Greg [00:00:00]:
I think what's really important to understand with events is you have to create an amazing experience. You've got to give great information, but you also have to give people a true transformation. This is secrets for success.
Greg [00:00:25]:
Welcome to the Secrets for Success podcast. I'm your host, Greg Tod. Thank you, as always, for joining me. This past weekend, I was at an event called the Clinic Boss Summit, and I realized that actually, I didn't realize this. My team realized you don't haven't talked about events and said, you know what? Why don't we talk about events on today's episode, the power of events, and also how you host an event. So just to let you know, it's not like I read this in some book or I honestly just kind of figured this stuff out by screwing up many events, and I wouldn't even say I screwed up the events. I've learned a lot from doing events. I have done virtual events, probably done about 20 to 25 virtual events.
Greg [00:01:14]:
I've done those in a form of challenges, webinars, and actual live. I'm sorry, like, live virtual events, if that makes sense. Right. Virtual events.
Greg [00:01:22]:
Okay.
Greg [00:01:23]:
I've done live events. I did my first actual event in 2017. The event in 2018, did one in 2019, missed out on 2020, did one in 2021 as we were trying to come back from COVID took a break in 2022. Then I did a other big live event in 2023, and I'm going to be doing one this year in 2024. By the way, go to sshclive.com. I think it's sshclive. Sshclive 2024 Dot. Or you can send a message to us and we will give you all the information to that.
Greg [00:01:57]:
Okay? With that said, this is not to promo my event. This is about how do you actually run events, because events are powerful. And if you guys have listened to my content, I truly believe that every single business is in your best interest to go hybrid. And what I mean by hybrid is that if your business is primarily brick and mortar, have some type of online component with your business. If your business is primarily online, have some type of in person content or some type of in person communication with your business. And the way that I typically do that in both scenarios is by doing an event. An event is a transformation experience for people. An event allows you to be able to have a group of people all do something together, and it moves them in a way that you just can't do by just talking individually to people.
Greg [00:02:59]:
An event is powerful, but I think many of you aren't doing it and you're not doing it because you don't know how to run an event. And so there's a lot of things that I learned from the event that I went to this past weekend, but there are certain things that I realized that they didn't do that I do and certain things that they did and I don't do. So I figured I would use this podcast. Let's talk about how I run events. And just to give you some context, my first event I did had 70 people. My second event I did had 200. My third event I did had 440. The next event I did during the COVID time was 150 ish people.
Greg [00:03:40]:
And the last event I did had, like 230. So that's for my live events, my virtual events. I think I've had as much as 550 people for my virtual events that actually showed up for the event. I had one event last year where we had over 2000 people register and come to the event. So with that said, there's ways to do this, and I want to just give you a few things that you can do to make sure that your event runs well, okay? Number one, prepare, prepare, prepare. You know, what is more important than the actual event is actually getting people to show up for the event, okay? So a lot of times, even today, we are having a staff meeting and it's a team member that's like, oh, this is what we need to do for the event. This is why we need to do an event
Greg [00:04:30]:
Look, the main thing we need to do for the event is get people to the event, okay? So give yourself enough time to be able to launch the event, to get people excited about the event, to talk about all the amazing things that are going to happen at the event to create different waves of people coming into the event. So this is probably one of the biggest things that you can do, and that is to have waves of sales for the event. So maybe there's something that you're going to do from now until the end of the month. And if you get the event during this time, you're going to get the event, and you're going to get this, this, and this with it. Then you have another mini launch for the event, okay? And that's what I do. I have these mini launches. So the following month, if you get your tickets during this time, maybe this is going to be the last time that the event price tickets are going to be at this level, and it's going to go up 20, 30%, and then you're going to take away bonuses. So that's the trick with events.
Greg [00:05:33]:
You've got to fill it up first and you fill it up by doing mini launches for the event. Number two, when you are trying to get your event filled up, make sure you talk a lot about what are the benefits and what are people going to get from coming to the event. Is your event going to be around guidance? Is it going to be around just lots of content? Is that what your audience is? Are they a content based audience? So if that's the case, they're going to want to know who's going to be speaking, what are they going to be speaking about, what subjects are going to be covered. XYZ ABC okay. Is your audience a community based audience? Meaning that they could give a flying, you know, what about what you're going to talk about at the event? It's all about the community and about the experience that they're going to get while they're at the event. I think for me my audience is more about the experience first and then the guidance content second. But initially it had to be all about the guidance and the content because I didn't have a big community. So make sure that you know what things your audience is looking for and make sure that on whatever page you have, whatever promotional material you're using, that you talk about that thing.
Greg [00:06:48]:
Now, accountability is important, that's great. But people don't really come to events for accountability. They come to events for recognition. They come to events for community. They come to events so that they can be spotlighted. They come to events for the energy. I mean, I was just watching some football games and as I'm watching the AFC and NFC championship game, I was just thinking that here I am watching a game in a comfort of my home on my couch. Didn't cost me any money, just my subscription to YouTube tv to watch the games.
Greg [00:07:22]:
Most of the people paid anywhere between $500 to $5,000 to be at that game. The same game that I watched where I'm watching it very clear on my tv. People had to squint their eyes and see the people on the field and they were willing to pay 500 to 5000, maybe even more for that event because they value the experience. So just figure out what does your audience want? Like what's the big thing that they want. So those are probably the two biggest things I would tell you with regards to how to fill up your event.
Greg [00:07:55]:
Okay.
Greg [00:07:55]:
Know what your audience wants and have many launches as the event is coming around. All right, let's talk about the actual event.
Greg [00:08:03]:
Okay.
Greg [00:08:04]:
I think what's really important to understand with events is you have to create an amazing experience. You've got to give great information, but you also have to give people a true transformation. And so the experience is important. And I'll tell you just certain things that we've done throughout the years to create an amazing experience. So one year, what I did is on our name tags, our name tags for the event, we had the person's name, but then we also had a nickname for them, and it made people feel extremely unique.
Greg [00:08:39]:
Right?
Greg [00:08:40]:
So it's like, here's your name, but then here's a nickname. So for me, it'd be Greg Todd, and then my nickname was, right, okay. And if you were a speaker, you'd have your nickname, but also say, know you have this. So those are, like, little things that you can do to just make it unique to them. Here's something that I've done in the past. I've actually gone through, looked at every single person that's coming to the event, and I made sure that I memorized their name. So as I saw people, I never had to look at their badge. I would actually look at them and say, hey, Susie.
Greg [00:09:12]:
Hey, Sarah, what's up? Hey. It made people's weekend just by me doing that. So you want to create a very unique experience, and it's not just by having a really cool swag bag and a cool t shirt, whatnot, like, make them feel as though you care so deeply about them, because you actually do.
Greg [00:09:32]:
Okay.
Greg [00:09:32]:
So I think that's extremely important. If you can do things prior to the event to get people comfortable, whether that is doing group Zoom calls or having some type of accountability group or whatever, just different things that you can do so that people are comfortable coming into the event. I've found that extremely valuable for my events. Okay, here's another thing that I do at my events. I have a party, or I have a networking session, networking party the day before the actual event. So it gets everyone comfortable, because, especially maybe it's because it's my audience of healthcare, they can kind of be a little awkward and a little scared. Not all, but especially kind of like the newer generation. They're like, oh, my gosh, it's too much people, blah, blah, blah.
Greg [00:10:21]:
So what I do is I have a little get together networking party the night before, so people can just come in, just meet each other, talk this, and it sets the tone for the next day of the event. So when I'm bringing the energy, everyone's already comfortable with, one another, and that's worked extremely well for me. Okay, let's see here. What's another big thing that I did with the Garcia events? For me, it's got to be about music. Like, you've got to have music because at an event, it's all about creating an amazing learning environment that they could not get had they been home. So what I do is with whatever I'm teaching the content that I'm teaching, I make sure that there is music. While I'm teaching the content, there's music when the person is being introduced. And for my speakers, I let them have whatever song they want to be introduced to.
Greg [00:11:16]:
So all of these things create amazing energy, but it also makes people remember because we remember based off of emotion. And if you can use music to create emotion, it's going to allow people to retain the information better. Here's another big thing that I do is I make sure that I have some type of session on us, networking and bringing value to each other so I can teach people the power of community. So they might have come to the event and they might love the content, but they might be like, the content was okay. I kind of knew about this, or I really didn't want to learn about marketing, I didn't want to learn about sales, I didn't want to learn about this. I didn't want to learn about that. But what they love is they love the connections, right? Our first event, we had 70 people. I think that event created, like 15 to 20 business partnerships.
Greg [00:12:04]:
Isn't that crazy? So it's the power. People kept on coming back because they're like, I know I'm going to meet a person there that's going to help take me to another level.
Greg [00:12:12]:
Okay.
Greg [00:12:15]:
For me, it's, again, experience. So I usually will have something after the actual main sessions, I'll have something every single night. So one time I had a big party at a local restaurant called Krabby's. One time I rented out a cruise ship, and I rented out for the night and did an evening cruise with all the vip members, which is basically the entire event. One time, one of my friends rent out a boat and take people on boat rides, like throughout Clearwater beach. So you want to just create something so that even after the event, people can stay connected and just enjoy each other's company. And, oh, one of the other big things I give away is I give away money, I give away prizes, I give away things that keep people engaged, get people to be able to interact, get them to be able to talk, get them to be able to have incentive to learn. So I'll give away prizes throughout the event.
Greg [00:13:23]:
One year we did, I don't know if you remember the game on the prices, right, where you can punch the thing and open up whatever cool little prize would be there. So I've given away iPads, macBooks. I've given away Amazon gift cards. I've given away thousands of dollars. And so you do those types of things to keep people motivated so that they stay engaged throughout the entire event. If you are going to have some type of offering at the event, like, if you're going to have an offer, give people the opportunity to be able to process whatever it is you're going to offer them, so you don't just do it right at the end of the event.
Greg [00:14:03]:
Right.
Greg [00:14:04]:
Don't do that. Let people have that opportunity to take you up on whatever it is that you're going to offer probably midway through the event, and then give them time to be able to process, especially if it's something that's of a higher investment level. So I think that's really important as well. And then I think lighting and just creating a mood and an energy that's going to truly, truly change people's lives. So, guys, those are just some of the things that I do during my events that I think have made them extremely transformative and memorable. And I highly recommend that you do events, man. I think that they are so powerful. All those things.
Greg [00:14:45]:
I told you, I pretty much take those things and put them into my virtual events as well. And my virtual events, I've had parties. I've had parties where you're in your living room and we're playing music, and I had a dj, and everybody's turning on their cameras at their house, and we're all partying. So during COVID I did that, and it just makes it so awesome. So, anyways, those are some of the things that you can do. I highly recommend for you guys to do events if you need help with events. I don't have an event company, but you could drop me a text and I'll do my best to answer whatever question you have. 813-534-6453 I hope that helps.
Greg [00:15:26]:
And I would love to see you guys pull off some cool events in the future. Till next time.
