Want to meet someone or connect with a company? Tell them you’ll be in their city.

I’ve done this multiple times, and it works.

I planned a trip to Toronto during the SwitchPod Kickstarter campaign and ended up meeting with Peter McKinnon, Jesse Driftwood, and Matti Haapoja.
Pat Flynn and I went to NYC with no planned schedule after launching SwitchPod. That led to meeting Marques Brownlee, various media interviews, and pitching inside B&H headquarters to sales rep to carry our product.
I reserved the YouTube Space in LA and used that as a reason to reach out to people like Levi Allen and Dave Altizer for podcast interviews + then they filmed SwitchPod promo videos.

The strategy is simple:
1. Make a shortlist of people or companies you want to meet.
2. Reach out and tell them you’ll be in their city on specific dates.
3. See who says yes.

You don’t even have to book the trip yet. If no one bites, you can cancel.

But positioning yourself as “already being there” makes it easier for people to say yes.

You never know what opportunities will come from just being in the right place at the right time. (Shout-out to Ramit Sethi and Nathan Barry for the reminder that this works.)