How to get the Pussy Cat Dolls as a client - Tim Young Interview
Today I interviewed Tim Young who is the founder of Social Cast. He was able to secure large companies like Interscope Records and Nickelodian as an undergraduate. Tim explains in full detail how he was able to get these clients and how you can do it too.
Contact: Tim [at] SocialCast.com
[Download the audio of the interview available at the bottom of this post]
To the minute summary of the interview:
1:54 - How were you able to land huge clients like Interscope Records and Nickelodian as an undergraduate?
Tim believes the first part to landing huge clients is a change of mindset. Stop thinking of yourself as just an undergrad and believe that you are on a level playing field with everyone else. As we say in Future Delivery, “Confidence is everything minus 1.“ If you believe in yourself and have the confidence that you can do it, you’re 99% there.
The second important factor is to build a business in a field that you are not only passionate about, but that you have an expertise in. Tim’s company, Event Robot, focused on building social networks. At the time, social networks were fairly new to companies and were dominated by the young high schoolers and college undergraduates. Tim demonstrated that as an undergraduate, he was better equipped in building a social network than 30 - 40 year old professionals who have no idea what a social network is.
4:01 - How were you able to meet the decision makers in these large companies?
Tim leveraged his young alumni network. He knew many recent grads that went into the media and entertainment field and maintained close relationships with them in order to leverage their contact. Tim advices that one of the most important things that you can do as an undergrad or young professional is to network and build relationships with upper classmen or top directors because they have more experience and a larger network that you can someday use to your advantage.
5:42 - Even w/ an young contact in a company, it’s difficult to get to the decision maker. What was the X-factor that allowed you to pitch to the decision maker and close the deal?
Step 1: Take your alumni contact out to lunch and meet for a fact-to-face meeting
Step 2: Pitch the almuni, get them excited, show that you can provide the company value, and most importantly, demonstrate how you can make the alumni look good.
Step 3: Get your alumni to convince his boss to give you 15 minutes to present your company and how you can add humongous value to their company
Step 4: Request to do a free trial run. Do spectacular on your trial run because this will demonstrate to the potential client whether you can walk the walk
Step 5: Confidently close the deal. Do not do another free trial run
Step 6: Leverage this big client to get other clients in similar fields and industries. Stay niche and stay focused
10:22 - How were you able to develop your presentation and pitching skill set to be able to close deals with clients?
Tim advices to read the following two books to develop your presentation and sales skill set:
Tim and his team would constantly work at Starbucks and other coffee shops. He took advantage of his surroundings by walking over to people in the coffee shop and pitching his ideas to them. This helped a lot with presentations because it broke down the fear barrier, allowed him to practice and refine his pitch, and he randomly met good people that could potentially help out his company.
Lastly, Tim would always take a partner to the client pitches that would take notes about the potential client’s reactions during his pitch. After the meeting, Tim would review the notes in order to make his presentation and pitch strong and more captivating.
12:29 - What are your final pieces of advice for an entrepreneur?
It’s all about doing what you love. If you do what you love, you will work through the extremely long hours, the non-existent income, and the enormous amount of stress and pressure that comes with the startup life. If you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re not going to find happiness in entrepreneurship.
Leave corporate America ONLY if you find something that you are passionate about. Create an actionable plan with small milestones, enact the plan while you’re in corporate America, and take small steps because sooner than later, these small steps will accumulate to a solid company that you can leave your full-time for.
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Download audio of Tim Young Interview (Right click to download)
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Jun, I’m actually really impressed with the amount of hard work and effort that you put into this post. You didn’t simply record the interview and put it up, I can tell that you spent time editing the vid.
The quick point summary of the video was very helpful for me. I’m someone with not a lot of time on my hands, so it was really convenient for me to jump around and go directly to the part that I’m interested in.
This is my first comment to you, and I just want to say keep it up! I’m learning a lot
@Samantha - I really appreciate your comment. I did put a lot of time in creating a post that will hopefully bring a lot of value to anyone, no matter how busy they are.
You can also download the audio at the end of the post.
Great interview Jun. Although Leo Wells is no longer a young entreprenuer, he was when he started. And he has stayed true to his values and goals and now he is a very successful entrepreneur. Even during this harsh time he’s been very successful. He’d make a great interview subject.