EP147 - How to Get the Best Out of the MSP Global Event with Mark Copeman & Ian Luckett

INTRO

In this episode of the IT experts podcast, I talked with Mark Copeman, and we talk about how to get the most out of the MSP global event.

Welcome to IT experts podcast, the only podcast to help MSPs scale to 1 million. And if already there, get to five and go faster. At the end of the day, isn't it all about building a business that works for you rather than you for it? I hope you enjoy the show.

IAN

So good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to the IT experts podcast, we've got a bit of a strange one for you. Today, we're going to be talking to Mark Copeman who isn't strange, by the way about how to get the most out of events, and more importantly, the MSP global event that is going on for strange enough MSPs in November. Good afternoon, Mark. Welcome to the show.

MARK

Good morning. Good evening. And I'm not strange, I promise you. I've been called many things. But definitely not strange.

IAN

Brilliant, well look, it's good to connect with you again, good to have you back on the podcast. It's been too long, Mr. Copeman, to have you back. And the reason for today's show is we've been honored to be keynoting, both myself and Mark at the MSP global event, which has been run in November at the Nuremberg Green, we're going to give you some links and details on that in a little while, we're going to talk a little bit about what we're going to talk about why you need to attend but Mark, and I just thought we'd jam on the podcast and talk about how to get the best out of events. You know, we're coming up to the legendary event season that we've got coming up October, November, December, not maybe maybe not so much in December, but certainly October, November. And you see people on LinkedIn and lot of people sit there go, I'm too busy to go to events and everything like this. But events Mark are possibly one of the most powerful ways and marketing elements in any MSPs toolbox, but they don't realize why do they mark? What's the ultimate reason that people shy away from these events? Are they scared to attend? Is it too expensive, too, they think they're too busy or what what's your kind of like idea on what happens here.

MARK

So for me, it's all on, I'm actually getting quite obsessed about return on investment when it comes to these things, as well, which is a good thing, actually. And it proves to myself and to my family and to my colleagues, I'm not just wandering around the world having a nice time. And so I think that's really, really important. Number one, so whenever you are considering attending, in whatever, guys, whether you're speaking or exhibiting you're just attending, I think it's so important to go with a plan and to know that you're going to hit five, six, ten things or whatever, if you if you can hit a few of those. And you're in your target list, if you like the things you would like to achieve that event, you can come home knowing that you've got some kind of return on investment, it might be a qualitative return, it might not even be quantity you might see on the balance sheet, and that's okay. But you can come home, you know, possibly slightly hungover, possibly slightly tired knowing you've achieved. And I think that, for me is super, super important. So many of the events that I go to, across the Atlantic are in states and so you know that there's a fair amount of cost involved in in terms of travel accommodation. So I have to justify that to myself to my business partner to the business, as I just be constantly on a plane. And that's not a good thing. So I always go with a plan. We can maybe expand that in a second. But I but that return on investment, for me is absolutely key to success.

IAN

And you know, and people have got to think about it's not just about coming back with a new lead a new client, you know, it's all you're going to learn something that's going to help the business become more efficient and more powerful, I guess, is it going to help you become more relevant? You know, what do you need to get? You know, what does, I guess? Let's talk about success factors, then. So, you know, let's go into this, you know, return on investment is obviously a very simple monetary term. But what would a, you know, if you were an MSP and you were going to an event? What would a success factor be? To say Yes, I think that was a good event for me rather than as you say, the usual sort of hangover, get tired, reconnect with everyone and pick up some socks, which is a whole another story. But yeah, what ROI or what return could an MSP get from some of these events?

MARK

Okay, so I think it depends on there's perhaps two angles here. There's, there's the IT events, which we know love, and we're going to we're going to come on to talk about the MSP global events in a moment, I'm sure. But then there's also for me, your focused industry events that the perhaps the area that you're servicing, so your niche, your niche, your vertical, whatever you want to call it. So if you are involved, like for example, we have a couple of MSP clients involved in the creative industries, okay, that's all they do. They focus really hard on and it's brilliant to see. So there are all kinds of creative expos conferences around the place. So what it makes sense for them to exhibit to speak at those events? Yes, of course it will. Absolutely. Would it make sense for them just to attend the event? Yes, it would. So I think that the return on investment for me there is where it's possible and I appreciate isn't always is to try and figure out who's attending, or your clients attending or your prospects attending and you know, maybe do a mail out, maybe do a thing on LinkedIn. And if you can get hold of the official list, and that's obviously a bonus. And if they are, make some time to be with them actually put some time in the diary, because we also see at the event, and you glance at them, and you never actually get to have a conversation. Classic example happened to me yesterday, returning recently from the channel con event in in Vegas, one of our vendor partners, delightful lady Katie, where she came say hello, didn't have time to have a proper conversation. And you know, we had to rearrange our time together over over teams a couple of days ago after the event was crazy. So I think knowing who's going to be there, and here's another really top tip in and nobody does this, it drives me insane. If you know a client or a particular client is going to be at one of these events, consider taking phone, a tripod, a camera, whatever it may be, ask them, would you mind either doing a little interview with me or even better, do me a favor, film a case study a testimonial, because the hardest part about filming testimonials typically, is getting someone in the right place at the right time. If they are with you, in a confined space for two, three days, make some time find a little breakout room or corridor somewhere, point a camera at them get a half decent mic and film them saying nice things about you for a couple of minutes.

IAN

And that's so easy. You know, the testimonials. I know that we spoke with talking a minute ago about the website and one of your key things around on the website is making sure you have that social proof and just have a conversation with him about you know, what is it that you know, your problem was or how do we overcome it, what are the things that you're enjoying now has been part of where we are and when you're in that different environment and you're out of work. And you're in this, you know, I don't want to call it fantasyland. But I've been to some events and you can get really dragged into the whole the smell the or the 500 people in a room, the music, the whole kind of thing and you think you're in the show, don't you and that lasts for a couple of days, you can then actually, you know, have a bit of a come down afterwards if you're not careful, because you can sort of think, Oh, my God is back to reality again, and I think that's where you've, you've hit the nail on the head with regards to having your plan of action, what are you, when you walk out of that room, what is going to make a great success, you know, and if you've got that testimony of you've reconnected with, you know, we're not saying go to an event and meet up your clients, what we say is we say go to the event purposefully, to make connections and to learn it, you know, on the on the whole niche thing and what's in what's going on in that vertical. Those people have got your clients in their lists, right. So go and talk to them about something that they're not used to talking about, like, you know, email security, or you know, availability of your wife, or whatever it might be, that's, that's your key area, and that's going to solve their problem. Because I tell you, no one in the IT space goes out and does this stuff. So if you go and do it, you're going to be top of the tree, you're going to be here.

MARK

Stand out from the crowd out.

IAN

Yes, stand out. This is one way to stand up. I don't know, it's I know, sometimes it can be daunting to stand up there and talk to people but just having a conversation about what you're doing here. We work with quality parks, or logistics companies or hotels, whatever it might be. But I think the I think the vertical events I think are really, really, powerful. And then if you start peppering in as you sort of, say, some of the case studies, aren't we working with this customer and build the stories in about what you've done and how you've helped them all? I'd like some of that, please. Thank you very much.

MARK

Exactly, exactly. You want to stand out from the crowd even more as well just finishing off on this vertical stuff, then apply to speak, you know, be that IT industry experts, one of my, the books that have most inspired me that I read private guess it was six, seven years ago now key person of influence by Daniel Priestley. And, you know, without giving the story away, write a book, speak at events become known, okay? And if you can apply to speak Hassel will hound people say look, you know, don't charge for it. Because if you get 20-30-50-200 people sitting in front of you as you've given a really interesting session around the importance of cybersecurity or whatever it may be, guess what you're going to get 10 people queuing up at the end of the session to start a conversation with you. So have your business cards in your pocket. Business cards still work, by the way. I'm quite old school. There's my other tip. Go to a conference and make sure you've got business cards with you. Then people remember who you are.

IAN

Yeah, and you know what, that that's a really good point actually with the business cards. Because if someone doesn't matter, I don't need to do that, or scan them on LinkedIn or someone could scan you on LinkedIn. And then they go off and they go great. And then you go, oh, where's your contact details, I haven't got your contact details now. Whereas if you exchange, you know, the business cards,

MARK

Right on the business card about, you know, a couple of notes about that individual, bung it in your pocket, to 50 people, and then you get home, you actually remember who that person was, and can connect to them in an authentic way. So that's something I've done for years. And it really, really works.

IAN

And there's a little secret tip here as well. I know, y'all know that mark, you know, as part of wing man marketing, we do, you know, we're very passionate about marketing of the Growth Hub. And a little tip here is, people always struggle to put content together. So if all of a sudden you rock up, and you find someone who's got a podcast in your niche, or podcasts in some of these you're talking about, or you could write an article for them. Or you could write a blog, or you could write an opinion piece or anything like that, or go and do a little keynote, or a little breakout session or a panel discussion, they struggle with it. Event organizers are always struggling to find quality content and also new fresh content. So if you've had a great piece of work on, you know, a particular element of what you've done in your MSP, just put four or five points about it, that you talk to me about it for 20 minutes. And then all of a sudden, you've actually got yourself a bit of a keynote. And you've got yourself a podcast topic, and you've got yourself a slide deck and a takeaway PDF. And then then then then, you know, I mean, but people are always looking for speakers, people to come on the panel, people you know, who are around and just think about, you know, when you're at the niche events, who is it, who is has got your list that you could connect with, that you could then have, you know, have that in, which is which is really cool.

Talk to me about industry events. So like, you know, we've got the managed service Summit coming up, we've obviously got this MSP global event coming up. And we've obviously got the brilliant events that are always taking place at CompTIA have slightly different because it's kind of in the managed service niche. So it's all about kind of what's going on in the world, what's going on with new technologies. And one thing that I see quite a lot of time as people come to these events, and as you rightly say, they walk in the door without a plan. They have a little chat, they might have a bit of lunch, and they walk out and go, well, it wasn't really that good. Well determine what good is, you know, what, what does it what does that plan look like? You know, what do you need to know? And also, you know, when you've got that plan, how do you make sure that you don't come away completely overwhelmed with I've got to do that session one, I've got to do that session two are now got to that, because that's session three Oh, and Session Four talked about that. And I know I really, really need to do that. You can actually come away from these events, if you're not careful with your head just about to explode and no idea and then you walk out the door. And then the office ring up and basically delete everything that you said, how do you how do people prevent themselves getting into this? I'm going to call it a tumble dryer because it just feels like a tumble dryer. You know, do you know where I'm coming from in that one, Mark?

MARK

Yeah, I mean, I quite like that in a funny kind of way. It's quite it's kind of inspiring being inside a tumble dryer. I've never heard anyone call it that before. But I quite liked that sometimes I started my desk this morning, I felt maybe the tumble dry now it's quite a good one. So you have to switch to tumble dryer off just for a moment and let everything settle at the bottom and, and maybe I can't keep going this analogy and it's terrible.

(laugh)

MARK

A couple of the jumpers, you know, you fold them up and and you go okay, so this is this is the way I'm going to tackle things. I can't extend that analogy anymore. But but it's not, it's great to be inspired, isn't it? You know, and when you when you do listen to, you know, multiple people speaking and let me here's the other thing, that it's the chance, Yes, I'm all for the plan, absolutely go for that return on investment in whatever form you want to make it. But it's the chance discussions, it's being brave enough to sit next to someone you don't know at dinner at lunch to stand next to them. You know, I got to give you one very, very quick example back in fact, it was also at the channel con event, I was invited to a sub event in the evening, which was a lot of fun. And there was a gentleman standing all on his own looking quite awkward. There was probably about 50 people in the room something like that. And I have enough gray hair now and experience just go general that's not right. So I wandered over to Brynn and I said hey, how you doing? You know I mark sort of thing and, and very long story short, there's a lovely, lovely man who recently sold his MSP he was building up a new business focused on creating a security operation center staffed entirely by autistic people.

IAN

Wow. I remember the posts on this one.

MARK

Yeah, no yeah, I did I put it went they went all over the place that LinkedIn post, but it was that chance conversation and what he came back to me time after time at this conference, quite a shy introvert man, really lovely guy. And he came up to me a couple of times to try and continue the conversation. And this is when he actually realized there was someone else in the room, he'd heard about doing something similar, I say room 2 and a half thousand people. Yeah, hence the reason I put out a post and we tried to connect him, we had all sorts of responses to what he was looking to do. So, you know, be brave, start those conversations with people, because people are very, very happy to be approached, as you know, they're sitting there staring at their phones, you know, you're there to have a conversation not to be looking at Facebook.

IAN

And I think, I think that's a great thing, get outside your comfort zone. I'm an absolute massive believer, and I'm not going to get totally woo woo on this, but I'm absolutely a massive believer of the power of attraction, the energy that that moves around this world, if you put out positive energy, you will get good stuff back. If you put out negative energy, guess what's going to come back and bite you in the bum, right? That that stuff happens. Don't ask me how I'm but it happens, right. So I absolutely guarantee every single person on this podcast that if you go to an event, saying I'd love to meet some great connections, I really want to this is going to be a really good event, I'm feeling really positive about it. And you just go outside your comfort zone and you push yourself a little bit bloody amazing things are going to happen, we met some of our biggest and best clients at COMPTIA event. And I'll let it into a little secret of good three quarters, if not a full bottle through on this Rosae and still managed to hold it together. Stuart said I've done incredibly well. But it did fall to pieces when we go outside and it got a little bit, got the fresh air in and we got on the train. He says well done on that. But anyway, it was a good event, people get to know you because they get to know the real you not the person who's like doing all the calls and the tech and all of that sort of stuff. And they get to people by people, right? So

MARK

Yeah, the chance conversations are wonderful. They really are. So be open, as you just said Be open to them. And we talk about the global events.

IAN

Yeah. That's exactly what I was just about to move on to now. So you know, they're looking for two and a half thousand People can you believe to attend this, and it's going to be at the Nuremberg ring, which is amazing. Because if you're a petrol head, then that's fine. If you drive an electric car, you might want to pop along, but it might not be that noisy. It's held at the Nuremberg ring on the 14th to the 16th of November, it's free to attend for any MSP it is going to be amazing. There's going to be hundreds of speakers there tons and tons of vendors learning about what's going on. These guys are not mucking around Mark and I have been around the event space for seen for long enough to realize that this event is it's an inaugural event, but he's going to start with a bang, they've got some amazing things, we'll put the link in the show notes so you can check out what's going to be going on there. With regards to the keynotes and the breakout sessions and you get a trip around the track. I think there's some parties going on as well, which is which is really good to make it such an amazing special event. And you're obviously there Mark, what are you going to be talking about what you're going to be sharing with the audience.

MARK

My passion, really, and that's for helping MSPs to improve their online presence. And as I stare at the agenda notes here, you know that what I've called my session is, is around helping to turn your website into another member of your sales team. So I'm going to be it's very practical, whenever I get up on stage or online, I really do try to fill up or help people fill up notepads full of notes and take some stuff back with them to take action on and I will almost certainly open by saying there's too many people that go to conferences, to sit and listen, and then do nothing with it when they get home. Do not be that person that's likely to be one of my opening statements. And so yeah, I'm looking forward to sharing some examples around just best practice, really. And again, some specific examples of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly around online presence.

IAN

Yep.

MARK

Because without it, you know, you, you can't be found and people aren't going to take you seriously. So yeah, and it makes it strange the way they've done it.

IAN

Because you got like a little lightning talk at the beginning. So there's a 15 minute kind of like keynote, this is why you need to come and then in the afternoon on both the days they're doing they're then doing a 45 minute deep dive session, which is going to be a bit like a master class, isn't it? So you get to go into it, it's a lot smaller, I think you get to ask some really great questions. So I really liked the way that they've done that so that you can sit there with everybody in the room. And then if it's a sub that you want to learn, I've got a funny feeling you're going to cause them a bit of an issue in the afternoon. I know how big the room for the breakout is. It's going to be interesting might be standing room only.

MARK

I will do a bunch of live website reviews without the aid of a safety harness in the afternoon as well. So yeah, if you happen to be there, put your name in the hat and we'll draw it out so that always get some interest going as well. What about your session and tell me about it.

IAN

Yeah, we're doing it we're doing a session on how to scale your MSP for from 250k up to 5 million and you know, everyone's sort of like things Oh, yeah, but it's just about growing the business isn't it but it isn't because you know, we know that the Growth Hub there's kind of three different phases up to about 750 Where you've got the single business owners small groups, then you got 750 to one and a half million when you just got some management team coming in you got people problems, and then one and a half and above and then you've got some real you know, for potential issues around or challenges around proper leadership teams. So we're going to be helping you to connect your strategy, your people, you know, the engagement, the action, the KPIs, and really the five key areas into how to go through that MSP journey from 250 or even if you're five or a million or 2 million, how do you then get to that next phase, easier slicker, with less stress, and I can't talk but maybe more here. And this is what we do on a daily basis. So we're absolutely busting to get involved in this and help people out just like yourself, Mark and help them walk away from that event going, Wow, I'm just going to do these one or two things, and I know that it's going to, it's going to change your life, right? That I'm not blowing it all up. But if you go to one of these events, and you listen to mark, and you changes your website, and all of a sudden your phone rings, that's life changing stuff, because it's new clients, it's going to help you provide a bigger business to help more people. And this is kind of how it all worked. So yeah, absolutely buzzing for. I'll also be taking the Warwick over with us as well. So Stuart's gonna come as well, which, but I'm not sure if he's coming just to look after me. I thought I was, we'll see how that pans out.

MARK

Sometimes I know you need a little bit looking after. So I was called the other day by a mutual friend of ours who shall remain nameless. I was his conference, dad, the first time he went to clubs. So maybe Stuart’s your conference daddy.

IAN

He could be we'll see. We'll see if we, if we're on the ROI and Success for me is that we're on the same plane still talking on the way back? I'll be talking about something anyway. But no, that will be absolutely brilliant. But final thoughts on the off for this podcast then, Mark. What is it that they need to be taken away from?

MARK

Well, I think if I have just one little sort of anecdote, I suppose about that session, I'm going to give people you know, skeptical if I change that word, if I do that, if I redesign it, will I really get any leads and stuff. And I sort of cast my mind back I was about nine months ago, where I had a I do many one to ones with MSPs I you know, offer up some free advice or do website reviews and stuff for people. And this one particular gentleman lovely man from Canada, he said to me, Mark, we redesigned our site about a year ago, he said since then we haven't had a single lead through in a year. And I said, look, make this one change to your above the fold on your homepage. Just try it, you got nothing to lose, I don't know if you're getting up working with us or not. And no word of a lion. He called me up the following week and said, Mark, we've had a lead through I can't believe it. Now there's an element of luck there. And timing. You know, it could have been another six months. But my point and the point of that story is, if you do take action, Newton's third law, big fan of it, you know, you're going to get a reaction. Yeah, you sit and do nothing, nothing happens.

So if you're at the minute, you're not getting what you want through on your site, then make some changes, you know, and make them and those tiny changes can actually make an enormous difference over time. So marketing is all about consistency and persistency. And that's what I'll be talking about and that session, but so yeah, I'm looking forward to it very much.

IAN

Two things. I just want to add on to that, which I think what is the How long have you got in seconds when someone opens up your website to make them realize this is for me.

MARK

We’ll never know the actual answer. But we're all consumers and I you know, I'd say 5-6-7 seconds. And you know, the phrase I like to throw in the back button is only pixels away, you know, and so you've got to hit people hard between the eyes. And, and I will talk about that in that session about how exactly you can do that.

IAN

And I can vouch for mark on that. And sometimes we're a bit too close to our own websites and our own copy because we'd look at it, and we go, oh, that's fine, or this looks good, or that looks fine. But unfortunately, a little bit of a shocker for you in the last couple of minutes. It's not about you finding customers on their language and their way so that's really cool.

So look, if you want to attend this event, then as I say the link is in the show notes here. If you are coming to this event, and you've listened to this podcast, come and see myself and Mark and will tell us that you've listened to the podcast, we might even have a little prize or a little bit of goodies or something like that for you. We don't know. Just putting that in at the end there just to just to put a bit of interest in but yeah, be great to see you be great to connect. Go with the plan. Get your plan in place, work out what your otherwise safe travels out there. And I look forward to seeing you out there mark at the end of or middle of November.

MARK

Absolutely. Look forward to it.

IAN

All right, Mark, you take care look after yourself.

MARK

Thanks Ian, cheers mate.

OUTRO

So I hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, I'd love it if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to learn more about how to take your MSP to a million or if you're already there, go faster than comm and join Stuart Warwick and myself in the scale of confidence Facebook group. The link is in the show notes. You can enjoy the rest of your day and I look forward to connecting with you soon.