1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,880 Hey everyone. 2 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:18,960 Ashley here with RSS.com. 3 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:23,480 On today's episode, we're talking to Dr. Mark T. Wade with Virtual Summit Software. 4 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:24,480 Enjoy the show. 5 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:25,480 All right. 6 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:27,760 Well, Dr. Mark Wade, welcome to the show. 7 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:29,600 I'm so excited you could be here. 8 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:33,000 Could you do us a little bit of favor and tell us what it is that you do? 9 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:34,080 Hey, Ashley. 10 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:36,160 Super excited to be here. 11 00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:38,720 Yeah, it's Dr. Mark T. Wade, as you just said. 12 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:40,680 So I am a doctor by trade. 13 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:45,200 I started off in the health industry with a brick and mortar practice and wanted to 14 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:46,600 help more people. 15 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:51,400 But instead of opening up more clinics, we looked for an opportunity to kind of expand 16 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:59,520 outside of that and started an online institute, which now is almost 11 years old at that time. 17 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:03,040 It's called the American Posture Institute, and it did really well. 18 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:08,720 We used a strategy, a marketing strategy called Virtual Summits to build the exposure, to 19 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:12,800 build our audience, to get our message out in front of more people. 20 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:16,360 But at that time, there was no easy or simple or cheap way to do it. 21 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:18,400 It was actually pretty complex. 22 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:23,240 And I was a little frustrated because there's so many easy ways to do webinars and courses 23 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:27,240 and people, you know, you don't have to have a bunch of tech skill or knowledge. 24 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:29,480 And I thought there has to be a better way to do virtual summits. 25 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:30,480 They're so powerful. 26 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:31,480 They're so beneficial. 27 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:36,840 And so in 2016, we set out and we created the first platform for hosting virtual summits 28 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:38,840 called Virtual Summit Software. 29 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:43,840 And then in 2017, I exited the American Posture Institute and went full time into helping 30 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:48,440 people get their message out to the world via these virtual summit strategies. 31 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:52,640 From there, we've hosted in-person conferences called Summit Fest Live. 32 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:57,120 We host one of the top biggest virtual summits on virtual summits. 33 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:02,900 We have a agency, a six-figure agency that hosts high-level virtual summits. 34 00:02:02,900 --> 00:02:05,760 And of course, we have the virtual summit software, which is the quickest and easiest 35 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:07,320 way to host virtual summits. 36 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,520 So what's pretty cool is I get to spend most of my day doing two things. 37 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,920 One, helping amazing visionaries and thought leaders like yourself get their message in 38 00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:19,840 front of more people, which I see as a way to expand the world and make the world a better 39 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:20,840 place. 40 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:25,480 But I also get to like brainstorm ideas and see those ideas actually come to like real 41 00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:28,400 life fruition on a computer and play with it. 42 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,440 So I kind of feel like a kid on Christmas almost every single week. 43 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:36,240 Now you said you were looking to expand, but what was it exactly that sparked you to want 44 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:37,240 to do virtual summits? 45 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:40,760 I mean, a lot of people don't even know what virtual summits are. 46 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:42,040 Exactly. 47 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:45,920 So I stumbled across virtual summits through a podcast, and I should mention we have a 48 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:48,320 podcast as well, the virtual summit podcast. 49 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:50,680 We've had it going on almost three years now. 50 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:52,360 It's kind of crazy. 51 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:57,120 My good buddy, best friend, John Lee Dumas, is a big podcaster, and he was kind of like, 52 00:02:57,120 --> 00:02:58,600 Mark, you have to have a podcast. 53 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:00,120 I'm like, yes, okay, let's do it. 54 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:05,960 So well, I heard on a podcast, a now good buddy of mine, Pat Flynn from Smart Passive 55 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:10,120 Income talking to Lewis Howes about a summit that they had ran. 56 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:13,500 And I was like, you know what, like, let's give this thing a go. 57 00:03:13,500 --> 00:03:18,360 And so like we'd been trying the typical things we were trying, like lead magnets and, you 58 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:21,280 know, like putting webinars and things and trying to put it out there. 59 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:25,280 But we weren't really getting a whole lot of people coming in to our audience and growing 60 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:28,160 our audience, at least not as quickly as we wanted to. 61 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:32,920 And at that time, we didn't have a lot of experience or even a budget really to spend 62 00:03:32,920 --> 00:03:35,320 much money on like paid traffic. 63 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:38,680 Again, this is like, you know, nine years ago, 10 years ago. 64 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,560 So it was still really new back then as well. 65 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:44,200 And so we set out to do this. 66 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:48,480 And with that, the concept of it just made perfect sense to me. 67 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:54,200 It's the concept of for a virtual summit for those who aren't familiar with it is essentially 68 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:57,800 you're taking a problem that your audience has a problem or a series of problems and 69 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:02,800 you're bringing together some of the top minds in the industry or in the niche to solve those 70 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:07,320 problems and you're making it available to this audience for free for a set period of 71 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:08,320 time. 72 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:12,960 So it's a really great way in my mind to build no like and trust. 73 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:15,360 Now you got to keep in mind, I actually have two doctorates. 74 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:19,880 It means I'm a really big nerd and one of the things I love to nerd out about is psychology, 75 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:24,600 why people do what they do and don't do what they do or, you know, don't take action. 76 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:28,220 And for me, like I saw this as a great way to give. 77 00:04:28,220 --> 00:04:32,600 You give value first, you build a relationship, you create no like and trust, but you also 78 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:38,280 are positioning yourself as the expert, as the influencer, as the authority, which creates 79 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:42,080 even more momentum with this new audience. 80 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,360 So for us, it was a really great opportunity to again, build our list. 81 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:48,640 And if we go, if I look all the way back and I haven't looked this far back in quite a 82 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:52,120 while, Ashley, so you're pushing my memory here a little bit. 83 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:56,560 But if I go back to our very first summit and because I'll actually bring this up because 84 00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:01,040 it's counterintuitive to what the people who are familiar with summits would probably think 85 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:02,040 or say. 86 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:04,700 I'm a big believer that it's not about the size of the list. 87 00:05:04,700 --> 00:05:06,320 It's not how big your summit is. 88 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:11,640 It's about how quality that audience is, which is also why virtual summits are so powerful. 89 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:16,120 If I look back to the first summit we ran, it had like maybe three thousand attendees 90 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:18,040 on which is actually pretty big, right? 91 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:19,480 It was our first summit. 92 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,080 But you hear people running like hundred thousand person summits and things like that. 93 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:25,200 And we've had pretty massive ones as well. 94 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:30,440 But that first summit had three thousand attendees and that summit ended up generating about 95 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:35,240 thirty six thousand dollars in revenue just from the summit, which for us was our first 96 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:37,000 real revenue online. 97 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:41,880 So we were doing the happy dance for sure, but then those three thousand people were 98 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:45,960 aligned with what we ended up launching after that, which was a certification. 99 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:50,320 We ended up doing over six figures on that launch just from that three thousand person 100 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:52,600 list that we had brought in from the summit. 101 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,840 The summit aligned perfectly with what we were launching. 102 00:05:55,840 --> 00:06:01,720 And we've replicated that over, you know, forty or fifty times now in different niches, 103 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:03,920 industries and products as well. 104 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:08,960 So it's a really powerful way again to bring an audience in to create know, like and trust, 105 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:14,880 but by doing it, by solving their problems and giving them something they want. 106 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:16,440 All that sounds so exciting. 107 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:19,080 And unfortunately, I know that one of the things that's going to happen is people that 108 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:22,360 are listening to this, they're going to jump right in and be like, oh, I can make so much 109 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:23,360 money. 110 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:25,880 But let's let's back up just a little bit for just a second. 111 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:28,600 Why should podcasters care about virtual summits? 112 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:31,560 Why should they even be having that on their radar? 113 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:36,120 Well, first of all, I'm a big proponent of virtual summits, not just because my buddy's 114 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:40,120 GLD, but because they've been very successful for us in our company as well. 115 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:44,360 You know, over the long haul, we've had a lot of people come in, listen to the virtual 116 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:49,680 summit podcast to get knowledge, to get information and at some point come into the software, 117 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:52,520 virtual summit software and run their summit through that. 118 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:57,440 What I can't do very well, and I'm not an expert at podcasting by any means, but I'm 119 00:06:57,440 --> 00:06:59,440 a big proponent of them. 120 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:05,120 What I wasn't able to do is speed that process up or scale it on my own terms. 121 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:10,120 Now, with a virtual summit, I have power and control to be able to make it as big as I 122 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:11,120 want. 123 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:14,080 If I wanted to go bigger, I could do other things to push it bigger. 124 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:19,280 But I can I know for sure I can get that information, which is a big thing, you know, that we have 125 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:23,440 a lot of strategies in the podcasting space for trying to get people to go from the earbuds 126 00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:24,440 into the email. 127 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:27,880 But a lot of times it is the challenge that we're trying to overcome. 128 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,240 With a virtual summit, they're not getting access to the information unless they give 129 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:32,840 you their information. 130 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:38,260 So it's a big way to collect that information, collect their email, their name and be able 131 00:07:38,260 --> 00:07:43,480 to communicate with them afterwards, which puts that monetization opportunity on your 132 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:45,840 timeline versus just their timeline. 133 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:50,240 Well, speaking of which, I mean, you said that you're giving value. 134 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:54,760 So how exactly, like I kind of know this, but just for our audience, how exactly are 135 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:58,440 you making money from it if you're giving away like three tickets to a virtual summit? 136 00:07:58,440 --> 00:07:59,440 How does that work? 137 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:00,440 That's a great question. 138 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:01,440 I'm glad you asked that. 139 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:03,520 I always leave that to like to see if people are even paying attention, right? 140 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:05,440 Like, wait, you said it was free. 141 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:08,500 How do you make thirty thousand or thirty six or one hundred, whatever. 142 00:08:08,500 --> 00:08:10,000 So it's free to attend, right? 143 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:13,240 Just like, you know, you're giving them the opportunity to have access to these thought 144 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:16,560 leaders, these amazing people and get this content for free. 145 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:17,880 But it's during this period of time. 146 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:21,800 The summit, if you're doing a multi-day summit is like, let's say Thursday through Sunday 147 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:24,800 and they can show up and they can get access to those sessions. 148 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:29,240 But just like any conference or any summit, when those end, when that day's over, those 149 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:31,720 sessions close down and they're no longer available. 150 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:36,760 However, we usually offer a summit offer or like an all access pass for a nominal fee, 151 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:39,520 like forty seven bucks or ninety seven bucks. 152 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:43,360 And it gives them access, one, to keep those sessions on demand. 153 00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:46,960 But we also throw in some cool bonuses or other things as well. 154 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,640 So the people who are like the attendees who are like, this is amazing. 155 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:54,320 Like I want to come back to this as is great knowledge or I didn't get a chance to get 156 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:55,320 through them all. 157 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:56,320 I want to come back to them. 158 00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:00,360 You know, they'll gladly pay forty seven dollars, especially if they see the value in it to 159 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:02,160 have access to those ongoing. 160 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:05,240 And so that's where the revenue from a summit comes. 161 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:09,200 Now, I always say your summit is not your monetization strategy. 162 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:12,480 Your summit is your your relationship strategy. 163 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:14,480 That's where you build the no like and trust. 164 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:16,700 Your monetization strategy comes after that. 165 00:09:16,700 --> 00:09:19,840 It's what you're going to do after the summit is where you're truly going to be able to 166 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:22,440 monetize most of our summits. 167 00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:24,920 You know, we see anywhere from ten thousand to fifty thousand. 168 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:29,520 We have had a couple hundred thousand dollar summits, but those were ten to twenty to 169 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:34,020 thirty percent of the revenue we were able to generate after the summit because we've 170 00:09:34,020 --> 00:09:35,640 built the relationship with them. 171 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:38,520 And then we bring them into our next promotion or offer. 172 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:43,080 Now, so I mean, it sounds like if you're getting all these experts, do you have to pay all 173 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:44,080 the experts? 174 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:46,800 How do you convince me but actually be part of your summit? 175 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:49,760 So it's like it's very similar to podcasting. 176 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:54,420 And actually, we see some of our most successful summit hosts are podcasters because they're 177 00:09:54,420 --> 00:09:59,120 very comfortable, you know, with reaching out to speakers or asking someone to speak. 178 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:05,120 Now, it is a little bit different in the sense of you are immediately generating some monetization 179 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:06,120 from that summit. 180 00:10:06,120 --> 00:10:08,200 So maybe the speaker would like some kind of compensation. 181 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:09,520 I'll come back to that. 182 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,400 But also you are asking the speaker to participate. 183 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:15,560 This is where there's a variety of different ways you can promote the summit. 184 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:20,360 There's really cool strategies, everything from press release to paid traffic to I mean, 185 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:24,000 we've even seen people, you know, to local summits and put out stuff in the newspapers. 186 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:25,660 So there's hundreds of strategies. 187 00:10:25,660 --> 00:10:30,140 But the most powerful, the most successful strategy is having the speakers on your summit 188 00:10:30,140 --> 00:10:32,240 share it with their audience. 189 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:34,640 So their audience, they say, hey, look at this. 190 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:36,120 I'm speaking on this cool summit. 191 00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:37,120 It's on this topic. 192 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:39,060 If you have any interest, come join me. 193 00:10:39,060 --> 00:10:42,660 And then their audience, their database comes and participates in the summit. 194 00:10:42,660 --> 00:10:47,920 So it's really easy in this way to build your audience because you're leveraging both the 195 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:52,740 expertise of the speakers, but also their database, their audiences as well. 196 00:10:52,740 --> 00:10:56,280 So in that instance, the speaker might be like, well, you know, this is great. 197 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:59,960 I'm getting some publicity, which is really good because they're getting exposure not 198 00:10:59,960 --> 00:11:03,440 only to your audience, but to the other speakers audiences. 199 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:04,720 So that's great. 200 00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:07,520 But they might say, you know, let's let's make this a better incentive. 201 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:10,120 So there's a variety of different ways. 202 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:11,780 Typically we do not do honorariums. 203 00:11:11,780 --> 00:11:15,940 We don't pay speakers to speak because there's other ways we can make it a value to them. 204 00:11:15,940 --> 00:11:18,920 If you want to pay a speaker, awesome, go for it. 205 00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:21,160 But typically you don't need to. 206 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:25,080 One of the easiest things to do is give them an opportunity to build their own audience, 207 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:27,440 their own database from their summit. 208 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:31,760 So this is very simple by having them give a freebie on their speaker page. 209 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:36,160 Like you know, that goes to one of their lead magnets or an opt in or free resource where 210 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:38,180 they can collect the data. 211 00:11:38,180 --> 00:11:42,280 You might be thinking, well, you know, Mark, if we're if all the leads are going over to 212 00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:46,640 them, like what about you aren't you can you control the entire database and you have the 213 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:49,000 ability to communicate with them and it's okay. 214 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:53,480 It's like, you know, I am a big believer that there's enough for everybody to go around. 215 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:58,520 And when you do that, the speakers actually what we have found one of the other big benefits 216 00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:01,220 with these speakers, they become collaborators ongoing. 217 00:12:01,220 --> 00:12:03,560 You build a relationship with these experts. 218 00:12:03,560 --> 00:12:07,880 I remember some of the first summits I put on, I reached out to like mentors and coaches 219 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:10,320 and by the end of the summit, we were colleagues. 220 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:11,320 We were on the same level. 221 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:12,320 We were friends. 222 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:16,960 I could reach out to them for help or advice or another collaboration in the future. 223 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:21,360 So as a and I hear that almost from every summit host that I talk to, they say, yeah, 224 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:22,360 the revenue is great. 225 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:23,360 The leads were great. 226 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:26,880 But one of the best benefits to hosting the summit is the relationship I now have with 227 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:28,720 these other speakers. 228 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:33,680 Now with that being said, one of the most common ways to kind of give back to the speakers 229 00:12:33,680 --> 00:12:36,780 is to give them an affiliate commission or a referral commission. 230 00:12:36,780 --> 00:12:40,600 So if they send people to the summit and those people then that are participating in the 231 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:46,280 summit from that speaker by that all access pass, let's give them 50% of that revenue 232 00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:47,280 right there. 233 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,200 So that's a little something in the pocket of the speaker. 234 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:52,420 They're generating a little bit into their list as well. 235 00:12:52,420 --> 00:12:55,640 So it's like a win, win, win for everybody around. 236 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:59,300 There were several things that you said that really stuck out to me. 237 00:12:59,300 --> 00:13:04,100 First was you said that you were basically building relationships with these experts. 238 00:13:04,100 --> 00:13:07,420 So not only are you building relationships with your potential customers, you're building 239 00:13:07,420 --> 00:13:11,280 relationships with people that can basically help you build their build your business and 240 00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:14,200 theirs and borrowing each other's audiences. 241 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:18,160 That's such an interesting idea because, you know, like you said, there is so much to go 242 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:22,600 around and you don't have to fear that if you're trying to get people in on your thing, 243 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:25,240 because maybe you could be on theirs. 244 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:29,680 Well and to go with what you're just saying right there, I mean, in a way, it's not a 245 00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:32,800 lot different than a podcast, at least the conceptually, right? 246 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:36,960 We bring a lot of the podcasts out there, interview based podcasts. 247 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:41,120 One of the reasons for that is we hope the person we're interviewing, one, not only adds 248 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:45,880 value to our audience, number one, but number two, hopefully shares it with their audience, 249 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:47,920 which helps us grow our podcast. 250 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:50,040 A summit is like that on steroids. 251 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:55,840 You got eight, 10, 20, 30, 50, 60 people all doing it at the exact same time. 252 00:13:55,840 --> 00:14:00,760 It's kind of like a podcast and a launch in a series of webinars or masterclasses all 253 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:02,400 in one event. 254 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:05,640 And that's one of the reasons they've they become so successful. 255 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:10,000 I will say, and again, I mentioned this a minute ago, I see podcasters do extremely 256 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:14,600 well with this because one is really easy to reach back out to past guests. 257 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:18,160 So they usually already have a speaker list lined up that they can reach out to. 258 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:21,400 And they had a great interaction with you already once. 259 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:24,240 Most of the time they'll be willing to do it again. 260 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:29,040 But with that being said, for for others, I wouldn't also necessarily recommend, you 261 00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:33,160 know, a virtual summit is extremely powerful and extremely beneficial, but there's a variety 262 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:34,160 of different types. 263 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:39,260 I wouldn't recommend everybody does every single type, at least not at the at the beginning. 264 00:14:39,260 --> 00:14:41,580 So we've been talking about kind of like multi-day summits. 265 00:14:41,580 --> 00:14:46,480 And just to clarify, a multi-day summit is is anywhere from about three days to seven 266 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:51,240 days and has anywhere from about 20 or 25 speakers onwards up, like 80 speakers. 267 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:54,440 You know, I did a summit that had one hundred and twenty six speakers on it. 268 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:58,960 I would not recommend that for anybody at any time, but especially not on your first 269 00:14:58,960 --> 00:14:59,960 summit. 270 00:14:59,960 --> 00:15:04,240 Russell Brunson did a summit that was 30 days long and did about a million dollars in the 271 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:08,080 first 14 days of his virtual summit. 272 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:12,880 With that being said, the other style of summits, there's summit series, there's micro summits. 273 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:15,760 But the big proponent for me is the one day summit. 274 00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:19,380 The one day summit is really great, again, for podcasters as well. 275 00:15:19,380 --> 00:15:24,480 But anybody just getting started because it's a little bit a little bit it's easier to put 276 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:25,480 on. 277 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:26,920 It's less risky. 278 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:31,800 It's just like it says it's one day, but it doesn't mean it's a full day in content. 279 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:38,120 It just means that your audience has one day to essentially consume it, which really overcomes 280 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:39,240 overwhelm as well. 281 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:41,720 So these mega summits do really well. 282 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:44,040 But there's a whole other side of this. 283 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:48,240 Attendees that go, I don't have five days or I don't have, you know, 50 hours to watch 284 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:49,440 all 50 sessions. 285 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:52,120 So I'm not even going to participate in it with a one day summit. 286 00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:54,680 It says, hey, here's you have this problem. 287 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:57,440 We're going to solve it on this summit in one day. 288 00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:00,600 Almost everybody, if the problem is big enough, is willing to invest one day. 289 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:02,360 And again, it's not a full day in time. 290 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:03,560 It's not like eight hours. 291 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:06,040 It's just that's when they consume it. 292 00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:07,840 That's how long they have to consume it. 293 00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:12,520 And it has anywhere from around six speakers, upwards of 12 speakers with kind of eight 294 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:13,840 being the sweet spot. 295 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:16,680 So it's much easier to do from a time perspective. 296 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:21,040 It's going to give you the same experience, the same understanding as doing a multi day 297 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:25,120 summit, but you're going to be able to do it quicker, faster and easier. 298 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:28,040 And you know, heaven forbid you mess up on something. 299 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:30,160 You're not like wasting all of your opportunities. 300 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:34,200 You didn't, you know, you didn't invite all 30 or 40 contacts you have. 301 00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:38,280 You could still run another one later and fix that, you know, error or whatever you 302 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:39,280 had. 303 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:41,880 So I recommend everybody starts off with a one day summit. 304 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:45,960 It's also really great because we've been talking about building our audience or building 305 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:46,960 our database. 306 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:52,040 Well, there's that's what a multi day summit is primarily geared at is like we bring on 307 00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:55,880 20, 30 speakers, everybody shares it, promotes it to their audience. 308 00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:59,560 We build this mega list, whatever that word means to you. 309 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:04,380 But with a one day summit, you can do that or you can do it for a variety of other reasons. 310 00:17:04,380 --> 00:17:05,960 We have actually 10 different frameworks. 311 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,920 We use the one day summit for you can use it to promote a podcast launch. 312 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:12,320 For example, you could do it for a book launch. 313 00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:13,800 You can do it to fill your mastermind. 314 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:19,160 If you're doing a product launch, if you're selling a physical, physical, tangible object, 315 00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:20,160 you can do that. 316 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:22,240 You can do it to fill an in-person event. 317 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:24,480 So there's a variety of different ways of doing it. 318 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:29,140 Essentially, how you're going to do any summit is you start with what's your end goal. 319 00:17:29,140 --> 00:17:30,320 Always start with the end in mind. 320 00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:32,920 Where are we taking this audience afterwards? 321 00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:37,400 Now if we're taking them to sell a program, let's say a course, a membership, a coaching 322 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:42,240 program, a mastermind certification, et cetera, we're going to take whatever that thing is 323 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:46,560 and we're going to identify what problem does that solve? 324 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:50,040 Because if you're selling it to somebody, it's most likely solving a problem. 325 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:51,040 It's a solution. 326 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:55,820 So you identify the top problem or the top problems and that's what we're going to build 327 00:17:55,820 --> 00:17:56,820 our summit around. 328 00:17:56,820 --> 00:17:59,040 That's what we're going to build our one day summit around. 329 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:03,880 Now with that being said, a very common mistake I see some hosts make is they just kind of 330 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:06,160 go with whatever they think is a hot topic at the time. 331 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:07,320 They're like, oh, this sounds good. 332 00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:09,480 Or this is kind of popular right now. 333 00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:12,600 Or I would like to do this topic, which is cool. 334 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:16,800 But if it doesn't align with where you want to take that audience afterwards, then you're 335 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:21,840 going to have a lower conversion into the monetization aspect, which happens after the 336 00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:22,840 summit. 337 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:23,840 So that's super important. 338 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:27,760 The other thing, the other common mistake I see summit hosts make is I said you're going 339 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:28,760 to build your summit. 340 00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:31,680 You're going to theme your summit around what the top problem is. 341 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:35,760 You take that top problem and identify what we call micro solutions. 342 00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:39,400 So like if my top problem was how to build a, you know, I need to know how to build a 343 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:44,280 business and I'm using a generic one right now, but I might need to know how to file 344 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:45,360 for a business license. 345 00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:48,640 I might need to know how to get traffic or promote my business. 346 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:50,360 I might need to know how to build an offer. 347 00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:52,680 I might need to know how to do taxes. 348 00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:55,900 Those are all micro solutions to the big problem. 349 00:18:55,900 --> 00:19:02,080 Those are now our sessions and those sessions now tell us what speakers to go out and ask. 350 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:05,280 Usually summit hosts will just go and go, Oh, I want this speaker, this speaker, this 351 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:09,640 speaker, and they just start thinking of speakers that they'd want, which can create two things. 352 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:13,080 It can either create a shotgun effect, which means it's kind of all over the place. 353 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:18,040 It doesn't gel well with the summit or it can do a repetitive where everybody's kind 354 00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:21,640 of saying the same thing and nobody wants to watch 10 people saying the same thing. 355 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:22,640 Right? 356 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:23,640 So it's really great to start. 357 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:26,840 Always start with what's the problem you're where are you taking the audience? 358 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:28,360 What's the problem you're solving? 359 00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:32,620 What sessions would be appropriate or great would be great for that problem. 360 00:19:32,620 --> 00:19:37,100 And then who's the best person to speak on that session? 361 00:19:37,100 --> 00:19:38,840 So many knowledge bombs happening right now. 362 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:42,900 So one of the things that you said is that you see a mistake that, um, that summit hosts 363 00:19:42,900 --> 00:19:45,660 make is that they're going after what's trending. 364 00:19:45,660 --> 00:19:50,580 It sounds like what you're describing is a lot better as like an evergreen approach so 365 00:19:50,580 --> 00:19:53,920 you can start building up some of that passive income and maybe use the same summits over 366 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:55,300 and over again. 367 00:19:55,300 --> 00:19:57,120 You bring up an excellent point here. 368 00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:59,920 So this is a strategy that's now available. 369 00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:03,320 I always think of whenever I build a summit, it's not a one and done, which is how they 370 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:04,520 always used to be. 371 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:08,780 Like our first summits, most people, when you built a summit, you ran the summit and 372 00:20:08,780 --> 00:20:10,600 you had success or you didn't. 373 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:14,960 And then the summit went and sat over there somewhere because one of the most powerful 374 00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:17,920 things with a multi-day summit is building the audience. 375 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:21,660 And after it's already happened, it doesn't really work as well. 376 00:20:21,660 --> 00:20:27,520 Now two things have changed that have completely revolutionized is, you know, when we created 377 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:33,180 the first one day summit back in 2016 and then started teaching people about this formula 378 00:20:33,180 --> 00:20:37,360 of using one day summits, well, there started being a variety of different reasons to use 379 00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:38,360 summit. 380 00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:39,760 So that started changing. 381 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:44,580 The other thing is when the software virtual summit software launched in 2017, we had a, 382 00:20:44,580 --> 00:20:48,200 we have a proprietary technology and they're called the ever summit. 383 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:53,080 Whereas with one click of a button, the software will rerun your summit as if it's still happening 384 00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:55,320 for the first time ongoing forever. 385 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:59,960 Hence a forever summit ever summit in the past, there was no easy way. 386 00:20:59,960 --> 00:21:02,200 There was no cheap way to rerun your summit. 387 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:03,520 It was, it would look old. 388 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:04,760 It didn't operate the same. 389 00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:09,000 And so most people's summits just went and sat on a virtual bookshelf somewhere collecting 390 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:10,000 dust. 391 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:13,840 But now with the ever summit feature inside of the virtual summit software in these different 392 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:19,800 strategies, we use summits again to map out a, like we have a reason to do our summit. 393 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:21,160 We're going to sell this promotion. 394 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:27,180 We're going to get people to that event or we have this sales promotion sequence or course 395 00:21:27,180 --> 00:21:29,080 or membership, et cetera. 396 00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:30,840 So we built out a summit. 397 00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:36,020 We use the live action of it in the sense of that having the speakers promote it. 398 00:21:36,020 --> 00:21:37,200 We're launching it for the first time. 399 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:42,480 And that's actually a really good point because we're seeing ever since the COVID happened, 400 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:47,040 we saw most in-person events go online, go virtual. 401 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:49,960 Those are, those are considered a live stream conferences. 402 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,440 So those were essentially in-person conferences that just went virtual. 403 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:54,840 They still have in the exact same way. 404 00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:57,200 It was 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 10 a.m. 405 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:01,200 And if you weren't sitting there live on your computer, you missed that session and they 406 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:04,120 operated essentially an in-person conference virtually. 407 00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:05,840 And those are extremely powerful as well. 408 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:10,640 Those are used more to sell like a high ticket product. 409 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,560 So you have them live, you engage with them. 410 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:16,920 There's a specific framework you use, and then you sell a $20,000 mastermind or something 411 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:17,920 like that. 412 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:22,320 To clarify here, virtual summits, these are a marketing strategy which are more used to 413 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:23,320 build your audience. 414 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:26,560 You're know, like, and trust with people who don't know you yet. 415 00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:30,540 So it's not going to be to sell a $20,000 thing on that summit. 416 00:22:30,540 --> 00:22:34,900 You may end up doing it later, but you're bringing this new audience that doesn't know 417 00:22:34,900 --> 00:22:37,480 you yet and building a relationship with them. 418 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:38,880 That's the goal of the summit. 419 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:44,480 So historically, most summits are prerecorded, which is also means you have plenty of time 420 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:46,280 in advance to get it ready. 421 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:50,160 You don't have to worry as much about like, oh, if this speaker doesn't show up or this, 422 00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:53,180 you know, technology doesn't work or whatever. 423 00:22:53,180 --> 00:22:57,340 So it's a lot less stressful and less risky because you can prepare it all in advance 424 00:22:57,340 --> 00:22:58,380 and have it ready to go. 425 00:22:58,380 --> 00:22:59,380 So it's prerecorded. 426 00:22:59,380 --> 00:23:04,900 Now, of course, you can do some live sessions like a live Ask Me Anything or a speaker panel 427 00:23:04,900 --> 00:23:06,960 to add some live into it. 428 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:09,960 But traditionally, virtual summits are prerecorded. 429 00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:14,500 And the reason for that is, is because the people who are attending it, they're sitting 430 00:23:14,500 --> 00:23:18,000 there consuming this in the morning while they're brushing their teeth, getting ready 431 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:22,120 for work or on their lunch break or in the evening after they put the kids to bed. 432 00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:25,000 They're watching it when they have the availability. 433 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:29,280 If you're doing it like the Lifestream conference style, those are usually people who already 434 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:34,440 know you, who have a relationship with you, who paid for a ticket to attend it and are 435 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:38,480 going to spend six, seven, eight hours with you on a Saturday. 436 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:42,880 This other strategy is to build that relationship and they're going to do it on their own time. 437 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,320 So I wanted to clarify that as well. 438 00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:50,200 Now, I have so many questions written down and I know I'm not going to get to all of 439 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:51,200 them. 440 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:53,640 So I do have to kind of hone in here, but it's hard. 441 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:58,160 So I got to ask you, which do you think is better to participate in O Summit or host 442 00:23:58,160 --> 00:23:59,160 it? 443 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:01,040 Because it's a lot of work. 444 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:06,240 Well, to participate like so as a speaker, it's a great opportunity. 445 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:07,720 And here's the thing I'll say out there. 446 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:11,520 A lot of speakers are completely missing the mark on this. 447 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:15,440 Because there's more opportunities for speakers to speak on virtual events and virtual summits 448 00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:17,960 now, a lot of them aren't giving it their all. 449 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:25,000 It used to be, I mean, I wrote an article blog back in 2019 for 2020, the future of 450 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:26,000 virtual summits. 451 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:30,800 And it's crazy how spot on it was even before knowing COVID was going to happen on what 452 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:32,520 was going to happen. 453 00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:36,520 With that being said, virtual summits and virtual events aren't going anywhere. 454 00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:39,240 They're actually becoming more and more adapted. 455 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:46,360 Like we're actually having an entire department now that's dedicated to in-person or professionals, 456 00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:51,120 let's say like chiropractors, dentists, attorneys who are running virtual summits, one day virtual 457 00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:55,880 summits in their local community with speakers in their local community. 458 00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:59,320 It's still virtual because people still want to watch it from the comfort of their home, 459 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,480 but they're becoming like the local celebrity in their communities from these as well as 460 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:08,080 building their list, their audience, and getting more people into their practices and their 461 00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:09,080 businesses. 462 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:12,680 So it's being done in places you wouldn't have even thought of doing virtual summits 463 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:13,680 before. 464 00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:15,680 So with that being said, they're not going to go anywhere. 465 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:19,720 The, where the speakers are missing the mark here is back in the day when you got asked 466 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:21,800 to speak on a summit, it was a great opportunity. 467 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:23,160 You played full out. 468 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,800 A lot of times speakers now do the bare minimum. 469 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:32,320 I will say if you play full out, if you actually mail, promote, and participate, get in the 470 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:36,520 audience, get in the groups, if they do a speaker panel, volunteer to be on that panel, 471 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:41,240 we're going to build your bandwidth, your publicity, your growth, and the opportunities 472 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,640 that are going to come out of that for you are going to be tremendous as well. 473 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:49,720 10x it's going to be great opportunity regardless, but pick the ones that you know are going 474 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:51,600 to be great for you and play full out. 475 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:53,520 You're going to get so much more out of it. 476 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:55,640 So being a speaker is amazing because you're right. 477 00:25:55,640 --> 00:26:00,160 You don't have to do as much work, but at the end of the day, you know, the, the, the 478 00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:05,480 rewards go to those who do put in the work and being a host, although there is work, 479 00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:06,480 it does take time. 480 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:11,600 If you're doing a multi-day summit, you're looking at probably three or four months minimum. 481 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:14,600 It's a decent amount of work just because of the amount of interviews and stuff that 482 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:15,600 you're going to do. 483 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:20,160 I will say because of platforms like virtual summit software, it's reduced the amount of 484 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:22,720 tech work that went in my first summit. 485 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:24,200 Took me over a hundred hours to build. 486 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:29,240 There were seven different pieces of software, 26 plugins, and over a hundred hours cost 487 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:32,520 me $7,000 and still looks like a third grader build it. 488 00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:38,440 Now I can build that same summit in two hours or less for $97 on the virtual summit software. 489 00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:42,840 But with that being said, hosting the summit does not have to take you a long time. 490 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,960 If you're doing a one day summit, which is what I recommend everybody starts with, you're 491 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:50,560 talking 30 days, 30 days, that may be five to 10 hours. 492 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:52,400 If you're doing like six to eight speakers, right? 493 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:58,120 I mean, all of us have that extra time, especially to generate an extra 500 or a thousand leads 494 00:26:58,120 --> 00:27:02,060 that may turn into 10, 20, 30, 50, a hundred new sales. 495 00:27:02,060 --> 00:27:06,320 So it's really the cost, the cost of time benefit is phenomenal. 496 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:11,420 Most summit hosts that I know who run a summit end up running multiple summits ongoing every 497 00:27:11,420 --> 00:27:13,920 year because of how beneficial they are. 498 00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:17,980 And then they set them to the ever summit status, you know, and put it on their website 499 00:27:17,980 --> 00:27:19,280 or their resources page. 500 00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:24,120 And it just becomes now an automated funnel that brings people into their database, into 501 00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:28,040 their community and turns into sales without them even having to do anything. 502 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:29,800 I mean, that's really the end goal. 503 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:31,160 It's not a get rich quick scheme. 504 00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:33,760 It's not going to make you, you know, if you're not running traffic to it, it's not going 505 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:38,960 to make you millions of dollars on as an ever summit funnel, but it will generate you. 506 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:44,860 I mean, we have a naturopath that wanted to break away from his practice. 507 00:27:44,860 --> 00:27:48,800 He started running, he did a one day summit, it was a Parkinson's solution summit. 508 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,160 He focuses on brain solutions. 509 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,060 He ran that he had eight professionals come and speak. 510 00:27:54,060 --> 00:27:58,400 He ran that same one day summit on the ever summit feature in virtual summit software 511 00:27:58,400 --> 00:27:59,800 each month. 512 00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,520 He ran traffic to it, he think he put like five or $6,000 a month into paid traffic, 513 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,040 which is nothing when you hear what I'm about to say. 514 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:10,880 He got a hundred new patients a month, generated over a million dollars in new patient revenue 515 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:14,440 over the course of one year by running the same one day summit. 516 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:19,280 He built it one time, reran it and generated him over a million dollars in new patients. 517 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:21,680 We see all kinds of level, different levels of that. 518 00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:25,760 But I mean, that's the kind of thing that can happen when you have something that people 519 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:26,760 want to participate in. 520 00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:32,440 Medical, you mentioned lawyers, you've mentioned a lot of different niches, but is there any 521 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:36,480 niche that wouldn't benefit from a summit? 522 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:40,200 Like if you can actually, if you can come up with a topic, you can benefit from the 523 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:45,160 summit and usually the most bizarre niche is the reason I mentioned like the healthcare 524 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,800 professionals, the attorneys, because most people can't like, if a chiropractor can put 525 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,920 on a virtual summit, you can put on a virtual summit. 526 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,240 I promise you that that's kind of why I use those examples. 527 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:56,680 I mean, we see podcasters crushing it. 528 00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:58,560 We see course creators crushing it. 529 00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,240 We see no YouTubers, Instagramers, et cetera. 530 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:02,240 They're all crushing it. 531 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:06,040 This is like already in their wheelhouse and they already, most of them already have connections 532 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:08,240 and they already have things to sell after it. 533 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:12,000 I mean, a lot of these niches that I'm referring to, they are, they're building it all from 534 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,080 the ground up and they're still getting the success with it. 535 00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:20,920 So the funny, the actual beneficial thing here is at this point, the more bizarre your 536 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:25,620 niches, the more unique your thing is, the better it's probably going to do. 537 00:29:25,620 --> 00:29:30,320 But if you're sitting there going, well, I don't know, you know, I'm in the garbage disposal 538 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:31,320 niche. 539 00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:32,320 I don't know how well that would do. 540 00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:36,240 I promise you that summit will do phenomenal if you set it up correctly and your messaging 541 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:37,680 is correct, et cetera. 542 00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:40,880 It would do phenomenal because you're also standing out. 543 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:42,400 And this is important when you're doing your summit. 544 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:44,320 We talked about start with the end in mind. 545 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:49,360 When you take that problem, the goal is not to be as generic or general as possible. 546 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:51,260 You want to be as specific as possible. 547 00:29:51,260 --> 00:29:52,700 You want to be niche. 548 00:29:52,700 --> 00:29:55,820 And the reason for that is it stands out. 549 00:29:55,820 --> 00:30:01,080 Most people right now are inundated with information and this is marketing 101, but like most people 550 00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:04,300 are just getting so much information that they just don't have time for it. 551 00:30:04,300 --> 00:30:05,640 And they're like, no, no, no, no. 552 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:10,280 And we're just ninjas at like blocking things, but we all have a problem we're trying to 553 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:11,280 solve. 554 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,040 And so when they hear about your summit, the first thing they need to know is that it connects 555 00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:17,480 with their problem that they have, which is why I said pull out a problem. 556 00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:20,380 The second thing they're going to want to know is, is it for me? 557 00:30:20,380 --> 00:30:23,800 If it solves my problem and it's for me, I'm going to look further into it. 558 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:27,800 And so the more on point that is, and the more niche that is, you may not do a hundred 559 00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:33,100 thousand person summit, but I'll take a thousand qualified and engaged people who are primed 560 00:30:33,100 --> 00:30:36,880 for my offer over a hundred thousand people just hanging out, hanging around, kicking 561 00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:38,400 tires. 562 00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:43,080 One of, uh, one of my favorite, uh, mentors, Denise Stufeld Thomas, she's my, she's my 563 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:44,080 money mentor. 564 00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:46,440 She, uh, she says that you don't have to be an expert. 565 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:51,520 You can just be a contributor and that kind of, you know, lowers the barrier. 566 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:53,560 And after you're all, you're going to be the host anyway. 567 00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:56,640 So if you're the host, you're setting yourself up in the field of experts. 568 00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:58,600 You don't have to be the expert. 569 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:04,160 Well, when you run a summit, you end up become, you are now we have, I don't know what we're 570 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,720 having to deal with kind of like imposter syndrome that there may be that there. 571 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:09,640 Of course we all have that. 572 00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:13,280 But when you host a summit, you are an expert, like less than, what was it? 573 00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:18,760 Less than 14% of the population are entrepreneurs and less than 1% of them will ever run a virtual 574 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:19,760 summit. 575 00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:23,880 So I also, one of the things I hear regularly is like, Oh man, there's so many summits, 576 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:24,880 summits are overdone. 577 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:26,280 There's so many virtual summits. 578 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:32,200 And what I think in my mind, if, if I'm biting my tongue usually is the reason you're seeing 579 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:34,400 them is because they work. 580 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:36,360 How many webinars are you're seeing right now? 581 00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:39,440 How many other promotions are you seeing? 582 00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:43,480 You're seeing the summit because it's getting your attention and it's B it's out there. 583 00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:44,480 Summits work. 584 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:48,240 And again, if you, if you have them set up correctly with a problem and who it's for, 585 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:49,960 they also convert well. 586 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:55,840 So yes, but like with that being said, when you host a summit and literally even if you 587 00:31:55,840 --> 00:32:00,120 just host one, I mean, you put that on your resume, it goes, you know, I am the host of 588 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:01,120 the summit talk summit. 589 00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:03,280 I'm the host of the international posture symposium. 590 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,960 There's different ways of titling your summit too, depending on where you want to go. 591 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,160 But as after you've hosted a summit, you are now the host of that, just like you're the 592 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:11,880 host of your podcast. 593 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:12,880 That's credibility. 594 00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:13,880 That's authority. 595 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:15,640 It doesn't matter what the summit does. 596 00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:19,960 Like hopefully you crush it, but even if you don't crush it, you now have that authority, 597 00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:24,160 credibility, and the relationships you just built with all of these other experts and 598 00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:25,160 speakers. 599 00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:26,160 Oh my goodness. 600 00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:27,280 So much good stuff. 601 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:29,120 So where can people find you online? 602 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:32,000 Because obviously we could only cover so much in about a half hour. 603 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:33,760 So where can they find you online to get more info? 604 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,000 Well, this has been an absolute blast. 605 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:37,720 It's been great hanging out with you again, Ashley. 606 00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:42,600 I know we've had a lot of fun in our past at different places and it's great to be on 607 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:44,000 here with you. 608 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:49,160 Easiest and best place to go is directly to our, to our site, virtual summits with an 609 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:51,520 S virtual summits.com. 610 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:55,120 That's the virtual summit software site, but there we have a resources area. 611 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:56,400 So we have all kinds. 612 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:57,920 You can get access to our podcast. 613 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,800 You can hear other case studies if you want to hear, and we got case studies from all 614 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:02,200 different industries and niches. 615 00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:07,080 If you want to hear about people in your industry and niche and we have a ton of free resources. 616 00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:11,320 The top one I recommend starting with is how to generate a thousand leads in 30 days. 617 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:15,320 That'll take you through that one day summit formula process and how within the next 30 618 00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:18,640 days, you could have a one day summit out generating a thousand leads and then run it 619 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:20,480 on ever summit every month after that. 620 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,240 So again, you can get that over at virtual summits.com. 621 00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:28,680 Well, I definitely will be checking that out now before I let you go, you know, your buddy 622 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:29,800 John Lee Dumas. 623 00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:32,180 It's his fault that I'm about to ask you this question. 624 00:33:32,180 --> 00:33:36,160 One thing that's become kind of a thing on this show is before I let all my guests go, 625 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:38,040 I asked them one question. 626 00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:41,240 What's one question I didn't ask you that you really wish I had? 627 00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:42,960 Ooh, that is a good one. 628 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:44,000 That's a good one. 629 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,920 What's one question that I didn't ask you that I wish you had? 630 00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:51,080 Well, this is not necessarily one that I wish you would have asked me because it's a tough 631 00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:56,920 one, but very quickly is I would say like, what is the future of marketing, of business, 632 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:00,200 of podcasting, of summits look like? 633 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:04,320 Because we're in one of the most interesting times ever. 634 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:06,280 It's so exciting to be alive right now. 635 00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:08,080 It's also a difficult time. 636 00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:10,240 So right now you have opportunity. 637 00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:12,680 You have two ways of viewing what's happening in the world. 638 00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:17,080 And it doesn't matter any industry, any niche, whether we're talking podcasting, we're talking 639 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:19,720 Instagram, we're talking summits, whatever. 640 00:34:19,720 --> 00:34:24,120 Right now things are either extremely opportunistic or challenging. 641 00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:26,840 And the only difference is your mindset. 642 00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:30,760 The only difference is your mindset because in reality things are changing. 643 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:33,960 So we can either look at it as this is changing and it's a challenge. 644 00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:34,960 I don't know what I'm going to do. 645 00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:35,960 I'm going to struggle. 646 00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:36,960 I'm not going to make it. 647 00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:41,080 Or we can go, ooh, this is a perfect opportunity to see what the challenge is, to find out 648 00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:42,600 how to overcome that challenge. 649 00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:48,280 And the ones who do that are going to absolutely thrive over the next five, seven, 10, 20 years. 650 00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:49,280 Okay. 651 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:51,240 We're in a great opportunity at this point. 652 00:34:51,240 --> 00:34:57,720 But I will say with that, one thing that I feel very secure about is people's need for 653 00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:00,400 information in relationships. 654 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:05,000 And so I love podcasting because it's a way for me to reach out to people and build relationships 655 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:07,400 one-on-one with them when I have them on my show. 656 00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,280 It's also a really great way for me to give back to my community. 657 00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:13,900 And it allows me to stay on my toes and be listening to what other people are doing in 658 00:35:13,900 --> 00:35:15,600 real time as well. 659 00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:20,120 The reason I love virtual summits is it's a strategy that allows me to give to so many 660 00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:21,280 people. 661 00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:27,320 And there's so many people both in podcasting space and in the virtual events space dumping 662 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:29,620 money into these industries and niches. 663 00:35:29,620 --> 00:35:33,240 If it was me looking at it, I would say these are the two industries or niches I want to 664 00:35:33,240 --> 00:35:38,320 make sure that I'm in and primed for and finding a way to stay on top of and with. 665 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:43,300 And so my personal opinion is every business, whether it's brick and mortar or online, should 666 00:35:43,300 --> 00:35:46,520 have an annual virtual summit that they're running, if not more. 667 00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:49,580 And you should have a podcast as well. 668 00:35:49,580 --> 00:35:50,620 Such great information. 669 00:35:50,620 --> 00:35:53,080 Thank you so much for all of the golden nuggets that you dropped. 670 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:56,440 I can't wait for this episode to drop because I think that people are going to get a lot 671 00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:57,440 of value out of this. 672 00:35:57,440 --> 00:35:58,440 Thank you so much for being here. 673 00:35:58,440 --> 00:35:59,440 Absolute pleasure. 674 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:00,440 Thank you, Ashley. 675 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:05,320 Well, my fellow podcasters, I hope you enjoyed all the insights that Mark had to share with 676 00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:06,320 us. 677 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:10,640 To learn more about how to launch and grow your own podcast, head over to rss.com backslash 678 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:11,640 blog. 679 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:14,960 You can start your show for free and get your first episode on us. 680 00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:28,840 Thanks for tuning in.