Stephan Murtagh, Director, The Exhibition Guy Group
My real passion in business is exhibitions and being a part of organisers and exhibitors success. We have spent twenty-eight years+ walking exhibition halls to really understand what it takes to be successful at exhibiting. This is what drives me every day... I have been described as an exhibition industry expert, and I am very proud to be as I am incredibly passionate about exhibitions. From working with great clients, publishing books on Amazon and hosting podcasts globally about exhibitions... we are all about exhibition success.
28+ Years` experience in exhibitions.
Qualified Trainer.
Founding Member of The Exhibition Think Tank Globally.
Official Trainer for The Entrepreneurs Academy & Professional Training Centre.
Published Author - Amazon - Exhibiting at Shows, The FlipChart Business Book.
Shortlisted 2019 & 2020 in the Exhibition News Awards.
Member of Dublin Chamber of Commerce.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
LinkedIn, as a people business, we love engaging with and debating on the content we share across the business world. LinkedIn really enables us to do this and connect with our audience as businesses, but also as people. As a platform, we gain about 95% of our business from LinkedIn and have got to meet amazing people through it.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
As director of The Exhibition Guy Group, I am responsible for bringing a new and vibrant way of business to exhibitors and organisers all over the world. This involves me indulging in two passions of mine… travelling and talking exhibitions. It really couldn't get much better. My role involves bringing the business to a global audience and making exhibitions more successful for both organisers and exhibitors through strategic training and strategy.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
As a business, I like being a small part of exhibitors success when they do well from trade shows... seeing their objectives set, met and exceeded is what motivates us as a business to do what we do as a company.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
As a nation in Ireland, I think we have always punched above our weight and being from a small country, and I believe we have a natural inclination to try that little bit harder, so for me, it's probably "Think bigger than the next guy!".
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
Creativity, I am a natural problem solver and love to find new and better ways of doing things. I like to challenge myself and do a lot of personal development work. I don't like to stand still, and I am always looking for new ways to improve as a person. I find in business, I am very much the same, and as an industry (exhibitions) during the pandemic, we had to stay patient and strong yet still resilient, and this problem-solving piece played a huge role in our business development during this time.
We took a good hard look at what we were doing, and we dropped some things and double-downed on new areas which seem to be bearing fruit! Time will tell, but it’s certainly going the right way. As an avid reader of 2-3 books per week, I find great motivation in other people’s stories, and this certainly helps me.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
I am proud of my resilience and being able to get up after knockdowns. Having had a business that went under in 2009, lost a lot of money, and a huge amount of self-confidence, I learnt a lot about myself as a person. I hid away for three months after the collapse and woke up one day and just decided I could give up or go on.
For me, there was and is no choice... you get knocked down, you gotta get back up and fight harder the next time. To be honest, if I was to look back at that really dark time, and although I lost a lot of money, it has actually made me a far stronger and better person. It was an expensive lesson, but one that I would probably do again due to how much I learnt from it.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
As someone who is involved in a F2F medium of exhibitions, it would have to be F2F. You just build far better relationships that way. Be that at networking meetings, exhibitions or simply that coffee with a client. Personally, I buy into people far better that way. In this digital age we live in (and obviously because of covid), this has been more difficult, but F2F is still number 1 for me.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
Being streetwise, understanding people and knowing that business is all about Win-Win is really what I feel has helped our business and myself to just be better as human beings and business owners.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
That patience is your friend, not your enemy!
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
I would definitely say my wife Lorraine, who has worked at Sigmar Recruitment for the past twenty years. Her ability to connect with people on a far greater human level than anyone I have ever met, whilst juggling the huge pressure that comes with the recruitment industry and consistently hitting/exceeding annual targets… this whilst working three days a week, not to mention being an amazing mother to our kids.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
Outside of work, obviously, family comes first. I am also a huge Rugby fan (Leinster and Ireland). As a season ticket holder, I enjoy cold, wet nights in the RDS watching Leinster! It's always been a passion of mine, and covid took that away temporarily but looking forward to it returning. I also read 2-3 books per week, and this has been a constant for me.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
I have a mixed opinion on this. Obviously, the exhibition world closed down, so this was a negative, but I also have another business The Sales Training guy and was pretty busy during CV19, so I focussed more on this, and the business was reasonably good. However, The Exhibition Guy is really my focus and passion... Covid was good from the point of view. It gave me more time to focus on better ways of doing things, and this was a big positive. On the personal front, covid was a great time to spend more time with my family. My kids are growing up(nineteen and fourteen), so this time together was invaluable.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
I don't currently have one, but I am on the lookout for one! As far as mentoring other people, I do quite a lot of this. As a Trainer for the Entrepreneurs Academy, I work with and mentor small businesses every month. It's something I really enjoy doing, and I see myself continuing this indefinitely.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Know your USP! We live in an uber-competitive world, and post covid, our clients will be more selective with who they work with, so it's critical that we are more focused on them than ever before. You don't have to know everything, but you have to show your passion as this will bring you 85% of the way to success!
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
I think expecting too much too quickly. Relationships and business take time... it's not about quick wins. Relationships first, sales second, not the other way around.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in".
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Likes include: Apple for innovation and consistency. Etihad for comfort. Happy Pear for Fun.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
Success for me is when other people can look at what we do and respect us for being leaders in our field... it is about feeling your own success and not a measure of somebody else metric. I had learnt a lot about success during covid and also when my first business went under.
It's not what you did but rather what you learnt from it. Success is not having 50,000 followers on Social Media, and It's how connected you are to those followers. It's about not caring what everyone thinks, and it's about caring what the right people think.