Isaac Watson: 00:00:13

How do you as a leader of a growing community, Truly make a

Isaac Watson: 00:00:17

conference or event that has impact, a gathering with purpose and an attendee

Isaac Watson: 00:00:22

experience that knocks their socks off.

Isaac Watson: 00:00:25

An event that leaves your audience in awe and wondering where

Isaac Watson: 00:00:28

you've been their whole life.

Isaac Watson: 00:00:30

Make it Kickass, the podcast that explores these questions by uncovering

Isaac Watson: 00:00:34

the strategies, tactics and tools that we use every day to bring

Isaac Watson: 00:00:38

our clients' conferences to life.

Isaac Watson: 00:00:40

I'm Isaac Watson, Executive Producer of Kickass Conferences, and we are

Isaac Watson: 00:00:44

here to help you make it kick ass.

Isaac Watson: 00:00:51

Hey everyone, welcome back to Make It Kickass.

Isaac Watson: 00:00:54

As always, I am Isaac Watson, executive producer at Kickass Conferences, and

Isaac Watson: 00:00:59

with me is the illustrious Nessa Jimenez.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:03

Hello . This is our operations manager.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:06

We are back with a wonderful season of episodes for you focused on all

Isaac Watson: 00:01:12

of the amazing questions that we get asked all the time from our clients,

Isaac Watson: 00:01:18

from the people that we talk to about events, all that kind of fun stuff.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:21

So we're taking every episode and diving a little deeper into a single question

Isaac Watson: 00:01:25

and really just like figuring out.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:27

What do people really mean when they ask this?

Isaac Watson: 00:01:30

. And how does that inform how they think about hosting conferences and

Isaac Watson: 00:01:35

and their strategy around it all?

Isaac Watson: 00:01:37

Because as we will tell you time and time again, strategy is everything.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:01:42

That's right.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:44

So let's dig into today's question.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:46

Today's question, which we also get all the time, is how do I get a

Isaac Watson: 00:01:52

big name speaker at my conference?

Isaac Watson: 00:01:56

How do I get a big name speaker at my conference?

Isaac Watson: 00:01:59

So Nessa, what do people really mean when they ask us that question?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:04

Yeah, big name speakers.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:05

That's always top of mind for people.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:07

But what they're actually trying to get us to tell them is, will a big

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:11

name at my event sell tickets for me?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:14

I think that's the actual question that they wanna know.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:17

How do I impress people right by will a big speaker impress my audience, and

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:23

how easily can I get people through the door if I have one big celebrity

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:28

name, if I get Michelle Obama.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:32

Am I gonna get like everybody up in there , just cuz she's there.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:37

So that that really is the question.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:39

Is this big name gonna sell my tickets for me?

Isaac Watson: 00:02:42

And at the end of the day, the actual underlying problem behind that

Isaac Watson: 00:02:48

line of questioning, behind that desire to get people in is a lack of confidence.

Isaac Watson: 00:02:55

Lack of confidence.

Isaac Watson: 00:02:56

It's definitely a lack

Isaac Watson: 00:02:57

in selling tickets.

Isaac Watson: 00:02:58

It's lacking confidence in marketing strategy.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:02

There's maybe a little bit of self-esteem.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:05

Like I don't know if I have what it takes to deliver on this experience,

Isaac Watson: 00:03:08

So I'm gonna lean on a celebrity.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:10

Or a big name or an influencer to do this for me.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:14

And I think that really, that is especially true of and I think hello,

Isaac Watson: 00:03:20

Imposter syndrome, we all have it.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:22

I was gonna say that imposter syndrome is part of that.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:25

Yes.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:26

Yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:26

This is not an accusation, this is a, we feel you a situation.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:29

Yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:30

That at the end of the day, it is challenging for us, especially as

Isaac Watson: 00:03:34

community leaders and even solo business owners and people who are

Isaac Watson: 00:03:38

working hard to influence a space.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:41

We often encounter problems with self-esteem and low confidence and a bit

Isaac Watson: 00:03:47

of that imposter syndrome, and that is totally normal to feel that kind of stuff.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:53

I think where it's key is we don't want you to direct that toward

Isaac Watson: 00:03:58

compensating by training to get a big name, because at the end of the day,

Isaac Watson: 00:04:02

you want Michelle Obama to be there.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:04

You are going to be paying a lot.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:07

A lot of dough Yes.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:09

To get a woman like that in the room, and it may attract a lot of people, but I

Isaac Watson: 00:04:14

doubt you're gonna make it up in revenue.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:17

Yeah.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:17

So let's talk a little bit about that.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:19

To your point, yes.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:21

The core of the problem is lack of confidence.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:24

And it can be summed down too.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:26

I'm not confident enough that the content that I'm giving, or the

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:30

experiencing that I've created is enough to get people to come.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:37

Don't feel confident that what I'm giving to them will get them to

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:41

spend whatever the ticket price is.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:43

I'm I don't feel comfortable putting myself out there.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:48

You've created this experience and now you're putting it out

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:50

there for the world to join you.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:52

But I don't feel like it's enough.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:54

So I think that having a celebrity or a big name speaker that is

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:58

going to do the work for me.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:01

And then people are gonna get there and they're gonna love the event,

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:04

they're gonna love the conference and it's all gonna work out fine.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:07

But the reality is that big names do not sell the event.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:11

Big names sell themselves.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:13

People are not gonna be there for you, for your event, for your

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:16

community, for your experience.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:18

They are there because they found out that, Michelle Obama was gonna be there.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:22

That I'm trying to think of like other examples without putting anybody on blast.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:26

But we all know those speakers that charge a ridiculous amount, and people are always

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:32

like after them trying to get them at events, but people are there to see them.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:37

They're not necessarily there for your event.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:40

. Yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:05:40

I would say the only the only exception to that rule is if you

Isaac Watson: 00:05:43

are, a big company running a highly influential, massive annual conference,

Isaac Watson: 00:05:50

and you're leaning on your celebrity connections as part of that, but

Isaac Watson: 00:05:53

you've built that reputation already to do that as a community organizer,

Isaac Watson: 00:05:57

as someone who is leading a space.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:02

A celebrity like that is not going to serve your needs.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:07

At the end of the day, people.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:09

What are they gonna remember?

Isaac Watson: 00:06:10

Remember they're gonna remember, Oh, that, yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:13

That one conference I went to, that Michelle Obama spoke at.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:15

I know, don't me wrong, I love Michelle Obama, but that was, we're just

Isaac Watson: 00:06:18

using her as the, like the blanket example, they're gonna remember, Oh,

Isaac Watson: 00:06:20

that one thing that, that Michelle Obama was at, What was that called?

Isaac Watson: 00:06:24

Oh, I don't, But she was great, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:06:26

Yes.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:27

And you've lost it because now your event has become the brand of

Isaac Watson: 00:06:30

the celebrity, not your own brand.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:34

And right now we're not speaking to, we're not speaking to

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:37

like these big billionaire companies.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:39

That's not who we work for.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:40

That's not who we wanna work for.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:41

we're talking about creating community events for the community

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:45

by the community, with a certain a certain focus in mind, that these.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:49

Huge companies.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:50

That's not what they're trying to do.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:51

A lot for these big companies it's more about it's just

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:54

about attention essentially, or reminding people that you exist.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:58

It's like Coca-Cola.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:59

Coca-Cola still does commercials.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:07:01

Everybody knows Coca-Cola.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:07:02

That's not the point of the commercials, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:07:04

Yeah.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:07:04

They do it cuz they wanna remind you that they're there.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:07:08

But big names, They don't do what most people at our

Nessa Jimenez: 00:07:12

level think they're gonna do.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:07:13

Exactly.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:07:14

And we could go into the whole process of.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:07:19

Working with that type of speaker, but we're not-

Isaac Watson: 00:07:21

because you're not gonna do that as a community

Isaac Watson: 00:07:23

leader because after this episode you're gonna be like, No, I do not.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:26

I do not need that.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:27

I don't need that

Isaac Watson: 00:07:29

. Nessa Jimenez: Exactly.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:30

So we get what the problem is, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:07:31

It's the lack of confidence.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:32

It's this, I don't wanna put myself out there.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:34

So how do we turn this around?

Isaac Watson: 00:07:36

And actually address the problem?

Isaac Watson: 00:07:38

If you were paying attention at the beginning, we already

Isaac Watson: 00:07:40

mentioned a couple of these things.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:42

? . One is marketing strategy.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:45

A good marketing strategy that comes from knowing who your audience is, knowing

Isaac Watson: 00:07:51

what you're trying to achieve, and having the content and the the resources.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:56

Available to you to speak to them is going to do way more than a headline name.

Isaac Watson: 00:08:03

That's gonna attract a lot of eyeball.

Isaac Watson: 00:08:05

That marketing strategy is key and it's not just about, which channels

Isaac Watson: 00:08:09

we're gonna hit and how frequently, and what kind of content we're gonna do.

Isaac Watson: 00:08:14

It's about how are we going to reach the right people that we want to attend this?

Isaac Watson: 00:08:19

How are we gonna demonstrate that we understand who they are and what

Isaac Watson: 00:08:22

they want, and why this particular conference is going to speak to

Isaac Watson: 00:08:26

them or be compelling enough to.

Isaac Watson: 00:08:29

And then crafting the content and the patterns and the channels around that.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:34

Because your marketing strategy, it grows out of

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:37

your programming strategy, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:39

What is your programming strategy?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:41

And we sit down with people and we ask them like, Okay, what is

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:44

the message you're trying to send?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:46

What, why are we doing this?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:47

Why are we here?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:48

And from there, how do we give that audience, that community what they need

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:51

and what they want in a creative way?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:54

And an exciting way?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:55

In an engaging way, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:56

And then when we get to the marketing strategy, how do we communicate that?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:00

How do we frame that so that they get it?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:02

This is gonna be cool and this is for you.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:04

Yeah, and then it's essentially at its core, what do the people need?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:08

What do they want, what are they expecting?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:09

what, why, what, why you have this community, but, and why is that, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:14

What are you giving them that keeps them coming back, and how can we deliver

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:18

that to them in an event experience?

Isaac Watson: 00:09:21

Yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:21

And that's the crux of the event strategy.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:24

Understanding what your people need and want from you and

Isaac Watson: 00:09:27

how you can then deliver that.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:29

Developing a program.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:31

That will speak to that and that will help support those needs

Isaac Watson: 00:09:36

and wants along with your own.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:39

And then how do you translate that into a marketing strategy?

Isaac Watson: 00:09:42

Just this kind of layer cake of strategic elements that are absolutely

Isaac Watson: 00:09:47

critical to get in place upfront.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:49

And I.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:51

This occurred to me a second ago, and I want to just hammer it home like

Isaac Watson: 00:09:55

someone like Michelle Obama could get up in front of a room and give

Isaac Watson: 00:09:59

a speech on just about anything.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:02

And be like the Michelle Obama thing.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:04

And yay, that's great and everything.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:07

But what if you actually found speakers who had something unique and relevant

Isaac Watson: 00:10:16

and impactful to say about a particular subject rather than being a powerhouse

Isaac Watson: 00:10:22

celebrity that can speak about.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:24

What if we gave your lineup some focus and allowed them to use their own voices

Isaac Watson: 00:10:29

to fill that, rather than leaning on somebody whose voice, speaks to whatever.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:35

Let's talk about the results of having big name speakers,

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:39

because we're not saying that the big name speaker is not gonna bring people.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:43

They're absolutely gonna bring people because they're celebrities

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:46

and people wanna see celebrities.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:47

People wanna see big names, but what happens after that?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:51

Okay.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:52

You had the big name.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:53

You dealt with all of that.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:55

You paid the insane amount.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:56

You did all the accommodations because they have very specific

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:00

lists of like demands and things through their like agents and stuff.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:04

So you had the event, you had them there.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:06

Okay.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:07

People went afterwards.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:10

All of these new leads, you're thinking they're new leads because

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:14

they came to the event, within a week they're unsubscribing from your list.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:19

They've unfollowed you on social media, you, it's a ghost town.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:23

They're never to be seen or heard from again, because

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:27

they weren't actually there.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:30

For the reason that you want them to be there, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:34

They weren't there for the community that you've built.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:37

They weren't really there for the messaging.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:39

They were there for the big name, and I absolutely believe that.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:45

People will go to your event and they can enjoy it.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:47

Absolutely.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:47

Sure.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:48

But the long term results of that, it turns into nothing.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:54

So you invested all of this for a bunch of people to come.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:57

They're not gonna be engaged, they're not coming back.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:59

And then next year, what are we gonna have to do?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:12:02

Are you gonna pull out another 20, 30, $40,000 to get another big

Nessa Jimenez: 00:12:07

name to try to get people in the.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:12:09

It's not sustainable.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:12:11

, at the level of business we're talking about, it's not a sustainable strategy

Nessa Jimenez: 00:12:14

and it's not gonna achieve the goals that you think it's gonna achieve

Isaac Watson: 00:12:18

and people don't relate to someone like Michelle Obama, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:23

They admire, they maybe there's a little hero worship that they look up to.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:28

They see her as a leader.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:30

But when we're talking about community oriented conferences, what people want

Isaac Watson: 00:12:35

when they go to these is to feel, seen, to feel like their experiences are shared

Isaac Watson: 00:12:41

to feel that they That they are not alone, that they have found their people.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:47

And a celebrity speaker isn't gonna fill that.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:49

It's, that's why it's important for your program lineup to, to represent as best

Isaac Watson: 00:12:56

as possible the makeup of the audience, because that's how you build community

Isaac Watson: 00:13:01

relationships around that is you give people something to identify with.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:13:05

Exactly.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:13:06

And the celebrity name.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:13:09

That just it's the attention for them.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:13:10

And then your event becomes about them and then service of them, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:13:15

And your actual community, the people that were there from the beginning

Nessa Jimenez: 00:13:20

before you announced this big name.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:13:23

They're left behind they're left in the mess of this big name and

Nessa Jimenez: 00:13:29

everything that goes along with that.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:31

Yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:31

And that's something that's, this emphasis on the strategy for us is so critical

Isaac Watson: 00:13:38

because that setting that up from the beginning will help you avoid, get

Isaac Watson: 00:13:41

into those common missteps and getting sidetracked by By these things that

Isaac Watson: 00:13:45

don't actually matter all that much.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:47

. And that's what we do through the event lab, is we walk you through and we figure

Isaac Watson: 00:13:50

out what, those three key questions, What do your people need and want from you?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:54

What is that programming strategy?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:56

How can we craft something programmatically that's going to be

Isaac Watson: 00:13:59

compelling and serve those needs?

Isaac Watson: 00:14:01

How can you then market.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:03

To your audience.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:05

All of that stuff comes from that big picture, strategic thinking.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:09

And then from there, yes, let's find some speakers.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:14

Let's find people who fit within these goals and within these

Isaac Watson: 00:14:19

points that we wanna deliver on.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:20

And then we can go from there.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:22

And it's gonna cost you a lot less than bringing in some high falutin' speaker.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:28

And you addressed insecurities Yes.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:31

As well.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:32

Because if you've done your homework, your strategy work at the beginning,

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:36

you know what the people need.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:37

You know what they want, you know how to present this to them.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:39

So there's no reason to be insecure, unsure, because we've done this work.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:44

You've done the homework and you can go forward confidently understanding

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:49

that you have created something.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:51

That will serve your community.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:53

And it's not just this thing that you came up with and now you're not

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:56

sure how people will respond to it.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:58

Yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:59

All right.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:00

I think that about covers things.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:01

Let me do a quick recap.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:03

The core question that we started with at the top of this was, how do I get

Isaac Watson: 00:15:08

a big name speaker at my conference?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:10

That's the question that we get asked a lot.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:12

But what people really are asking when they bring that to us.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:16

How easily can I get people through the door?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:19

How can I impress people?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:21

Will a big name sell tickets for me?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:23

And ultimately, that comes through as largely rooted in a lack of

Isaac Watson: 00:15:27

confidence and a lack of strategy.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:29

So we focus on the marketing strategy, the program strategy, and what really

Isaac Watson: 00:15:35

understanding and internalizing.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:38

What your audience, what your community, what your people need

Isaac Watson: 00:15:41

and want from you as a leader.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:44

And From that core strategic structure, can you then identify the right people

Isaac Watson: 00:15:50

to be involved in your program and the right ways to deliver on that strategy

Isaac Watson: 00:15:56

and make sure that you are doing so authentically and in a meaningful way.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:03

Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Make It Kick Ass.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:06

We really got stuck on Michelle Obama this time, didn't we?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:09

If your goals, though, are to go beyond getting Michelle Obama

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:13

on a stage and beyond getting a bunch of people in a room.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:16

And it's more about serving a specific community's needs than you

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:20

are definitely one of our people.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:22

If you wanna explore this topic more, head on over to get event lab.com and grab a

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:27

copy of the questionnaire we use with our clients to help them figure out resource

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:31

management and marketing strategy.