The Beginner’s Guide to Hosting Live Events – Part 1

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]What if I told you that one of the fastest ways, easiest and most consistent ways to grow your business was to host live events? Would you jump right on it and start planning one or would you plug your ears with your fingers and pretend you never heard me say that?

When I first started my business I was forced to spend most of my marketing time online. Due to working a full-time job at the time, I had to be rather careful about how I approached growing my business.

But I’d be itching to host an event. I’d loved coordinating them in my corporate days and just knew how powerful in-person events were for connection and conversion.

The above was one of my first live events where I was teaching my strategies to growing an online business. Although there were less than 20 attendees, it proved to be a great event.

However, leading up to it I was a complete wreck. I didn’t have a roadmap. Didn’t know how to price tickets and didn’t know how to design the content and my biggest fear – I’d heard horrendous horror stories about entrepreneurs who’d lost their shirt hosting events and I didn’t want that to happen with mine.

But I was determined to keep doing them. I absolutely loved hosting them and knew that they’d lead to more of my ideal clients and would fill my private, group and mastermind programs.

So I kept going. Studying. Working with mentors. Attending other events and taking copious notes on what to do and not do when hosting events.

In 2015 I hosted The Talk Design Workshop (that’s the below picture of me with my guests). It was designed around my Client Converting Talks program which teaches how to design a signature talk. I suddenly went from not knowing what to cover for content to not being able to fit it all in.

But the event was wonderful and it allowed me to fill my mastermind program now known as The Revenue Makers Mastermind. From the event and follow up sales conversations – I was able to generate $40,000 and it was  all because I hosted a one day event.

Since that time I’ve hosted two and three day events with this years event, CLIENT CONVERSION LIVE! being a 2 day event.

There’s a great deal I’ve learned about hosting live events in the last few years. Since learning how to make mine profitable I starting coaching other coaches and entrepreneurs how to host, fill and profit from their events too. Many of my Event Coaching clients have started where you are today, wondering what to do and how to host an event that will allow you to fill your programs and make some seriously good money.

If you haven’t hosted an event yet or are wondering how to create one that’s profitable – you’ll love my upcoming blog series.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be talking about how to get started with hosting your live events. Starting with today’s blog post where I’m covering the first thing you need to do before you begin planning.

Validating Your Event

Just like you should do for anything you might sell, you must do marketing research before planning your event. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve worked with entrepreneurs who’ve pulled me in last minute to help them sell tickets to their event. Disappointed, they’ll ask me, “Why isn’t anyone coming to my event?” The answer almost always lies in validating that the event is something their ideal clients will want to attend.

Once you validate your idea for your event and determine that your ideal clients want to come – then you can move on to planning.

We both know that it takes a lot to attend an event – leaving work, family and other responsibilities for a day or more and then there’s the expense of travel. You may have the greatest idea for an event, but if you don’t validate that it’s something someone wants to come to – you’re going to put a lot into it and quite possibly face a near empty room come event day.

The best way to approach this is to simply ASK your social media following and your mailing list. 

Here’s something you could model if you’re wanting to validate your event idea (feel free to model – but DO NOT use word for word):

Sample Social Media Post #1:

Hey Friends – I’ve had an idea brewing for a while and wanted to check in to see if this is something you might be interested in. 

You see, for the last few years I’ve helped 100’s of entrepreneurs learn how to master attracting clients, package, price and design their offers and design revenue generating business models. Clients who when they came to me were struggling to get their business to take flight. Taking my process, I’ve been able to help others attract more clients, make more money and build their businesses with far less confusion and much more ease.

Since I know there are many others in a similar situation, I’ve been thinking about hosting a live event where I’d teach my entire system to growing a profitable business. 

I’m reaching out today because I’d LOVE to hear if this is something you’d be interested in attending. If so, what would you specifically like to learn? Please feel free to comment below or private message me to let me know. And if you’re interested in joining my waiting list – feel free to private message me and I’ll let you know how you can be added to the list).

Thanks so much! 

You can send a similar post to your mailing list and either ask them to “hit reply” or provide a brief questionnaire that they can fill out.

You can ask a variety of questions in your questionnaire or social media post. Questions like:

“Do you prefer a 1, 2 or 3 day event?” or “Do you like a workshop style or large event?”

Basically ask questions that will allow you to validate the event and the type your audience might want to attend.

I’ve found that my audience loves workshop style events – that’s why host 50-60 person events.

Your next steps

Okay, now it’s time for you to get into action. If you’re interested in hosting an event, go out and validate the idea for yours. Then come back and let me know how that goes!

If you’e interested hosting your own events, then I’ve got great news. I’m hosting a very intimate Workshop Intensive where you’ll discover exactly how to create your own profitable (and intimate) workshop.

Seats are filling quickly (there are only 12 available). If you’d like to learn how to secure one. Simply email me and letting you’d like to know more details about the Workshop Intensive this April 27, 2018 in Providence, Rhode Island. Click here to learn more.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]