Mastering Networking with Dave Castro, IceBrekr

Unlock the secrets of effective networking with Dave Castro, the mastermind behind the Icebrekr app. Have you ever wondered how to make meaningful connections at networking events, especially if you're an introvert? Castro's journey from juggling multiple jobs to creating a game-changing networking tool is inspiring. He shares his insights on maximizing your networking efforts by identifying ideal connections and making every interaction count.

Discover the versatile features of Icebrekr that cater to both attendees and organizers, from live registration lists to proximity-based notifications. We dive into how the app thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential to transform networking by blending digital tools with face-to-face interactions. Learn powerful networking strategies that emphasize the importance of in-person connections and maintaining relationships over time.

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Chapters

• 0:02 Icebreaker App
• 10:18 Event Connection Platform for Networking
• 17:11 Powerful Networking Strategies

Transcript

Erin Manning: 0:02

Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host Gary Pageau. The Dead Pixel Society podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip, Advertek Printing, and Independent Photo Imagers.

Gary Pageau: 0:18

Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau, and we're joined by Dave Castro, an entrepreneur and creator of the Icebrekr app. He's coming to us today from Nashville, Tennessee. Hi, Dave, how are you today?

Dave Castro: 0:32

I'm great, Gary, good to be here.

Gary Pageau: 0:34

So, Dave, tell me a little bit about your journey in the software space, because you've been in the industry for a couple of years, or a couple of decades, I should say.

Dave Castro: 0:44

Yeah, so I was working several jobs to pay my way through school. In fact, I wanted to be on the soccer team, but you weren't allowed to have a job and be on the team at the same time because I figured that would double, doubly impact your academics. So, yeah, I was doing the whole. Five different jobs worked for a real realtor, worked for a school.

Dave Castro: 1:08

I, I. I was like a PE teacher at a private school.

Dave Castro: 1:10

I did a bunch of stuff to pay for school and so forth, and somebody approached me and said hey, I think you'd be a good salesperson.

Gary Pageau: 1:18

And.

Dave Castro: 1:18

I was essentially the first salesperson at a small startup that was in the basement it was the owners, one of the owners and her black lab retriever in the basement and went from a million in sales to 3 million in sales in about a year or so, and a lot of that had to do with the guerrilla marketing and some of the cool stuff that they were skilled at doing. But, yeah, that acquisition occurred at the end of that time period and I never looked back. I started making really good money as an enterprise software salesperson. So, yeah, been in software ever since then Kind of like out of college, I guess, so to speak and then got into entrepreneurship not too long ago.

Gary Pageau: 2:09

Do you still play soccer is the question.

Dave Castro: 2:10

Not as much as I should. I'm on these like Facebook groups that you know are always talking about like pick up game here, pick up game there. I really should get out there. You know what happens is you get out of shape and then you lose some skills and then when you go out there you feel it's less fun.

Gary Pageau: 2:26

Old and slow yes, exactly All those youngsters who are running around you. So let's talk a little bit about , because the reason why I wanted to have you on was because it's not an imaging app, it's not a specific thing, but it does talk about relationships, networking and that sort of thing, and I think in today's business world that's super important. So tell me a little bit about why you decided that. You know you wanted to connect people digitally through Icebrekr.

Dave Castro: 2:56

Yeah, so you know, obviously I have a. Well, maybe it's not obvious, but I have a strong belief that the life that you're dreaming of is built through the connections that you make. And I know that in my own life, and I know that in the lives of people that I respect and that I aspire to be in their same position, and so what I'm trying to do is help people to make the connections that matter. That's my karma, right, or my dharma rather.

Dave Castro: 3:20

That's the underlying belief and goal. You know, I've been networking for a long time and I'm just aware of the fact that people often don't do that. They don't go to networking events where they are in a group of strangers right. They'll go to parties where they're all friends and they know each other. But when it comes to networking, which is all about meeting new people, it's not just meeting new people, it's not just meeting new people, it's meeting the right new people. You don't just go to any networking event. You got to go to one where your tribe is or where they represent where you're trying to grow or where you're trying to be. And the challenge there is that they ask themselves is the juice worth the squeeze ourselves? Is the juice worth the squeeze? Right, because the research says that we are on the introverted side. The majority of people, majority of humans, are on the introverted side. Sure, and so there's a, there's a, and the all-natural introverted side right. There's a little bit more energy, a little bit more stamina for meeting new people.

Gary Pageau: 4:19

Right, you get worn out. I mean, I know people are introverts. They go to an event and they're literally exhausted afterwards. They're just mentally fatigued.

Dave Castro: 4:26

And when you have to connect with most of the people in that room in order to find those ideal connections that are in that room, that's just not a very palatable idea for most people, right, for most introverts.

Dave Castro: 4:41

So, if you only have the energy budget, shall we say, or the time budget, right, because you gotta like take another sip, you know if you're wine glass before you go up to the next, but whatever it is, time's gonna run out, people are gonna leave, so, uh, which means that you might only get to three to five you know conversations, and in a room of 40, you need to be talking to like 15 at least in order to find at least one or two ideal connections. Sure, and that's actually saying a lot that that would be a real, really good group if you can find, you know, a few connections in a group of 40, a few good connections in a group of 40. Anyway, IceBrekr came to me is that how nice would it be to almost have an Iron man visor when you walk into that kind of room and know immediately who is the ideal person that you should prioritize connecting with, and then, once you do that, you've got your return on investment or, as I call it, return on interaction.

Gary Pageau: 5:43

ROI.

Dave Castro: 5:44

ROI, return on investment, or as I call it, return on interaction, ROI, ROI. And now you can just enjoy your glass of wine and the conversations with people around you, because you're going to have great conversations. Honestly, your first few conversations are probably some of the most outgoing people or the ones that have they look the most like you. Right, You're going to gravitate to where it seems easiest at first, but if you, if, if you can identify who those ideal connections are and make sure you get your return on investment so you can move your, your, your, your life forward in business or projects or personal, whatever it is that you're there to, uh to improve, uh, to get a job or whatever you know, that's a win. So that's my goal is to uh assist, uh. You know I have, like this year I want to make help. 250,000 connections, New connections, is what my goal is for this year. So, and then we'll grow that next year. But yeah, that's how I'm trying to serve the world, man.

Gary Pageau: 6:38

So how does it actually work? Like if you go to an event. Let's say, for example, I go to a conference and there's a networking event. Now, this isn't like speed dating, right, where you know, because you always see those events and I I've never actually seen those things be super beneficial, because, typically speaking, you get like three minutes to talk to somebody and, let's say, you really jive with somebody, well, then your time's up and then you moved on to somebody else and you but you really want to talk to the first person. Then you try and circulate afterwards and it's just not the same. So, so how does work? So how does Icebreaker work? Does everyone in the room have to have the app? Is that how that works?

Dave Castro: 7:11

Absolutely. Yeah, everybody has to have the app. You know it's funny, there's actually a technology will allow you to. It would be creepy if everybody didn't have the app, wouldn't it, yeah, anyways. So, yeah, everybody has to have the app and you build your profile. It's an opt-in thing, obviously. Once you do that and when you build your profile, that's critical, right, because the quality of your connections is going to equal the quality of your projections, right? That's how it is in life and that's how it is on the app. So you build your profile.

Dave Castro: 7:47

Everybody there turns their app on. If you're within eyeball distance of each other, everybody drops onto the discovery screen and then, when you're onboarding onto the app, it asks you for a couple of keywords of who your ideal connection is, and you can change that later. But then let's say you're in that context where you're with an eyeball distance of a room full of people with icebreaker. If somebody in there hits your keywords, it'll buzz you and then you can look at it. You know exactly who it is. Oh, it's Gary. So I'm gonna look around, I'm gonna find Gary. I'm gonna walk up and say does it show you the picture on the app? Or yeah, yeah, it's your profile, okay, and uh, the beauty of it, I mean, there's no catfishing, right? Because like, there's your picture and there you are in the room, then I can walk up to you and I can have a sense of like how to start the conversation. So, gary, you're into photography, you know? I'd love to hear a little bit more about that. My sister's a big photographer.

Gary Pageau: 8:41

Yeah, and that gets it rolling. You got it so. So how much data do you need to to have to build the profile Right? I mean, it doesn't have to go too deep. You can have, like, name of the company and, like you said, some interesting. This isn't like a full-blown LinkedIn type of thing where it's going to take you 20 minutes to fill out, is it, or could it be that way?

Dave Castro: 9:01

You could put. I don't know. I mean, I think you could finish it in a couple of minutes, but a uh, there's ability to sign in with linkedin and it'll build you like a skeletal profile, a useful profile. So what? I? I thought everybody used password vaults. I use a password vault, right so do I about? Yeah, god bless people who don't use password vaults. I don't know how they get along.

Dave Castro: 9:23

They must have every single password is the same right, but it's not because I watch them yeah I know it's not because, uh, you know, for the sake of like development, I'll watch them, like you know be be signing in and stuff, because I'm always trying to streamline and improve the onboarding process and everything about the app. But uh, they're like I can't remember my, my, my linkedin password and uh, but yeah, anyway, if you have a password fault, obviously that makes it it easier. But yeah, sign in with that. Or if you sign in with something else, like your Apple ID or Google, it'll allow you to use your LinkedIn, you know to, to build a skeletal profile, um, and that'll, again, it's skeletal. So it's enough that I can know enough about you that that the keyword search is going to be beneficial and I can know whether you're my ideal connection or not. So that's the beauty of that. So I'm really happy about that. But again, the more you put in there, the more valuable it is.

Gary Pageau: 10:18

And can you adjust it per event, for example? I mean, you can constantly update it, as you know. Let's say, you go to one event and there's your ideal person at this event. Is this type of person?

Dave Castro: 10:30

Go to another event and there's your ideal person at this event is this type of person go to another event and it's a different kind of exactly. Oh yeah, I mean, we're always we're. So this month, you know, your ideal connection could be something related to hiring somebody or a vendor right or whatever might be, and next month is something different. So you absolutely there's a little uh filter button on the discovery screen and you just click that button and you see the keyword thing and you just change your keywords and, um, I, I use the hint match, so, um, that way, you know, I actually have it. I have it. I have it on now, but I'm going to an event later on and, uh, you know, lately it's been wonderful being at events around nashville and turning it on, and then you know, somebody else has the app on too we're in the we're in the new stages, so that's uh, that's a super encouraging yeah, that's very exciting for you because let's go good, someone's using it right.

Dave Castro: 11:15

Yeah, other people are using exactly yeah so how can someone?

Gary Pageau: 11:18

for example, what's the buy-in as an event organizer? Let's say, for example, I was doing a photo walk, right, and you know I'm having people show up to. Maybe I want to have, like you said, some way for people to interact and maybe they all enjoy photography, maybe there's something else that they could put in there. So how does an organizer see that? Do you have like an onboarding thing for event organizers? I'm just curious how this works.

Dave Castro: 11:44

Yeah, so you would go to the event. You go to my profile and then there's events. Then you create an event, super easy. So anybody who has the app can do that. If you have the premium version of it, it's really inexpensive. I'm not going to say the price now because it's probably going to go up, because entry level killer deal. You know name it and put some information in when it starts, when it ends, and then you know save it, it'll copy to the clipboard a link. And so during COVID we had to pivot because while I was seeking to improve meeting real people in real life, right in-person events, covid was like this is going to be a virtual world for a while.

Dave Castro: 12:31

And so we had to pivot to enable, like, a virtual world. So what happens is you go to the events and you create that, and then you have that link and you send it out to everybody that you want to join and you can have a password the password's embedded in the link. Now you can have a hybrid event, so you can have a completely virtual event. If we had 40 people on this web meeting, we could all be on the discovery screen and like do the keyword search and like connect with LinkedIn and Instagram, whatever message each other, but that's what it does.

Dave Castro: 12:59

And then, if you're at an in-person event, you basically have this live registration list. So you have all those people that are there and then whoever's nearby you shuffles to the top and it lets you know that they're like in the room. So if you invite these people to that photo walk, the people that say they're going to come and they don't come, well, you're going to know that they just registered but they're not there. Connect with them, look at their profile, the people who are there and are nearby. You are going to show up and you'll be like, oh, gary's here, and you look around and you see Gary right. So it's a nice hybrid value.

Gary Pageau: 13:32

So it actually is sort of like an event connection platform, but it seems to me like it doesn't have a lot of the overhead and craziness that some of like an Eventbrite or something like that has. It can be a lot more casual.

Dave Castro: 13:44

My goal is that this is about people making connections. Where I sit today, like the origination of the concept is that. This is about people making connections where.

Dave Castro: 13:50

Where I sit today, like the origination of the concept, is that I'm helping people make the connections that matter and then event hosts can dip into that stream right and and and then add more value to attendees, basically, right, uh, so on that event page that we just talked about, that'd be, you can have an agenda, right your schedule, speaker bios, sponsors right, so right I mean, how are you?

Gary Pageau: 14:12

you've been doing this for a while. I guess if it was like during covid, yeah. So what's been that development uh program? Like because you got sounds like you got smacked pretty hard with the uh, the uh, covid, uh, hammer, you know, sort of like that was like the anti-your-bus business plans.

Dave Castro: 14:28

It was uh definitely did not help, although, in the same vein, maybe it did help because, you know, like that whole pivot thing was valuable I found. So, um, I think it actually was. It was a good thing for me in in some ways right. So I made some lemonade. I don't know, I just did a list of events and I've got about I don't know eight between now and March.

Dave Castro: 14:51

What I'm seeing is that folks get the value of is to bless their attendees right For the, for the, give them the return on a ration, give them their ROI for being at the event and so forth, create that ambiance. But I'm also seeing like membership organizations right would benefit because membership organizations are having events all the time and again, this is this is really. It's a completely different paradigm that icebreaker is coming to the market with than what these other heavy back office it's all about, like ticketing, and it's all back office driven concept.

Gary Pageau: 15:29

I was just at a conference last week and it had a, you know, probably one of the largest meeting planning apps right Involved and it was, you know, he had the agenda and you had all this, all this stuff there and there's a use for that and they work really hard to try and connect you with people, but in my experience it's just too much.

Dave Castro: 15:51

It's just that's the word I use. It's just fluffy. There's lots of stuff that like what do I want? I want to come to the event. Yes, I want content, but I can get this out of books and YouTube and blah, blah, blah. But I'm going to get some content and it's going to be great. Something novel, maybe I'll meet my hero or this author. I want to make connections with the people. That's what I care about you know all the other stuff is peripheral and it's business for the event host.

Gary Pageau: 16:16

And they can sell sponsorship tabs and all that kind of stuff. I mean that's literally what that's for anyway. I mean that's what it is. Well, this is kind of cool. So talk a little bit about your philosophy, right? I mean, you came from kind of a sales background and then you got into tech. You know, as we move into this world where we have a, you know more and more online, more and more virtual, more and more Zoom, you know how important is it to have you know those in-person skills.

Dave Castro: 16:44

Yeah, that's a great. That's a great point, gary. There's something that you know science, people and the more we realize there's something missing when, when you're not in person, and uh, and, and uh, we'll figure that out sometime. You know, you have this aura thing and you got, like you know, um, quantum, whatever you got people quantum physics or whatever. Uh, and I think it's fascinating we're all made up of little electrons that are vibrating and there's really no divide between everything.

Dave Castro: 18:00

I don't know how it all works, but I do know that there's an energy and you can feel it from the stage when somebody is speaking and they're doing it with impact and they're doing it with impact and they're doing it with emotion, right, there's a vibration there, there's sound, whatever it is, that's different qualitatively in person. So I think there's something that you know, we carry around with ourselves, that if we can treasure that, if we can acknowledge that, if we can, you know, value that, if we can value that, if we can market that, I think you're going to have an edge on folks who are maybe only behind the written word or only behind a video screen.

Gary Pageau: 18:43

Well, I think just to touch on COVID for a minute, I think that was a big lesson there, right, just from a cultural standpoint in the United States, where you had people saying, okay, we have this pandemic, we're gonna take the kids out of school and it all be virtual. Well, we've been wanting to do online schools anyway, it'll all work. And then I think they're finding today that, depending on their stage of development and their socialization, it was actually very damaging to kids not to have, like you said, experiencing that stuff during critical points in their development. Because we are human beings, we have to interact with other human beings. That's part of our DNA, I think. I think you've got a really interesting kind of a hybrid approach to that. Right, you've got the digital component, but the real life advantage of that interaction.

Dave Castro: 19:33

We're trying to combine the power of digital with the power of proximity.

Gary Pageau: 19:39

Right, ooh, did you just make that up, or is that a saleable I made?

Dave Castro: 19:42

that up a couple of talks ago. Yeah, I'm trying to combine the power of digital with the power of proximity to help you make the best connections.

Gary Pageau: 19:52

Awesome. After the event. Are there any tools within the app to do some follow-up? Because I think that's where people kind of drop the ball right. You and I maybe go. I come down to Nashville, we meet up at an event, we're both using Icebreaker, we have a great conversation and you know yeah well, let's get together for lunch. Let's do that, let's do that. No, we never do.

Dave Castro: 20:16

Right, so are there any?

Gary Pageau: 20:17

tools within the app for that to help with the follow up.

Dave Castro: 20:21

So there's the connections list, right, the profile list where you've connected. I envision almost like a networking CRM-h type of capability, where it says, gary, you know you just met Dave last week. Do you want to reach out to him this week? Do you want to keep in touch with them every month, every quarter? Right, that type of thing.

Gary Pageau: 20:49

Yeah.

Dave Castro: 20:49

And and and and help you manage your touches, uh, and prioritize the people that you've connected with and you stay in touch with, cause, you know, give the old saying that your your net worth is your network.

Dave Castro: 20:59

So, your network. Your network is only as valuable Uh, you know, here's another layer to it. The network is only as valuable as the uh, the last time you as as the strength of your relationship with them. Sure, because the network is not just people on a, I mean, it's not just people on a list, otherwise everybody with a telephone book would be powerful. You know, it's the level of relationship that you have with them.

Gary Pageau: 21:25

Sure, yeah, I mean, I just came back from a conference with literally a stack of business cards right now and I had to figure out what I'm going to do with all these cards. Right, because so it's, uh, it's pretty. I mean, I think that's going to be a great follow-up feature, because I think that's where some of this stuff is lacking, right where, where, where the potential is for in-person events is just continuing the, the, the relation. Even then, if it's, if it's valuable for you even to say, hey, we had a great conversation when I was in Nashville, but you know what? You know, I don't think where there's it's a fit for us to do a partnership right now, and then you just maybe six months where you touch base, right, you don't, it doesn't have to be, you're constantly bugging people, exactly Cause that's part of the assessment process, right, oh yeah, I met this great guy, but he, you know, I can't, we don't, we don't have the fit right now to do business or whatever.

Dave Castro: 22:11

Right, yep, yep. And that's where, while icebreaker allows you to identify who your ideal connection is in the room. You picked that room. So there's something about that adjacency of the crowd that is valuable to connect Sure Connection points with them as well. Sure, so again, with everybody dropping on your discovery screen, you've deemed them to be your tribe. Now you connect with them on LinkedIn or Instagram or whatever, and then they might turn into an ideal connection in you know, a quarter, you know or next year and uh and so like to your point.

Dave Castro: 22:49

You can reach out to them, maybe on a longer interval right.

Gary Pageau: 22:53

I can imagine, though, there's a temptation, if you're going into an event and you're using iSpirit with the intention that you want to meet people that you kind of like. I wouldn't say juice up your profile, but you may goose it a little bit to make yourself more appealing than you are. You know that sort of humans do that. They inflate their things. Are there any tips for things you actually should be putting in there, you know, in terms of you know being more accurate, you know, don't you know say you're the CEO of a company when you're not? You know that sort of thing.

Dave Castro: 23:27

Oh, Gary, this is one of the beauties of Icebreaker is that there's just. You just can't catfish in front of somebody. Of the beauties of icebreaker is that there's just.

Erin Manning: 23:34

You just can't catfish in front of somebody.

Dave Castro: 23:35

It's like you're gonna say that, but then you're gonna be. You know, you know, uh, to use an analogy, we're gonna read that, you know, aloud to everybody in class. You, you want to like, revise that, because you're gonna be called out you know so so you're, you're.

Dave Castro: 23:50

It's not like linkedin, where you could put a picture of yourself 20 years ago and then show up at the coffee shop and get away with it. Well, actually it's like that. It's like if you put a picture on LinkedIn and you show up at the coffee shop, you're going to get called out. It's going to be embarrassing. It'll be obvious in the first couple sentences of conversation. So yeah, be as accurate as possible.

Gary Pageau: 24:11

And maybe even a little bit of humbleness might actually be helpful.

Dave Castro: 24:14

Absolutely.

Gary Pageau: 24:15

Yeah, Humility is an understated attribute in today's society. I think a little bit.

Dave Castro: 24:21

You know what I love that, Gary. I think that's really true. I have something that I call popping the clutch and unfortunately you have to be of a certain age to understand what that means with the manual stick shift. I understand, I do understand, and unfortunately you have to be of a certain age to understand what that means with the manual.

Gary Pageau: 24:34

I understand. I do understand, yes.

Dave Castro: 24:36

Batteries dead, you got to get this car started, so you got to roll this thing as fast as you can. Your muscles can maybe.

Dave Castro: 24:41

Downhill is awesome if you could park it on a downhill you know, and then you get in and you, you know it's the ignition's on, you hold the clutch down and then you let go and you hit the gas and you know it and it and it starts the car. When you're networking, you know to your point about humility. If you take the approach of popping the clutch right, you interact with that person as a human, you have curiosity, because your key is your curiosity right and, uh, you find out about them and so forth, and then, well, at some point, when they ask you what you do, that's when you get to share like what you do and so forth, and uh, it's just so much more impactful and at that point, you'll know how much of a fit is this like?

Dave Castro: 25:30

am I going to be like this? This is a huge sale. This was like a in the bag, you know. Uh, they, they get it, and this would be a great networking or referral partner or whatever it might be.

Gary Pageau: 25:40

It's almost like the old Dale Carnegie thing right.

Dave Castro: 25:42

Oh yeah.

Gary Pageau: 25:43

That's. I'm getting a definitely that sort of vibe where listen, take more interest in the person you're talking to and they'll think you're more interesting actually.

Dave Castro: 25:53

So definitely be honest. But when you said I'm just going, you know, tagging off what you said about humility, yeah, I think there's something there when it's kind of like Steve Jobs and Apple when he goes and there's more. One more thing right, I think there's something of value about that in the human interaction Sure.

Gary Pageau: 26:12

Well cool, Dave, it was great to talk to you. Can you tell us a little bit more where people can learn about about and how they can use that in their business?

Dave Castro: 26:21

So it has a digital business card, which is it's in the free version of it, which is fantastic because, you know, gary, sometimes we meet somebody and it's like I want to give you my email address, but I don't want to give you my cell phone number. Or maybe there's people I want to give my cell phone number to, but I have my office number and I got to scribble it on, that goes away. So Icebreaker, it's like, has a digital business card that you can, you know, click a little like slider, a little button, boom, boom, off, on, off on, with all your information. So you have that in there, you can enter in it. So, uh, that's free, in the free version, uh, to get it, uh, you're going to want to know the name. It's icebreaker, but it's spelled differently.

Dave Castro: 27:02

And icebreaker, lo and behold, is a very popular name. So the the the spelling that we have is I C E B R E K Rcom, and I always say it's the first two E's, no A-hole I-C-E-B-R-E-K-Rcom, and you know, if you find it on the app store, please, you know, give us five stars, because it'll help SEO and help other people to find it better also. But yeah, so the digital biz card is like my gift, it's a free, you know awesome.

Gary Pageau: 27:39

I will definitely be checking that out.

Dave Castro: 27:40

And then there's other things in there. You could tell your event hosts and so forth about, or tell your friends. So awesome.

Gary Pageau: 27:46

Well, thank Dave, Great to meet you. This has been. I'm going to check this out and I'm going to give you five stars as a guest. How about that?

Dave Castro: 27:52

thank you, sir all right appreciate you, gary.

Erin Manning: 27:54

Thanks man thank you for listening to the dead pixel society podcast.