Inbound Influencers and Industry Events (The IMPACT Show Ep. 55)

In this week's episode of The IMPACT Show, Nick and Steph discussed inbound influencers you should be following and how to connect with them, getting the most out of industry events, and a whole lot more.

Just in case you missed us live (or if you want to relive the magic), you’ll find the episode’s show notes below as well as the recording.

Enjoy and make sure to share! 

Like what you saw? Make sure to subscribe to email reminders and give us a review on iTunes.

Have feedback or questions? We’d love to hear it. Comment on this blog or email us at show@impactplus.com

IMPACT Updates

Project Management for Major Objectives

Planning an event like IMPACT Live 2018 obviously takes a lot of advanced planning. It's not just events though. Whenever you take on a big, challenging initiative at your organization, a lot of pieces have to come together to make it happen. Here are some of the things we did in planning IMPACT Live that helped us stay on track and bring the many people working on different parts of the event together. 

• Hold major stakeholder meetings. As the deadline or event gets closer have the meetings more often. We're having our IMPACT Live meetings every week at this point. We also have many ad hoc meetings in addition to the major one. 
• Document everything and share it with everyone. We have folders on folders full of spreadsheets and documents. From budgeting and tracking spending to figuring out what each and every person is responsible for and tracking their progress - we have a document for everything. It helps keep everyone aligned and helps you plan for next time as you can look back at how long things took, how much you ended up spending, who owned things, and where delays may have occurred. 
• Finally, and this is especially important for events, set clear expectations with your team. Set aside a time to come together as a team and have an agenda, planned in advance, for what you want to cover. Talk about when people need to be in certain places, what's expected of them, and answer any questions they may have.

Nick also took some time to talk about how we're allowing for conversations with prospects at Live, inviting them to the event, and are working on a post-event battle plan. 

What Marketers Be Talkin' 'Bout

Where we go over what you're saying in IMPACT Elite.

IMPACT Elite crossed 3,300 members! Know someone who would like IMPACT Elite? Invite them to join!

Inbound Influencers to Know and Where to Find Them

We have a lot of amazing speakers coming to IMPACT Live so Nick and I wanted to share a few we're especially excited about and think you should follow. One of the best parts of IMPACT Live is it's intentionally a smaller, more intimate event and you can easily find and connect with the speakers during the event. If you can't make it to Live, hopefully this will give you some insight as to why you should follow them if you aren't already. 

Paul Roetzer

Paul is the founder and CEO of PR 20/20, and the author of The Marketing Performance Blueprint and The Marketing Agency Blueprint. He is the creator of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute and Marketing Score, and is a frequent speaker on the topics marketing talent, technology, strategy and artificial intelligence.

That's from his bio page which, by the way, is fantastic! Check it out for a great example of an organizational leaders bio page.

Carina Duffy

Carina is a co-host of the Hubcast and was previously a co-host of IMPACT's Website Throwdown. She spoke at INBOUND 2017 and got very high marks. She's a certified HubSpot specialist at IMPACT and even does HubSpot trainings and workshops. In her spare time, Carina is a musician, plays frisbee golf, and loves playing on her Nintendo Switch (like many of us!). Be sure to catch Carina speaking at IMPACT Live about "A Dive Into Front-Office Technology You’re Probably Not Taking Advantage Of." 

If you can't make it to Live, check out the Hubcast, or hit her up in IMPACT Elite!

Britt Schwartz

Another fantastic IMPACTer we wanted to highlight is Britt Schwartz. She's spent the last ten years doing inbound and is a serious inbound DOER. She's also one of the hosts of the MarketHer podcast! She's a mother of five who loves cooking, blogging and making remote life work in her happy place: Michigan. 

Catch her at IMPACT Live speaking about "5 Things Every High-Performing Marketer Needs & Expects from Their Company" or check out the MarketHer podcast. 

BONUS: We each picked a person who will not be at IMPACT Live but we still recommend you follow! Nick suggested checking out Joey Coleman (author of Never Lose a Customer Again) who did a webinar with us which you can watch. I suggested Mari Smith, the queen of Facebook herself. She also did a fantastic webinar with us recently.

Here are Stephanie's favorites from the . Lineup.

Tyler Lessard

"As VP Marketing at Vidyard, Tyler immerses himself in understanding the latest trends, hacks and best practices for putting video to work in any sized business. He's a frequent speaker on the art of creating remarkable experiences, how to use video for lead generation and deal acceleration, and how to "find your wow" through the power of visual storytelling." 

That's from Tyler's bio and it says it all! Catch him at IMPACT Live 2018 talking about how to use video to fast forward marketing and sales now. Connect with him on Twitter @tylerlessard and check him out on Vidyard's Chalk Talks. 

Rob Dube

Rob started his first business in high school selling Blow Pops out of his locker. For the last 27 years, he’s served as President and Co-founder of imageOne, ranked as one of the Top 25 Small Businesses in America on the 2017 list of Forbes Small Giants.

Rob joined us for an Elite Exclusive live conversation a few months back where he talked about his book, donothing, and how mindfulness and meditation can help grow your leadership skills. He'll be talking about this at IMPACT Live as well as leading a guided meditation! 

Connect with him on Twitter @robdube AND if you're a VIP attendee of IMPACT Live you'll get a signed copy of his book! 

Zach Basner

Our very own Zach Basner, IMPACT's Director of Video Training and Strategy, is definitely someone to follow. He's taught me so much about video in the past year (especially in the 6 months I've been at IMPACT) and he teaches our amazing Video Marketing Workshops. 

Zach will be speaking at IMPACT Live about the formula to great marketing and sales videos. Connect with him in the Film School for Marketers Facebook group and catch him on part 3 of our video marketing webinar series, along with Tyler Lessard, on Monday, August 13th. (invites coming out soon - mark your calendars!) 

Who are you dying to meet? What are you hoping to learn? We’ll connect you with the right person. Email us at show@impactplus.com 

Inbound in the Trenches

This is where we talk about what we’re doing and what we’ve learned lately right here in the trenches. 

How to Get the Most Out of Attending Events [Like IMPACT Live]

Meaningful Networking and Bold Introductions

As someone who as attended a LOT of marketing events, and organized a lot of other events, I'm stoked to actually be part of organizing an inbound marketing event for the first time. So, here are some of my top tips for getting the most out of an event like IMPACT Live. 

Make Meaningful Introductions

I'm one of those people who is terrible at remembering people's names. However, one trick has really helped me. When you first meet someone and they say their name, immediately repeat it back to them. It goes something like this: 

Nick: Hi there, I'm Nick Sal
Me: Hi Nick, nice to meet you! I'm Stephanie

Simply saying the person's name will help it stick better in your brain. Once you've got the name down, ask a question other than "what do you do?" and actually listen for the answer. Don't listen with the intention to respond, listen to retain. This way, when someone comes up and joins your conversation, you can introduce the person you've been talking to by name and with a fact about them that you've just learned. 

This will not only make them know you've been paying attention, it will be a higher quality introduction to the person who just joined the conversation which will help skip the awkward small talk and show that this will be a conversation of value. 

Now...on taking notes. It's hard to find the balance between taking ALL THE NOTES and not taking any at all. One thing I've found is anything I hear something I can apply at my organization - I write it down and note the speaker next to it. Then I know WHY I took that note in the moment and can go back and reference their presentation later. 

Next, don't skip out on the after hours events. Conferences can be exhausting - I get it. You definitely shouldn't stay out too late or drink too much. Make sure you get enough sleep and recharge. However, the after hours events are a great time to let all the information from the day soak in and have some more casual conversations with attendees about what you've learned and make some great connections. 

Finally, speaking of great connections, you never know who you might meet at an event. Be bold and say hello! Sit next to someone you don't know. Take a risk - it might just be the best thing you ever do. 

Nick has a few great tips to share about live networking and tips for being human (how to network organically and not in a forced way). Check out his networking tips!

Finding Your One Thing and Putting Key Takeaways to Work

Nick wrapped up the show by talking about finding your "one thing." This is the one thing that spoke to you most from the day and that you want to go back and implement right away. (Spoiler: you'll probably have more than just one thing.) This helps remind you that you can't possibly do everything new you've learned right away (and probably shouldn't anyway!)

That's it for this week! We wrapped with our final thoughts which, as always, you can catch by watching or listening to the broadcast.

We would love your comments. What did you think of the show? Let us know in Elite. Make sure you never miss a show or update by subscribing at impactplus.com/show. 

Join Us Next Time! 

Next week, we’ll have a community hangout on FRIDAY August 3rd at 4:00pm Eastern. (we’re doing this one happy-hour style!) We'll be talking about data privacy and consent (and prepping for IMPACT Live!). 

Until next time...we'll see you in Elite! (and hopefully at IMPACT Live!)