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Are you a B2B business owner or leader who attends conferences and networking events, but struggles to translate those opportunities into meaningful connections and qualified referrals? Do you wish you could genuinely expand your professional network without feeling transactional or overwhelmed?
Welcome to Mastering Conference Networking, hosted by Catherine Brown, founder of the Good Humans Growth Network. Catherine, an accomplished entrepreneur, community facilitator, and author of How Good Humans Sell™, is here to transform the way you approach in-person events.
Move beyond collecting business cards and discover how to truly engage, create reciprocal value, and make your time at any business event incredibly productive. If you're ready to master the art of strategic networking and elevate your business development through genuine human connection, this podcast is for you.
Michel_Prive
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Introduction to Michel Prive
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Catherine Brown: [00:00:00] I'm so excited to introduce you to my friend Michel Prive. Michel will introduce himself in just a moment, but I'll remind you that what we're covering is we're talking about conference and trade show best practices. There's so many opportunities that we get to go to these things, but we don't always do them well.
And so in this series we're interviewing. Business owners as well as business [00:01:00] development or sales leaders who attend a lot of these events and talking about how to make the most of these experiences. So, Michel, welcome. Thank you. And would you introduce yourself to our listeners?
Michel's Background and Experience
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Michel Prive: Hi, Catherine. Thank you for having me. My name is Michel Privia. I'm the founder of sales Leadership Impact Consulting, powered by Sales Acceleration. We are helping business owners in their sales management challenges when it, when they grow, when they grow too fast, not enough, when they need to scale, when they need to acquire as well.
And we are based out of uh, Houston. We have been doing that for a while already.
Catherine Brown: Amazing. Great. Thank you so much for being here. So I'm gonna guess that before you went into business for yourself as well as with your consultancy, now you have had your. Your fair share of trade associations, conferences, chamber events, networking events. Right. Could you estimate, Michel, how many of [00:02:00] them you must have been to in your career?
Trade Show Strategies and Planning
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Michel Prive: I'm lucky to have been able to go all over the world. You know, we've at conferences as well. We are here in Houston. One of the largest show is OTC. And during the last year of, of my time at tele, I was organizing the wall booth. And it was already, you know, it was also, we had, uh, two suites at at the stadium.
And we, we worked on the strategy in fight To capture our audience at trade shows. And that was planned a year in advance. And obviously you know, with trade show comes discipline and preparation and.
Catherine Brown: Yeah.
Michel Prive: Yeah. And that, that makes a, a complete differences. You know, where whoever, whenever you go, you just walk the show or you think you walk the show.
But as a sales leader, you couldn't go to a trade show with me, you know, you know, if you don't plan it, it was the pre and the post planning. And that would be justifying if we are [00:03:00] gonna have a booth or if we're gonna be walking. The show the meals that we have during the show, we are a lot of people traveling at the time.
This is the best time to capture your audience as well. So yes, it's and, and it has been that discipline in between bracket that you need to reinforce sometimes with sales people. It's not only you know, the conferences, even at sales meeting, you have to plan those events. It's very important.
Catherine Brown: So I think a strong sales leader like you learns over time like you're describing, you're learning that you actually want to go into these events with a strategy. Many times people, especially those in the Good Humans Growth Network, we have a lot of people who come in who had a different role, maybe did an early retirement from corporate, or just were ready to do something different and they actually haven't sold themself.
They haven't had to promote their own brand, they haven't had to sell their own services. They're very strong in their own right [00:04:00] with the discipline of the product that they created or the service they provide, but they actually. Are now going to attend events in a different capacity. So whether it's one of the GHGN events or it's a chamber event, or your trade association of the the conference your clients go to.
I love that you're saying when you were an executive at Teledyne, you actually were on the presenter side, organizing the booth, thinking about making the most of those opportunities and how to capture the attention of your buyer when they were away from the office. So you've really seen it on all sides of these of the perspective it seems like.
Michel Prive: Yes. And, You got obviously what you achieve during those events.
The Importance of Serving, Not Selling
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Michel Prive: And that's for the new ones that, you know, that just started the consulting business is that we don't sell anything in those events You serve. You serve and you have to come in into a very different mindset.
You are here to [00:05:00] either build, create new relationship. This is like a ion thing, you know, the new friends. You're gonna be meetings, your targets that we could be, and it could be building up the relationship from calls, from uh, uh, meetings that you had in the past. It would be real.
Reconnecting with, with others in the relationship. You know, the reason why I keep going to OTC, I'm just using OTC here, is that to see friends who are traveling from all over the world. I know they will be there. I don't know if, you know, I will be serving them. I will be, you know, and, and the approach is, is different than selling.
You don't sell, you serve and you approach them with with that mentality. It'll be respected. And you will have a much better chance to have someone hearing what you do. You would know from the others what they do. And one of the key things in the planning as well, you know, I'm coming back to my engineering planning, is about identify [00:06:00] ahead of time.
And that's the beauty of what you do with this conference. Is that we, when you, when you come in early, you go on the slack and you know who sign in. Who are those people?
Catherine Brown: yes.
Michel Prive: Are they calling the same clients as I do? Are they calling the same buyer person as I do? And you can, you know, prepare, you know, your strategy of who are gonna be speaking, you know, prepare my, my fishing line,
Catherine Brown: Yes,
Michel Prive: you know, my fishing line and be ready for, you know, a second, a, a second sentences that makes you pretty efficient.
Catherine Brown: yes.
Michel Prive: When you plan it and it could be just a conversation like what you and I do because you can deter, you know, what would be a good referral partners, what will be a terrible referral partners right from the get go.
Catherine Brown: Yes.
Building Long-Term Relationships
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Catherine Brown: So one lesson that Michel's identified is prepare. So that preparation will include [00:07:00] everything from if it's available to you, to know who's going to be there, you want to be there. Then you arrange for those meetings. And another that I heard you say, Michel, is that you. Expect to serve. You're not going to do any selling at the event.
It would be extremely unusual for that to happen. kind of exception to the rule if your heart is to connect with people. I would even argue and build on that, saying that one of the things that makes me. Proud of what happens at our events is that I've had brand new people tell me that when they signed up last minute, let's say they were not able to attend a lot of pre-conference activities and they signed up last minute, they show up, they know one person or know persons.
Within one minute of being in the room when the general session starts, people are saying, tell me about you and who do you wanna know? And walking them over and introducing them to people. So that's really like another next level of service is seeing yourself as a connector saying, what would it be like for me to make sure another person here [00:08:00] has a great experience?
That positions you uniquely, you are a connector. You are adding value. You're being a kind person, you'll, you'll be perceived as a good human. And that makes you remember because for the rest of time, as that person gets more and more involved in the network, they're going to say, Michel was the person who took me around and introduced me to people and.
Someone who is very self-oriented might think of that Michel, or hear that story and think, well that was valuable networking time. That session was only 30 minutes and I spent that time, you know, babysitting that person or looking after that person. But we have a long view, right? We have a long view of what it should be like.
So can you think of, just thinking about this question, of optimizing, making the most of the time.
Success Stories and Real-Life Examples
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Catherine Brown: Can you think of a time that you built a relationship with someone through an event that turned out to be a relationship that delighted you, surprised you, you know, paid dividends years down the road? Does, does anyone [00:09:00] pop to mind?
Michel Prive: Well, you know, I will be responding to you, Catherine. And, and I'm just not saying that because it's you and interviewing me, but we met really at growth 2025. And even indeed, that was the conference. You are, the MC had the opportunity to see how you operate. And we have common friends obviously, and Jason Lee who are you know, dear friends of us, and see how we serve.
You know, organize the meetings, we learn more about, do I really want to be with that person and, is it complimentary or not? And then we had subsequent meetings and it turns out, I joined Deal Flow, a part of the the organization as well. And got customer through that process we are working on activities potentially together.
And this is exactly the right returns. What, what to expect, [00:10:00] but you should not be expecting what our relationship, you know, I considerated him, went pretty fast.
Catherine Brown: It actually was pretty fast. Yes. So to recount that for people who might not know the event that the order was. Michel and I had some similar friends. They said, you should go to the conference. He contacted me or attended. We either did a one-on-one or you attended one of the Ask me anythings. But you came to a conference.
I remember that. You came up to me, actually, and this is a pro tip y'all, for people who, if you, you really want to express appreciation for the. The person who put the event together, Michel pulled me aside before my last time on stage and said, I know it's gonna be very busy for you when this ends, and I want to make sure I mention to you what I appreciated and what I thought was good about this, and really sought me out.
I said, do you have to leave now? And he said, no, no, no, no, no. I'm staying. But I just know. I know what it'll be like for you later. See how I remember that. Like we didn't rehearse this part of the interview. I remember that you did that. I thought it was so kind. So [00:11:00] then he is saying through another person we both knew a little bit later, we had another opportunity to meet in person.
He's gotten more involved. Now we're brainstorming of things to build and do together, which you'll hear more about in the future, as you know, two sales training lovers um, coming together, you know, to serve the community. And so.
The Role of Preparation and Strategy
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Catherine Brown: One of the things I wanna hear you, you want the audience to hear us say when you're talking about this idea of service is also this principle of longevity.
Like you have to have a long view and understand that a great referral partner is going to need the, the, the care and nurturing, just like a big buyer, would most people don't. Even with a referral, a huge deal doesn't often get done as a one call close. You have to talk to them multiple times.
You have to add value. They might have to follow you for a while. And similarly, wanna have a long view about the relationships when we think short term. In that moment, and [00:12:00] we, it will force us to act in a more transactional way because we feel desperate and grabby because we're scared that if we don't make the most of this opportunity, then it'll go away.
But what happens is then you turn people off because you're acting weird,
Michel Prive: you know, I, I concur with this. Is that that's the difference between selling and serving.
Catherine Brown: Mm.
Michel Prive: It's truly, you know, the difference when you have your own practice, you don't have clients, you don't have people who trust you. You meet new people. You know, it takes quite a lot of times to trust someone.
You have to see them in operations. You have, they have to have their reputation of uc. You have to be referred by someone even, and not as a client, but as a referral partner, someone that you want to be associated with. And, you know, like, most of the people here listening, we only have one reputation.
We can't fail. If Catherine is introducing me to a prospect for clients or referral partners, I can't fail, Catherine. It's so important. [00:13:00] That's what most of the people in fact, you know, forget to mention in our consulting industry. Is that we generally are the alternative to a full-time employee.
The full-time employee would be saying what the business owners sees as a consumable. You know, I'm gonna change job and move on, and then after that I tweak my, my resume or anything that we can't do this. You know, we have to stay, you know, professionals, we have to give the maximums. We have to be doing good for our referral partners.
So this conference here, you know, that, that we are about to go is that you're gonna be meeting existing friends, new friends, obviously this is not uh, this is not a transaction.
And that makes, a huge difference.
Catherine Brown: So Michel, because of your years selling. I think that you and I have a framework of what these little side meetings look like at conferences, but if a person has [00:14:00] never been trained on a strategy on a trade show, they really might not understand that there's, if there's not just what's happening in the room, there's the meetings you've arranged to have catch up conversations, or maybe you meet someone in a pre-conference.
Networking event. So you wanna have a secondary conversation. It's actually the coffees, the networking, lunchtime, making a decision to spend some time after the conference in an evening with someone making a point to sit next to each other so you could pass notes, right? It's those things that create repeat opportunities to be together and actually showing up.
Unprepared not having studied the list. If they release the attendees ahead of time, not knowing who the sponsors are, not being prepared to go have conversations with them, and they're just kind of walking through the motions through all these missed opportunities. So. Anything else you wanna share about a success [00:15:00] story where you feel like you squeezed all the juice out of that possible opportunity?
You know, while you were there, I, I feel like you have a unique perspective because of the years where you have identified as, as a sales professional, and I think that a lot of people just don't approach conferences the same way as we do as sales professionals.
Michel Prive: Well, you know, I try to uh, a short story. I got a a client. That's the mentoring client that I'm helping to sort out some business difficulties. What is selling is a tool. A physical tool that goes inside, you know, it's a, a directional tool. At OTCI was checking my email and I went into a corner, close to a booth, and at that booth they were selling a drill bit.
So this is what, what you put just before the tool here. And the, sales lady, you know, they saw me, she saw me, checking my email and she started [00:16:00] talking to me. That led to a discussion. I've got the business card right there to the CEO is the owner and he is in fact tried to market the product exactly the same market that my client, it's so pure coincidence and like my clients try to raise money at different scales for different reasons.
And I started to you know, I introduce themselves together. And when my client went to visit Europe, that was last month. He didn't only talk about his own tool, but he talk about the drill bits from that supplies there, the discussions that, that, that turn out. And once again, that was not, there was nothing for me.
You know, in, you know, it, it was, and I'm not expecting anything from that real big company, but that's the mindset of what, what more can I do? And that was. A five, 10 minutes discussion and that's the true story. My, my client [00:17:00] is in Kuwait at the moment. I'm sure you know, if he would recognize himself so.
Catherine Brown: Oh, right. If he hears this, he'll know you're talking about him. So, okay. So Michel is saying at the Offshore Technology Conference, which is this huge oil and gas conference that's in Houston every year, you went for a variety of reasons, but one of the opportunities that you saw was to transition a conversation that.
The person running the table, running the booth made with you where you realize that they were going after the same market and had so much overlap with a client that you serve, and so you might have been wanting actually to finish your email, but you stopped what you were doing. You made that connection.
You realized that that was going to be very valuable to someone else. And now there's some type of cooperation that's happening with a bundling or a sell through or something that it was this future relationship that's been developed out of that. That reminds me, [00:18:00] Michel, that at one of our last major conferences in the Good Humans Growth Network.
We like when people sign up early enough, they can get inside a Zoom networking pod. And what we do is I start with ai, but then I use my brain and I really do review the whole list. And I think, who do I know for sure doesn't know each other and who would have the right kind of overlap that could meet before we even go?
So you have friends in the room when you show up. This is one of the things that's special about the way we do things is that we try to help people feel comfortable before they go. One of the things that I saw happen in the pods was that there was a, a company that came last time that had a software, and one of the members of the networking pods said, are you going to demo that software at the conference?
And the owner said don't have that arranged yet. And she said, well, I know Catherine would want you to use one of the side rooms for that. She would want you to do this because so many resellers are going to be at this conference based on what you've told me. So she didn't even work [00:19:00] for me at the time.
She just thought, I have an idea of how you can avail yourself to this and made all these introductions and then went around on this other person's behalf and gathered people so that during one of the lunchtimes people who were influential, who she wanted to get to know, this business owner would watch the demo.
And she is not compensated to do that. She just did it because she saw the opportunity. And those are the kinds of things that happened inside an event that really stick with people in their memory and create long term. Business friendships. 'cause you think, wow, you really went first. You did that for me.
You didn't have to. And that kind of generosity is what we're looking at it's the opposite of slap your business card, sweaty handshake, transactional sort of experiences.
Michel Prive: Absolutely. And you know, it's it is the prep [00:20:00] during you make only one impression. And you can't be fake either. so, You know, it's you, it's either you or it's not you. And, you know, no matter what your personality is. In fact, and you are valuable. You might not know how much value you will be bringing.
You are surrounded by people who have already, went through that curve, you know? and so this is approach and that's what I've seen at growth. 2025, the approach of serving, once again, this is rare. You asked me at you know, to start with, with conferences.
Conferences where I went there, I was selling, you know, I was selling, when I was in management, it was building a relationship and I do mean it. But when I was selling, I was selling, I was trying to find clients or to close deals or to learn from competition. Uh, You know, I was doing some selling type of activities at Growth 2025 when we met, I met a complete different.[00:21:00]
Crap. Completely different mindset. And you know, I have to say and say that to everyone. This is unique because you are not, you are not here to impress anyone. You are here to really try to help many people. And we are in a consulting business. Many of us, we get clients only by referrals. And it's only by referrals if
Catherine Brown: says All trust.
Michel Prive: Yeah, and the trust, you know, trust, and whatever you do as a good referral partners is to bring the trust closer, faster. And what better when you are generous with your time or your knowledge or something, that would be valuable for the other person.
And trust me, it works.
Catherine Brown: That's so great. That's so great. Thank you.
Michel Prive: Yeah, people are referring you. They think of you, you know, I would be giving my time and try to help someone. They remember.
Catherine Brown: Yeah. [00:22:00] Okay.
Energy Management at Conferences
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Catherine Brown: Last, last question for, for a a trade show veteran. That's what I'll call you as a trade show veteran. These things can be tiring. They are tiring, right? We are sitting, but we're just projecting a lot of energy. We're trying to listen. It can be loud. There's a lot of enthusiasm.
There's a lot of hugging and noise making going on around us in the big sessions, and they can be tiring. So what if you learned about prepping yourself, pacing yourself, anything about the energy that's required? I think people don't talk about that enough.
Michel Prive: One of the key points is uh, you have to drink, you have to hydrate, hydrate that, you know, walk. If it's okay to attend, listen and walk. You have to breathe as well.
You know, you can stretch. You don't have to be in the middle of the room and stretch. You can go somewhere else and stretch. And one of the things that once again, I, I'm going [00:23:00] back to my discipline, but when I do conferences, I already have my agenda. It's already there. I leave room for the unplanned.
But trust me, knowing what you're gonna do next is keeping you very much. And focus. So, you know, you really want to hear what the, the speakers are are telling you because they are great people. I'm planning to learn a lot during that conference to come, but the rest is you know, uh, drink uh, walk, you know, stretch.
It's okay. You know, it's and that will be keeping you up, you know.
Catherine Brown: That's awesome.
The Five-Day Rule for Optimal Performance
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Catherine Brown: I don't know if you've ever heard this advice. I follow Brendan Burchard, who's a marketing and personal development trainer, and he does. 1500 to 22 person a hundred events where he is the main speaker for more than two days. I mean, it's just extraordinary what it must take for him and his voice to maintain a certain level of enthusiasm.
He's not shouty or anything, but [00:24:00] there is this, you know, very positive energy that's coming across and one of the tips that he shares to people who aspire to. Perform well in those situations, which I think is all of us, right? So all the listeners, whether you're on the stage or you're just trying to do a good job representing your own brand, he says what he's found is that starting five days before.
He starts to pay particular attention to what he eats and going to bed earlier. And he said any less than five days doesn't seem to make enough difference. Like he needs to start five days before and say, this next thing is such a big deal for me. So think about if we treated. My conference. Any, any conference that is important to you for your industry?
If you treat it that way, you look on your calendar and just like you would plan for a vacation because you would say, I need to be packed. We need our food. Do we have our lodging? Do I have to precheck? Do I have everything I need? What do I need to go get in trial size? You know, you're thinking about all the things.
What if you did the same for this? What if you said. What do I need to [00:25:00] do for myself to show up in top form to love and serve other people and you actually reverse engineer by what you eat, what you drink, how you sleep. I thought that was amazing advice. I feel pretty sure I wouldn't have thought of it on my own, but now that five day rule is installed in me, and so whether I'm an attendee or gonna be on a stage, I think.
Am I preparing myself to just be full and well going in, and I've even been known Michel, like if it's a real high stakes event, I mean, I stay home a few days before because I don't wanna get a cold. Before, so I'm, I'm really thinking about this thing coming up and doing everything in my power to be well.
And when you prepare your body like that, I think you're preparing your mind and you're saying, this matters. I'm take, I'm taking this seriously.
Michel Prive: No, absolutely. And you know, what you put together are. Major events and and you know, it's you know, you cannot underestimate the amount of accidents, things that will be happening. [00:26:00] And so you have to be ready and put yourself in the best position that to be able to to, to address those.
And yes, as a veteran of traveling as well, you can't always do this. You arrive you know, from another continent, there are, and you land up and you have to go around and find, you know, do what you, what you have to do. But you know, it's what you say is, is very much you know, it's, it's on the spot.
I will try to remember that, you know, for clients, we are about to do a massive event, three days and to try to remember this, it, it's not far
Catherine Brown: day rule.
Michel Prive: me, the five day drone. Yes. It's
Catherine Brown: Burchard's five day rule. I love that. I think that, it's also like a body mind integration, right? It's saying that I'll take care of my physical self, and you're right, there's exceptions. We can't always, but when it's in our control, let's do what we can.
Michel Prive: yeah, exactly. And especially on your health. And time that your your, your, your meals the [00:27:00] amount of caffeine as well. You want to be at the right level and so yeah, thank you for sharing the five days rules.
Catherine Brown: That we have that. Exactly.
Conclusion and Future Opportunities
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Catherine Brown: Anything else you would like to share that you think comes from your experience for the benefit of the listeners?
Michel Prive: When I share this, is that this event is unique on its own and for the past. Two, three weeks. I reach out to my colleagues from corporation as well and on my C round tables for the C of Fox as well. This is not only for professionals, you're gonna be learning plenty of things.
You're gonna have full of nuggets about sales, marketing, and our buyers have changed the way we costume changed and, uh. you will be in a room with professionals. They are not there to sell. They are here to learn. And this is quite unique, as I said, this is a unique professional sales meeting.
[00:28:00] That's the sales meeting of the sales people without having their bosses, without having to do some work, some presentations. This is one of the unique way to meet all the professionals. And learn from them, or they will be learning from you as well. And you know, I look forward for that event.
You know, I'm very excited I invited friends and professionals, including some of my clients that will be coming to the event on the professional aspects of the conferences. They are good humans, so they good, they're gonna do very good.
Catherine Brown: Oh, thank you. Well, I take it very seriously when someone I respect aligns their brand next to mine. And I appreciate you, Michel. Often speaks for us at these events. We are as of the fall of 2025, we're going to be offering live group coaching and training for, for sales professionals. So you'll be hearing more about that depending on when you're listing this episode.
It might already be out. That'll be offered through the National Business [00:29:00] Development Association. So there's lots of ways we work together. I, I never know what people are gonna say on me, so thank you for that. Thank you for those things that you shared. Thank you for your help and your support, and thank you for coming today.
Michel Prive: Thank you. Always a pleasure, Kathy. And to speak with you.