How to Organize a Great Event with Natasha Miller

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind where we get real world insights on winning from people who have accomplished amazing things. I'm your host, Larry Weidell. And let's get going. We're here talking with Natasha Miller. And Natasha is growing a great company in San Francisco called Entire Production. She's written a best selling book and I love the title, by the way. Relentless Homeless Teen to the American Dream. That's a fantastic.

Oh, to the entrepreneur dream.

Oh, the entrepreneur dream. Okay. Entrepreneur Dream. But that's a fantastic title on many levels. Did you come up with that yourself?

I did, and it was the hardest part of writing the book, period. End of story, the title and the subtitle.

Right. But you did well, by the way. Maybe that's another expansion for your business. Another.

No, I don't want it. I don't want it. Naming conventions. No. You know, I worked with Jack Canfield of the Chicken Soup for the franchise and he did with him. Well, I mean, I was running the title on the subtitle pattern past him and I was like, should it be relentless? Tenacity. Should it be. You know, I had so many different things. And he was like, I really like relentless. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna. He has a billion dollar franchise of, you know, his books. I'm just gonna go with what he said. And he was a great help. And he was such, you know, he read the book and he said in an interview with me, I couldn't put it down. I should have gone to bed. And I had to keep reading.

Yeah, talk about a great endorsement. Okay, tell us what you found. In a nutshell, what you found is a key to designing a great event. How many events, by the way, have you. Take a guess. How many events have you done?

I'm going to give you an answer that will blow your mind. In 2019, we did 777 events in one year with two people in operations.

Okay, give me those numbers again. 2000. When?

In 2019.

19.

Before the, you know, our situation, we. 777 events in one calendar year. Now, that was the year of the most events. But, you know, a lot of those events we're providing talent for only in some of those events we are producing from A to Z, soup to nuts. Wow.

And so what would you, as you go in, you've already given one of the keys. You want to give people more or something different than they expect. Talk about putting together a really powerful event where you know what I try and tell people because I've done A lot of that myself, but inside the company for the organization and they like and meetings, you know, and what I tell people is once I get it to the point where I'm excited about it, it's probably enough. And because I'm the one who's been to all the other ones, right. You know, like the principal who's been to all the school meetings and so, you know, bored stiff with the whole idea of attending another one. But if you can get yourself excited about this next one, chances are probably going to be pretty good. And so as you put together an event, what are you thinking about?

I think the most important aspect of creating an event that is sticky, meaning people want to come to it after they heard about it, enjoy themselves during it, post during and after, and talk about it long term is definitely doing something that they've not experienced before that they think was amazing, but also an interactive experience where they're able to be showcased, highlighted, paid attention to, one on one by some element that makes them leave feeling special. And you can do that in so many different ways. And, and so we try to bake that in and teach our clients about how to sink their teeth into their guests and get them to experience what they want them to experience. And we start by saying, what is the outcome? What feeling, what thing do you want these people to do after leaving? Do you want them to say, I learned something incredible I never thought I'd learn, Or do you want them to say, that company is the coolest company. I thought they were boring, but oh my God. Right? And then there's a relationship. There's this irrational loyalty to a company that, you know, as I was telling you about my book launch, those people at that book launch are going to be my raving fans.

Yeah, I'm sure.

And that's what we want our clients events to have for them is that their guests that are coming to their events, look at them with this new shape of awe or delight or surprise or a newfound. Yeah, that's why they're so good. They just keep pumping out the good stuff.

Well, where do you get the ideas for these? I'm sure you got a treasure chest if you did 770.

Oh yeah.

Now how did you get going on that? And how, how did you, how do you catalog you like Joan Rivers that had a closet, jokes every category or whatever.

That is how we do it. So I have an incredible imagination. I also have an incredible team and we work together as a team. So if somebody has, you know, we have events all over the World. And we have them for all these huge companies and you're right.

Surprise me. Where? Where in the world of you? What does that mean?

Oh, let's see. Currently we've done things in France and England. We had an office in London for two years. China, I mean most of our events are on the west coast because that's where we are physically and that's where our clients are. But when they're. Yeah, so I lost my train of thought.

But London office would be go all over the world anyway. But you said you have. Incredible, incredible.

I have a lot. I have a huge creative mind, so. And I think of crazy things. And I'll tell you what, in San Francisco they fly. Almost anything that I come up with can be done here. They not wouldn't fly necessarily in the Midwest.

Right?

Yeah, not in Des Moines. But also our clients have seen that they've been wined and dined. Google executives, Apple, Facebook, Salesforce, they've all seen everything and experienced everything. So what we have to do for them is curate something for them or for that event that may have elements of things that they've experienced, but it's curated for them and, and that makes the difference. Yeah.

And the big corporations spend a lot of money on these things, don't they?

Yes, they do. Well, they did. Now they know what kind of savings they can have by doing virtual or hybrid events. So in Silicon Valley, the big companies have not. They're not doing the 6,000 and the 200,000 people events yet. It'll take a while to get back to that.

Yeah. And so what would you say to someone and what size company would you say they need to maybe could get a boost from having an event?

Any size. Absolutely any size. And I actually teach this to my fellow entrepreneurs that have very different businesses than I do, also very different businesses than these Fortune 100, you know, tech companies and such. And you know, you can do an event for your clients or for prospective clients or for your internal team that really move the needle and make a difference in how you're respected or you're, or you're seen. And you could have a company. I mean I, I have a small company and some of the things that I've taken my team on, I mean, first of all, I took my team, gosh, six years ago to Hawaii for three or four nights and that wasn't even, you know, some larger companies do an off site like company picnic or you know, end of year or sales kickoff. This was just. You guys are amazing. We're going to Hawaii.

And what, what, what kind of turnaround and what kind of results have you seen from companies that have done that and maybe never done it before, but they said, okay, we're going to try it once.

I think they see more traction and more engagement with the people that are attending. And, you know, it's, it's like we could talk like this on Zoom. But if I had you over to my home and I created an experience based on what I've learned about you. Yeah, right. Served you things that I knew that you would love, introduced you maybe to something that I knew you hadn't experienced and that you were curious at or thought that you would appreciate. Then if you're married, I would, you know, if you're married or you have children, if whatever is special in your life that I catered to that as well, you will never forget me. You will. I will be the first one on your mind when whatever it is that I can do for you comes up in your life. And it's got to be authentic, right? You can't phone it in.

That wraps up this episode. Consider leaving a rating and review if you like what you heard. In addition, I have a free video for you and it contains my best insights from 20 years of running my own business and also coaching million dollar earners. You'll find it at 1whiteLowinning.com webinar. Thanks for listening and do it big.