Top 5 Mistakes When Creating And Selling A Live Event

Planning a live event can feel exciting until the pressure kicks in. You want people to show up, have a great time, and walk away feeling like it was worth every cent. But when you’re the one responsible for making it all happen, it’s easy to worry about missing something important or accidentally creating an experience that doesn’t land the way you hoped. It makes you wonder what the biggest mistakes really are when creating and selling a live event.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Small business owners, listen up. You started your business, but you can't do it alone. And that means you have to hire people to help. That's where Justworks comes in. Justworks is a payroll, benefits, and global hiring platform to unburden your brain from all the complicated small business stuff. They handle the things you can't afford to get wrong, so you don't have to worry. So you can focus on the parts of running a business that you enjoy, knowing everything else is running smoothly. You don't have to worry when it just works. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype? For example, I really wanted to love the show Mad Men. I really tried to watch it and love it, but it just didn't do anything for me. As a marketer and business person, the show was a little bit of a disappointment.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great, like impressions. But then we don't see revenue. LinkedIn has a word for that: bullspend. Instead, you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn ads. Cut the bullspend, advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/MBAShow. Terms apply. I love running live events, whether it's a dinner, a workshop, a retreat, a Christmas party, a multi-day conference, a mastermind weekend. I've run all those. And in those experiences of running all those events, I've learned what to do and what not to do, how to be as successful as possible.

• 1:30Speaker 00

  So today, I want to share with you the five critical mistakes you want to avoid when it comes to running a live event. And by the way, if you run a business, you're going to run a live event, whether it's a professional development day to train your team, or a Christmas party for your team to celebrate at the end of the year. You're going to have to do it, so you might as well do it right. And listen, I know the five most critical mistakes, because I made all those mistakes. I did every single one of them. And I want to share with you what to do instead, so that you are successful. I also believe that running live events is a great way to earn money for your business. It's actually a really good product to sell. But the number one mistake, and I'll talk about this in detail, is that most people don't charge enough for their paid live events,

• 2:13Speaker 00

  so that they can be able to spend enough to make an exceptional experience for the attendees. It's counterintuitive, but it's actually easier to sell an expensive event that is a wow, exceptional event, because you have the money to be able to do that, versus a mediocre event that is affordable. So whatever kind of event you want to run, whether it's a small one, a big one. Nicole and I have done all the types of events on the spectrum, whether it was just like a few-hour event, like a dinner, or even like a five, six-day retreat that we did for entrepreneurs, where we traveled to New Zealand and went skiing altogether. It was a lot of work, but you learn a lot in that process. So I could tell you what to do, whether it's a small, one-day event, or a multi-day event.

• 2:58Speaker 00

  Let's go.

• 3:05Speaker 00

  Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.

• 3:18Speaker 00

  Hey, if this show has helped you in any way, leave me a quick review wherever you listen to podcasts. This helps us reach even more people who need the same no-fluff, practical business advice. It literally takes a few seconds, but it makes a huge difference. Thanks for being a part of our journey to help others on their journey. So like I mentioned, mistake number one is not charging enough to deliver an exceptional experience. You need to charge a reasonable amount, right? Why? Because you're going to need to spend to create something that people feel like it's worth their dollar, okay? And that is very counterintuitive. People don't understand that like, hey, am I going to be able to sell this thing if it's expensive? Yes, if you're delivering exceptional value.

• 4:00Speaker 00

  People are happy to spend money if they know they're going to get something in return that's going to make them feel like, hey, this was great. The bottom line is that people will pay for something remarkable. They don't hesitate to buy something that feels like it's going to be worth their money, okay? Underpriced events traps you, right? You can't actually make the event good enough for them to feel like is worth buying. Let me show you how this works, right? You underprice your event, right? You can't afford to make it great, because you're not making enough profit. So the event is mediocre. So then it's hard to sell, because it's kind of blah. So you raise prices, and then you have a death strap, right? Because now your reputation is damaged.

• 4:42Speaker 00

  So it's better for you to go in with a little bit of a higher-priced product, because then you have a margin to be able to deliver an exceptional event that you can market, that you can really show people that they're really going to love what they experience. Now, like I mentioned, all five of these mistakes I'm going to be mentioning, I made them. And I made this mistake the first time we ran our retreat for entrepreneurs called OSGON. It's called OSGON because we cater to Australian entrepreneurs, okay? The first year we ran this event, we had a three-day event. I believe it was three or four nights, sorry. It was probably four nights, three days, from my memory. And we only charged $2,000 for a ticket. We barely broke even.

• 5:26Speaker 00

  It was like me running a group trip, a holiday for my friends, right? And I wasn't able to be able to create the experience I really wanted for my attendees. Now, lucky enough that the experience was still good enough for people to be like, hey, we can't wait for next year. Because just people had a lot of fun, and for them, it was like $2,000 was nothing. Again, I'm catering the event to very successful entrepreneurs, where they have the money to spend. So after that mistake, after we broke even and realized, okay, this is actually not even worth our time and energy. It's a lot of work to plan and run a multi-day event. So we decided to double our price every single year we ran that event. So the next year, it was about all over $4,000.

• 6:10Speaker 00

  The year after that was closer to like $7,500. And every year, we just started to increase the price. And then we also upped the ante and increased the experience, right? The next year, we had it in Australia again, but we had a better experience, better accommodation, better food. And then the year after that, we went to New Zealand and went to like a five-star type of resort, and had private transfers, and even better dinners. The point is, is that like, it was actually easier to sell that event, the one that was super expensive at a five-star resort, because it was really, really amazing. People wanted to be a part of it. People saw the sales page and started to have FOMO already. Oh, man, I gotta go to this event. This is amazing. The lesson learned here is that you have to charge enough to be exceptional.

• 6:54Speaker 00

  And exceptional sells itself. Mistake number two: selling to the wrong people. Listen, you can have a great event and still fail if you're marketing it to the wrong audience. You want to sell your event to the people who will get the most value from your event. The people that feel like, wow, this was tremendous value. The people that actually care about what you're doing. That's not the same people that are willing to pay for the event. Some people can afford something, but just don't see the value. Two awful things happen when you sell to people who don't really deeply value what you're offering, the event itself, the experience. One, they either don't buy, because they're like, uh, this is not something that's, you know, in my wheelhouse, or something that I enjoy, or something that I value.

• 7:39Speaker 00

  Or worse, they do buy. And then they go to the event, and they're like, oh, this is not what I was expecting. This is not something I actually like. I don't actually enjoy these types of activities. And they tell other people, and it kind of ruins the reputation of the event, and your reputation. And they don't come back next year. It's just a lose-lose. But when you sell to the people it was built for, the price never becomes an objection. When I sold OSGON to the right people, it was so easy to sell, because they're like, I don't even need to see the price. This is incredible. This is a great idea. I can't pull this off on my own. And we'll talk about that later. So before you sell a single ticket, get crystal clear. Who is genuinely going to love this event?

• 8:23Speaker 00

  Then go find those people. So with our multi-day retreat for entrepreneurs, I knew the people that would really get the value from OSGON. Because OSGON is really about meeting new people, having fun with other entrepreneurs, sharing ideas, masterminding, and having a curation of people that they can't easily put together. So the people that would really value that are really busy entrepreneurs, that never carve out time for themselves, that never carve out time to meet people at their level. So I really pitched it to those people, and they really saw the value. Like, yeah, this is great, because I'll never do this on my own. I'll never find a way to get these people together, and go skiing together, and have those conversations on the lift, right?

• 9:06Speaker 00

  I create an experience they just can't buy anywhere else.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  To the millions of small business owners out there, we appreciate you. We see your early mornings, late nights, and all the hard work in between. And with the US Bank Business Essentials Card, you don't have to go it alone. With unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase, because we know your community is counting on you to be here, there, everywhere. So yeah, we don't just appreciate you, we support you. The creditor and issuer of this card is US Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from VC USA Inc. Some restrictions may apply.

• 9:40Speaker 00

  The holidays are the season business owners get pulled in six directions. More calls, more requests, more chances for things to slip through the cracks. Hoping you catch it all isn't a plan. That's why today's episode is brought to you by QUO, spelt Q-U-O. The business phone built so you never miss a call or a customer. Ever have a lead call or text at 10:00 PM? QUO's AI agent handles both 24/7. It answers questions, gets to the details, and can text them a link to book an appointment. By morning, you've got the summary and can jump right in. And nobody should have to ask customers to repeat themselves. In QUO, every call, text, and voicemail lives in one thread, so anyone on the team can jump in already knowing the whole story. If you have a business where your customers call or text you,

• 10:25Speaker 00

  this is a no-brainer. You must have QUO. Money is on the line. Always say hello with QUO. Try QUO for free, plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.com/MBA. That's Q-U-O.com/MBA.

• 10:43Speaker 00

  Mistake number three, having the wrong people in the room. Your job as somebody who is running an event is to curate the room, is to curate the people that are going to be attending this event. Because that is actually the value of the event. Now, the difference between mistake number two is quite subtle, but it makes a massive difference. Mistake number two, you are selling to these people. This is who you actually let in. Number three, the people that actually you allow to be a part of this group, a part of this event, whether this event is 12 people, 30 people, 500 people, it doesn't matter. Here's something that you learned the hard way through running events.

• 11:25Speaker 00

  The group, the crowd, the people that attend is the experience. One of the reasons why OSCON was so successful is because people can't do this on their own. It's very hard to curate highly successful entrepreneurs and do this by yourself. Like, think about it, like, in order for me to do this, I have to contact really successful entrepreneurs, people I don't know, right? And I have to convince them to go on a trip with me. And I have to convince them to, you know, kind of have the discussions I want to have and allow time and space for them to be able to open up and be personal and share wins and losses. It's very hard to do. So, the curation of the group is actually the value you're offering. And by the way, when I say "in the room", I'm talking about everybody, not just talking about the attendees.

• 12:10Speaker 00

  If you have speakers at your event, the speakers have to be aligned with the attendees. It has to be on the same wavelength, the same vibe, right? If you have sponsors, right? The sponsors have to resonate with the audience. So, it's gonna feel weird. What I learned through running events is the reason why people come to my events, the reason why when I send an invite, they're like, "Hell yeah", is because they trust my taste. They trust my taste in curating the group. They know that when they go to the event, because they've been to other events, or they heard about my events, they know that it's gonna be good because the people are all kind of cool people, people that they want to spend time with. We don't have anybody who's a jerk, or, you know, you know, I use the word vibe, but also just, you know, the wrong fit for the group. You know, we want to make sure people are humble, people are willing to share, people are willing to be vulnerable, because that's where the value is.

• 12:55Speaker 00

  That's where you actually learn and actually grow in that kind of setting. Now, this is most important when you have a long event, like a multi-day event, where people are gonna spend a lot of time together. You need to highly curate the group. Now, if you have a smaller event, like a dinner, or even just like a one-day event, it's not as critical, okay? But for example, with OSCON, where we had five days on the slopes, it was invite only. We sought out after the people that we wanted to have in that group, and that's why we wanted to handpick that kind of collection of different types of people that had the same intention, the same type of drive, the same type of ambition in business, the same type of mentality in terms of how they treat their customers, all that kind of stuff. But, you know, we also want to curate,

• 13:39Speaker 00

  so it's actually interesting conversation that's happening always. What do I mean by that? Well, you know, if everybody in the group are the same, they do the same thing, they look the same, they're from the same background, you know, they live in the same place, all that kind of stuff, it's not gonna be that interesting, right? It's not gonna be that fun. You're gonna have the same conversations over and over, and it's gonna get boring, right? You want to have a nuanced group. And this is why we made a lot of effort to make sure that there's a good balance between men and women, that we had diversity of lifestyle, we had diversity of background, of race, different types of entrepreneurs, different types of businesses. So, somebody who's in e-commerce, somebody that is in software, somebody that's selling coffees, a chain of coffee shops, all types of businesses. You know, you want to make sure that there is variety

• 14:24Speaker 00

  so that people feel like there's other things to talk about and to learn from the group. And what I learned is that people sign up because of the locations, because of the activities, because of the fun they're gonna have, because of the value that they perceive they're going to get from whatever's on the sales page. But what they actually remember, and what they love, and what they comment when we do like a feedback form after the event is about the group, is about the people that were in the room. Now, I got this wrong in other past events, where I had a wrong person in a small group or a small event. And that one person actually changed the whole chemistry of the room. They were quite negative, they were not very productive, they were not very vulnerable, not sharing any experiences

• 15:08Speaker 00

  or even mistakes they made in their career. And it kind of brought the whole tone down. And I realized, "Oh, I gotta be more selective. I gotta make sure that not only am I curating the group based on who they are and what they do, and their job, and their career, and all that kind of stuff, but also who they are as a person. Are they somebody that has the same spirit, the same attitude that we want to have in the room?" So, just to wrap up this mistake, curate ruthlessly, because that is the product. I hope you're getting a lot of value from today's episode. Make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss any episode that comes out, especially one that we're working on right now, which is called "How to Become the Best Version of Yourself". It's a must-read episode where I go deep in this book

• 15:51Speaker 00

  that I recently read called "Start With Yourself", with Emma Grede. Emma Grede is a very successful entrepreneur, the founder of Skims. And I want to share with you how this book really changed the way I approach my business today. How you really are playing two games in business. The game of business itself, the business you're running, but the game that you're playing within yourself so that you can show up as your best self for your business, for your team, for what you do. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it. Mistake number four, not having a run sheet. We're gonna get tactical here, okay? We're gonna geek out a little bit, because a run sheet is gonna save your life and save your event, okay? What is a run sheet? Well, basically, it's just like a spreadsheet, right?

• 16:33Speaker 00

  It's a way for you to make sure you're planning for every contingency. A run sheet is a minute-by-minute plan for the entire event. Now, this is not the schedule of the event only, okay? It's, okay, this is what's happening every hour in the event for the attendees, but what are you doing and your team, what are they doing, to fulfill each part of the event? I'm talking about every moment, every detail, every transaction, who does what, when, where? I'm not joking, okay? Why? Because all that pre-planning is gonna allow you to relax during the event because you know exactly what to do. I'm gonna give you a very perfect example. We played some games at OSCON, and the winner of the game, or the team that won the game,

• 17:17Speaker 00

  one of the games, would get a prize, okay? Sounds great, right? But we wrote down in detail, "So, what happens exactly? How do you win, okay? What are the rules of the game? And then, when they do win, how are the awards given? Who's going to get the award? Where's the award hidden? Where are the prizes in the room? Do we go into the closet? Is it easy to find? Who's handing it to somebody? Are we taking pictures when it's happening?" All that needs to be planned so that you're not fumbling when it's actually happening. The funny thing is that you think, "Hmm, this doesn't really matter. I'll figure it out in the time." No, it does matter. Why? Because the details make all the difference. And when you nail the details beforehand, and you actually just implement during the time of the event,

• 18:02Speaker 00

  everybody in the room are so surprised. The number one feedback we got from all our attendees from any event we run is like, "Everything is so seamless. Everything seems like it just like flows, and it's easy, and it just is graceful." And it's not because we're like some sort of elegant, you know, person, or people that just comes natural to us. It's because we planned it. It's because we know exactly what to do, who's going to do it, who's responsible for that task, so that when the time comes, we're not fumbling, we're not nervous, it's just implement time. I always say that improvisation is for amateurs when it comes to events, okay? You want to plan, so you're not improvising, you know exactly what to do, and you just execute. Now, there's a difference between a one-day event and a multi-day event.

• 18:47Speaker 00

  And I'm gonna give you some examples. Here are two events, and we're gonna contrast them. The first one is the Crazy Ones Christmas Party. This is a Christmas party we run every year for entrepreneurs that are busy, that never get a Christmas party for themselves. You know, they run a Christmas party for their team, but they don't get a Christmas party because they're the leaders, and they never get to, you know, let their hair down and have some fun. So, we have a big party for all these entrepreneurs that we know. We go go-karting, we play mini-golf, we do bowling, we have lunch, video games. Basically, we get to be a kid again. But this is a one-day event. There's lower stakes because people are not spending that much time together. And there's a lot less to worry about, much easier to deliver value. Something that goes a little bit off, no big deal.

• 19:31Speaker 00

  We still have a run sheet for a Crazy Ones Christmas Party, so we know what everybody's doing. But the exact detail of every little thing is not that important because the stakes are not that high. So, we kind of take it with a grain of salt. It's okay if something doesn't go exactly as to plan. Opposed to a five-day event like OSCON, where you're going abroad, like New Zealand, and you're dealing with flights, and transfers, and hotels, and lift tickets, and meals, and sessions, and boat trips, all kinds of stuff, right? And you want to make sure the timing is right. And there's no room for error, because a mistake with somebody not getting picked up from the airport is a big deal, right? It's gonna ruin the whole tone of the event for them. I'm gonna give you the big difference.

• 20:15Speaker 00

  The run sheet is on a spreadsheet on our phone in a one-day event, right? I can open up my phone real quick just to remind myself what I'm supposed to be doing. It's very easy, and it's kind of low pressure. With OSCON, a five-day event, international, a lot of logistics, I have a clipboard with a bunch of papers, schedules, phone numbers, all kinds of things I gotta do, to-do lists, things I gotta check off. That thing doesn't leave my hand, right? Because the stakes are Now, what's the payoff? Well, OSCon is a bigger event. We charge more, we make more profit on that one. And because we go so deep in the nitty gritty of all the details, it creates a better experience for the attendees, which makes it easier to sell next year around.

• 20:57Speaker 00

  In fact, about 60 to 70% of our attendees come back the next year because it's just a great experience. And we actually have to say no to them and say, "Hey, we know you want to come back and you're amazing and we love you." And these are my friends, right? But we gotta say no. Why? Because that's just gonna be the same group over and over again, right? We have to mix it up. So again, the group is dynamic and that the people that actually have a chance to go, they have a different experience than the people that had it last year. Mistake number five, huge mistake, okay? Not documenting the event. This is the final mistake, the final boss of mistakes, okay? And this is the one that people always get wrong. They either don't do it or don't do it enough. You have to, have to, have to document the event

• 21:41Speaker 00

  so that you can have an easier job next year in so many ways. Now, when I say document the event, I'm not only talking about taking photos and videos. I'm also talking about getting testimonials from people that attended the event right after the event. In fact, we do it on the last day of the event and we ask them to do it in front of us because it won't get done later on, right? So we literally have a session where it's like they just wrapped up a game or something. It's like, "All right, guys, I know the event's not over. We still have another half day, you know, but we want you to fill out this testimonial form, this feedback form, so that we can get some feedback so we can do a better job next year." And we literally send them a link. They open it on their phone and they do it right there in five minutes.

• 22:25Speaker 00

  And we just basically say, "Hey, when everybody's done, we'll continue." I know that sounds crazy and pedantic, but guess what, right? When you make time for something, people actually concentrate, they do a better job and they get it done. Otherwise, if you send this feedback form, you know, two days, three days after they come back from the trip or from the event, guess what? They're gonna get too busy and it's just not gonna happen. So I learned my lesson, I made this mistake and didn't do that. So this is why we do it for every event moving forward. So that is really what you want to do. Grab testimonials. Why? Because it's gonna be easy for you to sell when you have testimonials on the sales page, right? Why do you want photos and videos? As much as possible so that you can, again, share it on social. I can't tell you how many people DM'd me

• 23:08Speaker 00

  when we started sharing videos and photos of the event while it was happening. People were like, "Oh, my God, I can't believe I said no to this. Why didn't I go? This sounds amazing. Oh, please invite me next year." Right? It's so much easier to sell once people have seen what it's like, okay? You want to create FOMO. Events, you know, are really sold on FOMO. When people realize, "Oh, man, I can't do that." And guess what? You don't have to wait till next year to sell it, right? One of the best things you can do is sell tickets to your event next year as soon as the event is over. Even on the last day of the event, say, "Hey, if you want to book your ticket for next year's event or next month's event, or whatever it might be, you could do it right now." And when somebody sends you that DM and says, "Oh, man, I can't believe I missed this event. I wish I can go next year." Okay, here you go. Here's the link.

• 23:53Speaker 00

  Buy, see what happens. Are they gonna buy or not? Or they're just hot air? Listen, don't deprioritize this, right? When you're thinking of running an event, you're often not thinking about capturing the actual event and the content. So make sure you assign somebody to do this. Somebody on your team, maybe even just yourself. From this time to this time, I'm gonna be capturing some videos, some photos. In fact, in one of our OSCons, one of our attendees was so in love with taking video and they love posting on social. She volunteered. She's like, "Hey, do you want me to be that person?" I was like, "Great, awesome." You know? So make sure somebody's responsible for capturing the event for you. The footage is going to help you not only sell the event, but document the event.

• 24:35Speaker 00

  And also, it's great for the attendees to be able to relive the event while past it's over. So then you can create a little montage, a little two-minute video or something for them where they can have like kind of a memory, a snapshot of what they experienced. So they're actually getting value well beyond the event. Now, when I say document the event, I'm not only talking about videos and testimonials and photos and all kinds of stuff. I'm also talking about documenting what happened. You have to debrief after the event is over. Once the event is over and the dust settles, I would say no more than a week after you and your team, or just you if it's just you running the event, you need to analyze how the event went. What went right? What went wrong? What would you change? That's very easy, right?

• 25:20Speaker 00

  What went right? What went wrong? What would you change, right? Because something you changed could be not in that category. It's just something new you want to do, okay? And that's a good way for you to make sure that you are capitalizing on the fresh memory of that event and making sure you don't repeat mistakes and that you are improving year after year. So let me put this into action. This actually happened to us. Last year, when we sold tickets to our Crazy Ones Christmas party, and it's called Crazy Ones, by the way, because you gotta be crazy if you want to start a business and be an entrepreneur. So we're a little bit crazy. So we invite all the crazy ones to this party. So one of the things we learned is that we sold the tickets to this party that was at the end of November, right before like the rush of the Christmas season, in September, right? We started inviting people in September for an event at the end of November.

• 26:05Speaker 00

  Now, you might be listening to this and thinking, "That seems like ample time." Not for the people that we're selling it to, okay? Remember, we are selling to busy entrepreneurs. These people have a lot of things scheduled in advance, whether it's business trips, whether it's holidays, whether it's they're running their own events for their company and their business. So we learned that a lot of people replied to us and said, "I'd love to go. This seems like a lot of fun, but I can't make it because I have this on my calendar. I'm doing this." Or, "I didn't know that you guys were doing this at this time and I planned something else instead." So this year, we are sending out our invites a month earlier, right? In August. Yeah, seems like a lot of time. But we learned our lesson that that is probably gonna help us

• 26:49Speaker 00

  get the right people in the room and get the right people saying yes because they'll have a less than of excuse, they'll have more time to plan and make us their priority and pop it into their calendar. Now, how do I know to do this? How do I know to sell the event a month earlier? Well, it's not that I'm some sort of like smart person that just knows this off the top of my head. No, I read it in the notes of the meeting we had a week after the event, right? We had a meeting after that. Nicole and I, we sat down, we said, "Okay, what went right in this event? Well, this was fun. This was great. People loved this. This is some of the feedback we got. What went wrong? Uh, actually, you know, we could have done this with the food or maybe, you know, like the timing was not so great when it came to this. What do we want to do differently? Oh, actually, I think next year it would be fun to do more of the video games.

• 27:33Speaker 00

  People love the video games so much. They wish they had more time to play video games and play the drums and do like Dance Dance Revolution. And some of the best footage we got from the event is when people are having fun with the video games. So we thought, okay, we gotta do more of that next year, right? And we just basically had a dump of notes, a meeting really. And now, when I'm planning the event for this year, I can just refer back to it and I know, okay, I had to do this next year differently. I gotta sell this ticket a little earlier because last year we got some of this feedback. So that's how I know. Because I didn't, you know, just remember. I just go back to the notes from that meeting that I just discussed. So to wrap up, what are the five mistakes you want to avoid when running any live event? One, not charging enough. Because if you don't charge enough,

• 28:16Speaker 00

  you can't create an exceptional experience for your audience. You can't afford to do it. Number two, selling to the wrong people. Make sure you're selling to the people that actually see the value in what you're offering. Number three, don't have the wrong people in the room. Your job is to curate the room so that everybody's having a great experience. The room is the experience. Number four, not having a run sheet. Having a run sheet saves you the pain and agony and stress during the event. You just follow what the run sheet says. This is the time. This is what we're doing. This is who's responsible for what. Nice and simple. And mistake number five, not documenting the event, whether it's photos, whether it's videos, whether it's testimonials, getting testimonials from your attendees,

• 28:59Speaker 00

  or having that debriefing meeting at the end to figuring out what went right, what went wrong? What would you do differently? How would you improve it next year? Or next month, or next week, or whatever is the cadence of your events. I started this episode by saying, "I love live events." Why? I love them because they're so rewarding. People just really, really appreciate the fact that you can put something together, that they're enjoying their time. You're making memories. You're having a great time with people that are just really cool, people that you enjoy spending time with. You become a connector, right? You become somebody that introduces people to other people. So automatically, people see you as an authority. They see like, "This person actually introduced me to you. How do I know you? Oh, I went to Omar's event and that's how I got to know you. You are top of mind." It's also just a nice thing to sell.

• 29:43Speaker 00

  I have to say that the easiest thing to sell is fun, okay? If I'm doing a fun event, whether it's a skiing trip, whether it's a Christmas party with video games, it's just easy to sell. People want to have fun. People want an excuse to spend money so that they can enjoy themselves. And this is why live events are so rewarding is because you get to give that to other people. And to be honest, I have fun during the event as well because we do all the planning beforehand and I don't have to stress during the actual event. Hopefully today's episode got you thinking about how to run your next event. If you want to create a business that's successful, that's profitable, whether it's running events or combining events with the products that you have, then you want to check out this episode that we recently published. Just scroll back on whatever app you're on right now.

• 30:28Speaker 00

  It's called "How to Set Your Prices to Make $1 Million a Year." Right? We're gonna reverse engineer how to make sure we make $1 million in profit with the prices that we set. Thanks so much for being part of today's episode and learning from us. You can learn from a million places on the internet, but the fact that you're learning from us means so much to us. We'll continue to give you value if you continue to watch and listen and be part of our community. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help start, grow and scale your business, subscribe to the podcast. All you gotta do is hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. I'll check you in the next episode.