Speaker 1: Deborah, with her thirty years of being an ltrepreneur and
Speaker 1: creating over seven companies, knows exactly what it means to
Speaker 1: accept the mission. When you make that decision, when you
Speaker 1: accept the mission to become a solopreneur, to take yourself
Speaker 1: and your talents to market, then you embrace a life
Speaker 1: of not only unlimited possibilities, but also the unknown. It's
Speaker 1: an elixir of fear and bravery that only someone who's
Speaker 1: taken the leap really understands. On our show, deb digs
Speaker 1: deep with her guests to highlight what you the listener
Speaker 1: wants to know, the stories, the whys, and the hows
Speaker 1: to navigate the journey to success. Get ready to hear
Speaker 1: from some of the most incredible mission takers from Generation
Speaker 1: Z to boomers. So sit up, perk up, and get
Speaker 1: ready to be blown away. Now here is your host,
Speaker 1: Deborah Drummond.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to get another mission based podcast. I'm so
Speaker 2: happy to get her here. Thank you so much, our
Speaker 2: high Cast family. We absolutely love you and adore you.
Speaker 3: You know that, and you know what.
Speaker 2: You are not only the coolest podcast audience, but you're
Speaker 2: very well organized, you have vision and oh lucky you,
Speaker 2: We're gonna have a conversation with Wendy Watson today all
Speaker 2: the way from Colorado. She is a spiritual relationship mentor,
Speaker 2: and right pre show we were talking and I said,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, there's a lot of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2: I know that a lot of you out there are
Speaker 2: doing your own thing. You've got projects, you've got ideas.
Speaker 2: You're watching us do it first, You're like laughing, going
Speaker 2: ha ha ha, until you do yours and you.
Speaker 3: Take your mission, and then we'll copilot you. That's my
Speaker 3: new word.
Speaker 2: I found this new word this morning, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to use it because people were saying, like, what is
Speaker 2: it with you two sixty two women? I go, we
Speaker 2: are like the best co pilots, And I was like,
Speaker 2: I really like that, because you know, most of us
Speaker 2: are going forward. Wendy is one of those co pilots
Speaker 2: to this project, and she is doing some very cool things.
Speaker 2: She just finished doing some she's going to tell you
Speaker 2: what she does, but she just finished doing a really
Speaker 2: cool event that made huge waves, big enough that it's
Speaker 2: now going to be an event next year as well.
Speaker 2: And so I said, you know, so many times people
Speaker 2: want to do events. What is it about event? What
Speaker 2: makes a good event? What don't you know behind the stage?
Speaker 2: What don't you know behind the stage? And in this
Speaker 2: world of multiple you know, multiple revenue streams and joint
Speaker 2: venture relationships, and some people that's their whole business, their
Speaker 2: whole business.
Speaker 3: I know a woman who has a business and it's
Speaker 3: called I Got people for that, And so she basically
Speaker 3: connects people and makes a relationship fee, right, and she's
Speaker 3: having the time of her life because she's talking and connecting.
Speaker 2: So there's a job for you. Put that one in
Speaker 2: your college calendar, you know. So let's get to talking
Speaker 2: to Wendy, because you get to hear about me all
Speaker 2: the time. So Wendy, welcome to mission accepted.
Speaker 4: Hi, thank you for having me on. Oh my god,
Speaker 4: it's such a pleasure to be on here with you
Speaker 4: guys and to be talking with your audience sisters.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good, it's good.
Speaker 2: So please introduce yourself, tell people what you do, give
Speaker 2: them a bit of background on who you are, and
Speaker 2: then let's have a little conversation about what this whole
Speaker 2: event thing looks like and maybe just share with us
Speaker 2: your last event.
Speaker 4: Yes, so a little bit about me is I grew
Speaker 4: up in a very chaotic household, two divorces of my own,
Speaker 4: my parents' divorce when I was eight. I was very angry,
Speaker 4: very selfish, and loss of a child, bankruptcies, all the things,
Speaker 4: until I went on my own spiritual journey and healed
Speaker 4: a lot of my wounds and brought out a lot
Speaker 4: of my gifts. And now I help people to do
Speaker 4: the exact same thing, be in complete relationship with themselves,
Speaker 4: with your anger, with your mind, with your brain, with
Speaker 4: your back wings and your chicken legs, like all of
Speaker 4: these to me are different relationships. So being in relationship
Speaker 4: with all the different components of who we are brings
Speaker 4: out the real, authentic, true version of ourselves. And to
Speaker 4: be able to do that in alignment with our values
Speaker 4: and our principles, that is my mission. And I was
Speaker 4: able to bring that to life at my SaaS Cash
Speaker 4: and Class conference that I just hosted on April fifth
Speaker 4: here in Denver, and it was all about showing all
Speaker 4: the possibilities that we can have these days without feeling
Speaker 4: like we need to sacrifice anything. We can have the
Speaker 4: health and wellness without sacrificing the kids or vice versa.
Speaker 4: We can have the career and the business. These days
Speaker 4: without feeling like we have to sacrifice the relationship or
Speaker 4: vice versa. And we can even pick our men these days,
Speaker 4: without just sitting by the window and waiting for them
Speaker 4: to call on us. We can have kids on our
Speaker 4: own these days. We can have everything. So let's like inspire,
Speaker 4: Let's teach you how to do that. Let's show you
Speaker 4: that it is currently being done, so that you can
Speaker 4: do that for yourself.
Speaker 2: Right on.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: And you know, for those of you that don't know,
Speaker 2: you will be able to open that gorgeous, beautiful book
Speaker 2: and see Wendy's story in the two sixty two and
Speaker 2: we share stages and all the things. And so I
Speaker 2: thought that would a perfect person to kind of dive
Speaker 2: a little deeper into the conversation about doing events, because
Speaker 2: for some people it's that automatic obvious.
Speaker 3: They're like, oh, I'm doing a book, I should have
Speaker 3: an event.
Speaker 2: Or I know a group of really cool people in
Speaker 2: the same business sector as me, men or women, and hey,
Speaker 2: maybe I'll do a conference, maybe I'll do a live event.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'll do you know, like a live event or
Speaker 2: a live online or You're starting to see a lot
Speaker 2: of people pop up with summits. You're starting to see
Speaker 2: a lot of people and it's an extension of their business. Now.
Speaker 2: Some people do it as a market leverage, right. They
Speaker 2: use it as a market love to build customers and
Speaker 2: to build relationships and to build you know, inter relationships
Speaker 2: with other people that are their colleagues. Some people do
Speaker 2: it as a revenue stream, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I'm going to rent this space, I'm going to charge
Speaker 2: this space. I'm going to bring people in, and then
Speaker 2: there's different things that they charge within that. So I
Speaker 2: just thought, let's have an exploratory conversation because it's not
Speaker 2: you know, like a lot of things, it's not as
Speaker 2: easy as it may look.
Speaker 3: There's things that.
Speaker 2: Can go on what I call behind the curtain. We've
Speaker 2: been living and doing behind the curtain for a long time,
Speaker 2: I mean two sixty two. My audience is very well
Speaker 2: versed that you know, we've had over five hundred women
Speaker 2: come on stage. It's been pretty seamless and not too
Speaker 2: many you know, you know, challenges at this stage. But
Speaker 2: in the beginning, it was about how did you build
Speaker 2: that formula, what were your boundaries around, what are the expectations,
Speaker 2: and how do you relay them out.
Speaker 3: So let's talk a little bit because I'm super excited.
Speaker 2: I will be in Colorado in twenty twenty six and
Speaker 2: I get to be one of the speakers on Wendy's stage.
Speaker 3: So, Wendy, you just had an event. It was very successful.
Speaker 2: If we were to break it apart, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to do the same thing if you were talking to
Speaker 2: someone that is either doing events and looking to do
Speaker 2: another one, or someone looking.
Speaker 3: To start, how did you start?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: Where? Where did like? What was your concept and what
Speaker 3: did you find that was cool for you?
Speaker 4: So I started with my mission? What is my mission?
Speaker 4: And what is the theme for this particular event? Right,
Speaker 4: because once you have that, it's just the same as
Speaker 4: decorating a house or any or starting a painting or
Speaker 4: anything else. First you have to come up with the concept,
Speaker 4: the mission, the why, the reason, and then that way
Speaker 4: you can start bringing in all the people that represent
Speaker 4: or in alignment with that vision and that concept.
Speaker 3: That's that's brilliant.
Speaker 2: There's so I will let Wendy line with that and
Speaker 2: I will start with the other side where once you
Speaker 2: for me, once I have that done, it's the part
Speaker 2: that sometimes can get put aside depending.
Speaker 3: On your brain and how it works.
Speaker 2: But for me then comes up beautiful infrastructure, right, the
Speaker 2: infrastructure I was talking about it.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 2: We have an event that's coming up in a number
Speaker 2: of months, and then it's like, how many people? What's
Speaker 2: the marketing plan? You know, what places of media can
Speaker 2: we do?
Speaker 3: What are the costs?
Speaker 2: What do we have to charge for that event to
Speaker 2: make sure that it's worth that event? How many people
Speaker 2: are involved? Are we going to do sponsorship? Is does
Speaker 2: the event warrant sponsorship? Is there going to be people
Speaker 2: that give Are we going to do swag bags? What
Speaker 2: is the price for people to put swag you know,
Speaker 2: things in the swag bags? And so all of the elements.
Speaker 2: I think it's like, you know, I call it inspector gadget,
Speaker 2: but you got to get it down. I use a
Speaker 2: big whiteboard because this event happens to be bigger. You
Speaker 2: might be doing something of twelve or fourteen people. You
Speaker 2: can do it in your own beautiful journal, you know,
Speaker 2: But just breaking it all out, I think makes you
Speaker 2: have to think about many different things.
Speaker 3: And then how did your mission?
Speaker 2: How does your mission like when someone walks into the event,
Speaker 2: how does your mission show up before the person that
Speaker 2: says hello.
Speaker 4: Right, so I can tell you I have countless spreadsheets.
Speaker 3: How many spreadsheets?
Speaker 4: And I have countless?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, countless spreadsheets right.
Speaker 4: Right, So there's different spreadsheets for the speakers and the
Speaker 4: sponsors and the budget and the layout and all of
Speaker 4: those different things for that event. The spreadsheets were crucial
Speaker 4: for me to be able to track who's done, what
Speaker 4: has this been done? Has that been done? I do
Speaker 4: have a big whiteboard behind me over here. I'm starting
Speaker 4: to plan for my next one. And you know, and
Speaker 4: I think, like the color matching and how is it
Speaker 4: represented as the audience walks in? So I love so
Speaker 4: I kind of followed that. So right, once I had
Speaker 4: my theme and my mission and my whye, then it
Speaker 4: was the strategy and the logistics and okay, so now
Speaker 4: I need to get the money rolling in. So let's
Speaker 4: get the speakers rolling in, let's start working on the sponsors.
Speaker 4: And for this particular event, it took a while to
Speaker 4: find the right venue, right. I could have found a venue,
Speaker 4: but it was I wanted the right venue for this
Speaker 4: particular event, and so I didn't get my venue until
Speaker 4: four to six weeks before the event. Oh wow, and so.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's so, you know, we talk about double O
Speaker 2: seven mission exception handling danger, handling risks.
Speaker 3: That is super crazy.
Speaker 4: I had all this money, and I had all these
Speaker 4: people that were flying in from Delaware in California and
Speaker 4: Utah and Texas and Canada, and then we're starting to worry,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, don't worry. We got it. We will
Speaker 4: have a venue. Even if I have to get a
Speaker 4: permit in a bunch of chairs and a thing. It's
Speaker 4: going to happen. Don't worry about it. Right, having that
Speaker 4: faith and just knowing what you need to do and
Speaker 4: waiting for the right things to come into place, I
Speaker 4: think is a lot of it. And then setting it up,
Speaker 4: Like once you're there, how does your venue, how does
Speaker 4: your layout really open up and invite the audiences in
Speaker 4: the attendees into this big vision that you've created.
Speaker 2: Right, So I'm going to say that's not for the
Speaker 2: new person, not for the experienced person who has a
Speaker 2: strong relationship with faith and all the things. So you know,
Speaker 2: and it's interesting, everybody's very different, right, So everybody's very different.
Speaker 2: Your faith may come in obviously the you know the
Speaker 2: place where you're going to have it, but there is
Speaker 2: a piece of faith that comes with this. I think
Speaker 2: when you said intentions, it helps you make decisions based
Speaker 2: on For me, it's about and I had someone say
Speaker 2: to me a long time ago with events, it's like,
Speaker 2: what do you want people to feel when they walk in?
Speaker 2: What do you want them to feel when they are
Speaker 2: in the event, and what do you want them to
Speaker 2: feel when they leave the event? And that was that
Speaker 2: was really different because you know, we're doing an event
Speaker 2: that has a bit of multiple things for people to do,
Speaker 2: but really, if they're doing the art area, or they're
Speaker 2: in the merchandise, or they're books signing, or they're getting a.
Speaker 3: Picture, what is the unison feeling that you want?
Speaker 2: And I think that dictates a lot of the decisions
Speaker 2: around for me, a lot of the feelings around who's
Speaker 2: going to you know, right now we're hiring live music,
Speaker 2: so that live music has to make people feel the
Speaker 2: same way that we are presenting. And it shows up
Speaker 2: in the brand right that you want people to have
Speaker 2: an experience because like yourself, now, there's some events that
Speaker 2: you're going to do that you're not worried about revenue
Speaker 2: generating from this is not a revenue generating maybe it's
Speaker 2: a market leveraging. Maybe it's something because there's free events
Speaker 2: as well. People do free events and they're doing it
Speaker 2: for other reasons, other charity, nonprofit. While they're doing nonprofit,
Speaker 2: they're probably raising money, but there's they're not expected.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I just supported an.
Speaker 2: Event that they made nine thousand dollars and every piece
Speaker 2: of profit went to the women's health initiatives.
Speaker 3: So there's times where money may not be part of
Speaker 3: the picture.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but I think the real tried and tru
Speaker 4: result from any conference, Like if you really want to sit,
Speaker 4: so it's going to hit all the senses nice, right,
Speaker 4: the sites, the sounds, the visceral, the emotions. That's really
Speaker 4: when people connect and remember that event. You know. So
Speaker 4: a lot of my speakers talked about the courage to
Speaker 4: stand up and they kind of got emotional and what
Speaker 4: do you stand for and being open to receive and
Speaker 4: asking for what you need, all these emotional things. But
Speaker 4: they did it kind of like in a fun, lighthearted way.
Speaker 4: And then we had food that was you know, help minded,
Speaker 4: drinks that were health minded. We did a social media
Speaker 4: contest to make sure everybody integrated and took pictures and
Speaker 4: interacted with each other. So when we went to dinner,
Speaker 4: when they said their biggest takeaway was unity, it was
Speaker 4: just it was mic drop. It was like, that's exactly
Speaker 4: what I wanted, and that was your biggest takeaway. And
Speaker 4: I think the second thing, the second sign of a
Speaker 4: good event, at least a big event, was that even
Speaker 4: after nine hours of conferencing, more than half of the
Speaker 4: conference went to dinner together after because they weren't they
Speaker 4: still weren't done connecting with each other yet and feeling
Speaker 4: that sense of unity.
Speaker 2: Right on, Let's dig into that a little bit. Let's
Speaker 2: talk about some of the things that we've done that
Speaker 2: have been successful and some of the things that we've
Speaker 2: done that we needed to take a rethink on so
Speaker 2: people can kind of learn from a successful event.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I had originally, So something I had to
Speaker 4: rethink was that I originally had four panels, and they
Speaker 4: were there was going to be two panels at one time,
Speaker 4: and it was going to be an hour long, and
Speaker 4: the panel is didn't say anything until the day of,
Speaker 4: by the way, like a couple of hours before we're
Speaker 4: going to start the panels, and they wanted to be
Speaker 4: center stage so that they had the lighting and it
Speaker 4: was going to be great camera work and all the things,
Speaker 4: and so we had to think about that. And once
Speaker 4: they realized it was going to be an hour, they're like,
Speaker 4: we don't want to do this for an hour. Like,
Speaker 4: we're good with a half an hour. So we shortened
Speaker 4: the times down, had one panel at a time, and
Speaker 4: then just bumped them back to back and so they
Speaker 4: were much happier with that. They're much happier with the
Speaker 4: video that they're getting from it. But it was something
Speaker 4: that we had to rethink and navigate within a couple
Speaker 4: of hours.
Speaker 3: I think it's important to mention that.
Speaker 2: I mean, for me, having an agenda, like one of
Speaker 2: the successful things is having an agenda, having your whole
Speaker 2: team know what that agenda is.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's like our summits, right, you're on your off,
Speaker 3: you're on your off. This is what happens.
Speaker 2: You need to be there an hour before, like all
Speaker 2: the things that you tell to your speakers, and then
Speaker 2: sometimes things will happen. You may be able to accommodate it,
Speaker 2: you may not be able to accommodate it. You were
Speaker 2: able to accommodate it, you know what is it? So
Speaker 2: I'll talk about from you know, we obviously have speakers,
Speaker 2: and even if you don't have speakers, if you have
Speaker 2: a band. So when I was talking to you today,
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, this is when people walk in in
Speaker 2: half an hour.
Speaker 3: Is the welcome speech.
Speaker 2: Then we're going to do the fashion show, and then
Speaker 2: we're going to do the band. Then we're going to
Speaker 2: do the fashion show. Then we're going to do the band,
Speaker 2: and then we're going to do the you know, awards
Speaker 2: and what it is that so everybody kind of knows
Speaker 2: in that gray zone if it is a gray zone
Speaker 2: or you know, with us in the summits, we're pretty tight.
Speaker 4: You're like, you talk.
Speaker 3: Your speech is at two twenty.
Speaker 2: One of the successful things that we've done because in
Speaker 2: the first couple summits, sometimes speakers will come on ten
Speaker 2: or fifteen minutes before we're running forty speakers. My team
Speaker 2: doesn't need to freak out and wonder where you are.
Speaker 2: So now speakers have to be there an hour before,
Speaker 2: half an hour before. You have to have your camera off,
Speaker 2: so that you're in the flow and you're in the energy.
Speaker 2: That was important to us, right in the energy and
Speaker 2: in the flow and to be able to capsualize it
Speaker 2: as well as people get to see them, see that
Speaker 2: they're part of this. They don't just come on and off.
Speaker 2: And then that speaker's like, man, I wish I'd had
Speaker 2: more business from that. I'm like, you need to stay,
Speaker 2: you know, you need to stay and do some business.
Speaker 2: So I think that for me, it's having that and
Speaker 2: then then because I have it orchestrated, if something bleeps,
Speaker 2: were fine, because we only change one thing, not everything.
Speaker 2: Like we had one celebrity who texted us very close
Speaker 2: to time, like we were on air, we were shooting,
Speaker 2: there's no and she's like, I'm too sick on the coach.
Speaker 2: I can't put my face on a camera. I'm like,
Speaker 2: all right, you know, and we have communication between me
Speaker 2: and the co host. You know we're here, but we're
Speaker 2: talking communication. I'm like, you know, flip camera to this.
Speaker 2: You know we can make those decisions. But for us,
Speaker 2: it was really getting clear and having the business boundaries
Speaker 2: and competence and confidence to say they're saying, I don't
Speaker 2: know if I can make it.
Speaker 3: I go pick another time. No, I think I can. No,
Speaker 3: we don't do think here, we don't do maybes.
Speaker 2: We just do no for sures, right, we have to
Speaker 2: go all for sures because of the nature of the event,
Speaker 2: and we can accommodate it, and let's accommodate it when
Speaker 2: it's a for sure time. So sometimes that's hard. When
Speaker 2: you're working with celebrities, they're like, you know, can you
Speaker 2: change the time, And if you can.
Speaker 3: Let me know ahead of time.
Speaker 2: But if you can change it for someone who's your
Speaker 2: keynote speaker or whatever, or they're flying in and they
Speaker 2: only have a short amount of time, you can do that.
Speaker 2: You can make accommodations for sure. But the more time
Speaker 2: that you have that the better. So for us doing
Speaker 2: is things as far ahead. I mean, you've got an
Speaker 2: event next year, you've got your whiteboard going. One of
Speaker 2: the mistakes we made I've made in previous in my
Speaker 2: early days of doing events was getting too excited and
Speaker 2: launching it too soon. I now know, particularly the world
Speaker 2: now where many people are abundant with many things going on,
Speaker 2: is a six months out, a year out sometimes so
Speaker 2: that you don't have to change the date. But if
Speaker 2: you have to change the date, if you smell and
Speaker 2: you think that date needs changing, do it as soon
Speaker 2: as possible, right.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, Yeah, I think for me like having those
Speaker 4: agendas and having the timelines what actually worked really well
Speaker 4: for me. So between each speaker, I had a two
Speaker 4: minute buffer where we would play a song. They would
Speaker 4: really either we were on time and they would get
Speaker 4: to enjoy that song, or if the speaker went over,
Speaker 4: that was something that we could just cut out and
Speaker 4: move on to the next speaker. And so because I
Speaker 4: know that sometimes speakers don't always end on time, especially
Speaker 4: in a live event. With being on Zoom, I think
Speaker 4: it's a little bit easier to navigate that you're live
Speaker 4: and they're in the middle of ending their speech or something,
Speaker 4: and you don't really want to cut them off. So
Speaker 4: I think it was really smart on my end to
Speaker 4: just have those two minute buffers between each speaker each
Speaker 4: section of the event.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a gem drop for sure. That's a gem
Speaker 3: drop for us because it's Zoom. Right, we do some live,
Speaker 3: but it's Zoom.
Speaker 2: We have someone texting them so they'll see it in
Speaker 2: the chat privately to themselves, like time up. We've had
Speaker 2: that before. Ironically, we had this one as a professional speaker.
Speaker 2: She organizes stuff.
Speaker 4: Just like we do.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, after this, I'm like, girl, if anyone
Speaker 2: should know they're timing, but here was something that I
Speaker 2: did that's a gem drop. So if you have someone
Speaker 2: who's not used to speaking on like to a timeframe
Speaker 2: where they're like, they have that variable like podcast or
Speaker 2: variable at twenty twenty five, thirty minutes, it's variable, right,
Speaker 2: depending on how cool the conversation's going. So when you
Speaker 2: say to someone twenty minutes and they're like, oh, particularly
Speaker 2: if they're new, and I'm like, when you are practicing
Speaker 2: in the mirror, sixteen minutes is twenty because you talk
Speaker 2: in the mirror like this and you practice and you're like, Hi,
Speaker 2: my name is Dev Drummant, and I'm a top performance
Speaker 2: trainer and today I'm going to teach you. You know
Speaker 2: whatever you're talking like to yourself. You're not like, hey,
Speaker 2: it's so nice to be here. Thank you Wendy for
Speaker 2: having me. This is such a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2: Like you're not you're not breathing as much, you're not
Speaker 2: talking yourself in the mirror like, oh, that's hilarious. So
Speaker 2: I remember when you don't do that, you talk your speech.
Speaker 2: So sixteen to sixteen.
Speaker 3: And a half minutes is a twenty minute presentation.
Speaker 4: So interesting because for me, it's the opposite. Every time
Speaker 4: I would practice, I was at so it was an
Speaker 4: eighteen minute slot, And every time I was practice, I
Speaker 4: was at nineteen to nineteen and a half. But once
Speaker 4: I was on stage and one of the other speakers
Speaker 4: did this too, I spoke a little bit faster and
Speaker 4: so I ended up ending right on time, right on
Speaker 4: eighteen minutes, right right. So I think knowing your speaker style, yeah,
Speaker 4: and how you do which only comes with experience and practice, yeah,
Speaker 4: I think is incredibly important to know.
Speaker 2: It is. Yeah, when we're telling people, if you're needing
Speaker 2: to practice, that's your by nature.
Speaker 3: So the cool thing is it's better to have not
Speaker 3: too much time left over. Like we had a woman
Speaker 3: that came on.
Speaker 2: Her speaker spot was twenty minutes. She was the opening speaker.
Speaker 2: She was done in twelve eight minutes. Is a lot
Speaker 2: of time to fill until your next speaker. Now here's
Speaker 2: the challenge with that. Of course, you can move your
Speaker 2: next speaker up, but you're having to text.
Speaker 3: Are you okay? Are you ready to go early? And
Speaker 3: she's marketed to her friends. You know, we're big.
Speaker 2: You know our expectations around our speakers, even though our
Speaker 2: speakers are paid speakers. And the same thing is when
Speaker 2: we do live events. So whatever when you have people
Speaker 2: that are paying to play, or you're paying to play,
Speaker 2: or there's some kind of I'm not paying, but I'm
Speaker 2: not this like whatever your your your deal is with people,
Speaker 2: our expectation is to have them market I mean, how
Speaker 2: are you going to get it out there? Like that's
Speaker 2: part of it, that's part of it, like you you
Speaker 2: know you do it. So for us, moving people sooner
Speaker 2: can be a challenge because they're like, all my friends
Speaker 2: are coming at this time.
Speaker 3: You know, they're coming to see me speak. So you
Speaker 3: have that become as an issue if someone ends early, right.
Speaker 4: Right for the lack of communication. That was one of
Speaker 4: my speakers wasn't responding at all to any emails, any chats,
Speaker 4: any text, And so my mind is going into okay,
Speaker 4: if for some reason she doesn't show, like how do
Speaker 4: I fill this spot? Who do I pick? Like? Who
Speaker 4: are my top three that I think can just hop
Speaker 4: on stage? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Now without preparation. I think
Speaker 4: that's that's part of it, Like being able to navigate
Speaker 4: because yeah, all of my speakers, all my panelists, everybody involved,
Speaker 4: they knew The expectation was to market and to bring
Speaker 4: at least five to ten people to the conference. I
Speaker 4: had twenty people involved. Everybody brings five people, we've got
Speaker 4: one hundred people. We've got a successful conference. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: that didn't happen. So that falls on me as the organizer.
Speaker 4: It's like, Okay, now I need to amp up my promotional,
Speaker 4: my marketing in order to get people in. So then
Speaker 4: I got to the point where I was like personally
Speaker 4: calling people and paying for ads.
Speaker 3: And I think it's important to take that, take that
Speaker 3: away from whoever's listening, right, because even.
Speaker 2: Though so you know, there's expectations of an event that's cool,
Speaker 2: there's expectations of the people participating in the event. It's like,
Speaker 2: I was part of a big event that we flew
Speaker 2: to and this person had this person had someone who
Speaker 2: was bringing forty five volunteers to the event and they
Speaker 2: canceled forty eight hours before. If you are planning events, yeah, right,
Speaker 2: you have to know that those kind of things are happening.
Speaker 2: That's the stuff behind the stage that you don't see.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it was a great event.
Speaker 3: You don't see.
Speaker 2: So that person's calling everyone they know, you know, capable
Speaker 2: or not capable to get there?
Speaker 3: Can you do front door? Can you do this? Can
Speaker 3: you do that?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: Some of us on the inside we kind of noted
Speaker 3: a few. I was like, well, that's interesting, right, you've
Speaker 3: got to figured it out. But by nature, that's the
Speaker 3: kind of stuff that you do.
Speaker 2: Same as with you, So the expectations and then how
Speaker 2: much do you keep those expectations and asking and life
Speaker 2: happens as well, So you have to know that even
Speaker 2: if you have a certain amount of people coming.
Speaker 3: So I always, I always now.
Speaker 2: So some of the things that I've learned is get
Speaker 2: way more volunteers than you need. There's nothing wrong with
Speaker 2: having someone, having someone walk around to just make sure
Speaker 2: people are happy. The other thing I've learned in terms
Speaker 2: of volunteers is to have a leader and how an
Speaker 2: assistant leader. So there's two people in charge. They you know,
Speaker 2: so they have an idea floor plan, job roles like
Speaker 2: this is your solo, this is your spot, this is
Speaker 2: where you're going to be for three and a half hours.
Speaker 2: What we're doing for an event or the next event
Speaker 2: is having lanyards so they have the schedule on the back.
Speaker 2: They're all going to wear the same clothes, right, so
Speaker 2: please dress in black. We're going to give them obviously
Speaker 2: a piece of oceans, you know, clothing wear, because we
Speaker 2: haven't be clothing. But if you're not clothing wear, you
Speaker 2: can do something that you know, defines so people can
Speaker 2: see who volunteers are, so they know where to go
Speaker 2: to ask for that.
Speaker 4: Sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, So there's those kind of things that you
Speaker 2: can implement. But I always say, kind of overstocked, you know,
Speaker 2: overstock the cupboards. Right, if you have fifty people, like
Speaker 2: someone said to me, I want to send books to
Speaker 2: your you know, books to Ireland, we have thirty people,
Speaker 2: I go send thirty two, send thirty. Someone might bring
Speaker 2: their sister and all of a sudden, now you don't
Speaker 2: have a package for her or the organized there's like,
Speaker 2: you know, so sm thirty two.
Speaker 3: I was like, go high a little bit on on
Speaker 3: those things.
Speaker 2: So I've learned, and one of the things that I
Speaker 2: would say to somebody is go higher in your back
Speaker 2: in your backyard, right, And so yeah, there's nothing wrong
Speaker 2: with having too many people supporting and helping. Let's talk
Speaker 2: about pricing. Let's talk about pricing. Let's talk about how
Speaker 2: you would price the show or like just do do
Speaker 2: people do shows or do you do shows too that
Speaker 2: are market based where it's more important about the marketing
Speaker 2: and getting your name out there in relationship to the project,
Speaker 2: or for you is it a revenue stream. There's lots
Speaker 2: of people that I mean, ultimately you want both most
Speaker 2: you know, you want to be able to you know,
Speaker 2: but what about for you.
Speaker 3: And some of the events that you do, let's talk
Speaker 3: let's talk about happens.
Speaker 4: So, I mean one of my events that I'm scheduling
Speaker 4: out for this year is just a little twelve dollars workshop, right,
Speaker 4: It's more of a lead magnet and to get people
Speaker 4: in to experience what I do without it feeling like
Speaker 4: a big financial burden. R most people can afford twelve
Speaker 4: bucks plus. The goal of it is to get people.
Speaker 4: So the whole workshop is around redefining your relationship with money,
Speaker 4: and so we want people in to be able to
Speaker 4: think about it and get the juices rolling and stuff
Speaker 4: like that. One of my there was a financial advisor
Speaker 4: that came to me and said, I have a lot
Speaker 4: of clients that just aren't getting over that speed hump
Speaker 4: so that they can hire me. What can we do
Speaker 4: to give them just enough information to get them over
Speaker 4: the speed bump so that they're making more money so
Speaker 4: that then they can hire me. So that was the
Speaker 4: concept of that. So I have the twelve dollars, I've
Speaker 4: got the fifty dollars program, I've got the two hundred
Speaker 4: dollars program, depending on on what the purpose is, who
Speaker 4: the audience is, and where they're at personally, right, and
Speaker 4: their growth and their belief Yeah.
Speaker 3: Right, So different prices for different things.
Speaker 2: So that's you know, those events, so it can be
Speaker 2: so your purpose is more about so your you know,
Speaker 2: your mission walking in is to have people know what
Speaker 2: you do and how you do it. So your your
Speaker 2: ticket's a little lower when you start getting into events
Speaker 2: that have speakers or other people involved or doing the costings.
Speaker 3: For that are you like what is the market bearing
Speaker 3: out there? What do you know?
Speaker 2: Like like when you think about an event where you're charging, like,
Speaker 2: we just went through that process. Like so when we
Speaker 2: were deciding the price of the ticket. When we first
Speaker 2: decided the price of the ticket, we're like, where are you?
Speaker 2: So we're in Vancouver. It has to be much lower
Speaker 2: in Ireland because in Ireland they don't like big ticket pricing, right,
Speaker 2: So She's like, whoa we are We're at this price
Speaker 2: there where If that event that we're doing there would
Speaker 2: be the same thing in New York, it'd probably be
Speaker 2: three to four times the price. It would be well,
Speaker 2: first of all, the venue would be more, there would
Speaker 2: be more things to have to cover, but different places.
Speaker 2: So we're Vancouver super cool. Unfortunately, people in Vancouver are
Speaker 2: last minute deciders.
Speaker 4: We know that.
Speaker 2: So you have to deal with the anxiety of you know,
Speaker 2: we're going to sell three quarters of our tickets in
Speaker 2: probably the last two weeks, because that's how Vancouver people roll.
Speaker 2: If you know events here, those kind of things, and
Speaker 2: then what cost is it going to be. We have
Speaker 2: swag bags included. So we've done two different prices. One's VIP,
Speaker 2: so you're on the red carpet, you're in the VIP room,
Speaker 2: you get a different photographer, separating those kind of things.
Speaker 2: So making it so we can justify the price of
Speaker 2: a very expensive photographer compared to not or or knowing
Speaker 2: what we have to sponsor and put a sponsorship package
Speaker 2: out there for what are some of the variables that
Speaker 2: make your prices.
Speaker 4: Like one of the variables was my business partner, so
Speaker 4: I bought a license from Leiden empower her she talks,
Speaker 4: and so they have a policy that the pricing has
Speaker 4: to be one between one fIF two hundred okay, okay,
Speaker 4: so right, So that's that's a variable. If you're going
Speaker 4: to partner with somebody, you have to know what their
Speaker 4: policies and their requirements are. They want it affordable enough
Speaker 4: to get people in without breaking the bank. So and
Speaker 4: that after eight years of doing this, that's the window
Speaker 4: that they have found is very successful for their demographic right,
Speaker 4: So I think that's part of it. I think also
Speaker 4: knowing and planning what your expenses are is part of it.
Speaker 4: Knowing what your break even point financially is, how many
Speaker 4: people you need to get in the door. I think
Speaker 4: that's another variable, especially if the venue ends up changing
Speaker 4: or you don't get enough sponsors or anything like that.
Speaker 4: Then throwing in the VIP and you know, how can
Speaker 4: you make it more experiential?
Speaker 3: So let's wrap up with some super success. That's that's
Speaker 3: kind of like, you know, double down for everybody.
Speaker 2: Now you're doing events, not doing events, yea events, no events,
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, events, lots to do planning, mission vision.
Speaker 2: What's the nature of the event. What are you going
Speaker 2: to charge for the event? What's your break even point?
Speaker 2: Super important to know people. What's your break even point?
Speaker 2: What are the benefits? What's your date? Is a far
Speaker 2: enough ahead, don't plan on anybody doing anything. Make sure
Speaker 2: that you've got back up for everything. That's that's my model, right,
Speaker 2: Hire the right people, Hire the experts. Honestly, there are
Speaker 2: people out there that can help you do events that
Speaker 2: are absolutely fantastic. This is what they do every day,
Speaker 2: all day, from you know, in the morning and the night,
Speaker 2: just like you do your thing from morning tonight. So
Speaker 2: it's great to have people like that on your team.
Speaker 2: But let's talk about some things that have been highly successful.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about some things that you would put in,
Speaker 2: like having a song in between that was great, you
Speaker 2: know for us, because you have to give value, you
Speaker 2: have to highlight the value. So us having a red
Speaker 2: carpet says value, right, Those are carpet yes.
Speaker 4: And I love the lanyard thing with the agenda on it.
Speaker 4: I thought that was brilliant for all the volunteers. Hiring
Speaker 4: the right people. It's not just about hiring people and
Speaker 4: filling in the spot. It's about hiring the right people
Speaker 4: that are actually going to do it and escentually your
Speaker 4: event versus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, another thing that I do and then well, let's
Speaker 2: just take a little turn here. So another thing that
Speaker 2: we do for our events that's super successful is we
Speaker 2: refuse to put anything in a swag bag that someone's
Speaker 2: going to come home dump their swag bag into recycling.
Speaker 3: We actually have criteria.
Speaker 4: We have a video.
Speaker 3: You have to hit this criteria.
Speaker 2: It has to be it has to be caliber, it
Speaker 2: has to be if your certificates, a gr certificate's got
Speaker 2: to be a or ten and fifty dollars. If it's
Speaker 2: a service, if it's a product, it has to be
Speaker 2: a certain product is certain this. So we have swag
Speaker 2: bag criteria. So people feel like that's part of the
Speaker 2: experience and it's part of our mission.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: What about you, what's something else you do that is successful.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So we had all of our speakers provide their presentations
Speaker 4: a week to two weeks in advance so that our
Speaker 4: videographer and our tech team could create one whole slide deck.
Speaker 4: That way, the presentations and the songs and everything were
Speaker 4: just leap were just seamless, and we could just go
Speaker 4: to the next deck, or we could skip that deck
Speaker 4: and go to the next presentation instead of plug and
Speaker 4: play and like where is it and blah blah blah,
Speaker 4: and you know, in exchanging just creating one slide deck
Speaker 4: so it was completely seamless, was brilliant, was super successful.
Speaker 4: That's cool.
Speaker 3: Something that we do is because our events that we
Speaker 3: do live now.
Speaker 2: Even sometimes people are late, so even if it's in
Speaker 2: a conference room, we always make sure that there is
Speaker 2: someone at the front door the whole time so they're welcomed.
Speaker 2: They come in and now we're doing some stuff in clubs,
Speaker 2: so people are going to be coming and going. So
Speaker 2: there was someone to say hello, thank you, and welcome,
Speaker 2: and there was someone to say goodbye and gave them
Speaker 2: a little gift on the way out. So we're holding
Speaker 2: swag bags out. Who wants to carry swag bags everywhere?
Speaker 2: Sometimes in conferences you can put them, but we don't
Speaker 2: want them digging there. We want them looking there. So
Speaker 2: your swag bag is your gift that you get to
Speaker 2: go home and go whoo. This is cool part of
Speaker 2: their after effect. So literally someone sitting there and you
Speaker 2: know that's willing to sit there and be the welcome
Speaker 2: for the whole event.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. Another thing that was super successful for us is
Speaker 4: that we had it in an area where there's probably
Speaker 4: ten to fifteen different restaurants, so that when we were
Speaker 4: on lunch break, because it was a full day thing,
Speaker 4: there was a different option for anybody based off their
Speaker 4: personal styles. There was just a bunch of options in
Speaker 4: the local area that they could go to. Yeah, appreciate it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: If people are flying in from out of town, hotels
Speaker 2: and transportation access is really is really important for sure,
Speaker 2: directions because you know, someone's taking an.
Speaker 3: Uber and what have you, So that's really important.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So that was one of the things I was
Speaker 4: very cognizant of. You know, Denver is huge, Yeah, and
Speaker 4: so I didn't want it to be more than I
Speaker 4: didn't want the venue in the conference to be more
Speaker 4: than a half an hour away from the airport, Yeah,
Speaker 4: because then you're talking about much different expenses and time
Speaker 4: and they're already flying in and it just so happened
Speaker 4: that the closest hotel was point four miles and less
Speaker 4: than seventy dollars a night.
Speaker 3: Right, how much is it night? Can you negotiate? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Uh huh? Do you need to get a room block?
Speaker 4: All of those things. So it was so because it
Speaker 4: was already a reasonable amount. I didn't it saved me
Speaker 4: time from having to go get a room block.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the thank you at the end, whether they've left
Speaker 2: the event or not, but I thank you, and then
Speaker 2: your your after party, Like what does the after party
Speaker 2: look like? That's going to be different for everybody. But
Speaker 2: don't forget about your after party sponsors. You know, you
Speaker 2: may want ten accommodate if you get five. You know,
Speaker 2: sponsorship can be an interesting So for us, having the
Speaker 2: right branding, like we have a sponsorship package, right, so
Speaker 2: it's it, you know, and does that reflect what it
Speaker 2: looks like? And taking the time to pay someone to
Speaker 2: do a proper sponsorship package that you know you can
Speaker 2: probably use over and over again.
Speaker 4: Yes, the sponsor packages. The individual landing pages for the
Speaker 4: sponsors and the speakers and the panelists. They really appreciated
Speaker 4: that because then they had their own dedicated page and
Speaker 4: they could promote it and give them that individual focus.
Speaker 3: Oh that's really interesting.
Speaker 2: So having your having your landing page and having your
Speaker 2: sponsors have their own page on there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's one landing page and then you could
Speaker 4: click on any name or photo or logo and it
Speaker 4: would take you to their individual landing page or their
Speaker 4: website so that you they get that's awesome lead. Right
Speaker 4: now they're getting clicks and views on their websites.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I hadn't. I hadn't done that, so thank you.
Speaker 3: I even learned something on my own show today.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to wrap up a little bit because
Speaker 2: we've just taken you through a number of different things
Speaker 2: that you can do for a successful event.
Speaker 3: Right, you got all the different elements, and.
Speaker 2: I think some of the stuff behind the stage we shot,
Speaker 2: we shared with you some of the stuff behind the stage.
Speaker 3: Maybe next and we get together will tell you how
Speaker 3: to prepare yourself.
Speaker 2: There's all sorts of things that you need to do
Speaker 2: to pray yourself to be able to present to the
Speaker 2: world this kind of container. Right, So I say still
Speaker 2: start smaller and then go to go to the next level.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to ask you a question that's completely
Speaker 2: not that completely not that we're all having events.
Speaker 3: We're doing well.
Speaker 2: You're doing sellout events. Everyone's purchasing, they're fighting to get
Speaker 2: on the stage. They're having a blast, they're talking about
Speaker 2: it after they're going to dinner. They're staying connected. Everyone's
Speaker 2: doing all the great stuff that you want from a
Speaker 2: good event. People are begging you to do one next year.
Speaker 2: They're signing up right after this event.
Speaker 3: I have a client.
Speaker 2: We're signing up for this event right before, you know,
Speaker 2: for next year's event because it was so much fun.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is what we want for you all
Speaker 2: out there. And they can be revenue streams if you
Speaker 2: want them to be. Just realize that it's work. It's
Speaker 2: an extension of your business, but it is work. And
Speaker 2: with that being said, because we have all your information
Speaker 2: in the show notes, people can contact you. You are
Speaker 2: doing an event in twenty twenty six in Colorado. If
Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast in two years from now,
Speaker 2: she's probably doing another event, right, so we're probably doing
Speaker 2: one together. I'm going to just kind of clear that
Speaker 2: slate and say music is such a big part of events.
Speaker 2: It's an incredible piece. Choosing music the way that you
Speaker 2: did that was really cool based on what they're speaking on.
Speaker 2: But if you were on your way to a desert
Speaker 2: island and you had a suitcase and you were putting
Speaker 2: one album with you that you couldn't imagine not listening
Speaker 2: to for the rest of your days. What one album
Speaker 2: would you absolutely want to take with you?
Speaker 4: Okay, so I don't know how to pronounce the name
Speaker 4: of her albums?
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, what's the singer? You can new singer?
Speaker 4: The artist is Ivor ei vo R. She's a Nordic
Speaker 4: singer and she sings in both Norwegian language and English.
Speaker 4: And like I had to, it would have to be
Speaker 4: any of her music would have to be what I carry.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, you're gonna have to send me a song.
Speaker 3: Send me a song, Text me a song. That's awesome. Yep,
Speaker 3: all right, Well, look at you.
Speaker 2: Have been an incredible audience, and we are so grateful
Speaker 2: for you because we do look at our analytics and
Speaker 2: we know that you are all around the world.
Speaker 3: We also know that you share this show.
Speaker 2: We're so appreciated because there's some pretty cool people doing
Speaker 2: some pretty cool things, and you saw them sitting here.
Speaker 2: If you have some pretty cool things and you want
Speaker 2: to be sitting here, you have some options, right, So
Speaker 2: you can come onto a group podcast, you can come
Speaker 2: on to a solo show. If you want to do
Speaker 2: something that's a three part mini series, let's get it done.
Speaker 2: You would have because you were the first to know
Speaker 2: because we're very inner circle people that we were launching
Speaker 2: the Women's Channel. It is for women and those that
Speaker 2: support women, so basically women and cool dudes. So if
Speaker 2: you're a woman and cold dude and you want to
Speaker 2: be on our show, then get on our stage because
Speaker 2: that's going to get you on the Women's Channel and
Speaker 2: you're going to have three hundred million viewers listening to
Speaker 2: you talk about your upcoming event. I'm thinking you're probably
Speaker 2: going to fill your road and if look, if you're
Speaker 2: ready to wow, should I do a podcast? Should I
Speaker 2: do a television show? I've got this podcast, it doesn't
Speaker 2: have two hundred million views. Can I move it over
Speaker 2: to your show? Yes you can, So let's have a conversation.
Speaker 2: If you are new to this channel, well I make
Speaker 2: it really difficult deb Drummond dot com. You go to
Speaker 2: any contact page you have put it through and it
Speaker 2: actually bypasses my team and goes right to me.
Speaker 3: So I'm happy to have a conversation with you. We
Speaker 3: have incredible summits. We have one coming up.
Speaker 2: We always have one coming up right March, May, August
Speaker 2: and November seventh and eighth. If you want an invitation.
Speaker 2: If you want a free invitation to one of the
Speaker 2: most incredible events ever, just reach out.
Speaker 3: To us and we will get you that link. So,
Speaker 3: thank you so much for being such a cool audience.
Speaker 3: We appreciate you.
Speaker 2: We know you're going to be popping over to the
Speaker 2: television channel as well with being our audience there.
Speaker 3: Wendy, thanks for making so much time today. That was
Speaker 3: so fun. It was so fun.
Speaker 2: And we know you're in spirituality. We know you and
Speaker 2: money those two have a very powerful relationship. We're going
Speaker 2: to put all your information in this show. Note, So
Speaker 2: the spirituality and making more money, you know inspires you.
Speaker 2: If you leaned in on out, please your joke twinding
Speaker 2: and until we see you again on one s, stay well,
Speaker 2: stay well.
Speaker 3: I stay with bry for now,