Hey, how are you?

I’m writing this the day before I travel again.

I know I shouldn’t complain because it’s a chance, but I still feel tired! 😴

Previous stop was Portugal, next one is India!

And this is what we’re going to talk about today.

Today:

• Attending live events

• Talking to people when you’re shy

• Best time of the year for Shopify Apps

• Interview with Coding With Jan

Enjoy!

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Attending live events

Early September I received a message from my friend Helder: “Want to come to my event in Porto?”

There is this thing with Helder, always late to share information. 😂

“When is it?” I replied.

“Sep 23rd.”

Look, it wasn’t even 3 weeks away, but I said yes. You know why?

Events are fucking huge opportunities. And this one had mostly merchants.

Another story. In October 2017, I had my first-ever e-commerce event in Paris.

That’s when I met my very first co-founders, who had the idea of building a Shopify App.

That’s when I also met the person who became my first mentor and helped me overcome everything, such as my impostor syndrome.

We can say that all my life today happened because I attended that one small event. How incredible is that?

And tomorrow I’m going to India for another big event, ShopQuest (and perhaps some more smaller ones).

Even though you can see some familiar faces at almost every event to the point you almost feel like they’ve been following you, most attendees are strangers with different stories and opportunities.

Now imagine, how many opportunities did you miss because you didn’t go to events?

And there are always questions when I say this:

• How do I find events? Especially near me?

• I don’t know what to do at these events or I’m too shy

For the 2nd question we’ll answer it in the next section.

For the first one, there are 2 things:

1- You’re following the wrong people

You’re reading this newsletter, because at some point you found me. So you probably know about The Wide Event.

Now, if you weren’t following me, would you know about it?

Probably not. That’s the same with events. You don’t know about them.

And some events are “niche”. People don’t talk about them online, they may have their own private network, or whatever.

So the idea is to follow as many actors in your niche as possible. A good start is Linkedin.

And then you need to engage with people, because if I take the example with Helder at the beginning, it happened just because I once posted on Linkedin that I was in Porto looking to meet with people from the Shopify Ecosystem.

Someone introduced me to Helder, who lived there. Simple as that.

Otherwise I wouldn’t have known about this private event.

I didn’t wait for it to come. I went for it.

2- You’re in a very small country

This one is the most complicated. But I’m sure every country has small communities.

And you may have to find smaller events. If they’re not about Shopify, they may be about e-commerce. If they’re not about e-commerce, they may be about entrepreneurship.

The more events you can do, the better.

Or maybe it’s your chance to build a community in your country and create your own events? Who knows.

But the most important thing is: don’t wait for things to happen, go for them.

Talking to people when you’re shy

I shared it during the last Wide Event.

Even though you see me organizing events, doing talks, sharing online, etc., it doesn’t mean I’ve always been like that.

It’s something I’ve learned and mastered.

I am still nervous sometimes, but I’m trying my best to not show it.

And well after a big event my social battery is at 0% 🙃

So how do you go from being shy to doing all that?

Because this “skill” matters in business.

You want to talk to potential customers, meet people, whatever.

First, something that worked for me: no preparation.

I used to prepare what I wanted to say, or learn texts by heart for my talks. It didn’t work for me.

Maybe it does for you, but if it doesn’t, try going all in without knowing what you’ll talk about.

Because when I was forgetting what I wanted to say it made everything more complicated.

For my talks I just prepare the slides to guide me but I don’t know what I want to talk about. And I often forget stuff I wanted to share, but it doesn’t matter because people didn’t feel it.

And for talking with people I used to create very small objectives. Because the problem when you’re shy and you’re attending events for example, is that everything seems so big. Too many people, too many conversations, event lasting for too long.

So the idea is to go to an event and be like “I will talk to 1 person today”. And trust me, it’s already a BIG step if you’re shy.

And you’ll see that as you start, it becomes easier. Just like running.

If you don’t like running and have to, sometimes the only thing to do is to put your shoes on because the first 5 minutes are all that matter.

And those aren’t pieces of advice I took from ChatGPT. I don’t even know if they’re legit. But that’s what worked for me.

I kept doing this for so long that it became “natural”.

Something you can do to help you with these first 5 minutes is to ask the same 2 questions, always.

It helps drive the conversation naturally.

• Hey, where are you coming from?

• What do you do?

I think they’re really great to break the glass.

And the most important: shyness isn’t something you have to live with. You can learn not to be shy!

And once you know that, you can start changing.

Best time of the year for Shopify Apps

We’re at the end of September. You know what that means? Q4!

And if you’re a new Shopify App Founder (seeing how many new apps launch every week, I’m sure there are), you have to know a few rules.

And for old Shopify App founders it’s a good reminder:

• Don’t plan BIG updates during Q4 (You don’t want something to break)

• Expect more traffic on the Shopify stores (Plan accordingly)

• Offer incredible customer support (Merchants are more nervous)

• Work a bit more

And those rules are even more true around Black Friday! If there is one week to not push anything, it is during Black Friday!

Interview with Coding with Jan

I had I don’t know how many interviews with Jan on his Youtube channel.

But always on video calls.

And this time, since we were both in Porto, we decided to do one in person!

And it was so cool!

We talked about building a Shopify App in 2026.

I don’t know when he will release that podcast, but I’ll let you know!

Have you tested App Store Pulse yet? 👀

If you didn’t, you can click here: https://appstorepulse.com

Have a great day!

Mat