Episode 92
· 49:11
How's it going, folks? Justin Jackson here. Welcome back to the product people show. I I think this is the first episode of 02/2018, 03/15/2018. Today, I just got off the phone with Mike Taber from MicroConf.
Speaker 1:He also runs a software product called Bluetick. MicroConf is coming up, and a lot of folks are getting excited about it. Folks are talking about it on Twitter. If you don't know what it is, listen to the episode because we talk all about it on there. Also, I haven't announced this yet on this show.
Speaker 1:I did it on megamaker.co, but I have a brand new web app, new startup, new SaaS that I'm working on in 02/2018, and you can check it out. I announced it on justinjackson.ca, but I've also started to think about product validation, how I'm going to validate this. I'm trying something out at megamaker.co/validate. So go there. Check that out.
Speaker 1:Now let's get into my conversation with Mike Taber. Hey, folks. Justin Jackson here, and I am with Mike Taber of Bluetick Software. Or do you say Bluetick IO? What do you say?
Speaker 2:It's bluetickbluetick.io.
Speaker 1:Bluetick.io. By the way, nice new website. Just looking at it right now. Looks great.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It's like three months to get everything together.
Speaker 1:Three months?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, it's worth it because it yeah. It looks good. Today, Mike, we're gonna talk about the other thing that you do, which is MicroConf, and it's coming up. Right? When are when are the dates?
Speaker 2:So it's April 30 through May 3. So it's, there's actually two different versions of MicroConf. There's the growth edition and then starter edition, and they're held back to back.
Speaker 1:Cool. And I think maybe to start, I wanna tell a story about how I started coming to MicroConf, because I think I'm I was similar to a lot of people. This is this is how it was. I was working for a SaaS company in Edmonton, Alberta, working as a product manager, and they would send me to conferences all the time. And some of them were good, and some of them were bad.
Speaker 1:But on the side, I was making stuff. I started the Product People podcast. I had a little membership site going. And I would every spring, I would get these messages from folks saying there'd be like DMs and stuff. So Brennan Dunn would say, why aren't you here right now?
Speaker 1:We're all wondering where you are. Or, hey, you should really come next year. And I always thought, I don't know. It's like another conference I'd have to pay for out of my own pocket. I've never done that before.
Speaker 1:This little business is so small. But eventually, I pushed myself to go. I think my first year now I can't even remember when my first year was. I'll have to look back in the archives, but let's say it was four years ago or something. And I went and I instantly understood why people talk so highly about it, because it's really unlike any other conference.
Speaker 1:And maybe actually you could describe a little bit, like how did you and Rob it's Rob Walling is the other guy that started it with you. How did you come up with this idea? Because it it feels different than, you know, a really corporate software conference. It's it's not like that at all. How did it come about?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So this is an interesting question. It came up at FemtoConf last week when I was in Germany, and, you know, FemtoConf for anyone who's not familiar with it, it's a great conference. It's a kind of a mini MicroConf that's over in Germany run by Benedict and Christophe. And my joke at the conference was that it was a a direct rip off of MicroConf.
Speaker 2:Of course, you know, so it's a rip off. No. It was inspired by MicroConf instead. And so I went with inspired by. But the reality is that MicroConf is kind of a rip off of business of software.
Speaker 2:So Rob and I had been going to business of software for a couple of years when we were first starting out. And we loved the conference. It was fantastic, extremely high quality, great people to talk to, but there were not enough people like us who were one person software companies building software out of their living room or basement or kitchen table or whatever. And so I would go and I would the talks were high quality, but I'd sit down and I'd ask the guy next to me, what is it that you do? And he's like, oh, I have a VC firm that I run a $100,000,000 investment out of North Carolina.
Speaker 2:And was just like, we've got nothing to talk about. So, you know and and I did run into some developers there, but it was a really really small minority. And so if you if you kinda back back up a little bit to 02/2009, we had built what was called the Micropreneur Academy at the time. Rob and I had collaborated on that. And it was basically a course for people who were like us, building software out of their out of their basements or home offices.
Speaker 1:So wait a second.
Speaker 2:So we did that
Speaker 1:So the the the membership site came first?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Oh, I did not that. I did not know that. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yep. So the membership site came first, and then we, to help promote it, we went out and we did a podcast tour. And then we said, wait a second. Why don't we have our own podcast? And we didn't we didn't even kind of, come heads up to do the our own podcast until 02/2010.
Speaker 2:And we ran that for about a year. And then it was in 02/2011, we said, wouldn't it be great if we got everyone listening to our podcast and people inside of the MicroPremier Academy who were in that, you know, paid community to come to a conference. And from idea and, announcement to actually having the the conference was I think ten weeks, which is an insanely short time period for launching a conference.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So and so the first one was in 2010 or 02/2011?
Speaker 2:So that was 02/2011. So the two the community was 02/2009, the podcast was in 02/2010, and then the, conference was in 02/2011.
Speaker 1:And really what makes it unique, you're right, is that it's for solopreneurs. It's for self funded startups. It's for, you know, people maybe building bootstrapped small bootstrapped teams. There has been a little bit of a shift now. There's some people taking angel money, but it's very small.
Speaker 1:It's it's it's going to feel like the companies are much smaller than, you know, that the companies you would encounter at a typical big industry event. Right?
Speaker 2:Right. Right. I mean, I think the I think the reason for that is the goal of people coming to MicroConf is different. Like, the the general life goals of most people coming to MicroConf is I wanna build I wanna build a business that I wanna work for for a long period of time as opposed to going and getting a job for somebody else. And then two or three years into it, you're bored, you're burned out, like, you get pushed into some management position you really don't want, but it's the only way to make more money so you take it.
Speaker 2:Whereas you get to call the shots in your own business. And so the focus is much more about making money not in a bad sense of it or, you know, a skeevy way, but, like, how do you build a life for yourself and your family and a career that you can actually be proud of and do what you wanna do?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. That's such a good point. And actually thinking about, you know, people always wonder like how does an event like this come about? Because last year, how many attendees did you have total?
Speaker 2:So growth had about 250, and starter had about a 170 or 75. 75, I think. We're around Four twenty five total.
Speaker 1:Four twenty five. And it started like, the first one, how many people were there?
Speaker 2:110.
Speaker 1:110. So these things grow slowly, but even before that, you had the podcast startups for the rest of us. That's how I originally heard about you folks was Mhmm. I was driving an hour in to that software job and an hour home, and so I had two hours every day I could listen to podcasts. And I would listen to your show, and when you're stuck in traffic and you're thinking, man, this is taking two hours out of every day I have, time I could spend with my family or wherever else, and you and Rob were talking about, you know, your life could be different.
Speaker 1:You could be working on your own thing, building your own company, and it doesn't have to be big. That's the that's the thing now is, all of this innovation in software and tech stacks and the way we host these things means that a solo person can build a legitimate business and run it by themselves or run it with a very small team. Right?
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Yeah. And you can run it remotely, which is really nice because it cuts out a lot of overhead. I mean, even just having an office, you know, you're talking probably $400 to $500 per person of overhead for the business which doesn't sound like a lot when you say it's salary might be 10,000 but the reality is like that can matter a lot. I mean at the end of the year you start adding that up, that's 10 or $12,000.
Speaker 2:Well, what could you do with that money? Like Yeah. You know, spend it on, you know, a Skype subscription for $30 and, hey. You've got a remote team. It's not a big deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Exactly. Now there are if you go to microconf.com, there are two options there. You mentioned them. Could you describe those two options and maybe yeah.
Speaker 1:Say, like, which one should people choose? That's a big question folks get, when they're wanna go to the conference.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So last year, as you said, we'd split it up into Growth Edition and Starter Edition. So, we kept Growth Edition first because it made more sense that to have the people who had been coming for years to come there first on the days that they typically come and then that leads into starter edition. And the primary reason for that is because the people who are going to growth edition are typically full time on their business. So they're making, you know, I I hesitate to put numbers on it solely because it matters a lot where you live as to how much money you make.
Speaker 2:But if you just ballpark it and say $10,000 a month per person, if you're making it around that and and up, then you're probably gonna end up going to growth. If you're making below, like, probably 3 or 4,000 or if you're not making any or you have just an idea or you're just looking for an idea, go to Starter. Because Starter is actually a lot more hands on, and you were at Starter, so you can kinda talk to this Mhmm. Last year as well. Like, there's a big difference between starter and growth in terms of the experience and exactly what it is that you get out of it, but the quality is not any different.
Speaker 2:It really the the price tag is the difference, and the focus on, educating the attendees about what they need is the the two main differences.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Totally. I I mean, there was a bunch of us from Growth that stayed to Starter last year, and it was incredible being a part of both them. And I learned things at both. I have notes Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Great notes from Growth, but I have incredible notes from, Starter Edition as well. And so I think, yeah, the focus is definitely on folks that are starting out, aren't full time on their business yet, but anybody would benefit. And, the the quality of what's on stage and, the hands on time and all that is really, really high.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And that's something we really wanted to make sure that we maintain so that people don't think that might like starter edition is like a a, you know, a whited out version of growth edition or a scale down or it's a lesser, you're gonna get less out of it. Mhmm. And I you know, we do recognize that there's a cost component as well, especially because the people who are coming to Starter are not full time. So there's a question of, well, is this going to be worth my, you know, 700 or $750?
Speaker 2:And the answer to that, in many cases, like, if you're serious about building a business and you wanna learn from people who've been there and done it, like, that's the place to go. It's there's no replacement for being in a room with that many people who are have the same goals in mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Exactly. And, you know, this is actually something I've been thinking about a lot lately because I've interviewed tons and tons of entrepreneurs, and the the common trend is that every opportunity they got was because of a relationship they had built at some point. It wasn't because, you know, they were they had a great idea at one in the morning, it wasn't because, you know, they had all these skills and they were able it was I mean, all that stuff matters, but really the big opportunities, those big kind of moments in their life where they were able to step up and get to the next level, all have to do with them going, Oh yeah, and then I met Heaton, and then Heaton encouraged me to go do this. Or then I met Ruben, and Ruben said, Oh, you should really talk to this person.
Speaker 1:Or then I met Joanna, and she said, you've got to change this on your web page, and I did it, and it it changed everything. Those are the events that kind of define people's getting you know, getting to the next step. And this is kind of what I was trying to say earlier is I was the person that was like, nah. I'm just gonna stay home. I can do all of this from home.
Speaker 1:I don't need, you know, to interact with people face to face. But it's Mhmm. Absolutely incorrect. You you do need to interact with people face to face, not all the time, but once or twice a year. You need to get out of your cocoon and actually go and talk to people, and it is those relationships, it's those people that you're meeting that are going to help those are that's what's going to help you launch your business or help you grow your business.
Speaker 1:This fellow that I just started a SaaS with this year, transistor.fm, I met him at a conference. Last year, I had two conversations at MicroConf that kind of defined my year. And they were just conversations at you know, one was a breakfast meeting, you know, that I had with somebody, and the other was at the there's a party where it's like the after party for growth and then the starter party for starter. Is that still happening?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's the cross yep. Yeah. So it's a that's the crossover evening event.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that at that event, I had an incredible conversation with somebody where they there there's very few times where you can get people looking at you that you've built relationships with. This was Tisha. So I met her, like, three years ago. And then last year, she said, you know, Justin and she just gave like, you're working way harder than me.
Speaker 1:You know all these people. You and she said, you know, these are the things I would be thinking about if I were you. And she's been quite successful. And so getting that kind of relationship, she's earned the right to talk to me like that. But Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Having this opportunity because we never talk normally. Right? So having this opportunity to interact with people, just unbelievable. I I I think if you're thinking about spending the money and if you're serious about starting a business, you should go to Starter because it's what's going to kick this off for you. And maybe you'll have to attend Starter for two, three years while you're building up to, you know, $10,000 a month, but it's what's that it's going to be that milestone for you every year that helps you get there.
Speaker 2:Right. I mean, I think that it's it's interesting that you bring up the idea that people think that they can kinda work on their own or I'll I'll be able to just pick up all this information at home. And what you miss though is those in person relationships that, you know, can help you later on. And it's impossible to predict what those things are going to be. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And that's the that's the key piece. Like, there's yeah. I mean, there's other things that kinda factor into people's thought processes as well as, like, the lone wolf the lone wolf developer who, like, sits in his basement codes all day and, you know, then pops out, like, a year later with some fantastic product that does really well. And, I mean, you and I both know that it sounds great in theory, but that really doesn't happen because it's mostly about the reason they're in that position to begin with to have a product that does well is because of those relationships and knowing people that has allowed them to move forward. I mean, even with Bluetech right now, like, I'm, you know, using relationships now to help promote the product that I never really thought about saying cultivating the relationship with this person over here because, oh, I in six years, I'm gonna have launched this product and I'm gonna need their help.
Speaker 2:Like, that never entered my mind. But it is coming now where, like, kinda full circle where it's like those relationships that I have built over those years, like, they're helping me out a lot now.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Exactly. And we have do we have a coupon for folks? A little promo?
Speaker 2:We do. So Yeah. So we can link that up in the show notes. It's a $100 coupon off the the purchase price, so it's brings it down from 749 to $6.49.
Speaker 1:And that's for Starter Edition?
Speaker 2:For Starter Edition, yes.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So that'll be at productpeople.tv. This is going to be episode 92. But also, if you're just listening to this and you wanna type something into your phone, go my megamaker.co/microconf, and I will forward that link through there. Megamaker.co/microconf.
Speaker 1:I'm speaking at Starter, which I'm really excited about. Sorry. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, kind of announcement here, though. Like, you're also the emcee of Starter Edition. So That's true. Usually Rob and I run the show. And so for Starter Edition, what we've done is we've kind of handed the reins over to somebody else.
Speaker 2:And there's there's a bunch of different reasons for that. One is to kinda put a new face on it. But two, like, we've already been up on stage for two straight days and it's like, well, let's let's let somebody else get up there and make them do the work. But, you know, the reality is like we wanna introduce fresh faces and fresh experience into MicroConf because the reality is like as much as we love doing MicroConf, like we're probably not gonna do it for the next fifty years. So, you know, what does it look like to have somebody else up there working on stuff and introducing speakers?
Speaker 2:And, so this year, we decided to ask you if you'd do it, and, you graciously accept it. So you'll be, introducing all the speakers on stage.
Speaker 1:I'm I'm pretty excited about that too. It's it's kinda daunting. It's too I don't know if I've got the jokes. I don't know if I've got and it's too
Speaker 2:We don't have the jokes either. Trust me.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm super excited to be there. Adam Wathen is speaking as well at Starter Edition. Who else is speaking at Starter Edition?
Speaker 2:So I'll be speaking. Allie Blum is speaking. She'll she's gonna be speaking on copywriting. And then I'm trying to think who else it's let's see here. I'm drawing a blank.
Speaker 2:You did ask. It's kind of on the spot. Well, it's a Mars.
Speaker 1:Yes. And isn't Marie speaking as well? Yep. Yes.
Speaker 2:Marie speaking.
Speaker 1:So Marie from Okey dokey. Unbelievable speakers. I mean, Adam Waddon has launched a huge online course business for Laravel developers. He is way more successful than I am. He's going to be an incredible speaker.
Speaker 1:I saw him speak at LariCon. Marie is an incredible speaker. Mike's a great speaker. It's going to be a a really great lineup. And is there an opportunity for folks that wanna stay from growth?
Speaker 1:Can they stay? What what's how does that work?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we sent out an email to people who had already purchased tickets to the growth edition, and there's essentially an add on ticket that they can purchase that lets them stay afterwards and come to Starter as well. So basically, a reduced price ticket for them to kinda let them interact and not just see the sessions and attend the evening events, but also to, kinda interact with all of the Starter folks. So in a in a way, you can almost think of the community as like a a school curriculum where it's like you go there, you learn things at Starter, eventually, hopefully graduate and go on to Growth Edition. But then there's always like this giving back and paying it forward to other people who are coming after you because the reality is like in a community like the self funded software world, you've always got people who are coming in.
Speaker 2:You've always got people who are, like, retiring and going on to do other things. But those people coming in are the ones that are bringing in new ideas and new ways of doing things. And even if you've been running your business the same way for ten or fifteen years, like things change and you're probably not willing to experiment with a large business that's doing, let's say, a couple million dollars. Whereas somebody new comes in, like, they're trying anything they possibly can just to make the thing work. And it's their ideas that can help you later on even though you don't know it yet.
Speaker 1:They have to.
Speaker 2:You know, like, there's there's a lot of, you know, I'll say collaboration back and forth as well. Yeah. And then we also have a small a much smaller option if people just wanna go to the evening events, they go to the growth, and then they can come to just the evening events at Starter as well if they wanna just work during the day, for example.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. I I highly recommend if you are going to growth and you can stay the extra days, just do it because that lineup, like Adam, Marie Poulain, Mike, all those folks are going to be unbelievable speakers. The one thing about being someone who's been around for a while is things change. And sometimes what the new folks are discovering is what's working now, and what you were using back then might not be working as well or might not work as well for your next thing.
Speaker 1:And so Mhmm. You you get someone like Marie who's building this brand new platform. Does she say Marie or Mary? I think it's Marie.
Speaker 2:It's Marie.
Speaker 1:Marie. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I believe it's Marie.
Speaker 1:Anyway, so they're building these things right now. You know, I'm building a new SaaS this year. We're figuring out what works in 02/2018, and that might be instructive for obviously, for people starting out, but also for people who have been around the block a few times.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, the the I think with any marketing strategy to begin with, like, eventually over time, it starts to degrade as more and more people are using it. And, you know, getting the opportunity to see those new folks coming in and seeing what they're doing, just looking at their numbers alone, because I mean, those things are like open topics at MicroConf. That's one of the big differences as well between MicroConf and other conferences is that it's not unheard of to be like, it's extremely common to be talking about what are your conversion rates, what's your revenue, what's your trial to paid conversion, like all these different things that you would not hear a speaker get up on stage and talk about at virtually any other conference I've ever been to. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But those things, you learn them. And when you're talking to somebody who's just starting out, you get to see what their numbers are and compare them to what you've been doing. And maybe their numbers are better than yours. Like, you you may have more top line revenue, but their conversion rates are substantially better. And you wouldn't know that unless you asked or you and you came to Microcom and got those conversations.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Yeah. As you could see, we're both pretty excited about it because it even right now, it's starting to bubble up on Twitter. Like, folks are like, who's coming to MicroConf? You know, what's going on?
Speaker 1:By the way, I have a little kinda informal attendee list going at justinjackson.ca/microconf. There's also kind of a starter guide there that you can read if you want tips about hotels and stuff like that. So add yourself to that list if you wanna find a roommate or you wanna you're looking for folks to connect with before. This actually might be a good time, Mike, for us to go into some MicroConf tips.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:What are some good insider tips? Let's go let's go back and forth. So I'll start. I would say fly in early. So if the conference when does when does growth start?
Speaker 2:So growth, there's a evening reception on Sunday night for growth. I think it's around 07:00 or so.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I would say fly in on Saturday. That's my tip. And here's why. A lot of folks will fly in a day early.
Speaker 1:And so and they're looking for something to do, and it's been those times before MicroConf where people are like, hey. Do you wanna go visit the canyon? Or you wanna go for lunch? Or, hey. I just flew in on Saturday night.
Speaker 1:I'm looking for someone to hang out with. The conference hasn't started yet. Not everyone's there, and so you get this great time with just a few folks to build relationships before the conference, to establish relationships before the conference. And for starter folks, if you come a day early and you book into your hotel early, you'll be able to hang out with all the folks that are there from growth. Right?
Speaker 1:So that's my tip. Come early.
Speaker 2:And then on so the for that for the people coming for starter, if you came in the day early, on Tuesday night so starter runs from on Wednesday and Thursday, but on Tuesday night, there's that crossover reception reception that that I I talked talked about about where where it's it's both both the attendees for growth. It's their outgoing evening event, and then it's the incoming reception for the starter folks. So you get everyone kind of mixed in altogether on Tuesday nights. So if you're coming for starter, definitely stay around for Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. So what's your first tip?
Speaker 2:My tip would be to not treat it like another conference and don't just sit there in your hotel room because, like, that's you're not gonna get as nearly as much out of it as you would as if you, you know, went down into the lobby and just talked to people or asked on, like, Slack or, you know, Twitter. Like, what are what are people doing today or this evening? Yeah. Because there's a lots of opportunities to meet people that you wouldn't know or find out about other businesses that people are working on, which can spark your mind to to help you out, or it could even just give you an idea for, like, oh, you know what? You're building a product that I could actually really use in my business, so let me try it out.
Speaker 1:Yes. Absolutely. Like, if you're used to going to corporate events and just going and hiding in your hotel, that's not the approach here. You need to push yourself out of your room as much as you can. Maybe this will lead into my next tip, which is more of an answer to a question.
Speaker 1:And I think I saw this on Indie Hackers. They were saying, how is it for introverts? And I wanna assure you that I am the biggest jackass there. So I'm definitely extroverted, but there are tons and tons of introverted folks. I would say it even skews more towards introverts than extroverts.
Speaker 1:And, there will be lots of lots of safe places for you to interact. And then if you need to go, you know, recharge your batteries, you can go do that. But it is a great place for introverts. It's not just you know, it's not like a if you've ever been to a sales conference or a marketing conference where everyone's kinda crazy and it's not like that at all. It's very, very if you've been it's more like a software conference, like a programming conference than a, like, kind of a rah rah crazy marketing conference.
Speaker 1:Would you agree?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I would totally agree. I I did see that comment on, indie hackers, and I kinda kinda laughed a little bit because they said, how is it for introverts? And I was my my first thought was, well, there's, five extroverts in the room, you'll be you'll be you'll fit in really, really well. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But no. I totally agree. Like, everybody there, for the most part, has generally a technical background or is involved in software to the extent that they would be, you know, more knowledgeable about technology than the average person anyway. Mhmm. But, like, the because everybody is so similar, everyone has like, gives off the same vibe.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So just talking to the person next to you is not a big deal. Like, honestly, like, for me when I go there, like, I'm an introvert myself, but my introversion kinda goes away because it's like, I've found my people is really what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's so comfortable. And I think the mistake you could make is is I know some even for extroverts, we have to sometimes push ourselves, like, okay. I'm gonna get out. I'm gonna go meet people.
Speaker 1:This is scary. Here's the elevator. I'm going down the elevator. Oh god. Oh god.
Speaker 1:Oh god. And you've you've gotta just you just go and do it. Go shake some hands, introduce yourself, all of that. Do all that stuff, and you'll have some great conversations. But it's it's really chill.
Speaker 1:Like, it's safe. It's chill. You're gonna love it. What do you have another tip? Anything top of mind?
Speaker 2:Oh, drink plenty of water. So the MicroConf is held in Vegas, and you're what you're gonna find is you will probably be talking a lot, and that's gonna take its toll on you. And because Vegas is basically a desert, you need to stay hydrated, which it sounds kind of asinine to say, oh, drink plenty of water. But in Vegas, it it really is true. You have to drink a lot of water just to kind of maintain your hydration.
Speaker 2:Because otherwise, you'll go to bed at night, like, literally have no alcohol whatsoever, and you'll wake up with a headache and a hangover because you just didn't drink enough water and you're dehydrated.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Exactly. And along with that, I would say don't drink too much. There's gonna be opportunities for you to go to a restaurant and have some wine or have a beer. But it you know, you're away, you're in Vegas, it's fun.
Speaker 1:Just keep take it easy. Take it easy on the booze, you know, have one or two drinks, and then put yourself on some water, and then go to bed. And if you're in the the John Sonmez camp, little John Sonmez shout out, he doesn't drink any booze. Actually, his whole crew, Josh Earle, there's a bunch of folks that don't drink any booze, and and so if you're a non drinker, there's a lot of you are fine to not drink as well. But if you are a drinker, take it easy.
Speaker 1:Alright. That was a tip for me. What what do you have anything else you can think of?
Speaker 2:No. That that was my tip. It was like the
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:How to drink water.
Speaker 1:Okay. So mine will be add Slack to your phone. Do are we still doing the microconf Slack this year?
Speaker 2:As far as I know, yes. That's on the the agenda. We have not gotten we haven't set it up yet. We don't usually set up and set it up until about two weeks before the conference.
Speaker 1:Regardless of whether they use Slack or not, whatever messaging app we end up using it's great when it's Slack because a lot of folks have it. But add it to your phone just because it's the main communication channel. So if you wanna know, hey, where's everyone going for lunch? You might wake up from a nap and it's like 03:00, and you're just like, is anybody around? Want a coffee?
Speaker 1:You might have want someone to do like a landing page teardown on your site. Hey, anyone want to meet me? And just look over my site. It's a great way for you to interact and communicate with with folks at the conference. So have it on your computer if you're bringing your computer, but also put it on your phone, and it's going to be the way you are able to message everybody as you're going along.
Speaker 1:Yep. Anything else, Mike?
Speaker 2:I mean, I I think the other big thing to keep in mind is, like, just in terms of the schedule, we don't start until ten. So we do that sort of intentionally because there are people flying in from the East Coast, and then there's other people who just like, would rather start a little bit late. So kinda take advantage of that based on your own personal schedule. So I prefer to sleep in, but because of my I I'm on Eastern Coast, so I go to MicroConf and because it's Vegas, I'll wake up at, like, 05:00 in the morning, which in some ways may suck, but at the same time, I can wake up and I can get a couple of hours of work in before, you know, I go down and, you know, start working at the conference or I can go down and have an early breakfast. And typically, there's lots of people already having breakfast down in the the hotel beach cafe.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So or you can or you can be somebody out at a a nearby hotel. Like, that's that's great too. As you said, like, Slack is great for just running into people, and don't be afraid to invite yourself to to go along with other people.
Speaker 1:Totally. And Beach Cafe, by the way, is it's the main kind of breakfast, lunch cafe in the in the hotel. And if you go down, you will see other MicroConf attendees with their badges, and it's fine to ask if you can join their table. That is a thing that is done all the time. Join their table, introduce yourself, another great way to meet folks.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, if you've if you come alone and you're just looking for someone to eat with, Beach Cafe is kind of the main meeting spot in the hotel.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting you mentioned that. Like, most people do come alone. Like, we do have a so we have a an option for people if they wanna bring their significant other. So you can buy a ticket a for them. I think it's like 50 or $75 or something like that, they get to come to the evening events.
Speaker 2:But the most the vast majority of the attendees come by themselves. And it's, you know, even for an introvert, like, that's that's kind of not you know, like, it it's it can be uncomfortable is really what I'm trying to say. And but it it doesn't feel that way once you're there.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Totally. Again, if you go to this microconf guide I have, I'll link it in the show notes, but I have I know my buddy Jimmy lives in Las Vegas, so he's got lots of tips about getting to the airport and using Uber and taxi and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, can I give a tip here for the taxi?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:If the taxi driver asks you if you wanna take the highway, say no. Yes. If the highway goes south out of the airport and all the way around and then to the hotel, which is literally like, you know, a quarter of a mile away, but you'll end up going five miles out of the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's a trick. Don't fall for it. Okay. So we've got we've covered some quick tips.
Speaker 1:Maybe just there's a few people that are going to be speaking at MicroConf for the first time, And so I wanna quickly kinda cover maybe some speaking tips. But also, could you describe attendee talks and what those are?
Speaker 2:Oh, sure. So, every year at MicroConf, what we have is we have the main stage speakers, which, generally, Rob and I kinda collaborate a little bit. Mostly Rob handles that side of things. I handle the sponsor side. But we have a lineup that is, picked by us.
Speaker 2:And then, about a month or two before the conference, we'll put out a call to the attendees. We send an email and say, hey. Give us a pitch for you to appear on stage at microconf and give a short talk. And that short talk is about twelve minutes long. And we'll have anywhere from four to eight attendees give a talk up on stage.
Speaker 2:But you basically respond to the survey, and then we take all the pitches, put them into a voting software that we pay for, and the following week, you get everybody who is attending gets to vote on those. And whichever the top four to eight, however many we decide to have in based on the scheduling, those will end up going on stage. So, you know, sometimes it's four, sometimes it's six, sometimes it's eight, but you get twelve minutes on stage to talk about whatever it is that you told everybody you were gonna talk about. And they voted on it because they they wanted to hear you talk based on what your pitch was, the subject, you know, the description of your talk.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And my first talk my first tech talk ever was MicroConf attendee talk. And it's just a great way to if it's if you've never spoken before, to get that out of your system, like, just to do it. And it's a really accommodating audience. You have this wonderful constraint of twelve minutes.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, it's just a really, really great opportunity. It's quite competitive. So if you've got an idea, the the key to finding a good idea is to figure out what the other folks in your addition, growth or starter, are struggling with. So what is the struggle du jour? So for last year, for example, Dave Churchville that gave that great attendee talk on Facebook ads.
Speaker 1:And that was just something that a lot of folks were were interested in at the time. They want you know, people are like, how do I do these things? Pick whatever topic, you know, is kinda bubbling up at the moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And it helps if you're familiar with it as well. So if you're giving a talk about something that you have to research, it's a lot harder to do those types of talks than it is about something that you've experienced or gone through or in the middle of because you can speak very quickly about those types of things and you come off very confidently because you know cold versus if you had to research something and because you don't know it very well, it can be a lot more difficult to put those talks together partially because you haven't experienced them yourself. So you don't know where the pain points are or the edge cases are that people who've already gone through that are gonna have.
Speaker 1:Okay. Let's go through some other quick tips around speaking. One thing that one little tip I picked up from Rachel, who spoke at Rachel Andrews. She spoke at MicroConf in Europe. And I was watching her as she was watching the other talks, she was making these notes.
Speaker 1:And I spoke before her, and a bunch of other people spoke before her. And then she got up that afternoon, and her talk was just littered with references to other people's talks and in her slides even. And I was like I went up to her after, and I said, how did you do that? Like, how did you change your slides so quick? And her secret weapon is Deckset.
Speaker 1:This app called Deckset that allows you to create your slides in markdown, and then it just magically turns them into these beautiful slides. And, man, that even just for me preparing my talk, it's a great way to write an outline and actually get my talk outlined and then I can practice it. And maybe along with that, what's what's Heaton's thing called again? What's Heaton's app called?
Speaker 2:Crazy Egg?
Speaker 1:No. No. The other one. The new one with the with the slides.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know. I'm I'm drawing a blank on it too. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I'll think of it in a second. But that's a great way to practice your talk. So you upload your slides to this thing, and then and then you can it'll record it, and then you can watch it again. It doesn't record your face.
Speaker 1:It just records you speaking over your slides. Draftsend.com
Speaker 2:Great.
Speaker 1:Is Heaton's thing. Go check it out and use it to practice your talk. Anything else, Mike, you can think of? How how would giving a talk at MicroConf be different than giving a talk at another conference? Do you think there's any kinda subtle differences there?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it depends on whether you're talking about the the main stage talks or the attendee talks. Because with the attendee talks, you have to submit everything in advance, so you really don't have the opportunity to to make some changes like you had kinda suggested. Yeah. And because the attendee talks are one after another, typically all, like, you know, four of them strung together or two and then another four or something like that, you don't really have those opportunities with those. Whereas with the the main stage speakers, I'll say they get a little bit more flexibility with that just because things like that do come up.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And Patrick McKenzie is notorious for, like, pulling bits and pieces out of other people's talks and then putting them into his own or reference them. Mhmm. I I I think that it does work really well for just about any conference, to be honest, if you're able to do that. But practicing your talk and making sure that you know it pretty well is a key to giving a good talk anyway.
Speaker 1:Yes. You
Speaker 2:know, jokes are always fun. You know, there's there's lots of if you go on either Amazon or Ted Ted Talks, there's things there on public speaking, for example, that explain like how is it that you connect with an audience and resonate and speak in a way that is going to make them connect with you and pay attention and perceive it as a good talk. Whether it hit their needs or not, I mean, there's there's several different components that if you hit all of them, you are much more likely to be rated higher, for example. And not that the ratings matter, but the way people perceive how your talk came across is gonna make a big difference, you know, if you decide to go on and do public speaking or speak at other conferences.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. And I would say that MicroConf skews more tactical than what what's the other one?
Speaker 2:Than story. Than story. So we so we have two different types of talks. It's like there's the highly actionable tactical talks. So that's the kind of a core component of most of them.
Speaker 2:And typically, those come from some sort of a subject matter expert. So for example, Amoitsa Mars is gonna be talking about Facebook ads. And it's I've seen her talk before. She does extremely well put together, highly actionable stuff. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And then there's other types of talks where we have a founder come in and deals talk about how they almost trashed their business and went, like, you know, 50 or a $100,000, $200,000 in debt, and then were able to turn it around because they were shuffling money back and forth between credit cards until the business pulled itself out of some slump. Mhmm. You know, there's typically a mix of story and, you know, actionable tips. But with MicroConf, it really skews a lot more towards actionable. And we do try to mix the speakers so that you don't have, like, too many tactical speakers one after another.
Speaker 2:But even with the story speaker, there's probably gonna be actionable tips that you can take out of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Exactly. So if you're preparing a talk, make sure especially, I think, the attendee talks, they they favor really kinda actionable things. So, you know, here's five things you need to know about Facebook ads, or here's, you know, three really, powerful SEO lessons I learned this past year. Those kind of talks seem to do quite well, for both attendee talks and main stage talks.
Speaker 2:The attendee talks, it's almost an exercise in, SEO, to be honest. Because like you have to have a good subject that appeals to people who are voting, and then the description has to kinda match what that subject is. Like the the subject is the attention grabber, and then people look at it and say they read the the description, and it's like, am I really interested in this, and does it match? And if so, then maybe they'll vote for it. Yes.
Speaker 2:But it really is a exercise in in selecting things and coming up like as you said, like the three biggest things I learned about X this past year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So I think that's pretty good. Is there anything else that you think we should mention about MicroConf this year?
Speaker 2:Mean, the only other thing is really that there's not a lot of time left between now and MicroConf. So if you're interested in coming, go over to microconf.com. The main page has both starter and growth available. You just pick which one you want, you're interested in. You go over to the website, and, you can buy tickets straight from the website.
Speaker 2:And as Justin said, there would be a link in the show notes here where you can get a a coupon code that'll give you a 100 off for the ticket to MicroComp starter edition this year. There's no there's no coupons for growth edition. Growth edition, as I said, those those people tend to come and like, they're already full time. So the reality is, like, on the back end and we talked about this very briefly early on, the the quality difference between the two conference is virtually zero as well as, like, all the amenities and everything else. And what we did last year was we, raised the price on the growth addition addition attendees, and that allowed us to give a lower price to the starter addition attendees.
Speaker 2:Like, basically, we're subsidizing those tickets by raising the prices on growth edition. And the people we've talked to about it, like, when we explained to them what we were doing, they're like, yeah. I'm totally cool with that. That's that's absolutely fine.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Yeah. So again, if you wanna get that coupon, megamaker.co/microconf. I also wanna try something new because I've got this new feature on my SMS thing. Text microconf, all one word, to (424) 247-5762, and I'll automatically send you that link as well.
Speaker 1:Mike, where can people find you if they wanna connect with you, if they wanna reach out, if they wanna talk to you? Where's the best place?
Speaker 2:Probably, in most cases, Twitter. I'm on Twitter at single founder, but I also have like singlefounder.com, bluetick.io, startups for the rest of us podcast. I'm hard to miss, I'll say, on the Internet if you just type in my name.
Speaker 1:That's right. And folks, if you have if you're listening to this right now or watching this on YouTube, just reach out to him anyway at single founder on Twitter. Say, hey, Mike. Heard the episode. Thanks for doing MicroConf.
Speaker 1:And if you got a question, that's a great way to reach him as well. And I'm, on Twitter. I'm the letter m, the letter I, Justin, m I Justin. Thanks again, Mike, and I'll see you in Vegas.
Speaker 2:Yep. I will see you in, like, six weeks.
Speaker 1:Six weeks? Man, it's coming up quick. I gotta book my plane ticket. Alright. See you later.
Speaker 2:Alright. See you.
Speaker 1:Alright. That was it. Please come to Michael Kampf. Don't be a stranger. Also, I'd love for you to go check out megamaker.co/validate.
Speaker 1:Just trying to think about all the fears that we have when we start a new project. All the how do we get over those? That's what I'm trying to solve right there. And, oh, yeah. The new startup, it's called Transistor dot FM.
Speaker 1:That's where I'm hosting this podcast right now. Little teaser there. And I have a new show. I'll tell you about that later. There's too many things.
Speaker 1:Go to megamaker.co/validate, and I'll talk to you in Las Vegas. Oh, actually, that was the that was one of the tips I was gonna give. Maybe I'll I'll I'll slot this in at the end. But one of my tips for introducing yourself is this thing I stole from Donald Miller's StoryBrand, and it's it's just it's almost like a user story. So people come up to you go, hey, Mike, what do you do?
Speaker 1:And you would say, okay. Well, most salespeople struggle to follow-up with their email leads. They'll email somebody once and then they'll forget about it. What my software does is it automates the follow-up of those email leads so that salespeople can close more sales. And it's just a really nice and easy template.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it also allows people to go, well, what kind of business are you in? They might say, well, I'm a consultant. Oh, well, you ever emailed a lead and then just forgotten about it? They're like, oh, all the time. So now you've got this relationship?
Speaker 1:And then you could go, okay. Well, my software helps you automate the follow-up of those leads so that you can actually keep in touch with those folks and close sales. And we find people close, like, 30% more sales when they use Bluetick. So now you've got this great kind of relational introduction as opposed to going, I'm a developer and I you know, like, it it's like it's much more, it's just a great format I found for saying, well, this is what we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's you're like, you're starting off with a pain point that is a connection between the two of you. It's like a shared emotional pain.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And it's like, oh, yeah. I know that person. And and like later on, remember the person who's like, oh, yeah. He does this. You might not remember their name, but you remember what it is that they do.
Speaker 2:And that, like, still gives you that the the key point in your relationship or just like a not a milestone, but like, you know, something to key off of in your in your brain that like, hey, I remember talking to this person about that. So I it's it's funny because I talked to I I got an email from Faxio the other day. And I had met one of them a couple years ago and he told me about their software and I was like, hey, I pay for a fax service right now but I barely use it and this would allow me to pay on demand. So I just bought a bunch of credits and I wrote this command line application that just allows me to point it to a PDF. I run it and boom, it just uses like 7¢ off of my Faxio credit.
Speaker 2:Well, it got to under a dollar I was like, oh, let me put $20 on this. So I did it, and one of them reached out to me and he's like, hey. You know, I listened to podcast and this and that. I just wanted to give you a personal thank you. And I was like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember talking to, you know, either you or your your cofounder. He's like, yeah. That was me, but I didn't know if you'd remember. But I I remember talking to him about Faxio. I didn't remember his name, but I remembered Faxio specifically and the context of, like, the conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Exactly. And if you think so the one, like, product I remember from last year was Ryan and Ward, I believe, from MemberSpace. And the way they introduced it, they said, hey. How's it going, Justin?
Speaker 1:And they said so I'm like, what are you guys doing? And they said, well, you know how a lot of people have Squarespace sites? And I'm like, yeah? Well, right now, there's no way to run a membership site on top of Squarespace. I'm like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:I could see a lot of people wanting that. And they're like, well, that's what our software does, is it allows you to run a membership site on Squarespace. It's just like K. Such a great way to introduce yourself is to say introduce the struggle that you solve, and then to say, you know, this is what it does. And yeah.
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