RTR EP12 - How a Sales Leader’s Dog Posts Turned Into a Podcast & Pipeline with Chris Dunn

What happens when a sales leader stops posting polished content and starts sharing dog walks, family stories, and honest business lessons? For Chris Dunn, VP of Sales at BlueHive Exhibits, it resulted in deeper trust, stronger visibility, and over $300K in attributed revenue. 

In this episode of Revenue Through Reputation, Chris joins Brandon Lee to talk about how his morning walks with Barton the dog evolved into a podcast, created demand, and reshaped how BlueHive builds pipeline.

🔹 #BartonTheDog: Emotional Resonance Wins
Chris initially hesitated about being 'the dog guy' on LinkedIn. But those posts sparked familiarity and connection. "People I hadn't spoken to in years knew everything about me from my posts." Emotional hooks create memory. Chris found the sweet spot between humanity and business insight, which turned passive scrollers into pipeline opportunities.

🔹 From Morning Thoughts to Content Strategy
The breakthrough came when Chris began tying morning dog-walk reflections to client challenges and sales insights. His content shifted from promotional to relational, positioning him as both relatable and trustworthy. This mix of personal stories and professional value built real audience engagement.

🔹 Why He Launched a Show
Wanting to uplevel his visibility and thought leadership, Chris started The Event Marketer's Toolbox podcast. He didn't begin as a confident host—but by partnering with Fist Bump, he streamlined the process and committed to consistency. The result? Stronger relationships, broader reach, and repurposable content assets every week.

🔹 Results That Speak for Themselves
Through consistent content and his show, Chris generated over $300K in new revenue—including repeat business. One inbound opportunity stemmed from a connection who had never liked or commented, but had been silently following for years. His posts and podcast gave prospects the confidence to trust him without a hard pitch.

🔹 Advice for Leaders on the Fence
Chris admits he once felt nervous about "putting himself out there." But now he views digital visibility not as a nice-to-have, but as essential. "You can't show up for 30 days and expect ROI. It's about consistency, authenticity, and trust." For leaders skeptical of building a personal voice, Chris emphasizes: Start human, stay visible, and real results will follow.

Chris Dunn proves that when authenticity meets strategy, your reputation becomes your greatest sales asset. His journey from casual posts to consistent podcasting offers a roadmap for executives ready to ditch cold outreach and build trust-first visibility. 

As Chris says, "Just be real. The right people will find you".

The Revenue Through Reputation Show
Hosted by Brandon Lee
New episodes every Tuesday at 11 AM ET | LinkedIn & YouTube
Empowering CEOs, founders, and sales leaders to build high-impact digital reputations that drive business growth.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction & Why Digital Reputation Matters
• 3:28 Meet Chris Dunn: Sales Leader, Dog Dad, Connector
• 7:13 The Origin of #BartonTheDog Posts
• 10:58 Emotional Connection vs. Promotional Content
• 15:03 First Big Win: From Lurker to Lead
• 19:43 Inbound Deals from Consistency
• 25:43 Navigating the Fear of Visibility
• 31:43 Creating The Event Marketer's Toolbox Podcast
• 38:13 Turning Episodes into Weeks of Content
• 43:43 Direct Pipeline from Show Guests
• 49:43 Why This Isn’t Just "Personal Branding"
• 56:43 Final Thoughts & Chris's Advice to Leaders

Transcript

Brandon Lee: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome to Revenue Through Reputation. By the way, I've been playing around with the idea of changing the name through revenue, through relationships. Kinda wondering what you all think, but that's another topic we're gonna jump in today. Um, first I. The welcome to everybody. If you're on LinkedIn or you're on YouTube and you're happening to catch us live, uh, the cool benefit of that is you can make comments and we'll see 'em.

Brandon Lee: We have put 'em up there. You can ask questions, make comments, uh, tell us we're right, tell us we're wrong. I have a great guest today that probably a lot of you are gonna know, and so you can just join the chat conversation with us if you're not on YouTube or LinkedIn Live or, we'll look, if you're watching the recording on YouTube or LinkedIn, you comment, we're still gonna get notifications and we'll come back and answer questions and, and hang out with you in the comments.

Brandon Lee: I mean, that's what social's being social's about, right? Being social if you're on the podcast. Thank you so much. [00:01:00] Appreciate it. Um, if you like what you're hearing, I'd be so grateful for the, um, you know, follow and then also review it. And if you really like it and you can think, man, there's somebody that really needs to hear this, take a screenshot, text it to them, I would be most grateful.

Brandon Lee: So thank you for that. And as usual, my show is sponsored by Fist Bump. There it is. Happens to be a company that I founded. Um, but look, here's the reason we started Fist Bump. I started doing a show, my other show, mastery Modern Selling, which is now the number one social selling, uh, podcast according to Feeds spot, and realized like, man, this is really working, getting in front of more people and more people knowing us, and more people accepting calls and emails.

Brandon Lee: And it is really cool. And so many people have been struggling with pipeline and getting cold outreach to be valuable that we thought, hey, we could help people. And so that's, [00:02:00] um, one of a couple things that we do. But, um, it's all from Fist Bump. And thank you to my fist bump team for everything that you do.

Brandon Lee: Okay, let's get into the show. So many of you, a lot of us are struggling with Outreach. Pipeline is down, we're making the calls, we're sending the emails, but we're not getting the response rates that we used to anyone in that boat like. Hey, this is, you know, we don't wanna admit it a lot because we don't want people to know, Hey, this is this, we're struggling a little bit, but many, many, many, uh, companies are going through that, us included.

Brandon Lee: Um, you know, it's changed, it's different and you try new things. Or maybe you, you're trying the, well just do more, just do more, make more calls, send more emails, try the same things you did before and you're still getting frustrated. Well, one of the things that we found that helped is [00:03:00] this reputation building through digital content, uh, doing things like shows, like the show that we're having here today with different episodes and other content that we create inside of LinkedIn or YouTube or Instagram or wherever else you wanna do it.

Brandon Lee: Because when we get in front of people with content that is designed to build connection versus content that is designed to promote. We become more well known, we grow our reputation. And then when you, your team make the outbound calls, they see you at a trade show, they go, Hey, I know you. Yes, let's have a call.

Brandon Lee: And that's really what we're gonna talk about today. So stay tuned, um, as I bring Chris Dunn on here in a second. If you've seen the title of this, you're probably waiting to hear about dogs and we will not disappoint you. So I'm gonna bring on Chris Dunn, who is with BlueHive Exhibits. Chris has been awesome.

Brandon Lee: Like Chris [00:04:00] came into this whole LinkedIn thing going, I wanna figure this out. And he dove headfirst into the deep end and has done a fantastic job. And I just thought it'd be valuable for everybody to hear his story and hear his advice on taking your. Offline networking skills that you've probably done for most of your career.

Brandon Lee: And translate that and start implementing an online, uh, version of that in order to grow your pipeline network, build more relationships, and ultimately close more deals. And Chris has got a couple stories I'm gonna make sure that he says today, but Chris Dunn, welcome to Revenue Through Reputation. 

Chris Dunn: How goes is it?

Chris Dunn: Happy to be here? 

Brandon Lee: Awesome. Awesome. Well, Chris, um, introduce yourself a little bit. Tell everybody a little bit about who you are, what you do, and then we're gonna jump into some really cool stories that you have. 

Chris Dunn: All right, fantastic. Well, hey Brandon, thanks, uh, so [00:05:00] much for having me on. I am Chris Dunn. I am the VP of, uh, sales and new business development with BlueHive Exhibits.

Chris Dunn: I've been here for about 20 years. Uh, it's a 20-year-old company, so I was here from the beginning. Um, and things have changed as Brandon had mentioned. Um, we are a custom exhibit builder. We, uh, have an office outside of Boston, as well as in Las Vegas. And we, uh, kind of pride ourselves on being that right sized, uh, creative group.

Chris Dunn: We're bigger than a boutique and we're smaller than some of the real big guys where you're just a number. So we're, we're very much, um, full cycle relationship sellers. Um, and, uh, I, and I think, you know, that we'll kind of point back to that as, uh, as I kind of tell the story of how I got involved, not only with, uh, with LinkedIn, but also also fist bump.

Chris Dunn: So thanks for having me. Uh, my dog Barton is home, uh, but he's here in spirit and we'll certainly be talking about him quite a lot, so I'm sure his ears will be burning. 

Brandon Lee: Well, why don't, why don't we, um, why don't we jump into that and [00:06:00] Chris, my memory, and, and maybe I'm wrong, um, but my memory was when, when you and I were coaching together mm-hmm.

Brandon Lee: And we were looking for, hey, what, what are the, we're building your messaging strategy. Like what are the topics that we can talk about? And we started talking about your morning walks. I said, tell me about what you do. Tell me about your hobbies. What are some of the things that you like to do? And it came up that you take Barton Barton for a walk every morning.

Brandon Lee: And I, and I believe we asked the question like, what do you do on that walk? Like, what, what do you, and you said, well, I think about my day. I think about the day before. I think about what's going on. And we were like, yeah, that sounds great. And we came up together with this strategy with, uh, hashtag bar, bar and the dog.

Brandon Lee: Tell, tell us a little bit about that and, and what it's meant to you and in your LinkedIn activity. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. Um, you know, so Brandon, I think we, we've been working [00:07:00] together for, you know, a couple years now. Um, I had done certainly some posting, uh, you know, with the dog prior to that, and I, I think there was a bit of an epiphany moment of like, you know, I would connect with people and be like, oh, you're, you're the guy with a post about his dog.

Chris Dunn: And initially I'm like feeling a little insulted with that. Like, well, I feel like there's a little bit more depth there. Like, I do talk about business stuff, but if I'm gonna be the guy who posts about his dog, then, then how do I parlay that into something that's meaningful? And that's kind of where working with fist bump help kind of shine a light on that.

Chris Dunn: Was like, alright, I'm not just, you know, taking him for a walk and talking about, uh, you know, the food that I ate or, you know, the facebooky kind of stuff. Right. It, it was like, how do we, how do we take those thoughts that are in everybody's head? Um, and I guess I'm gonna be all over the place, but, you know, my, you helped me refine a strategy around like three different pillars.

Chris Dunn: Uh, one was just [00:08:00] kind of, um, you know, positive mindset. Uh, you know, I. I'm up early every morning and I'm get, you know, the dog helps me, he's my accountability partner. We get out, we get after it. Uh, I'm exercising, so I'm, I'm helping my body, and as I'm aging and, and coming up on 60, like, I, I fully aligned with the fact that, you know, movement is my friend.

Chris Dunn: Um, and then there was, you know, also from a business acumen standpoint, so I started, uh, leaning more into, Hey, you know, um, I'm on my dog walk this morning, but I'm thinking about a call I had yesterday with a client and their problem was, blah. Right. It, it's, it's probably, uh, pretty accurate to, uh, make an assumption that if this particular client in this industry is having this problem, then you might be as well.

Chris Dunn: Right? So I started talking about. The discovery calls that I was having, client challenges, uh, and things that were happening, I guess, in our, in our industry. Um, and just kind of, you know, leaning into, you know, into those [00:09:00] things, uh, and, and really expanding upon 'em. So the, the dog walk was really just kind of a, a linking piece, kind of like your Jeep thoughts.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. Uh, it, it became kind of that, um, you know, that, uh, that, that commonality and, and I, I felt like sometimes I pushed it a little too much. And I, I've had to find not only my voice, but also the proper cadence of how many times does Barton appear over the course of a week or a month. Um, and you play around with it and you figure it out, and, um, sometimes it's a funny post on a Friday or a Saturday, and other times it's a, a bit of a, um, deeper thought, um, you know, you know, during the week.

Chris Dunn: But, uh, again, kind of using the dog as a, as a commonality. 

Brandon Lee: Cool. Let me, let me unpack that a little bit for, for everybody, and then Chris, chime in on that. Um, one of, one of the strategies that we found is extremely beneficial. It's this, as you'll hear me say, it's this marriage of your humanity side. And notice I didn't say personal life primarily [00:10:00] because personal seems to be a bad word on LinkedIn, but let's, let's go with humanity.

Brandon Lee: Strategic part of your humanity that humanizes you because the humanized side is your unique fire. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, 

Brandon Lee: nobody else. Nobody else is you. And so we bring the humanity side. Chris, with his morning walks with his dog, some of the pictures with the business side where he is talking about some of the things that he's thinking about, whether it's mindset, like the personal motivation, whether it's, Hey, I have this conversation with the prospect.

Brandon Lee: This is what they're going through. But when we marry that type of content together, we're bringing the be the best of both worlds. You're bringing that emotion of the human and you're being in the logic of the business and you stand out. It's that emotional side that hits human heart, and you stand out, especially in a sea of logic, content, brochures, flyers, this is what we do.

Brandon Lee: Here's our case study. [00:11:00] Logic, logic, logic. That little bit of adding emotion really, really stands out. That's if, if I can unpack that for everybody, what Chris was saying. Chris, what? What would you add to that? 

Chris Dunn: You know, it started very simplistically in that like, every, not everyone, but a lot of people like dogs.

Chris Dunn: So how do I become somebody that's likable? Right? I, I've always leaned into the know, like, and trust mentality. Uh, you know, prior to COVID shutting down our event business, uh, you know, there was all, all sorts of networking, right? There was, uh, live face-to-face, and that's kind of where we kind of, you know, made a, made a difference and mm-hmm.

Chris Dunn: Ultimately, at the end of the day, events is all about, you know, face-to-face and live marketing and, and so forth. Um, during COVID it became very apparent. That, that was more difficult. So how, uh, uh, how could we use this tool? Uh, and that's really kind of where I started jumping into, you know, into, into [00:12:00] LinkedIn and, and leveraging, uh, this digital platform, you know, back in, uh, in those days.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. Um, and as I'm rambling, I'm totally losing track of what you actually asked me to answer. 

Brandon Lee: Okay. Uh, that is a, okay, well, I was asking you to answer if you would add anything to that as a strategy of bringing the humanity with the business. Right. But let's, let's, let's move to this a little bit. I want, I wanna, eventually, I'd like to get you to share a little bit about your, your movement, your transition from just, you know, doing your content is your personal brand content, and moving into the host of the exhibitor's Playbook exhibitor toolkit.

Brandon Lee: Show Toolbox. Toolbox 

Chris Dunn: and Ben Toolbox. 

Brandon Lee: Sorry. Well, you know, I, I have it written here because I knew I, I changed it around, but 

Chris Dunn: yeah, 

Brandon Lee: I didn't, I didn't book the conference room in time, so I'm in one of the phone rooms and it's dark and I can't see [00:13:00] without my glasses. That's why I keep putting them on. It's all good.

Brandon Lee: My mistakes all 

Chris Dunn: good. 

Brandon Lee: But Chris, before we do that, 

Chris Dunn: yeah. 

Brandon Lee: You have a couple of really great success stories that, um, I've shared with people multiple times. In fact, I think I shared one of your stories last week and you reached out to me like, I'm, I need to be a guest on your show. 

Chris Dunn: It's so true. I was listening and I was like, you, you're referencing me.

Chris Dunn: I feel like I need to, you know, get my face on here. Absolutely. 

Brandon Lee: Tell me. Share one of the, a couple, like I share one or two of those stories, but not just the story for the story sake, but what did it do for your business? What did it do for pipeline? What did it do, uh, for BlueHive? 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. You know, it's, it's a lot of, I'd say, you know, mostly small wins over time.

Chris Dunn: And, and it's, it's, you know, you've referenced this in the past. It's not like you, you make a post and, and purchase orders fall out of the sky. Let's, that's not how it [00:14:00] works, right? It's consistent effort over time, continually kind of tweaking your message and, and, but really it's just being here, being relatable, being somebody that people wanna work with.

Chris Dunn: So that's always been my goal, is like, again, with the know, like, and trust. If I wanna work with people that I know, like, and trust, then I'm hoping the same is, you know, true on the other side. So, you know. One, one story in particular, um, that got us into, uh, you know, into an RFP or a bid situation was, um, somebody that I knew from the industry, uh, had, had reached out.

Chris Dunn: Uh, and this was a year or plus ago, um, and it was somebody, I recognized his name right away. And honestly, I don't know that we had talked in the last 5, 6, 7 years. It, it had been quite a while. And, uh, he jumps right in and he's like, Hey, I understand that your, uh, your daughter just graduated and your, uh, I see that your son's, you know, in the automotive thing and he's working on trucks.

Chris Dunn: And so he was referencing a series of posts that I had done at different times. [00:15:00] And I'm thinking to myself as he's talking, I'm like, I don't recall ever seeing you like, like, uh, or comment on any of my posts yet. You have in-depth knowledge of all the things that I've been talking about. Yeah. Uh, so he's like.

Chris Dunn: He literally said, I feel like I know everything about you because of your posts. Uh, and, and that was, you know, a bit of a epiphany as it were. Mm-hmm. Um, so here's somebody who hasn't physically, uh, you know, that I haven't physically spoken to in quite a while, but who had in depth knowledge of things that I've been sharing.

Chris Dunn: Um, and, and, and it helped me kind of. Realize that there's an awful lot of folks out there in the anonymous zone, or their lurkers, or whatever we wanna call 'em. There's a lot of folks who are seeing and consuming our content that we don't necessarily even know who they are and where they come from. So all of a sudden, these opportunities bubble up and at the end of the day, he said, listen, I, you know, I, I don't have specifically a [00:16:00] need with my company, although he's somewhat related to what we do, but he's like, I want to introduce you to somebody who does have a specific need.

Chris Dunn: Um, so it just, it, uh, you know, it was the old fashioned, you know, referral network. You know, people recommending people the same as we had always done, but it was just different because it's. Part of this digital platform that we're, that we're participating in. And it just looks and feels a little different, but at the end of the day, it's, it's the same stuff that we've done as full cycle salespeople and as networkers, you know, forever in a day.

Brandon Lee: Yeah. Yeah. I like the way you said that. And, and before we go on, I, I wanna say sala and Butch, thank you for joining in your greetings. And, uh, Scott Donald. Sorry it took me a little bit to, to get it to end, but yeah, I think most people agree that, uh, walking the dog in the morning gives, gives a lot of good clarity.

Brandon Lee: Our little dog doesn't go for the walks with me because I, I walk five miles and she would just not be able to handle it. She needs 

Chris Dunn: bigger legs. 

Brandon Lee: Yeah. I, I [00:17:00] come back and then I pick her up and we do about a little half mile walk with her, but, uh, but yeah, Scott, thanks for that. Yeah. You know, um. I like, I like the way you said that, Chris and I, and I think that that's one of the things that's really hard for a lot of, especially older executives to grasp that we're not doing LinkedIn and, and this isn't really personal branding, just because people started giving that name to things, to, to name it.

Brandon Lee: Um, what this is is it's, it's networking. It's just that because we're doing things on this digital platform that's got longevity, we actually can encounter and meet so many more people in, in a day. Like, I was having a conversation with someone just yesterday and she's really just trying to get into, get her feet more wet in LinkedIn and what are we gonna do and everything.

Brandon Lee: And, and I was asking the questions, you know, she's, you know, in her fifties and it's like, you know, well I'm a great networker and at the trade shows and I work the rooms and I [00:18:00] do all that. I'm like, oh, that's all awesome. This is exactly the same. The difference is. We can do this every day. We don't have to get in our cars and drive around.

Brandon Lee: I know for me, my story is always, if I can get in my car and go drive around throughout the day and maybe have a coffee, have a lunch, have a have a late afternoon coffee, I can go meet with five, six people in a day, maybe get a networking event at night and you meet another, you know, 15 people, 20 people, whatever.

Brandon Lee: Great number. Let's say it's 20, 25, 30 people in a day, then now I gotta do that every single day. I don't have time for that, right? So maybe I can do that a couple times a month. But with posts, even if, even if your, your posts are only getting two, 300 people. It's 2, 2, 300 people that are seeing it. And your story is the reason why it's important.

Brandon Lee: They remember you. They're paying attention When a need comes up, they become a referral. They, they reach out for help. Um, I [00:19:00] know that, uh, that's been your experience. You have another story before we move on to your show. Um, you have a couple other success stories you mind sharing? 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, not at all. Um, it was, uh, again, uh, probably a, a year plus ago gotten a call from a woman who again, I was connected to, but I hadn't spoken to her in years.

Chris Dunn: Uh, I think we probably first were connected in maybe 2018 or something to that effect. Um, she is an exhibitor and she happened to be with, uh, with a company. Who had been let down by their current, uh, partner, and she reached out and she was just like, Chris, I'm in a pickle. I know we haven't done business together yet.

Chris Dunn: Uh, we're connected. I know who you are and I've been following your posts and your, you know, your online presence and I trust you because I just see what you're putting up. Mm-hmm. Uh, and because we were in a pickle, it wasn't like, how much are you gonna charge me? Or Can you guys [00:20:00] do a whole bunch of designs and run me through the, you know, you know, through the mill it was like, we're a bit screwed.

Chris Dunn: And, uh, the shows in about six weeks. I know it's a, a short period of time, but I, but I feel like I can trust you and I just, I need help. So it was a indirect response to the work that I had done. And again, you know, I'll just kind of throw this out there for the folks who are maybe just having trouble wrapping their head around, like, what is, what does this look like?

Chris Dunn: Or what does success look like? Or how do you, how do you do this? You know, do LinkedIn properly. I I, I will fully kind of, you know, die in the hill of, you know, you need unique consistency. You need, you need time and marketplace. Uh, you can't just do it for. 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. Like it has to be a long-term commitment.

Chris Dunn: It doesn't mean it has to be every day. It doesn't mean it has to be all consuming, but you have to kind of show up on a regular basis. Um, and, and, you know, bring value. Be, be somebody that is [00:21:00] followable, that is, that provides some, um, some interesting, uh, you know, insights into your industry, but you've also, you know, got a, a, a friendly demeanor.

Chris Dunn: You're, you know, bring a little, you know, comedy to the, to the marketplace, and you tell real authentic stories. Be it about your family or about your hobbies or whatever that might be, but just be a real person that people feel like they can get to know. Um, so, and, and that's exactly what that led to. So specifically, that turned into, I don't know, $120,000 in revenue that year.

Chris Dunn: And then, so that was in 2024. And in 2025, the same person, um, you know, came back. We did that same show over o over again, and they also did another show. So then, you know, year two revenue that I didn't have to go hunt for was more like 175,000. Um, you know, so you, you make those, those original contacts and, uh, you treat 'em well and you stay in touch and, you know, do the, [00:22:00] do the things that you know, you do to be successful in business.

Chris Dunn: And those opportunities, um, hopefully aren't just a one-off, but they become, you know, year over year revenue and also, you know, happy long-term clients. Yeah. 

Brandon Lee: What I, what I like about that story in particular, Chris, is that we're just, we're doing the foundational work consistently because it's smart, right?

Brandon Lee: We, we incorporate outreach. So this isn't just a nice to have, um, it actually makes our outreach activities better. And I think you have a story about that as well. But what you just said there and, and you just kind of moved over it quickly, and I wanna pause there for a second. You did $300,000 in new revenue over two years because somebody was paying attention to your content, felt like, oh yeah.

Brandon Lee: I mean, knew you before, but felt like they, they really knew you and reached out and it was, yeah, it was an in inbound, um, an inbound [00:23:00] lead, if you will. But it, it wasn't for me. I don't like that wasn't even a lead, that was a relationship. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, it 

Brandon Lee: was growing over time, even though you weren't fully aware of how much that relationship was growing because you're doing content.

Brandon Lee: But it was a relationship that was growing and growing and growing and being stronger because of the consistency so that it turned into I need your help. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And, and I, I think another cool thing that kind of came from that is it really, um, it fast tracked our relationship. So by the time we actually met face to face at the show, uh, you know, she's doing her thing and we're setting up the booth and so forth, and we go out and grab a little Mexican, uh, you know, in a margarita after.

Chris Dunn: And our, and our conversations were so deep right off the bat because we didn't have to mess around with the rapport building. And, uh, even though this was the first time we met, we were literally [00:24:00] diving into like. Like deep family discussions about challenges that we're both having. So I think that is a really cool thing as well.

Chris Dunn: It's a, it's a relationship amplifier or, or it escalates the, the speed, uh, which we can get to know each other even though we're, you know, kind of doing it digitally. When you finally do get together, be it for coffee or at a trade show, whatever the case may be, it's like you already know each other. So you're kind of jumping over some of that maybe awkward, kind of like feeling each other out type of a thing, and you're jumping right into these really meaningful conversations.

Brandon Lee: Yeah. Hey, Chris, that makes me think of it and I, I am gonna get to your show, but I, I really like what you're sharing. Um. Speak for a moment. You got leaders out there, they're nervous. I mean, I get it, right? They're nervous to quote, put themselves out there. Um, I hear a lot, oh, I don't have time for it. You know, companies like Fist Bump and, and a lot of other companies will make it that it's really not that time consuming for you.

Brandon Lee: So, you know, I [00:25:00] don't have time is usually a valid excuse for, I'm scared, I don't want to do this and I don't wanna put myself out there. What you were just saying is that over time with your content, it builds a stronger relationship with people. Talk a little bit about building that community and your own fear of creating this type of content and, and how you got over it or how you learned and, and started to embrace it better.

Chris Dunn: Yeah. And you know, it doesn't happen overnight by any means. Uh, and I'll go back to, you know, pre pandemic, pre COVID. I, you know, I like, like many people had a LinkedIn account and I did a little bit here and there and would post a picture of a, of a booth or something to that effect. And then during the pandemic.

Chris Dunn: And what 

Brandon Lee: was the content around that? Let, let's see. Like, you throw a picture of a booth, and if I know from your stories, it'd be [00:26:00] like, Hey, look what we did. Anyone have a need? We we can do this for you too. Right? It was very promotional. Yeah. 

Chris Dunn: Right. It was promotional. It was like, you know, look at this, look at this cool booth that we, that we did.

Chris Dunn: And by the way, you know, if you're, if you haven't exactly what you said, right. If you have a need or, uh, hey, we're, we're gonna be in San Diego for the a, a d show. You know who needs help? It was very promotional. 

Brandon Lee: And how did that work for you? Now you do have an advantage. You have cool pictures because you have We do, 

Chris Dunn: we do have, yeah, absolutely.

Chris Dunn: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and in the earlier days of LinkedIn, not as many people were on it. So I, I don't, I can't recall specific business coming from it, but I always felt like at least we're, you know, we're showing our work, right? We'd make cool stuff. So let's show the pictures that we, uh, you know, that the projects that we're, that we're doing.

Chris Dunn: So kind of fast forward into, uh, the pandemic, uh, 2020 or so, and, and there is no face to face anymore. All events are gone. And I'm like, alright, so what can I do? [00:27:00] What can I control? I can't, there's a lot I can't control. What I can't control is growing my network. So I started just reaching out and I, I was very parochial in, in, um, strategy to start with.

Chris Dunn: I was reaching out, uh, within New England and New York to other event related PE people. And the, the thought processes were like, we can, misery loves company, right? If nothing else, like, let's connect and, and just kind of shoot the shit a little bit about like, boy, this really sucks. Uh, I can't wait for our events and just life in general to return to normal.

Chris Dunn: Um, started building you on show. There's no passing. Do I have to put uh, some money in the swear jar? I'll, I'll Venmo you there. Um. So, you know, that's, that began to create some conversations and I started noticing a shift of how people were acting on this platform. And I started seeing people, you know, doing things.

Chris Dunn: And I, I know I shared this story with you, but I'll share it again for the benefit. I was following a guy, he was a, he had a, a marketing agency and he was, [00:28:00] um, a guy out in Utah, I believe. Uh, and he, uh, all of a sudden I see him and his buddies on the chairlift and they're taking a video, you know, they've got that, doing the selfie with the phone and hey, you know, we had a kickass morning, we, we did some work and, uh, we're, we're, uh, we're taking the afternoon off and we're skiing.

Chris Dunn: And I was like, I'm a skier. So I'm like, wow, that's, that's pretty awesome. Like, this is, he, he's sharing in a very different way than up to that point. Like everything was just like. It, this is professional network and we have to keep things between the sticks and, you know, it's, we talk about jobs and we talk about professional things, and this was a bit of an eye-opener.

Chris Dunn: So it started expanding my, my horizons about what the possibilities were. Um, and I, and I really kind of started leaning into LinkedIn, but I didn't, I didn't know specifically what I was doing. I was just kind of following the lead and trying to find my voice. So I think, you know, you mentioned like, how do I, how would I talk to leaders out there who are maybe apprehensive to start?[00:29:00] 

Chris Dunn: And I think that's the biggest thing is you just gotta, you gotta kind of dip your toe and then you step all the way in and, and you, you start putting things out there and eventually you find your voice and you, you find what feels right based on, you know, what's in your heart. And, and also you, you also get feedback from the marketplace.

Chris Dunn: Um, if no one responds to what you're putting out there, chances are. It's maybe inauthentic, maybe it's coming off as a little pitchy, maybe it's a little bit braggadocious. Um, and so you start playing around with your content. And I think the more empathic things are, the more that you are relatable, the more that you're coming to the table admitting like, I really messed up.

Chris Dunn: Like I, I tried this thing. I thought it would work. Uh, here's, here's the results we got. They weren't stellar, right? I messed up, but how can I learn from that? So I think people really start to respond when you are honest and when you are relatable and you're not like, look at me, I'm freaking killing it.

Chris Dunn: You know, you know, six figures every month, you [00:30:00] know, no one wants to hear that crap. Um, so just, you know, and, and maybe that's the reality of your situation. Maybe you are killing it in six figures every month and all that. Um, but, but present it in a way that's a little bit more relatable. 

Brandon Lee: Yeah, absolutely.

Brandon Lee: Well, let's, let's transition a little bit. 'cause I, it's important you moved from. Everything we've been talking about, creating bar and the dog videos, doing different types of pictures, um, sharing more authentically, strategically, right. You, you've had a couple of topics that these are the things you wanna talk about.

Brandon Lee: You talk about your family. You talked about Barton, you talked about travel, you talked about microbrews, because that's one of your, one of your hobbies. Incorporated all that into business. Then you got to a point you said it is time to go do a show. So tell us, tell us a little bit about the thinking on why, why do a show?

Brandon Lee: Um, and then, uh, we'll talk about how you got started and then we'll talk a little bit about what's happened since you started. [00:31:00] But let's, let's start with that transition first. 

Chris Dunn: Well, to be a hundred percent clear, I. So a couple people had told me, you know, a few years ago, like, oh, you, you're pretty outgoing.

Chris Dunn: Like you have a, a personality that might, and I was like, no way. Like I can, I can't do that. I wouldn't do that. I don't have the, uh, you know, the stones to go do that. Um, but luckily I was working with you and fist bump and we were, you know, and I was, uh, uh, I was a very, um, interested viewer of a lot of different podcasts.

Chris Dunn: One of which was your, you know, mastering modern, modern selling. That's really how I got to kind of, kind of know you and got to connect with you. Um, so the more that I kind of watched and the more that I. O became open to it. I was actually a guest on a few other podcasts here and there. Eventually I kind of came around and I'm like, you know what?

Chris Dunn: Um, my mantra for 2024 was consistency. I, I, I [00:32:00] strived to make sure I'm just post every day. Um, but coming into, into 2025, I dunno if I messed up the years that that was 24, but coming into 25, I said, I, I need to, I need to uplevel, um, what I'm doing. So I need to raise the bar on, on my content and in conversations with you as we got, you know, closer to.

Chris Dunn: You know, through the fall and I, I could see 20, 25 around the corner. I'm like, alright, I, I'm ready. This creating a show where, um, we can have a, I can have a voice, uh, on behalf of my company to kind of raise my profile and my reputation as a thought leader in the industry to be able to offer value to people in the events realm, to, um, you know, with an idea of let's just have really interesting folks from all over our event, you know, related field, regardless of what they do, bring 'em on, have great conversations, and take that content and utilize that, um, as content that we can share.

Chris Dunn: [00:33:00] So it took a while. Uh, it wasn't something that, um, that I, that I jumped at right away, but the more that we talked about it, the more I gained confidence. Mm-hmm. Um. And to be honest with you, you know, it was, it went back, our original conversations were like, Hey, Brandon, can you just help me do this? I'm, I'm gonna, you know, try to launch this on my own.

Chris Dunn: And it was just, it was a big lift. And as much as myself and my partner at the time with the podcast tried to get it off the ground, we, we couldn't. Uh, it just our accountability meetings every month we're like, yes, this is gonna be great. We're gonna hold each other accountable. And then literally, like a month goes by and we're like, what did we do?

Chris Dunn: Nothing. Yeah. So luckily, uh, we, we finally got to a point where we're like, you know what? We just need the professionals to help us. We, uh, engaged with Fist Bump, um, and we have been doing the show every week since, uh, the first of the year. So we just, uh, did our 24th episode. And, uh, you know, the more you [00:34:00] do, the more you get comfortable with the media or the medium.

Chris Dunn: Um, we've had some great guests on, we've turned out, you know, some, some amazing, uh, you know, created some great content through those conversations, some real great thought leadership stuff. Um. I've taken a whole bunch of notes and I'm learning from the people that I'm talking to. And now I can share that back with my clients because I'm talking to people who are doing things that they should be doing.

Chris Dunn: So, you know, the benefits are, are super cyclical. 

Brandon Lee: Yeah. Sorry about that. But yeah, one of the things that I find with Mastery Modern Selling is how much I learned just by being a host. But Chris, um, two things for people listening. Um, you talked about you've created a bunch of content, can you share with everybody, you do an episode and then what, like what other types of content are you creating?

Brandon Lee: And we share what are, what are some of the successes and get down to, you know, more qualitative successes. But can you get into any quantifiable [00:35:00] successes from the show? And Hi Bala. Good for tha Thanks for joining us. Good to see you. 

Chris Dunn: Hey, guys. Um, yes. So what does that look like, uh, when you work with, you know, a fist bump as a, as a media partner?

Chris Dunn: Um, obviously we're doing the show and we, in the beginning we did a bunch that were taped, so we would record them ahead and then we would. Obviously play them because again, I, I, I am a big believer in the consistency. So every Thursday at 12 o'clock, that's when our show airs. We want to create a consistency that people just expect that it's there, right?

Chris Dunn: So mm-hmm. Um, whether we've, whether we're doing it live, which is most all the time now, or if we were recording it, it would always be launched at that time. Um, all of the video, so exactly what we're creating here is captured and the team, uh, is able to basically take that video and the shorts, maybe they're 60 to 90 seconds, roughly speaking.

Chris Dunn: Um, cut them up, grab some really, you know, good [00:36:00] little clips. Uh, and then share that with me as the, as the customer. Mm-hmm. Uh, so the Tuesday following my Thursday show, I open up my emails. I have an email from my amazing producer, wana, uh, who is a fist month team member, and, uh. Usually five or six, uh, shorts that are in there, uh, along with transcripts and, and, um, you know, uh, and a newsletter.

Chris Dunn: So, so fist bump basically takes all of these things and they build all of these different assets that we can use. Um, you know. The, the show itself is sponsored. It, it's, it's a BlueHive show. We're really, we do our best to not make it a BlueHive commercial. We try to keep it somewhat, you know, agnostic across the board.

Chris Dunn: So we're just here to recommend best practices across, you know, industry standards kind of thing. Um, but you guys help us, you know, produce all of that. And then we can be thought leaders and I roll those out probably. 2, 3, 4 times a week, I [00:37:00] will take those shorts, different ones. Mm-hmm. Uh, mostly what I do is I, I'll, I'll put the post up and I will write something, usually kind of a snippet.

Chris Dunn: Uh, I have suggestions that come in. I do find that I like to kind of craft my own verbiage, but I, I've got a, a ton of stuff to lean on from the, the fist bump team so that I'm, I'm not spending hours and hours doing this. It's literally like, 

Brandon Lee: get starters, get you started, get you moving. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Dunn: It's, it's got, you know, here are some thoughts. Um, I, I'm looking for different ways, playing with different hooks and just trying different things to see what works. Um, we've actually also recently gone to a stacked, uh, vertical format so that the video is not playing in horizontal fashion. It's playing in a vertical fashion, which is favored by LinkedIn.

Chris Dunn: And also basically what you get when you're taking a video with your phone, you know, in the vertical format. Um, so we know that LinkedIn likes those and they're pushing those, the algorithm favors those and they're gonna, [00:38:00] you know, put them into, uh, into more of a play. So we're tinkering with what we're doing.

Chris Dunn: And, um, you know, initially, I will be honest, initially coming into the, the first of the year, I was like, cool, this is it. This is what I'm doing. Like all my content will be this. And in the beginning it was good, and then it, I, my traction and my impressions and everything did drop off. Mm-hmm. So what I realized was you still need a variety.

Chris Dunn: You need to give again, people different reasons to follow you and to be interested in the content you're putting out there. So if you're doing the same thing over and over and over again in the same fashion, you know, link, not only LinkedIn, but I think people who are looking are gonna grow a little bored with that.

Chris Dunn: So you have to have the variety. So I kind of reverted back to, you know, my original strategy. I am, I'm posting, you know, stills, I'm posting my own videos. I walk around in our, in our production shop, or I'm walking on the trail with the dog when I'm talking [00:39:00] about, you know, discovery meetings and, and other things that I've seen.

Chris Dunn: So I'm trying to, uh. Bring a variety of different types of posts to the table, uh, or to the platform as it were. Mm-hmm. Um, but the content that we're building by doing the show is giving us, you know, really amazing stuff. Super, you know, thought leadership, um, great little gold nuggets that I think anybody in our industry, uh, you know, is, is really happy to kind of, to, to grab onto.

Chris Dunn: So posting those, and then we're, we're pushing, you know, people back towards the full episode, whether it be on LinkedIn or on YouTube. And then I myself am actually, I love listening to, uh, to everything on, uh, on Spotify. So, you know, making sure that people are understanding that, uh, that we're on all of the, all of the different, uh, uh, platforms as well for, for, uh, you know, your audible, uh, podcasts and so forth.

Brandon Lee: Yeah, well look at that. Lincoln, uh, [00:40:00] axon, he and I had a call, uh, last week and, uh, he's outta the uk and he said, Hey, the tagline, so Lincoln, we, we already talked about BARTing, the dog and, and you know, the, the hundreds of thousands of dollars that, that Chris has generated from, you know, his link LinkedIn content, uh, which is a lot around, around, a lot around Barton and, and people remembering you because of those cool, those cool posts that you do on your dog walks and, and the combination of.

Brandon Lee: The dog, walk with some business thoughts and bring those together and you stay, stay top of mind. Well, Chris, you know, he's, 

Chris Dunn: he, he, he's a, he's a, a partner of mine in that, uh, he does ask for a small finder's fee, but it's usually in the form of, uh, cookies. Yeah. 

Brandon Lee: Uh, 

Chris Dunn: or biscuits or, uh, or, uh, 

Brandon Lee: milk, bones, other 

Chris Dunn: little dog treats.

Chris Dunn: Yeah. He's, he, he's, he's not really a money guy. Um, no opposable thumb to count the cash. So he's all about the, uh, the snacks. 

Brandon Lee: Yeah. But he's, he is a good lead generator for you. 

Chris Dunn: He is, he is. Well, [00:41:00] he is a lot better looking than I am, so I use that as a, as my lead. 

Brandon Lee: Yeah. Well, and Lincoln, if you, if you haven't seen that part yet, if you join the live, um, when it's, when this is over, you can go watch the recording and we do talk about that in the first, you know, 10 to 15 minutes about, about Barton Chris.

Brandon Lee: Um. For people that are, are listening to this, they're like, Hey, um, maybe I should be thinking about a show. Mm-hmm. And, um, what, what's your advice for them? First of all, what's the motivation that they should be thinking about and what's your advice for them about having a, having a show? 

Chris Dunn: You know, I think the motivation and obviously everybody's gonna find their, their own.

Chris Dunn: You know, for me it was like, I, I knew that it was time to, to uplevel my game. And, uh, I. I, I had been involved in a number of conversations with, um, whether they be, you know, fellow colleagues here at BlueHive or customers or partners or whatever. And, and after that, you know, [00:42:00] zoom call, I'd be like, damn, I wish I recorded this.

Chris Dunn: Like, we talked about some really great stuff that I'd, that I'd love to share with people. Yeah. Um, so knowing that those conversations are happening regularly, I was like, okay, so get myself comfortable. You know, people say, get comfortable with being uncomfortable, and that was true in the beginning, but the more you do it, the more it becomes just a, a, a mess, a muscle memory.

Chris Dunn: Right. So it's, it's just kind of things that it, it's what we do every Thursday now. Um. And, and so the motivation was like, how do I, how do I, uh, build, continue to build my reputation as a thought leader in the industry? I don't want to be pitch slapping people. Um, I want to have new things to kinda share and talk about all the time.

Chris Dunn: So the, the, the show, uh, just made sense for that type of a thing. And it was, you know, super difficult to try to wrap my head around how do I do all of these things on my own? And, and, and soon discovered that there was a lot there. But when you partner with [00:43:00] somebody like Fist Bump, um, that. That carries the heavy load and has the experience and does this on a, literally, on a daily basis.

Chris Dunn: They know the ins and outs, they know the platforms, they know how to do it, they know how to tee everything up. So for me, it was a win-win that I could put in, you know, in addition to the few hours that I spend, uh, over the course of the week on LinkedIn. Anyways, you know, I'm literally, I've got the hour that we're recording and we usually try to come in at around 40 to 45 minutes.

Chris Dunn: Um, and then obviously this is a little tinkering with that, but for a fairly minimal investment in my time, I get, I. All of these really great things that are, are assets that we can use in our sales and marketing efforts. 

Brandon Lee: Yeah. What about, what about Chris? Just that nervousness of putting themselves out there or feeling like, oh, this is just a nice to have.

Brandon Lee: I think, especially right now, uh, you know, we got economic headwinds, we got all kinds of crazy stuff going on in the news, and it's like, oh [00:44:00] no, let's, let's pull back on those types of nice to haves. Do you see this as, as a nice to have or do you see this as like crucial to your, I. To your pipeline building?

Chris Dunn: I think it's crucial. I think, um, yeah, I don't think it's a nice to have anymore. I mean, you know, I didn't know this obviously going into it. Um, and again, you know, we mentioned it before, it's not like you record a couple of episodes, kind of like I mentioned, it's not like you put up a post and, and pos come raining out the sky.

Chris Dunn: But I'm, uh, I've, I've seen, you know, my number of connections building, uh, fist bump actually helps me connect with other event professionals. They're, they're sending, uh, invitations out there on my behalf, inviting people to show. So I, I've got a lot more connections who are in my, you know, ICP realm, uh, now af you know, having since done the show, um, when you bring a guest on, so the, I, I guess this would speak to somewhat to the nervousness.

Chris Dunn: Um, I'm not the focus of the [00:45:00] show. The focus of the show is the guest. And the guest ideally is really just telling their story like what I'm doing right now. Mm-hmm. So people like to talk about it. Do you themselves and their story, 

Brandon Lee: do you do without, do you do any episodes without guests? I can't 

Chris Dunn: remember.

Chris Dunn: We did our first last week, so it was, uh, myself and my coho co-host and I have, I've had a couple of co-hosts. Um, my, my main co-host, uh, Dana, uh, and I, and what we actually did, which was actually a really fun episode, is we went back and looked at what did we learn in the first, you know, five and a half months.

Chris Dunn: Yeah. The first 23 episodes. And, um, and wanna helped us kind of aggregate that information. She took all the transcripts and, and the newsletters and everything and we found common themes. Um, and I actually had Dana interview me. Uh, because she's, of the 23 episodes, she's probably been associated with half of them.

Chris Dunn: So she actually interviewed me and I was able to go through and reference a whole bunch of our different guests. Uh, hey, here's something I learned from [00:46:00] John. There was a great point made by Kayla. Wasn't this a a, a cool episode that we talked about with, uh, with, with Brendan? Um, you know, so it was really fun to kind of go back and revisit all of those things that we learned.

Chris Dunn: And as I was talking, you start tying those things together in a meaningful way. Um, and hopefully I think, you know, that episode I. We'll, we'll have actually the shorts and everything from that today, and I'll start sharing those as well. Mm-hmm. Which will, again, I just help amplify, you know, our voice and our brand and give, um, we're, we're all looking for ways to kind of help build our, our, our business.

Chris Dunn: And, and it's not always something that you can see readily, but you know, this, that, that, that top of funnel work where people become interested in what you're saying, the, the information you're bringing to the table, um, how valuable those ideas are that you're sharing. And hopefully they're taking little nuggets from, from what we're sharing and what our guests are sharing, and they're able to incorporate those into their daily, [00:47:00] you know, into their daily cadence and kind of move the needle on what they're doing.

Brandon Lee: Chris, how do you rate the, uh, the ROI for you on, including the time investment between your show and your LinkedIn, but your time, how much you spend? Um, how do you, how do you rate, or how do you think about that ROI think consider there's a bunch of other sales leaders and company leaders watching this saying, eh, maybe, maybe not.

Brandon Lee: What, what, how do you look at the ROI, 

Chris Dunn: you know, it, I would definitely say you, you want to come in with a long game mentality. Uh, certainly things don't happen overnight, but I, I do believe wholeheartedly that, um, everything that we do online is we're building a portfolio of experience for people to, to see.

Chris Dunn: And I think, um. You know, I, I, I feel like we find validation in that because when somebody new connects with me, all of a sudden I see them going back through a whole series of posts or video clips, and they're liking things from the past. So [00:48:00] they're, you know, as we put people into the funnel, it's not just about what we've done today, but they're going back and they're consuming things that we've done in the past, and they're taking that in.

Chris Dunn: And I think that helps fast track the know, like, and trust, right? Again, you know, I fully expect, and I don't know when the next one will be, but somebody will bubble up out of the, you know, out of the ether that I did not expect and be like, Hey, I love the episode that you did with so-and-so about creating evergreen content at a trade show, or whatever the, you know, whatever the topic of choice is.

Chris Dunn: So what I tell, what I can tell you and draw a very specific straight line to ROI is that, uh, that we actually had a guest upon on the show. And after that show a couple weeks later, he said, Hey, you know. I've really, I really enjoyed doing the show with you, but I also, uh, I, I have a better understanding of what you guys do and what you're capable of.

Chris Dunn: We have an opportunity we wanna bring you in on. Mm-hmm. And it opened up, um, you know, an opportunity that we'd never [00:49:00] would've had to, to basically be part of a, you know, several hundred thousand dollars. Our piece of that puzzle was several hundred thousand dollars. And, um, although the opportunity didn't work out, like, uh, all we can ask is for a seat at the table, or to get our foot in the door and to get those opportunities.

Chris Dunn: So. Yeah. That's another thing that, that, that Brandon made sure that I understood too, as the co-host is like, don't just go bring your friends on, identify people who are in your ICP and invite them to be on your show, because that's a whole different conversation. Yeah. Uh, than like, Hey, do you wanna buy something from me?

Chris Dunn: Like, Hey, I'm Chris, I'm with BlueHive. I think you'd be a great guest on our show. Would you mind coming on and sharing, you know, about things that you're doing? And you create relationships and you, you get to have, um. You know, a, a whole different point of entry. You're coming in through a different, a very different door than all of the other salespeople who are just banging on this guy's door trying to sell him stuff.

Brandon Lee: Yeah. You, you brought [00:50:00] me everything you said there. Um, if I can follow it all, one of the things you were talking about was the, the know dark social, which I think there's gonna be a topic I need to do in a future show is talk about what dark social means is you're talking about people that you connect with and then you see them start going through your history of post and engaging with it.

Brandon Lee: What's interesting for me with that is you, you use the term, the funnel, and I would push back and say, that's like prefun or it's funnel, but you don't know they're in the funnel because it's happening organically. Right. It's not the official funnel. Uh, it's more. The way buyers behave these days, they don't, they don't wanna be in your funnel.

Brandon Lee: What they wanna do is go look at things and talk to people and see things, and, and do their research on their own time. They don't wanna be in your funnel, which means they're not downloading the case studies, they're not opting into anything but you. By doing that, you [00:51:00] really kind of got a passive opt-in, if you will, because your reputation, your show, your content got them to say, yes, to connect with you, and then they start looking at your content.

Brandon Lee: And as you're engaging with them and they're engaging with your content, they're, they're like an informal funnel, right. It's, it's kind of like we, we flip that 

Chris Dunn: invisible. Right. You don't, you don't actually see it. Yeah. Right. 

Brandon Lee: Part of it. But then the other, the other thing you were saying that reminds me is, is one, or, or listening, uh, we need to do an episode of the show on the episodes strategies, the different ways to use episodes of shows to, um, help fill your pipeline, to grow your network, build your brand, grow your pipeline, and be, uh, you know, become this influential voice in your industry.

Brandon Lee: So thanks for that, Chris. I appreciate it. Yeah, 

Chris Dunn: you, you bet. You know, you know, one other thing and, and I, I'm just thinking of a couple other things, um, and I know we need [00:52:00] to wrap up soon. One other thing that, that. Uh, had planted a seed, well, before I even considered doing this show was, um, I was listening to a podcast put on by another event professional.

Chris Dunn: And their business model, uh, for this particular company is, they're kind of a white label group. They, they handle stuff for companies like us, so they don't sell to the inline user. They sell through exhibit houses. Um, and they're, they're positioned in key locations around the country in, uh, Las Vegas and Orlando specifically.

Chris Dunn: I had been listening to this guy's show. Again, it was not salesy. It was, and it was really not even about like his company. It was all industry information that I found really valuable. Um. The, the amount of time that he promoted a show was, you know, minuscule of the 30 minutes. It was, he'd spend 30 seconds talking about a show.

Chris Dunn: But I knew enough about what he did, and we had an opportunity come into us through an existing client. Uh, the, the timeline was really, uh, constricted. [00:53:00] The, the budget wasn't bad, but it was just like, how the hell are we gonna try to, or how are we gonna be able to pull this off based on the bandwidth issues that we had?

Chris Dunn: Um, this was, I think, you know, post COVID and a fire hose had just been turned on and everything was crazy. No one had enough people. Long story short, because of his show, we used his company to execute, execute and fill a need for an existing client of ours. And I made sure and tell him, and told him one day, I said, Hey Chris, I just want you to know that this $400,000 job that we did is absolutely.

Chris Dunn: You know, directly attributable to your podcast. That's why we're doing business with you. Uh, so I want you to keep, you know, if you're struggling, uh, you know, drawing a direct line to revenue, please know that you can attribute, uh, that job that we did, you know, to your podcast. And, you know, to his credit, he's still, he's still, he does not rolling 'em out, uh, every week like we are, but he's [00:54:00] regularly, you know, contributing that content.

Chris Dunn: So again, it's, it, it's a, it, it, it's a bit of a long play. Um, but it can have, it can have quick hit wins for you as well. Yeah. 

Brandon Lee: And, and that's, that, that's the, I think that's the right way to explain it. You gotta go into it with the mindset that it is a long play. However, and you can't perfectly quantify this, however, there's these quick hits that come in.

Brandon Lee: They, they generally happen in the form of inbound. I mean, I can, I can attribute hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue that came from inbound. Yeah. And it's usually the form of somebody sending a message that says, Hey, I've been watching your show for the past couple of months. I had no idea, but can you help?

Brandon Lee: I mean, I, I booked a speaking engagement a little bit ago, uh, from somebody that sent me a message like, Hey, I've been watching your show. Could you come in and speak at, at an event that we're doing, and, you know, this $15,000, uh, speaking opportunity to go in and do things. So, you know, there's, you gotta [00:55:00] think long term to just manage expectations, but those of us that have done it, we know there's the short, the short pops that come in unexpectedly and you're like, oh my gosh, this is great.

Chris Dunn: Right. You know, one, one other thing I wanna mention as well, and this isn't really a plug for having a show, it's more along the lines of just being willing to share stuff about your, about your life, uh, about your humanity. And, and everyone's gonna have a different level of comfort with. What degree of personal they share.

Chris Dunn: I happen to be a pretty open book. Um, obviously I'm not, you know, not everything's out there, but I talk a lot about my family. I'm really proud of my kids who are all, a couple of 'em just graduated college. I did a post about, uh, about my two girls. They, one graduated with master's degree. She actually had a job already super proud, like shine the light on her, bang the drum.

Chris Dunn: And then my other daughter, oh, here's Emma. You know, she just finished, uh, you know, her, uh, her fa she just got her degree in fashion and merchandising from Virginia Tech. She's looking for a job. [00:56:00] We got a comment on that post from somebody who I knew ish in my town and Emma's in the last rounds of interviews with her company.

Chris Dunn: No way. So I'm not selling anything. All I'm doing is sharing what's going on and I. Just, you know, people like doing business with people they don't like and trust. Um, so that, I just found that correlation really freaking cool. Uh, and, and the other, one other side benefit from it, and there are many, is that now my kids who think I'm a total LinkedIn dork are like, huh, maybe there.

Brandon Lee: Yeah. That's really good. I appreciate it. Well, Chris, as we wrap up, by the way, you've now gone, you've become the longest episode I've ever had on revenue reputation, unlike modern sell mastery modern selling, where we go an hour every episode to an hour and two minutes. This one's usually about [00:57:00] 35 to 40.

Brandon Lee: So good job. We, we really, I like it. 

Chris Dunn: I can babble for a lot more than that. 

Brandon Lee: Knock that one outta the ballpark. Um, hey, somebody, somebody's listening, they're curious about, uh, LinkedIn. They're curious. They need exhibit, uh, they need a booth. They need help with that. Uh, what's their best way to get in touch with you?

Chris Dunn: Uh, I am active on LinkedIn as mentioned, so you can find me there. Oh, really? Blue? Yeah. Yes. Um, uh, BlueHive exhibits. So if you, uh, go to our website, it's blue dash hive, so blue-hive.com. Uh, you can find, uh, find me and you can find us through there. Um, but, uh, you know, a lot of the things that I've learned from, you know, from being on LinkedIn and from Brandon and from Fist Bump and so forth, obviously, uh, you know, I know the people who kinda run the, uh, the page here at BlueHive.

Chris Dunn: So we kind of work together in tandem and, uh, we try to do a good job of putting as much, uh, good information out there, you know, through that particular channel, as well as other [00:58:00] social channels, uh, as well. 

Brandon Lee: Excellent. Excellent. All right. Well thanks for that, Chris. Thank you for taking time and coming out and being a guest.

Brandon Lee: And we'll, we'll use this as a dark social, uh, activity for you and I. And I'm just, I'm just gonna be praying and hoping that from this episode, somebody's gonna reach out to you and you're gonna get a new exhibitor client. And we're gonna chalk another one up to dark social, uh, and how it works. And by the way, if you don't know what dark social is, um, subscribe to my show or follow this page or follow me or connect with me because, uh, we're gonna talk about dark social hair coming up because it's.

Brandon Lee: You know, we, I started talking about dark social probably five, six years ago, and you just see this escalating and escalating of the value from, from dark social. And by the way, it's not like the dark web. It's not all, 

Chris Dunn: it's not the dark web. 

Brandon Lee: No. It basically means this, there's all this social content out there, whether you're a guest on a show or you have a show, people find it in ways that are dark to you and your [00:59:00] team.

Brandon Lee: You don't see so way it may play out sometimes is, uh, somebody does a Google search, finds your company, and we wanna go chalk it up to, you know, marketing and, and Google and SEO and all that. But really what happened is Chris was on a show, he shared his experience, shared his story. Somebody a week or two later go, oh, what was his, oh, the company was BlueHive.

Brandon Lee: But like in your case, they don't remember. It's blue dash hive. So then they do a Google search, they find BlueHive, they go there, they become a client. Everybody gets excited. They Google dance thing, but it wasn't Google. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, 

Brandon Lee: it was, it was an episode of a show or another piece of content. That's what dark social is.

Brandon Lee: And we'll do an episode on that here coming up. But Chris, thank you so much for joining me and, uh, yeah, thanks 

Chris Dunn: for having me. 

Brandon Lee: Absolutely. Any, any last words you wanna share with anybody before we wrap up? 

Chris Dunn: Uh, other than, you know, I, I appreciate you. Um, I think one thing that I don't want to [01:00:00] o overlook is the real genuine relationships that we find and build here on LinkedIn.

Chris Dunn: I have so many people that, uh, I. That I've never met before, who I consider, you know, really close friends, uh, because of what I've learned about them on LinkedIn, which leads to then a Zoom call and a virtual beer or whatever. Um, you know, Brandon and I have, uh, have actually met in person a few times. Um, and I, I honestly, I, I really cherish our, our friendship.

Chris Dunn: I've learned a ton from you as a, as a mentor and somebody to, uh, you know, to, to look up to. So I just, I'll leave you with that as well. If you're, you know, somebody who's apprehensive about just putting yourself out there a little bit more. It's, this is a, it's just a 24 7, 365 networking room. Yeah. You know, you know, you don't have to go in and be someone you're, you're not.

Chris Dunn: Just go be yourself and you will find your people. 

Brandon Lee: Yeah, I'm gonna, I'll pile along the love fest here. Uh, the love fest, Chris, is, you've been such a [01:01:00] great contribution to the community. So not only do we do this, uh, we produce the shows and do the promotion and management and do our executive thoughts, uh, program where we do interview them in our digital studios and create a bunch of content.

Brandon Lee: But we have coaching programs. We, we get together and we talk about this stuff. We talk about the things that we're scared of. We're talking about things we wanna try, we're talking about has anyone done this? What do you think? And Chris, you have been such a, um, excellent contributor to that. And I would say even leader in that because you've, you've, you've thrown uh, you've thrown fear to the side.

Brandon Lee: You've gone all in and you've been very motivating for a lot of people who've seen you go from here to here and really get excited about it. So thank, thank you for being a part of our community as well. 

Chris Dunn: Awesome. No, I appreciate that and thanks very much. And Butch, I see you out there. Uh, can't wait to be on your show in a couple weeks.

Brandon Lee: There you go. There you go. Alright. That's right. Making 

Chris Dunn: the rounds. 

Brandon Lee: Yeah. Everyone that is watching or you're on the podcast, thank you so [01:02:00] much for listening to another episode of Revenue Through Reputation. I'll be back next week. I think we're gonna be talking about dark social and uh, we got a few other things.

Brandon Lee: We're gonna talk about episode strategies and the different types of episodes that you can have to accomplish your goals. It's not just about showing up and having a show. There's a lot of strategic, there's a lot of planning, there's a lot of messaging that goes on in order to really take advantage of the content.

Brandon Lee: So, uh, stick around and we'll have more episodes and keep sharing, keep talking. Thanks again, Chris. Thank you everybody. Have a great day. We'll see you next week.