People are saying …

Joel has worked with founders in our Techstars Founder Catalyst program and has proven to be extremely valuable in helping pull story and clarity to the forefront of their pitches.

Tech startups typically have talented, you guessed it, tech teams, but they aren’t always as polished when it comes to communicating their brand voice or the benefit their tech solution or service brings to the world.

Joel has helped our entrepreneurs tell their stories and share their value in ways that are digestible and compelling.

“Huge thanks to Joel Benge for an engaging, high energy session that left the room buzzing. Joel showed us how to connect with decision makers by speaking to the right parts of the brain and getting your audience ‘juiced up’!

“The conversation was fun and practical, giving everyone in the room new ways to communicate complex, technical ideas to non-technical audiences. Whether you’re leading a team, pitching a product, or shaping strategy, these skills are a game changer.”

[Joel’s] presentation … left me with something to think about very early on in my career (a very technical and nerdy career), how to effectively spread my message so it is understood by everyone.

[He] explains it in his book ✍️ … It is a guide for all the nerds out there who have a hard time communicating their nerdy ideas💡.

“First of all, I love that you have a Mantra card as opposed to a mission card, because … missions are bullshit. Missions are too long. A Mantra is one word, two words, three words.”

Listen to the full podcast episode!

“Joel is an outstanding knowledge-based speaker and, in our case, game show creator and host! Very entertaining and informative, one of our best events in my 20-year tenure with AMA Boston.”

Joel consistently brings incredible value to our cohort workshops as a guest speaker. His sessions are always very highly rated and highly insightful. We appreciate his very unique ability to paint a big picture, while sharing creative, practical perspectives that resonate deeply with the founders in our program and equip them with the tools they need. Beyond his expertise, Joel is extremely approachable and always willing to dive in and help.

Joel Benge’s new book, Be A Nerd That Talks Good, is the manual we all needed. If you’ve ever watched eyes glaze over while explaining your brilliant idea, this is for you. It’s part philosophy, part neuroscience, and all about helping technical minds communicate with the rest of the world.

🤌 Big shoutout to Joel, go grab a copy and level up your storytelling game.

“This book treats communication like the skill it is. Practice-able. Learn-able. The MessageDeck cards make it a game instead of a chore. You’ll find yourself wanting to have conversations, not avoiding them.

Most technical people think good ideas sell themselves. They don’t. This book bridges that gap between what you know and what people need to hear.
If you build things that matter, read this.”

Joel Benge has created a guide for us nerds who already know our tech. Now we can follow his steps to optimize your ability to talk about it. (And we ALL can get better, even if we’ve been doing it a while).

The book is worth getting if only for “The Periodic Table of Bad B2B Big Ideas.” It will help you identify clichés to avoid like a famous infectious disease. Plus, there are enough actionable frameworks that he starts to joke about it—”not another framework!” I chuckled, but then I grabbed my pen and jotted down notes, because you can’t help but get ideas as you read this book.

“For technical experts who struggle to explain what they do, this book delivers. Be a Nerd That Talks Good is smart, funny, and full of practical tools. Joel cuts through the fluff and gives nerds real ways to connect with their audience—without losing their edge.”

Be a Nerd That Talks Good, does a great job helping companies work through what’s important in branding.

As a deep tech cyber and cybersecurity focused accelerator, we emphasize the importance of clear messaging early in our program because it’s critical for our founders to be able to communicate complex technical ideas simply and effectively. Joel has offered our founders immense guidance in this area and has helped them walk away with clearer, more defined messaging and branding. His expertise and guidance have definitely made a lasting impact on our cohorts & we’re grateful to have him as part of the MACH37 family!

Had the best time working with you. You helped us simplify our pitch deck, and tell the story behind BRCĒ.

You made sure that we just didn’t talk about how cool our tech is, but what is the benefit of it and how this is changing the world and adding value to people.

The difference in our storytelling and crowd engagement is night and day! Joel has continued to be a mentor when it comes to impactful public speaking and pitching our vision in a flash.

If you’re building a startup and trying to get your crowd pitch right, or even a professional getting better at public speaking, we couldn’t recommend Joel more. The best in the business, and the only NERD THAT TALKS GOOD!!!

As I told Joel when I was on-site at the Cybermarketing Conference, his talk was the first one I watched – I flew a day earlier to make sure I could catch it! – and if I had left the conference then and there, it would have already been worth it! (Of course, the rest of the conference was great! 🙂 )

I particularly appreciated how well he articulated issues of Emotion, Logic, and Trust across the different stages of the customer’s journey and prompted us with questions that align to those topics. Across all this, he did it in a very energetic, humorous, and enjoyable way.

Major kudos to him for the session, and the body of work behind it.

“Big shout out to Joel Benge who helped me work on company messaging yesterday. He has a gift for teasing out the value your company offers, and expressing that effectively, concisely and powerfully.

“If you have an amazing service but are wondering “Why doesn’t anyone get it?“, then march yourself right over to Joel and he’ll take it from there.”

“Thanks, Joel! I believe ‘something’ is working because customers are flocking in 😊”

“It seemed like every 2 minutes you were dropping an “aha” moment into my hands when we last spoke. 🙌🏾”

“Many people claim to describe the complicated and technical simply. Joel is one of the rare professionals who can deliver on this promise. He synthesized ideas from many enthusiastic, over-caffeinated cyber marketing professionals, and birthed the More to MD Cyber Than You Think campaign to highlight the strength and diversity of the cybersecurity ecosystem in Maryland.

Like a ninja, Joel quickly identified the CAMI voice and brand personality and produced shorts that integrated perfectly with our identity: collaborative, forward-thinking, and a bit playful (who says cybersecurity can’t be fun?!).”

Joel Benge was a phenomenal partner to work with on our program efforts. During our message workshop, he provided valuable insights into our program messaging and recruiting efforts. Joel brought a very knowledgeable and diverse perspective to addressing some of our toughest challenges.

“Ya’ll, go grab Joel’s MessageDeck. He’s a freaking wizard who can help turn your messaging from a hot mess sh*t show into brilliant copy that converts.”

“EVERYONE should take advantage of this. Your stuff is killer, dude.”

I really believe that anyone who has a complex tech product and needs to pitch their product needs to work with you.

You understand what the listener needs to hear and see.

“Because of Joel’s experience on both sides of the equation, he really is an advocate for the vendor and the buyer. And that is why I think his approach is so powerful.“

“In our experience, cybersecurity companies can really struggle to communicate their mission and value proposition to various stakeholders, including investors and customers. It’s a huge pain point for our members.

When it came to creating an event around this topic, Joel was my first call. Again, he executed a very on-brand, high-quality product for our organization, from event ideation to follow-up call-to-actions.”

“Joel was great from the start— as an engineer, I wanted straight facts with no fluff and he worked with me. He had a unique gift to be able to draw out big broad strokes and ideas from minds that are very techie and detailed. Such a necessary task to gain focus for a small team or organization and well worth an investment for the future. Joel was great and easy to work with as well. Highly recommend!!”

“I really enjoyed chatting with Joel, and took away some really great insights. He listened to what I’m currently working through and gave me advice and inspiration, specifically pertaining to specializing and understanding my own story, thinking about the big picture, and figuring out my core pillars. Highly recommend!“

“So cool! Pure gold. I’ve used it myself already. It really helped me think about Category design.”

“Very nice talking to Joel. He has offered a lot of help and was very motivational. I am looking forward to our next meeting.”

“My session with Joel exceeded my expectations! He asked some great questions that showed he paid close attention to my situation and is genuinely interested in helping me. I walked away with several actionable tips. Joel’s had a long, successful career and I highly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity to meet/learn from him!”

“Some ‘messaging’ exercises can feel routine, and uninspired – the MessageDeck sparked more creative conversations. Even after the MessageDeck crash course, I left feeling empowered to tweak some of my messaging.”