The new way to grow your audience and sales with stress

Get ready, because everything is about to change. There's a new way of living life and doing business that will blow your mind. This is a podcast all about the timing of life and the timing of success. It's what we call the Right on Time Life. And you are listening to the Right on Time podcast with Amber McHugh. Hey. Hey. Welcome to the Right on Time podcast. Today's guest, Jen Zellers, is the founder of the virtual summit search.com that's virtual summitsearch.com Jen supports businesses in creating their virtual business summits, as well as finding speakers for those summits and getting them online quickly. There is a lot that can go into summits, and if you haven't heard of summits before, or if you've heard of them but are curious to learn more, Jen is going to break it down in today's podcast. In addition, if you've ever wondered, where do we find the speakers for our summits or online conferences, these Jen's going to help you out with that too. And summits are going to be an incredible way to differentiate and bring in a new audience with the ad prices increasing, increasing, increasing, increasing. So you're definitely going to want to check this out. If you're looking for an alternative way to connect, connect with your ideal audience through a creative, dynamic, engaging platform called Summits. Check it out. Can't wait to hear or see what you bring to life after this episode. If you dive into an online conference or virtual business summit, definitely let us know. Here we go. Hey Jen. Welcome to the Write On Time podcast.

Hey. I'm so excited to be here.

Oh my gosh, so pumped. Pumped to hang out with you too and share everything that you do with everybody who is listening. Let's kick it off with a little bit of an intro about how you went down the summit path.

Oh gosh, that starts all the way back in 2015. So I was running another business at that point and I started getting invited to speak at summits, which were still relatively newish, like, at least in that iteration back then. And I just fell in love with the medium of speaking on summits and just the interaction that comes with that. And so I kept speaking with them. And then a few years later, I was talking with a friend who was also speaking in a lot of summits. And we were both sitting there talking about how frustrated we were with not finding summits before. They were already in the promotion phase where they've already locked in their speaker lineup and all that kind of stuff. And so we said well, why don't we make a way for people to find summits that are coming up? But also then we started doing the speaker directory where folks can find speakers when they're looking. Because we also were hearing from hosts about how hard it was to find people who were qualified. And at that point it was a lot more live summits. And so finding people who would actually, you know, show up was a problem. So we decided to kind of bridge that gap and create the directories. So that was kind of how I got started with summits.

Amazing. Wait, so we're going to dive into all this. You hit on a few really critical things and one of the things that come to mind first you mentioned this evolution of summits. So let's define what a summit is for anyone who's listening and sort of take a look at the differences in summits. Because you mentioned a few different styles and approaches in there.

Yeah. So I personally define summits as they are evolving as the problem. So it's kind of hard to pin that down. But right now we're recording May of 22. They tend to be a lot more pre recorded and. But there is often a mix of pre recorded and live sessions. So for example, my summits tend to be pre recorded keynotes and then live sessions for things like ask me anythings and hot seats and kind of bonus stuff like that. But it'll be keynotes, interviews, sometimes panels, things like that, either prerecorded or live. I tend to, if it's, if it doesn't have a community aspect, I tend to call it less of a summit and more of a workshop series. Because summits really should be kind of more of an online conference in my book anyway.

Yeah.

And so if they don't have that community aspect, there's really no reason for someone to do anything more than watch some videos and call it good. So that tends to be the other thing that helps me define what a summit is versus a webinar or workshop.

Excellent. So good. Yeah, I know when summits initially started and I first heard of them, I mean some of them were even done. This was before we had all the video technology. By listening in to a series of teleconferences or presentations by audio and then evolved into the audio was being broadcast and then evolved into of course, video and now full on live conference, live event with any number of elements and touch points that could enhance and make that event more engaging and more impactful for the audience. To your point, there could be hot seats in that. There could be. I Recently spoke at a summit. There is live DJ Nicole from Fempreneur Online had a live DJ in there and it was so good in terms of, okay, breaking it up a little bit, having some dynamic, pulling the energy up at the virtual event. It was just such a joy. What are some of the things that you've seen in live summits that make them really impactful?

Oh, there's so many things I always go to Jordan Gill's done in a day conferences as my example of probably the best live conference I've been to online because she does really great job of engaging and interacting with folks. Like just having the team doing all of that and having kind of a MC hype woman going and leading into each of the sessions and all that kind of stuff and getting the Facebook group going and just getting everyone talking. So it's, it's really getting those conversations started is the biggest thing. Whether it's through the live sessions or through the community and just getting people connected. I think that's the biggest thing is, especially if it's live, you have an extra aspect of being able to have people talking about what's happening at that moment rather than asynchronously, which is how mine tend to be is because they're mostly prerecorded. People are asynchronously talking about it in the Facebook group or whatever the community is. So there's definitely some pros to life. And then there's of course the cons.

But so good, so good. As a, as a business owner, someone who's thinking about hosting a summit, what are some of those pros for me who hosts live events or for people who are thinking about hosting a summit?

Hosting a summit is an amazing way to do so many things. You get audience growth. You get networking connections with folks that you might not have otherwise gotten had a reason to talk to and a reason for them to collaborate with you. You get to paid to market. That's one of my favorite things is if you're running a summit and you're selling an all access pass for the replays and all the other bonuses and everything rather than, you know, paying Facebook absurd amounts of money to try and get the ads to work, you can leverage other marketing avenues and get paid to market or at least pay for your Facebook ads in order to grow your audience. That way you get content so you can take the everything that's created through the summit and you use that for content. You can get testimonials. There are so many reasons to host a summit.

Yeah, so Good. Now you mentioned something in there. The get paid to market. What do you mean by that?

So like I was saying, rather than necessarily needing to put money into Facebook ads, your speakers are hopefully promoting. You might even have some non speaker affiliates promoting. I've had attendees promote it in the past, which is really fun because they're just so excited about it. So you have other ways to market besides having to put money into ads in order to get people into the summit. And you're making money hopefully off of the back end of the summit where when people sign up, they have a chance to buy the all access pass. And so you're getting paid rather than always having to pay somebody else to market.

So good. And with the price of advertising online going up, up, up, up, up, it is definitely compelling to think about. Okay, how can I connect and engage with my audience in a completely different way? And this is definitely a way to do that and sort of revisit connection with audience through partners, through speakers, through the audience and the community and really nurturing and pouring. That's exciting. You know, one of the things I was thinking about Facebook ads recently and talking to some colleagues and certainly in a business conversation, those ads are definitely, you know, up there. I was just listening to someone share that they're expecting to pay a minimum of $20 cost per lead on average. I'm like, oh. And you know, they've just gone up and up and up over time. And you know, Facebook ads were really compell for a period of time because small businesses could really take advantage of them. And you know, Facebook is seen like, where can I just like we do as business owners, where can I get the most leverage and impact in my business? And it's really becoming a space that's oftentimes catered to bigger budgets and so we've got to get innovated and look at. All right, how can I remix this a little bit? And connection through summit is definitely one way to do that. You'd. I agree.

I would suspect, yeah, it definitely helps because you're, you're also getting a warmer audience, especially if they're coming from speakers. It's not just someone who's totally cold. You're transferring the trust that they have in the speaker to trusting you as well. So it's not only not costing $20 per lead, it's also bringing them further along that customer journey.

So good. So good. I love this. So one of the things with summits that could definitely be a concern for people or like you put a lot into it. It's once and it's done or is.

Definitely does not have to be. I've evergreened all of my summits, and it's something that I always recommend for my speakers that I work with as my clients to recommend to this host that they work with too, because it's something a lot of folks don't think about. They definitely think about it as whether the videos are prerecorded or live. It's usually a live summit where it's available for four or five days, however long it happens to be. And then once that cart closes, like you said, it's done. But you can actually take it and continue to get leads and sales and all of that kind of stuff out of it, because you can take the content that you're using to market, you can keep using it and sending them back to the Evergreen Summit page, and they can keep signing up. You can keep. You can create ongoing reach and impact. That's my biggest thing, is that there are folks who weren't in your audience at the time who might still really benefit from the summit. So, for example, I ran Sell with the Summit Speaker Edition, and that is something. There's no resources for Summit speakers out there that really. There's starting to be more resources for hosts, but speakers are still kind of getting left in the dust outside of just general public speaking resources. So folks that weren't in my audience when I ran that summit can still get access to it. They can still benefit from all of those resources. So I'm expanding my reach and I'm creating more impact for the folks that are coming in. So I always recommend Evergreen in the Summit, unless it's something where it's really timely or say it's a marketing summit where things are going to change frequently. You might evergreen it for a little while and then retire it once those particular tactics have changed and the algorithms changed and all that kind of stuff. But most summits can be evergreened and keep building into your business.

Oh, so good. I love this so much when someone sets up an Evergreen Summit funnel, because Evergreen can sometimes be hard to set up, test, get dialed in. What are some of the key things you recommend thinking about for getting that Evergreen Summit dialed in and to people as, you know, efficiently as possible, but then having impact in terms of what are they being guided to after that? How do you recommend getting that set up?

Well, yeah, so honestly, you get to recycle a lot of the tools that you used for the summit itself. I had one client who I was doing an Evergreen Summit strategy intensive with. And she came into it saying, oh, yeah, I don't know when I'm going to have time to do this because, you know, summits take three to six months worth of work. And she was coming into it expecting that Evergreen in the summit might take just as long. And as we were wrapping up, she said, oh my gosh, this was so much less intimidating than I thought it was. I absolutely can do this in a weekend because that's what I do with my clients is I, I set up my own summits in a weekend and I can set up their summits and in one to two days. And so you can, you can actually expedite your Evergreen Summit because you're really just adjusting the countdown timers and the landing page copy and that type of stuff and just repurposing what you've already created so it doesn't have to take a ton of time. But then, like you said, you can really use it to dial in if you're thinking about running another Summit in the future. You can take what you're learning from the Evergreen Summit. If you're running ads to it, you can learn from that. If you're just doing content marketing or bringing in additional affiliates, or you can even bring in additional Evergreen speakers to add into the Evergreen Summit. There's a lot of different ways that you can use it to test things. You can change up your emails, ab test, copy and emails, all sorts of things you can do so that your next time it's going to be even better.

That's a good perspective to use it to improve and learn for the next round. Also, super cool one, you mentioned your speaker directory as well. Tell us more about that.

Yeah, so that is something that I created because like I said when we were talking, my original co founder and I, there's nowhere for Summit host to find speakers because that is, that's a big misconception. I see a lot is that you go out and you pitch Summit hosts the same as you would a podcast host. But most Summit hosts are finding their initial speakers through word of mouth. They're asking friends and colleagues that they know, hey, who do you know who would fit this topic or be able to speak on this? And then after that, they're going out and they're just doing research. They're doing Google searches, they're going on Instagram and Pinterest and Facebook and LinkedIn to find people. They're not typically putting out a pitch because they want to know that the person that they're inviting is Serving their audience in the same way that they are providing value and that type of thing. So while there are some hosts who put out a speaker call and say, hey, I've got an application form, go ahead and send in your pitch. Most of them are inviting hosts directly or speakers directly rather than going out and doing those pitches. So that is part of the reason that the speaker directory exists is because we have, at the time of the recording, nearly 200 speakers in there for hosts to be able to go in and find. And it's searchable, so it makes it so much easier for the hosts. I've had people tell me they filled their entire summit through that. It's a great resource for both sides of the table.

Jen, I love this so much. Every time you give me an update on how many speakers are in the speaker directory, I'm like, oh, my gosh. Because it just becomes more and more and more valuable for hosts. Summit hosts who are thinking, oh, wait, I might need some help finding some speakers and people that are really interested and committed. What would. How do they access the speaker directory? And is there a cost for someone to look for speakers inside the directory?

Yeah, so it's totally free to host because I want you to be able to find all the speakers that fit what you need. And the directory is free at the base level for speakers. But for those who want to get more visibility and even additional marketing opportunities, we've got our paid listings where the featured listing has some additional information. We check references so that those speakers are more qualified and the host can rely on them better. And then our verified speakers actually hop on a call to get more information so I can match them better with summits. And. And we create additional marketing opportunities such as collecting video and that type of thing, and putting together highlight reels that we're going to. We just started doing this, so it's not out yet, but we're making some additional ways that we're going to get to put them in front of hosts in a way that presents them as even more of an expert and shows that they provide value and that they are a good match for the summits that hosts are looking to fill.

So incredible. Oh, my gosh. For anyone wondering like, wait, I need that speaker directory now. I just want to give you the link in case you are on the go right now. Of course, everything will be linked up in the notes as well, but the link to get straight to the speaker directory is virtual summitsearch.com speaker directory. So if you want to get in that directory or if you want to tap into that directory to listen for speakers, check it out. Jen, so incredible. Thank you for sharing about summits. Before we wrap, I have one more question about summits and you know you mentioned some of the trends and the changing landscape and what is current now and what are you seeing with summits or online conferences now that is shifting and that we should keep an eye for as we look to plan for let's say the next next year ahead online events, conferences, etc.

I'm seeing a lot more live aspects. It's definitely going away from those pre recorded with just maybe a lightly monitored Facebook group or something like that and moving more into having those interactive sessions like I'm having co working and networking sessions on mine that's coming up next month and we're doing hot seats and all sorts of like some workshops and things like that. They're going to be live because we're all getting burned out from being on Zoom for so long because of COVID And while that's starting to wrap up a little bit, we're still online a lot and just sitting there watching videos is not going to cut it anymore. So I'm really excited to start seeing more of those interactive sessions and seeing hosts find ways to really engage the audience and even for speakers to find ways. Like I primarily work with speakers outside of evergreening summits and so we've been working on ways for them to really engage the attendees and help them get more out of their presentations, which in turn helps the host get more out of the summit as a whole.

Oh so good. As you think about like you're in that moment, you're speaking and you want to engage attendees more. What are some of the strategies or things that you recommend thinking about? So I can present and be highly engaged.

So if it's prerecorded it can be a lot harder. If it's live and you've got a chat there, you can do a lot of the things that we see in webinars and workshops and that type of thing where you ask people to type into the chat and all of that. If it's pre recorded, I recommend utilizing the summit community and if there isn't one, ask the host to create one or ask if you can create one because you need that. That's how you really connect with the attendees and you can make sales through that. You can make connections. You might end up connecting with the other speakers better. So going and calling out that community as much as possible in your presentation where you can say hey, so I've asked some of these questions in the Facebook group or wherever they're hosting it. Head on over there and let me know your answers to these, because I want to know. Or you can put together a thread where they can ask you questions and things like that. And just encouraging those conversations inside of the community through your presentation is one of the best ways that I've seen for speakers to get the most out of their presentation. And it also goes and like I said, builds into that community, which makes the hosts feel better about everything. Because when you have a community where there's crickets, it really kind of sucks.

Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Pulling it through, supporting. I love that from a speaker perspective, supporting the host in building the momentum inside the community as well. That just benefits everyone all around. Such a lovely thing to do for both you and to support those that are hosting the event. This is awesome, Jen. But any final words as people think about their next summit?

If you're hosting a summit, think about the ways to make it interactive. And if you're thinking about speaking at a summit, which is honestly how I recommend most folks start to speak at three to five summits, if you're thinking about hosting so you can get an idea of what works best for you personally. Because things that work for one person are not necessarily going to work for you and your different audience, even if it's a similar audience to the places that you're speaking at. You can see some of the behind the scenes of what you feel works best and what doesn't and the things that you would change if you were hosting and just kind of take notes. But if you are thinking about speaking and you're telling yourself, well, I don't, I'm not ready or I don't have anything to speak on or I feel afraid to get in front of the camera. One, there are ways to speak at summits without having to get in front of the camera. But to you have things to share, you have value to give to the attendees and to your own audience. And so I would just get out of your head and ask people around you what they see you as being able to speak well on, what are the things that you can go and talk about forever? And that's what you can speak on at summits, that's what you can host your summit around and just ask your audience what they want to hear from you about. That's going to help you figure out summit presentations or the entire summit that you want to host.

So good. Oh, so much fun, Jen. Thanks for coming on the podcast and giving us the scoop on all things Summit. You can find Jen and the speaker directory over@virtual summitsearch.com Speaker Directory. Don't forget the hyphen in between the speaker and the directory. Jen, thanks again.

Thank you so much for having me. Amber hey hey.

What an incredible episode with Jen. If you are thinking about hosting a virtual event, you have got to let me know. Tag me in @ Amber McHugh on Instagram and let me know what you have got brewing for your virtual conference or virtual event so we can support you as well. Thank you for listening to the Right on Time podcast. I'll catch you next time. Don't forget, you are always and forever right on time.