Event Planning Hacks That Drive Revenue & Fill Events with Linda Cain

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's edition of The Marketing, Media & Money Podcast. I'm excited you're here, and I have a question. Imagine turning your events into profit driven machines while creating lasting relationships and building a loyal community. Today, we're going to reveal the secret sauce of hosting events and share innovative ideas and strategies to leverage social media and AI for maximum engagement and promotion. So make sure that you get your pen and paper, because for sure, you're going to have some writer downers for you. So let me tell you a little bit about who our guest is today and why you want to know what she knows because she has the Rolodex of who's who in the industry. So Linda Cain is the CEO and founder of Blue Diamond events. She's known for having a Rolodex of the who's who and the transformational coaching and entrepreneur space specializing in creating impactful events, whether in person, virtual hybrid or high ticket destination retreats. She has over 25 years of experience in domestic and international event planning, and Linda and her team help clients develop six and seven figure event driven business success plans. They focus on building lasting relationships, expanding visibility and driving profit through strategic event marketing, creating extraordinary experiences and consistent, profitable events with repeatable processes. So I've got to tell you, don't we all want that? So Linda, thank you so much for being here with me today.

Thank you, Patty. It's a pleasure.

No, I'm really excited. So let's just dive right in. Because I'm sure that we really got everybody all fired up now, because, you know, we're seeing events everywhere, and all different kinds of events everywhere, but I think most people have had the question of, but is it profitable to be doing events? So let's just dive right in. So why do you believe 25 years experience? Linda, why do you believe that hosting events is the number one way to create lasting relationships, community and profit?

Because it's already been proven over and over and over, even throughout the last 15 years of this of being in this space. So going back just for a little bit in time, 2008 when we had the real estate crisis, all the events came to a halt for about a year, and then they came back full because people realized, even back then, that getting people together, being in person, being virtual, just being in that community, is what kept driving your product, your program, your offerings, whatever it is that you were doing, no matter if you were retail or B to B, or if you were in the coaching entrepreneurial space. Events really drive those profit lines. And then fast forward to 2020, when we had our secondary closing of the world crises, same thing. Everything came to a halt, but it came to a halt. It was very interesting, because events came to a halt in a shorter period of time. People immediately switched to virtual and some other opportunities. But then by the time we got into 22 we were back. It it was a very short period of time, at least it was for the my clients and people that we work with. And I think that's really important

too, because one of the things that I really noticed right in 22 when everything came back, is that when people pivoted right, and when people said, oh, you know, we used to do in person events, what are we going to do now? Yeah, right. So there were people who were early adopters, jumped right in and pivoted, right? There were people who kind of did the woe is me, and they didn't so much, right? But those that did pivot, I have found that for myself and the events that I do, that one of the things that happened is, yes, it has come back, but also that some of us realize that we liked doing, you know, virtual events. You know, some of us afterwards, we did kind of get zoom fatigue, as I like to say. But really putting people on Zoom is not the same thing as a virtual event, right, you know, so I feel like it did come back, but we have more options now.

We definitely have more options. And the thing about that is that before you might go and speak in the UK, or you might go speak in Australia, and you had, like, a in person gig, or you did an in person event and met people, but with the benefit that 2020, had for us is it opened up everybody to the options of connecting through zoom and other platforms to reach a worldwide audience, so it brought more people to us. Virtual events are really great. The thing, the challenge that we have, it's not the event or people being at the event and wanting to be present. We're now having to learn, to train people, pick one and be there fully present for the whole day, whether you're virtual or in person, when you go to an event, you've paid for it, you putting your time aside. You want to you want to be able to take advantage of everything that that event has to offer. So don't sign up for three, four or five events in the same week, because, number one, you can't go to all of them. Number two, you can't multitask them. It's just impossible to multitask. And number three, the chances of you really getting anything out of them or even going back and looking at the recordings, is no it's maybe a minuscule of a 1% of people ever go back and look at anything that they bought. So better to just be present. So if we can restructure people to understand, retrain people to understand that, sign up for the event that is going to help you move forward, and help your business, and go to that event virtually or in person, as if you are the that's the only thing you have going that whole day, that whole week. I

think that's really important too, because I think we go to events for different reasons. So for example, I know that there are events that are in person that I go to every time, right? So I pretty much already know the information, but they put the right people in the room, and I want to be in that room with those people, so that's why I like going to those events. Then there are events where what I'm really looking for is the information, maybe not necessarily to network or be in the room with the people, but I really want that information when I want that, I want to do the event virtual, if that's an option, because that way I could be taking notes, I could be thinking about what I'm doing, and I can get the recording. I always upgrade to get the recording so that this way I can immerse myself in it and everything it has to offer. And online ones have a lot of networking opportunities as well as options. But then I have the recordings to go back and listen, hit pause, write down the strategy of how I'm going to implement, you know, and go through it. So there's something for that too, where, when you're in person, you're having to take notes. So there's a lot of different ways, and when they have hybrid ones and and a lot of different things. So I really want to kind of dive into that. So if you could talk about, what are the unique benefits and the challenges of organizing in person, virtual hybrid and high ticket destination retreats, because I know that you do all four of those, and I know there's got to be unique benefits of each one as an organizer, but also some challenges of each one too, which, like you said earlier, pick one, right? Really, get that, but really be thinking about which one is the one that maybe is the one for you. So I know it's kind of an in depth question, but can you take each one of those and kind of give us the benefits and challenges from the organizer point of view? We'll get into the attendee in a second.

Okay, great. So let's start with hybrid. And the reason I'm starting with that it is the most challenging the be from a organizer standpoint, the challenge is being able to effectively have the host pay attention to an in person audience and the virtual audience. Because in a hybrid event, you not only have people in the room with you, but you also have people that are streaming in. It is a wonderful benefit to be able to do, and it creates even higher level of profit margin because those 2030, people that come in the room with you are your platinum, your elite, your VIP, they're your high ticket group that comes in, they get more time with you as a host, they get to bond with each other. We have amazing sales that come out of that, especially for the coaches that are doing high ticket offers. The other piece of it is that you can still manage and be able to engage your virtual audience from around the world. So so it really does create the best of both worlds. However, the technical challenges of it and the being able to give to the people in person, but also give to the people virtually, can be a challenge for some of the hosts, because and for tech, because you've got to be able to maneuver between the two. So that's the plus and minus this of a hybrid event. And I particularly like hybrid hybrids, because I like that ability to bring people at a higher ticket in and then have them get that extra nurturing and team building and relationship building time with the host. So.

Then let's think of each let's take each one of them one by one. Now, because I want to say, I want to ask you a few things that I don't want people at the end to get confused as to which ones which. So let's go there. Okay, so on the hybrid. Would you say that to do a hybrid, if you're thinking about doing that, that you should have already? I mean, not. I mean, there's exceptions to every role, but, like, if you have a really great event plan, right? But would you say that the hybrid is probably not the first go to event you should do, like, you should have some experience in a in person and maybe a virtual so that you could do it, because you do have to have a different conversation and be able to manage both of them. So would you say if you were going to do a hybrid one, while it does have a lot of benefits, it may be something that, in order to do it well, that you probably want to have some experience under your belt of having done an event before. So that wouldn't be your first choice for a newbie.

No, it would definitely not be your first choice for a newbie. However, if you have had in person events, let's say you've never done a virtual but you've done in person it's easier for us, on our side, to train, teach and work with a host who's done ver done in person events and put them in a hybrid situation than it is to take somebody who's never done an in person event and only done virtual and try to get them in a hybrid situation, because it's managing the room in a really weird and reason, but it's managing the room that creates the conversion on the cells. So if you're not used to having those relationship buildings and being in person with each other, then there's a disconnect that happens for the host, because they're just paying attention to their virtual room.

I remember it does because I remember this is where you and I met, like, 15 years ago or something, that we met in a room, and they were doing a in person, I think I want to say there was, like 20 people in the room, ish and and he was doing virtual live stream as well. And I remember, I think it was his first time doing that too. And what happened was he would talk to us, and then he would stop and say, Okay, now I'm talking to them. And he would talk to them, which was great for them, and then we were all just kind of sitting there because he wasn't talking to us. And I remember there was a disconnect there, but it was a learning curve. And I learned a lot from that, but I do remember now we've come so far from that. I said that was 15 years, right, you know, and I know you still do some of his events. So I have to say that now I have seen it done really well in a in a hybrid. And so I could see where a lot of times when somebody is doing it hybrid, and I'm making the decision whether to be there or to do the virtual right, which I'll actually make it to a question for you. What are some of the things that, as an attendee, we should think about that when they're offering both, right, when they're offering both and you can either be in the room or you could do it virtual, obviously, virtual is less expensive, but less expensive does not mean less value, right? You know, it's not at all. So what do you think are some questions that people should ask themselves when they're trying to make decisions they know they want to attend the event, taking money off the table, of the cost. So which is obvious, taking that off the table, what are the things they should be asking themselves about which way is best for them?

So you said it a little bit earlier in the sense of, why do you want to be in person, versus why you want to just be in a Zoom Room or be virtual? And it's who's in the room, the the proximity, everything's always proximity, right? So the proximity to the host, the extra time that you get with the host, that you can't you're not going to get in the virtual space. Who else is going to be in the room? Who are you going to be able to meet? Who will you be able to sit down with joint venture, with partner with meet, to get to know the that's probably a big driving factor. The other is how you learn and how you best like to go to events. I learn better and get more out of an event when I attend in person, because I'm more fully present, because I have to physically be there. That's not to say that I can't be present and fully present in a virtual space, I just find that I am a little bit more distracted by the things that are going on in my office, my home, my world around me when I'm at home trying to attend an event, it's not as easy to disconnect to all of my phone people my office. My team, but it's very easy for me to do that in person, so that's a driving force for me. So ask the questions like, Is this a place that I want to go? Is this an area that I've not been to, that I want to visit? Take an extra day? Are there people in the room that I need to meet? Want to meet? Can meet? It's going to help me. How, what is the proximity that I have with the host, how, how much time am I going to get with her? Extra here, her or him, extra that I'm not going to get if I'm in the virtual space and into the experience like then price that out. Balance it out by price. And if the price and the cost of being in person makes it, makes it, you know, affordable, and it's it validates those questions. Then definitely go in person, because your experience is going to be elevated. But then, if you're going to be virtual again, come fully present video on, you know, schedule your work so that you can be there. Pay attention, participate, write notes, take, you know, do things and participate fully.

I think that really makes a lot of sense, because I have to say, from an in person event, I can't even tell you, it's truly about opportunities, right? When you're thinking about ROI, ROI for anything is, it doesn't mean you pay this money and you get this money back. Sometimes it does, but not in everything. Sometimes it's really about opportunities. And I have to tell you, I have paid several $1,000 to go into an event, and I can literally track back a quarter of a million dollars made from the opportunities to be in the room with the other speakers to time spent with the host. And dare I admit that? I can't tell you that I even closed a $10,000 deal once in the bathroom, yeah, while I was at an event. And the people that you talk to in the hallway, right? You know, when we're on breaks and when it's, you know, bio break time or whatever, you will have some great conversations with people out in the hallway, or you have people that have been in your proximity virtually, that you get to meet in real life because you're going to be there. So I really could speak to that from my own self, but then again, I also can say that when I decide to go to a virtual event, it is really, really great to then, if it, like I said earlier, if you want to know the knowledge that's one you're intending that event, it's really nice to be able to be at home, get comfy, not know that I have to, like, you know, like you said, zoom on the top, yoga on the bottom right. You know you're being comfortable. You have your own snatch, or have your own things unplugged from everything else, except when it's break time, but then you're not thinking about the networking, although a lot of virtual ones do have that built into as well. But it means that I can Uber focus on the information and how I'm going to implement in that business, and what's the next step I'm going to take, and how can that elevate that, or something else about an offer or a program? And not only that, but one of the things that I have really gotten, whether it's there in person or virtual, but I can zoom in on it when I'm doing virtual is if I want to watch somebody give the offer, I want to watch how they do stuff. So sometimes I can be in that Uber focus, and I can be taking notes and be like, Oh, I love the way they did that. I love the setup for how they did it. I loved how they followed up. So you really have to ask yourself, what is the reason I say, when you have the opportunity to mix it up and just decide what is your reason why you're attending that event in the first place, because there's always going to be opportunities somewhere in there, if you just figure out what it is. So I have to say, you know, I've attended many, many events where you were the person who was the event planner. We've done things together, so I feel like I've learned a lot. And then, of course, you're always open to asking questions. So as I was learning that in my own journey early on, when I never thought I would do an event, you were always right there to ask questions. And that's always nice too, to have the proximity to that too. Okay, so we've talked about hybrid,

So now let's go over to virtual.

Okay, let's switch over. Yes, yeah, you could do it the order you want.

Okay, well, it just makes it natural, because we've talked about hybrid, let's go to virtual. So virtual, obviously the best benefit for the host and for the attendee is the cost factor, because you can do it very simple from your own Zoom Room, manage it all yourself. I don't recommend that, but there are people that do that. And again, it goes to experience. Events are all about education and experience, and it's the it's what kind of experience you want to go. Create, and we've done some amazing things virtual from being able to do paint parties and wine tours and mailing out swag boxes and really making it experiential, the networking, the connection to sponsors, speakers, things like that. There's a lot that you could do in this space that people don't think about, but coming along with that is having the right team and right support. Because even more so, even more so in a virtual space, I just say, I always like to say, don't zoom alone, because, you know, you really want a team in there. You want people who are dropping links, chatting, keeping an eye on the conversation, letting you know when a question has been asked, being your eyes and ears in the room, because as a host, you want to concentrate on the training, teaching and your offer, or whatever else it is that you're doing that you know is the reason for the event, and not have to be like, Oh, where Am I going here? Oh, I need to put my slide up. This is happening. So there needs to be a mindset shift that takes place when you're going to do a virtual. So are you going to do a virtual that is so simple that all you just in zoom, you're going to teach train, then you may put them into a network and then bring them back, send them to lunch, keeping it simple, then you can do that with one or two assistants helping you. But if you're going to do a virtual event, that's going to have real impact, really draw the attention, so most of the people will have their video on and not be video off, doing other things and really focused on you, then you have to have experiential components to it, and you have to be doing things that surprises the audience all the way through. So it's unexpected. It's like, oh, wait, what are they doing now I need to be there. I need to turn my video on. I need to pay attention to this. Something's happening. And so you you have to get a little bit more creative with your content, the flow and so that people can't just always expect that something's going to happen. And you need tech to help you support to do that. So you've got music and bumpers and pinning, pinning guest speakers and spotlighting them, and being able to understand how all those inner workings in the Zoom Room, or other platforms that you might be able to be using so that you can keep your audience connected the host in the position where they're supposed to be, and then tech running all the background bells and whistles, because it makes it just that much more engaging and entertaining and educational for your audience.

I think one time I went to this or I went to this event virtually, and they did do some surprises. And one of the things they did when they sent the swag bags, which I love when a virtual event sends us the swag bags, that's not just something you get there, that is something super exciting. But one of the funnest things I saw was they had sent us in our swag, these recipe cards for something we were going to do. And basically what they did during the happy hour break, so to speak, is they had this girl. She was amazing, and she was actually like a like a craft mixer or something like specialist, whatever it came out. Yeah, there you go. Mix out. There you go. And she did it. And she was like shaking and having fun. Got us all whatever in the drinks that she was making. They gave us the recipe so we could mix it at home too. It was so fun, so fun. And I remember laughing, and it was just and it was really experiential, really for me. And I thought, Oh, wow, it was really kind of funny, like they were reaching through the screen and like, oh, here, this is what, you know, whatever. And that was super fun. And I could mention others, but I just feel like there are things that you can actually do that really kind of help it along, you know, like, yeah, one of the funnest things that I've ever had at an event before was this. And this is very inexpensive, but I love these, oh, yeah, you know, whatever. These are just like, stuff on how inexpensive are these? But this one was like, Oh, if you see something and it's a good idea, you know, whatever. And, but it was kind of interesting watching other people if they thought it was a good idea too, yeah. And so I even went to one once that was actually an AI one, and they sent us those, and they would ask us questions like, do you think this was created by a human, or do you think this was AI? And we would literally put up our paddles. So that was really fun, too. So I think that there are a lot of things that you can do. But let's go on to the next one.

Yeah, have paddles are fun.

Yes, I love them.

And I have a whole, I have a whole little cup full of them over here, and they can they're really kind of fun. You can have your kids put them together and then Mel, but. Just to talk a little bit about swag. When you're doing a virtual event and you want to mail out swag, it's fun to have a couple fun components like that, like a like a an emoji that you know people can use, or a saying, or a sign that you know that people can use. A lot of people probably have seen these around, you know? Hell yeah, you can those are, those are really fun, but give some thought to, like, just don't throw stuff in swag and don't have sponsors that do flyers and stuff like that and send that out in a box. Just be, it's better to be very methodical and send one or two things that is going to really be impressive and that they can use at the event. Like you said, Hold up an idea, you know, have it? Have it be part of the experience. Don't just throw stuff in a box and give some thought to how your box is packed. We do swag for our clients. And there's, you know, there's tissue and crunchy paper, and everything's theme colored, and the box is theme, and everything is a wrap so it's not going to break. I cannot tell you how many boxes I get, and the items are in a box. It looks like it came through a post office box, box. There's no, there may be a little bit of logo or design on it, but it's, it's just not impressive. It looks like it came in from, you know, a war zone. It's, it's beamed up and everything. But then you open it up and things are broken, you know, or it's like, seriously, they gave me this. Why did they give me? I mean, I don't need a post it note unless it's going to have some significance to the event. Don't, don't waste your money on stuff like that. It's better to just be very focused. Send a wine glass, send a a really cool cup, or, you know, to send one really cool thing than a whole bunch of little things, is the point. And getting to and just signing off on virtual events. We had a wine tasting that we had a winery in Temecula, and the guy put a GoPro on his head, and he walked through the vineyard. So on the screen, all people saw were the grapes, and his hand would reach out, and he would pull up the grapes, and he would talk about them. And then, you know, and then in your box you had some splits of of different kinds of wine that came in your box. So when you came back, so when he got back to the bar area, and he was doing the tasting, then you got to open your box, and he would open up a bottle, show it to you, pour it. It's as if you were sitting right there. And then everybody would drink, and then they would talk about it, and people had their mics open, and they could ask questions, and it was the coolest thing. And it felt like you were really, you actually went on a walk through the vineyard, and then how to sat down and had a drink with this guy. So you can get very creative. We've done paint parties, we've done escape rooms. We've done breathing. We'd had a breath session where everybody either lay down on their floor or a cot or their couch, and they put their laptop so that the host could see them doing their breathing and practicing their breathing. And she could call people out, you know, Linda, put your knees up, deeper breath, arch your back, lower your head, you know, it was really cool. And you can see all these people, you know, laying around in their Zoom Room. And then the last piece about tech for zoom, typically, you can only see about 40 people, 45 people, maybe 25 depending on what zoom you're using and what you know latest version of it that you're using. So if you've got a 200 300 people in a Zoom Room, you have to have extra monitors so that you can see all of your attendees. That's another reason to give some thought about if you're going to do a virtual event, what is the overall experience, not only for your attendees, but for you as a host. And if you're not going to have, if you're only going to have one zoom, zoom, room like this, and you're only going to see 45 of your 150 people, then you're going to have to figure out how you can move your screen periodically so you can see other people in the room, and then move your screen back so you can see other people in the room, so you can keep that engagement. And that's one of the reasons I believe that a lot of people show up without their video on, because they know that the host is only going to be able to see X amount of video people in an average, you know, simple Zoom Room. So give some thought to that, about adding in a couple monitors so you can see more people, and

Having a higher package with zoom that allows you to be able to do that as well, which I think is very important. Okay, so what are we going to next?

So now let's go to in person. So in person, event. Events. For me, I love in person events. It is the best way to connect to hub, to be with people. You can go grab a coffee, you can go grab lunch, you can just take a walk with somebody. The deals can be made in a million ways. The connection is that human connection, I think, is what is really great, and really helps to solidify the experience. Plus, by being in person, you are pretty much 90% 100% engaged. You know what I mean? You You might step out for a call or whatever, but you want to be back inside that room and be with, you know, everybody in the room. Now, the challenge to in person events, obviously, is cost, because you have to have a location, and there's going to be there's costs that go along with location. So just speaking real quickly to people that want to go to hotels and using a hotel as their menu for in person events, remember that a hotel gets their revenue three ways through how many guest rooms you have, how much meeting space you're going to need, and what the cost is of that, and are you going to have any food and beverage? Are you going to serve lunches, reception, food, coffee service, all those kind of things. So when you're negotiating for your space, especially at a hotel and other venues as well, but mostly hotels, you need to take in those three factors. So number one, if you're going to have 100 people, then try to negotiate for a third, like 30 room nights, not 100 so you want to be responsible for 30 rooms that are picked up, and make sure that you ask for them to be cumulative, which means every night counts as a group, not per night separately. What I mean by that real quickly is that, let's say you have 30 rooms on Wednesday, 30 on Friday, Thursday and 30 on Friday in if you don't say the word commute, cumulative in your contract, then the hotel's gonna go well, you only had 20 people on Wednesday, so you owe us for 10 rooms. You only you had 35 people on Thursday. That's great. We got extra five rooms. You don't get any credit for it. And on Friday, you hit your 30 so it's a wash even, even you owe us 15 rooms, the attrition on 15 rooms. But if you do cumulative, then they're going by. The total of 90 room nights picked up. So 3030, 30 is 90. So the total of 90 rooms picked up. And then if you have 20 on one night, 15 on another, 30 on another. But people stay two days prior or two days post, then all of the rooms get counted for the pickup, and we find almost every time by doing it that way, nobody misses their attrition block, because it's counted every night for however many so the people that are coming out of town, they pick up an extra night. The other thing you want to do is don't do even, even, even make your first night maybe. So if I was negotiating your contract for you, and you had 100 people, we would negotiate 20 people on Wednesday, 30 people on Thursday, 20 people on Friday, because we know there's going to be some people coming in late, and we know there's going to be some people leaving early, and this way, then you're not your attrition level gets lowered, and you can meet the minimums that the hotel wants you to Meet the second

So now I just want to say really quick before you go further than that, that was a value nugget, truth bomb, right there. I hope you wrote that down, because that was the word of the date cumulative. That could be the difference in profit, not profit. Mostly I remember the very first event that I did. I wrote a really big check, because I didn't know that, but I learned it quickly. So I have to say that is really, really important. So I hope everybody's really paying attention to that, because that is key. And she didn't say she was going to tell you about a profit driven machine. That was a big one, right there.

Yeah, the other part of it is your food and beverage minimum, so sometimes the hotels will want to charge you a fee to be in this space. So it's called a meeting room rental. You want to get that waived by doing food and beverage minimum. Now, sometimes it doesn't make sense. It's better just to pay the room rental and don't have any food and beverage. But again, it goes to what kind of event you're doing, the typical high ticket event where they're the host is bringing people in three days of training and selling into a high ticket. There's usually a VIP lunch or some sort of VIP food and beverage that goes along with it. So what you want to do there is, again, it's not going to be for the full 100 people. So in negotiate. In your contract, you're going to say, I have 40 VIPs, and those are the only people that are going to get lunch. You know, yes, I need a room that has space for 100 but I'm only catering to this 40. They're going to be staying on property. They're going to be my VIPs. Some of the other people may stay. They may not stay. I don't really care. You really want that contract written for like a 40 for 4050, person contract, but with the space to have your 100 people so on the food and beverage minimum, remember, they're going to tack on tax and gratuity to that. So if they tell you your food and beverage minimum is $10,000 it's also going to be closer to 14,000 because you're going to have tax and gratuity. So I always do whatever the food and beverage minimum minimum is, times do a 32% on top of it, and you'll be covered. That'll cover just about anywhere you want to go. 32% give or take a percent here and there is that.

What they mean when they say this price, plus plus, yep, and how you see plus plus, yeah,

Plus tax, plus gratuity. The other thing you want to do is go with the minimum food and beverage that you can go with. So it's like, No, we're just having three meals. You can add coffee later. You could add a reception later. You can add dinners later. You can pay more food, have more food, but go with the minimum in your contract that you know you have to have. So maybe it's two lunches, or maybe it's three lunches, and go with that. So that the whole idea in writing the contract is to write it to your benefit, not the benefit of the hotel. You can always go back. You can always go back and add food and things like that. So watch out and be careful of food and beverage. Minimum on 100 100 person event, you figure 40 people at around $55 a person for lunch, and you know, times that by three lunches, you're going to be very close to about a 10,000 so you can kind of think that if you have 100 people, you know, you figure 100 a person on food and beverage, about 10,000 it might be a little more. It might be a little less. So that's a good average now, plus plus plus plus, plus plus. And then the other piece of it, it to watch out for is the hotels are back now, because they're in full swing, and they've made up their losses that we had in 2020 that if they tell you, Oh, it's because we're still making up losses. You don't want to go to that hotel. They don't have their stuff together, fine, because everybody's pretty much made up their losses. There's, there's, I don't know, any business really, that hasn't made up their losses or reconfigured and reinvented themselves in their new business. So to say, Oh, covid. You know, we're still under covid, is like, I don't, I don't blame them. So hotels are fully back, but what they're doing because of what they went through in 2020 they are now a lot of you'll notice that encore, which is a company that does all of the audio visual they're in a lot of the bigger chains. They've made contracts because what happened in 2020 is hotels let all their independent audio teams go they couldn't afford to keep them. So encore did these really big packages? Great for encore, not so great for the average user, because they have fees that are tied into the contracts. They have something called an it's the setup and strike fees. So whether or not you bring in your own audio visual team or your own AV equipment, you might own your own projector and screen you want to bring it in, they're going to have this setup fee and a strike fee that they're going to charge you. It's typically $500 for the setup and 500 for the strike. All that means is some guy's going to stand there and kind of watch you bring your stuff in, set it up, leave and they're getting and it's usually for like a four hour, where most setups are longer than four hours. So you want to make sure that your contract is really written like a flat rate of x for a setup and a strike fee. The other thing you want to watch out for is internet charges and also for what we call power drops. So some of the hotels, you can't even plug in your laptop or your cell phone to charge it in the regular socket that's inside of a ballroom, they have now done a put a little thing gizmo on it so that you have to open up the gizmo in order to put your socket in. And it can be $65 to get power. It can be $1,000 to get power. It just depends. So ask those kind of questions about your venues, do they have power drops? And if so, how much? And try to negotiate as much. That off as you want so little things like that to really be watchful of. We call them the hidden fees, that can just destroy your profit margin.

And it sounds like it really can. So now we're going on to high ticket destination retreats. Yeah, one of my favorite

And oh the sun. So there the the great thing about high ticket destination retreats is you can make money on the front end and you can make money on the back end, depending on how you want to do it. Plus, you can have your favorite destination that you want to go vacation at, put a retreat around that allows you to go in early or stay late in your favorite place that you want to go, and at the same time bringing people along with you. And you can do some workshop training. You can have an experience. For example, you're doing one where you're in Italy, and I've had another client that's just got back from Italy, and they were able to do, you know, wine tasting. They rode llamas. They did all kinds of crazy things. They had, you know, lunch out in the vineyard. But they also had some training time, two or three hours a day, where they were working with people on their business and doing mastermind sessions. And it worked really great, because they charged people to come to the event, and they had a little cushion in there for profit. And then at the event, they sold two packages. They sold a high ticket package of 25k and they also had an 18k package that they sold. And they had about 20 people at their retreat with them, and they ended up selling 12 of those different packages. So you can do something like that and make it profitable. The other thing you can do is, if you just want to do a trip and an experience, then you front in your profit into the ticket for people to come. So let's say you take people some plate, Italy, France, Bali, and you have all these experiences that they're going to do and grow and transformational things that they're going to take away and experience. So maybe instead of doing 5000 which covers your costs and gives you a little margin, you go ahead and price it out for 10,000 to give yourself a bigger margin on the front end, do a lot, pay for all of your experiences and everything, and then after the event is over, you can still market to them the next thing that you have to sell, if you want.

I think that makes a lot of sense. So now that we've kind of gone that, so I know that everybody had to been taking notes on that, or they're going to want to watch the replay the recording, right? So what key activities do you focus on to drive revenue and Philippines effectively, while creating an extraordinary experience for the attendees? So we're going to switch it a little now, because now it's going to be like, yeah, that all sounded really, really great. How do I fill the room?

How do I drive? Yeah, like, how do I get enough? So let's kind of talk about that. So what are some key activities that do you really focus on when people hire you, that's going to drive revenue and help fill them, but it's also going to be an extraordinary experience for the attendees as well.

Building the email list. Keep building your email list is really key and important. So doing activities that help to build your list, participating in summits, participating in giveaways, even doing your own summit tour for your event or doing your own giveaway, so that you can keep building your list. Because if Facebook or any of the social media platforms go down, email is always going to be your lifesaver. And if you have those social medias put in your regimen at least every quarter where you go and you extract all of that, all of your content, all of your database, all of the people that are following you or that are in your Facebook group or in your Instagram group, download all of that every quarter so that if something happens, you have recovery capability and you're not losing all those contacts. So emailing is really good, and having a really good, strong email campaign, education based marketing. And Alexis aldecott talks a lot about this, and I 100% agree with her, do do pre event things that keeps people engaged, pass out some knowledge, give them tips, give them things to do, teach them some things which is going to make them understand and want even more to come and be at your event. If you're just selling a ticket and you never go back and get engaged with them, then what's the motivation for them to really come. So once you mark in your marketing phase, you know, buy a ticket, and you're going to get this bonus. It'll be released on this day. Or buy a ticket, you're going to get this training. We're going to get together, you know, before the event, and do this. So have a better email campaign that drips out content speaking on. Stages is still the number one way to get people to get your freebie, or come to your event, being able to sell your ticket, give away your ticket, things like that. So and speaking can be podcasts. It can be networking. It can be paying for stages. It can be going on stages that you're asked to be on, and it can be your own master classes, webinars, things like that. So really and truly, what I we like to do is, what do you as a client? What do you resonate best with? Do you like Facebook Lives and webinars, or do you only like talking to other people at events? Or do you like a combination of all of it, and then figure out the strategy that best fits what you enjoy doing that makes you shine, and putting that kind of marketing plan in place, the worst thing that a host can do is like, if you hate social media, don't do a social media campaign, because obviously your clients are probably not going to be there. Where do you where do you already meet your clients? And where can you meet more of them and focus on that? So some people do just a LinkedIn strategy. Some people it's a combination, like I said, masterclass webinar and Facebook. Some people, Instagram is included, but the key is having a visibility plan that gets you out in front of people and brings newer people into your community.

I think that's really important. So that kind of leads to a question, so why is understanding your ideal audience crucial for planning a successful event? Right? You know, because I think a lot of times it's, you know, you got to have that clarity of who is that ideal client, right? And how do you help your clients define their target audience? Because I think sometimes people just decide they want to have an event, and they're not real clear on that. I know as a speaker that when I very first started speaking and didn't know better, I remember I would go speak at events, and I'd be talking about marketing, and they'd have a ray K healer and like all these kind of things, they say, Oh, we're gonna have 100 people in the room. Well, maybe they are gonna have 100 people in your room. But if those other speakers, their audience isn't your audience, it could mean that only 20 people in the room are really your audience, right? So I think that now that I actually do events, being very, very clear for me on who is my ideal audience, and then making sure that all the speakers about put having speakers at my event or whatever, then I'm really, really clear onto their ideal audience. It is so that it's a win for everybody, but from an organizer or from an event planner point of view, really understanding who your the client who hires you, right? The client who hires you, so the host. How do you help them really define who their target audience is? Because that has to be crucial for when you're helping them to plan an event.

Absolutely. Because if they don't know who they're, who they want at their event, it's spaghetti on the wall. It's gonna some is gonna stick. Some's not gonna stick. And the biggest thing that happens is that, oh, I'm gonna have 100 people or oh, I have 100 people that are coming to the event. But out of that 100 people, 60 of them are already in a program. They're already in your community. They're already buying from you. The chances of them, you're going to have to work a little harder with that 60 to get them to buy that high ticket offer that you're going to, you know, be having at your event. That leaves 40 people in the room that are really what we call your ideal client, because you're already engaged with those other 60. So that 40 is your new group of people to work from. That can be problematic. If you're trying to sell a 25k high ticket offer and you only have 40 people in the room, not that you can't. You should still be able to get sell 20% of that, which would be eight cells. But if you had 100 people in the room that were new to you and that were in your program, and 60 people that were in program. What better event is that going to be? Because you have 160 people in the room, so pay attention to who is signing up early, and if it's your current clients, they know you need to pivot that marketing to reach more new clients. And the reason that it's crucial to know who you want to work with is because you don't want to have that 40 in my scenario here, you don't want to have those 40 people not be your ideal client, because then that even shrinks down your profitability even further. So use surveys, use assessments, use those pre event engagement opportunities of master classes and things like that, to start drawing the right people into you, to sell them into your you know, to invite them to your event, going, as you said, going to stages or speaking in other events that has your ideal client. Before you say yes to going to an event, ask the host who's going to be in the room if you're going to go, if you're teaching sales conversation and you're going to go speak in front of a health practitioners group where everybody's learning how to do yoga and injections. Chances are people who want to learn how to do cells are not going to be in that room, not the place to spend your money, not the place to go. So trying to be more selective. The other thing too is podcast. You know, it's great to be on podcasts, but if their reach is not your audience or just to be on a podcast, if you want to do it, to practice and you want the recording and you want the exposure absolutely 100% but if you're looking for ideal clients who are going to listen to that podcast and connect with you, you have to really know who your ideal client is. And what we do is we take our clients through that Empath process, rather than a demographic thought process, to find and identify who their ideal client is. And what I mean by that is demographics are, who they are, what their age is, what's their gender, what's their business. Those are important factors to know. But what's more important is, are you dealing with moms at home with lots of kids? If that's your target market, you're going to market to those moms in one way, then you would the single person, the single female who maybe her kids are older, and she's doing her second phase of life. Those are two different marketing languages and messages, so you can't mix that together and serve both of those audience. But you

I also have a don't you also think though that when I know a lot of times when people are thinking about location, right? So if it's an in person event, it's an in person event when you're thinking about location. Now I have to tell you again, I used to spend a lot of money going to events that they said were destination events. And I'm just going to say, if it's a destination event, it needs to be a destination event. Because I can't even tell you how many times I would pick a place, I say, oh, I want to go there. And I would go, and they would keep us in that room to nine o'clock at night. And so it's like, well, if they have been at a destination, I wanted to go, but I never even saw it, right? So I have to then now stay there extra days that cost me even more money in order to be able to see that destination. I always ask those questions as well. And when I'm doing my own events, you have to realize that if people are coming, rather than doing the virtual option they want to see that event, you need to allot time in that event for them to be able to do it. So now, when you're thinking about marketing to them, right? I think a lot of times, if somebody is going to have an event, say in, I don't know, I live in Dallas, we'll just say Dallas. So I would have an event in Dallas. I mean, it's, doesn't have a beach, right? You know, so is, you know, whatever, it has wonderful things here, but a beach is not part of them. What would you say is the either the percentage or a different strategy, like, yes, if you do have a beach say, for example, people are beach people or mountain people, or whatever the case is, you will get people to fly in, right? So, but sometimes it's really about you're going to spend more of your marketing dollars local, because you're in a place where people really probably aren't going to fly in, like, I don't want to say one, because I don't want anybody to get all mad at me because I say that one. But there are places really that I would that I don't care how great that is, I will take the virtual option, because I just don't want to go there, right? You know, it's just not a place I want to go. And so can you talk a little bit about when you have an event, when you're having a bit now, if you're doing a virtual event or a hybrid event, I mean, maybe it's not as much of an issue, but if you're doing an in person event that you want to do, what would you say the percentage, if there is a statistic of marketing to local or not very far drivable, right? You know, versus people that have to fly in for events, or if maybe somebody is doing event that maybe is kind of centered like they live in that place, right? You know, and it is kind of centered to be local, I kind of feel that sometimes. I'll give you an example of why I'm asking that question. I see people do an event they live in a city, the events in the city that they live in, and it's in person, and maybe the event is a one day event, and then they're all over social media. I don't know about you, but I'm probably not going to spend a lot of money to fly somewhere for a one day event. And I live on the other side of, you know, the United States, right? So really, they're kind of targeting a local market, or people that are within drivable and so would you say that people really need to know that, and that there's different strategies in how you are? And. How you are marketing or reaching out for people to fill that event, and what you know they need to take that into consideration when they're marketing for that event.

Great question, and yes, absolutely, because that goes back to knowing the customer and knowing well three things, what kind of an event are you doing? Who is it for, and what is your offer? Because once you know what kind of an event you want to do and who you're going to have there and what you're going to offer them, everything else becomes clear, because then you know, oh, this, I'm really marketing to my local audience. I want to raise awareness of what I do to my local community, then all my focus is going to be on those people that need my product and need my offer that's designed for my local group, my my local outreach. So they you. So the ideal client for that might be just those. Let's say you're teaching sales as an example, anybody that does and needs sales. So you could probably get car dealerships, real estate offices. You can really have a mix of people. Then their one common denominator is they need and have know how to sell better and sell strategy, sales, languaging and practicing it, and formulas, and how you lead somebody through a cell and close the cell, and the follow up, and all of that can be done. So if you are have a wider net that you're casting, and you want to reach all of your people that would be interested, that fit that avatar, and then that opens up that you can go to another city, a destination, you know, maybe this year we're here. Next year we're going to be there, we're going to be here in the spring, and we're going to be here in the fall. And you move around, when you move around, you want to the best thing that you want to do is make sure that there are no barriers to entry. So have you priced the event affordable that your people can afford it? And affordable doesn't mean $97 versus 10,000 because maybe your avatar can afford the 10,000 and that's a cheap ticket compared to the 20,000 that they might pay. So again, it's relative to who you're marketing to. But then, is it affordable? Is it accessible? I fly in, do I have to drive an hour now to get to the location, or am I going to be picked up? Or if I'm going to be picked up and get a glass of champagne, fine, as long as I don't have to drive it. You know what I'm saying. What does that look like? Is that a barrier to entry? And then what are you offering? Again, you know, what are they coming in for? What are they going to learn? What are they going to experience? It's going to make them want to do that offer. So really, deciding where you're going to go and and what city to go to, whether you stay local to you, or whether you want to go someplace, is really up to the host on the experience the host wants the attendees to have, but more often, I'm seeing where people are staying closer to home, because a hotel is a hotel. And like you said, if you're doing a regular three day enrollment type program or a one day training, the chances of your people seeing the beach, taking a hike in, the mountain, whatever is going to be really slim, because they're going to be with you, that they're going to fly in, be with you, fly out, or they're going to drive in, be with you and drive out. So you might as well make it the most affordable to you, so maximizing your profits, but giving them a good experience. So there's each of us, I believe, have amazing hotels within our city. So highlight your city. Highlight what's fabulous about why you chose to live where you live and bring people into your city, rather than, Oh, let's go to valley, or let's go here, unless that's the reason for the event.

No, I think that makes sense. Like I know that my business is a lifestyle, Freedom driven event. My people want to go places. We want to go places, but they also don't want to stay in a stuffy room, either. They want to have you have

To be able to, within that framework of your event, to have those opportunities and times for them to that's why the that's why I love events, because you can do one of each you know, you can have a virtual and you can go to a high ticket destination, and you can do, and the in person in the middle of all of that really just depends on what you want to create and what you want to do. You can also have your retreats be part of your fulfillment process. To a high ticket offer where you're working with people for a year and you have 1012, people that have bought that high ticket. You can take them someplace great. You know, you can take them you. On a European vacation, or to Bali, or to Costa Rica, or to Canada, wherever you want to go as part of the fulfillment, you know, so they would come with you on that fulfillment. I think the key though to location is, is really budget driven. What kind of an event, budget and experience driven? So, you know, if you want to go to Bali and you can't afford it, you can create a bally feel experience in a local venue, if you want.

Oh, now see, that is really good. So I think that, you know, we've kind of talked about some effective ways to make money, save money. Think about taking price. Think about experiences which I think you've really gone deep there. I really love that we've talked about promotion, and what are some of the different ways that you can promote, whether it's social media, using your email. But here's the question, I think, an affiliate? Oh yeah, let's not forget affiliate. But I also think, and I've heard you talk recently, as a matter of fact, if you have about the cop, the latest copy of the magazine. She actually writes about it in our in the marketing community, Money Magazine. But how can you use tools like chat, GPT, right? How can you use AI to effectively use it for event promotion? And what are the key things to keep in mind when you're using it? As I do really feel like people are like, wanting to use AI now. So there's some things, just like everything else, it's okay to use AI, it's a tool. And then there's things that really, honestly, it's not going to replace the phone. So I know that you do talk about that. So what can you share with everybody about when can they use tools like that to help them and when are do they really need to what do they need to keep in mind with using those tools,

there are all kinds of tools that we have for helping us with our marketing and our messaging. And AI, of course, is like, you know, the hottest, latest thing, but it's really good because you can take your ideas, you can take your messaging and put it into chatgpt or Jarvis or one of the other, you know, programs. The thing about it is to whatever tool you're going to use, don't just throw things in there, like, don't just say, I'm doing an event and I want women only. You have to be very specific, and you have to teach it your language. So it's important to talk with the AI for a little bit. I know it sounds kind of crazy, but really play around, play around with the chat like go to chat GPT and and say, I'm a 30 year veteran event producer, planner. I have done events like this, this, this, this, this, my typical conversation I have with my client is like this. What does this tell you about me? And then it'll tell you what it thinks you are. And you say, No, not quite. This is how I talk. This is how I it's more, I'm more like this. And then it goes, and then you ask it like, do you understand? And it's like, Yes, I you know. It gets to know you, I know. And then

I even asked it to interview me. What questions do you need to ask me exactly?

And then you can say, you know, I'm planning an event, and I want to teach my process to, you know, this kind of a person that makes this kind of money, you know what? What's my best marketing message, you know, to to get them to come. And then it, it gives you things, and then from there, you can work on it, massage it and create you can ask it simple questions. And once you've done that, when you go back in, it's like, Hey, it's me again, you know, Linda or whatever. And then there's like, Oh, okay. And then they go, it immediately remembers who you are, what you're doing. And sometimes I've had it even say things to me, crazy things like, you know, what are you writing now? And I'm like, Oh my gosh, you're getting scary.

Well, you know, you think about it though, but I think it is really important now we even I just recently learned, because I love AI and but I recently just learned that now you can actually create shortcuts of those prompts that you wanted to do and create shortcuts. So now, when you're doing things, you can just, like, create that shortcut. You just have to put that in, and it automatically knows. So you don't have to put all that in, which is kind of really nice, you know, whatever. So I think it is really important. But I have to tell you, Linda, by talking about AI and promotion and experiences, I feel like my listeners probably have like, lots and lots of notes, lots and lots of notes. But guess what? If you thought that was like, oh so much, and you're like, I don't know what to do, you're really in luck, because she is giving you an amazing gift that is pretty much. Going to break everything she said down like a complete guide. She's going to guide you through all those different kinds of events, help you determine which one is best for you. And she's giving you a second one, where she's actually going to give you an assessment, where they're going to know too. So tell them about the gift, tell them about the assessment, so you know, no matter how you got here today, whether you are watching on YouTube, whether you went through my website, no matter what you did, there was a button you had to push, wherever that button is, right next to that button is a button for you to be able to get the free gifts.

So we wrote a packed full eBook called profitable events, a complete guide where we break down virtual hybrid in person and retreat. There's tips in there, there's exercises for you to do, and it'll help you figure out which one of those four that you love the most, that you want to incorporate and or maybe add one in that you haven't been doing. So if you haven't done a retreat, maybe that's something you want to tackle for the rest of this year, or into 2025 and so it's packed full. And the beautiful thing is it also gives you an opportunity to book a call with me if you want to have a call just to ask questions and pick my brain.

That's so nice. So tell her about the assessment.

And the assessment is a really good tool that if you take the assessment and you love it, you should create assessments for your own business because it allows me to immediately see where you are in your event driven business plan, and it helps me to know better how to to reach out with You, send you stuff or connect with you further and help you to the assessments are great because it'll also show you where you're at and how far along you are in the process, and whether or not you're ready to take on an event or not, which

I think is just wonderful. So I love it that you didn't show it with just one gift that you have two. But I have to tell you, Linda, I appreciate you so much going so far into depth and giving so much information. You know, there's so many people that would be like, Oh no, you have to hire me.

I'm not telling you any of that. Oh gosh.

And I love that you're so generous with your brilliance always. And I really appreciate it. But again, a lot of times when you get information, it just really helps you to know one thing that you don't want to do it, then you don't want to do it on your own, that you need somebody there to walk beside you or do it for you, whatever the case may be. So if that's the case here, how could people get a hold of you? Because she's this generous all the time, so you want to be connected to her everywhere. So how can they get a hold of you, Linda,

So they can email me at Lindacainoffice@gmail.com they can also text me at 626-252-2834, I'm a texaholic. I love texting. I it's easy to answer when I'm on the road, on the go and it and I can drop a calendar link there, and we can get connected that way as well.

What's your website? So if they want to go to your website, oh yes, of course.

I always forget about that. Our website is events by Blue Diamond, and that's e, v, e, n, t, s by b, y, blue B, l, u, no, E, so blue diamond.com events by Blue diamond.com and the reason everyone Yes, and the reason there's no E in the blue is because the world's most expensive, sought after diamond is called the Blue Diamond, and there's no E on it because French stuff is the E sometimes.

Now there's a piece of trivia that I didn't know, but just so you know, all of those buttons are there too. So wherever you are, just look down, all the buttons are there for you. So I appreciate that so much. So thank you so much for being here with me, Linda, and being so generous with your zone of genius.

Thank you for having me Patty, always a pleasure. We could talk all day long.

I think no we could. And to those that are listening, I know that was a lot of information. I know you're really excited and ready to do your first or second or third event, or maybe try a different version or way that you want to be able to do events. So I know you're really, really excited, and I'm excited for you. And if you do, decide you that I would love to hear about that too. So invite me. But in the meantime, if you enjoyed today's episode, and I am sure you did, please like subscribe and review the podcast on your favorite listening platform. And as I said about the magazine, Linda is our event specialist in the marketing, media and Money Magazine. Grab Your Free Copy at m3digitalmag.com and until we speak again, thank you so much for joining me every week. Have a great week.