361: How Technology Has Improved Networking- with Pieter Limburg

Meet Pieter

Pieter is the founder and CEO of Mobilo with the smart business card, he has had his fingers on the pulse of technology since the 1990s. Starting multiple companies and taking on 3d printing. After a period of consulting and failed startup projects. Peter stumbled upon RFID and its untapped potential. This led to the launch of Mobilo. 

How are you tying in networking versus advertising?

I think networking is often scary. And advertising is a little easier, even though you’re putting yourself out there in a different way. It’s a little less confrontational, right, running an ad is, is easier to do. Networking might be a bigger step for some people. On the other hand, it’s all about strategic fit. So when I think about networking versus advertising, look back at your product and figure out what’s important for you. Do you really prefer to meet a couple of people? And can that make your a month or quarter? A big time? Or do you really need to be with the masses and find the right fit there? So what do you think Laurie? What was your first thought you heard about this? 

Lori: well, networking, I thought you just had to be in the big in the, in the sea of the masses. My perspective has changed a lot though. I mean, this is definitely what I’m fascinated with. And it’s, it’s more about the investment, the long-term investment with a few people as opposed to, you know, short snippets of time with many many people.

How can they collaborate and cooperate together?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I’ve heard, which makes me think about something I’ve heard an artist not too long ago rapper, saying, Hey, I’m going to build my fan base one fan at a time, add one fan per day, basically. And I imagine that right if you build your network to be three or 65 people, by the end of the year, you could organize an event. And if all 365 people are legit, gentlemen. If fans are interested in what you have to say or, or good community then that will be worth it to organize the events by itself, right? If you fill a room with 200 people, it would already be a great event, I think even 50 people would already be would be fantastic. So that’s what you can do with networking. Obviously, if I would stand outside here, New York City, and I would go outside and walk up to Times Square, I would meet 120,000 people every single day. But if I don’t have anything to tell them that resonates with them, I’m shooting I’m shooting in the dark.

Lori: I 100% agree. And that’s where those two, advertising and networking kind of tie in together because you’re getting some conciseness with your messaging, and clarity with your messaging is what ultimately attracts people to you. When you have that initial conversation with him like you’re the speed networking. I mean, you’ve got 30 seconds to wow, someone you want to have a really polished message. And that’s kind of where the marketing and advertising come into play.

How do you see potential in undervalued technology?

Well, first of all, I am a real techie. And I think I, my father have brought me very early on in touch with computers. And so my love for technology really, really grew. And we, beyond the necessity, the necessity of technology, but I consider myself a geek, a nerd. But now that technology is really taking taken over so much of our lives. I, I really think it’s important that technology is there as an assistant, it should be on the side. But it should be catching wherever we, as human beings can be served and helped and maybe some friends I’ll give you an example. I think one of the reasons why I love Mobilo is because it helps me stay in touch with people in the perfect way. I still need to make it personal. That’s what I have to do as a human but I forget that I’ve met people or forget what I’ve spoken to them about. And as I’m super jealous of my wife who doesn’t forget anything, whenever we go to birthday parties, or in general she always whispers in my ear that you know this person was We met at that party over there. And that was, and remembers even a husband or wife’s name, that I’m so bad at that. And I believe that technology could be a great assistance there. And as long as it’s not intrusive, then then I think we’re on the right track.

Lori: Yeah, I agree with that. And I’m glad that you said it as long as it’s not intrusive because I think that there’s a lot of reservation around advancing things in some people’s minds because of that.

Now you’re in New York City, what’s been your biggest surprise and, the shift that you’ve made?

Oh, surprise, yes. Lots of lots of surprises. In the beginning, I thought that New York was relatively similar to the culture in Amsterdam, people are direct. You know, the Dutch are often seen as direct sometimes. Blunt, and, and rude as well. They don’t mean that I’m just sticking out here for my fellow Dutch people, but they mean well, but yes, they will ask you about things that they’re sincerely wondering. And they will, they will, they will say it’s when somebody else when they think something’s dumb, they will say, Ooh, I think that’s pretty dumb. And that’s something that you would never, ever hear, even from the most direct people in New York, I think. So. I was I really had to adjust to thinking a little bit more about how I set things, even though I might still have been in the same mindset I, you know, communication is a true skill. And I believe that I’ve gotten a little bit better at it through ups and downs, and various conversations with people that said, Hey, you really can’t say that that way. But some things that came out of that were really that I’m a lot better at communicating about but also addressing things. When things aren’t working, I won’t beat around the bush and will pull somebody into a separate room and say, Hey, I have the feeling or that this is really working. What do you think? And then start a conversation from there. And on the other side, when things are working, you can re-cheer them on and there’s no better way to celebrate than then with people that know how to celebrate and I think if I would compare to two worlds then definitely. We’re better off celebrating here in the US than anywhere else.

Lori: Fascinating, fascinating. I love the directedness. I didn’t know that much. I don’t have many European contexts in my back pocket. I’ve interviewed a handful of people over time. But I’m a very direct human being. So I love that that’s kind of the overall personality. Which is interesting to share.

Can you share your most successful or favorite networking experience that you’ve had?

Yeah, absolutely. When I just moved to New York, I helped a company pivot from b2c to b2b. And with that, we had to build a sales team. So I hired a few sales, folks, and then thought it would be a good idea to get a sales trainer for a couple of days in to really have everybody bond. And also, I selfishly wanted to get this illustrator on board so that I could get some coaching as well for the anticipated cultural differences. So one of the things that this illustrator said to me, Peter, let’s go networking. And so he, this was really like, you know, sales coaches, maybe you have a certain idea with that, and, and some are great, some are not so great. I’ll leave that in the middle. This guy was fantastic. Not only was he able, to teach skills, like closing a deal without making it super salesy, but also he said period, you have to come with me go networking, and put your elevator pitch to the test. And his definition of networking was just so different than mine. And I didn’t find that out until I met him at that event. And I can still remember it as a day off yesterday, I showed up with 25 business cards. And so I found my guy and walked into a room with about 70 or 80 people. And this was the New York executive club if I remember correctly. And so you looked at me, you had kind of one glass of beer in one hand, and then the snack and the other and was mouth a half full of food. He said, Okay, let’s go. How much viscose did you bring? I said, 25, he laughed at me and said that’s, that’s not enough, my friend, you’re going to be out of business going half an hour. That Okay, well, that’s scary. I used to speak to four or five people. And that would be a successful evening of networking for me for an hour and a half. So we’re going to do it differently. So this guy as a sales strategy trainer knew everybody in that whole room. So he simply smacks me around the room. And the first person that was next to us, he said, hey, whatever his name was, John, John talked to Pierre, introduce yourself. So you do your 32nd elevator pitch like you just did Lori. And you shake hands? I don’t know if you would still do that right now. But you would ask each other say, hey, good, what are what do you do? So your elevator pitch and then ask them? What are your What is your business? Biggest customers look like? And then what are your biggest suppliers look alike? And then you see if there’s a fit, and that’s it, you shake hands, you exchange business cards, and then you say, Well, do you think it’s, it’s would it be good for us to keep in touch, and then you can be honest, right? You can say, well, you know, whenever something comes to mind, I’ll reach out or you can say I’d love to set something up for next week. Follow up and get into more details about a specific subject. Then you make a note of that and you move on you turn around and literally the next person, you stick out your hand and say, hi, Lori, or Hi, I’m Peter, what do you do, and then you repeat the whole cycle. Within an hour, I literally spoke to 40 people I know it’s through my business cards, and had to start taking somebody else’s business cards and make a lot of notes. But that was I was sweating, I was nervous I was everything was different than what I’d done. But obviously, after an hour, you’re repeating your elevator pitch 30 or 40 times. Things start to click, and you get better at it, you get really, really great at it, actually. So I would encourage anybody, and everybody thinks about networking as difficult or as scary to really jump in headfirst. And you know, what, what, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

Lori: Yeah, I mean, just like anything, the more you do it, the better you’re going to get at it. And, and that’s something Yeah, what’s the worst that can happen? Just get over that hurdle of doing it. And then more times that at least in my personal experiences, once you get over the hurdle, I realized I had more stress and anxiety over the anticipation of doing it than it, you know, the actual doing of whatever it was that like, Oh, that was a lot easier than I’ve made it out to be.

So how do you stay in front of invest nurture, and network in the community that you’re creating?

My favorite question is because this is, this is really why we build mobile, you can we can, we can stay in touch by me following you on LinkedIn. And if you are a genius at creating content, like you do every single day, then that would be easy. Because I would see and be reminded of your content every day that I, the moment I open up the pin, I’m not as good at that. So what I need is a personal CRM, a tool that where I keep can keep track of every contact that I made, and give that contact status. So there should always be a follow-up note to everybody that you meet. And that follow-up note can be checked in three months, check in six months, that follow-up note could be reached out next week to schedule a meeting, or the follow-up note could be in 10 days, send an article over because that’s what we talked about. That follow-up note could be called five times today because we need to get a meeting on the books tomorrow. But there has to be a next step for everybody in your professional networking. sphere. So whenever you meet somebody, I believe that you need to have a good list and a good overview of who you still need to meet with. And then yeah, you qualify as tough as it may sound, but you have to qualify and see what is a good fit for me or not. And then either put that email address on a nurture track or stay on the top and stick to personal interactions.

Lori: Of that sounds like you have a very clear plan. But being laser-focused on who it is that you want to be building those relationships with is definitely important. 

What advice would you offer the business professionals looking to grow their network?

I think When you look at a city like New York, New York City and I, unfortunately, that’s, that’s the only place that I really have in-depth experience. But if I would go to Eventbrite, or meet up, or any of these events, organizations, or tools online, I can find something on my specific topic almost every day to go to. So make time for it, and make an effort to once or twice a week, go for an hour to these networking events, and tried to find the people that you need to find if you also figure out and you went to one of these events, and that’s not the right audience for you. And you know, be strict about it and scrap it and say, I’m not ever going to go there again, because that’s not the people that my people, that’s not the people that I’m looking for, it’s not the industry that is a good fit for me. So yeah, through that you can get a long, long way. And I think the newest opportunity, of course, of course ahead of you, is online events. There are lots of those too, and some are better organized than others. But often during keynotes, there are separate tracks where you can reach out to people on the side, you can research them a little bit, do a Google a quick Google or look at a LinkedIn profile, and say, hey, we’d love to get to know you better learn more about your product, or how we can help. And the good thing is that everybody will be there for the same reason. So yeah, in real life events are here again, right, like going back, and, and I would love to chat to the fullest.

If you could go back to your 20-year-old self, what would you tell yourself to do more or less or different with regard to your professional career?

I would probably buy a little bit more Bitcoin. But everything else, I must say that I’ve I often say that Mobilo is built on 1000 mistakes. And that’s true. I have made so many mistakes. That but all of them kind of had they had their reason for everything. I do believe that everything happens for a reason good or bad. So I would say keep going. It’ll be fine. Just maybe my a little bit more. A little bit more confidence I’ve had that I would have to explain to myself, you can be more confident. That’s okay. But other than that, I believe that.  Yeah, you make mistakes you learn from them. And if you don’t make mistakes you haven’t learned as much as you could. So go for it.

Connect with Pieter

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pieterlimburg/

https://www.mobilocard.com