Jacob Cass ran a wildly successful summit

In today's episode of How Brands Are Built, host Rob Meyerson speaks with Jacob Cass, designer, brand strategist, and founder of Just Creative, about his recent venture: the Brand Builders Summit. This innovative, four-day virtual event featured 24 speakers and attracted over 20,000 attendees from 156 countries, significantly surpassing Jacob's initial goals. Jacob discusses the unique format of the summit, which blended pre-recorded sessions with live Q&As, panels, and workshops, emphasizing the crucial integration of brand strategy, design, marketing, and community. He reveals insights into the promotional strategies that generated buzz and shares logistical lessons learned while managing a large-scale event. The conversation also highlights the importance of speaker relationships, communication tools like AI chatbots for participant support, and plans for future enhancements to improve networking opportunities. Jacob's commitment to feedback and reflection post-event underscores his dedication to continual improvement. Listeners are invited to explore Jacob's work at Just Creative and look forward to the next Brand Builders Summit in 2025 (if Jacob decides to give it another go!). Join us to dive into an inspiring discussion on strategic marketing, community engagement, and the key elements driving successful brand experiences.

Episode Transcript

Rob Meyerson: Welcome to How Brands Are Built, where branding professionals get into the details (00:07):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: of what they do and how they do it. (00:11):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I'm your host, Rob Meyerson. Thanks for listening. (00:13):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: This episode of How Brands Are Built is brought to you by Tracksuit. (00:18):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Want always-on brand metrics to deliver value to stakeholders? (00:22):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Tracksuit is a beautiful, affordable, and always-on brand tracking tool that (00:25):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: helps consumer marketers and agencies answer the question, is what we're doing working? (00:30):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Check them out at gotracksuit.com. (00:35):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: On today's episode, Jacob Kass. Jacob is a designer, brand strategist, educator, and coach. (00:39):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: He founded Just Creative, which is a leading branding and design consultancy (00:47):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: that doubles as an industry-leading blog and creative community. (00:52):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Jacob's past clients include Disney, Nintendo, Nike, and Red Bull. (00:56):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Earlier this year, Jacob hosted the Brand Builders Summit, a virtual event that (01:01):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: drew over 20,000 attendees from around the world. (01:05):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I was a speaker at the event and was blown away by what Jacob put together. (01:09):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: For a few weeks leading up to the August event, it felt like the marketing for (01:13):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Brand Builders Summit was everywhere. (01:17):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So that's what I wanted to talk to Jacob about. What led him to create this (01:19):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: event and how we pulled it off. Here's our conversation. (01:23):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Jacob Kass, thank you so much for joining me on How Brands Are Built. It's good to see you. (01:31):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Hey, Rob. Good to see you, likewise. (01:36):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So I want to talk about Brand Builder Summit. I mean, there's so much we could (01:39):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: talk about. You're an experienced brand builder, designer. (01:42):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: You do all kinds of things. (01:46):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: People who follow you know that you like to kind of dip your toe into all kinds (01:49):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: of different activities. (01:53):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: But today, I want to focus on this Brand Builder Summit, one of the many things (01:54):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: that you decided to try your hand at. (01:58):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And I guess just to get us started, can you tell me a little bit about where (02:02):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: the idea came from? What made you want to do this? (02:06):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah, absolutely. I do consider myself a bit of a creative drifter. (02:10):
undefined

Jacob Cass: You've kind of touched on there. (02:13):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I do kind of go in many different arenas. So it could be like digital products. It could be summits. (02:15):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It could be, you know, creating a side company or like I dip my toes in many different things. (02:21):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But at the cross section of all that is brand, but also design, (02:27):
undefined

Jacob Cass: strategy and marketing. (02:31):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And as those that cross section, that was most interesting for me. (02:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And that kind of segues into how this summit came to be. (02:36):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And just for context, what this summit was, it was a four-day semi-live event for brand builders. (02:39):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So designers, strategists, brand designers, logo designers, even web designers (02:47):
undefined

Jacob Cass: were a part of this, freelancers, even marketers. (02:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And it was four days of with 24 speakers with pre-recorded presentations, (02:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: but also 24 live Q&A sessions. (03:02):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And then we had three live panel sessions and we had three live workshop sessions (03:05):
undefined

Jacob Cass: as well. So that was the event. (03:10):
undefined

Jacob Cass: We had a few live networking sessions and co-working sessions as well. (03:12):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So it was a very immersive experience. (03:16):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I should mention full disclosure, I was one of those speakers. (03:19):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So that's, I would have heard about this anyway. (03:22):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And one of the things I want to talk about is the promotion for this event was nuts. (03:25):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Like I was seeing it everywhere. And I even talked to some other people in the (03:29):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: branding community just saying like it's it's so pervasive online everyone is (03:33):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: aware of this which i'm sure resulted in a huge turnout and i want to get to that as well, (03:38):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: but sorry to interrupt you yeah back to just sort of how you thought of it and (03:44):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: and now that you're talking about how you structured it that's kind of my next (03:48):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: question is where did that structure i wanted. (03:50):
undefined

Jacob Cass: To talk about what it was just before i got to like how it came to be because (03:53):
undefined

Jacob Cass: there's a bit of context there. (03:57):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So now that you understand what the summit was and the structure and all of (03:59):
undefined

Jacob Cass: that, how it came to be was because I'd spoken at many summits before. (04:04):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I think my first one was maybe 2020 or 2021, something around then. (04:08):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And then after that, it just seemed like to be a snowball effect. (04:12):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Like you get on one leg and then you get invited to other summits. (04:16):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So it kind of snowballed from there. And the summit I went to back then, (04:20):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it was called something like Simply profitable designer summit and i was like (04:25):
undefined

Jacob Cass: what is this summit model i had no idea what it was but i joined. (04:29):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And market it based on their marketing schedule and (04:33):
undefined

Jacob Cass: my marketing brought in 60 of their revenue (04:37):
undefined

Jacob Cass: through email marketing so it was a major success and (04:40):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i've only just learned of this i didn't realize like such a success at the time (04:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: no no not 60 they said i was like good because and i saw the affiliate revenue (04:48):
undefined

Jacob Cass: come in and i knew it was good but not that much anyway um the point is that (04:53):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I knew affiliate marketing well. (04:59):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I've run a blog and SEO and psychology and all of that when it comes to marketing. (05:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And that's why it was successful. I also had an email list as well that I built (05:07):
undefined

Jacob Cass: up over time. So those are the prerequisites. (05:11):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So that's how I came to know about summits. And then I got attracted to other summits. (05:14):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I spoke at those summits and eventually I'm like, well, when am I going to do my own summit? (05:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And then I had other people asking me like when are you going to do (05:24):
undefined

Jacob Cass: your own summit and okay oddly enough i talked to matt um (05:27):
undefined

Jacob Cass: matt davies my co-host for the just (05:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: branding podcast as you know and he (05:33):
undefined

Jacob Cass: we also talked about doing our own conference or live event as well and you (05:36):
undefined

Jacob Cass: know he's in uk i'm in australia so like the chances of that happening is pretty (05:42):
undefined

Jacob Cass: slim i we're not going to say never we do talk about it but yeah there's all (05:47):
undefined

Jacob Cass: these like inklings of like okay you've been at a summit you spoke at summits people asking you. (05:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Uh, and you know, maybe with the, the co-host as well, but then the real linchpin (05:56):
undefined

Jacob Cass: or the thing that really got me to do this was when my, my blog and SEO crashed with Google. (06:01):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So I remember seeing you post about that online. (06:10):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So a side hustle of mine, you know, we talked about this creative drifting thing (06:13):
undefined

Jacob Cass: is the blogging and affiliate marketing. (06:17):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So I had a lot of content i had a team of about 10 people running content (06:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and we had about 70 million people come (06:22):
undefined

Jacob Cass: to our site over like a decade and that was through all the (06:25):
undefined

Jacob Cass: content and that went really really well up until a number of uh a year a couple (06:28):
undefined

Jacob Cass: of years ago and google changed their algorithms we pretty much dived we lost (06:33):
undefined

Jacob Cass: 90 of our traffic lots a huge portion of our revenue had to let go of the team (06:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and everything oh my god that's not just that's not. (06:43):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Just you right that this algorithm change affected all kinds. (06:46):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Of changes yeah so pretty much like i was an affiliate driven (06:49):
undefined

Jacob Cass: site and pretty much all mid-tier to (06:52):
undefined

Jacob Cass: small business well uh small to (06:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: mid-size affiliate based websites vanished from google yeah (06:59):
undefined

Jacob Cass: just just got pushed back so far google ended up (07:02):
undefined

Jacob Cass: pushing sites like reddit linkedin like weird (07:05):
undefined

Jacob Cass: forums that you had never heard of before they got pushed to the top and all (07:09):
undefined

Jacob Cass: affiliate sites got pushed down um so we lost our revenue just get kept getting (07:13):
undefined

Jacob Cass: worse and worse and like i tried to reinvest for the first like six to 12 months (07:18):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it didn't work and no one really recovered any small to mid-sized sites so i kind of. (07:22):
undefined

Jacob Cass: That was a big bummer, but I tried to fix it. It didn't work. (07:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But consequently, in that moment, I lost a lot of leads because I had an organic (07:33):
undefined

Jacob Cass: search-driven strategy. (07:39):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And yeah, I started losing clients and, well, leads, I should say. (07:42):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And that was drying up. And I'm like, oh, okay, this may be the time to do a (07:46):
undefined

Jacob Cass: summit. I was like, this was back in like January, February, 2024. (07:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Like, this is the time. I'm going to do it. Let's just pull the trigger. um (07:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i bought a program called summit in the box which (07:58):
undefined

Jacob Cass: we'll get into which is basically a program to teach you how to run summits (08:00):
undefined

Jacob Cass: or live events and i followed that program like yes (08:04):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i'm gonna do it in february and then i landed (08:06):
undefined

Jacob Cass: three clients in one week of course of course so that got pushed out i'm like (08:09):
undefined

Jacob Cass: okay well i can't do this now um i'm gonna work on these client projects i pushed (08:15):
undefined

Jacob Cass: the summit date uh out to august which i'm very thankful i did because it meant (08:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i could promote an event longer. (08:25):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I could learn how to run an event better by following that program. (08:28):
undefined

Jacob Cass: There's a ton of videos and resources to watch on that. (08:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So really immerse myself in how to actually run a summit. (08:35):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And it is made for a better experience. So that's how this whole summit thing came to be. (08:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It was just the right time, the experience, the cross-section of brand design, (08:45):
undefined

Jacob Cass: marketing, and just a passion for facilitating, um. (08:50):
undefined

Jacob Cass: You know, conversations with (08:56):
undefined

Jacob Cass: people as well. This is one of my passions running the podcast as well. (08:57):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So it was just like all these different bits coming together. (09:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It's like a lot of my skillsets, a lot of my passions and the right timing. (09:04):
undefined

Jacob Cass: That's how the summit came to be. I know this is the longer question, (09:08):
undefined

Jacob Cass: longer answer than you expected, but it does give context. Yeah. (09:11):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah. It's good background. So this Summit in a Box thing, the person who runs (09:15):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: that, you told me before we started recording, was the person who ran that first (09:21):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Summit you mentioned, right? (09:25):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Where you got 60%, you brought in 60% of the revenue or of the attendees. (09:26):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yes, exactly. So her name is Krista Miller. She runs Summit in a Box. Amazing program. (09:33):
undefined

Jacob Cass: She has a podcast. And if you want to learn more about summits, (09:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: that's the resource I'd recommend. (09:42):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah, we'll provide a link to, so Jacob is going to be on that podcast and he'll (09:44):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: go into more detail about his summit on that podcast. (09:50):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So if you really want to get into the weeds about Summit in a Box and how he (09:55):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: implemented it in sort of very specific ways, I'll just, I'll provide a link (09:58):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: to that podcast and you can listen to that. (10:04):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So the way that you structured this, though, was was really interesting to me as as a speaker. (10:08):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So it was you said some of this already, but it was free for attendees speakers. (10:13):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: At least I didn't get paid, but we had an affiliate link. So we were encouraged to promote it. (10:20):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And then people who did pay. So I should I should revise what I said. (10:25):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: It was free, but you could choose to upgrade for a certain amount to get all (10:30):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: kinds of goodies, to get downloadable talks, things like that. (10:35):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And so through my affiliate link, if people chose to upgrade, (10:39):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I would get a portion of that. (10:42):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And so all of your speakers presumably got paid a little bit at least or some (10:44):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: of them quite a bit through those affiliate links. (10:50):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: But it's still free for anyone who wants to attend to attend, (10:53):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: which is great for a global virtual summit. Well, I guess by nature, (10:57):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: any virtual summit, anyone in the world can attend. (11:01):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And so you're dealing with people with all different sort of levels of income, (11:03):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: students all the way up to experienced professionals. (11:06):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So making it free and it just it's so much more accessible. (11:09):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Is that all part of the summit in a box model or is some of that your sort of (11:13):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: customization of that model? (11:18):
undefined

Jacob Cass: There are many different models when it comes to summits. It is generally a (11:21):
undefined

Jacob Cass: free model, and that is recommended because you get more people attending. (11:25):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I think we had 156 countries represented, and like you said, (11:29):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it's across-the-board students to decade-long professionals, veterans. (11:34):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And the model is, yes, this is why I love the model so much. (11:40):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It is free, so everyone can access it for 48 hours, 24 to 48 hours, (11:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and maybe next year I'll be doing it longer based on the feedback I've heard. (11:50):
undefined

Jacob Cass: The benefits for the speakers as well is not just the affiliate side of things, (11:54):
undefined

Jacob Cass: but it's also the exposure to the list. (12:00):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So what you mentioned there, the upgrade, so we called it the PowerPass, (12:02):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it got you $6,000 worth of value for $97. So it was like a no-brainer. (12:06):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Every speaker contributed to the PowerPass bundle, and then you also got the (12:11):
undefined

Jacob Cass: replays and access to some of the live panels and live events as well. (12:17):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So that was the no-brainer offer. (12:22):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And that's how the model works, right? Because it's such a no-brainer offer, (12:25):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it converts very, very well. (12:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And the speakers that bring in the attendees, they get a cut. (12:31):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But the interesting point is that each speaker can set up a landing page where (12:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: to access the download or the resource, the attendee must enter their email. (12:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So it is a great email list builder for speakers. (12:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So you some some of the speakers ended up (12:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: getting about four or five thousand new email subscribers (12:57):
undefined

Jacob Cass: because of the event which is and that is (13:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: infinitely more valuable than getting a you know a lump sum because then you (13:04):
undefined

Jacob Cass: have four thousand extra new leads that you can sell to in the future so there's (13:08):
undefined

Jacob Cass: a lot more benefits to just the monetary side of things it's like list building (13:12):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it's awareness and longer term benefits as well and that's why i love it um (13:15):
undefined

Jacob Cass: obviously for the summit hosts you get the relationships. (13:21):
undefined

Jacob Cass: You get the email list built in. You can market to the people afterwards. (13:24):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I haven't done that yet, but there's so many opportunities that can come from it as well. (13:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And yeah, that's why I love the model. It's super competitive now though. (13:35):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Since 2001, there's so many summits. So you really have to stand out. (13:39):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And that kind of brings us to the next point of like, how is your summit different? (13:43):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And we can kind of get into structure and all of that. (13:47):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah. I mean, you also chose to do four days and I think you said six speakers per day. (13:49):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So yeah. Talk a little bit about why you made some of those structural decisions that you made. (13:55):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I mean, I'm sure there's just, there's so many different variables. (14:02):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: You could have done this so many different ways. And then even once you choose (14:04):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: the structure, you then have to choose who to get, who to get, (14:08):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: uh, on the roster of speakers and things like that. So what was some of that process like? (14:11):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So before I get into the process, I'll talk about the competition. (14:15):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So the summit scene has blown up every month there's a new summit and often (14:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: you'll see the same speakers and the same topics and I didn't want to do that. (14:27):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So rather than just focusing on a design summit, I wanted to bring in some of (14:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: the things I find most integral to the growth of a business or a brand. (14:36):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So that's brand strategy, brand design, marketing, and business. (14:40):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It's those cross-section of things that I believe can really boost a brand and (14:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: boost a person's career if you know all those things. (14:48):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So that's how I structured the four-day event, just to have six speakers on (14:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: brand strategy, six speakers on design, six speakers on marketing and growth, (14:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and then six speakers on the business side of things. (15:00):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Funnily enough, the least sexy topic of business is always like the most, (15:03):
undefined

Jacob Cass: people don't always attend to that, but I also think it's the most important. (15:08):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: It's the one they should be listening to the most. It's like the vegetables (15:12):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: they don't want to eat along with their meal. (15:16):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Exactly. So I wanted to have it there. It's not necessarily the attractor. (15:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Design definitely is the attraction, at least from the audience and stats I've got. (15:26):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But I think what made this successful was the integration of strategy and design (15:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: because designers are feeling in the pinch, (15:35):
undefined

Jacob Cass: right ai uh online tools (15:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and just the commoditization of design (15:41):
undefined

Jacob Cass: in general so people are wanting to learn (15:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: more about strategy so i think there was this the position of (15:47):
undefined

Jacob Cass: the summit was focused on brand and not design and then that allowed us to break (15:50):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it down into um you know brand design and strategy and then business or whatever (15:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: way you want to slice it so i think that's that's a big part of what made it (16:00):
undefined

Jacob Cass: so successful is like the unique positioning and the cross-section strategy and design. (16:05):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But also we can get into the market a bit later, just the pre-buzz and the relationships (16:09):
undefined

Jacob Cass: with speakers as well, where they're a big part of making the event a success. (16:14):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So if you ever wanted to run a summit or a live event of your own, (16:18):
undefined

Jacob Cass: the biggest tip I can give is pre-buzz, pre-planning and relationships with your speakers. (16:22):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Like that's the prerequisites. (16:29):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Well, that's a good segue into just what it was like putting this together. (16:31):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So you've made the decision, you've done the summit in a box thing, (16:36):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: you've learned, you're starting to learn as much as you can about how to do it. (16:40):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I guess, just tell me a little bit about what it was like. (16:44):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I remember some of your posts online about, you know, maybe feeling like you (16:47):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: had bitten off more than you could chew and just the incredible amount of work. (16:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: There was so much self-doubt and like so much self-doubt. Like some of my goals, (16:56):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I kind of laugh at now, but my goal was to get 5,000 attendees as a stretch (17:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: goal and smash that out of the triple that or something. (17:04):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And I was blown away. I really was. (17:08):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And it just went it just it blew up and (17:11):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i was like you're part of the slack (17:14):
undefined

Jacob Cass: channel but i'm like oh we've got a thousand attendees now it's at two (17:17):
undefined

Jacob Cass: thousand and five thousand like guys it's up to ten thousand i'm (17:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: like what is happening and then yeah the speakers (17:22):
undefined

Jacob Cass: started sharing more and you know that excitement and the (17:26):
undefined

Jacob Cass: momentum got building and it's like 15 grand they got to (17:28):
undefined

Jacob Cass: like 19 grand like no we have to get to 20 (17:31):
undefined

Jacob Cass: come on it just got just slowed down i was like come on let's do (17:34):
undefined

Jacob Cass: one more push we can get this at 20 and then somehow it (17:37):
undefined

Jacob Cass: got to 23 so it was it was (17:40):
undefined

Jacob Cass: crazy it was like it snowballed really a lot at the end but that would definitely (17:42):
undefined

Jacob Cass: not have happened if it wasn't for the the pre-buzz beforehand and the clear (17:47):
undefined

Jacob Cass: communication with speakers and and you know the promotional graphics and there's (17:52):
undefined

Jacob Cass: a lot of moving pieces which we can get into at least on a high level but since it's a. (17:57):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Virtual event i mean if that if this was an in-person event um a you would have (18:02):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: had a limited number of tickets but like if something like this had happened (18:06):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: you would have been kind of screwed because you would have had to go rent an (18:09):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: entirely different venue um since it's virtual it seems like that shouldn't (18:12):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: be it shouldn't make things harder necessarily right although i guess. (18:17):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It's all scalable the only thing that's not scalable is the customer support however, (18:20):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i custom trained an ai chat bot for our (18:25):
undefined

Jacob Cass: community and that was a huge huge time (18:29):
undefined

Jacob Cass: table for our members so like time conversions faqs (18:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: where to find things it was like correct 80 of the time and the one times it (18:36):
undefined

Jacob Cass: wasn't correct you could retrain the answer so it was very easy to to create (18:41):
undefined

Jacob Cass: this custom chatbot and when i say easy it's like i copy pasted my landing page (18:47):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and my schedule page into a text field box and click generate, (18:50):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Like it trained it just on that. And then I monitored the questions coming in (18:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and gave the right answers to the questions. (19:00):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And then it was just retrained itself. So it was incredible. (19:03):
undefined

Jacob Cass: That tool was called chat base, by the way. It's like 20 bucks, (19:06):
undefined

Jacob Cass: not affiliated in any way, but it was incredible. And I'm going to use them again. (19:10):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah. So that's coming after the jobs of the person or people that you would (19:13):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: have hired for customer support. (19:17):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And it's the same technology that your design attendees are afraid of coming after their jobs. (19:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But you know some of the feedback i did have was that (19:23):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i i moderated all the live q a's so (19:26):
undefined

Jacob Cass: maybe next time i'll have someone else i did hire someone (19:29):
undefined

Jacob Cass: for as a va for email support that was fine until thrive cart our software solution (19:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: crashed on the second day unrelated to us but they did a major update to their (19:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: platform on that particular day and it crashed our part of our portal in thrive (19:43):
undefined

Jacob Cass: cart so we had literally hundreds of emails people like attendees saying we can't access it, (19:48):
undefined

Jacob Cass: we can't download it. So that was very distracting. (19:52):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I had to put out that fire during the live event. (19:54):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But it worked out and I emailed everyone and communicated the problem and it (19:58):
undefined

Jacob Cass: was outside of our control and that was fine. (20:02):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But yeah, the email support is important and scaling with the attendees, (20:04):
undefined

Jacob Cass: but the chatbot, yeah, it was definitely scalable. (20:10):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Great. Yeah, I wanted to know about any specific tools that you found that helped you. (20:12):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Is there anything else that sort of at that tool and tactics level that you (20:17):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: couldn't do without, that you learned about because of this. (20:21):
undefined

middle ad: Today's episode is brought to you by Tracksuit. Tracksuit is a beautiful, (20:24):
undefined

middle ad: affordable, and always-on brand tracking tool that helps consumer marketers (20:28):
undefined

middle ad: and agencies answer the question, is what we're doing working? (20:31):
undefined

middle ad: A tool like Tracksuit helps track the impact of your marketing and find out (20:35):
undefined

middle ad: the unique selling points your brand has over its competitors. (20:39):
undefined

middle ad: Tracksuit is fast becoming the common language for businesses in competitive (20:43):
undefined

middle ad: categories to measure and communicate the value of brand building. (20:47):
undefined

middle ad: Thanks to our friends at Tracksuit for sponsoring this episode. (20:51):
undefined

middle ad: Check it out at gotracksuit.com. (20:54):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah. So I have a whole list of the tech stack if you want me to roll through it. (20:56):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Let's, let's, let's, well, sure. Give me some highlights, but then we'll just (21:02):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: post that in the show notes if you want to, if you don't mind sending it. (21:06):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Okay. I literally have a whole, whole swipe thing, but I'll talk about the experience. (21:09):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So like I host on circle, uh, live videos calls were on circle. (21:13):
undefined

Jacob Cass: The live chat was on circle. the calendar tool i use was at event (21:17):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i use a quiz tool called interact (21:20):
undefined

Jacob Cass: so that was helps people choose which sessions to attend okay for surveys i (21:23):
undefined

Jacob Cass: use formaloo merch i use etsy and print printful podcast recording riverside (21:29):
undefined

Jacob Cass: podcast hosting spotify automations i use zapier or zapier ai chatbot i use, (21:34):
undefined

Jacob Cass: For all of my HR sort of stuff, I used Fiverr. I had a motion graphics designer. (21:42):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I had an audio branding team, Drop Music Branding. Shout out to them. They did a great job. (21:48):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah, yeah. Friends of the pod. (21:53):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I had, yes. I hired a Facebook ad specialist to help with the ads. (21:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: That got a 2x return, which I was very happy about. (22:00):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I'd probably, it was risky, but it turned out. (22:03):
undefined

Jacob Cass: For the website, WordPress had about 10 different plugins. (22:07):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Hosted on cloudways the website builder was (22:11):
undefined

Jacob Cass: elementor the cart software i use thrive cart (22:14):
undefined

Jacob Cass: there was a countdown timer called deadline funnel which was (22:17):
undefined

Jacob Cass: integral to the summit that gives a bit of urgency for (22:20):
undefined

Jacob Cass: people inverting and it allows you to (22:23):
undefined

Jacob Cass: turn on the on and off the pages when they expire so this is important for summits (22:26):
undefined

Jacob Cass: because there is a deadline of how long people can watch for so 24 24 to 48 (22:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: hours is the general guide for how long someone can access their presentations (22:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: for free after that date yeah you expire it. (22:42):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Is that a like a wordpress plugin or something or how does that integrate with the software for this. (22:46):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It's a i think it's a java javascript code you can put into a website okay it (22:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: works in wordpress and other channels but yeah this is very integral for a summit (22:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: because it handles all the times and the countdown timers and everything. (22:59):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So there's some tech behind it that is very useful for summits. (23:06):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So you listed all the tech, but you also listed a few people that you hired. (23:11):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So it sounds like you did have at least sort of a small team of specialists (23:16):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: that you built just for this summit. (23:20):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I guess I'm curious and you, you did that's similar to what you did, (23:24):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: uh, with your blog, right? You had a team of, of 10. (23:27):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Um, how do you go about finding those people? Do you have a methodology to finding (23:31):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: people that you trust or that you are willing? (23:36):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So I always look for referrals and recommendations first. (23:39):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So Facebook ads, I looked at people that did Facebook ads, but then I went granular. (23:42):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I'm like, I want someone to do Facebook ads for summits. (23:48):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So I found someone that knew that and they were blessing like facebook ads is (23:50):
undefined

Jacob Cass: hard it it's there's so many moving pieces and approvals and like the budgets (23:54):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and everything i actually explained it in videos and everything i still it took (24:00):
undefined

Jacob Cass: a while to understand and so risky yeah. (24:03):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I mean google ads is not i find not that not super easy either um like once (24:06):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: you it's easy to set up but then if you actually want to be good at it it's. (24:11):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Hard yeah um totally so but yeah to answer your questions like referrals uh (24:15):
undefined

Jacob Cass: if i didn't have someone then i'd go on on fiverr for example i looked at i (24:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i look at the value so their ratings, (24:24):
undefined

Jacob Cass: where they're based, the communication skills, and so forth. (24:29):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And that was, they helped. I found a developer there, and I'm going to use them for the next time. (24:33):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And then I used my current podcast editor, who also doubles as a video editor (24:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: to do like the motion graphics. (24:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So it was just like prior relationships. And then I used a tool like Fiverr (24:46):
undefined

Jacob Cass: or Upwork to find other people, which I didn't really do that. (24:49):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But to be honest, like all of those things are very niche jobs that were like (24:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: only for, you know, a few hours of work, everything else, like I did myself stupidly. (24:56):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah. I definitely delegate more, but now that I know how to do things I've (25:04):
undefined

Jacob Cass: done at once, I know where I can delegate and, um, yeah. (25:08):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Is it a little bit of, you have to do it yourself in order to understand how (25:12):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: to, how to not do it the next time? Yeah. Anything else? (25:15):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I didn't even go through half that tech, but there was a few other ones that were really integral. (25:19):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Oh, okay. Yeah. (25:23):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I do want to mention. (25:23):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: High notes. Yeah. (25:24):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah so thrive cart was where i hosted the learning like the course and the (25:25):
undefined

Jacob Cass: bonuses and down downloads, (25:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and that was like where i hosted content but also (25:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: my the e-commerce side (25:35):
undefined

Jacob Cass: of things so that was that was all integral to it and it hooked up with convertkit (25:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: now it's called kit that was what i used for the forms and the pop-ups and the (25:42):
undefined

Jacob Cass: email marketing i use hotjar for behavior analytics for the website and Google (25:48):
undefined

Jacob Cass: analytics for measuring the traffic and everything. (25:54):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And I use this, um, an exit intent pop-up tool called opt-in monster. (25:57):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So if someone was trying to leave a page, something would pop up saying, (26:03):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Hey, don't forget your free ticket. And that caught a lot of people. (26:05):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Um, so there's little, little tools like that can really change. (26:08):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I use a social proof tool called, uh, trust pulse, (26:13):
undefined

Jacob Cass: which basically in the bottom left corner of your screen, (26:16):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it's like 15 000 people have registered to this (26:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: summit um don't miss out kind of thing so it's like (26:22):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it gives this like um social proof to it and (26:25):
undefined

Jacob Cass: on the upsell page the vip bundle you'd (26:28):
undefined

Jacob Cass: say um you know someone just bought this (26:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: or someone in your location just bought this or a thousand people have (26:34):
undefined

Jacob Cass: bought this whatever it is and just gives that social proof yeah ads (26:37):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i use meta email g suite i use (26:41):
undefined

Jacob Cass: an email tracking tool called mail suite so the (26:43):
undefined

Jacob Cass: problem with summits not problem but the challenge with summits is communication (26:47):
undefined

Jacob Cass: there was so many emails sent between speakers and everything and it's like (26:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: literally an admin job so having a tool that tracks emails to know when things (26:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: are opened or not opened was very handy when people have clicked on links to (26:59):
undefined

Jacob Cass: know that was super super easy super handy, (27:03):
undefined

Jacob Cass: For speaker management, I use Airtable. So it's like a database. (27:07):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So you could manage, you know, where you were with contracts and communications (27:11):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and everything. I think that was in the water without that. (27:15):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah. I think that was one of the pictures you posted online. (27:18):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: One of those, what have I done to myself pictures with a massive Airtable spreadsheet thing. (27:21):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah, exactly. But yeah, that's crucial. So if you're not organized, (27:27):
undefined

Jacob Cass: like you need to be organized. (27:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah, it's everything. (27:34):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And GIFs are used, Printful and Moo and Sticker Mule. (27:37):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And yeah, there's probably some more of it. That's a lot of it. (27:40):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So there's a lot of moving pieces, yeah. (27:44):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah, no kidding. And did you hear about a lot of that tech stack through, (27:47):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: again, Summit in the Box? (27:52):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Or was a lot of this sort of your own research? (27:53):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Some of it. Some of it was new to me, like Deadline Funnel. I had never heard (27:57):
undefined

Jacob Cass: of that. And so that was a huge learning curve. (28:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Thrive Card I'd never used before. And how that integrates. (28:03):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: That was great. ThriveCard is what I interacted with a lot as a speaker and (28:06):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: for all the affiliate link stuff. And that worked very smoothly. (28:11):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah, it worked really well, but it was just learning how to set it up and how (28:14):
undefined

Jacob Cass: to integrate it with ConvertKit and tags and so forth. That was all learning curve. (28:18):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Made many mistakes. I sent out multiple emails to people saying to upgrade when (28:24):
undefined

Jacob Cass: they'd already upgraded and stuff like that to a small segment when I was testing. (28:28):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Thankfully, only a few hundred people got that versus thousands. (28:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So I definitely did something right there with my testing, which was recommended (28:35):
undefined

Jacob Cass: highly. I'm very glad I did that. (28:39):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But yeah, what was your question? (28:43):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Well, just with everything that went right and went wrong and all the tech that you had to use, (28:46):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: when you think about potentially a brand builder summer 2025, are you excited? (28:56):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Or are you more sort of like, oh God, here we go again. (29:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Is it daunting. (29:05):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Or is it. (29:06):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Funny you say that because after the summit it's very draining right i i did (29:06):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it all in the u.s times and i'm in sydney so i was doing this summer from 11 (29:11):
undefined

Jacob Cass: a.m to like 7 8 a.m in the morning so it was a complete upset and that was very draining but the the, (29:15):
undefined

Jacob Cass: The week after the summit, I, you know, we had some time off in the city, (29:24):
undefined

Jacob Cass: we booked a hotel and, you know, we had a couple of massage and everything, (29:29):
undefined

Jacob Cass: my wife and I, and in that massage, all I could think about was the 2025 summit. (29:32):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So literally I'm going to relax and I planned out every single detail in my head in one hour. (29:37):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So like the whole position and the tagline, how it's going to be different, (29:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: like this new theme, like everything just in that hour. And like that next week, (29:48):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I pretty much put everything down. (29:53):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I designed the whole website for the 2025 summit. So I have all the new logo, (29:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: the name, position, and the messaging. It's all done and designed. (30:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Just the homepage. That's the easy, fun part. (30:04):
undefined

Jacob Cass: The rest is the hard part. (30:07):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: In some ways, I feel like you really got your money's worth for that massage. (30:09):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: In other ways, I feel like you need to go back for another hour because you (30:12):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: weren't even enjoying it. (30:15):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: You were just thinking about the summit. All right. So there will be snoring there. (30:16):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I'm like brains and overload, but you know, that's when good ideas happen, (30:20):
undefined

Jacob Cass: you know, like the share. (30:23):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Like the second you kind of tune out. Yeah. So there definitely will be a 2025. (30:25):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Can you give us any hints? (30:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I don't want to say definitely. Like I have big, I have big, I have big plans. (30:31):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Like maybe those clients will drop at the same time, like last time, (30:35):
undefined

Jacob Cass: but the, the, the feedback I got from everything was so impactful. (30:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Like it was so moving to hear it. (30:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: People emailed me saying, you've changed my life. And it was life-changing. (30:46):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And we put out a survey after the end of the event, and there was about 150 people that responded. (30:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: 100% of them said they would recommend the summit to a friend. (30:58):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So that was an amazing stat. (31:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And 9.7 out of 10 was the rating they gave for the overall summit experience. (31:03):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It was great. (31:10):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Great feedback. (31:12):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Obviously, that was like the very engaged people, people filling in surveys. (31:13):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But it was a good sign that we did things right. And the experience was on point, (31:17):
undefined

Jacob Cass: quality speakers, presentations, like everything. (31:22):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So it went smoothly, but I literally have pages of notes of how to improve next (31:26):
undefined

Jacob Cass: time based on feedback and reflection and so forth. (31:30):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah. I was going to say one of the really cool things you did was you, (31:32):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: and I saw you did this for lots of people, (31:35):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: you cut out positive feedback that people gave on individual presentations and (31:37):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: then mailed that to us it was like a little envelope of confetti came out and (31:44):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: it was all real comments that people have left that was a very cool um little gift and uh yeah. (31:48):
undefined

Jacob Cass: A little memorable moment it's like a big smile on your face. (31:54):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah a little ego boost and yeah it was great i love you bro it's not i mean (31:57):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: yes but everyone else does too apparently that was what was so great about it. (32:03):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Thanks for doing that. (32:08):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So can you reveal anything, if there's a 2025 event, anything, (32:11):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: I mean, will it be significantly different in any way? (32:16):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Or are you thinking it's more like little tweaks here and there that you see (32:19):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: as potential ways to improve on 2024? (32:23):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So I've got some incredible feedback. And at the end of the day, (32:26):
undefined

Jacob Cass: it's all about the experience to me. And the decisions I was making... (32:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: You know just a couple of weeks out before the summit it was (32:34):
undefined

Jacob Cass: like will this improve the experience like i didn't have a (32:37):
undefined

Jacob Cass: workbook made or anything i didn't have a printable (32:40):
undefined

Jacob Cass: schedule and i was getting feedback in like do you (32:42):
undefined

Jacob Cass: have anything like this i'm like no i was going to add to the experience let's get it done so (32:45):
undefined

Jacob Cass: invested in that like and it was so well received (32:48):
undefined

Jacob Cass: so at the end of the day i'm like how can (32:51):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i improve the experience and looking at (32:54):
undefined

Jacob Cass: some of the sessions like the most (32:57):
undefined

Jacob Cass: popular the sessions and the feedback i got on some of the sessions like (33:00):
undefined

Jacob Cass: for example the live (33:03):
undefined

Jacob Cass: upgrade sorry the upgrade gave you (33:06):
undefined

Jacob Cass: access to the live panels and the live events and these (33:09):
undefined

Jacob Cass: were so well received they're like maybe want to make some of (33:12):
undefined

Jacob Cass: them free next time and people wanted more face-to-face interactions and the (33:15):
undefined

Jacob Cass: circle platform that i used the it was great however you could only see the (33:19):
undefined

Jacob Cass: speakers and the speakers speak you can't see all everyone's faces so it didn't (33:25):
undefined

Jacob Cass: have that community feel like you know you're on zoom and you can see like dozens of faces at once. (33:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And the one session we did have on zoom which had breakout rooms (33:35):
undefined

Jacob Cass: circle doesn't do breakout range yet um that was (33:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: incredible the everyone came very scared in (33:41):
undefined

Jacob Cass: like the first five minutes they're like very timid and like what the hell am (33:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: i doing here and then you have a breakout room they all come back and they're (33:47):
undefined

Jacob Cass: smiling and grinning and the energy is there and people (33:50):
undefined

Jacob Cass: loved it right so i'm thinking next time we (33:52):
undefined

Jacob Cass: can bring in live panels and more networking sessions and make the community (33:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: even better um and that experience better and then it was four days before which (34:00):
undefined

Jacob Cass: was a lot um so it could be dropping down to three i don't know um just to focus on that and. (34:07):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Having better relationships with some of the speakers. So for this first summit, (34:14):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I had a lot of prior relationships because of the podcast that we had run and (34:18):
undefined

Jacob Cass: just people I followed online and respected and want to get them on stage. (34:23):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But for next time, I kind of want to go outside the network a little bit and branch out more. (34:27):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But the problem with that is you don't have relationships with the speakers (34:33):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and those relationships are integral to promoting the event because if they (34:36):
undefined

Jacob Cass: don't really know you too well and there's no connection there, (34:40):
undefined

Jacob Cass: they're not necessarily going to promote too much so it those relationships are so important, (34:43):
undefined

Jacob Cass: so i think for next time i'll spend more time building up that relationship and talking through, (34:48):
undefined

Jacob Cass: the promotional materials and how (34:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: to market because i did this through email as you (34:57):
undefined

Jacob Cass: would receive many emails rob and i think (35:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: next time i'll just get on a call with every every speaker (35:04):
undefined

Jacob Cass: to go through things making that face-to-face connection (35:06):
undefined

Jacob Cass: explaining things make sure they understand because some (35:10):
undefined

Jacob Cass: speakers they know marketing very well and they get it (35:13):
undefined

Jacob Cass: others they have huge audiences but they may not be too busy and they just don't (35:16):
undefined

Jacob Cass: get things done so it's just like if you have that face-to-face relationship (35:20):
undefined

Jacob Cass: you there's a connection and it's more likely that they'll commit and do things (35:24):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and understand so i think that's what i'd do do differently yeah. (35:30):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: That's a great pointer for anyone who's listening who's trying to do any kind (35:34):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: of event i wonder how How many people who run, I don't know, (35:38):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: maybe they all do this, who run events or things like this, whether they're online or in-person, (35:42):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: schedule calls in advance just to kind of get to know each other and build a (35:49):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: little bit more rapport. That's a really good idea. (35:56):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I'll definitely do that more. And it's hard. It takes time and it's a lot more investment. (35:59):
undefined

Jacob Cass: But I believe that you'll get better results because you have that better rapport and connection. (36:03):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And that's why people don't do it. It takes time. (36:08):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: It reminds me of working on that Designing Brand Identity book. (36:12):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So much of that was about –, (36:16):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Uh, I mean, it's not, it's not the reason I did it, but kind of an outcome of, (36:19):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: of doing that is just getting on calls like this and having conversations with (36:23):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: designers, uh, and strategists and all kinds of experts all over the world. (36:27):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And it became, you must be one of the most connected, um, authors out there (36:31):
undefined

Jacob Cass: with like the amount of, you know, work and quotes and input that's come into (36:36):
undefined

Jacob Cass: that book, right? Your Rolodex must be. (36:42):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Well, and I'll be honest, you know, some of it did just happen through email (36:45):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: and it's for exactly the reason you just said, just expediency and similar to (36:49):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: your experience with the summit. (36:54):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: It's like this massive spreadsheet of, you know, page 172. We need a new quote about X. (36:56):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Like, let's contact this person and see if they can weigh in on it. (37:01):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And so sometimes that is just an email because you're, you know, (37:04):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: we both have day jobs and, you know, we're up against deadlines. (37:09):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: But to the extent that you can get on calls and have a conversation with someone, (37:13):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: that's really the enjoyable part. (37:19):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And I think you, to your point, you get better results, whether results means, you know, (37:21):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: a speaker who really markets the hell out of the summit or just somebody who (37:28):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: puts more effort into the presentation they're giving or something like that. (37:33):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah, absolutely. I fully agree with that. So those are some of the main takeaways. (37:37):
undefined

Jacob Cass: For the granular details, as you mentioned on Chris's podcast, I get into the weeds. (37:41):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And if you're going to run a summit, you'll definitely want to listen to that (37:47):
undefined

Jacob Cass: because there's so many invaluable things you can learn from people who have (37:50):
undefined

Jacob Cass: experienced it before and the learnings. (37:54):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I spent a lot of time reflecting to get those takeaways and those outcomes to (37:56):
undefined

Jacob Cass: understand what can be done better, what went well, what didn't, and so forth. (38:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So it's a really big part of anything, I think, is reflection, which we often don't do. (38:05):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah, good point. You mentioned at the beginning that when you were first thinking (38:12):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: about this, you were talking to Matt, (38:16):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: your co-host on the Just Branding podcast, and it sounded like you were at least (38:17):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: thinking about toying with the idea of something in person, which would have (38:22):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: been difficult given how far away from each other you live and work. (38:25):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: But is in the future, do you still, is there a party that thinks you might want (38:30):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: to make part of the brand builder summit in person or do something else that (38:35):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: would have an in-person element? (38:39):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah, never, never say never. I think it would be better to do it in the UK (38:40):
undefined

Jacob Cass: just because a lot of our audience are there and there's more, (38:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: more people versus Australia. It's very far away and we have a much smaller population here. (38:46):
undefined

Jacob Cass: We often talk about it and one day it will happen. (38:53):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I don't know when, but I reckon if it doesn't happen in person, (38:57):
undefined

Jacob Cass: there may be something else. I don't know. I'll never say never. (39:01):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Yeah, that sounds, well, I hope you get to do that. For now, (39:05):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: we'll be satisfied with Brand Builders Summit. 2024 was a massive success. (39:08):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: We have hopes but no guarantees for a 2025 event. (39:13):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: And it was great to hear a little bit about what you have in store for us. (39:20):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Um, I know people can go to just creative.com and follow you at just creative. (39:25):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Is there anywhere else that people should, um, look you up online just to, (39:30):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: to keep track of all those various things that you're dipping your toes into? (39:35):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Yeah. So brand builders, summit.com, you can join the wait list for 25 if it happens. (39:39):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Um, just creative.com is my main site and all my handles are on there. (39:45):
undefined

Jacob Cass: I do want to mention on Just Creative, there is a free branding bundle. (39:50):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It's called the Branding Briefcase. (39:55):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And inside is a bunch of downloads and freebies for branders, (39:56):
undefined

Jacob Cass: designers, strategists, everything from logo inspiration to strategy questions (40:01):
undefined

Jacob Cass: to sales conversations to mock-ups. (40:07):
undefined

Jacob Cass: It's all for free in exchange for an email. And I'd love to connect with you. (40:10):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Great. Yeah, I highly recommend that bundle. I've downloaded it. (40:14):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: So encourage anyone listening to go check that out. (40:18):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Follow Jacob online and attend the 2025 summit if it happens. (40:21):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: Thanks so much, Jacob, for joining us. Great to talk to you. (40:26):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Thank you, Rob. And thank you for your generous contributions as well, (40:29):
undefined

Jacob Cass: your presentation and sharing and long-time friendship online. It's appreciated. (40:34):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Oh, and for the book feature as well. (40:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: That was awesome. So thank you. (40:41):
undefined

Rob Meyerson: My pleasure. Good to talk to you. Talk to you soon. (40:44):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Thanks for listening to How Brands Are Built. If you liked the episode, (40:46):
undefined

Jacob Cass: please leave a rating and review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. (40:49):
undefined

Jacob Cass: To learn more about Jacob and his work, visit JustCreative.com. (40:53):
undefined

Jacob Cass: You can also go to BrandBuilderSummit.com to join the wait list for 2025. (40:57):
undefined

Jacob Cass: During our chat, Jacob mentioned Summit in a Box, which is a product of Krista Miller's. (41:03):
undefined

Jacob Cass: You can learn more at SummitInABox.co. (41:09):
undefined

Jacob Cass: And Jacob will be appearing on Krista's podcast, Summit Host Hangout, sometime in 2025. (41:13):
undefined

Jacob Cass: So if you want to hear Jacob go even more into the weeds on how he pulled off (41:18):
undefined

Jacob Cass: a successful Brand Builders Summit, check out that episode. (41:23):
undefined

Jacob Cass: That book feature that Jacob mentioned right at the end of our conversation (41:26):
undefined

Jacob Cass: is, of course, Designing Brand Identity. (41:30):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Some of his work is featured in the sixth edition, which I co-authored with Alina Wheeler. (41:33):
undefined

Jacob Cass: That's available on Amazon now. How Brands Are Built is a production of Heirloom Agency. (41:38):
undefined

Jacob Cass: Our theme music is by Isha Erskine Project. I'm Rob Meyerson, (41:43):
undefined

Jacob Cass: and I'll talk to you next time. (41:48):
undefined