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 have a special guest today who has such an amazing summit story to share. You're going to hear about previous summits that didn't quite bring the revenue she was looking for, how her summit and working with us gave her the courage to niche down into a new audience, goal setting leadership and more so much good stuff to help you on your summit path. This guest is a certified Immunity to Change coach, sole purpose Oracle and the founder of the conscious edge, which is a leadership and personal development company focused on empowering entrepreneurs to build soul aligned businesses without the burnout. She really understands the importance of business strategy and also merges modern science and ancient wisdom to help her clients get rid of their self sabotaging tendencies, like overworking analysis, paralysis and people pleasing, which I feel like you're calling me out with that list. So thanks for that. Oh, she has over 18 years experience of training and coaching over 10,000 entrepreneurs. And I am so excited to introduce you to Alicia St. Germain. Welcome, Alicia.
Thank you so much, I'm so excited to be here, I'm always excited to like have an extra opportunity to connect with someone that we've got to work with, you know, a month or two after that's just, it's just a good reminder and a good way for us to reconnect. So this is gonna be fun, it's gonna be, before we dive into the summit stuff, just tell us a little bit more about you and your business. So I actually started my business because I was training people in real estate. And I saw so many people learning strategy, and then not putting it in action, and then ending up with like 10s of 1000s of dollars of debt, and then still working the nine to five jobs that they were trying to leave. So I had discovered this whole idea of like mindset coaching and transformation coaching in the way that our unconscious gets in our way of getting the things that we really want. So I started for that reason. And and I've had a really interesting journey, I've taken some left turns, and I would have to say the accelerated summit accelerator, I feel like was the missing link that I needed to click everything in place. So that's why I'm so excited to be here. And what we do in that process is is we really help entrepreneurs to uncover what is the unconscious system of self protection that they have created to feel safe in the world that is working against whatever it is they're trying to put out in the world. So I love working with entrepreneurs who want to share their gifts and their talents with other people. And they really want to use that to help other people's lives be better. And they still want to live that fulfilled and joyful life. They want to have those life experiences and they just kind of make it all click together. So so that's what we do. I love it. Thank you for sharing, I definitely want to dive into like what you said about the Accelerator kind of helping everything click for you will get there. First I wanted to ask about. I know you had hosted summits before, we got to work together what initially got you into hosting summits. So it's a really interesting story. So I had got my coaching certification after when I realized there was this big gap in the market. And I had, I didn't know anything about how to run a business. So I was a real estate investor. Like I didn't know how to how to market to find people. I knew how to market to find real estate, but I didn't know how to market to find people. And I knew how to run a real estate business. And so I was training people to learn to invest in real estate. And I was doing that under another company. So I never had to do any of my own sales. I just like people showed up and I just got to fulfill which like fed my soul loved it. And I remember having this very distinct conversation with God. And I was like, Alright, if you want me to do this, like I see, I see I'm being called to do this, if you want me to do this, I need you to send me such a clear starting point that I cannot miss it. And like the next day a friend of mine who I had used to work for the same company as me. She called she said, hey, I want you to check out this person. She's a business coach. And I started following her quietly. And she was teaching people summits and I was like, alright, message received, I'm supposed to learn how to do so.
Oh my gosh. Okay, and what were you hoping to get out of them initially? Like, what about it was like, "Oh, yeah, this is like, this is the path I'm supposed to go down. "
You know, I was already comfortable being online because I was training online and I was comfortable being in front of people and talking to people. But this was like how you brought other people's audiences and other people together and leveraged that that community a community of people to help you build a list that you could then find out what those people wanted. I knew what I wanted to offer. But, you know, even if you didn't know what you wanted to offer, you could really like, build a connection with these people under this topic. And then, you know, decide what they wanted, and interview them, and survey them to see what they wanted, and then figure out something to offer them. So it was just like, oh, okay, that makes sense.
Yeah. So it was like an audience building and also potentially, like a market research type thing that you were interested in. Great. Yeah. I also just like, laughing at when we ask God for signs or next steps, sometimes we like, just gotta Buckle up for what we're gonna get. And I feel like you got that?
Yes. Like, there's the boat. And the story of someone who like keeps getting, like all these opportunities to be saved, like, the boat comes in the airplane comes in that you know, and it's like, I sent you three people.
Oh, my gosh. Okay. So I know you from other people, other person who was teaching summit enjoined that program and hosted a couple of summits there. So I would love to hear a little bit about those. And I know like, on one hand, you would have liked better results. But on the other hand, there was something there that you liked that you kept, like repeating and wanting to keep leaning into Summit. So what was it that you were?
Yeah, absolutely. So. So I stayed Like, I literally, my whole journey has been around just I know, someone says it, I know, someone says it no matter like, and every time I got better at doing them. What I found, well, let me just, like call myself out. So I went into this wanting to help people in real estate. And I knew that mindset transformational work, these things were not talked about in the strategy and tactic programs that are taught, or at least the time were taught in real estate. And it's still not a big thing that's talked about. And so I knew there was this big uphill battle of me having to educate people into why they needed this kind of work. And then I got into my coaches like community, and everybody was like, Oh, we're online business owners, and we, you know, love mindset. And we do all this leadership work. And I was like, Oh, these are my people. And so the the, the barrier to entry seemed like it was going to be really low if I just worked with entrepreneurs, or online entrepreneurs, or female entrepreneurs. And so I loved like the part where you get to talk to speakers. And I mean, I have met some of my best friends from reaching out to them. I didn't know them. And they were like, on my Summit. So the network was networking was wonderful. connecting with the audience was wonderful. But the traction was really slow. I felt like I was walking through mud a lot. And I was like, Okay, I'm missing something here. And so then I went through a period of time where my launching stopped working, like I was doing the same thing. And I was literally closed, like, nobody was buying. And for 18 months, I had this like trickle, like, very severe trickle of people coming in. And I'm thinking, Okay, what's going on? What's not right, my summits weren't converting. I was getting crickets. Like what is, is happening. And I think that was right at the point when I came to work with you that I was like, Okay, I need to do another summit had been a little while since I did one. And I was like, I need to freshen things up a little bit. So that's when I came to work with you. Okay,
I love that. So like, let's, let's keep going on the story here, then, like, you joined us on the Accelerator, maybe not even quite knowing what you were looking for. But it seems to be now you're like that. That's what I needed. So like, what what part of the process was it for you or what happened that made you feel like everything has now clicked. So
I knew I wanted to work with you for a couple years. I was like, I just you. So the other the other way I was taught to build summits wasn't about monetizing. It was really about the market research and the building of the list. And it was awesome for like getting you out of your own way. Lots of really good mindset stuff, the technique. I was like, I'm not real techy. And so my my challenge, my uphill battle was building tech or hiring someone to build tech and not knowing if they were doing it right or not. So those were some of my challenges. So I knew when I had sat in one of your webinars, I think that Shannon Mattern put on that was like, Oh, she knows what she's talking about, like this is so specific. And so I kind of knew that you were a little more on the execution and the tactic and the strategy side of it versus the concept side of it. And so when I joined, that's exactly what it was. It was like, here's how to do it. Here's the realness of it. Here's the bad, here's the good, here's the ugly, here's how you can make it better. Here's your templates. Like everything, I felt like it was literally a Summit in a Box.
I love that.
And so when I got into the program, I think the thing that landed for me immediately was when you were talking about the business to business industry of like, niching, like getting your title and your tagline. And how you could just expect you're gonna have a lower attendance because there's so much noise in the online entrepreneur space, that you just just know, you're gonna have lower summit builds. And for pretty much the entire time before that, I was thinking, what's wrong with me? What am I not hitting? What am I not getting? Right? And it was, it was so refreshing to know that this was just your experience for you that that you actually have enough data enough and seen enough of your clients to know what kind of results to expect. And so I was like, Okay, I accept that this is less. But then I started thinking, Well, wait a minute, didn't I start my whole business for real estate people? Like, wasn't I there to serve real estate people and this concept of doing mindset work and leadership work as part of their business model. And so I brought that idea to you and Ellie, and you were like, Yes, I love this for you, you should do this, like, Okay, I'm gonna do this. And what was fascinating was like, I didn't realize I was running away from some old wounds. When I got into that other on that other coaches space. And it was like, so warm and fuzzy, the very first thing I went through after I was like, Yep, I'm niching. And on real estate was some of the old mindsets and some of the old wounds of like the way it's dog eat dog, sometimes in real estate in the way that I felt like I had to watch my back. And it was super competitive. Some of that triggered me. And so I went into like a spiral for a couple of days of like, oh, my gosh, what have I done to myself, and this was gonna be so hard and miserable and awful. And then I finally was like, wait a minute, this is what I was called to do. So and ultimately, what I figured out, or what I ran into was, I had this imposter syndrome, which I'm going to, we're going to talk about, too. But I had this idea that in order to work with real estate investors, I had to have an active real estate portfolio, and I did it, I had let it go, I had let my real estate portfolio go and had stopped doing real estate because I chose to build my coaching business while I had newborns. And I was like, I can't actively invest in real estate by myself and build a coaching business and raise babies like as a present mom. And so I made some hard decisions. And I had to come face my demons of like, I'm ashamed that I don't have an active portfolio. And then it occurred to me that I was coaching web designers, I was coaching podcast producers, and I don't do that. So that was, I had to work myself through all of that in the Accelerator program to like, really own that space. And once I did, and I just kind of came out and said, Hey, I'm the the mindset coach for real estate entrepreneurs, things just started to fall in place.
Oh my gosh, like, hosting a summit is always an emotional roller coaster. I feel like but you just like took it to a whole new level. But I don't think I don't think that's super rare. Like it always comes up in the niching down phase, or people come in, and I think they're gonna go one direction they watch for trends are like, Oh, I have to go this other way. And something in that it can throw some people for a loop. But I love hearing kind of how you talk to yourself through that. It sounds like and we're happy coming out the other side. So like, how do you feel like that niche and taking that step to niche down and work through all the mindset stuff went through?
I think it went really well. Like I think it's where I think you know, just went through the holidays. And as we're recording this and I had some some you know, you always have wounds that come up. And that's This is my I live and breathe this stuff. This is what I do with my clients. This is what I do with myself, but you have these wounds that like kind of hold you back a little bit and then you have to find the version of of the story that supports you. And so what I really came to realize is I had to have every experience that I have had up until this point in order to be who I am today. And I really like who I am today what I'm doing in my business. I feel like I have that perfect intersection of doing things on purpose. Like I'm serving other people and I I know this is what I'm supposed to do. I have I have a passion for it. I would like I feel so fulfilled and lit up when I'm coaching and when I'm helping other people, so I'm fulfilled by it, I'm have energy for it. And then I get to make money doing it. Like, I don't know that that's like the thing that everybody strives for right is the place where purpose, passion and profit intersect, and you get to live there. So I mean, I have much affection for you and the Accelerator program. Oh,
I'm so glad. I'm so glad to hear that. It's like been a good experience and the mindset stuff was worth it. Absolutely. Okay. I'm curious to hear what you feel like were the biggest differences between the event you hosted with us and your previous ones, because if I remember correctly, and like stop me, if you don't want me to share this, the registrations were similar, like the number of people registered are similar, but the revenue was just way higher. Yeah, so what were like the biggest differences to the how the event was laid out, or strategy or whatever that you think created that.
So previously, I had run free summits that I didn't sell. And then I had run summits that will run them and they were delivered over 21 days, like you got an email once once a day with a new interview being released. And I think that can still work. But I do think the compactness of the three days, it has so much energy, because people would lose, you know, they kind of fall off towards the end of 21 days. Whereas in this it was like, okay, they were either completely tuned in, or if they knew they weren't going to be able to tune in, but they were interested, then they just had an upgrade option where they could have full access or to it for longer. So I think the the way it was positioned, was very different. And then I'd also in the past, tried to offer the upgrade, but they just didn't, it didn't convert, it was like I'd maybe make $100. And that didn't even cover what it costs to put the summit together. So I always looked at it as okay, no big deal. You know, I'm building the list. But I also had to nurture those lists for so long before they converted. And this summit I, I still feel like I have stuff. I'm still in the the Accelerator because I like there was sections I completely missed and forgot about and didn't do. So I'm like, Okay, next time, I'm going to do that. So I'm still learning. But I launched about a month later. And I got so much more activity and my open rates on my emails instead of being like the 20 to 30%. They're like 60%. So it's a very engaged audience. They're filling out applications, they were converting to phone calls. And and then we made more on the summit itself, just because of the way it was positioned and put together instead of the $100. I think it was like $7,800 that we made on just the summit, and then it was another almost 30,000 just directly from that summit in clients. So I mean, it was awesome. Like, and it was so quick. Yeah. Now I'm not saying like everybody would have that result, because I think it helps that I've run them so many times. So every I've had to work something out. Every time I run a summit, you know, and the next time I run it, I'll be working something out again. So that yeah, that would be I would say the biggest thing, the biggest differences,
oh my gosh, those long term benefits are, you know, the update a month after like, I remember reading that email, it totally made my day. And I didn't see it until like months after you sent it or way too long after you sent it. But it was glorious. And I just love getting to hear about those updates. So thank you for sharing some of your summit journey with us. It's really cool to hear the different steps you've taken and like gross. You have seen and done like as you've gone through this process, but I want to kind of shift gears a little bit. Because leadership and personal development are your thing. And there's a lot of that that goes into summits and a lot of people don't expect that. So where do you think those topics tie in most to virtual summits?
Well, this is what I was saying like impostor syndrome. That is the number one thing that I hear like, because I also had the opportunity of being in the other coaching space and helping other people with their summits. I think impostor syndrome is the number one thing that comes up. So where do you want to go with that topic? I can go very deep on that.
Okay, yeah. Like, what do you Where does impostor syndrome show up the most from what you've?
Yeah, yeah, so impostor syndrome has really three main components. It's a very complicated, like, thing and of itself is there's this piece of perfectionism. So it's it's like they They might look at, like, you might look on social media and you see a ad for a big name, who's running a virtual Summit. And it looks so professional and so fancy and so fantastic. And then your expectation, their expectation of themselves is like, I gotta be that good. Or I'm, or I'm not good enough. And then what will people think of me, I'm going to be judged, I'm going to look stupid, I'm going to be rejected, whatever your fear is, whatever your thing, everybody underneath it has something. And you might not even have words for it, you just know it doesn't feel good. So there's the perfection of like, just letting things be good enough. And that was one of the things in your processes, you have literally everything you could possibly need, to a point where I couldn't even consume it all. And I just had to be okay with, well, this is what I'm going to take and use this time. And then after I get that in place, next time, I'm going to implement something else. So there's that piece, there's also a worthiness piece that goes with impostor syndrome. So, so many people get intimidated by their speakers, and like how incredible their speakers are. And then you think to yourself, like, oh, well, why would this person want to be on my summit or want to, you know, be a part of this. And what I really like about the way the Accelerator does it is that they get to get compensated, like, if you put together an affiliate program, they get to get compensated. And so this last summit, I got to send one of my speakers $1,000 check, which she was super excited about. And I mean, a majority of them were like, one to $300, but they're like, Oh, I got to like, get some coffee, or some dinner, you know, depending on what what compensation was to them. They were so excited to share, have a platform to share their experience and meet new people that getting paid for it was like a bonus for them. And then the feedback that I got was this was the best virtual Summit, they had been on the most well run the most comprehensive, you know that and it was all your stuff. It was just like what you told me to do. What's it like I innovated? So yeah, there's that piece. So the worthiness, and what I would say is cautious. Everybody has a talent that they can bring to the table. And the only way that you're going to help others is to kind of set aside and just realize that this isn't about you. This is about giving your speakers a platform, this is about giving your potential clients a place. And people came back to me and were like, are you going to do another one because I got a lot of value from that I just really thrived in that from a virtual Summit, which was so cool. And then the third piece of impostor syndrome is the receptivity, that being open to receiving and there's a big vulnerability. I think that comes from receiving money for your services. Because it's like, oh, now I have the responsibility that I have to deliver. What if I can't deliver? The whole underlying thing is of imposter syndrome is what if I'm not good enough? But like, what if you are?
Yeah. And I mean, most people who are thinking of hosting summits are far above what we would consider the baseline for whatever that is, right? Yeah.
So and I think no matter what level I talk to, you could you could talk to multimillionaires, and they still have it well, what if I'm not good enough? And I don't think any of us are, I mean, I don't think you ever arrive, you just keep getting better. And as long as you're giving people the best of what you have, at this moment, like we're all on this journey of self discovery, we're all figuring it out. And the more we could start judging ourselves and others, and just realize that this is a whole learning process, life is a learning process. That's very helpful.
Every time you brought up something, the perfectionism, the worthiness, being up and receiving it started talking through the points like letting things be good enough, or seeing someone else's summit and be like, I can't do something that good or being intimidated by speakers. These are the things I hear every single day, like I want to make clients. Come on, listen, those offices out. Number one, so they feel like they know they're not alone. And like this is it just happens. What would you say to people who are feeling those things?
So I'm running my sixth summit right now. And I have resistance to reaching out to speakers when I was a little girl. I had an experience several experiences in high school and even before that, I think it started in fourth grade of being bullied by some girls and they pretended to be my friend and then they would do things once said I was like in the fold, they would do things to embarrass me. And so what I realize every time I feel this resistance is that most of my resistance is always around being rejected by peers. So everybody has a point in the summit process that you're going to feel unsafe, it's going to feel resistance going to be like, I have a million other things to do. And it's going to look like time, I don't have the time to do it, or I have to do all these other things for my family, or you're just going to shut down and go binge on Netflix, you're going to have these little things you do that seem either important or not important, but you physically are having challenges making yourself do it. Just know, it's just the part of it that feels unsafe. And so I this time, had just built it in and just started earlier and been like, Okay, I'm gonna have to say for multiple weeks on it, and I'm gonna reach out to speakers, and eventually, I'm going to get so tired of my story, that I'm just going to do it. And I had to compare the procrastination of reaching out to speakers to the hustle that I feel right before I launched a summit. I mean, it becomes not sleeping at night, there's so much to do. I hate that rush at the end, because my family doesn't get the best of me. And so I had to connect to something that was more painful than the pain of being rejected by my peers. That's what I used to be like, Okay, I don't want that for myself and my family more than I care about a speaker saying, Well, no, I don't want to promote Yeah, so whatever your thing is, I think, number one, have compassion for yourself and know that it's something that your brain learned a long time ago about how to keep you safe. And so it's there for a really nice reason, but it's just not helping you now. And you could say, Okay, thank you, Brian, I appreciate that. And it's more important to me to get my mission out there. It's more important for me to build this business for other reasons than it is for me to be rejected, judged, whatever, whatever it is, whatever the word is, that maybe you your listener would fill in. Wow,
I never put that together before. I also think I still also feel terrified when I go up to pitch speakers. And I also put that task off like, "Oh, I'll do that tomorrow." And I didn't realize it all goes back to sixth grade or whatever will be it is.
And it's just a it's a it's a nervous system response. And so it's just reminding myself, I'm safe. And that's why I think your process is really brilliant. Because you go with low hanging fruit first, like who are the people who you know, are going to say yes, because when they start to say yes, you get a dopamine hit like, Oh, yes. They said yes. And so your brain is going to seek pleasure and avoid pain. So it's like, let's reach out to more speakers, because we want more of this pleasure. And so then you do you're kind of second tier people. And some of those yet say yes. And some say no, but at least you're far enough along, you have enough speakers where you're feeling like okay, I'm in a good place. And you also see that the noes are actually safe. Yeah. When you felt like you didn't? You didn't. It was like, somebody was like, No, I I'll be on your summit, but I'm not going to promote and it's like, okay, great, but no, and and then it's like, okay, now you've got a full list. Okay, now go for, like the dream team, like, who would you absolutely love her your anchors that like when you name drop them, it's going to be really powerful for the audience, and for the other speakers even to have their name next to that person. So when you get that anchor person, then it becomes like those last few spots become really easy to fill. And then I also think I only have to find half the speakers because usually everybody can give you one recommendation. Yes. So I do think you you, you probably didn't even realize that the way you do it is so good for your brain. But it is.
there was all social proof in my mind, but I have experienced that to where I get those first, the first ones out of the way, my best design, I'll say yes. And like, Oh, this is good. I can do this. And it's so much easier. That's awesome. accidentally built in some mindset stuff, because that is clearly not my strong suit. But Oh, good. That's so good. I'm also thinking of like another place I see people hit a ton of resistance is right before they open registration. And I'm guessing that maybe ties back to like, previous failed launches and feelings that come here for that and everything and yeah, just acknowledging that can help people.
I mean, fear of failure is a is a big piece for a lot of people and sometimes it's also fear of success, like fear of success relates to responsibility. So like, if at some point in your life you felt lack capable maybe because you know, someone was always taking over or he's criticizing everything you did. And then suddenly Like you're going to be responsible for this success. What if you can't handle it because you're your little person self, your child self is like, Oh, but I don't know if I'm capable. Because I wasn't before I wasn't treated as though I was. So there's the fear of success. There's like the fear of failure. And that kind of goes back to being judged and criticized, it can can look, the incredible thing is that you have children, I believe, right, Krista. And for anybody listening who has children's, like, you cannot control what your child makes meaning of just like our parents couldn't control what we made something mean. So you could have two siblings in the same house and one sibling made the behavior mean one thing, same event, and another sibling made, it means something else. So it's just really being aware of yourself. That's why my company's called the conscious edge. Because like, when you understand what your brain makes things mean, then you have an edge, because you can catch yourself.
That's so good. Oh, my gosh, I feel like there's so much we could dive into here. But I also think this is like a really good starting point. For people who are kind of going to the summit hosting process and feeling that impostor syndrome, that resistance for whatever reason. So I'm not going to dig in further to that. But I do want you to share, like where people where you'd recommend someone goes on your website, or wherever, yeah, to continue and take that next step with you and your resources,
I would go to conscious edge.com forward slash freebie, I use a mapping tool. And so what people can do is if they're in your process, and there's something specific, they're resistant around, like reaching out to speakers, or something, you know, something that like they're trying to do, and it's like, I just feel really resistant to this, it will take them from the goal of completing that task to what activities they're doing that are getting in the way, like what are their I call them your baby blankets. So it's like the things you do instead of doing what you're supposed to do, because it suits you. And so some people scroll on Instagram, some people go wash the dishes, some people answer emails, so it's your baby blanket task. And then we look at like, okay, what are the fears that are coming up around that? And what, what's the belief that drives all of that? What what do you think is going to happen to you, because your body was literally saying, if you do this bad things will happen. And so we're not going to do that, even though oftentimes, the bad thing will happen. So it'll map you through it. If you're having that resistance.
Okay, that sounds perfect, everyone, we will link to that for you in the show notes as well as Alicia social media and website. Such a great resource, something that I feel like so many of us would benefit from so thank you so much for sharing that, Alicia and thank you for coming on today. And thank you so much everyone for tuning in. For show notes and resources mentioned head to the link in the episode description wherever you're listening. Now go out and take action to plan, strategize and launch your high converting virtual Summit.
