Mission Control: Gus Bhandal

Here's another member of the Mission Control organising team for the UpLift Live conference. It's marketing expert The M Guru aka Gus Bhandal.

TRANSCRIPT

The important thing about being there in person is that you get access to the speakers, there's no separate areas or anything like that. Basically, we're going to be one big happy family on the day.

Welcome back to the UpLift Live podcast. This is John Espirian from the Mission Control team for UpLift Live, which is the UK's first LinkedIn-focused conference for LinkedIn specialists, power users and enthusiasts.

It's time to speak with another member of the Mission Control team, and our interviewee today is The M Guru, Gus Bhandal.

Let's hop aboard and get to the interview with Gus!

OK, Gus Bhandal, welcome to the UpLift Live podcast.

You are one of my co-organisers for this conference.

Gus, for people who don't know you, tell us, who is this M Guru person? Thank you, John.

It's a pleasure to be a part of not only the Mission Control team, but you know, part of this recording as well.

So, my name is Gus, I run a business called The M Guru.

And the M stands for marketing.

I'm a marketer of numerous years of experience, 20 plus.

And what I do is I help businesses with their marketing.

Over the last few years or so, 3 or 4 years, I've specialised in LinkedIn, particularly in terms of content creation, getting people to be better at LinkedIn, and how to improve their LinkedIn presence, quite frankly, to get clients, to have conversations, to make friends and ultimately to make money.

Yeah, nice one.

And so you've got an interest in LinkedIn.

But why a LinkedIn conference? I know why I want to go to a LinkedIn conference.

What do you think about this one? Having worked in social media for a number of years, I know that the phrase digital marketing and social media and all that is such a massive phrase, and it kind of encompasses so much, and quite frankly, it's encompassing even more.

So, we started with the likes of Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.

And now we've got kind of BeReal and Clubhouse and T2 and Spill and all that.

And it's just never ending.

And I think particularly having a LinkedIn-focused conference, because I believe that LinkedIn is the platform for everybody.

I think it's the all-singing, all-dancing platform that covers everything for everyone.

And I think every business owner, senior executive, team leader, etc., should be on LinkedIn.

So, I think a LinkedIn-focused conference would be really good for the UK to make sure that we to make the most of the platform because I think it's the one platform that a lot of people have trouble with, but also the one platform that we can also make the most out of.

Yeah, nice one.

And you as part of the Mission Control team, I mean, you know so many people, and you go to so many events, so you've got some events experience as well, which I don't really have.

So, I've got domain experience with LinkedIn, but things like organising an event, organising a venue, thinking about maybe a pre-party or anything like that, is just totally alien to me.

So, we are going to be doing the conference, actually, well not in your home city, but near enough: it's going to be in Birmingham.

Tell us something about how you recommended that place, or what people should expect when they come to Birmingham? Absolutely.

I go to an incredible amount of networking events, conferences, etc., all over the world.

I believe that networking is massive.

I believe it's very important for business owners and lots of people to kind of to meet other people and get to know other people etc.

And I've, you know, in previous roles, kind of employments, I've run a lot of conferences myself, gala dinners, etc.

So, I like to think I know what I'm doing.

But at the same time, I also have a good handle on what makes a good event and what people would need, particularly in Birmingham, it's practically the centre of the UK, it's in the Midlands.

It's about a 20-minute drive from my home.

So, it's, it's perfect for me.

But it's great.

It's very easily accessible.

The venue itself, I actually went to an event there last year, and I thought, this venue will be perfect.

A, because it's massive.

It's got a massive screen, it's got a big stage.

It's got lots of networking opportunity, space.

So, I think it'd be ideal for our conference as well.

Yeah, nice one.

I mean, I haven't seen the venue yet, as the time we record this, but we are going to be visiting it together soon.

But when you were telling me about it, I was thinking, yeah,...