Top 5 Mistakes When Creating And Selling A Live Event

I love running live events, whether it's a dinner, a workshop, a retreat, a Christmas party, a multi-day conference, a mastermind weekend. I've run all those. And in those experiences of running all those events, I've learned what to do and what not to do, how to be as successful as possible. So today I want to share with you the 5 critical mistakes you want to avoid when it comes to running a live event. And by the way, if you run a business, you're going to run a live event, whether it's a professional development day to train your team or a Christmas party for your team to celebrate at the end of the year. You're gonna have to do it, so you might as well do it right. And listen, I know the 5 most critical mistakes because I made all those mistakes. I did every single one of them. And I wanna share with you what to do instead so that you are successful. I also believe that running live events is a great way to earn money for your business. It's actually a really good product to sell. But the number one mistake, and I'll talk about this in detail, is that most people don't charge enough for their paid live events so that they can be able to spend enough to make an exceptional experience for the attendees. It's counterintuitive, but it's actually easier to sell an expensive event that is a wow exceptional event because you have the money to be able to do that versus a mediocre event that is affordable. So whatever kind of event you want to run, whether it's a small one, a big one, Nicole and I have done all the types of events on the spectrum, whether it was just like a few-hour event like a dinner or even like a 5, 6-day retreat that we did for entrepreneurs where we traveled to New Zealand and went skiing all together. It was a lot of work, but you learn a lot in that process. So I could tell you what to do, whether it's a small one-day event or a multi-day event. Let's go. So like I mentioned, mistake number 1 is not charging enough To deliver an exceptional experience. You need to charge a reasonable amount, right? Why? Because you're going to need to spend to create something that people feel like it's worth their dollar. OK? And that is very counterintuitive. People don't understand that. Like, hey, am I going to be able to sell this thing if it's expensive? Yes. If you're delivering exceptional value, people are happy to spend money if they know they're going to get something in return that's going to make them feel like, hey, this was great. The bottom line is that people will pay for something remarkable. They don't hesitate to buy something that feels like it's going to be worth their money, okay? Underpriced events traps you, right? You can't actually make the event good enough for them to feel like it's worth buying. Let me show you how this works, right? You underprice your event, right? You can't afford to make it great because you're not making enough profit, so the event is mediocre. So then it's hard to sell because it's kind of blah. So you raise prices and then you have a death trap, right? 'Cause now your reputation is damaged. So it's better for you to go in with a little bit of a higher-priced product because then you have a margin to be able to deliver an exceptional event that you can market, that you can really show people that they're really gonna love what they experience. Now, like I mentioned, all 5 of these mistakes I'm gonna be mentioning, I made them, okay? I made these mistakes and I made this mistake The first time we ran our retreat for entrepreneurs called OzCon. It's called OzCon because we cater to Australian entrepreneurs. Okay. The first year we ran this event, we had a 3-day event. I believe it was 3 or 4 nights. Sorry, it was probably 4 nights, 3 days from my memory. And we only charged $2,000 for a ticket. We barely broke even. It was like me running A group trip, a holiday for my friends, right? And I wasn't able to be able to create the experience I really wanted for my attendees. Now, lucky, lucky enough that the experience was still good enough for people to be like, hey, we can't wait for next year because just people had a lot of fun. And for them it was like $2,000 was nothing. Again, I'm catering the event to very successful entrepreneurs where they have the money to spend. So after that mistake, after we broke even and realized, okay, this is actually not even worth our time and energy, it's a lot of work to plan and run a multi-day event. So we decided to double our price every single year we ran that event. So the next year it was about a little over $4,000. The year after that was closer to like $7,500. And every year we just started to increase the price. And then we also upped the ante and increased the experience, right? The next year we had it in Australia again, but we had a better experience, better accommodation, better food. And then the year after that, we went to New Zealand and went to like a 5-star type of resort and had private transfers and even better dinners. The point is, is that like it was actually easier to sell that event, the one that was super expensive at a 5-star resort, because it was really, really amazing. People wanted to be a part of it. People saw the sales page and started to have FOMO already. Oh man, I got to go to this event. This is amazing. The lesson learned here is that you have to charge enough to be exceptional. And exceptional sells itself. Mistake number 2, selling to the wrong people. Listen, you can have a great event and still fail if you're marketing it to the wrong audience. You want to sell your event to the people who will get the most value from your event. The people that feel like, wow, this was tremendous value. The people that actually care about what you're doing. Okay? That's not the same people that are willing to pay for the event. Some people can afford something, but just don't see the value. 2 awful things happen when you sell to people who don't really deeply value what you're offering, the event itself, the experience. One, they either don't buy because they're like, oh, this is not something that's in my wheelhouse or something that I enjoy or something that I value. Or worse, they do buy and then they go to the event and they're like, oh, this is not what I was expecting. This is not something that I actually like. I don't actually enjoy these types of activities. And they tell other people and it kind of ruins the reputation of the event and your reputation and they don't come back next year. It's just a lose-lose. But when you sell to the people it was built for, the price never becomes an objection. When I sold OSCON to the right people, it was so easy to sell because they're like, I don't even need to see the price. This is incredible. This is a great idea. I can't pull this off on my own. And we'll talk about that later. So before you sell a single ticket, get crystal clear who is genuinely going to love this event, then go find those people. So with our multi-day retreat for entrepreneurs, I knew the people that would really get the value from OSCON because OSCON was really about meeting new people, having fun with other entrepreneurs, uh, sharing ideas, masterminding. and having a curation of people that they can't easily put together. So the people that would really value that are really busy entrepreneurs that never carve out time for themselves, that never carve out time to meet people at their level. So I really pitched it to those people and they really saw the value. Like, yeah, this is great because I'll never do this on my own. I'll never find a way to get these people together and go skiing together and have those conversations on the lift. Right? I create an experience they just can't buy anywhere else. And that leads me to mistake number 3, having the wrong people in the room. Your job as somebody who is running an event is to curate the room, is to curate the people that are going to be attending this event, because that is actually the value of the event. Now, the difference between mistake number 2 is quite subtle, but it makes a massive difference. Mistake number 2, you are selling to these people. This is who you actually let in. Number 3, the people that actually you allow to be a part of this group, a part of this event, whether this event is 12 people, 30 people, 500 people, it doesn't matter. Here's something that you learn the hard way through running events. The group, the crowd, the people that attend is the experience, right? The group is what they actually can't do on their own. This is something they can't pull off by themselves. One of the reasons why OSCON was so successful is because people can't do this on their own. It's very hard to curate highly successful entrepreneurs and do this by yourself. Like, think about it. Like, in order for me to do this, I have to contact really successful entrepreneurs, people I don't know, right? And I have to convince them to go on a trip with me, and I have to convince them to, you know, kind of have the discussions I want to have and allow time and space for them to be able to open up and be personal and share wins and losses. It's very hard to do. So the curation of the group is actually the value you're offering. And by the way, when I say in the room, I'm talking about everybody. I'm not just talking about the attendees. If you have speakers at your event, the speakers have to be aligned with the attendees. It has to be on the same wavelength, the same vibe, right? If you have sponsors, right, the sponsors have to resonate with the audience or it's gonna feel weird. What I learned through running events is the reason why people come to my events, the reason why when I send an invite, they're like, hell yeah, is because they trust my taste. They trust my taste in curating the group. They know that when they go to the event, because they've been to other events or they heard about my events, they know that it's going to be good because the people are all kind of cool people, people that they want to spend time with. We don't have anybody who's a jerk or kind of the wrong— I use the word vibe, but also just the wrong fit for the group. You know, we want to make sure people are humble, people are willing to share, people are willing to be vulnerable because that's where the value is. That's where you actually learn and actually grow in that kind of setting. Now, this is most important when you have a long event, like a multi-day event where people are going to spend a lot of time together. You need to highly curate the group. Now, if you have a smaller event like a dinner or even just like a one-day event, it's not as critical. Okay. But for example, with OSCON, where we had 5 days on the slopes, It was invite only. You know, we sought out after the people that we wanted to have in that group. And that's why we wanted to handpick that kind of collection of different types of people that had the same intention, the same type of drive, the same type of ambition in business, the same type of mentality in terms of how they treat their customers, all that kind of stuff. But, you know, we also want to curate. So, it's actually— An interesting conversation that's happening always. What do I mean by that? Well, you know, if everybody in the group are the same, they do the same thing, they look the same, they're from the same background, you know, they live in the same place, all that kind of stuff. It's not gonna be that interesting, right? It's not gonna be that fun. It's gonna, you're gonna have the same conversations over and over and it's gonna get boring, right? You wanna have a nuanced group, and this is why we made a lot of effort to make sure that there's a good balance between men and women. Mm-hmm. That we had diversity of, you know, lifestyle. We had diversity of background, of race, different types of entrepreneurs, different types of businesses. So somebody who's in e-commerce, somebody that is in software, somebody that's selling coffees in a, you know, a chain of coffee shops, all types of businesses. You know, you want to make sure that there is variety so that people feel like there's other things to talk about and to learn from the group. And what I learned is that People sign up because of the locations, because of the activities, because of the fun they're going to have, because of the value that they perceive they're going to get from whatever's on the sales page. But what they actually remember and what they love and what they comment when we do like a feedback form after the event is about the group, is about the people that were in the room. Now, I got this wrong in other past events where I had a wrong person in a small group Or a small event. And that one person actually changed the whole chemistry of the room. They were quite negative. They were not very productive. They were not very vulnerable, not sharing any experiences or even mistakes they made in their career. And it kind of brought the whole tone down. And I realized, oh, I got to be more selective. I got to make sure that not only am I curating the group based on who they are and what they do in their job and their career and all that kind of stuff, But also who they are as a person, right? Are they somebody that has the same spirit, the same attitude that we want to have in the room? So just to wrap up this mistake, curate ruthlessly because that is the product. I hope you're getting a lot of value from today's episode. Make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss any episode that comes out, especially one that we're working on right now, which is called How to Become the Best Version of Yourself. It's a must-read episode where I go deep in this book that I recently read called Start with Yourself. with Emma Greed. Emma Greed is a very successful entrepreneur, the founder of Skims. And I want to share with you how this book really changed the way I approach my business today, how you really are playing 2 games in business, the game of business itself, the business you're running, but the game that you're playing within yourself so that you can show up as your best self for your business, for your team, for what you do. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it. Mistake number 4. Not having a run sheet. We're gonna get tactical here, okay? We're gonna geek out a little bit because a run sheet is gonna save your life and save your event, okay? What is a run sheet? Well, basically it's just like a spreadsheet, right? It's a way for you to make sure you're planning for every contingency, okay? A run sheet is a minute-by-minute plan for the entire event. Now, this is not the schedule of the event only, okay? It's okay, this is what's happening every hour in the event for the attendees, but what are you doing and what are they doing to fulfill each part of the event? I'm talking about every moment, every detail, every transaction. Who does what, when, where? I'm not joking. Okay. Why? Because all that pre-planning is going to allow you to relax during the event because you know exactly what to do. I'm going to give you a very perfect example. We played some games at OSCON and the winner of the game or the team that won the game, one of the games, would get a prize. Okay, sounds great, right? But we wrote down in detail, so what happens exactly? How do you win? Okay, what are the rules of the game? Okay, and then when they do win, how are the awards given? Who's going to get the award? Where's the award hidden? Where are the prizes in the room, right? Do we go into the closet? Is it easy to find? Who's handing it to somebody? Are we taking pictures when it's happening? Like, all of that needs to be planned so that you're not fumbling when it's actually happening. The funny thing is that you think, hmm, this doesn't really matter, I'll figure it out at the time. No, it does matter. Why? Because the details make all the difference. And when you nail the details beforehand and you actually just implement during the time of the event, everybody in the room are so surprised. The number one feedback we got from all our attendees from any event we run is like, everything is so seamless. Everything seems like it just like flows and it's easy and it just is graceful. And it's not because we're like some sort of elegant, you know, person or people that just comes natural to us. It's because we planned it. It's because we know exactly what to do, who's going to do it, who's responsible for that task, so that when the time comes, we're not fumbling, we're not nervous. Is just implement time. I always say that improvisation is for amateurs when it comes to events. Okay? You wanna plan so you're not improvising. You know exactly what to do and you just execute. Now, there's a difference between a one-day event and a multi-day event, and I'm gonna give you some examples. Here are 2 events and we're gonna contrast them. The first one is the Crazy Ones Christmas Party. This is a Christmas party we run every year for entrepreneurs that are busy, that never get a Christmas party for themselves. You know, they run a Christmas party for their team, but they don't get a Christmas party because they're the leaders and they never get to, you know, let their hair down and have some fun. So, we have a big party for all these entrepreneurs that we know. We go go-karting, we play mini golf, we do bowling, we have lunch, video games. Basically, we get to be a kid again. OK? But this is a 1-day event, right? There's lower stakes because people are not spending that much time together. And there's a lot less to worry about, much easier to deliver value. Something that goes a little bit off, no big deal. We still have a run sheet for a Crazy Ones Christmas party, so we know what everybody's doing, but the exact detail of every little thing is not that important because the stakes are not that high. So we kind of take it with a grain of salt. It's okay if something doesn't go exactly as to plan, opposed to a 5-day event like OSCON where you're going abroad like New Zealand and you're dealing with flights and transfers and hotels. And, uh, Lyft tickets and meals and sessions and boat trips, uh, all kinds of stuff, right? And you gotta make sure the timing is right and there's no room for error cuz a mistake with somebody not getting picked up from the airport is a big deal, right? It's gonna ruin the whole tone of the event for them. I'm gonna give you the big difference. Uh, the run sheet is on a spreadsheet on our phone in a one-day event, right? I can open up my phone real quick just to remind myself what I'm supposed to be doing. It's very easy and it's, it's very easy to do. Kind of low pressure. With OSCON, a 5-day event, international, a lot of logistics. I have a clipboard with a bunch of papers, schedules, phone numbers, all kinds of things I gotta do, to-do lists, things I gotta check off. That thing doesn't leave my hand, right? Because the stakes are higher. Now, what's the payoff? Well, OSCON's a bigger event. We charge more, we make more profit on that one, and because we go so deep in the the nitty-gritty of all the details, it creates a better experience for the attendees, which makes it easier to sell next year around. In fact, I would say 60 to 70% of our attendees come back the next year because it's just a great experience. And we actually have to say no to them and say, hey, we know you want to come back and you're amazing and we love you. And these are my friends, right? But we got to say no. Why? Because that's just going to be the same group over and over again, right? We have to mix it up. So again, the group is dynamic. And that the people that actually have a chance to go, they have a different experience than the people that had it last year. Mistake number 5, huge mistake, okay? Not documenting the event. This is the final mistake, the final boss of mistakes, okay? And this is the one that people always get wrong. They either don't do it or don't do it enough. You have to, have to, have to document the event so that you can have an easier job next year in so many ways. Now, when I say document the event, I'm not only talking about taking photos and videos. I'm also talking about getting testimonials from people that attended the event right after the event. In fact, we do it on the last day of the event and we ask them to do it in front of us because it won't get done later on. Right? So we literally have a session where it's like they just wrapped up a game or something. It's like, all right guys, I know the event's not over, we still have another half day, you know, but we want you to fill out this testimonial form, this feedback form, so that we can get some feedback so we can do a better job next year. And we literally send them a link, they open it on their phone, and they do it right there in 5 minutes, and we just basically say, hey, when everybody's done, we'll continue. I know that sounds crazy and pedantic, but guess what, right? When you make time for something, people actually, you know, concentrate, they do a better job, and they get it done. Otherwise, if you send this feedback form, you know, 2 days, 3 days after they come back from the trip or from the event, guess what? They're gonna get too busy and it's just not gonna happen. So I learned my lesson. I made this mistake and didn't do that. So this is why we do it for every event moving forward, right? So that is really what you wanna do. Grab testimonials. Why? Because it's gonna be easy for you to sell when you have testimonials on the sales page, right? Why do you want photos and videos? As much as possible so that you can again share it on social. I can't tell you how many people DM'd me when we started sharing videos and photos of the event while it was happening. People were like, oh my God, I can't believe I said no to this. Why didn't I go? This sounds amazing. Oh, please invite me next year. Right? It's so much easier to sell once people have seen what it's like. Okay. You want to create FOMO. Events, you know, are really sold on FOMO when people realize, oh man, I can't do that. And guess what? You don't have to wait till next year to sell it. All right. One of the best things you can do is sell tickets to your event next year. As soon as the event is over, even on the last day of the event, say, hey, if you want to book your ticket for next year's event or next month's event or whatever it might be, you could do it right now. And when somebody sends you that DM and says, oh man, I can't believe I missed this event. I wish I can go next year. Okay, here you go. Here's the link. Buy. See what happens. Are they going to buy or not? Or are they just hot air? Listen, don't deprioritize this, right? When you're thinking of running an event, you're often, you know, not thinking about capturing the actual event and the content. So make sure you assign somebody to do this, somebody on your team, maybe even just yourself. From this time to this time, I'm going to be capturing some video, some photos. In fact, in one of our OSCONs, one of our attendees was so in love with taking video and they love posting on social She volunteered. She's like, hey, do you want me to be that person? It's like, great, awesome, you know. So make sure somebody's responsible for capturing the event for you. The footage is going to help you not only sell the event but document the event. And also, it's great for the attendees to be able to relive the event well past it's over. So they can— you can create a little montage, a little 2-minute video or something for them where they can have like kind of a memory, a snapshot of what they experienced. So they're actually getting value well beyond the event. Now, when I say document the event, I'm not only talking about videos and testimonials and photos and all kinds of stuff. I'm also talking about documenting what happened. You have to debrief after the event is over, okay? Once the event is over and the dust settles, I would say no more than a week after, you and your team, or just you if it's just you running the event, You need to analyze how the event went. What went right? What went wrong? What would you change? That's very easy, right? What went right? What went wrong? What would you change? Right? Because something you change could be not in that category. There's just something new you want to do. Okay? And that's a good way for you to make sure that you are capitalizing on the fresh memory of that event and making sure you don't repeat mistakes and that you are improving year after year. So let me put this into action. This actually happened to us last year when we sold tickets to our Crazy Ones Christmas party. And it's called Crazy Ones, by the way, because you gotta be crazy if you wanna start a business and be an entrepreneur. So we're a little bit crazy. So we invite all the crazy ones to this party. So one of the things we learned is that we sold the tickets to this party that was at the end of November, right before like the rush of the Christmas season, uh, in September, right? We started inviting people in September for an event at the end of November. Now, you might be listening to this and thinking, that seems like ample time. Not for the people that we were selling it to. Okay. Remember, we are selling to busy entrepreneurs. These people have a lot of things scheduled in advance, whether it's business trips, whether it's holidays, whether it's they're running their own events for their company and their business. So we learned that a lot of people replied to us and said, I'd love to go. This seems like a lot of fun, but I can't make it because I have this on my calendar. I'm doing this. Or I didn't know that, you know, you guys were doing this at this time and I planned something else instead. So this year we are sending out our invites a month earlier, right? In August. Yeah. Seems like a lot of time, but we learned our lesson that that is probably going to help us get the right people in the room and get the right people saying yes, because they'll have less of an excuse. They'll have more time to plan and make us their priority and pop it into their calendar. Now, how do I know to do this? How do I know to sell the event a month earlier? Well, it's not that I'm some sort of like smart person that just knows this off the top of my head. No, I read it in the notes of the meeting we had a week after the event, right? We had a meeting after that. Nicole and I, we sat down, we said, okay, what went right in this event? Well, this was fun. This was great. People loved this. This is some of the feedback we got. What went wrong? Actually, you know, we could have done this with the food or maybe, you know, like the timing was not so great when it came to this. Right. What do we want to do different? Oh, actually, I think next year it would be fun to do more of the video games. People love the video games so much. They wish they had more time to play video games and play the drums and do like Dance Dance Revolution. And some of the best footage we got from the event is when people are having fun with video games. So we thought, okay, we got to do more of that next year. Right. And we just basically had a dump of notes, a meeting really. And now when I'm planning the event for this year, I can just refer back to it and I know, okay, I got to do this. Next year differently. I got to sell this ticket a little earlier because last year we got some of this feedback. So that's how I know, because I didn't, you know, just remember. I just go back to the notes from that meeting that I just discussed. So to wrap up, what are the 5 mistakes you want to avoid when running any live event? 1, not charging enough, because if you don't charge enough, you can't create an exceptional experience for your audience. You can't afford to do it. Okay. Number 2, Selling to the wrong people. Make sure you're selling to the people that actually see the value in what you're offering. Number 3, don't have the wrong people in the room. Your job is to curate the room so that everybody's having a great experience. The room is the experience. Number 4, not having a run sheet. Having a run sheet saves you the pain and agony and stress during the event. You just follow what the run sheet says. This is the time, this is what we're doing, this is who's responsible for what. Nice and simple. And mistake number 5, not documenting the event, whether it's photos, whether it's videos, whether it's testimonials, getting testimonials from your attendees, or having that debriefing meeting at the end to figuring out what went right, what went wrong, what would you do differently, how would you improve it next year or next month or next week or whatever is the cadence of your events. I started this episode by saying I love live events. Why? I love them because they're so rewarding. People just really, really appreciate the fact that you can put something together, that they're enjoying their time. You're making memories. You're having a great time with people that are just really cool, people that you enjoy spending time with. You become a connector, right? You become somebody that introduces people to other people. So automatically, people see you as an authority. They see you like, this person actually introduced me to you. How do I know you? Oh, I went to Omar's event. And that's how I got to know you. You are top of mind. It's also just a nice thing to sell. I have to say that the easiest thing to sell is fun. Okay. If I'm doing a fun event, whether it's a skiing trip, whether it's a Christmas party with video games, it's just easy to sell. People want to have fun. People want an excuse to spend money so that they can enjoy themselves. Okay. And this is why live events are so rewarding is because you get to give that to other people. And to be honest, I have fun during the event as well because we do all the planning beforehand and I don't have to stress during the actual event. Hopefully today's episode got you thinking about how to run your next event. If you want to create a business that's successful, that's profitable, whether it's running events or combining events with the products that you have, then you want to check out this episode that we recently published. Just scroll back on whatever app you're on right now. It's called How to Set Your Prices to make $1 million a year, right? We're gonna reverse engineer how to make sure we make $1 million in profit with the prices that we set. Thanks so much for being part of today's episode and learning from us. You can learn from a million places on the internet, but the fact that you're learning from us means so much to us. We'll continue to give you value if you continue to watch and listen and be part of our community. Thanks so much. Check you next time. Ooh.