June 11, 2023 • 24 mins
Get ready to ignite the profit in your business with the power of events! In this episode, Heather is joined by Shay Wheat, a certified event producer and CEO of Grace and Ease Productions Incorporated. They discuss a step-by-step guide you can use to craft unforgettable events to captivate your audience and boost your brand visibility.
Don't settle for boring business as usual! It's time to turn heads, make waves, and create events that leave a lasting impact. Tune in now to uncover the keys to event mastery!
SHOW NOTES:
Shay Wheat: Linkedin | Instagram
Grace & Ease Productions, Inc.: Website | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook | Free Gift
Contact Heather: Instagram - LinkedIn - Email: heather@GetRadBiz.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (00:00):
Are you using events as part of your
business strategy?
Today on the show, we aretalking with Shay wheat.
Who is a certified eventproducer.
And we discuss.
How to leverage events to driveprofits in your business.
(00:25):
Hey there.
This is Heather's eighth Wolfand you are listening to get
radical with your business.
I love today's topic.
It is all around events.
I love planning events.
There's so much fun.
I love having a party.
Well, we can have a party in ourbusiness by having events on a
regular basis.
(00:46):
It's a great way to get peopleto know who we are getting into
our world and have a little bitof a flavor Of how we do
business.
You want to check out my flavor.
please check out my events on,get read biz.com forward slash
events.
That's with an S get readbiz.com forward slash events.
(01:07):
And I've got a whole bunch offree events coming up.
Along with some group programsand workshops and all kinds of
great stuff there.
So be sure to check that out andnow we're going to go into our
topic for today.
Events.
All right.
Shea is a certified eventproducer.
(01:30):
She's also the c e O of Graceand Ease Productions Inc.
And through her company, shehelps her clients create.
Powerful and profitable events.
Shay.
welcome to the podcast.
Shay Wheat (01:44):
Oh, I'm so excited to be here.
I can tell we're gonna have somuch fun.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (01:48):
Yes, I love putting on events.
There's all these moving parts.
I used to be a project manager,I love all the things that you
gotta like plan and when peoplethink of events, they probably
think of a bunch of things itcould be like putting on a
wedding, it could be putting ona conference.
It could be a training foremployees, but your focus is,
(02:09):
I'm gonna call it more like amarketing type of event.
How would you describe the typeof events that you put on?
Shay Wheat (02:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
So our events are actually apart of our client's business
strategy.
So what happens is there'sactually phases of event
leverage, and depending on whatyou're at in business, you are
going to be doing differenttypes of events.
Heather, There's 17 differenttypes of events that people can
(02:37):
be doing in their business rightnow, whether they're, starting
out and they're newer to been inbusiness for a long time and
making six and seven figures,different types of events you
use at different parts of yourbusiness.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (02:50):
You mentioned one, when do you know
when you're ready for an event?
And two, what types of events.
So let's break these down.
You mentioned 17.
And are these virtual eventsthat we're talking about,
Shay Wheat (03:00):
They can be.
They can be either virtual orthey can be in person.
So you can do a 90 minuteworkshop.
That can be either, you can do asummit, you can do a retreat,
masterminds one day sales andenrollment events, three day
sales and enrollment events,seminars, meetups.
Back in the day, we were doing alot of meetups before, pandemic
(03:21):
you may not realize this, butFacebook lives, Instagram lives
are also events.
You've got your conferences,your challenges hackathons,
conventions, trade shows.
I'm sure there's probably morethat your audience has
experienced, those are the onesthat are top of mind for me.
for a lot of my six and sevenfigure clients that are
utilizing events as a part oftheir business strategy, I.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (03:43):
When business owners are starting
out, maybe their list isn't asbig they're gonna probably
leverage things like InstagramLives or Facebook Lives.
If they really wanna do itcorrectly, it seems like they
have to treat it as an eventthey need to have strategies
behind it.
Shay Wheat (04:00):
Yeah, let's start with your Facebook lives, your
Instagrams, these are all freeplatforms.
And when you're really usingthese pretty heavily is phase
two of event leverage.
The reason being is you arelooking for visibility.
Your goal in phase two is togain visibility.
You can also do this by being aguest on other people's stages.
(04:24):
So you are on other people'swebinars, podcasts, seminars.
And then a third way to reallygain visibility in phase two is
being a sponsor at event.
you are going to somebody else'sevent and you are speaking on
their stage to an audience thatis the same audience as yours.
That's what you wanna be doingwhen you are gaining visibility.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (04:47):
Let's back up to phase one.
what would phase one look like?
you're just starting out yourbusiness and you don't have much
of a following,
Shay Wheat (04:52):
yeah.
Phase one is the validationphase.
Your primary goal is to get.
Clients and get them crazyawesome results.
The way that you do that is youstart out with market research.
You wanna make sure that you canactually validate your offer.
You wanna modify your offerbased on what it is that you're
learning, and then you wannamake more offers.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (05:14):
Phase one is you're starting your business,
you're getting your clientele,and maybe you're starting to
build your list at that point,right?
Then you go into phase two andnow we can start utilizing these
things.
Shay Wheat (05:23):
Yeah, so you move into phase two you're gaining
more leads, you're increasingyour visibility, you're making
some offers, right?
Anytime you do an event, youmake some type of offer.
So in order to move from phasetwo to phase three, you are
wanting to.
Gain more leads.
You're wanting to book morestrategy sessions, have more
(05:45):
conversations, make more offersuntil you reach about$5,000 a
month consistently.
Then you can move into phasethree, so you just kinda rinse
and repeat all the visibilitypieces in phase two to move to
phase three, which probablymakes sense now that why in
phase one we validate.
That our offer is actuallysomething that people need,
(06:07):
want, and require.
In the validation phase, part ofyour market research is you
literally ask them thequestions, what is the thing
that keeps you awake at night soyou can utilize these questions
to ask your potential clientswhat it is they want, and then
literally create a program, apackage, and turn around and go,
(06:28):
here, I listen to what you said.
Here's what I've come up with.
Would you want to move forward?
And you use their words in yourmarketing.
It's so common sense that Idon't think people actually
realize that it works.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (06:41):
actually, I have a group program right now
where I'm having everyone in thegroup do, informational
interviews and they record themto get the answers in the words
of their target market, so thatthey know, how they speak about
these things
Shay Wheat (06:53):
oh my God.
I'm so glad you're teachingthat.
Not everybody teaches that.
That's phenomenal.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (06:57):
What type of marketing type events are we
doing in phase three?
Shay Wheat (07:00):
phase three is the grow phase.
And so what we're doing is we'recontinuing to grow your list and
increase your visibility bycreating your own stages.
Where you're gonna wanna startdoing like your masterclass and
your webinars and your summits.
You can take a look at somechallenges as well.
There's a lot more logisticsbehind some of the challenges,
(07:23):
but you wanna start looking atcreating your own events.
And continue to obtain thoselarger speaker sponsorship
opportunities.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (07:31):
Some of these organizations, make you
pay a fee to apply, to speak.
What are your thoughts on pay toplay
Shay Wheat (07:37):
Look at it from this perspective.
If you are going to somebody'sevent and they're going to
bring, let's just say a hundredpeople in the room, that is your
ideal audience.
There's some type of jointventure partnership, there's
some type of synergistic pieceswhere it makes sense for you to
go and speak to this list of ahundred people in the room.
(07:58):
especially If you have anopportunity to make an offer,
whether it is a free gift orit's a paid offer, we know that
a percentage of people will sayyes.
Because you are the expert inyour field.
You've already done your marketresearch.
You already know what it is thatthey are showing up with what
the pain is and you know how tosupport them in moving through
(08:20):
it.
It might make sense to go aheadand pay to play for a
sponsorship if they bring ahundred people into the room.
Let's say you make a paid offerof.
$300 for a low level package ofyours for a hundred people, we
would expect probably a 20%conversion rate.
So you're looking at 20 peopletimes$300 package.
(08:41):
You just made$6,000.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (08:43):
Yeah.
And I guess it would depend onif you feel like you're gonna
actually get that speaking gigor not,
Shay Wheat (08:48):
I personally jumped on stages that cost me$7,500 and
I was on a panel Now, granted, Iwas in front of, Probably 500
people of my ideal audience Iwas on a panel with.
four other people and we got tomake a free offer.
I also knew on the backend, whatthat would look like for me.
(09:10):
So it was beneficial if I couldbring on just one client, it
would be well worth thatinvestment for me.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (09:16):
Yeah, that is a key thing when you are
going to speak somewhere findout ahead of time if it's okay
to sell from the stage or if youcan, let people know about where
to contact you.
Shay Wheat (09:26):
Absolutely.
Super important to know all theterms associated with it,
Heather Zeitzwolfe (09:30):
What's phase four?
Shay Wheat (09:31):
Phase four is the scale phase.
Your goal is to scale yourbusiness and your systems.
So when you're in grow, your jobis to start making a consistent
$10,000 a month.
Having more strategy sessions,having more conversations, you
move into phase four.
We're looking to take your salesconversations from a one-on-one
(09:54):
to a one to many model.
where you're really gonna startto take a look at a one-day
enrollment event, a retreat, aworkshop, and you're also
starting to grow your team.
Because you're not gonna be ableto do all the things.
You're not gonna be able to docustomer service.
You're not gonna be able to dofulfillment of your programs.
All by yourself, You need tohave a team that's supporting
(10:16):
you and your clients so that youcan really focus on generating
more leads and filling yourevents and filling your
programs.
So to get to the point whereyou're starting to now make a
consistent like$20,000 a monthbefore you move into phase five.
So you've now built the businessto a place where you realize
your zone of genius isconnecting with the audience and
(10:40):
letting your team handleeverything else.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (10:42):
What is phase five?
What?
What is that about?
Shay Wheat (10:45):
Phase five is really where you are absolutely staying
in your zone of genius, and youneed to just continue to grow
your client base.
you really accomplish this bydelegating to your team and
establishing systems andleveraging things for your time.
Phase four and phase five iswhere you're really looking at
three day sales and enrollmentevents.
(11:06):
Those marketing events where itallows you to go from one-on-one
conversations to one to many.
This is where our clients aremaking, with 50 people in the
room, they're making sixfigures, and with a couple of
hundred people in the room,they're making one$2 million.
these can be extremelyprofitable for your business.
(11:26):
And again, you don't jump thereright away.
You go through the phases inorder to get to this point, but
it's been strategic in yourgrowth that's why we utilize the
events that we have in differentphases.
you build your rapportrelationship, you build your.
Community.
You build your list, you buildyour team, and you start
bringing in the incomeaccordingly to support these
(11:49):
types of events when they'resupposed to happen.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (11:51):
Yeah.
Okay.
A lot of times I hear, coachesthey put on a webinar and a
couple of people show up.
Maybe it's just premature, theythink, oh, no one showed up.
But they're just not in thatright phase yet.
Shay Wheat (12:01):
That, and I think this is a good time to wrap
around with that ticket map.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (12:06):
Okay.
Let's talk about that ticketmap.
Shay Wheat (12:08):
Okay.
One of the great things I loveworking with our clients on is
actually, how the heck are wegonna fill the room?
Now?
We don't just go, okay, great.
I'm gonna have 50 people in theroom.
It's okay, tell me more.
How are we having 50 people inthe room?
I wanna see the numbers.
So what we do is we createwhat's called a ticket map.
And so if your audience were tograb a piece of paper, and let's
(12:31):
just say our goal is 50 people,you're gonna go ahead and draw,
a box, and you're gonna haveabout five different columns.
The first column is going to bethe opportunity or the ticket
source.
The ticket source is all theways that you plan on
interacting with your audienceand giving them an opportunity
to purchase an event ticket fromyou.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (12:53):
Okay.
So it could be like a newslettera social post,
Shay Wheat (12:56):
How webinars.
Sponsorship referrals, speakinggigs, podcasts, joint venture
partner calls, past clients,strategic networking, all the
different ways that you plan oninteracting with your audience
and presenting an opportunityfor them to purchase a ticket
from you.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (13:14):
we want a nice mix of those, don't put all
your eggs in one basket.
Like, Hey, I put it in mynewsletter and nobody signed up.
Shay Wheat (13:20):
I sent an email list to my webinar.
It's that's great.
Only 30 people opened it,
Heather Zeitzwolfe (13:25):
We want a nice mix of those things, and so
I love data and I love trackingthis stuff.
I would wanna do a spreadsheetwhere I could track this and
then each time change the mix ofhow I wanna do this what is
giving me the best result.
Shay Wheat (13:37):
I love my spreadsheets and we do this on a
spreadsheet for our client.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (13:42):
we wanna track to make sure that they
actually come to the event..
So what are all the littlephases in the map in between?
Shay Wheat (13:48):
The second column is going to be your anticipated
number of prospects.
We do this kind of in twophases.
We've got our kind of like ourbudget and then our actuals, so
we're anticipated number ofprospects.
So let's say you send an emailto your list to join you on a
webinar.
We anticipate that 30 peoplewill, show up from the mailing
(14:12):
list, Not say they're gonnacome, but actually show up to
the webinar.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (14:16):
Is that based on data from the past or
is that industry averages, or doyou use a mix of that?
How do you get to thosepercentages?
Shay Wheat (14:24):
So we take a look at what the numbers have been in
the past for our clients, we canutilize that into your ticket
map.
Then also we just know what'shappening in the industry too.
So that second column is.
The anticipated number ofpeople.
The third column is going to bethe anticipated conversion rate
of them being in the room,actually hearing the offer to
(14:46):
pick up a ticket and what isthat percentage that they
actually purchased the ticket.
so the anticipated conversion.
The fourth one is gonna be thatprojected ticket sales, and then
total projected tickets.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (14:58):
when we say purchase, it could be a free
ticket.
Shay Wheat (15:00):
Yeah be aware though, when.
You have free tickets, you haveto sell a lot more because
there's no skin in the game forthem.
When they put money in, thenthey're committing not only with
their time, but with their fundsthat's why we wanna look at all
of these pieces of it.
It's what is the intention?
What is the purpose?
(15:21):
What are we looking to do?
How many people are you wantingto, in the end result, let's say
move into your program and weback out the numbers.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (15:30):
If we're putting on a webinar and our
intention is to sell somebody onlike a much bigger program at
the end of that webinar, westill charge to get into this
webinar, and is there a sweetspot on that price?
If it's like a one hour, 90minute webinar, is it like$47,
$97?
What should people be thinkingabout?
Shay Wheat (15:48):
The more time people spend with you, the higher the
program you can offer, theticket price you can offer.
So if somebody was with you fora three day event, you're gonna
be doing a high ticket offer,you're gonna be doing something
that's 8,000, and I've gotclients up to$20,000
Heather Zeitzwolfe (16:07):
That's the end result
Shay Wheat (16:08):
yes, that's the end result.
That's them being at the eventwith you for three days, getting
them crazy awesome results,whether they do business with
you or not, you must have anevent promise, something that
they can walk away with, thatthey can implement on their own.
And really what they're payingfor is to go quicker and faster
and not fall into all thepitfalls that you possibly fell
(16:29):
into.
If you're doing like a one dayevent you are gonna wanna look
at a low ticket item, somethingthat is about$4,000 or under as
your end product that you'reselling from the event.
Anything below that.
If you're doing 90 minuteMasterclass or a workshop or a
webinar, those are likely goingto be free events that you
(16:52):
offer, like a ticket to your oneday event or a ticket to your
three day event, where then youcan make the larger offers.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (16:59):
You don't necessarily have to charge them
for a webinar or something likethat, okay, so let's get back to
this spreadsheet
Shay Wheat (17:04):
yes
Heather Zeitzwolfe (17:05):
What is the next column that we're talking
about here?
Shay Wheat (17:07):
So that's all the columns that you'll need.
That's all the columns.
So that is the projected number.
For instance, if our goal is 50people, we're now gonna go
through all the ticket sources.
So You'll do, let's say an emaillist to webinar one, email list
to webinar two, email list towebinar three.
Sponsorships, referrals.
(17:27):
Products, speaking gigs, you'lllist out all the ticket sources
and then you fill out each ofthe columns to the point where
your total projected tickets.
That last number is adding'emall up.
First line webinar one.
30 people in the roomanticipated conversion to buy a
ticket's, 10% projected ticketsis three.
(17:48):
Total tickets is three.
Webinar two, we'll use the samenumbers, but now your total
tickets is six because we'veadded three and three, so you do
that for all the rows leading upto it in order to go, Out of all
these opportunities and allthese ticket sources, I've got
60 projected tickets.
And then I wanna add like abringa friend as another
(18:10):
opportunity ticket source.
And we know that they convert atabout 10%.
So now I've got 66 tickets.
Remember, my goal was 50.
Why am I having 66
Heather Zeitzwolfe (18:22):
Because people don't show up.
Shay Wheat (18:24):
Because people don't show up even if they pay$47,$97.
Not everybody's showing.
That's why we essentiallyoversell our goal number and our
ticket map.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (18:35):
Makes complete sense cuz you always
wanna overbook what are somethings that people can put in
place when they're in that phaseone through phase two and a
half?
Strategic wise?
Shay Wheat (18:45):
You still wanna take a look at some form of the
ticket map, even though you'redoing a Facebook Live, maybe
you're doing an email, maybeyou're doing a couple of posts
maybe you are on a couple ofpodcasts that end up.
Going to a lead magnet, and thenin the lead magnet, you're
gaining the lead and then theysee you on Facebook Live and you
(19:05):
invite them via your email, soyou still wanna do some type of
marketing to funnel and channeleverybody to where you're going
to be engaging with themfurther.
you still do a form of it, justnot as crazy in depth, you wanna
make sure that you're not in thesituation where you don't have
anybody joining you live.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (19:25):
When people are putting on maybe these
webinars and all this in thebeginning and they want people
to get into this larger ticketthing, they're gonna have people
that are gonna be like, yeah,take my credit card right here.
And, but then they're gonna havethe people that are like I need
more time with you, or I need tothink about it, When they do
these events, they should havesomething to give the audience,
right?
Some kind of takeaway besidesjust the verbal takeaway.
(19:49):
What would you recommend peopledo to stay in their sphere?
Shay Wheat (19:52):
I always recommend at a bare minimum is having some
type of lead magnet, some typeof c t a, where it is a
downloadable, it's a guide, it'sa spreadsheet where they can put
in their date and it'llautomatically kick out for them
the posts that they're supposedto be making or.
Something that's like superjuicy and they can utilize it
(20:13):
right away.
It gives them the next best stepto move them forward, since
they're then on your list, Thenyou can continue to engage with
them, that's where, you end upsaying an email going, Hey, I'm
going live on Facebook for 45days.
I'm going to be covering thesethings.
If you wanna come and join meand cheer me on because I'm
really super nervous.
(20:33):
Then they'll be like, oh, heckyeah, let's do this.
Heather, come on, I'm with you.
I'll back you up.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (20:38):
Yeah.
Shay Wheat (20:38):
You're starting to create community, and that's
really what you're looking to dois create your little posse of
peeps that you can lock armswith and create a wave of change
together.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (20:49):
Yeah.
And when you have these events,it seems like the ones that are
the most impactful have a lot ofcommunity around it.
Like maybe they might have asupporting Facebook page or like
a follow up call with people.
What are some ways that peoplecan infuse some community or get
people more jazzed about whatyou're selling.
Is there like different thingsthat you can give them?
Shay Wheat (21:10):
love the Facebook group.
We use the Facebook group for anumber of different things for
all of the, like the one dayevents, the three day events
that we intend up doing, theworkshops, the retreats, those
types of things.
But we also will use a Facebookgroup for when we're doing our
master classes and our webinarsjust to start creating the
community in one place.
(21:30):
One, that's one location thatyou can go ahead and market.
That your Facebook live iscoming up or your masterclass is
coming up and two.
You can have people that arejust gonna be interacting with
you when you're not doing any,those particular marketing
things at that moment you canjust be simply asking questions,
engaging questions, still doingmarket research.
(21:51):
You never stop doing marketresearch, especially if you
start hearing people go, whyhave you not taught us about X,
Y, and Z?
And you're like, Ding ding,ding.
I'm now adding that to myprogram, We love the Facebook
groups.
We use Facebook groups for ourevents and if you have team
members, you can introduce yourteam members in it and they
(22:13):
start to know behind the scenes,behind the curtain, what
actually happens in your lifeand in your business, because
most likely your audience youare just a few steps ahead of
them and they want to get towhere you are.
just showing them a peak of whatlife can be like if you continue
to join you and working with youand support, moving in the
(22:35):
direction that they wanna headin.
So we love those Facebookgroups.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (22:39):
That's such a great option.
People are on Facebook, whichmakes it easier to.
Access them and get them tojoin.
This is all very cool.
So let's talk about how peoplecan work with you because, when
it comes to these virtualevents, you see people doing'em
all the time, and some of themare like, they have a real wow
factor.
Like you're just like, oh myGod.
Because they have the help ofyou, Shea, because you will
(23:02):
bring that sizzle to it thatmaybe the average Joe doesn't
know how to do.
So tell us how people can workwith you and what are the
services that you provide?
Shay Wheat (23:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
So we end up handling all of theplanning speaker, sponsor
support, as well as theproduction for virtual live, as
well as in-person events tocreate that experiential.
Revenue generating and excitingevents for your attendees.
We'll look at it from theperspective of, what's happening
(23:34):
with your audience?
What's happening with yourticket sales?
What is your run of show?
What does your agenda look like?
What is your offer strategy?
Who's on your support team?
What is the budget?
What are the numbers?
Cuz I We look at everything andwe walk you through the process.
So really your job is to showup, find the people, get'em
crazy, awesome results, and wework with your team to make
(23:57):
everything behind the sceneswork pretty seamlessly and done
with as much grace and ease aspossible.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (24:03):
Shay, thank you so much for being on the
podcast today.
Shay Wheat (24:06):
Thank you so much.
It's been an honor.
Are you using events as part of your
business strategy?
Today on the show, we aretalking with Shay wheat.
Who is a certified eventproducer.
And we discuss.
How to leverage events to driveprofits in your business.
(00:25):
Hey there.
This is Heather's eighth Wolfand you are listening to get
radical with your business.
I love today's topic.
It is all around events.
I love planning events.
There's so much fun.
I love having a party.
Well, we can have a party in ourbusiness by having events on a
regular basis.
(00:46):
It's a great way to get peopleto know who we are getting into
our world and have a little bitof a flavor Of how we do
business.
You want to check out my flavor.
please check out my events on,get read biz.com forward slash
events.
That's with an S get readbiz.com forward slash events.
(01:07):
And I've got a whole bunch offree events coming up.
Along with some group programsand workshops and all kinds of
great stuff there.
So be sure to check that out andnow we're going to go into our
topic for today.
Events.
All right.
Shea is a certified eventproducer.
(01:30):
She's also the c e O of Graceand Ease Productions Inc.
And through her company, shehelps her clients create.
Powerful and profitable events.
Shay.
welcome to the podcast.
Shay Wheat (01:44):
Oh, I'm so excited to be here.
I can tell we're gonna have somuch fun.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (01:48):
Yes, I love putting on events.
There's all these moving parts.
I used to be a project manager,I love all the things that you
gotta like plan and when peoplethink of events, they probably
think of a bunch of things itcould be like putting on a
wedding, it could be putting ona conference.
It could be a training foremployees, but your focus is,
(02:09):
I'm gonna call it more like amarketing type of event.
How would you describe the typeof events that you put on?
Shay Wheat (02:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
So our events are actually apart of our client's business
strategy.
So what happens is there'sactually phases of event
leverage, and depending on whatyou're at in business, you are
going to be doing differenttypes of events.
Heather, There's 17 differenttypes of events that people can
(02:37):
be doing in their business rightnow, whether they're, starting
out and they're newer to been inbusiness for a long time and
making six and seven figures,different types of events you
use at different parts of yourbusiness.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (02:50):
You mentioned one, when do you know
when you're ready for an event?
And two, what types of events.
So let's break these down.
You mentioned 17.
And are these virtual eventsthat we're talking about,
Shay Wheat (03:00):
They can be.
They can be either virtual orthey can be in person.
So you can do a 90 minuteworkshop.
That can be either, you can do asummit, you can do a retreat,
masterminds one day sales andenrollment events, three day
sales and enrollment events,seminars, meetups.
Back in the day, we were doing alot of meetups before, pandemic
(03:21):
you may not realize this, butFacebook lives, Instagram lives
are also events.
You've got your conferences,your challenges hackathons,
conventions, trade shows.
I'm sure there's probably morethat your audience has
experienced, those are the onesthat are top of mind for me.
for a lot of my six and sevenfigure clients that are
utilizing events as a part oftheir business strategy, I.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (03:43):
When business owners are starting
out, maybe their list isn't asbig they're gonna probably
leverage things like InstagramLives or Facebook Lives.
If they really wanna do itcorrectly, it seems like they
have to treat it as an eventthey need to have strategies
behind it.
Shay Wheat (04:00):
Yeah, let's start with your Facebook lives, your
Instagrams, these are all freeplatforms.
And when you're really usingthese pretty heavily is phase
two of event leverage.
The reason being is you arelooking for visibility.
Your goal in phase two is togain visibility.
You can also do this by being aguest on other people's stages.
(04:24):
So you are on other people'swebinars, podcasts, seminars.
And then a third way to reallygain visibility in phase two is
being a sponsor at event.
you are going to somebody else'sevent and you are speaking on
their stage to an audience thatis the same audience as yours.
That's what you wanna be doingwhen you are gaining visibility.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (04:47):
Let's back up to phase one.
what would phase one look like?
you're just starting out yourbusiness and you don't have much
of a following,
Shay Wheat (04:52):
yeah.
Phase one is the validationphase.
Your primary goal is to get.
Clients and get them crazyawesome results.
The way that you do that is youstart out with market research.
You wanna make sure that you canactually validate your offer.
You wanna modify your offerbased on what it is that you're
learning, and then you wannamake more offers.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (05:14):
Phase one is you're starting your business,
you're getting your clientele,and maybe you're starting to
build your list at that point,right?
Then you go into phase two andnow we can start utilizing these
things.
Shay Wheat (05:23):
Yeah, so you move into phase two you're gaining
more leads, you're increasingyour visibility, you're making
some offers, right?
Anytime you do an event, youmake some type of offer.
So in order to move from phasetwo to phase three, you are
wanting to.
Gain more leads.
You're wanting to book morestrategy sessions, have more
(05:45):
conversations, make more offersuntil you reach about$5,000 a
month consistently.
Then you can move into phasethree, so you just kinda rinse
and repeat all the visibilitypieces in phase two to move to
phase three, which probablymakes sense now that why in
phase one we validate.
That our offer is actuallysomething that people need,
(06:07):
want, and require.
In the validation phase, part ofyour market research is you
literally ask them thequestions, what is the thing
that keeps you awake at night soyou can utilize these questions
to ask your potential clientswhat it is they want, and then
literally create a program, apackage, and turn around and go,
(06:28):
here, I listen to what you said.
Here's what I've come up with.
Would you want to move forward?
And you use their words in yourmarketing.
It's so common sense that Idon't think people actually
realize that it works.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (06:41):
actually, I have a group program right now
where I'm having everyone in thegroup do, informational
interviews and they record themto get the answers in the words
of their target market, so thatthey know, how they speak about
these things
Shay Wheat (06:53):
oh my God.
I'm so glad you're teachingthat.
Not everybody teaches that.
That's phenomenal.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (06:57):
What type of marketing type events are we
doing in phase three?
Shay Wheat (07:00):
phase three is the grow phase.
And so what we're doing is we'recontinuing to grow your list and
increase your visibility bycreating your own stages.
Where you're gonna wanna startdoing like your masterclass and
your webinars and your summits.
You can take a look at somechallenges as well.
There's a lot more logisticsbehind some of the challenges,
(07:23):
but you wanna start looking atcreating your own events.
And continue to obtain thoselarger speaker sponsorship
opportunities.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (07:31):
Some of these organizations, make you
pay a fee to apply, to speak.
What are your thoughts on pay toplay
Shay Wheat (07:37):
Look at it from this perspective.
If you are going to somebody'sevent and they're going to
bring, let's just say a hundredpeople in the room, that is your
ideal audience.
There's some type of jointventure partnership, there's
some type of synergistic pieceswhere it makes sense for you to
go and speak to this list of ahundred people in the room.
(07:58):
especially If you have anopportunity to make an offer,
whether it is a free gift orit's a paid offer, we know that
a percentage of people will sayyes.
Because you are the expert inyour field.
You've already done your marketresearch.
You already know what it is thatthey are showing up with what
the pain is and you know how tosupport them in moving through
(08:20):
it.
It might make sense to go aheadand pay to play for a
sponsorship if they bring ahundred people into the room.
Let's say you make a paid offerof.
$300 for a low level package ofyours for a hundred people, we
would expect probably a 20%conversion rate.
So you're looking at 20 peopletimes$300 package.
(08:41):
You just made$6,000.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (08:43):
Yeah.
And I guess it would depend onif you feel like you're gonna
actually get that speaking gigor not,
Shay Wheat (08:48):
I personally jumped on stages that cost me$7,500 and
I was on a panel Now, granted, Iwas in front of, Probably 500
people of my ideal audience Iwas on a panel with.
four other people and we got tomake a free offer.
I also knew on the backend, whatthat would look like for me.
(09:10):
So it was beneficial if I couldbring on just one client, it
would be well worth thatinvestment for me.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (09:16):
Yeah, that is a key thing when you are
going to speak somewhere findout ahead of time if it's okay
to sell from the stage or if youcan, let people know about where
to contact you.
Shay Wheat (09:26):
Absolutely.
Super important to know all theterms associated with it,
Heather Zeitzwolfe (09:30):
What's phase four?
Shay Wheat (09:31):
Phase four is the scale phase.
Your goal is to scale yourbusiness and your systems.
So when you're in grow, your jobis to start making a consistent
$10,000 a month.
Having more strategy sessions,having more conversations, you
move into phase four.
We're looking to take your salesconversations from a one-on-one
(09:54):
to a one to many model.
where you're really gonna startto take a look at a one-day
enrollment event, a retreat, aworkshop, and you're also
starting to grow your team.
Because you're not gonna be ableto do all the things.
You're not gonna be able to docustomer service.
You're not gonna be able to dofulfillment of your programs.
All by yourself, You need tohave a team that's supporting
(10:16):
you and your clients so that youcan really focus on generating
more leads and filling yourevents and filling your
programs.
So to get to the point whereyou're starting to now make a
consistent like$20,000 a monthbefore you move into phase five.
So you've now built the businessto a place where you realize
your zone of genius isconnecting with the audience and
(10:40):
letting your team handleeverything else.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (10:42):
What is phase five?
What?
What is that about?
Shay Wheat (10:45):
Phase five is really where you are absolutely staying
in your zone of genius, and youneed to just continue to grow
your client base.
you really accomplish this bydelegating to your team and
establishing systems andleveraging things for your time.
Phase four and phase five iswhere you're really looking at
three day sales and enrollmentevents.
(11:06):
Those marketing events where itallows you to go from one-on-one
conversations to one to many.
This is where our clients aremaking, with 50 people in the
room, they're making sixfigures, and with a couple of
hundred people in the room,they're making one$2 million.
these can be extremelyprofitable for your business.
(11:26):
And again, you don't jump thereright away.
You go through the phases inorder to get to this point, but
it's been strategic in yourgrowth that's why we utilize the
events that we have in differentphases.
you build your rapportrelationship, you build your.
Community.
You build your list, you buildyour team, and you start
bringing in the incomeaccordingly to support these
(11:49):
types of events when they'resupposed to happen.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (11:51):
Yeah.
Okay.
A lot of times I hear, coachesthey put on a webinar and a
couple of people show up.
Maybe it's just premature, theythink, oh, no one showed up.
But they're just not in thatright phase yet.
Shay Wheat (12:01):
That, and I think this is a good time to wrap
around with that ticket map.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (12:06):
Okay.
Let's talk about that ticketmap.
Shay Wheat (12:08):
Okay.
One of the great things I loveworking with our clients on is
actually, how the heck are wegonna fill the room?
Now?
We don't just go, okay, great.
I'm gonna have 50 people in theroom.
It's okay, tell me more.
How are we having 50 people inthe room?
I wanna see the numbers.
So what we do is we createwhat's called a ticket map.
And so if your audience were tograb a piece of paper, and let's
(12:31):
just say our goal is 50 people,you're gonna go ahead and draw,
a box, and you're gonna haveabout five different columns.
The first column is going to bethe opportunity or the ticket
source.
The ticket source is all theways that you plan on
interacting with your audienceand giving them an opportunity
to purchase an event ticket fromyou.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (12:53):
Okay.
So it could be like a newslettera social post,
Shay Wheat (12:56):
How webinars.
Sponsorship referrals, speakinggigs, podcasts, joint venture
partner calls, past clients,strategic networking, all the
different ways that you plan oninteracting with your audience
and presenting an opportunityfor them to purchase a ticket
from you.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (13:14):
we want a nice mix of those, don't put all
your eggs in one basket.
Like, Hey, I put it in mynewsletter and nobody signed up.
Shay Wheat (13:20):
I sent an email list to my webinar.
It's that's great.
Only 30 people opened it,
Heather Zeitzwolfe (13:25):
We want a nice mix of those things, and so
I love data and I love trackingthis stuff.
I would wanna do a spreadsheetwhere I could track this and
then each time change the mix ofhow I wanna do this what is
giving me the best result.
Shay Wheat (13:37):
I love my spreadsheets and we do this on a
spreadsheet for our client.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (13:42):
we wanna track to make sure that they
actually come to the event..
So what are all the littlephases in the map in between?
Shay Wheat (13:48):
The second column is going to be your anticipated
number of prospects.
We do this kind of in twophases.
We've got our kind of like ourbudget and then our actuals, so
we're anticipated number ofprospects.
So let's say you send an emailto your list to join you on a
webinar.
We anticipate that 30 peoplewill, show up from the mailing
(14:12):
list, Not say they're gonnacome, but actually show up to
the webinar.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (14:16):
Is that based on data from the past or
is that industry averages, or doyou use a mix of that?
How do you get to thosepercentages?
Shay Wheat (14:24):
So we take a look at what the numbers have been in
the past for our clients, we canutilize that into your ticket
map.
Then also we just know what'shappening in the industry too.
So that second column is.
The anticipated number ofpeople.
The third column is going to bethe anticipated conversion rate
of them being in the room,actually hearing the offer to
(14:46):
pick up a ticket and what isthat percentage that they
actually purchased the ticket.
so the anticipated conversion.
The fourth one is gonna be thatprojected ticket sales, and then
total projected tickets.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (14:58):
when we say purchase, it could be a free
ticket.
Shay Wheat (15:00):
Yeah be aware though, when.
You have free tickets, you haveto sell a lot more because
there's no skin in the game forthem.
When they put money in, thenthey're committing not only with
their time, but with their fundsthat's why we wanna look at all
of these pieces of it.
It's what is the intention?
What is the purpose?
(15:21):
What are we looking to do?
How many people are you wantingto, in the end result, let's say
move into your program and weback out the numbers.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (15:30):
If we're putting on a webinar and our
intention is to sell somebody onlike a much bigger program at
the end of that webinar, westill charge to get into this
webinar, and is there a sweetspot on that price?
If it's like a one hour, 90minute webinar, is it like$47,
$97?
What should people be thinkingabout?
Shay Wheat (15:48):
The more time people spend with you, the higher the
program you can offer, theticket price you can offer.
So if somebody was with you fora three day event, you're gonna
be doing a high ticket offer,you're gonna be doing something
that's 8,000, and I've gotclients up to$20,000
Heather Zeitzwolfe (16:07):
That's the end result
Shay Wheat (16:08):
yes, that's the end result.
That's them being at the eventwith you for three days, getting
them crazy awesome results,whether they do business with
you or not, you must have anevent promise, something that
they can walk away with, thatthey can implement on their own.
And really what they're payingfor is to go quicker and faster
and not fall into all thepitfalls that you possibly fell
(16:29):
into.
If you're doing like a one dayevent you are gonna wanna look
at a low ticket item, somethingthat is about$4,000 or under as
your end product that you'reselling from the event.
Anything below that.
If you're doing 90 minuteMasterclass or a workshop or a
webinar, those are likely goingto be free events that you
(16:52):
offer, like a ticket to your oneday event or a ticket to your
three day event, where then youcan make the larger offers.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (16:59):
You don't necessarily have to charge them
for a webinar or something likethat, okay, so let's get back to
this spreadsheet
Shay Wheat (17:04):
yes
Heather Zeitzwolfe (17:05):
What is the next column that we're talking
about here?
Shay Wheat (17:07):
So that's all the columns that you'll need.
That's all the columns.
So that is the projected number.
For instance, if our goal is 50people, we're now gonna go
through all the ticket sources.
So You'll do, let's say an emaillist to webinar one, email list
to webinar two, email list towebinar three.
Sponsorships, referrals.
(17:27):
Products, speaking gigs, you'lllist out all the ticket sources
and then you fill out each ofthe columns to the point where
your total projected tickets.
That last number is adding'emall up.
First line webinar one.
30 people in the roomanticipated conversion to buy a
ticket's, 10% projected ticketsis three.
(17:48):
Total tickets is three.
Webinar two, we'll use the samenumbers, but now your total
tickets is six because we'veadded three and three, so you do
that for all the rows leading upto it in order to go, Out of all
these opportunities and allthese ticket sources, I've got
60 projected tickets.
And then I wanna add like abringa friend as another
(18:10):
opportunity ticket source.
And we know that they convert atabout 10%.
So now I've got 66 tickets.
Remember, my goal was 50.
Why am I having 66
Heather Zeitzwolfe (18:22):
Because people don't show up.
Shay Wheat (18:24):
Because people don't show up even if they pay$47,$97.
Not everybody's showing.
That's why we essentiallyoversell our goal number and our
ticket map.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (18:35):
Makes complete sense cuz you always
wanna overbook what are somethings that people can put in
place when they're in that phaseone through phase two and a
half?
Strategic wise?
Shay Wheat (18:45):
You still wanna take a look at some form of the
ticket map, even though you'redoing a Facebook Live, maybe
you're doing an email, maybeyou're doing a couple of posts
maybe you are on a couple ofpodcasts that end up.
Going to a lead magnet, and thenin the lead magnet, you're
gaining the lead and then theysee you on Facebook Live and you
(19:05):
invite them via your email, soyou still wanna do some type of
marketing to funnel and channeleverybody to where you're going
to be engaging with themfurther.
you still do a form of it, justnot as crazy in depth, you wanna
make sure that you're not in thesituation where you don't have
anybody joining you live.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (19:25):
When people are putting on maybe these
webinars and all this in thebeginning and they want people
to get into this larger ticketthing, they're gonna have people
that are gonna be like, yeah,take my credit card right here.
And, but then they're gonna havethe people that are like I need
more time with you, or I need tothink about it, When they do
these events, they should havesomething to give the audience,
right?
Some kind of takeaway besidesjust the verbal takeaway.
(19:49):
What would you recommend peopledo to stay in their sphere?
Shay Wheat (19:52):
I always recommend at a bare minimum is having some
type of lead magnet, some typeof c t a, where it is a
downloadable, it's a guide, it'sa spreadsheet where they can put
in their date and it'llautomatically kick out for them
the posts that they're supposedto be making or.
Something that's like superjuicy and they can utilize it
(20:13):
right away.
It gives them the next best stepto move them forward, since
they're then on your list, Thenyou can continue to engage with
them, that's where, you end upsaying an email going, Hey, I'm
going live on Facebook for 45days.
I'm going to be covering thesethings.
If you wanna come and join meand cheer me on because I'm
really super nervous.
(20:33):
Then they'll be like, oh, heckyeah, let's do this.
Heather, come on, I'm with you.
I'll back you up.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (20:38):
Yeah.
Shay Wheat (20:38):
You're starting to create community, and that's
really what you're looking to dois create your little posse of
peeps that you can lock armswith and create a wave of change
together.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (20:49):
Yeah.
And when you have these events,it seems like the ones that are
the most impactful have a lot ofcommunity around it.
Like maybe they might have asupporting Facebook page or like
a follow up call with people.
What are some ways that peoplecan infuse some community or get
people more jazzed about whatyou're selling.
Is there like different thingsthat you can give them?
Shay Wheat (21:10):
love the Facebook group.
We use the Facebook group for anumber of different things for
all of the, like the one dayevents, the three day events
that we intend up doing, theworkshops, the retreats, those
types of things.
But we also will use a Facebookgroup for when we're doing our
master classes and our webinarsjust to start creating the
community in one place.
(21:30):
One, that's one location thatyou can go ahead and market.
That your Facebook live iscoming up or your masterclass is
coming up and two.
You can have people that arejust gonna be interacting with
you when you're not doing any,those particular marketing
things at that moment you canjust be simply asking questions,
engaging questions, still doingmarket research.
(21:51):
You never stop doing marketresearch, especially if you
start hearing people go, whyhave you not taught us about X,
Y, and Z?
And you're like, Ding ding,ding.
I'm now adding that to myprogram, We love the Facebook
groups.
We use Facebook groups for ourevents and if you have team
members, you can introduce yourteam members in it and they
(22:13):
start to know behind the scenes,behind the curtain, what
actually happens in your lifeand in your business, because
most likely your audience youare just a few steps ahead of
them and they want to get towhere you are.
just showing them a peak of whatlife can be like if you continue
to join you and working with youand support, moving in the
(22:35):
direction that they wanna headin.
So we love those Facebookgroups.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (22:39):
That's such a great option.
People are on Facebook, whichmakes it easier to.
Access them and get them tojoin.
This is all very cool.
So let's talk about how peoplecan work with you because, when
it comes to these virtualevents, you see people doing'em
all the time, and some of themare like, they have a real wow
factor.
Like you're just like, oh myGod.
Because they have the help ofyou, Shea, because you will
(23:02):
bring that sizzle to it thatmaybe the average Joe doesn't
know how to do.
So tell us how people can workwith you and what are the
services that you provide?
Shay Wheat (23:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
So we end up handling all of theplanning speaker, sponsor
support, as well as theproduction for virtual live, as
well as in-person events tocreate that experiential.
Revenue generating and excitingevents for your attendees.
We'll look at it from theperspective of, what's happening
(23:34):
with your audience?
What's happening with yourticket sales?
What is your run of show?
What does your agenda look like?
What is your offer strategy?
Who's on your support team?
What is the budget?
What are the numbers?
Cuz I We look at everything andwe walk you through the process.
So really your job is to showup, find the people, get'em
crazy, awesome results, and wework with your team to make
(23:57):
everything behind the sceneswork pretty seamlessly and done
with as much grace and ease aspossible.
Heather Zeitzwolfe (24:03):
Shay, thank you so much for being on the
podcast today.
Shay Wheat (24:06):
Thank you so much.
It's been an honor.
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