203: From Zero to 30,000 Email Subscribers Using B2C Virtual Summits

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Welcome to the Creators MBA Podcast, your go to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business without the need to be glued to their desks, constantly live launching or worrying about the social media algorithms. I hope you enjoy our episode today and my special guest today is Krista Miller. Krista is with Summit in the Box and she helps online business owners replace slow growth and costly marketing strategies with high converting virtual summits that lead to record breaking course membership and group program launches. And Krista, I am super excited to have you here today and we're going to be talking about ways people can grow their business, grow their audience through online virtual summits. And for everybody listening and those of you who may be familiar with hobby school, you know that this is one of the major business strategies that we have used over the past few years to grow that audience from zero, like nothing like a domain name purchase to an audience over 30,000. And our goal for that particular brand, we are on the path. My goal is to sell it in the next two years. My target for that is for 1 million or more. That is what we're targeting there. And online virtual summits has been one of our major business strategies for that. So Krista, I am super excited to chat with you today and I think the first question I have for you is why would somebody kind of start using online virtual summits to grow their business, to grow their audience so they can have these record breaking course membership and group program launches?

Yeah. Oh, it's such a powerful strategy, especially like you said with hobby school, starting from scratch. Because what else can put us on the map like this? What else can instantly get us thousands of followers, 20 connections in the industry who now know who you are or can refer clients and customers and members to you can make you known in the industry almost instantly. Like, I've been in business a long time now, at least as far as online business years go, and I have not come across anything else. And I remember before I found summits, I started like dabbling and trying to get on podcast interviews before I really had any business doing it. But that's what we do, right? And I remember I'd be asked the question, if you were starting from scratch, like what would you do differently? What would you leverage? And I was like, oh, I would lean into relationships. Relationships are everything. Relationships are what have gotten me to where I am. And I had hardly gotten anywhere by that point. But I could already See the power in just a couple relationships. And then I hosted that first summit. And instead of, like, you know, three friends I met on Twitter back in the day, it was 20 people I had collaborated with on this incredible event. We brought in thousands of people who were instantly paying me. And I was like, what is happening? I was not used to this, but it all like, it. It raised my business to a whole new level. But then it stayed there. It's not like once the summit was over, I was back to where I started. No, Now I had these connections. My email list was tripled in size. I had made more revenue. I was booked out with clients for six months. It changed everything. And I think that's why it's such a powerful strategy. It gives you everything, like all the different kinds of growths you're looking for in business. It gives it all to you at once. Whether you have been around for years and have tens of thousands of people on your email list already, or if you're just starting from scratch, it meets you where you're at and brings you to that next level. And it's just powerful.

I was asked last week, I was interviewed on a fairly big podcast, and he was asking me, we were talking about the business model for hobby school. If you had to do it all over again. Like, if you go back to that domain name purchase and had to do it all over again, would you do anything differently? And what I told them was, no, I would still start with these online virtual summits, because I do think it's one of the best ways to kind of, you know, build your audience, build those connections. And I think those connections for me have been key. Now I've been doing these online learning virtual summits for several years now. And what is so very powerful, Krista, right now is not only have we kind of built our audience and we've gotten paid to do that through the VIP passes and all the funnels set up, we also have built up this ecosystem with these affiliates and speakers from our previous summit, so that when we do another summit, and even if they're not a speaker for it, they're like, they're contacting me and saying, destiny, can I still promote it? Like, they still want to promote it. So we have this, like, ecosystem of people that, you know, we work with over the years. So I think my next question for you is, you know, B2C summits. And that's what we're talking about in hobby school. So when we're a business selling to a consumer, those are, you know, I have to say that those are kind of the sweet spot, if you would, for virtual summits. And can you tell me what you're seeing on your end? Because I know that you work with a lot of different niches out there.

Yeah. This is so interesting for me to think about because when we started Summit in a Box, there was almost no B2C people coming to me. And when they did, I was terrified. I was like, I don't know how to help you. You know, it was all these business owners hosting summits about business. That's all it was. And we started to see the results kind of not go let's they were going down, they're still so powerful. But it wasn't these huge hundred thousand dollar summits anymore on a regular basis. And suddenly we started seeing these B2C people start getting a little more brave. There'd be someone new come in from this new industry and like pave the way and blow it out of the water. And I mean, yeah, and I think the, the magic of this is just that there are so many different B2C niches. There are so many ways you can position a summit where people haven't even seen it before. And even if there are different summits in your niche, there are so many different ways to position it. So it is fresh and new and exciting. And it's not like, you know, we see as business owners, oh, here's the 20th summit I've seen promoted today about how to grow my business. It's like, oh my gosh, here's the summit about like watercoloring for moms for relaxation. Heck yes, I'm all in on that. You know, that's just for me. We're just seeing those kinds of summits absolutely take off. And now in our highest level program, we have a program accelerator, VIP. I think we have maybe two B2B people in there and like 18 B2C, like B2C summits are so powerful and we're seeing it take these businesses where people are just like hoping it works almost. I'm seeing a lot of B2C people come in not quite believing in themselves. I think comes from a place of learning from of course B2B people and like almost thinking that they're less than because of it. But then they come in and host the summit and blow it out of the water, but then not even know what to do next with all that success. So like, I love that I'm set up in a way to, to help those people. There's something special about Being able to lean into where people are at in their lives, where they're underserved, what they need help with, but also what their passions are. And when you're hosting summits in B2C spaces, you have the opportunity to hit on both of those things and they can be both life changing and just straight up fun.

So let's talk about some examples. So what are some of the type of summits that you're seeing?

Oh, man, we have like everything you can imagine. We have someone who hosts a summit for Yellowstone national park lovers, homesteaders, people who have chickens in their backyard, people who have indoor vegetable gardens, people who crochet blankets, people who knit, parents and teachers of autistic children, different kinds of dance, dog trainers, yoga, different kinds of other hobbies like card making, watercolors, other kinds of crafting, different niches of parenting with different topics in there, like online safety, parenting, toddlers, parenting, tweens and teens, health related ones, everything.

So what I'm hearing is basically anywhere where somebody needs help in their life, whether it's their relationships, their family, their home life. Let's talk a little bit about the income opportunity related to a summit, not only during the summit itself, but maybe something that somebody might want to launch after that summit. What are you seeing there?

Yeah, we. I mean, we're seeing the income both for B2B and B2C very powerful. We are seeing people like break their revenue records regardless of what kind of industry that we're in. But like you said, the magic kind of comes from having this way. You can stack different types of revenue on top of each other. So there's sponsorships. You don't have to have sponsors, but you can, and there's a lot of room for it. I'm seeing in the B2B space people bringing on like their peers as sponsors. Like, for example, Destiny and I could sponsor each other's summits. We are seeing that perform really well for B2B. And for B2C, we are seeing them just blow it out of the water with different companies who are excited for a different way to get in front of these audiences. So there's sponsorships as the first opportunity, there's all excess pass revenue for the second. This is the first place where we're seeing B2C summit start to pull away from B2B in that the average, all excess pass revenue for a B2C summit is just, it's blowing the rest of us away, even me. So I'm looking at a couple. We're hosting a summit coming up for B2C business owners. And I'm looking at the registration page where I have a few examples pulled up. We have a $30,000 summit, $43,000, $300,000, another $30,000, $200,000. People are bringing in incredible amounts of revenue with just their all access pass. And then like you hinted at, there is also the opportunity to present your attendees with an offer. I tend to see memberships as being the most common offer that B2C people are going with right now. Our clients who are launching their memberships on the back end of their summit are also blowing it out of the water. And I'm talking like 300 new members, 150 new members, 200 new members, 245 new members. I'm looking, I'm just kind of listing off some examples I have sitting out in front of me like life changing amounts of revenue and recurring revenue being added to businesses on the back end of summits.

I'd love to know the $200,000 summit and the $300,000 summit. Can you share the niche that they were in?

Yeah, so most of our summits that hit over six figures are in the crafting niche. So the ones we have a, we have two that sit around 200000 those are Cricut and card making. The one who broke $300,000 was the preschool or like summit for parents and teachers of autistic kids.

So tons of opportunities there. And I will say that in hobby school we have two memberships that we always promote. Now we're promoting on off the summits but we're also promoting them all year round. So I love that kind of membership type model. So Krista, if somebody is like, you know, this sounds like this might be an option for me, what would you suggest they do as one of their first steps?

I would say get clear on what message you want to put out to your niche. What do you want to help your people with? And I think depending on how many summits are in your niche, that kind of dictates how creative you have to be. If you're in the B2B space you gotta get pretty creative because there are so many summits, what are you going to say that's going to stand out from the tons of other summits out there? If you go out and let's say your audience is, I mean let's just say course creators because we're here, what are you going to do to make that stand out from all of the other course creator summits? It has to Be something special. If you're in a B2C niche, you have a little bit more freedom. But I think it's always going to be good to get more specific. Right. Instead of leaving it really broad. But that's the first thing I want you to think about. What message is this something going to send and what am I going to help people with? And helping them doesn't have to mean solving a problem for them. It could be like, what do I want to get them excited about? What do I want to create community around for them? Because that's really exciting, especially with things like hobbies or parenting struggles or whatever. We all want to feel like we're not alone in that. So what message do you want to send? What kind of community and experience do you want to create? And then the rest of your planning, the rest of the decisions kind of fall on that. So that's why I say start there. Even if it doesn't sound like the most, like, strategic thing in the world.

I love that and that I think that's important for whatever we're doing, right? Whatever type of launch we're doing is really getting clear on that kind of transformation, what we're going to help them with. So, Krista, you have a summit slash challenge, I should say, coming UP to help B2C business owners get started in this. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah. So the idea for the summit came about because, like I said, I'm seeing so many B2C business owners want to host summits or want to do big things but kind of doubt themselves. Think like, oh, this only works for B2B or oh, my people aren't going to get it. So I want to be like, you know what, let me just show you what summits can do for you. And that's like, why we created this summit. So I want to show all of you B2C business owners how you can get your name out there, generate five, even six figures in revenue and just like leapfrog every area of your business from your list size, your impact, your business, business growth, your revenue, all of that with a B2C summit. Even if you're not totally convinced yet that it will work with your niche, like DM me if that's the case, because we'll chat about it. But like, something I wanted to stay away from with this summit was making it all about summits because of those issues I've talked about where, where B2C business owners are seeing themselves as less than. I'm like, there's some mindset stuff here I want to work on before we dive into summits. There are some marketing strategies that I feel like you could get a customized approach on rather than having to take like the B2B version and be like, oh, what is relevant to me and what's not. So the first two days of this summit actually aren't even about summits. We're talking about ways you can shift your B2C mindset. Everything from like selling the intangible in your B2C business, feeling comfortable selling, not being afraid of people, not liking everything you say, so many good mindset related presentations. And then day two, we're going into B2C strategy. So I have brought on some of the best online business strategy minds out there, but I've asked them. I only want to hear your strategies for B2C business owners and they've brought it. So we have stuff on B2C rewards programs that will encourage people to make that first purchase and keep them coming back. Customized Facebook ad strategies, low lift YouTube strategies that work for B2C. All kinds of really great stuff. And then we dive in to summits on the third day. But something else I'm doing is that for those of you who are interested in hosting a summit, I am doing a short and sweet little bite sized training teach you one of the first foundational steps of hosting a summit. I'm going to do a couple minutes of teaching. We're going to have time right there for you to do the work and ask me questions and get feedback. So each day you're going to be taking a baby step towards making your summit actually happen. And all of that is just baked into the event. So I'm really excited to walk more B2C business owners through this process of getting started with hosting a summit and seeing what's possible.

I love that. And I'm going to definitely check out that rewards type training to get them to come back. That that sounds awesome to me. Something I should definitely implement in my own business. Krista, any last minute tips before we hang up here?

Yeah, I mean I would just say if you're considering assignment, regardless of what kind of niche you're in, the biggest hurdle I see is just like believing that you could do it. And like my question for you is if I can do it, if hundreds and hundreds of other people can do it and see really great results, why can't you? I know this is one of those things, it pushes you out of your comfort zone. You have to put yourself out there in ways we're not used to doing, like, you're pitching yourself to, like, 20 people at once in your speakers. I know that feels scary when you go to open registration, you're, like, basically waiting to see if people accept the idea. You know, like, there are so many steps of the process that do feel like a roller coaster, but it is so worth it, especially when.

When you're.

When you're following strategies that, you know work right, when you're not just guessing every step of the way. Like, this is a strategy that's so worth the discomfor because it will just push you through to a new stage of your business. So I would encourage you to just, like, not doubt yourself. Don't let those fears hold you back. The people you look up to didn't get to where they are by playing it safe. They did scary things. And you can do scary things too, you know. We'll help you through it at the summit.

And I just want to echo that because I had somebody ask me last week. They're like, dusty, when you went into the hobby school niche and started doing summits there, were you like a crafter or anything? I'm like, absolutely not. I don't even do any of that. So we went out there and basically cold pitch people to join our event. So it was definitely uncomfortable in the beginning, but just look where it can take you. So I want to encourage anybody who is a tiny bit interested in this to check it out. I'm going to have the link to sign up for the summit in the show notes, so definitely check that out. And Krista, can you let people know also where they can find you?

Yeah, you can connect with me at summitinabox. Co we have so many summit horse sitting resources you can dive into there. Or you can always reach out on Instagram @SEMINITBOX if you want to say hi or have any questions. All right.

Well, Krista, thank you so much for joining me today and I cannot wait for your summit coming up.

Thank you so much for having me. It's going to be good.

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you like the show, I'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts and or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.