is not just a light bulb. If you’re a light bulb person, there’s a lot of different variations in light bulbs. There’s a lot of different kind, you know, colors, all this kind of stuff. You could go all the way down the road. But here you are a year or two into this. You are the light specialist. You are that that you manufacture the light, yes, with all the stuff on it, but you are the specialist because you’ve talked about bulb, you’ve talked about, you know, shapes, certain shades, and everything else that just makes your cut. Customers, your potential customers, are looking at that you have all that content that you’ve generated. Also, if someone comes and talks to you and they say, Hey, Damon, I’ve been thinking about using you guys for my hotel, but I really don’t know what I want to do. You know, because we’re thinking about this, think about that. Well, what do you do at that point? You really don’t have to sell yourself. You can send, send them the links to three different videos that really coordinate with the questions they’re asking. Right,

Curt Anderson 20:32
right? It’s just, it’s just this for B to B. I

Damon Pistulka 20:36
think it’s so much more powerful, because we’re talking about, we don’t have to land 1000 customers, usually in B to B, like we are with a B to C kind of situation. So if you’re a manufacturer and you want to land say, say, most manufacturers, if they landed 10 new significant customers every year, that’s a big deal. It could be. It could be customers could be way too much, yeah, right.

Curt Anderson 21:04
Three new customers could change the trajectory of a manufacturer, right? Yeah,

Damon Pistulka 21:08
exactly. So you think about the development time, the business development that you could spend to be able to really build that community and that knowledge base and teach those potential customers, just to get those three really good customers coming to you, is, is so much more that you can do, and it’s so much more fun, right? Yeah, and you’re

Curt Anderson 21:35
hitting it on it, you know, fun. And that’s the thing is, if you can make it fun, you know, for companies, you know, say, manufacturers, go to a trade show, what, you know, how, there’s not a heck of a lot different than being at a trade show, than being in a live, you know, a live stream. It’s, you know, you need to have your game face on. You need to, you know, be presentable. You know, you’re spending 1000s of dollars on, on, you know, booth and swag. And you know this, that the other thing, branding, so and so forth, you know. But if you don’t catch the right person at that rate, right time, when they’re walking down the booth, or, you know, maybe they’re out getting a cup of coffee, you’re out at lunch, you know, like your your stars have to line up. Where here, like you just said, you’re, you’re, you’re AI proofing your business. You’re creating, uh, an enormous, you know, you now, you like to use that phrase that you know, you become a content machine. You become, you know, thought leader now is, I think, becoming. I have a buddy that just got hired. He’s 30 plus year career in the pharmaceutical industry. He just got a brand new position, awesome, new company, and his title is thought leader liaison, or something like that, you know, like, I mean, like, thought leadership is, is, is a prominent thing right now, right? Yeah. And so now, in your own industry, you can brand that by, again, not necessarily need to be the smartest person in the room, but, you know, interviewing your teammates, people internally, your engineers, your people in purchasing, or, you know, let yourself be the smartest person in the room, right? But just, you probably are in something good. You are in something right? What’s the famous what you know, like, whatever I’m gonna I’m gonna butcher this right, whatever path you know you’re trying to follow a path. What’s the best way to learn about that path? Ask the people coming back the other direction, right? Yeah, ask the people that are coming back the other direction. And so, like, if you’ve been somewhere that I haven’t, or your your ideal, your ICP, your customer, you have, we everybody out there talking to you. You have information that somebody needs. Yeah, you have, you have a solution to somebody’s problem today. And if you’re the best kept secret, man, not only does it hurt you or your business, you’re you’re denying that person of your expertise, your passion, your experience, to help them conquer their goal today.

Damon Pistulka 23:49
Yeah, 100% 100% and you, you brought up one thing that I that I really think when you think about livestream as a part of your overall business strategy. You said trade shows. We spend so much money on trade shows. I mean, even years ago, when I was in companies and we would, I would put together the, you know, what we’re going to do at the trade shows, and, you know, go to McCormick center and put the big boos up and stuff. Yeah, you know, you’re going to spend 100k sometimes pretty easily going to a trade show. Well, just think about the the build up to the trade show. We did some of that this year, and we’ll talk about that a little bit the live streaming you could do at the trade show, right? Because you may be able to see people that you never would anywhere else, and then the follow up that you could do from a trade show, and you just think about this as as somebody that’s in business development or sales and marketing for a B to B Company. Now, I’ve taken what used to be, I go to a trade show for three or four days, and we talk to people, as many people as we can get, as many cars. As we can, and we try to get their contact information, talk to them a little bit, get to the next person. We go, Okay, now I’m taking this trade show, and I’ve, I’ve expanded it, and I’m going, Okay, this is a month long thing for us. This is a, this is the preload, getting people and talking to them about the trade show. What are they excited for getting other exhibitors that are going to be around us at the trade show, letting people know that, hey, we’re going to be live streaming there. Check us out at the trade show. You could be dropping into the best booze that you think are the coolest and live streaming from those then you say we’re going to go after the trade show and all these people that you met, potential customers, other people in the industry, everything you’re talking about, that trade show for another two or three weeks after it, and now I just turn my $100,000 investment into something that gives me. How many, how much content would that give you? Kurt,

Curt Anderson 25:59
right? Well, not to, I don’t want to, you know, pat ourselves on the back, but, you know, so we did exactly that, right? So we were supporting our friends, Joe Sullivan, Wendy Covey and Adam Beck for the industrial marketing Summit. And we interviewed a bunch of those folks prior to the summit. We went live at the summit, and then, you know, tomorrow we’re interviewing a gentleman that I met at the summit. We’re interviewing Carla Gregory on Monday from the summit. We’re interviewing the gentleman Dale AI expert, next friday from the summit. I think we have five or six, probably at least six, people that we’re going to be interviewing over the next month from the industrial marketing summit in January. So this is, yes, it just perpetuates and goes on. And we just had Wendy Covey on a week ago, and what? And let’s go back to Wendy for a second, right? She dropped a gold bomb, 66% for, you know, for our friends in B to B, if you’re selling to engineers, 66% and this is a research project that they did. They do it every year. They connect with global spec. If you’re in the electrical world, you know, global spec. So this is a total legit research project. They interviewed, uh, I don’t how many engineers, and they 66% of the buying process is done online.

Damon Pistulka 27:23
Yeah, yep, yep. And I want to, I want to highlight, we got a comment here today too. I want to highlight this because they said, prior to 2024 I didn’t want to do videos. I decided to change my mindset and help recognize veteran owned businesses. Now I know that this. Listen to what they’ve done here. And I’m I apologize because I can’t see your name through LinkedIn. Now I know when I’m in front of the camera that I’m helping another vet and and now it is fun. And this, this, we see this all the time, Kurt and we talked about that. It’s awesome. First of all, that is

Curt Anderson 27:57
incredible. Congratulations to you. Kudos to you. God bless you for supporting our vets. That is awesome. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka 28:02
yeah. And this is one of the things that you can do so much, I mean, because, because you now have this live stream that’s going right within the industry, you can help people. You can you can help people. It’s like, that is the thing that you have because all these other people around us want to help people too. They just don’t see as many opportunities this person, that is, if you could drop your name in the comment, that’d be cool too. Then we know who it is, but then, but they could bring in these people on that someone sees them to go, Hey, that person was on that live stream, and they needed some help. I want to reach out and help them, right? And, you know, that’s the thing we can you don’t have to just go, Okay, this is for B to B business development, right? I’m part of a community. When I’m in a business, right? Why not bring on your local Boys and Girls Club people? Why not bring on your local you know, whatever it is, the Senior Center. People talk about that. Talk about the the Little League team and what they need, the the, you know, you just got. There’s so many opportunities for you to just build this nice thing around your business, right? I

Curt Anderson 29:16
think, you know, kudos to the person that just that comment. I man, was that good Damon, to dive into this. You earlier said, you know, like, oh, you you could be see, and I get, you know, you know, Eric, you could be perceived as arrogant to, you know, have a show or whatever, if you don’t think of like that person that’s supporting those vets. And what I love is now I’ve made it fun, because I’m making it about the vets. I started my little journey, like workshops, public speaking, you know, whatever you want to call it, like 1015, years ago, and when you know, and I didn’t feel real nervous, and I felt comfortable and I enjoyed it, but I mentor friend whatever said to me, You know what the big thing is when you’re standing. Front of that crowd. It’s never about you. When you make it about you, then it could be perceived, you know, arrogant, this, that the other thing, or nervous, or whatever, it’s not about you, it’s about the other person. And if you have information, you have value. And I’ll share this with you. And so best friend of mine that I that lives local to me. He’s a school teacher. God bless him. For 30 some years, he, you know, he’s been, kind of found what we’ve been doing, and he knows you inside and out. And I need to introduce you to sometime. He’s just phenomenal guy. Absolutely, he could be a stand up comedian. What he’s done, he works, he has a the children’s coalition, and he works with young kids. He is now, uh, received grant funds. He’s take, he’s built a studio. He has, like, a wonderful fact we need to talk about this. Oh, yeah, high school kids are now interviewing entrepreneurs, adults, like, when the Eclipse was here, they did a big so they’re now starting their own little news thing for high school kids. And he’s, you know, and a lot of it was from like you and I doing this little live stream like so look at, look at the potential that he can have on these high school wonderful, amazing, incredible students, the talent. And they’re interviewing adults. They’re interviewing experts, politicians, business owners, sports heroes. Just because my buddy is like, spearheading this, I just think it’s so awesome. That

Damon Pistulka 31:26
is an incredible way, yeah, to expose young people to so many things. Yeah, oh my goodness, it is so.

Curt Anderson 31:33
So his name’s Pat smeraldo, his nickname Spanky, we come up so Spanx, any of love brother. So, yeah, shout out to spank so that, you know it’s, we could go on and on, but when you make it about the other person, so just kind of, you know, recapping out, teach the competition, man, just have fun with it. Right? Be yourself, be authentic, and how. And again, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, it’s a incredible opportunity to stop being the best kept secret and get get your message out there,

Damon Pistulka 32:04
right? Yeah, yeah, it is. It is truly and I learned this from Oh my goodness. And now I forget the person’s name, but I was lucky enough to interview the founder of Barefoot Wine, Okay, a couple years ago. Yeah, incredible guy, right? He built Barefoot Wine on charitable marketing. He figured out how to help charities and market his wine. At the same time, Barefoot Wine is now like number three in wine, Ernest and Julio Gallo, Gallo bottom, I don’t know after he and his whole story is incredible, and I apologize because I not remember the name right now, right? But he did that. And you talk about helping others and focus on others when you’re doing it, it is a way for you to be able to get known as as you know, as you are, right, hopefully caring about helping people and helping the community and helping educate people, but really to to build a strong business behind it too. Right

Curt Anderson 33:12
at no doubt, no doubt. I mean all the above. And like I said, you know, you know you can demonstrate your passion, bringing on other subject matter experts and just showing your community, you know, in one thing that you mentioned earlier was, you know you’re talking about, you know, if you’re in a conversation, hey, I can show you this video. It’s an archive of sales enable you. You’re creating your own sales enablement library with other subject matter experts. So if somebody comes to you, you know, somebody comes to us in our space, and they’re like, Hey, do you know somebody that’s an expert in Pay Per Click ads? You know, I don’t do pay. I’m you don’t want, you know, I’ve done them for 20 years. Did them, you know, back in two Yeah, I did them back when Yahoo was still like, the leader of the pack, right? But that’s not my jam. But, boy, we have a great, deep bench of subject matter experts in that paid space that you know. You as a matter of fact, let me show you a clip of this person, then you judge. And as a matter of fact, I have a couple people you can take a look at it and see what you think. And let’s get you connected. I don’t make a penny off of that. I don’t even, you know, look for a referral fee, but boy, just what a great way to do business by helping others. You know, yep,

Damon Pistulka 34:20
that very thing happened to me this morning. Yeah, I was working with a client. I work with them on other things, and they said they they gave me an experience they had with someone else that was going to help them with some consulting. And I said, and they said, Well, we really would like to see who you know. Yeah, I was like, good, because the experience you described is not one that I would recommend, but let’s find the people that know exactly what you need. And this is about helping people. It’s like, I don’t need someone that that knows how to do eye surgery when I’ve got an elbow problem, I need to know the elbow person right through. Right knee guy, the right knee guy, like you always say you are, and that’s what you can become. Yeah? That not, not you specifically doing these. No way, yeah, but, but this is the thing that we can do, and this, and when you talk about the business development and B to B business development with live streaming, it is not like you never. I can just guarantee 100% and you can correct me if I’m wrong. If you use live streaming for B to B business development and you are focusing on that person, you will never feel like you would if you had to pick up the phone and make a cold call.

Curt Anderson 35:35
I couldn’t agree with you more. I couldn’t agree with you more. Let’s you know, if you’re comfortable here, let’s, let’s talk about, you know, case studies, success stories.

Damon Pistulka 35:46
Yeah, you you’ve been helping some people do this, and seeing what it’s like, what and

Curt Anderson 35:51
what’s fantastic is, you know, so, you know everybody out there you, you know, you crush it with your customers, clients, whatever scope of work that you’re, you know, there’s people out there that you just, you bring such value that you love, you know, it’s like, it’s, you know, Damon, remember, I wrote a blog post years ago, be the blankie. Do you remember that one? Yeah, be the blankie and I found this awesome picture of this dog wrapped up in this little, you know, you know. But think, you know, we were kids, I don’t know, Damon, did you, you know, I’m asking for a friend. Did you when you went away to college? Did you have, like, that little type, you know, I’m just baby,

Damon Pistulka 36:24
no, I didn’t. No, but

Curt Anderson 36:27
no, think about, you know, so, so I won’t throw my daughter, no, but like my daughter, you know, she grew up with her little plank, yeah. And just, you know, it just coming out of the hot, you know, when it came out of the dryer. What was better? I, you know, like, Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could be that warm blankie to your ideal customer, to the person that, like, really needs you today, and you’re just delivering value, and you’re just helping them, and you’re saying, hey, ideal customer, I have your back, you know, I, you know what? Matter of fact, not only do I understand you, I understand your customer, I understand my customer’s customer, and I’m looking over your shoulder. Just look for any blind spots or any gaps, and you know. So let me pull back from this diatribe, you know, with this live stream concept, you know, could you bring your customer on and showcase them and how awesome they are, and not necessarily shamelessly, to get your, you know, your plug. But if they say, like, hey, Damon’s awesome, that’s even better. But just, you know, genuinely showing how the great work that’s going on, that’s, that’s magic, you know. And it’s street cred, you know, to have that customer to say, You know what, I work with Damon. He’s authentic. He’s a man of integrity. And we’ve had plenty of those, Damon, and, you know, they come on and they’re like, Man, I really moved the needle thanks to Damon’s expertise. And for you out there listening, if you could get that customer to come on in that that, you know, what a great way to capture, you know, social proof, street cred, all the above, right? In the whole way, the whole time you’re highlighting that customer,

Damon Pistulka 38:02
yeah, yeah. And then what they’re doing, and then, you know, just kind of naturally flows into how you work together, and what happened and and it just, it just is for those people listening now I’m going to tell you I would rather stick a nail through my foot than make a B to B cold call, right? I really would, because it wouldn’t hurt that bad that long, because I could pull it back out in a little while, right?

Curt Anderson 38:26
But that, but that call, would just goes on for right? Yeah, it just,

Damon Pistulka 38:30
just, but, you know, but for me personally, to be able to reach out to someone that I really want to talk to for a reason, if you ask them, say, Hey, I have this show. We talk about this, right? This is what we this is, I think you would be an interesting guest because of this. Let’s talk and see, right? How hard was that? Even if I’m making that call right now, even if I’m I am dialing, I’m dying in a cold call. But I’m not asking, Hey, do you, you know, do you have this problem? Blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, like, it’s, it’s just, it’s so much better. And like we said before, a B to B, company is not looking for 100 new customers, a few. And you could just, yeah, anyway, I hope today that we’ve, we’ve, you know, because we are excited about this. This is, this is this is so much fun I’m telling you out here. Yes, you get you get past the fear. Yes, you will build a community if you just just keep doing it. It’s not that hard. We could have gotten the technical stuff. And the next time we get on and talk about this Kurt, we can go through that stuff, but if two old dudes like us can do it, anybody can do it and and you will turn your business in a different direction. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 39:54
we, yeah. We could keep, we could keep everybody here all night. I, you know, just kind of, I. Wrapping up like, you know, first off, you know, again, my massive, massive Thanks, my, my eternal gratitude to you for the friendship, the relationship that we’ve built by, you know, doing these fun little things together, just two dudes, just doing our thing. And, you know, and it’s it, you know, like I want to speak for you. I’m never going to be, you know, Joe Rogan or, you know, you know, that’s not about the numbers. It’s about the relationships. It’s about the community. Like you said, it’s building that development, you know, the business development, and it’s just, it’s all about, you know, we talk about our teaching, the competition and really, and just selfishly, learning, man, just learning. And, man, we have so much fun. We’ve, we’ve brought clients on. You know, you remember this one, and I probably told this last time we were on live, you know, we had a client. She was in Chicago. It’s two sisters I had, I had worked with her for months. I had seen her one time on camera over months, over months. You know, camera doesn’t work. Camera’s not on. I’m on my phone. I know, you know, like I saw her one time she came on our live stream show. She’s been on the show, I think, three times, and we’ve done two webinars together, and she was a painful, painful introvert, and had a blast parinda and decline. Remember prenda? Yeah, he’s been on the show, I think, three or four times. Why? Did nothing to do with this consistently, every person that we’ve brought on the show, kicking and screaming, total introverts. They’ve the they get done like that was awesome. That was so much fun. Got my message out. Thank you for giving me an opportunity. Thank you for giving me a voice. Thank you for letting me tell my story, my legacy. Maybe Dad started the business. Mom started the business. We’re carrying it on stories. Sell information. Just tells, tell your story, get it out there. People want to

Damon Pistulka 41:56
hear it. Yeah, yeah. Good stuff, man. Well, Kurt, thanks for stopping by today. And I know if people want to find Kurt, you slick up. Kurt Anderson, B to B, tail, B to B, tail.com. Kurt Anderson on LinkedIn. And you know, you got to check out Kurt’s jam sessions too. They have a lot of good jam session with the the manufacturing extension partnerships across the United States, and yeah, and hopefully we’re going to be talking a bit more about live streaming through the rest of this year and really helping people maybe take that dip, that first little toe into the water and see what it feels like. That’s

Curt Anderson 42:37
right. That’s right. Damon, thank you. God bless you, brother, and for what you do, for the entrepreneurs you know, hundreds that you work with and faces of business. Man, we salute you. We applaud you, and I give you a big round of applause. Thank you, brother,

Damon Pistulka 42:52
yes, just happy we can do this because, man, I tell you what with, with the people we get to meet, as you said, and people that thinking about live streaming, just think if you knew so many people in your professional sphere that you always knew that you could solve a problem because you knew somebody that could help you.

Curt Anderson 43:16
Just think if you helped, you know, I think it’s Michael Regal, right? Our buddy, Michael Regal, I’ve got, yep, right up here somewhere, again, someone we’ve had on the live stream. Here’s his book right here. And he always says, you know, what if, if, if I could just help, you know, when he put out this book, he was like, if I could help one person. Just think if, if, if you had the expertise, the experience that you have, if you just helped one person be better, solve that problem, maybe it helped their you know, gave them more confidence. It helped their business. It paid their bills like you know, it could change their life just because of one you know. Think of the mentors, the the you know, bosses that you’ve had over your career. You know, you put out a post with Jim Rohn the other day. Man, I listened to Jim Rohn for hours and hours and like how he’s, you know, had an impact. Just think if you could just impact one person back to the comment that was in the chat. Yep, to love it make a difference the

Damon Pistulka 44:13
vets, helping the vets. Thanks so much, man, I will let you go. You’ve got an important I got a big daughter night, awesome. Thanks everyone for listening today. Go back to the beginning and listen. If you didn’t start from the beginning, get through here. Kirk dropped a lot of great stuff in this and if you are interested in this more and want to talk a bit about live streaming, got any questions, you definitely can reach out to Kurt or myself, and we can talk about a little bit more. Thanks everyone. We’ll be back again next week. Thanks, brother. You.

Schedule a call to discuss your business goals and answer your questions on growing business value, preparing for sale or selling your business.

Check Out Posts Talking About Sales.

Related content

These posts may also interest you

Creating a Turnkey Business to Increase Value for the Next Owner

In this episode of The Faces of Business, John Canniffe and Jo Stapleton, Co-Founders of Exeo Advisors and ExitEngine™ delve into Creating a Turnkey Business to Increase Value for the Next Owner.

Commercial Due Diligence for M&A Transactions

In this episode of The Faces of Business, Tom Herman, Founder of Veda Intell, shares key insights on Commercial Due Diligence for M&A Transactions. Tom covers how market intelligence-driven strategies help businesses confidently make buy-side investment decisions and achieve optimal sell-side outcomes.

What to Do When You Want to Quit Your Business

In this episode of The Faces of Business, Cam Martinez, President and Founder of Kensho Craft, delves into an essential topic for business owners: What to Do When You Want to Quit Your Business.