Hey, hey, welcome to the Summit Host Hangout Podcast where you'll learn how to host a high converting virtual summit that leads to your biggest signature offer launch yet. I'm your host, Krista from Summit in a Box. And today in Episode 193, I am excited to bring in a brilliant business owner I have had the pleasure of working with in the Launch with a Summit Accelerator. And I just had to share this guest story with you because so often I see people who work with specific audiences who come into the summit hosting process, just sure that their audience won't pay for an all-access pass or won't allow them to host a successful event for one reason or another. And teachers are one of those audiences that I always hear brought up the most, and that's exactly who the summit we're gonna hear about today was for. So to give you some background information on our guest, he's a full time elementary music teacher and the founder of That Music Teacher, an online business providing professional development content for elementary music teachers, which empowers them to create high quality musical experiences for their students. He's the host of That Music Podcast and the educator behind the Elementary Music Summit, which we get to hear about today. So without further ado, let's dive in and talk with Bryson Tarbet from That Music Teacher, welcome, Bryson.
Hello, thank you so much for having me. I cannot wait to dive into this journey. Because it's been just that quite the journey to get from I'm going to start the summit to where we are now. So I can't wait to talk about it.
Oh, it's gonna be so good. And that's the part I always have to hear is that journey exactly like you said, and hearing about the journey is so like inspirational for people getting ready to host the summit. So let's dive into it. Before we get to the summit stuff. Tell us a little bit about you and your business, anything you think we should know up front.
For sure. Like you said, my name is Bryson, I'm a full time elementary music teacher. I literally just got home from school a couple hours ago. And I also am the entrepreneur behind That Music Teacher. That Music Teacher started completely by accident, and it's just kind of snowballed into what it is today. But it all started when I realized that elementary music teachers rarely go into school at the elementary level, knowing what they want to do, or knowing what to do. A lot of our licensures go from pre K through 12th grade general music, band, choir, orchestra. So obviously, when you have that many things you're licensed to teach in undergrad, you're going to miss out on some things. So what I do at That Music Teacher is creating a lot of trainings and resources to help those that want to teach at the elementary level feel like they actually know what to do to create meaningful lessons. And when I really started thinking about how to best serve people, I ended up doing some courses, some Teachers Pay Teachers resources, and most recently, the Elementary Music Summit.
Heck, yes. Oh my gosh, I love it. Okay, so what made you decide it was time to host the summit?
I have wanted to do something like this for years. I've been following you in the podcast, I've been just kind of toying around with the idea of like creating this like mini little mini workshop kind of thing. And one night, I just decided to do it. I decided to like it was like the clouds, you know, the stars had aligned. Like, I was just thinking like, yeah, I want to do this, and you had just started the Accelerator. And you were just talking about it and I'm like, Hmm, this might be a sign. So it was a little scary, but I dove in and I decided, you know what, I'm going to create this event for elementary music teachers to get the content specific professional development they need to have the best school year yet. And it has been such an amazing process. And I cannot wait to see it iterate year after year.
Oh my gosh, yes. And I'm I was thinking back to our discussions before you join the Accelerator, too. And I remember I had this big document of like the questions and hesitations you had. And I was like making notes because I saw the potential of this event, and I knew it was going to be incredible, and I just had to make sure you saw it too. And it was like a journey. So what were some of your biggest hesitations before you did decide to make that move work with us and like go all in on that first summit?
I mean, there was definitely the part of you know, I'm a full time teacher, I also teach piano lessons, like I'm busy. And I was like, well, how am I going to actually make this happen? So you know, when we started having our conversations, you started talking about, you know, like, hey, we kind of give you the roadmap. We do a lot of the legwork for you, we tell you what to do, basically when and that is a lot of just kind of implementation and stuff like that. And that really helped. That really helped me get things. But when it came down to creating the summit, I was really worried about my teacher audience, because teachers we have the relationship that teachers have with money is really strange, because you know, teachers are historically underpaid. And then we also feel like, you know, teachers, we should be helping each other. So I was really, really how is it going to be perceived when I create this event that is going to make me money, how is that going to be perceived by other teachers? You know, were people going to think that I was being greedy or that I was being a sellout? And that was kind of a huge mindset block that I had to battle the entire process even like through the entire summit, even to like a week ago like just kind of battling that mindset of realizing that, by allowing this event to change my business, essentially it is going to allow me to create more impact. And that's something that I keep trying to focus myself in on.
Yes. Oh my gosh, I love that. So now do you feel more comfortable with the idea about charging now that you've gotten, like a peek at what that impact looks like?
Oh, 100% I mean, I've definitely gone through a lot of an analyzing my relationship with money personally, but also with, you know, how teachers can spend money and how to offer an opportunity where teachers don't necessarily have to spend money and they still get served. And that was, that was something that I really loved about the the Accelerator model was, you know, you can go to this for free, like, and you will get all the sessions. And like that really was so in alignment with me, because, again, teachers are historically underpaid and underappreciated, and I didn't want to perpetuate that. So I really love that, you know, if someone was able to, to join us live, or even during the replay period, they were still able to get the full access without paying anything.
I love that. And I remember like, you providing that value was so important to you through through that portion, and like other areas of your summit, as well. And I love that. I love how value driven you were, and how focused you were on giving your audience a great experience, because like that comes back and pays you back tenfold. And it gives people such a great introduction to you and who you are. And it's just kind of like make them want to continue supporting you as you move forward. So I love that you focused on that. Are there any other things you did throughout your summit that you felt like were decisions you made specifically based on your values and wanting to deliver that value to them?
So actually, it was, it was maybe a month or so before my summit happened. Or before things started, I can't remember the exact timeline, but I was a speaker at someone else's summit. And it was it left a really sour taste in my mouth. I didn't get paid, I didn't get commissions, it was they were charging for the ticket. At one point like the one of the people were getting snippy with me because I didn't go over, you know, because time was weird. And it was just like it left a really sour taste in my mouth. And I knew that I wanted to create an opportunity for not only my, my attendees to be well served, but I wanted to make this event worthwhile to the other educators because my speakers were other most of them full time music educators that also do similar things to what I do. And I wanted to make it worth their while, but also allow them to feel like this is a community and not like, hey, I'm gonna do this thing. And you're gonna do it for me because I said so. And that is something that I, we can talk, maybe talk a little bit later talking about, you know, the end of it, but being able to send affiliate payments to these speakers, and impact not only their business, but their families and their classrooms was something that was truly beneficial to me and like making my heart so full.
I love that. I love you loving on your speakers too, because that's again, something that when you love on them, like they're gonna want to support you now, like moving forward, because you gave them that great experience. When you like, pressure your speakers like like you were saying, you have a bad taste in your mouth from that other summit you are a part of you're probably not gonna want to collaborate with that person again. Where you just went and had, I don't remember exactly how many speakers you have. But you have what 15-20 Like really great connections now, because of that positive experience you created. So I definitely want to circle back and talk some more about that. Before we talk about like, I mean, we've been hinting that it went fairly well, before we get into like, how did it all turn out and stuff? I want to hear a little bit more about how you balanced it because you told us you worked full time. I know you got sick. During this period, you had a lot of stuff going on. Did you have anything that helped you balance the summit and work and life in any specific way?
Yeah, so there was definitely a lot going on in my life this past summer. So I was hosting the summit. And for whatever reason I decided to host the summit, the week after I had just finished 10 graduate credits in three weeks. I don't recommend doing that. But hey, we made it. And I have a master's degree now, which is fun. But honestly, during during that three weeks, I got COVID So I was completely out of commission. And honestly I'm kind of glad, because I was at a commission and thankfully I did a lot of the legwork like creating the pages and things like that. But the actual event because I got sick I hired a virtual assistant who was my absolute, like lifeline during the summit. We've worked with her in the past and I'm just so glad that I was able to you know, for whatever reason, bring her on. And so that when the event happened, I wasn't completely running around like a chicken with his head cut off. So that was a huge thing I recommend and I know that you said it. And I was like no, I can do it. I can have it No. Just like having someone there even like, during the sessions, so that I could be during the session because I did mine live. But I, you know, she was in the inbox, I just I'm like, Alright, I'm gonna turn this off, you let me know if I if I need to do anything. And that was such a huge help and just making it all happen.
Yeah, what else did you do outsource anything else specific that was super helpful other than the inbox?
She did a couple of the copy things, she would like processed the recordings and put them into the website. So she did a lot of the administrative stuff during the summit itself so that I could focus on hosting it. But because I was so sick, and I also teach lessons, I actually the first day of the summit, I had to leave and go teach because I had to cancel the past two weeks. So that was really stressful. But thankfully, I knew her, she was able to host the sessions and things went super smoothly. But yes, I definitely recommend having someone to help you, even if it's just a couple of hours here or there, even if it's just like a partner or something like have someone there to help you or like sometimes to talk you off a cliff when things get a little crazy.
Yes. Oh my goodness, I totally agree with that. And like I just realized I didn't ask you any details on your event. So will you tell us a little bit about it, who it was for what it was about? Maybe tell us a little bit about the format. You mentioned it was live. And then we'll dive right into how?
Yeah, so the Elementary Music Summit is was a three day event for elementary music teachers. There's a lot of PD out there that for music teachers, but the elementary music teachers often get kind of whatever's left. So this was super content specific professional development for elementary music teachers. And again, most of my speakers were other elementary music teacher. Some of them were you know, weren't necessarily elementary music teachers, but they were in the music space. And it was just it was wonderful. We did all of our live sessions live, because I'm huge believer on the live session. I will say the live sessions add a whole other cacophony of stuff. But the amount of energy in the chat boxes in the question answer was magical. And I definitely will keep doing it live. But I will definitely be clarifying some procedures to make things go a little bit easier, so that it's not super hectic with with that live schedule going on.
Do you have like your number one top tip you would give to someone doing it live?
Definitely give time between sessions? I did not do that. And we quickly learned that that was probably not a great idea.
That is a great tip. Okay, so tell us how it went. Like based on the goals you had coming into the process? How do you feel like it all went and tell us as much as you're comfortable sharing.
It's kind of funny thinking about this, but like my goal like so I said, like you said, I set like a good, better best goal. My like goal was 500 people signing up, that was kind of my like, hey, if this happens, I'll be happy. I wanted 500 music teachers to get the content that they needed to have a successful year, we ended the summit with 2200 over 2200 attendees, which completely blew my mind, I knew that there was a need for this PD, I didn't think that I would be the one to do it. Even though, even as I'm doing this, I didn't I never even it never even crossed my mind that I'd be the one to make this type of impact. I over doubled my email list. I made about half of my teacher salary in essentially three days. Obviously, there's more to that than that. But like, it was magical. Like honestly, this has changed my business. And I cannot wait to see how further iterations of the elementary music summit continue to change my business and to also to continue to impact not only the classrooms or the attendees, but those speakers as well.
Yeah, in that you mentioned, like, you knew this kind of PD was needed, you just didn't know you would be the one to do it. And I feel like you put it out there. And they were like, Oh my gosh, yes. Like, they like jumped on it, like, needed. It's so so so needed. And the fact that you like found that whole in the industry, you're in and filled it with this incredible event, like you like set a new precedent for your industry, I think and it's just it's going to keep getting better and better. Because now that's 2200 People that know about your events already next time. And it's just going to be wonderful. So I'm so excited to see you continue with it. I know you even landed some sponsors for your first time event. And I always see people say you were make little comments about oh, I'm not going to try for sponsors. This time. It's my first summit, or even telling people don't try even for sponsors until you've hosted a summit and have some numbers. Tell us a little bit about that.
Honestly, I don't even remember when I start like when I made the decision to do this. It just it's just happened you know, I went through the your like Aligned Sponsor training and I just kind of went for it and was confident and decided to try it. And I reached out to five companies, five businesses. I had a meeting once with three and I actually signed two. And one of them was a company that I've worked for or she's another music teacher she has like her own little like Etsy store but like, even bigger than that. But then one of them was a tech company for basically lesson management software that I had no relationship with. I pitch them and I'm like, hey, I don't know how many people are coming. But like, I had all these numbers about like, hey, you know, we these are who our audience is, this is how many people teach private lessons this, that, and the other thing, and even those people that I don't know, I share this in the slack. But like, even those companies and people that said no, we're like, this was an amazing pitch. Like this, like the amount of information you know about your audience is not what we see normally. So I'm really excited to be able to take the information I have from this summit, and use it to pitch the same sponsors, but also more sponsors to help make you know, I can get a little bit money coming in as I'm planning it, rather than all at the end or, you know, during the summit itself. Yeah,
I'm sure that like, just relieves some pressure right off the bat, in your planning to not have to wait till you open registration to start collecting some money for this thing you're working your butt off for.
For sure. I mean, essentially, my my sponsors paid for my Kajabi for the year, the plus them, which is like, one of you know, as an online business, that's one of my major expenses. So like, that was a huge eye opener, the Hey, this is this is something like whether or not like, it actually works. These two companies, they think I will, so let's see what happens.
Yeah, that's a huge confidence boost. When people are willing to give you a pile of money for something that hasn't happened yet, like that is always a good sign. Okay, so thank you for sharing those details about your Summit. Again, congratulations. And like, you gave us enough information to know that, like, people were buying people bought your all-access pass. Do you think there were any specific like, pieces to key in on that made you successful for that more budget conscious audience? Like what do you think made them willing to invest in in what you were offering?
Yeah, so I know that you know, that we kind of went back and forth on the All Access Pass, I had some I had some thoughts. And I was really, really worried about about the pricing and about charging at all, honestly. But I ended up having 417 people join with the All Access Pass, which is way more than I ever would have thought. But I felt good about it. And that's what I what I liked about it, you know, I never pretended that they could get all these bonuses, if they didn't get it. You know, that's one thing within the All Access Pass, having those bonuses, and my speakers submitted really cool bonuses. So like, I was able to be able to talk about them authentically. And be like, hey, I really am excited to use this in my classroom, I would love for you to be able to use your classroom. But then even like during the calls and things like that, I was perfectly clear. I'm like, hey, if you want to join this, and get the PD for free, I support that. But if you want extended access, if you want these bonuses, then you can upgrade to the All Access Pass. And I think by being super clear about it by being making it known that before every session, we talked about that how long they would have access to the replay. And then if they wanted to upgrade, they could get the access pass. And I'll be honest, my VA will tell you this, I was freaking out on the morning after the first videos expired. Because I thought I would have people trying to burst the door down saying Where am I free videos? I had one email. And they were just asking how do I upgrade like they weren't like I'm just I'm baffled. Like I honestly, I was like prepare, like, hey, we need to prepare, like people are gonna get feisty. But I think that I put so much preparation in making it very clear, but also making it high value, that it wasn't a surprise to them. If it was important to them, then and again, if it wasn't, that's fine. But if they really wanted to make it important, they could attend it for free. And that's something that I really latched on to. And again, I felt good about selling, which is something I'm trying to do more of, especially with my values leading with those values.
Yeah, and I mean, I think the fact that you believed in the access pass you were selling and the true value, you were offering those people, it makes it easy to be able to sell it without feeling gross. And I think like if it was normal, I'm saying an air quotes a "normal" all access pass model where it's just these replays. And you're basically pressuring them to get the replays by saying, Hey, you're not gonna have time to watch everything, give me money, like for the replays. And that's your biggest selling point. That's not going to feel great. But when you had this beefed up offer like you did with these resources that are super related to the summit and your audience and what they came for. That makes it fun to talk about. They want like they want that and the fact that you were able to lead with your own excitement, and they could probably feel that I'm sure like that just makes them want to buy even more. And especially when you go in with things like hey, like you have this free stuff if that's all you want, cool, come like change the way you run your classroom. If you want more, here's this thing. I think like taking the pressure off, helps them feel more comfortable buying especially if they're budget conscious, because they don't feel like they're being like pushed and pressured. You're just like presenting that presenting it as like a true, valuable option for them. And that's it so I think that also probably served you very, very well. So next up, I am curious if you've noticed any surprising benefits of hosting summits that you weren't expecting.
It's just the community of it was amazing. The energy inside that Facebook group was, was something really hard to explain. I mean, people were so supportive, people wanted to be there, people were so thankful people were, I mean, I'll be honest, sometimes going through some of the post summit feedback I got, I almost like started tearing up, because I didn't feel like I had done that big of a thing. Like, obviously, like, yes, this was a big thing. And I'm glad I did it. But like they're saying you like, you know, one of them was like, You know, this is the content that I needed. Like, the past couple years, and let's be honest, the past couple of years in teaching have been a lot. And you know, this, like, this is what I needed to be able to have the momentum to have a successful beginning of the year. And to just think about how many, you know, if there was, you know, 2200 teachers, and we'd see hundreds of students every year, the thinking about the amount of students that I've impacted, honestly makes me a little bit a little bit teary eyed, because it's, you know, I, a lot of times, we say teachers get in it, because they want to make an impact. And they do, we should get paid. But like, that's what I want to do. So like being able to make an impact, that has been the biggest change, that I noticed that I wasn't really expecting,
oh, my gosh, that is powerful. That outward momentum, you were able to create, and like you went as far as the students, and it will go even farther than that, you know, with those students being impacted, and be able to spread it from there. So that is incredible. And great work, I'm putting together an event that had that impact, and will continue to have that impact. And like staying on the impact topic, something you mentioned earlier, was like your ability to impact your speakers and give them incredible affiliate payouts. And it sounds like benefit them in other ways. Can you talk on that a little bit?
I wanted to take care of my speakers, like we talked about earlier, you know, I have had that not too great experience. And I didn't want that to be the case. So we did the commission model where they're, you know, if they were able to, to promote and to get people to sign up through their link, they were able to receive a commission. And I processed those Commission's manually because I wanted to be a part of that, like, I didn't want to just push a button and all happens, I wanted to put in their name, or their email address, put in the amount of money and hit send, because it is it was so powerful, I had I had multiple speakers that I sent them over $3,000. And these are teachers. And that, that makes me like part of me was like, Oh, wow, I have to pay this out. But then that I realized that I'm able to make an impact in a way that I I don't know, I just it was so impactful. And it was something that really, really kind of hit me to my core because I was able to help impact the speakers financially. But also, we had people that were like, I doubled my email list, you know, I added 500 people to my email list, and I didn't have one until a week ago, you know, like so that the been able to see that impact. And, you know, obviously, there's gonna be impact that I don't get to see, you know, the some of these people have teachers pay teacher's stores, and I'm sure they got some increased sales and things like that. But just, above all, just, we were a little bit more of a community, like, I feel like I know, these speakers a little bit more, I feel like we're able to, you know, interact, you know, I have some of the a lot of them are, you know, slated to be on my podcast, and we're be able to make these connections. Because one of my values as a person and as a company is that a rising tide is going to raise all ships. And I think so it could be so easy in such a specific niche of elementary music teachers that we get against each other, and we start, you know, battling each other. But I truly believe that whenever we work together, we're going to benefit everyone.
Oh, absolutely. And I think that's just like, proven and solidified with the like, reception that your event had. So what advice would you have for anyone looking to host their first summit?
My first thought would be not to not to underestimate it. I mean, there are definitely ways to make it manageable, you know, like following the Summit in a Box plan, you know, for hiring a virtual assistant things like that. But all I want you to do is I want you to think that it's going to be like twice as hard as it is. Once you make the decision then you can then you can pretend. But before you make the decision, don't. I want you to be aware that there are a lot of steps and a lot of moving pieces, and don't try to do it the week before because it's not going to happen. Or hey, you might get COVID and it just won't happen. So like definitely try to follow the plan to try to get things done quickly give your speakers time to do things so they they're feeling better. But also make sure your what you're doing is in alignment with your values.
Oh my gosh, so much good stuff in there. And yes, please do not try to host a summit in like two weeks or five weeks, or any kind of nonsense like that because that just does not turn out well. So I'm very glad that you like jumped in planning ahead, had our framework and all the things you needed and, like pulled off an event that went as well as it could with everything you had going on. And we're able to make it feel super aligned to you.
So when I made this choice where hey, I was sick, I was, you know, in the middle of grad school, I actually simplified a few things, you know, I didn't do a fast action bonus, or the fast action pricing, I barely did a course launch. You know, I basically at the end of it, I just sent it a couple emails, but I sold five courses from that, which is awesome. So like, definitely, you can simplify it if you need to, you can make it more complicated if you have extra time. But don't let all the decisions get in the way of making the first decision.
If you're ready to host a high converting virtual summit to replace your slow growth marketing strategies, and use it to lead into your biggest course launch yet, I've got an exclusive training just for you. This training is for those who are interested in working with me in our Launch with a Summit Accelerator to host a summit that blows industry standards out of the water uses feel good engagement based strategies to create an amazing experience for everyone involved seamlessly leads into your biggest course launch yet, and sets you up for additional post summit profits on the back end. Inside the Accelerator, we help our clients consistently host life and business changing virtual summits and in the free private training. I'll show you exactly how it works along with all kinds of examples. So apply for an invite to the Launch with a Summit Accelerator and the training at summithosthangout.com/apply. I love that. Where are you going from here are more so it's going to happen?
100% Or the elementary music summit will be a yearly summer event because it's just been amazing. It's been such a great thing. And what's awesome is I've done a lot of the work already and I don't have to redo it all again, which makes us even more just helpful in my business. You know, I don't have to spend my entire summer creating a summit I can do a few tasks here and there. But a lot of what I've what the hard stuff I've already done. So 100% the elementary music Summit is here to stay.
I love it. I'm so glad to hear that. Where can people go to connect with you?
So I can be found at that music teacher on Instagram and Tiktok you can also find my podcasts that music podcast and you can also like kind of learn more about me and my different things over at thatmusicteacher.com
Amazing. Thank you so much for coming in and sharing so freely. And congratulations again at an incredible Summit.
Thank you so much. It's been great.
And thank you so much everybody for tuning in for shownotes and resources mentioned in this episode head to summithosthangout.com/ 193. In the next episode, I'm going to bring in my client success coach and marketing co lead and we are going to spill some details on what surprised us most about hosting our recent paid live conference so be sure to stay tuned for that. Now go ahead and take action to plan strategize and launch your high converting virtual Summit.
