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[00:00:00] Viv: If you work with clients one-to-one or in group programs that I’ve got something totally free to help you to improve your online presence and see more success in 2022, but it’s only for the next couple of weeks. Yes. It’s from the 21st of April, 2022 to these. Of May, 2022. So you’ve got to act fast. So the client attraction giveaway is your ticket to next level success in 2022.

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[00:01:09] To the foundation for black women’s wellness. That is an amazing, amazing foundation to support. So what do you need to do head on over to client attraction, giveaway.com forward slash Viv that’s client attraction, giveaway.com forward slash Bev. And I’ll pop that in the show notes for you too. Well, in my opinion, she is the queen of summits.

[00:01:35] She’s the one and only Krista Miller. Krista is an expert in helping entrepreneurs to replace those slow growth marketing strategies with the most amazing virtual summits that multiply their monthly revenue. Bill that email lists with warm leads and often lead to record-breaking launches. I mean, wait till you hear the stats in [00:02:00] here, her method is focused on connection, collaboration and making a difference in the lives of everyone involved.

[00:02:08] And guys, the best part is she makes it easy. Okay. With every strategy template, tutorial I’ve resourced, you would ever need. Okay. To get your. Prepped and launched. So what are you going to discover in this episode? How summits are one of the most effective marketing tools for list growth and sales conversion.

[00:02:32] Caveat here when done correctly. Number two, soulmates versus bundles here, how the results compare because Krista has done them both and the most important pieces to get right. For a summit that is successful and works and converts. So dive in with.

[00:02:57] you’re listening to mark two without [00:03:00] social media with me, they’ve guide the park past for people who want more clarity, connections, and cash in their business. I’ll be sharing with you proven techniques for leading entrepreneurs and experts from across. To help you to lock it without social media come to grow your business in a way that actually feels good

[00:03:22] Krista: to you.

[00:03:23] This

[00:03:31] Viv: Krista. Welcome to the show. I am so excited to be speaking with you today. How are you?

[00:03:39] Krista: I am doing well. I’m so excited for this conversation. This is one that I don’t get to have very often, which makes it so much more fun. So this is going to be great. I know.

[00:03:47] Viv: And the reason I invited crystal into the show was obviously, she’s, she’s run a bundle recently when we recorded this episode.

[00:03:53] And, but she’s the queen of summit. You know, this is her jam is so summit since she did a really great kind of comparison [00:04:00] email. And I was like, Ooh, we’ve got to talk about this. So that’s what we’re going to talk about. Isn’t that such, let’s start talking first and foremost. Stomach’s cause that’s your, your jam.

[00:04:09] Isn’t there. That’s your expertise? What got you into summits, like in the first place? And talk to us, just give us that

[00:04:15] Krista: backstory. Yeah. So this was something that was like a total accident for me. If you told me, honestly, even like. Oh, my goodness. Even a year before I started semi in a box, if you would have told me I was going to be teaching soundbites, I’d have been like, what are you on?

[00:04:29] Like, not a chance, but it’s one of those things that it started because I tried it from my own business. It worked way better than I thought. And then everyone kept bothering me to teach them how to do it. And like, I resisted it for a really long time. So I decided to host a summit in the first place because I just needed something.

[00:04:46] That would help me get more clients. So I was offering WordPress development services at the time, and I was in the position where I was booking clients. Like it felt like I would wrap up a project, have a day to panic and be like, okay, where’s the next client coming from? And then like [00:05:00] an email would magically land in my inbox and be like, oh, thank goodness.

[00:05:03] I was like, okay, I need something that’s more reliable than this. And to do that, I need more people to know that I exist in a summit. Kind of became my answer to that. I did not have big hopes and dreams. I was like, if I can. A few hundred people signed up and make like $3,000. Like that would be wonderful.

[00:05:22] And it just like blew that away. We had 1500 people signed up. I had a tiny audience at the time, so I was like, what is this? And I made $16,000, which was like four times more than I was making it a month at that time. So it was literally life-changing. Oh, my goodness. Oh. And then to top it off, I booked out my services for six months.

[00:05:40] From the time I was like, okay, this works. So I’m going to keep doing this. So I plan my next summit for six months later. And then, like I said, people. Coming in my inbox and DMS and all the places like, how did you do that? Can you teach me how to do that? I was like, no, no, no, no. But then eventually, you know, like the universe has a way of telling you that like, Hey, you know, maybe you should be doing [00:06:00] this thing.

[00:06:00] And I had literally three people reach out to me on the same day on different platforms saying I should really consider this. And one of, one of them was my coach who literally had a dream. She said that I started like this summit empire. All right. Let’s just see what happens. So I launched my first like little mini product about summits in 2018, just to see if people actually wanted what they say they wanted and they did.

[00:06:23] So here we are, several years later, the rest is history.

[00:06:27] Viv: Um, and what is it that you love about summit? What is the thing, you know, kind of really excites you about them?

[00:06:35] Krista: I think the fact that. They do everything that other marketing methods you hear about, they do everything better than all the other marketing methods.

[00:06:46] Like for example, like social media, you know, yours, your favorite thing sarcasm, by the way, for people can’t see me. I’m like, you know, social media is supposed to grow your audience, which I’ve never experienced, but like connect you with [00:07:00] people. Keep you connected with your. Cool, uh, summit does that faster and better.

[00:07:04] You know, you can do all of these. Like I have my own podcast, podcasts and JV stuff like that connects you with new experts. Cool, awesome. Uh, does that faster? Let me be not faster, but it is faster because you do like 15, 20, 30 speakers at a time. Faster and better, you have all of these strategies you pieced together to bring in leads.

[00:07:23] And I could go on forever about what kind of strategies that is, but a summit faster and better. It took me three years to get from my first 500 people on that email list. I hosted a summit and tripled it. It’s like, okay, revenue, you could like do a challenge, do a webinars and things like that. But again, you’re promoting to your own.

[00:07:42] So what, what you can actually make income wise is limited, but in a summit you’re bringing everyone together, getting them warmed up really quickly, collaborating with other people who will make you like, you know, elevate your expert status and instantly like making money. So it puts all of these strategies that we work.

[00:07:58] So. [00:08:00] Hard and consistently to make work for us. It puts it all together and just does it faster and better. And that’s, that’s what lights me up about it. I’m like, oh my gosh, like we can eliminate like 90% of our marketing tasks and just do a summit instead. I would rather do that clearly.

[00:08:16] Viv: So for anyone listening, they’re going to be saying, hang on.

[00:08:18] If you tell us all the time, like to have consistent, like lead gen activities every, every month, what do you say? Cause obviously so much you’re not running them every month. That’s a big thing. Isn’t it? So like one or two, maybe a year, I guess, for the most kind of small business owners and like solo preneurs.

[00:08:34] So what do you say to people who are like, oh, so. Get to not do the other stuff. Um, like the rest of

[00:08:40] Krista: the time. That’s a great question. So I do not ditch everything. Uh, occasionally when I’m planning a summit, I might back off on some things because of some, it is not like an easy thing. It’s not really realistic to be like, I’m going to be posting on all these places, publishing content, emailing, you know, doing all of that.

[00:08:56] And I’m just going to like randomly throw somebody totally fine. You know, you might not [00:09:00] like yourself for that. I do think it’s okay to back off a little bit on these other things you’re doing while you’re planning your summit and then just keep your favorite things that you do. So for me, I love my podcast.

[00:09:11] I am like, that’s always. It’s an extra thing are the results as big as what I would get. If I hosted someone’s all the time. No, but it’s different. The strategy is different. It’s consistent. It’s ways other people can learn about me. I always have it. I can always be connecting with other people through it.

[00:09:27] So I would say that it doesn’t mean you ditch everything else, but it does give you the freedom to just pick the things you really actually enjoy. And you don’t have to feel forced to add everything to your plate. Just hoping that together. You’ll get some results.

[00:09:42] Viv: Yeah, that’s awesome. Because I think that people go, Ooh, I like this.

[00:09:45] I can get massive growth numbers, but only like going to do this once or twice a year and not do any lead gen. I

[00:09:51] Krista: do have one client who does that. She hosts a summit every single quarter, and that’s like all she does to grow her business and her membership. That is not my thing. I love [00:10:00] summits. I don’t love them that much.

[00:10:02] It’s possible.

[00:10:04] Viv: I could see once a quarter. It’d be no. Okay. You know, especially if you’re doing a launch on the back of it, so that fills you. But if you’re kind of like, I work a lot with clients who are doing one-to-one services, so they want that constant flow or your evergreen, you need that constant flow.

[00:10:17] So you’re going to be bringing in. All the time. Um, but I think this kind of big injection is awesome. You know, it can really kind of elevate things, especially if you’re early on in your business. Um, I think, you know, that it brings, like you say the credibility it’d be like, it puts you up on that expert status and it just rapid growth for you.

[00:10:33] So, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m really excited. Like at the prospect I haven’t run a summit yet. I actually spoke to Leoni. Dawson was one of my guests recently. I don’t know if you know, Leoni, Dawson, she markets without social media. And I was like, I think this is so many coming out. Like, I just feel like it’s the first time I’ve really gone.

[00:10:51] Yeah. Like I listening to the old, the kind of guests that, you know, speaking to all the guests I’ve had on the show and the previous episodes, I was like, we’ve got to get all these brains [00:11:00] together. There is so much value here. So yeah. So I was like that. Hence why I also reached out to you and Krista, I think I need help in how to actually do this because it’s going to be a big chunk of work.

[00:11:11] Krista: So yeah. Yeah, I will say I’m a dangerous person to talk to when you’re thinking about summits. I love them a lot.

[00:11:18] Viv: Yeah. Well, I think I’ve certainly sold, but it was just timing. Oh yeah. Maybe October was a bit sooner than me. Yeah. So I was like that maybe spring next year. So talk to us about that because that’s a big thing that a lot of my clients gonna be like, but I’m, I’m, I’m a one.

[00:11:32] Persons show. I don’t even have the funds maybe yet for a VA, but I really want to do something that’s accelerate my growth, like a summit. This sounds exciting. What do you say to people in that

[00:11:41] Krista: position? Yeah. So, I mean, I hosted my first summit with, I did have a VA, it was like 10 hours a month. So, so like not a lot.

[00:11:49] So I’ve had several students and clients who host summits without help. They have my templates, which I guess in a way, like definitely helps. So I [00:12:00] guess I would say like, if you are doing this and don’t have. Two things. One give yourself a lot of time. Uh, a 90 day timeline is kind of what I recommend, but I would say if you were doing this all on your own for the first time, without any resources, 90 days is going to be hard.

[00:12:16] It’s going to be, it’s going to be really intense. And I know that because I experienced, um, it’s a lot to, a lot of things to make from scratch. A lot of strategies to figure out, you know, I feel like people look at someone from the outside, they’re like, okay, let’s do a bite. Just ask some speakers to come.

[00:12:33] I make a registration page. And then like, you know, this thing happens. It’s like, no, there’s so much you don’t see from the outside. So giving yourself plenty of time would be my number one piece of advice. My second piece of advice was it would be like, don’t reinvent the wheel. Whether you’re getting resources from me or someone.

[00:12:50] Get some resources, because like, in, uh, in my programs, I literally have over a thousand trainings and templates, and that is not me. [00:13:00] Like just kind of like adding fluff. You are going to send probably like 20 emails to your speakers throughout the course of this here’s templates for every single one.

[00:13:09] Like it’s so much to have to make on your own while also figuring out the strategy on your own and just crossing out the finger, crossing your fingers, hoping that it will work. So my second piece of advice would be. Resources from somebody. Of course, I would love that to be me, but like, literally I just don’t want anyone making sandwiches from scratch because it is not necessary anymore.

[00:13:28] I love

[00:13:28] Viv: that. That’s awesome, Krista, thank you. And great advice. So yeah, if you’re interested and you think in a summit, I really want to do this summit, but I don’t know where to start. Oh my gosh. I did not want to think about all the email templates because my God, there was a lot of emails in there and copy, you know, go and get yourself kind of something already the templates and work with Chris.

[00:13:47] Sure on this. So we we’ve talked about, you know, How it can grow an audience, but I know we started this episode by saying you did a bundle as well, and you decided to kind of shift things up, go, I’m going to do a bundle. [00:14:00] Talk to us about your experience and kind of thoughts on a bundle versus a summit.

[00:14:07] Cause we’ve talked a lot on the show about Bonnie.

[00:14:10] Krista: Yeah. So bundles are something that I have loved participating in over the last couple of years. Like other than running summits, I would say being in other people’s bundles is, or other, other than hosting summits being in other people’s bundles is what has grown my list the most consistently, like when I’m in a good bundle, like I can get a thousand.

[00:14:29] Throughout the course of that. I’m like, all right, because I’m being in a bundle, it’s easy, man. You just like, have something you already created and just like give them a link and coupon code, promote a little bit with resources they provide and you’re good to go. It’s like, okay, I can do that. And so, you know, I decided, okay, well what, what would this look like for me to do it?

[00:14:47] Because it’s, it has been getting to the point where I’m like, okay, I need to host another summit for somebody in a box. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve done it. Cause I’ve run my summits for a different business, but I couldn’t do. When I did the bundle because I was actually running a summit for [00:15:00] my other business.

[00:15:00] So I needed something to give someone a box of boost. Couldn’t do a sentence. I was like, all right, let’s just throw a bundle together and see how it goes. Because my thought process, there was all right. I liked Simon’s because it brings together groups of a group of experts and gets you a bunch of leads really quickly.

[00:15:15] And Michael does that too. So like, that is what my thought process was. I wanted those pieces. And even though I knew the benefits, wouldn’t be as big as hosting a seminar. I was like, this is what I have time for right now. So let’s get.

[00:15:28] Viv: And what did you find talk to us about that? Cause they know, I looked like when you shared this information with me and I loved what you just said there as well.

[00:15:35] I thought I’d just throw together a bundle. There’s a lot of people, but I guess after summit upon this, like I say, you know, when you kind of bring it back, but you know, guys, it’s not just a case for the first time of throwing together, but this is someone who knows systems, knows processes and knows what goes into organizing, you know, Much bigger events, you know, in terms of, uh, summits.

[00:15:58] So, yeah, so bundle is [00:16:00] kind of like a book in the box, Christian tests at the organizational aspect, but we are not downplaying it for anybody else. I did my first bond the last year as a, as an organized and that, yeah, like you say, just getting all the templates the first time. So it was the whole.

[00:16:14] Krista: Yeah.

[00:16:15] And I thank you for mentioning that. And I say throw together, because like you said, we have the registration page templates for our summit. I have the templates together, information from speakers and to email them. So I just repurposed them all show from yes, it was for other people. Yes. There are some work that goes into this, um, as for the results.

[00:16:34] Um, they’re hard for me compared to a summit. If I were to just look at this by, by itself, it’d be like, You know, if my goal was to build my list and connect with other people, I did that. Like, we wouldn’t probably be talking if I wouldn’t have done that. And then there’s other people like that too. So like, this is really cool.

[00:16:51] So I’ll, I’ll share like exact numbers cause I have them pulled up here. So overall for the bundle, I think we had like 28 or 29, uh, contributors to this bundle. It was [00:17:00] specifically about growing your business and marketing through collaborative. And I kind of had it positioned a little more to course creators, but it wasn’t so that like no one else would benefit from it.

[00:17:10] So we had like all kinds of people signed up for it. So overall we had 1700 people sign up for the bundle. Uh, 700 of those were already on my list. So a thousand of them were new to me. And then people who specifically signed up to my contribution for the bundle. There were 365 people who got my contributions 330 of those chose to, you know, click the little checkbox saying they wanted to subscribe.

[00:17:33] I also had a tripwire and upsell set up. Uh, I made a little over a thousand dollars from that. And then, um, when I brought up. Little review. I was like, well, we’ll see if anyone buys on the launch. We have coming up. I have done that launch. No one from the bundle bought during the launch. So that was kind of how the bundle went for me.

[00:17:53] So the 1700 signups, that’s pretty cool. I got really, really great feedback from my contributors being like, oh my gosh, [00:18:00] like I got hundreds of signups. Like people are loving, loving this. Everyone’s engaged. Thank you so much for doing this. And that was, that was a big reason. I did it to act. I wanted to connect with other people and I want it to set it up so that it wasn’t just like the Christa show, you know, like I wanted everyone to be able to benefit from this in the same way.

[00:18:18] So, and I feel like I accomplished that. So, I dunno if you want me to dive right into the comparison assignments, but that’s what the bundle results look like.

[00:18:24] Viv: Yeah, no, that was awesome. Yeah. Can you give us a bit of an overview of summits? And then I have another question on the back of it then, just from some of the things that you said then in terms of conversions, but let’s talk about summits burst and kind of your experiences then of, of what’s different with, with summits for you.

[00:18:44] Krista: Yeah. So, I mean, the biggest thing I found that was, this was different with the results. So the first summit I ran for this for summit in the box was two years ago. I had 8,000 fewer people on my email list then, and we had. [00:19:00] Uh, let’s see here. We had 1500 people sign up for that summit. So less people than the bundle by a couple of hundred, but also I had 8,000 fewer people on my list.

[00:19:08] So like, I know if I hosted a summit now it would probably blow the bundle away as far as those numbers go. But the big kicker for me is the revenue because. Have to do stuff like this to make money, right? We’re in business. The connections are great, but we have to make money through it. So I said the bundle, I made about a thousand dollars and I laughed because of what I did with the summit two years ago, when my audience was so much smaller with that summit, we brought in 15,000, just through all access pass sales and then 63,000, in course, lunches.

[00:19:37] It’s during the summer. It’s like, when I look at that, I’m like, ah, I guess I’m going to, like, I’m going to stay something in the back’s in that bundle in a box because like right there, those results are kind of all I need to look

[00:19:48] Viv: at. That’s amazing. So that takes me onto the question of then, you know, what do you think is driving those different kinds of results and conversions in terms of sales, from a bundle versus [00:20:00] a summit, have you kind of explored this?

[00:20:01] Like what may be the reason behind that, that kind of difference?

[00:20:06] Krista: Yeah. So I I’ve thought about this. I haven’t like, I guess I haven’t even thought of any ways that could actually test it, but like, For me, I think the, when you have speakers for a summit and it’s positioned, right, and you do it correctly, they go a little bit harder for it.

[00:20:20] Like, I was actually really impressed. I had no promo requirements from my contributors for this bundle and pretty much everyone’s still promoted. So that was really cool. But I think there’s more skin in the game when they’re helping with a summit. Like it’s a bigger thing. They know that they created a presentation, they want eyes on it.

[00:20:35] And I think they just kind of go go harder and they care a little bit more than they might for a bundle. And I know that’s true for me when I’m in assignment versus. I think another really big part is the mindset. People go in with a bundle versus a summit. So I know if I see a bundle I’m interested in, I’m like, okay, really quick.

[00:20:51] I’m just going to go sign up for this really quickly. Go sign up for all the little contributions I want and then like, forget about it until I need them. Like, that’s how I do it. Whereas if I see a summit or a [00:21:00] conference or something like that, I’m interested in, I’m like taking a little more time to like go through their presentations.

[00:21:04] Okay. Am I willing to set aside 30 minutes of my time? Watch this and engage with this. And so I go in knowing that it’s a longer, longer game, like I’m going to be engaging with it in a different way. I’m not as rushed when I’m going in it. Um, and I think that has something to do with it. People tend to be more engaged with the summit than they would be with the bundle because a bundle is, go get your stuff and you’re done as somebody who’s go wait for it to kick off.

[00:21:28] You’re engaging live, um, and live, you know, that could even just be in a community. Um, you’re watching these longer presentations. You’re seeing the host more. And I think that’s a big part of it. Just the mindset people have. And then I also think with the summit, there are ways you can build in your products or your services in a way that you can’t really with a bundle.

[00:21:49] So I did do some things with the bundle to try to make myself. A little more known without taking away from my contributors. So like on the waitlist page, if someone signed [00:22:00] up for the waitlist that thank you page had a, like a little bonus training from me in on the thank you page for the bundle itself, there was a little bonus train and they could get, and that was an emails as well.

[00:22:09] Also a way like a little extra resource I had for them. If they like shared about the bundle on social media and like just different little, kind of low key ways. I was trying to build a little more awareness of something in the box. But you just can’t do as much as you can with a big community. You know, people expect to get emails from you leading up to the summit and during the summit.

[00:22:30] And then there are ways you can build in, like I said, your products and your services all throughout the event. And I actually have like a full program that teaches like launching things, like courses, memberships, high ticket programs through a summit because there are so many ways you could weave it in and make it feel good.

[00:22:43] And, um, I know you have a lot of service-based people in your audience and it goes for services too. You don’t. I have never actually like done a big long. Through a summit, but I still got my services booked out everything single time through a summit because when it’s positioned correctly and you are showing up over and over to these people [00:23:00] and helping solving a pain point that’s related in your service to some way, like it’s just natural.

[00:23:04] The next time they need your help need help with something. They remember you where that’s not really the case for bundles either. You’re not going to stand out to someone necessarily as the host of a bundle.

[00:23:14] Viv: Yeah. I love that Krista. That is so interested in. We talk a lot about the results and the conversions, you know, on this show, because I think so often, like people have commented, you know, marketing and social media, and we’re hung up on vanity metrics.

[00:23:27] Like how many likes, how many views, how many comments? And actually never just thinking about what is the end result would be converting these people into paying customers. So we talked about that. So that’s really, really interesting on the. One thing I wanted to talk about in terms of like, as a list building activity.

[00:23:42] So we’ve talked about obviously soulmates, you know, can blow out of the water, you know, the bundles, but how do you find there’s a difference in terms of the retention of people that are signing up to mailing lists from a summit versus a bundle? Because obviously what happens in bundles, as you say, is [00:24:00] people go through and click like 20 or 30 things all in one go, just because they don’t want to miss out.

[00:24:04] And may never look at it, but they’ve suddenly then signed up to people’s email lists, you know, all those 20 and their sibling now got 20, 30 new emails coming through on a daily basis or whatever from these people as they get through welcome sequences. So you find that you can get a high level of unsubscribes.

[00:24:21] It’s kind of goes with the territory. What do you think in terms of summits? How, how does that play out the same? Does it play out differently?

[00:24:29] Krista: Yeah, that’s a great question. So I have found, and this is going to be. To depend on a lot of things. Most importantly, like the way you position your summit compared to what you do.

[00:24:40] So if you host the summit, that’s like pretty broad and you do something specific or not super related, you should expect a higher level of unsubscribes. But you know, something that I teach is just how important it is for your summit targeting to just be spot on. Like, I spend a lot of times, a lot of time with our clients, making sure their positioning is right, so that after this.[00:25:00]

[00:25:00] They still want to hear from you and what you do. So I. Like the majority of my email list that’s left from, uh, not that’s left from the business that I’ve run some explore. I’m actually like, not running that business anymore. I’m not running any more summits for it. So that’s why I’m kind of like talking about it as if it’s said and done, but like that list is all people that have.

[00:25:23] Through summits. Um, and I would say, I expect about 80, about 80% of people to stick around after a summit, which was great. And I’ve heard I’ve had students and clients say that they’ve had 90% of people stick around after a summit. It depends on the positioning, but if you’re positioned correctly, like people have come to know.

[00:25:43] And like you, and a lot of times the people who unsubscribe actually unsubscribed, like during the summit, cause they’re like, oh, this, this thing looks really cool. And I sign up and then they’re like, You know, I didn’t actually want to have to like, engage with this and subscribe during it. A lot of times the people who stick around throughout the whole summit, like [00:26:00] they’re, they’re there for the long haul.

[00:26:02] Like they want to learn from you they’ve come to like you, they learned a bunch of stuff. Um, and you’re set up in a good position to continue engaging with.

[00:26:09] Viv: And for anybody who’s listening to this who is kind of not maybe a familiar with maybe not even attended like a summit or participate today in that sense, let, let alone, like as a contributor, uh, at a summit, how does it work?

[00:26:22] Cause obviously we’ve talked about bundles people click and they kind of sign up to your email list to get your freebie. How does it work with the summits in terms of, do they have to sign up to everybody? How does that work differently? Maybe to.

[00:26:35] Krista: That’s a great question. So when someone signs up for a summit, they, they are only going to hear from the host at first.

[00:26:44] Like that’s the only given is that they’re going to hear from the host years ago, when I started teaching about Semites, it was like normal for people to send the summit attendees, email us to all the speakers that does not fly anymore. Do not do that. So first things first, the summit [00:27:00] houses who gets the email address, and then it’s up to the host to build in ways for speakers to get the email addresses from there.

[00:27:08] And so the way I have done it is I just encourage my speakers to promote a freebie that’s really closely related to their presentation. I used to tell them, Hey, you can do. I mean, I still do. I guess technically say, if you want to promote something paid at the end of your presentation, by all means, go for it.

[00:27:22] But you’re going to get better results from. Being a freebie and giving yourself time to warm these people up before you go in for a pitch. And again, the effectiveness of this depends on how specific the audience is and how well the topic is positioned. So like for the summit, I have run six times now for designers.

[00:27:41] I know that my. Speakers who have really specific content for web designers, they’re going to get a hundred like 500 plus leads from being in the summit, speaking and talking about a related freebie at the end, if you had something lash related, of course, you know, it would be a little tougher to be able to promise [00:28:00] those big results.

[00:28:00] But anyways, that is how speakers in summits get the leads versus bundles, where if someone’s signing up. There freebie amongst a list of other freebie. That’s awesome.

[00:28:11] Viv: That’s awesome. What is the most common mistake that you see people making when they start running summits?

[00:28:19] Krista: Yes. Um, it, and I’ve alluded to it a couple of times, and that is just not good choices with summit audiences and topics.

[00:28:28] So I mean, a lot of us are successful in our businesses. Um, by targeting a wider range of people like I am as some in the box. I, I mean, now we’re actually shifting to targeting specifically course creators membership site owners in high ticket program, but that’s still a lot of people. That’s a lot, a very wide audience.

[00:28:48] I’m not going to go host a summit about that because that is too many people. If you are targeting like creatives is when I see a lot online business owners, service providers like females. Like professionals. These are [00:29:00] audiences. I see a lot. That’s not going to work for us on it. So the biggest mistake I see is someone assuming that if they have business positioning, that works well, but it will translate to a summit.

[00:29:10] And that’s a lot of times, that’s not the case. A lot of times you need to be like, okay, what are some like submissions I have within my audience? And you have to pick one of those dose, your at four and then solve a really specific problem. Again, one of the examples I’ve hosted assignment for, with my own audiences is course creators.

[00:29:28] I will say that’s a tough audience. It’s still very broad and they are marketed to a lot. So it is a hard topic to host a summit for, but that was one of the 70 shows. To use for my audience, but then I still got really specific with a topic I had for them. It was like reaching your biggest course launch yet through a virtual summit.

[00:29:47] They don’t see that kind of positioning. Right. It’s it’s fun. And so you have to get specific and not just assume that your whole. That you have now is, is going to [00:30:00] work. And a lot of people pushed back on that and I’m like, I don’t want to leave anyone out. This works for me with all this. And I’m like, please leave people out.

[00:30:05] And if you’re worried about it, hosts additions of your summit. So like for example, the summit I have right now, a co-host is running it and I’m about to take it back, but she has done, so we did course creator edition together. And since then she has done, I think she did service providers, a speaker edition, and now she’s doing membership edition.

[00:30:22] So like you can do different additions of your button. It’s fun. It’s fun to do it that way. So I would say a broad. Is the biggest mistake. Yeah.

[00:30:30] Viv: That’s really, really interesting. I mean, it’s like, it’s like niche or niche in your summit, isn’t it? You know, you need to kind of really focus on that. Yeah. And, and I’ve, and the hook, I guess, is really important as well.

[00:30:40] You, they want his thought that thing that’s different and that’s unique and that they, you know, you’ve not heard a million times already. Uh, cause as you say, it’s a, it’s a noisy online place. Another question before we kind of wrap up today is do you need a big audience of your own to launch your first summit?

[00:30:56] Because a lot of people are going to be listening, going, okay. I’ve only got 50 people on my email [00:31:00] list or 200 people or whatever it is. And I want these safe people here that kind of thinking I can’t can’t launch this because I’ve got no

[00:31:06] Krista: audience. Yeah. So the biggest thing I like to tell people is the only thing I like to see someone have is a proven offer.

[00:31:15] Whether that means you have. Twice to your email list of 50 people. I don’t really care, but what that, what those sales do is it tells me that you know how to solve a problem for your audience and communicate that to them. And that is so important with a summit from there. It does not matter. I have had clients and students come in with literally zero lists, one of the most extreme examples, which please don’t expect these results.

[00:31:39] But I had someone come in with zero list and host a summit that brought in 10,000 attendees in a hundred thousand dollars in sales like that to me. Out of the ordinary, but it shows me what is possible. Like you can do incredible things with a summit, with no audience. Um, and even if you’re starting from zero and get 500 people through a summit [00:32:00] that is still 500 people you weren’t talking about before.

[00:32:03] So the size of your email list does not matter. You know, the biggest thing that comes up from that was like how speakers aren’t going to want to speak at my summit if I have no, no lists, no audience. If you don’t. Email them and be like, by the way, I don’t have an audience, but I would love for you to speak at this.

[00:32:17] They don’t care if your summit is positioned. Well, if you’re excited about, if it’s an audience they want to get in front of you are golden. So please don’t let the size of your email list or audience would you bet. And don’t

[00:32:28] Viv: forget guys, the guests as well on the back of that, you know, it’s not just you and one of the person it’s, you know, you are the organizer, you are doing all the hard labor, like Krista said with DNA, like bundles and things of the summer.

[00:32:39] You are the organizer, which is where, you know, the hard raft, this is why we like being contributors to summits and bundles of things, because it’s really nice. It’s like the I’m going to call it like the lazy leads approach it’s side. So it’s nice. Isn’t it did it lightweight, but you know, it does elevate your credibility and everything by data and people will want to be part of that.

[00:32:57] And, you know, Brings them into this whole [00:33:00] network of like 20, 30, however many people you’ve got involved, but they’ve all got email lists. If everyone had like an email list of say like 500 people, you know, you’ve got 20 of those people, you know, that’s, that’s a lot of people that you get in, you know, eyes on your summit.

[00:33:12] I’m not going to do the math in my head on that one. I should be really easy. So, um, but yeah, that’s a lot more eyes on your summit. Don’t yeah, I think so often people think I have to wait until they get to a magic number, you know, whatever that. So awesome. So Krista, before we finished tell people how they can connect with you, what free resource you’ve got for us to offer to our listeners and yeah.

[00:33:35] Like how people can work with you if they were really interested in kind of getting the hands-on on templates and you know, the tuition to run a summit.

[00:33:45] Krista: Yeah. So you guys can find me at 70 and a box that CEO. When you go there, you will just see all the, my house STIG things. We have a podcast with over 150 episodes select you could dive in and go down the rabbit hole as deep as you want.

[00:33:59] Um, I’m on [00:34:00] Instagram all the time at summit and a box. And, uh, like you said, I do have a freebie for you called the virtual summit funnel roadmap. This is something I like people to go through before they really get too far into the planning process to see what does it look like to bring someone. To the summit, like totally cold traffic, get them all the way through the event, being an engaged attendee by mail that has passed.

[00:34:22] And then at the end, buying your signature offers. So this kind of walks through the six steps that are in like a virtual summit funnel and how to get people all the way to your signature offer mistakes. You want to avoid with that and more, and that is that seminar box.co/roadmap. That

[00:34:38] Viv: is awesome. So, so excited.

[00:34:40] And as I say, guys, I will be working with Krista because no freaking way, am I going to start launching a summit without someone to do some of the other hard graft for me, you know? And I’m not going to create all of those templates from scratch. Crazy. And it’s insane. So, you know, this is it work with the experts, work with people, who’ve done it, you know, know the mistakes and the [00:35:00] pitfalls to avoid, and you’re going to get the results that you want so much faster.

[00:35:04] So absolutely lovely to speak to you today, Krista, thank you so much for being on the show.

[00:35:09] Krista: Thank you so much for having me. This was a blast.

[00:35:12] Viv: So there you have it folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of marketing without social media today and feel inspired to take action in your business, whatever that looks like for you.

[00:35:25] And as always, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for tuning into another episode of this podcast. And if you haven’t done so already, please do subscribe to the podcast. So you don’t miss an episode, speak to you soon. .