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 I'm so excited to bring on another incredible guest who has a ton of Summit experience, who runs B2C summits, which I know a lot of you are interested in hearing more examples of successful B2C summits, and has had a really successful membership launch through a summit as well and I'm so excited for you to hear more. To give you some more background information on our guest Shelby DeVore is a former high school and college agriculture teacher and homesteader with over 20 years of experience. She teaches mom's traditional living skills like gardening, raising livestock and cooking from scratch and has hosted for incredible assignments. And like I said, I can't wait for you to hear more about them. So we're just gonna dive right in. And without further ado, let's talk with Shelby DeVore welcome Shelby. I'm so excited to have you here.
Hey, I'm so super pumped to be here. Summits are something that I'm so passionate about, and literally kind of having a little bit of a fangirl moment over here. So yeah, let's go.
I feel like that when I talk to you too, because you got the summit thing figured out and I feel I just feel truly honored that we have like had a part to play in the process. It's always so fun to see. Before we get into the summit stuff though, tell us a little bit about like you and what you do in your business and I guess maybe give us a little background on your summits as well cuz I know you run a couple of them.
Yeah, sure. So I like to tell people that I teach homesteading without the crazy because there tends to be a lot of like, stigmatism that comes with you know, homesteading, but we just like to make it something that the everyday person can do. So whether you have zero garden experience, you've never raised livestock, you have no clue, like how to even start making sourdough bread or you know, your own cheese or something. So those are the types of things that I teach. I offer all sorts of products and courses and a membership program, which we started last last spring, and we have had so much success using a summit to launch into that membership. Like it literally blows my mind. When I think about it, and I look at the results that we've gotten. So it's it's been truly incredible.
Yeah, oh my gosh, I'm really excited to dive into that a little bit more. And you're in the homesteading space. Like you said, I can't imagine there are a whole lot of summits about homesteading?
No. So it's really crazy. I hosted my first summit two years ago. So 2021, I believe it was April 2021, when I hosted my first summit, and I was looking around to see if anybody offered anything different or... similar! I'm sorry, not different, similar. And I could not find anything. Because when I first started looking, my thought was, it would be nice if I could participate or attend somebody's summit, you know, just to get a feel as an outsider what it is like, you know. What that virtual event experience is really like. I couldn't find anything. There was nothing, right? So I just kind of thought, okay, maybe I need to be that guy that starts doing this, like nobody else is doing it. So a huge missed opportunity. So I'm just gonna take it. And since then I have seen a couple of people start something similar. But what's really funny about it, and what makes me just absolutely love Summit in a Box, is I feel like my events are so well organized. And I've actually heard that from several speakers now over the years is that they have participated in my summit, and feel like completely spoiled, because it's just a super simple process for them. And then they, you know, think it's a great idea and they go to a different summit, and then they come back to me and they're like, show me this is not the same. Not all summits are created equally. Right. So it's just it's been really great to, I guess, be like a pioneer in my niche. Like to get this ball rolling. It's been really cool.
Yeah, we have that. Oh, we hear that a lot from our clients and students were like their speakers come back to them. They're like: I'm never doing anyone else's summit because of yours because there's a difference. And you clearly have it figured out.
I know there is. I actually got asked to speak at a summit. I think it was last summer, and it looked suspiciously similar to my stuff. Like, maybe they used Summit in a Box, you know? So you can you can tell, you can tell. Anyways, I was like, Okay, this is cool. Like, it's probably good. So I started asking them some questions. And I was like, this is not the same. It's not the same. I ended up not speaking at it, but some of the speakers that I've had before spoke at it. And yeah, they came back and they were like, "We're not doing that again. When is your next summit?"
Yeah, it's like both the process and also the intention behind the person and how much they actually care about more than just themselves, and stuff like that. So it makes a difference. 100% When you host that first summit in 2021, Where were you at in business? Where you're just getting started? Were you selling courses and seeing success? Like, what was it that made you say, Okay, I need to do a summit because of this.
So I was really in that phase at the beginning, where you're really questioning yourself, like, is this like, is online business even legit? Is this a scam? Am I just, you know, scamming people. So the year that I hosted my first summit, what the year before that, I was super excited that I had made I don't know, a couple $1,000 from things that I had sold. And the people that bought stuff from me, which wasn't that many, right, because I only sold a couple $1,000 worth of things. They were ecstatic with the stuff that I had sold them at the time, I had a couple of different courses and some small, like low-end products, you know, $20-30 bucks, and they wanted more. Like, they were like, "This is great. Your stuff is fantastic." In the back of my mind, I was thinking if people enjoy my stuff, so much like they say they do, why am I not making a ton of money. And again, looking back on it, you know, I just was in the early stages of my business. So I thought I need to do something different than what I'm currently doing. Because I felt like I was stuck in a rut. And I needed to get out of it and go to the next level. So I don't remember, I think I saw an ad or somebody talking about Summit in a Box or something or running a summit. I don't remember exactly how I stumbled upon it. But I remember thinking, "This sounds like it could be the thing to get me out of the rut and take me to the next level. "And I remember thinking, "Man, if I could just add like 500 people to my email list. Like that would be huge for me right now." And I think at the time, I have worked really hard to get like 1200 people on my email list. Right? So adding 500 people at one time felt like it was going to be huge. So I like I mentioned, started trying to look around to see if there was one I could participate in. And I didn't find one. And that's when lightbulbs started going off. Like this is something that people need. Like it's a hole that's not being filled. And people were still in, you know, COVID lockdowns and stuff in different places. And travel wasn't necessarily an option for everyone for in person events. So it just kind of it felt right. And after that first summit, like I never looked back, I was like, this is the best thing I've ever done for my business. I'm doing this every year, twice a year like, this is where it's at.
I love that. And, to like, to set to set the stage. Where are you at now?
So now I have about 35,000 people on my email list. I know we're getting ready to host our fifth summit and our target is to register 25,000 people. And I actually think we're going to do more than that. So revenue wise, we just finished our books for last year. We made about a quarter of a million dollars in revenue last year. So quite a jump from being excited about you know, a couple of $1,000 where the product sales to where we are now.
Oh my gosh. I love it. And you've hosted... you wrapped up your fourth summit and I know for the first three you were in Summit in a Box and then you decided to join the Accelerator for the fourth and I feel spoiled to have you in there. What made you decide to move from Summit in a Box to the Accelerator like did your goals with the summit itself?
So originally the first summit that I hosted, I just was like dipping my toes into the water and wanted to know how many people we could get registered. Right? How much list growth are we going to see from this. And if we can add revenue, like, that's awesome. We didn't have any plans for anything in the beginning that we were going to launch after the summit was over with like the summit itself was our focus. So we kind of did the same thing. The second summit that I hosted, we just worked on improving conversion rates. It's funny that I say we, because I was the only person doing it until this last summit. The first three summits, I did by myself, I didn't have any help. So when we say when I say we probably should say I. So the third summit was I had heard somebody mention, like, you should totally use your summit as a way to warm up your audience and launch it into, you know, a course or a membership program or something. And this was about the time that we were considering launching a membership program. So that third summit, I just kind of like, threw together a launch afterwards. And we got a handful of people to join our brand new membership, which I was excited about. We wanted 25 people initially in that first group, and we got 27. So I was like, Okay, this is great. But I feel like we could do more. Like there was a lot that felt lacking in our launch after the summit. And I feel like we didn't do an awesome job, like tying the pieces together between the two, we just kind of had the summit, and then launched our membership, like, Hey, here's this cool new thing that we're doing, you should be in it. So that was my reason for jumping into the Accelerator was you mentioned, like it is a strategy to get people into whatever your next offer is. And I thought I need that. I need the strategy, because what I did, I mean, I got people in, but we could have converted a whole lot higher. And we did in this this past summit that we hosted. So yeah, you can tell us about it. Yeah, for sure. So like I said, after the third Summit, we added I believe, 27 people, I think 25 ended up staying the last summit that we hosted, we have worked our tails off to get 68 people into the membership. That's how many we had in there. Before the summit started Krista, we added 300 people to the membership from launching with the summit. Like that blows my mind because we worked so hard to get 68 people in there. And then I mean, it was almost just like we just dumped 300 new faces in there. It was amazing.
I would have loved to be watching your face as this little notifications were coming through during your cart open period.
My husband was like, "Are you gonna stop looking at your computer?" And I was like, "No, I can't."
I can't help it. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, 27 to 300. What are the primary changes or primary change you think you made that caused that increase? Do you think it was like your summit messaging, your membership messaging, just the more in depth strategy that we taught something you learned about your audience? Like, is there anything that stands out to you that could be held accountable for the difference?
Oh, yeah, for sure. So I think the biggest thing for me was, I changed my mindset about the purpose of my Summit. So before the Accelerator, I really thought of my summit as serving like two main purposes, number one being a revenue driver for us. And then number two, a list growth strategy. And it a summit works really well for those right, like, it's awesome at that. But one of the things that I was not taking into consideration is you're taking all of these people, you're getting them super excited, really warmed up like they are raring to go for whatever it is that you're trying to teach them. And then when the summit is over, you're just like, Alright, see you next year. Yeah, peace out. Yeah, it's almost like giving somebody a ride home and then just like dropping them halfway off on the side of rode, like...
...push them out the door...
There's nowhere for them to go. So after I thought about it like that, my whole concept changed. I was like these people, because, you know, from hosting summits, like, your people are so pumped up to hear from you, during the event and hear from the speakers and learn and just take in all of this stuff. People start building community, and then it's gone. You know, so it made sense to me to use that to funnel them into our memberships, so that they have a place to continue learning, continue building community, like, it just it just made sense. And once my mindset shifted, I was like, Why did I... Why was I so against selling to people that I had just sold to? Right? That's kind of how I felt in the beginning, was like, you want them to buy the All Access Pass. And then I don't know, I just felt like I was being sleazy and salesy, when in reality, that's not how it works at all. Like, you have to think of it from their perspective, like they spend all this time learning and getting super excited about whatever it is that you're teaching them. They are ready for the next step.
I love that. And honestly, that's how I used to look at it, too. There might even be early episodes of this podcast where I was like, don't launch right away, because you just sent them all these emails, you don't want to send them more emails. And I'm like, Yeah, you do. They want your things right now, they want your thing. Don't make them wait. I love that you had that realization, it sounds like kind of almost by yourself, like, they want this. You're doing them a service by giving them the next step to take and letting them be a part of the community and giving them the resources like when you're not when you're not going about it from a selfish standpoint, like how much money can I make? It's how much can I serve these people? It's big. I love that you had that realization? Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, that makes everything feel so much better as well. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Also, like tying in the b2c part, like a lot of people just generally put the blanket statement. Oh, that sounds don't work for b2c business owners. And I hope the podcast episodes we've had on here about that just no one says that anymore. But just to kind of address that, did you have any doubts? Did any even cross your mind that it might not work for you, because you're not a b2b business owner? Or we're like, this is going to be fine.
100%? Yeah. So I remember being in the early stages of my business, and probably like so many other people that are in the b2c space, when you are looking for like, advice to build an online business, and you see, like income reports and stuff from the people that you're learning strategy from, it's really easy to think, well, of course, they're making a ton of money, because they're teaching people how to start a business, right? Like it makes sense for them. So I remember seeing some things where people were saying, like, you're never gonna make money in an online business, unless you're teaching people how to run an online business. And I remember thinking, like, is that true? You know, because again, at the time, I was excited, because I had made like, $2,000, right from the year before. So I kind of had that sense of doubt, in the back of my mind, like, Hmm, I don't know if this is actually going to work or not. But at the same time, when I was a high school, slash College, ag teacher, I went to some virtual, not virtual, in person conferences, and I found them super helpful, like, and they were structured completely differently than how a summit is structured. Because usually, when you go to an in person event, you have like, maybe a few keynote speakers that are going to talk like the whole time you're there. But the rest of your time. It's like you in a vendor's area, you know, like checking out the latest and greatest whatever. So when I started looking through Summit in a Box, and how things worked, and how you line up your speakers throughout the day, I remember thinking to myself, this would be amazing to have attended something like this when I was a teacher instead of like these events that you go, and you maybe hear from like two or three people and the rest of the time just feels wasted, you know, so I kind of had that conflicting with the I don't know if this is actually going to work or not. So I just decided to try it. And I was like, we'll just see how it goes. And super glad I did.
Yeah. Do you feel like there's any changes you had to make to the strategy to account For the business to consumer?
No, I don't think so. I've literally followed your stuff to the tee. And, and it worked. So I don't think there's like any any strategy changes that I have made even, you know, up until this point.
Yeah, that's cool to hear. That's cool to hear for sure. I know, like, some people are, you know, I don't really go on about like being able to draw pain points and benefits and stuff like that. But I'm like, you probably have something or something that they're like, really excited about. And that's why they'd want to come rather than you know, maybe like the standard pain points we think about for for b2b, but you have to have some reason they want to come. And that's what you fill in the blanks. You know, let's call here though. So right now, as of right now, you've run four summits, I know you have your next one in the works, what would you say are like the biggest things you've learned from that experience, whether it's something about how you run your events, takeaways you've seen that you didn't expect, things you learned about business, about your audience, I don't care. Whatever comes to mind is something you've learned from that.
So much! So one of the things now that I have hired help, one of the things looking back that I would have changed and probably done, I don't know what the first summit is, hire somebody to help me run the backend, because it is a lot. It's it's a lot to do when I was doing them by myself. I think it was taking me about three months, you know, of like just working on the summit, which it's totally worth it. And I don't work full time hours to run my business. So that's something to consider. But when I hired help for this last summit, oh, my gosh, I was able to spend so much more time in the things that matter, like tracking my conversion rates and stuff. And I know even during my summit, I was talking to people about "how do you think we can improve the conversion rate on this page?" Like, "how do you think we need to tweak this messaging?" and that's something that I didn't have time to do in the previous three summits, because I was the one handling all of the customer service stuff, and making sure people, you know, had the right link to go to and answering questions that speakers might have, and like, you know, all of this stuff, which I have helped for now, which opens up a lot of time for me to focus on other other areas. And I think another thing that has been really big for me is, again, kind of going back to that mindset shift, like from this is, you know, kind of a way that we can boost our revenue and our growth throughout the year into thinking of this, like, this is an opportunity for our people, and our attendees just to see like what we have to offer to help them you know, and it it does so many things all at the same time. Like I just am absolutely in love with it.
It's so easy to just like get overcome with excitement when you see, like, you go in thinking like, oh, it would be cool to grow my email list by people, you know, 500 people or whatever. And then you do it. And you're like, Oh, this is what the real benefits are. And I feel like I still uncover different benefits when I'm running summits, you know, after being in it for years.
And it It blows my mind. So we we have two summits that we hold annually, right? We do a gardening summit in the spring and a livestock summit in the fall. And I guess we've gotten to the point now where people are so familiar with it that we get emails, I don't know, once or twice a week, at least, people emailing us wanting to know when our next event is going to be because they want to take time off of work and put it in their calendar and I'm like, "Are you serious? You're you want to take time off to come? That's awesome."
Yeah, that warms my heart.
I know, it's the best feeling when I get those emails. I'm like "people are really into this" like, it's it's life changing for them. They eat it up.
It is, and you don't... you can't even imagine what the life change could look like for those people until you do it and start hearing back from them. I never imagined my first time it was like for people running beginner design businesses, I never imagined imagined some of the emails and messages I got after that like literally life changing. No matter what ,no matter what your niche is. Yeah, it's it's really cool to hear to me that it like carries over from everything from design businesses to homesteading, like come on. That's a pretty that's a pretty wide range.
I was gonna say that's a really big jump. Yeah.
Oh my gosh. So what advice would you have for anyone looking to host their first summit?
Oh, that's a good one. For your first summit, follow the program that Krista has like to a tee. I did that. I hosted it by myself, I was able to host it by myself. And she's literally thought of like, every single thing that you could possibly think of, like stuff that you don't even know to think of. It's in there. So I was really glad that I did follow the program to a tee. And once I've, you know, had a summit or two under my belt, I was like, Okay, now we can go add in XYZ, you know, add different things to it. But it really gives you a complete foundation for hosting an amazing online event. And then I would say, if you're on the fence about it, just do it. I know, it feels like a huge time commitment. And that was one of the things that I thought was, is it going to be worth three months of my time to put this event together, reach out to people like speakers and stuff that I've never reached out to. And this is actually going to work. And I'm so glad that I took that little feeling and like squished it way down low and said be quiet. Because it has been it has literally been huge. I mean, I can directly attribute so much of my business's growth, to summits, like it's insane. So just do it. That's what I'd say.
Just do it. Yeah, if you broke even with your Summit, which is not our goal, by the way, our goal is for you to multiply your investment lots of times, but like, even if you brokeeven the return that comes afterwards, in so many ways is something I've never experienced another strategy that can match our top like, it's just incredible. And it's I tried to explain it, I try my hardest to explain it. And I just can't quite can't quite do it. So thank you so much for coming in and kind of seconding that and sharing your experience with us. I know that can really help put it in perspective when when people aren't just hearing from the person who breathed summits, but people who have like experienced it themselves too. And going in with a goal. Like I just want to grow my list by 500 people and then going whoa, like, That was wild. Yeah. So thank you so much for sharing all of this, where can people go to connect with you? I know you have an offer for everybody, so tell them about that, and we'll link to it in the show notes.
So anybody that's interested in gardening or raising livestock or traditional skills, I teach all of that in my monthly membership program, the Garden Farm Thrive Academy. If that's something that you're interested in, we're offering members a free trial period to listeners of the Summit Host Hangout Podcast, and you can find the link to that in the show notes for today's episode.
Yes, we will link to all that good stuff. We'll link to Shelby's website so you can go to connect with her check out her membership, it is clearly awesome. Also, something I didn't get to ask you about on here was like your conversion rate from the free trial of your summit to like people who convert to paying customers and like we won't get into it now because we were like wrapping up but I'll just let you all know it is wild. People love it once they're in it, so go check it out. She has so much good stuff. She is the person to learn from about homesteading. So thank you so much Shelby for being here. And thank you so much everybody for tuning in. For shownotes and the resources mentioned head to summithosthangout.com/212. In the next episode, we'll be chatting about how to know if virtual summits are right for your business. So be sure to stay tuned for that. And now go out and take action to plan, strategize, and launch your high-converting virtual summit.
