SHH Podcast Ep. 199

Krista - Summit In A Box14min

Krista - Summit In A Box

00:00

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 I am so excited to announce that Sell with a Summit: Course Creator Edition is back, and I'm gonna give you a look into how that happened. So let's just start with storytime, shall we? I'm going to start by talking about where Sell with a Summit came from, and how we got here to be talking about it again today. So if you haven't been around, like for years, you may not know that back in 2020, I co hosted a summit with a wonderful Jen Zellers. It was the first ever run of summit the summit. And it's something we created and strategize together, you can go back in time to Episode 83, to hear me talk about that first run of this event. And then you can also hear behind the scenes of how that event went in Episode 90. And then finally, in Episode 98, you'll hear why I decided that co-hosting actually wasn't a good fit for me despite having an incredible person to co-host with.

Krista - Summit In A Box

01:06

And overall, you'll hear that that's why I passed this on over to her to run after we finished with that first round, even though it was an incredible summit for me to have ownership of and like to use to also grow my business. And I don't really remember how much I talked about it. But that was a really tough call for me to make. I had to put, I put my all into positioning that event, making strategic decisions, experimenting with new things and setting it up to be an incredible event for attendees, of course, but then also for my business. It was it was strategically positioned to grow Summit in a Box. So having to give it away, which is what was outlined in our agreement, if one of us didn't want to continue co-hosting, was a really hard decision and has honestly eaten at me ever since. Even though I knew it was like the right call based on not wanting to like stress the relationship Jenn and I had or you know, add stress to myself. By the way, this is why you should always have an agreement. I will link to our podcast episode with Casey Handy-Smith, about agreements for speakers we've never talked about like co-hosting agreements. But please, whenever you collaborate with someone have an agreement, there was no question. Like what was going to happen, there was no drama to be had when I decided that I wasn't, I didn't want to co-host again, I knew the decision I was making, when I decided not to co-host anymore was to give her the summit. You know, like, it wasn't a fun decision to make. But I really, really like and appreciate that there was no question there was no drama involved. Jen and I have continued to talk and collaborate and just chat and refer people back and forth ever since.

Krista - Summit In A Box

02:41

But luckily, I still had my other summit that I was running for designers. So I have continued running that every year as my way to bring in some extra revenue, and then experiment with summits, despite not running that business for designers anymore, I still had that summit. And then every year after I hosted it, I'd say that was my last time not doing that again. But it came to where I wanted to start, you know, every time it would come to where I was going to start planning my summit for the year or whatever, I'd start, you know, feeling the itch to plan a summit and I just couldn't bring myself to plan another summit for this business, because I'd already put my all into Sell with a Summit, you know, so like, that's why I kept going back to that summit for designers, even though I wasn't running that business anymore. I like didn't want to compete with the original idea I had, I would basically be competing with myself in a way and then also with Jen, and nothing else was gonna really serve the same purpose for our business without it competing directly with her, and that just didn't feel right to me. So I just kept going back to that other summit for designers. But then finally, this year, I just really, really felt done with that other event for all kinds of reasons. But really, the core of it is that my passion for that business is just not there. Which makes sense because I don't do anything related to development for designers anymore. And it just didn't feel right to run it again. And even like there was just a disconnect when we ran it this year. And I think that showed in our results too. So I finally made the decision to sell that brand. One, it's super cool that you can sell a summit right. But also it just freed up so much space for me to know that, you know, that was off my plate and in good hands. And I kid you not, within a few weeks of making that decision, Jenn reached out and asked if I wanted to take Sell with a Summit back over. I am not someone who tends to like sit and tear up and cry over awesome things happening. But I did that time.

Krista - Summit In A Box

04:32

I was in awe. And just like in tears. It was like, to me it was as if like God was waiting for me to listen to what he was trying to tell me and let go of that other business and let go of that summit to make room for this one again. And when I finally listened, all the pieces fell into place. And I'm so grateful for Jenn for doing incredible things with that event over the past two years and just being a dream to work with and collaborate with all around. I was always a sponsor when it made sense for her other runs of the event, she will have an ongoing sponsorship spot whenever she wants it as long as I run it too. And really, I just think this goes to show the cool things that happen when you collaborate with the right people, no drama, just making decisions involving and supporting each other, and like having a lot of trust and respect for each other. So thank you, Jen, if you're listening to this, by the way, if you're interested in putting your summit on evergreen, or speaking at more summits, Jen is your go to for those things. She has an awesome speaker directory. She does teaching and VIP days about evergreen summits. So you can find her at virtualsummitsearch.com. But anyways, that's a quick history of the events and how we got here, it has been really cool. Like just the whole thing is just really cool to me.

Krista - Summit In A Box

05:45

So now I want to tell you a little bit about the event in case it's a good fit for you to sign up to. And I'll share a few of my thoughts around the event, and some things I'm curious about watching play out afterwards. So I'm so excited to bring back Sell with a Summit: Course Creator Edition with some big changes and make some serious impact for course creators. So this run of the event is for more experienced course creators, intermediate to advanced. And our goal is to show you how to combine the power of your proven signature course, the course you already know sells, with a high converting virtual summit to hit those next level launch goals that you have and use it to scale your course sales. So like when you finally find your thing, like you finally have a course that sells that's great, right? But then comes the constant hustle of finding more people to sell to. Like, don't worry, I am very familiar with that cycle as well. We try ads, we try different social media strategies, different networking strategies so much, and we're just always piling on more and more things to our plate. And I do the same thing. But what has made a bigger impact for me than piecing together any other strategies out there is hosting a summit strategically positioned to launch my offer. Not only has that broken any of my previous launch records, but the ongoing benefits are absolutely wild and so far beyond what any other strategy does. Even though ongoing benefits totally aren't something people think about when they think of hosting a summit that people I've been able to collaborate with, ranging from like masterminds to podcast interviews, to JV webinars, to referrals, I get, so much more, all coming back to my summit. The ongoing increased sales, it has meant in every single launch we've had since that summit, and there's so much more than I could ever get into. I want you to experience the same thing with using a summit to sell, to sell and launch your course, which is exactly what we'll get into in this round of Sell with a Summit.

Krista - Summit In A Box

07:39

The thing with launching with a summit is it's only going to work as well as your current launch strategies work. We're going to actually talk about that a little bit more in the next podcast episode, I believe, or maybe it's a couple oh, about three weeks from now, we're going to be talking about why your offer should be proven before you launch with the summit. But like I said, it's only going to work if your current launch strategies work. So before we dive into anything summit related, we will start with a launch tune up. So day one of this summit will be all about increasing your current launch results with or without a summit. And that's why this is more for Experienced Course Creators, we're not going to be talking, you know, course launch 101. It's okay, you have a course that sells, let's make it even better with more advanced strategies. And that way, when you launch with a summit, you'll be set up for the biggest possible results and impact and then you'll also have those things to apply to other ways you launch, then day two is going to be about more advanced summit strategies. So if there's anyone you're not quite familiar with summits yet, you don't know like the one on one level, this podcast is a great place to start, so I'm good job. But we're also going to have a private podcast feed as a part of the summit included in your free ticket if you need to learn some basics first. So once you register, you'll get access to that podcast to kind of give you the groundwork so you're ready to go when day two of the summit happens with a more advanced summit hosting strategies.

Krista - Summit In A Box

08:59

And then day three will be all about combining the summit and course launch. We're gonna do fun things like course sales page critiques, summit positioning, hot seats, pre party sessions, so much good stuff happening during this short and sweet event. I'm also very excited to host my first not five-full-day summit is going to be a nice shorter summit. So if you're an experienced course creator interested in launching with the summit head to sellwithasummit.com to get your free ticket, and I'm sure it will not come to a surprise to you. After you register. We'll have a couple awesome upgrade options for you and a discounted offer for a little bit of time, so keep an eye out for that. As a part of the Summit to Course Launch Kit. A few of my favorite goodies in there are things like a private behind the scenes podcast feed that I've been recording as I plan the event. So this is a fun idea I had, you know, within our first few days of planning, I was like I just want to share my progress with somebody. So I took out my phone and just recorded a voice memo going over the strategies reusing the strategic decisions, I was making some mindset hurdles I was working through, and didn't know what I was gonna do with it, but I just started recording. And I was like, oh my gosh, this would be such a fun bonus to give people as a part of the summit. So that's gonna be a fun, unique bonus I haven't seen anyone do before in our Summit to Course Launch Kit. And then this is where you can also apply for like sales page critiques, summit positioning hot seats, we might throw in a few other fun touches aren't quite finalized yet, as of recording this, I'm not going to say too much. But just take a glance, take a look at what we got going on for you. And of course, we have all kinds of incredible bonuses. So again, you can get your free ticket at sellwithasummit.com

Krista - Summit In A Box

10:40

Now I want to give you just a little behind the scenes of a couple like decisions we made and positioning type stuff. So a few months back on social media, I shared that I'm not going to be doing full event to break downs, and debriefs with our numbers publicly anymore. It just doesn't feel good to me anymore. It also adds a lot of extra stress and pressure for me throughout the process. Because not only do I have to hit my own goals, but I also feel like I have to impress everyone else who watches me and learns from me. So I'm just not gonna do it, I'm not going to put myself through that I want to be able to enjoy my lunches. And I just don't need the extra pressure of like, you know, 10s of 1000s of people watching. So we have all kinds of clients and clients and students that come on the podcast and share the results. And that's what I'm going to stick with for now, as long as that feels good. If we do share in depth behind the scenes look, it will be to our Launch with a Summit Accelerator clients for now. With that being said, I do want to share an experiment and one strategy note before this event kicks off. So I use every single event I host as a way to experiment in the world of summits. I feel like it's my job to try new things and be able to pass on the details about what worked and what didn't to you. The main thing we're experimenting with this time is the timing of the summit. This is the first time we've ever hosted a summit in December. And December summits are something we get asked about a lot like is it an okay time to launch? We've always done some kind of launch in December and have historically seen great results. So I feel pretty good about it. The biggest question for me is whether speakers will be willing to promote around US thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and then how engagement will be with our attendees.

Krista - Summit In A Box

12:18

For me, I feel like in December, I'm always kind of checked out, like even before my scheduled time off. So I'm thinking this could be a good way for our course creators to have somewhere to go and learn and be productive in a way that's not like actually having to, you know, feel like you have to be super focused on getting something done before you go on like a holiday break. Like it's like the perfect way to procrastinate on the stuff you want to wrap up for the year, while still being productive and learning new things. So we'll see how that goes. But that's one of our bigger experiments this time around. And then something else I'm interested in looking at, again, is the positioning of this summit. This event is not niched in a way that's meant to get huge numbers. Like if we had a client join the Accelerator, want to position a summit like this and be like I want to get you know, 10,000 people registered for my event, I'd be like, okay, but let's go back to square one, then, you know, our event is not positioned in a way that's meant to get, you know, 10s of 1000s of attendees or anything like that, but it's all very strategic. So my note here mostly is like just so you know, events positioned like this aren't meant to wind up with like 1000s upon 1000s of attendees. It's meant to have a really high impact for a certain group of people. But maybe I'll report back a little more on that after the event happens when I know for sure if my thoughts around that still hold true but we'll see how that goes. So that's that, Sell with a Summit is back. If you are an intermediate to advanced course creator, we would love to have you join us. All of this is being planned very intentionally for experienced and busy business owners like we know you don't have hours each day to sit through presentations, especially information you've heard over and over again. So I promise it will be good. We're going to include some DEI presentations, we're going to include some presentations to help you take care of yourself. So grab your free ticket at sellwithasummit.com and we cannot wait to see you there. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode For show notes and resources mentioned head to summithosthangout.com/199. Now go out and take action to plan, strategize and launch your high converting virtual Summit.

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