What is a Summit and Why You Should Host One: Summit Series Part 1 | 155
In this week's Saturday Strategy Session, we’re discussing Virtual Summits! Whether you're gearing up for a virtual summit or you just want to learn more about them, this series will give you tons of information to help you make the most of it.
In this 4 part series, we'll be covering:
what a summit is and why you might want to host one
5 ways to promote your summit
how to monetize your summit
my predictions for summit trends in 2024
The key to a successful virtual event lies in knowing your overarching goal. Who are you trying to attract? What will you teach? How will you take their learning further afterward?
Key Takeaways:
What exactly is a Virtual Summit?
Why are Summits so popular for hosts, speakers AND participants?
How can a Virtual Summit benefit your business?
My tips for planning an upcoming summit
My thoughts on hosting my own summit (and some insight on why I haven't yet!)
Episode Transcript:
Hello! Hello! This is part one of an exciting mini series. We're going to be talking about summits and live events or live conferences and everything you need to know about one. in part one, we're going to be talking about what a summit is and should you actually even host one.
Then in part two next week, we're going to talk about promoting your summit. Part three, we're going to talk about monetizing your summit and then part four, we're going to talk about some trends for summits in 2024 so let's get started
Our first episode in this series is what a summit is and why you should host one. Now, full disclosure, before I get into this, uh, I've never hosted a summit. I have been a speaker at multiple different summits. I probably have done like a dozen in the last year.
I've also been behind the scenes of another. 10 to 15 summits in the last 18 months as part of the promotions team running the ads for summits. So I am coming at you from an angle more of the promoter side and having been behind the scenes running the Facebook ads for summits. But I really, really enjoy doing it and as I'll talk about later in this episode, why, like, why I haven't ran an, a summit of my own yet.
Uh, but I am not an expert in setting them up. I've never done that before. I'm not an expert in hosting one. I've never been a host before. So There may be some things that if you have hosted one, or that if you are helping others to host their summits, some information that you're like, Oh, Jenzea doesn't sound like she knows what she's talking about.
It's because I've, I have been in the trenches, but I haven't been in those trenches. So in this episode, we're going to really get into what a virtual summit is, why they're so popular, how they can benefit your business. How you set one up. So like what the first steps are to getting it set up and then what people are looking for and then my thoughts on whether or not you should host a summit and I can definitely not answer that question for you, but we'll talk about that when we get there.
So first off, what is a virtual summit? Sometimes they're called conferences, like an online conference, a virtual summit. Sometimes they're just like a live event. And basically they were designed to mimic an in person conference. They've been around for quite some time.
I joined one back in like 2000. 19, I want to say, uh, so they're, they're not new by any means and that one was like, In their third or fourth year, at least, but the pandemic definitely increased the number of online events that popped up, as I'm sure you're aware.
So typically, an online summit or a virtual summit will be a collection of speakers. There might be some keynote speakers and other presenters. There can be live panels, question, answer, breakout sessions. I've seen some that have yoga sessions or other movement workshops. Uh, Basically, the sky's the limit and you get to decide what it is, but it really is designed to mimic that live event and they definitely gained tons of popularity, like I said, during the pandemic, when we weren't able to Necessarily connect in person and go to those live events and people were wanting to provide professional development and other people wanted to get professional development still, uh, so that's kind of what a virtual summit is.
Now they can be either live or pre recorded or a combination of both. I've participated as a as a speaker in both solely prerecorded, solely live, and then ones that have kind of a combo. And I really think which one you go for kind of needs to be your choice as a host. And I can't really get into the benefits of like from a host point of view.
Like I said, I have never hosted one. But as a participant, When you prerecord, you're able to kind of budget the time and allot yourself that recording time whenever you want leading up to it. Whereas if it's live, you really do have to show up in the moment. I personally preferred when I went and did it live.
I thought that I liked the energy of that summit and I liked the idea that people were there live. So there's that, but I also understand that that adds a layer of potential problems for the host, uh, you would have to be on and ready to go and helpful to fix any tech issues that arise on the day of the summit or the days of the summit, I guess, which would be no different than a live in person situation, so you can either do it live or prerecorded.
I've even seen some that are audio only . It's nice, if the sessions are prerecorded, if there are some live events or live sessions, live panels, Q and A's, that type of thing that are happening so that it's a bit of a mix of an experience, because I think we all know that a live experience is just different.
Okay, so next is why are virtual summits so popular and I already talked about the first thing that without the ability to meet in person and the limitations on travel yada yada yada, I don't need to go down that pathway again. People were craving professional development and feeling connected to a community.
And so that's a big reason that they gain popularity for the participants. Some of the reasons why people like to participate in summits is that they're easier to attend. Even now when travels back open and groups are allowed and all of that, it's still easier to attend something like this, sitting in your pajamas, in your living room, your snacks are available right there.
They're often much, much cheaper than a live event would be. You're not paying for any sort of travel. You're not paying for a hotel room. You're not paying for meals. I mean, you do still have to feed yourself, but groceries from your fridge versus eating out, uh, there's a definitely a different cost.
Now, there are some people and some times where you might actually choose to do all those things. You're not going to the conference live. It's a virtual summit. But you get a hotel room, you treat yourself to some fancy dinner and you still kind of like make a weekend of it, but that's not necessary.
Many summits are free with a VIP or all access upgrade. That is my personal preference. I've seen just the huge benefits that it'll have on the business when it's that set up. So definitely cheaper for the participant and it allows you to soak in a wider variety of topics Because you don't necessarily have to select like one breakout room that you're going to go to because these are pre recorded, you have the ability to watch all of the sessions and not just like the ones you can physically attend.
I mean, we're not Hermione. We don't have that fancy pocket watch that allows us to be in multiple places at multiple times and alter the time continuum. Harry Potter reference there for those of You who missed it.
So some of the benefits and why they're popular with hosts is because you're able to draw in more people, especially if it's free, which makes it a really, really great way to grow your email list.
It's really great for collaborations to bring new people into your world. With like the presenters and to connect with new presenters. It's also a really great way to nurture your audience because you are providing them, especially if it's free, so much amazing quality through your presentation and your speakers presentations and the entire experience.
So you're growing your audience and you're also nurturing them simultaneously. Then as a presenter, this might depend on like your level of work and exactly how the summit is set up. But you can grow your email list and you can make money through affiliate sales. Uh, some of the Summits that have been part of the entire email list was just shared with me in a CSV file and other ones, which
I actually prefer this second option better, where my landing page was presented to the participants in some way whether it's like In a virtual like hallway kind of thing, you know, like a booths almost if you think about a conference that you're going to, there's often like a big, gigantic hall where people just have booths set up.
And so it's kind of mimicking that experience. But, uh, so my link will be like available that way, or there's a PDF guide of all the presentations and my My link is there, and I prefer that because then somebody is consciously making the choice to click on the link and go sign up. Whereas when the entire list is just shared with all of the speakers, uh, even if that information is shared with participants beforehand, to me, I just don't love that.
I like when there is very, very explicit consent given by the person signing up so that the experiences that I had where the entire list was shared with me, I did add that list to Flodesk to my emails to my email subscribers, and then I send them a very, very clear, like welcome email. Hey, I'm Jenzaia from JD Teacherpreneur Marketing.
You recently participated in this virtual summit. I presented on this topic. If you'd like to watch the video again, here's the link. And if you don't want to be on this list, here's the link to unsubscribe, right? Like. Very, very clear because I only wanted those people who were interested in me and my business to stay on my list.
And I also wanted them to like very clearly know where and how I got their email address because I've definitely had that happen to me where the person doesn't introduce themselves. And then I just started getting these emails. I'm like, who are you? Why do you have the email?
Okay. So moving on the benefits to your business as the host of a virtual summit. Again, you're going to get a ton of new email subscribers and it can be very, very significant. There might be an influx of cash money. If you have a VIP upgrade or like an all access pass that people can get extended view time and bonuses. It's really, really great to collaborate with other business owners and other people in similar niches.
It's a really, really great way to meet people that you can guest on their podcast and that you can continue to collaborate again in the future with and then Often it's used as a launch mechanism. So on the back end of the summit the host will launch some sort of course or membership or program and so it can be a really great way to again, like grow your email list nurture those people and then sell to them
So, how do you set one up?
As always, with anything that I am helping someone promote, I recommend that you start with the end in mind. What is it that you're going to be selling and when? So are you going to be doing that launch at the end or I have, I'm helping someone with a summit currently. And the summit is in April and they will be launching in June or July.
I believe it's July. And so the summit really is an email growth. Like an email list growth strategy, and then there's a couple of months, I think it's about three months, maybe four months that the focus will be on nurturing those new people before the launch. And so knowing what you're launching and when you're going to launch it or what you're selling, when you're going to sell it is the first step.
That helps you to really come up with the overarching goal of the summit, what kind of topics you're going to want speakers to be speaking about so you can look for the right speakers. It helps you. If you have that overarching goal or mission of the summit, it's going to give the presenters and attendees a really great idea of whether or not the summit is right for them.
You also need to determine the basics. So the date. So when are you going to be hosting the summit? What kind of pricing structure you're going to have? Are you going to do a free ticket with upgrades? Are you going to have different upgrade tiers? Are you going to offer like an ultra extreme VIP couple weeks of One on one coaching, or is it really just going to be recordings and the bonuses from the speakers?
What is your affiliate program going to be? What types of sessions are you going to be hosting? Is it live? Pre recorded? Audio only? And then what is the schedule of the events? And this is especially important for any live sessions or if there's special events like yoga or something like that So that you can block those times out in the calendar and make sure that it's clear in the information that you're sending out as you start to look for speakers again, I have never hosted a summit, so I am very, very confident that this is an incomplete list, but it is a starting point if a summit is something that you're interested in, and thinking about it, so we're going to talk more about this in one of the future ones But I thought that'd be good to chat just quickly about what participants are looking for in a summit Especially in 2024. I think that I don't want to say summits are getting old but I think that the really basic pre recorded summit with like nothing extra I people are starting to To participate a little bit less in those and so really ensuring that you have some kind of like Experiences and it doesn't need to be anything crazy but just something a little bit more enticing. Something that will draw people in is really important because if they don't interact with the content the nurturing doesn't happen. I think the first thing that a lot of people are really looking for is live interactive sessions so those Expert panels where you have three or four of your speakers come on and answer some questions together as a group live Q and A's with one specific speaker, in a panel, or you as the host can do. Speed networking is really great where you get people into one zoom room and you do a bunch of breakout rooms.
You can do co working sessions, though, I'm not a hundred percent sure that people really, really love those. I think that sometimes they're such a great idea and then people don't really get as much done in the hour of co working that they were thinking they were going to do. But a coworking session could be another option.
Live workshops that go with a prerecorded session to really go deeper. Uh, it can be a really great idea. Making sure that the topics are really, really relevant for 2024 is essential. People don't want topics that they can Google really quickly or that it's the same old, same old, like I know of a couple of speakers that I've seen in different conferences or different summits, and it's the same, exact same speech every single time, exact same topic.
And in some cases, I'm almost confident that they've recorded one presentation, and then they just share that exact same presentation every single time around. I don't think that that's the best option for 2024, because there have been a significant number of summits that, uh, if it's not, new, fresh, relevant content that people are able to see that really, really quickly. So that's important.
And then your bonuses. So if you have that VIP upgrade or the all access pass, like two years ago, extended viewing time. So normally a summit, you can watch the videos for like 72 hours or a week, right? And so the VIP pass would give extended view time, so up to three months, or a year, or forever.
That's not enough anymore. And I also don't even think that necessarily it's a good idea because if there's no timeline, there's no urgency, there's no pressure, we have this tendency as humans, or at least I do, to say, oh, I'll watch that. But I know, okay, well, I have three months, so why would I watch it now when I can watch it in two months?
And then all of a sudden it's in one month, and then all of a sudden it's in two weeks, and then now I'm too busy and I'm not going to watch it because I didn't watch it. So having time urgency might actually push people to watch it right away. And so adding in exciting, like more interactive features, like a bonus not a bonus, sorry, uh, like a bingo card or some sort of like three in a row, tic tac toe kind of experience, which really encourages people to watch the sessions and to participate in the moment to win some sort of prize. It could be like an extra resource or a free coaching call or whatever that would make sense for your business. But that interactive in the moment while the summit is actually happening. Uh, I've seen a couple of those starting to really get people participating as it's happening.
Then with the bonuses as well, extended view time is not sufficient. It won't get someone, it might get some people to pay the $47, $97, whatever you're charging, but having very high quality resources in the bonus that kid that people actually value and if you're targeting teachers, especially once they're still in the classroom, offering PD hours is great as well. That way there's something really, really enticing that's there for them.
Now, last but not least, should you host a summit? I cannot, cannot, cannot answer that for you, but instead I will just explain where I'm at and maybe some of these points you'll, that will make sense to you, will resonate with you, will help you make a decision.
So I've been talking with my coach for like a year about hosting a summit and I would love to host a summit. We have chatted through like the overarching idea and what are some of the topics and who are some of the speakers that I would love to get, which has been great. And I know that a summit would be an awesome boost to my email list and that it would be a really great experience for me to push me out of my comfort zone.
Hosting an event is not something that like I love at all. It is historically something that I have shied away from and that I just don't want to do. So I know that hosting a summit would be really great for pushing me in that direction to get me trying something new at the same time. And this is why I haven't done it.
So number one is a time factor. I am not a hundred percent sure that I have the time that I can give to it, so that it would really be my a hundred percent. So much of my time and energy is spent on one-on-one client work, and I, I absolutely love running Facebook ads for people. I love that that's where my time and my energy goes right now, and I don't wanna sacrifice that.
I don't want to hand it off to someone else yet. I don't want to. Yeah, sacrifice the clients that I, and I know I said in one of the recent episodes that I did that I want to go deeper with fewer clients, but that still won't free up sufficient amount of time that I'll be able to feel like I'm really putting my all into a summit.
And that's really important. Number. I just can't, and maybe this is like imposter syndrome or something else, but it just never feels like the right time. And I like to trust my gut on this and it just, something isn't sitting right in my gut and I'm sure I could just sit here for like ever and ever be like, Oh, it doesn't feel right.
It doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. But I'm just like trusting the process right now and trusting that My intuition knows better than my brain, if that's even possible. Another piece is because I'm a service provider, I don't need to grow my email list. Email list growth is, is not not important for a service provider, but it is much more important for someone who has a one to many business. So if you're running courses or group programs or memberships, where you're really trying to pull in a large number of people, it is significantly more important that you are growing your email list consistently. Whereas as a service provider, having slow growth Is continuing to support my business in the way it needs to.
And as a one to one coach or a one to one service provider, you might find that that's true for you too, that you don't need the email list growth, you're able to have slow, modest growth, and it can continue to support your business because you really only need to bring one or two new people in at a time, you're not looking to bring dozens or hundreds of people in and then the last one is the, the structure of the back end of my business is not in a position right now. It's not in a place right now where I feel like from a tech perspective that the summit would run efficiently. And again, this could be imposter syndrome, this could be just an excuse, but the way that my business is set up.
It works really, really well for me for what I need it to do, but if I was to host a summit, I don't know if it's robust enough to have all of the moving parts work properly together the way that they would need to, to ensure a seamless tech experience for participants and for the speakers, it feels like it would be clunky.
And so there, I would need to do a bit of an overhaul of the back end of my business to allow for a more smooth seamless process which Is in the works, but again is not a priority because it is working for me at this time and so Yeah, so those are some of the things that I've considered for myself. I would really like to do one Because email growth would be good.
The influx of cash would be awesome. I love collaborating with others. I love participating in summits I think that Summit on marketing specifically for teacher business owners would be really great and something that's needed. But on the flip side, I'm considering my current time restraints. I'm trusting my intuition, and I'm Taking into consideration the tech aspects as well.
So those are some of the things that I'm considering may or may not reflect your business and your thoughts about summits. Come back next week and then the next week and the next week for the rest of this summit series. Uh, thank you so much as always for joining me. It's always a blast and I will be back in your ear next Saturday with a new strategy session.
Then in part two next week, we're going to talk about promoting your summit. Part three, we're going to talk about monetizing your summit and then part four, we're going to talk about some trends for summits in 2024 so let's get started
Our first episode in this series is what a summit is and why you should host one. Now, full disclosure, before I get into this, uh, I've never hosted a summit. I have been a speaker at multiple different summits. I probably have done like a dozen in the last year.
I've also been behind the scenes of another. 10 to 15 summits in the last 18 months as part of the promotions team running the ads for summits. So I am coming at you from an angle more of the promoter side and having been behind the scenes running the Facebook ads for summits. But I really, really enjoy doing it and as I'll talk about later in this episode, why, like, why I haven't ran an, a summit of my own yet.
Uh, but I am not an expert in setting them up. I've never done that before. I'm not an expert in hosting one. I've never been a host before. So There may be some things that if you have hosted one, or that if you are helping others to host their summits, some information that you're like, Oh, Jenzea doesn't sound like she knows what she's talking about.
It's because I've, I have been in the trenches, but I haven't been in those trenches. So in this episode, we're going to really get into what a virtual summit is, why they're so popular, how they can benefit your business. How you set one up. So like what the first steps are to getting it set up and then what people are looking for and then my thoughts on whether or not you should host a summit and I can definitely not answer that question for you, but we'll talk about that when we get there.
So first off, what is a virtual summit? Sometimes they're called conferences, like an online conference, a virtual summit. Sometimes they're just like a live event. And basically they were designed to mimic an in person conference. They've been around for quite some time.
I joined one back in like 2000. 19, I want to say, uh, so they're, they're not new by any means and that one was like, In their third or fourth year, at least, but the pandemic definitely increased the number of online events that popped up, as I'm sure you're aware.
So typically, an online summit or a virtual summit will be a collection of speakers. There might be some keynote speakers and other presenters. There can be live panels, question, answer, breakout sessions. I've seen some that have yoga sessions or other movement workshops. Uh, Basically, the sky's the limit and you get to decide what it is, but it really is designed to mimic that live event and they definitely gained tons of popularity, like I said, during the pandemic, when we weren't able to Necessarily connect in person and go to those live events and people were wanting to provide professional development and other people wanted to get professional development still, uh, so that's kind of what a virtual summit is.
Now they can be either live or pre recorded or a combination of both. I've participated as a as a speaker in both solely prerecorded, solely live, and then ones that have kind of a combo. And I really think which one you go for kind of needs to be your choice as a host. And I can't really get into the benefits of like from a host point of view.
Like I said, I have never hosted one. But as a participant, When you prerecord, you're able to kind of budget the time and allot yourself that recording time whenever you want leading up to it. Whereas if it's live, you really do have to show up in the moment. I personally preferred when I went and did it live.
I thought that I liked the energy of that summit and I liked the idea that people were there live. So there's that, but I also understand that that adds a layer of potential problems for the host, uh, you would have to be on and ready to go and helpful to fix any tech issues that arise on the day of the summit or the days of the summit, I guess, which would be no different than a live in person situation, so you can either do it live or prerecorded.
I've even seen some that are audio only . It's nice, if the sessions are prerecorded, if there are some live events or live sessions, live panels, Q and A's, that type of thing that are happening so that it's a bit of a mix of an experience, because I think we all know that a live experience is just different.
Okay, so next is why are virtual summits so popular and I already talked about the first thing that without the ability to meet in person and the limitations on travel yada yada yada, I don't need to go down that pathway again. People were craving professional development and feeling connected to a community.
And so that's a big reason that they gain popularity for the participants. Some of the reasons why people like to participate in summits is that they're easier to attend. Even now when travels back open and groups are allowed and all of that, it's still easier to attend something like this, sitting in your pajamas, in your living room, your snacks are available right there.
They're often much, much cheaper than a live event would be. You're not paying for any sort of travel. You're not paying for a hotel room. You're not paying for meals. I mean, you do still have to feed yourself, but groceries from your fridge versus eating out, uh, there's a definitely a different cost.
Now, there are some people and some times where you might actually choose to do all those things. You're not going to the conference live. It's a virtual summit. But you get a hotel room, you treat yourself to some fancy dinner and you still kind of like make a weekend of it, but that's not necessary.
Many summits are free with a VIP or all access upgrade. That is my personal preference. I've seen just the huge benefits that it'll have on the business when it's that set up. So definitely cheaper for the participant and it allows you to soak in a wider variety of topics Because you don't necessarily have to select like one breakout room that you're going to go to because these are pre recorded, you have the ability to watch all of the sessions and not just like the ones you can physically attend.
I mean, we're not Hermione. We don't have that fancy pocket watch that allows us to be in multiple places at multiple times and alter the time continuum. Harry Potter reference there for those of You who missed it.
So some of the benefits and why they're popular with hosts is because you're able to draw in more people, especially if it's free, which makes it a really, really great way to grow your email list.
It's really great for collaborations to bring new people into your world. With like the presenters and to connect with new presenters. It's also a really great way to nurture your audience because you are providing them, especially if it's free, so much amazing quality through your presentation and your speakers presentations and the entire experience.
So you're growing your audience and you're also nurturing them simultaneously. Then as a presenter, this might depend on like your level of work and exactly how the summit is set up. But you can grow your email list and you can make money through affiliate sales. Uh, some of the Summits that have been part of the entire email list was just shared with me in a CSV file and other ones, which
I actually prefer this second option better, where my landing page was presented to the participants in some way whether it's like In a virtual like hallway kind of thing, you know, like a booths almost if you think about a conference that you're going to, there's often like a big, gigantic hall where people just have booths set up.
And so it's kind of mimicking that experience. But, uh, so my link will be like available that way, or there's a PDF guide of all the presentations and my My link is there, and I prefer that because then somebody is consciously making the choice to click on the link and go sign up. Whereas when the entire list is just shared with all of the speakers, uh, even if that information is shared with participants beforehand, to me, I just don't love that.
I like when there is very, very explicit consent given by the person signing up so that the experiences that I had where the entire list was shared with me, I did add that list to Flodesk to my emails to my email subscribers, and then I send them a very, very clear, like welcome email. Hey, I'm Jenzaia from JD Teacherpreneur Marketing.
You recently participated in this virtual summit. I presented on this topic. If you'd like to watch the video again, here's the link. And if you don't want to be on this list, here's the link to unsubscribe, right? Like. Very, very clear because I only wanted those people who were interested in me and my business to stay on my list.
And I also wanted them to like very clearly know where and how I got their email address because I've definitely had that happen to me where the person doesn't introduce themselves. And then I just started getting these emails. I'm like, who are you? Why do you have the email?
Okay. So moving on the benefits to your business as the host of a virtual summit. Again, you're going to get a ton of new email subscribers and it can be very, very significant. There might be an influx of cash money. If you have a VIP upgrade or like an all access pass that people can get extended view time and bonuses. It's really, really great to collaborate with other business owners and other people in similar niches.
It's a really, really great way to meet people that you can guest on their podcast and that you can continue to collaborate again in the future with and then Often it's used as a launch mechanism. So on the back end of the summit the host will launch some sort of course or membership or program and so it can be a really great way to again, like grow your email list nurture those people and then sell to them
So, how do you set one up?
As always, with anything that I am helping someone promote, I recommend that you start with the end in mind. What is it that you're going to be selling and when? So are you going to be doing that launch at the end or I have, I'm helping someone with a summit currently. And the summit is in April and they will be launching in June or July.
I believe it's July. And so the summit really is an email growth. Like an email list growth strategy, and then there's a couple of months, I think it's about three months, maybe four months that the focus will be on nurturing those new people before the launch. And so knowing what you're launching and when you're going to launch it or what you're selling, when you're going to sell it is the first step.
That helps you to really come up with the overarching goal of the summit, what kind of topics you're going to want speakers to be speaking about so you can look for the right speakers. It helps you. If you have that overarching goal or mission of the summit, it's going to give the presenters and attendees a really great idea of whether or not the summit is right for them.
You also need to determine the basics. So the date. So when are you going to be hosting the summit? What kind of pricing structure you're going to have? Are you going to do a free ticket with upgrades? Are you going to have different upgrade tiers? Are you going to offer like an ultra extreme VIP couple weeks of One on one coaching, or is it really just going to be recordings and the bonuses from the speakers?
What is your affiliate program going to be? What types of sessions are you going to be hosting? Is it live? Pre recorded? Audio only? And then what is the schedule of the events? And this is especially important for any live sessions or if there's special events like yoga or something like that So that you can block those times out in the calendar and make sure that it's clear in the information that you're sending out as you start to look for speakers again, I have never hosted a summit, so I am very, very confident that this is an incomplete list, but it is a starting point if a summit is something that you're interested in, and thinking about it, so we're going to talk more about this in one of the future ones But I thought that'd be good to chat just quickly about what participants are looking for in a summit Especially in 2024. I think that I don't want to say summits are getting old but I think that the really basic pre recorded summit with like nothing extra I people are starting to To participate a little bit less in those and so really ensuring that you have some kind of like Experiences and it doesn't need to be anything crazy but just something a little bit more enticing. Something that will draw people in is really important because if they don't interact with the content the nurturing doesn't happen. I think the first thing that a lot of people are really looking for is live interactive sessions so those Expert panels where you have three or four of your speakers come on and answer some questions together as a group live Q and A's with one specific speaker, in a panel, or you as the host can do. Speed networking is really great where you get people into one zoom room and you do a bunch of breakout rooms.
You can do co working sessions, though, I'm not a hundred percent sure that people really, really love those. I think that sometimes they're such a great idea and then people don't really get as much done in the hour of co working that they were thinking they were going to do. But a coworking session could be another option.
Live workshops that go with a prerecorded session to really go deeper. Uh, it can be a really great idea. Making sure that the topics are really, really relevant for 2024 is essential. People don't want topics that they can Google really quickly or that it's the same old, same old, like I know of a couple of speakers that I've seen in different conferences or different summits, and it's the same, exact same speech every single time, exact same topic.
And in some cases, I'm almost confident that they've recorded one presentation, and then they just share that exact same presentation every single time around. I don't think that that's the best option for 2024, because there have been a significant number of summits that, uh, if it's not, new, fresh, relevant content that people are able to see that really, really quickly. So that's important.
And then your bonuses. So if you have that VIP upgrade or the all access pass, like two years ago, extended viewing time. So normally a summit, you can watch the videos for like 72 hours or a week, right? And so the VIP pass would give extended view time, so up to three months, or a year, or forever.
That's not enough anymore. And I also don't even think that necessarily it's a good idea because if there's no timeline, there's no urgency, there's no pressure, we have this tendency as humans, or at least I do, to say, oh, I'll watch that. But I know, okay, well, I have three months, so why would I watch it now when I can watch it in two months?
And then all of a sudden it's in one month, and then all of a sudden it's in two weeks, and then now I'm too busy and I'm not going to watch it because I didn't watch it. So having time urgency might actually push people to watch it right away. And so adding in exciting, like more interactive features, like a bonus not a bonus, sorry, uh, like a bingo card or some sort of like three in a row, tic tac toe kind of experience, which really encourages people to watch the sessions and to participate in the moment to win some sort of prize. It could be like an extra resource or a free coaching call or whatever that would make sense for your business. But that interactive in the moment while the summit is actually happening. Uh, I've seen a couple of those starting to really get people participating as it's happening.
Then with the bonuses as well, extended view time is not sufficient. It won't get someone, it might get some people to pay the $47, $97, whatever you're charging, but having very high quality resources in the bonus that kid that people actually value and if you're targeting teachers, especially once they're still in the classroom, offering PD hours is great as well. That way there's something really, really enticing that's there for them.
Now, last but not least, should you host a summit? I cannot, cannot, cannot answer that for you, but instead I will just explain where I'm at and maybe some of these points you'll, that will make sense to you, will resonate with you, will help you make a decision.
So I've been talking with my coach for like a year about hosting a summit and I would love to host a summit. We have chatted through like the overarching idea and what are some of the topics and who are some of the speakers that I would love to get, which has been great. And I know that a summit would be an awesome boost to my email list and that it would be a really great experience for me to push me out of my comfort zone.
Hosting an event is not something that like I love at all. It is historically something that I have shied away from and that I just don't want to do. So I know that hosting a summit would be really great for pushing me in that direction to get me trying something new at the same time. And this is why I haven't done it.
So number one is a time factor. I am not a hundred percent sure that I have the time that I can give to it, so that it would really be my a hundred percent. So much of my time and energy is spent on one-on-one client work, and I, I absolutely love running Facebook ads for people. I love that that's where my time and my energy goes right now, and I don't wanna sacrifice that.
I don't want to hand it off to someone else yet. I don't want to. Yeah, sacrifice the clients that I, and I know I said in one of the recent episodes that I did that I want to go deeper with fewer clients, but that still won't free up sufficient amount of time that I'll be able to feel like I'm really putting my all into a summit.
And that's really important. Number. I just can't, and maybe this is like imposter syndrome or something else, but it just never feels like the right time. And I like to trust my gut on this and it just, something isn't sitting right in my gut and I'm sure I could just sit here for like ever and ever be like, Oh, it doesn't feel right.
It doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. But I'm just like trusting the process right now and trusting that My intuition knows better than my brain, if that's even possible. Another piece is because I'm a service provider, I don't need to grow my email list. Email list growth is, is not not important for a service provider, but it is much more important for someone who has a one to many business. So if you're running courses or group programs or memberships, where you're really trying to pull in a large number of people, it is significantly more important that you are growing your email list consistently. Whereas as a service provider, having slow growth Is continuing to support my business in the way it needs to.
And as a one to one coach or a one to one service provider, you might find that that's true for you too, that you don't need the email list growth, you're able to have slow, modest growth, and it can continue to support your business because you really only need to bring one or two new people in at a time, you're not looking to bring dozens or hundreds of people in and then the last one is the, the structure of the back end of my business is not in a position right now. It's not in a place right now where I feel like from a tech perspective that the summit would run efficiently. And again, this could be imposter syndrome, this could be just an excuse, but the way that my business is set up.
It works really, really well for me for what I need it to do, but if I was to host a summit, I don't know if it's robust enough to have all of the moving parts work properly together the way that they would need to, to ensure a seamless tech experience for participants and for the speakers, it feels like it would be clunky.
And so there, I would need to do a bit of an overhaul of the back end of my business to allow for a more smooth seamless process which Is in the works, but again is not a priority because it is working for me at this time and so Yeah, so those are some of the things that I've considered for myself. I would really like to do one Because email growth would be good.
The influx of cash would be awesome. I love collaborating with others. I love participating in summits I think that Summit on marketing specifically for teacher business owners would be really great and something that's needed. But on the flip side, I'm considering my current time restraints. I'm trusting my intuition, and I'm Taking into consideration the tech aspects as well.
So those are some of the things that I'm considering may or may not reflect your business and your thoughts about summits. Come back next week and then the next week and the next week for the rest of this summit series. Uh, thank you so much as always for joining me. It's always a blast and I will be back in your ear next Saturday with a new strategy session.
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