Samantha Riley

Business Growth & Marketing Strategist

518: Leveraging Events to Magnify Your Business Impact with Shay Wheat

Creating strong connections with your audience is a known way to succeed and make a big impact. Using events can help you achieve this. However, to do it well, you need to carefully choose events that match your business goals.

In this episode of Influence by Design, Samantha speaks with Shay Wheat, a Certified Event Producer™ about leveraging events to magnify your business impact. Events are more than just gatherings, they are immersive experiences that help build authority, credibility, and visibility in your industry.

While the concept might appear straightforward, the process of event planning can be intricate and involves numerous factors to contemplate. Your choice of the most suitable event hinges on your business’s current stage, with a clear understanding of your desired outcomes.

Learn more about how to consistently ace meaningful connections with the right events and how to successfully utilise this to amplify your business visibility when you tune in to this episode. 

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:

  • Why events are a great business strategy for connecting with your audience (02:23)
  • Different types of events to utilise based on where your business is at (05:25)
  • The Five Phases of Event Leverage and how to determine which event is best for you (07:43)
  • The questions you need to answer before starting your event planning (10:41)
  • The strategy to continuously attract, connect and enrol attendees (13:45)
  • How to ensure a high show up rate to your events (19:13)
  • Factors to keep in mind when creating your event budget (23:38)

QUOTES:

  • “Events are the best and fastest way to build community and connection with your ideal audience.” -Shay Wheat
  • “You don’t want to have guest speakers on your summits do the same thing that you do. You want them to be before, after, or sideline to you.” -Shay Wheat
  • “When you’re in an event, you can’t hide who you authentically are. And that is what makes people decide either if they’re in the right place or not.” -Samantha Riley
  • “There’s a full strategy in events and you need to be aware of what that strategy is and what that puzzle piece is so you get to your end outcome.”-Samantha Riley

Resources

The Five Phases of Events to Scale Your Business & Leverage Your Time Guide

 

WHERE TO FIND SHAY WHEAT

 

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ABOUT SHAY WHEAT

Shay Wheat, a visionary entrepreneur & CEO of Grace and Ease Productions, supports entrepreneurs with event-based marketing and sales strategies. With her team of Certified Event Producers™, they produce impactful In-Person and Live-Virtual events to help entrepreneurs build authority, credibility, and visibility while rapidly scaling businesses, saving time and money.

 

 

 

 

TRANSCRIPTION (AI Generated)

Shay Wheat Snippet (00:00):

Start with the end in mind, then you backtrack from there. So that’s going to help you figure out what is the content that you’re going to be teaching? And how are you going to be serving them. And that’s gonna help you figure out who your audience is. Because then you need to know where’s your audience hanging out, so that they actually pick up a ticket. And you’re gonna want to also take a look at who is supporting you along the way.

Samantha Riley Intro (00:19):

Welcome to the Influence By Design Podcast. I’m Samantha Riley, authority positioning strategist for coaches and experts. If you’re ready to build a business that gives you more than just a caffeine addiction, and you dream of making more money, having more time, and having the freedom to be living your best life, then you’re in the right place, it’s time to level up. 

 

Welcome to today’s episode of influence by design. I’m your host Samantha Riley. And today we’re going to talk about events. And this is something that I absolutely love. I think it’s a really integral part of doing business. 

 

But it’s something that maybe you haven’t thought about or thought about in the way that we’re going to talk about today. So invited Shea wheat, who is the CEO of grace and ease productions, and she supports entrepreneurs with event based marketing and sales strategies. 

 

She has a team of certified event producers, and they produce impactful in person and live virtual events to help entrepreneurs build authority, credibility, and visibility while scaling their business, saving them time and money. And we’re gonna have a great conversation today. So welcome to the show. Che

 

Shay Wheat (01:35):

Thank you, thank you, I’m excited to be here. There’s so many fun things to talk about.

 

Samantha Riley (01:38):

I know, we decided that we’d better hit record because we were chatting so much. And I thought know that we could produce an episode that goes all day, or we could just do a little dive deep into into events, which is what we’re going to do. 

 

Now, obviously, we’ve just come out of a period where in person events weren’t run, and there’s still a lot of people that are thinking, Is it time to go back? Is that what we want to do? Should we stay with virtual, and I love that you’ve specifically said live virtual, just to show that, you know, what we’re trying to do is create community and connection. 

 

But I guess before we even go into the different types of events, which is where I was gonna go, let’s backtrack a little bit. Why do we want to be considering events as part of our business strategy?

 

Shay Wheat (02:29):

Yeah, so events are the best way, the fastest way to build community and connection with your ideal audience. It is the place where Gosh, you can do a whole bunch of like email marketing, and Facebook ads, or Google ads or whatever to start, like bringing them into your space. 

 

But you really don’t find your true community until you get into the world of events. It’s a great starter, don’t get me wrong, and my clients utilize it all day, every day. But an event is where they can actually see you. 

 

They can feel you, they can understand you they can like it’s coming into your space. Right. And so if we’re coming at it from an energetic perspective, it’s like, oh, okay, Samantha gets me, she’s, she’s speaking my language, she’s had the same experiences that I’ve had. And she’s just a little bit further ahead of me. That’s the person I want to follow. That’s the person I want to mentor me. 

 

And so it allows our audience to really connect with us at a deeper level, and build that connection a lot quicker. I was hearing something from one of my mastermind groups that a part of where they were saying, I think it’s you need to have over 11 connections and like seven hours worth of connection points and back and forth communications on four different types of platforms before somebody is really going to move forward with you and say, Yeah, let’s do business together. 

 

I was talking to somebody else where they’re like, Yeah, we had at different back and forth conversations before they said yes, to moving forward. And that allows you to shorten that immensely. So that’s one of the reasons why I really love events. On top of that, we’re human beings. Yeah, we are connection beings and events will never die. COVID and the pandemic showed us that events will never die, we still found ways to be in community and to connect with one another

 

Samantha Riley (04:41):

100% And I love that you brought that in because it really did show us how much we do need to be around other people. I love events for myself because people get to hear and see my quirky side. 

 

And that’s the piece that people connected with With right, it’s the silly jokes that just pop out anytime when you’re in an event, you can’t hide who you authentically are. And that is what makes people either say, Yeah, this is I’m in the right place. 

 

So this is not for me, it speeds up that process. And that’s what I love. Now, you mentioned we talked about in person and live virtual, how many different types of events are there?

 

Shay Wheat (05:26):

There’s 17 different types of events that you can be utilizing in your business. Wow. So yeah, right. And I say, just 17 as the ones that I’ve come up with, but I think there’s more. You want to grab paper and write this down real quick. 

 

So I’ll run through them really fast. Because based on where you’re at in your business, you’re going to utilize different types of events at different times. And you’re going to maybe not use any of these depending on what they are. 

 

So, all right, ready? Let’s go. Let’s go. You can use a 90 minute workshop that could be like a masterclass or a webinar, you can do a summit, a retreat, a mastermind, a one day sales and enrollment event also known as a conversion event where you’re selling your program from a one day, a three day sales and enrollment event seminars, podcast. 

 

So this is actually an event right now that we are a part of meetups, Facebook Lives, Instagram lives, clubhouse rooms, those are all events, conferences, challenges, hackathons, conventions, and trade shows, that’s a lot of different types of events you can be utilizing in your business it is and like it, like I said, you you use them at different times and points in your business career. So I have clients that are, I’m all about the 90 minute workshop. 

 

I’m all about the masterclass or the webinars, and that’s how they they connect with their audience. I have other clients that are doing, let’s say, a three day conversion event where they’re looking to sell their high ticket coaching program from the stage. And in order to do that they’re doing different master classes, and they’re doing Facebook Lives. 

 

And they’re doing webinars, and they’re doing summits, and they’re on people’s podcasts. So they’re mixing in a couple of different types of ways of speaking and being on their own stage, as well as other people stages in order to fill their event. So a couple of different ways to utilize them based on where you’re at in business.

 

Samantha Riley (07:29):

Now, you did mention something right at the end there based on where you’re at. Because I think that if anyone’s a bit of an extrovert like me, and they heard that 17 lists, they’re like, oh, I want to do them all. And now, how do we know where to focus first?

 

Shay Wheat (07:44):

Yeah. So I have part of my gift back into the community into the world is the five phases of event leverage. So what I was finding is people were coming to me, and they’re like, oh, I want to do a summit. 

 

And I’m like, okay, great. Tell me about your business. And they’re like, Oh, I’m super brand new. I’ve, you know, got probably 11 clients or so. And I’m like, you should not do a summit right now. Like, you’re in phase one, you’re in the validation phase, you’re you’re about to go into phase two, which is the visibility phase, which is great that I’m I’m hearing you want to do your own summits. 

 

But really, in phase two, you’re wanting to be increasing your visibility and getting on other people’s platforms. So you know, other people’s stages, other people’s webinars, podcasts, other people’s summits, versus doing your own couple of reasons why, one, you’re newer in business, you only have, let’s say, 1011 clients, right now, you don’t have a whole lot of income coming in. 

 

And when you’re hosting your own events, you need to be able to have team that supporting you, you need to have you know, systems and you need to have certain things in place that will allow you to actually really capitalize upon certain types of events. So you can use the free platforms. 

 

When you’re in phase two, the Facebook Lives, the clubhouse rooms, the Instagrams, the LinkedIn, right, and do events there. Because anybody can jump on their phone and do a Facebook Live, right and still gain visibility, offer your lead magnet so that people can learn more about you and then you can continue to nurture them. 

 

Right. Once you get to the point where you’re bringing in more leads, you’re booking more strategy calls, you’re having more conversations, you’re making more offers to the point where it’s a consistent $5,000 or so a month. Then you move into Phase Three, and in phase three that’s grow. So you’re growing your list, you’re growing your visibility. Now you can create your own stages. 

 

Now you can host your own master classes, your own webinars and your own summits. And you can also be a part of doing like spawn serve ships and sponsoring other events that have your ideal audience, they’re filling the room, and you come in to speak in order to gain leads that way. Right. And then from there you go phase four and Phase Five. 

 

But we can definitely dive into that more. Or if you want to, you know, pick up the free gift, you’re, you’re definitely allowed to go through all of the spreadsheet there. And it’ll tell you exactly where you’re at and how to move on from phase 1234. Perfect.

 

Samantha Riley (10:27):

And we’ll share we’ll talk a little bit about that later in the episode and how you can get a copy of that free gift. So what is one of the first things once you’ve chosen your event? What is the first thing that you need to be really clear on before you step forward? You know, Is it writing your copy? Is it you know, deciding on what you’re going to talk about? Like, what is that thing that you have to really nail before you go into that event?

 

Shay Wheat (10:58):

Yeah, so one would even take it a step further. One, what type of event are we doing? So if you are wanting to host a summit, the purpose and intention of a summit is lead generation? So in lead generation, you know, what is the topic of the summit? What are we wanting to talk about? Who is it serving? Who is the audience that showing up? And what is the end result? Right? 

 

So every single event you do, you start with the end in mind, whether that is your offer, or whatever your call to action is maybe it’s the call to action is a strategy session with you? Or it’s, you know, your low ticket offer, it’s a 997 type of program or something like that, right? 

 

Start with the end in mind, then you backtrack from there. So that’s going to help you figure out what is the content that you’re going to be teaching? And how are you going to be serving them? 

 

And that’s going to help you figure out who your audience is? Because then you need to know where’s your audience hanging out, so that they actually pick up the tickets. And you’re going to want to also take a look at who is supporting you along the way. When I’m doing a masterclass. I always have a team member on with me. 

 

And then I’m when I’m doing a conversion event, I’m absolutely having a lot more team supporting me. But I always have somebody on. Because when you are in the moment, and you are you having those divine downloads, and you’re really connecting with your audience, you can’t be worried about letting somebody in the room? 

 

Or if there’s a question that, that I can’t unmute myself, or I can’t find the raise my hand button or, you know, whatever the question is, you can’t have yourself pulled in that direction. You want team to support them, right? 

 

You have a say in the room and the link and so on and so forth. It’s like you are with the ones that are here. Yes. Right. So that’s why I think it’s really important to also have teams supporting you, even if it’s just for the hour that you’re online. 100%

 

Samantha Riley (13:00):

I definitely have team with me all the time, I don’t run my own music. I don’t let anyone in the room. I even have started just recently, not even looking in the chat box. Because I find that if I’m in a flow, that that’s what I want to be talking about someone else can monitor the chat box, and then let me know the really important things, which means that I stay in the zone. 

 

Because I found that even sometimes, like something would come through and I you know, my eyes are flipped to the side. And I’d read it and think, Oh, what was I saying? What was I talking about? And I completely lose my place. So I definitely agree that team completely takes your events to another level. 

 

You just mentioned then about lead generation. I remember it was years ago now I had a prospect reach out and say that she’s running a webinar, we’re just having a little bit of a chat over messenger. 

 

And I said, you know, what, what is the purpose of your event? Like, why are you running it? She said, it’s for lead generation. I won’t call What are you selling? She wasn’t selling? And I went, hang on a minute, what do you mean, let’s go back, like, can you clarify what you mean by lead generation? 

 

And she said, Well, someone told me I needed to run an event to get leads. And she couldn’t understand no one had explained to her that the leads then you you sell a product to them. So what can you talk? What can you speak to on that? Because I’m sure you’ve got a lot to add here.

 

Shay Wheat (14:31):

Yes, yeah, for sure. And I think it’s something that sets our company apart from others that run in produce events is we’re taking a look at the entire business plan, right? Why are we doing what we’re doing? 

 

So I had a client come to me and she was like, oh, I want to do a summit and I’m like, okay, great. Tell me more. What does that mean? Why are we doing it? Well, during pandemic we really loved so much on our lists that we’ve loved them dry. More, we need more people on our list so that we can continue to love and nurture them. 

 

And I’m like, okay, great. That makes sense. What is the end result? What are we looking to do? And they said, Oh, well, we want to add about 1000 new people to our list, and we want to sell our $10,000 program. And I was like, You’re not going to do that with a summit. And she’s like, but, and I was like, Yep, you’re not going to do that from a summit. 

 

That’s not the purpose and intention of a summit. That’s not how a summit works. That’s not there’s a process and a system of what works. If you’re going to sell something that’s over $10,000, you need to be looking at like a three day sales and conversion event. If you’re wanting to sell something low ticket, you’re gonna want to look at, you know, something under 5000, you’re looking at a one day conversion event, if you’re selling something less than that, you need multiple steps along the way. 

 

And so she was like, Okay, that makes sense. So she goes away, she comes back a couple of months later, she’s like, Okay, this is what I want to do with my Summit. And they literally just wanted to bring people on to their list, they were going to offer a $37 boot camp, I was like, fantastic. We can absolutely do that. 

 

That’s so in alignment. And from there, we can look at offering their $8,000 program, because we were going to move them into a strategy call with one of their coaches. So the process went there, joint venture speakers ended up doing a bunch of mailings, they did a couple of ads themselves, ended up having 1553 people opt in to their summit, they had a upgrade option to be a VIP, which gave them the boot camp. 

 

They also had a down sell of people that didn’t want all the other goodies that were a part of the VIP that could just go straight to the bootcamp after the summit. They delivered the summit, which was all virtual, all pre recorded over two days. And it was 15 amazing speakers with so much value. 

 

But the key thing here is all of the other speakers did not do what the host did. That’s a big writer downer is you don’t want to be having guest speakers on your summits do the same thing that you do. You want them to be a for you, after you or sideline to you doing something like for me a sideline for me. 

 

And event production would be AV, right. We have same clients, we do different things, but they’re their sidelines. Right. So we ran the event, we ended up having people come to the bootcamp afterwards gave crazy awesome value in the boot camp. 

 

And again, you have to have an offer at the boot camp, which was to get on a strategy call with one of the coaches where they made an offer into their $8,000 program. And when it was all said and done, the client made almost $90,000 from a summit.

 

Samantha Riley (18:02):

But it didn’t come right off the back of this,

 

Shay Wheat (18:05):

but it didn’t come exactly off of the summit. Right? Yeah, got it. So there’s a strategy to it. But there’s a couple of steps in between. And we have to continue to attract, connect and enroll in each of the steps. 

 

So you have to ace all the way through. When somebody says yes, to come to your event. Well, regardless of whatever the event is, they’re just saying yes, you have to ace you have to attract, connect and enroll them to actually show then when they’re there, you have to ace again to keep them there. 

 

And then so on and so forth all the way through the entire system. So a couple of steps to it, you need to know the whole game plan before you want to go ahead and step into something like that. 

 

Samantha Riley (18:49):

And from what I’m hearing and I totally agree with this. It’s really knowing what you want the outcome to be before you even choose the event like what is it that you’re going to sell and the event isn’t the piece that you’re trying to sell necessarily? It’s what is the next step? Yes, that’s the vehicle that gets you there. I love that. 

 

So you talked about show up then walk once we’ve decided our event we oh we know what we’re going to sell we’ve decided our event what is some of the things that we need to keep in mind to make sure that people show up to our event? Because you can’t just leave this to chance?

 

Shay Wheat (19:28):

Yeah, you you really do have to have a game plan for them to show up. So depending on the type of event you’re gonna be a little bit more connected with them. So if they are coming to an A conversion event, you’re gonna want to make sure that you’re collecting their phone numbers so that you can send them a text reminder that you they have email that they’re actually confirming that you have your team reached out and do welcome calls and like I’m so excited. Do you have a ticket to our event? 

 

You know, if it’s in person, you Great, do you have all the information for the hotel and when it is, and when you’re showing up and you know, don’t forget the hotel room lock is gonna go away, so on and so forth. If it’s a virtual live event, you can still go ahead and do welcome calls and checking in with them, and what do they need? And did their swag box show up yet? And what questions do they have that they want answered during the event?

 

And you can have your team do this as well, this isn’t necessarily just you, right? So those are certain connection pieces. If you’re doing more of like a webinar or masterclass, where they’re only spending about 90 minutes with you, you’re still going to want to send out a couple of email series as reminders. 

 

Maybe send them a voice note on social media, how excited you are that they’re going to be showing up? Are there any questions that you want me to answer, please go ahead and send those to me ahead of time and just start the dialogue. Right. When you it’s it’s communication. So my clients, I love my clients, I’m spending in my conversion, my three day conversion events, I’m spending over 100 hours with these people. Pre

 

Samantha Riley (21:11):

event. Wow,

 

Shay Wheat (21:12):

I want to make sure I like monitor, okay. So you know, the same thing goes for your clients, it’s, it’s starting a conversation of like, who are you? What are you about? This is me, this is who I am? Are we a good match to play together? 

 

You know, that’s all you’re doing is opening up a conversation. A lot of people get stuck in the, well, I just have to like, have this many units in the room in order to make this many sales and close this many deals. And it’s like, well, these are people.

 

Samantha Riley (21:49):

Yeah, it just even when you said that I could feel the energy just like zap out of my body so fast. Like in that two seconds that it took you to say that I’m thinking, but But what about them, they’ve got a heart and they’ve got, you know, they’re actual real people.

 

Shay Wheat (22:09):

Yeah, there are people that you want to play with, and do business with and enjoy life with, right, like, one of my clients came out here, I’m in Northern California. So I’m near Napa wine country, one of my clients came out here for a speaking engagement. 

 

And he was like, Hey, I’m in your neck of the woods. And I’m like, fantastic. So we met up with him and his wife and went and had beverages and went out to dinner and, like, had an amazing time. Because they’re my friend. Yeah, now. It’s pulling in your soul family, is the way that I see doing business. So yeah, just remember, there are people? Yeah, you’re finding, right? Absolutely.

 

Samantha Riley (22:48):

Absolutely. One of my mentors said to me, we never want to do business with someone that you wouldn’t have to dinner with your family. And that has so impacted everything that I do. 

 

Now, if I don’t get that feeling that I would have this person sitting down with my, you know, my husband and my children, then it’s a no, because I love my clients so much. I want to hang out with them. They really do turn into, you know, an integral part of your community.

 

Shay Wheat (23:18):

Yeah, and you don’t need gazillions of people. Right. Give me a handful of really amazing clients. And then I’ll stick with you year over year over year and bring their friends and other like minded individuals, right. That’s what we’re looking for, hopefully.

 

Samantha Riley (23:35):

Can we talk budget quickly? This is, I’m saying, can we talk budget quickly? And I know it’s like a really, really huge conversation itself. 

 

Because budgets for events for live events, actually even for virtual can blow out really quickly. Yeah, what do we need to keep in mind when were you know, working on an event or coming up with an idea for an event?

 

Shay Wheat (24:06):

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So let’s go with it. Being an in person event first, in person is going to be a lot more than virtual live. The reason being is you’ve got a hotel or some type of venue that you’re actually hosting the event from. 

 

And if you’re here in the United States, it’s actually in the hands of the hotels right now. Everybody’s wanting to go back into in person. The hotels have had an influx of so many people wanting all of the same dates. 

 

And so they can kind of pick and choose and they can kind of charge whatever they want to charge and they are and and they and I am negotiating left and right right now on you know, getting the best deal possible for my clients and watching the contracts. 

 

Watch the contracts, please if you do anything I have somebody review the contract because they’re throwing in special clauses right now, I forget the terminology at the moment, I could probably look it up and in my email if I get to it ahead of time, but they’re, they’re saying things like, Oh, it’s just a service charge of some sort. 

 

They’re just trying to recoup their money from COVID. It’s just a random charge that they should not be charging, honestly. And so I’ve been taking those clauses out of the contract, I mean, doing that alone to save $15,000 for one of my clients, yeah, just to have just this crazy service charge just for the heck of it. Right. 

 

So please look at all of the contracts with a fine tooth comb, that’s going to be one of your biggest ones, because it’s going to be a room block, it’s going to be the room meeting space, and it’s going to be the food and beverage. And there’s all kinds of things that we can talk about of like negotiating that next step is you’re going to have your team, right, because you’re not going to be doing this alone. 

 

So having your team fly out or be with you or on site with you feeding them, you know, all of the details that come with that, then taking a look at your audience, you know, are we doing lanyards and name tags? And are we doing a step and repeat banner? And are we doing testimonial banners? And what is the look and feel of the room look like the next biggest expense is going to be your AV because you need to have really good AV? And are you going to be recording it so that you can repurpose stuff later and collecting testimonials, video testimonials and all of those details. 

 

And then you’re gonna have somebody like myself that’s helping you run and produce the event? And then all the little pieces below it, the swag, the entertainment, the look and feel, what are we doing? How are we crafting the run a show all of those things kind of come into play. 

 

So when you’re doing an in person event, that’s gonna be your most expensive. If you’re looking at a virtual live event, are you doing this from your home, your home office, or are you going to want to go into let’s say, one of our studios, I’ve even built a number of studios. 

 

So I have some clients that have like a spare room, or they just do it within their own office, we go in and we build them a studio, that either is a one time thing, or they use it and repurpose it for all of their other keynotes or all of their master classes. So not only are we doing an event with them for like a day or three days, but then they use it for all of their master classes and things of that nature too. 

 

So that’s going to be less expensive, because you don’t have to worry about hotel and food and beverage and all of those details. But you still have to do a bunch of you know, looking at all the numbers. So when my clients are like, Alright, let’s do it. 

 

Let’s look at the numbers, it’s really important to see what do we expect to be spending? And then on the flip side, how do we expect to recoup those costs? And beyond? Doing ticket sales? Are we doing sponsorship? Are we doing affiliate marketing? Are we selling something from the stage? You know, what does that look like? 

 

So we can go okay, it’s gonna cost us X, Y, and Z. But we’re gonna make this on the other side. And knowing the numbers and knowing the trends and what’s happened for you, in the past, all come into play and into our calculations and in our amazing, beautiful spreadsheets, that you can go, okay, I can now confidently move forward and say, if we go and implement that data, we’ll be able to get these kinds of outcomes and results. 

 

So it’s important, it’s not always fun. But if they’re black and white, and when things aren’t working. So for instance, when we’re doing a ticket map, and we’re saying this is how we’re planning on filling the room, and that speaking engagement, we thought we were gonna get 10 tickets out of it, and we only got five. Great. 

 

Now what do we need to do to tweak and adjust? Same thing goes for your budget. If we go, we thought the hotel that we you know, wanted to be at, we wanted to be a 30,000 food and beverage, and everybody’s coming back with 40. What do we need to change and adjust to make it so we’re not going to lose our shirt? Yeah. Right. So it’s helpful to see the numbers black and white. And then how do we adjust to then make the outcomes that we want on the back end? Yeah.

 

Samantha Riley (29:16):

I mean, it’s not a conversation that people love to have. But it’s a really important conversation with events. Because, you know, I have heard of people losing their shirts or events, there’s a full strategy, you need to be really, really aware of what that strategy is and what every piece of that that puzzle piece is so that you get to your end outcome. 

 

So the way that we can do that you’ve talked about the five phases of events earlier in the interview. Can you tell us more about this free resource that you’ve got so people can log into this and think about everything that we’ve spoken about today so they can figure out you know, where to go and what event to run?

 

Shay Wheat (29:56):

Yeah, absolutely. So there’s a reason that we do like that. In person conversion events in Phase four or Phase Five, is because you now have the team, you have the consistency, you have the income constantly coming in, you’ve got the proof of concept, you know, when you pull this lever, this comes out on the other side, right? 

 

So the gift I have for you is the five phases of event leverage. And it will walk you through kind of a flowchart where you go, Okay, do I have eight to 10? Clients? Yes. Okay, now what, how much money am I making this than the other and you just kind of go through the flow chart, and it says, Okay, you are in phase three, you’re in the growth phase. 

 

This is where you’re at, this is what you should be doing. These are the types of events that you should be hosting right now. And this is how you move to Phase four, which is the scale phase. 

 

And then a same thing in scale in Phase four, how to move to Phase Five, and it just kind of walks you through step by step, it is the thing that my clients come back to and go, che, I am now in Phase four on ready to do my one day event. And I’m like, fantastic. Let’s go, right? 

 

Just is a little bit of that. Oh, okay, I now understand what I, where I’m at where I want to go, and how do I get there. Versus what I’ve seen people do in the past is go, I want to do a summit, or I want to do a trade show or I want to do a convention. 

 

And you know, you don’t even have any clients yet, or you don’t have a list yet. And it’s like, yes, you can. But let’s go through the phases first. And you can go through them quite quickly, if you put all of these things in place. 

 

So the the best way to do that is simply go to five phases, dot info, forward slash influence. And you can definitely pick up that guide, see where you’re at, and then how to move through the phases quite quickly.

 

Samantha Riley (31:53):

Love it. That sounds fantastic. And of course, if you’re on the run, and you’ve forgotten that you can always head to influence by design podcast.com and pick up the free resource and all of the links to connect with Shay today. 

 

Shay, it’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you. I love events. I’ve really enjoyed this conversation. I am someone that’s been running events for almost 30 years now. So I know the value of them. And I really for everyone listening please, please, please consider events as part of your strategy because they’re so important. 

 

Especially, you know, as you said, che we’re human, we need connection, they are the best way to connect with other humans. Is there anything that you want to leave us with to wrap this episode up in a beautiful box with a nice shiny bow on top?

 

Shay Wheat (32:38):

Yeah, absolutely. Your audience is waiting for you. They’re waiting for you to show up because they’re in pain. And you are the only person that can really support them and getting them out of their pain. 

 

So it’s time to start shining. start owning your own stages. Let them see you, the fool you and all your quirkiness and all of your joy and all of you know the crazy madness that has happened to get you to where you are today and really attract your audience so that you can support them moving forward to be in their best life and you enjoy yours.

 

Samantha Riley (33:14):

Thank you so much. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.

 

Samantha Riley (30:18):

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Influence By Design podcast. If you want more head over to influencebydesignpodcast.com for the show notes and links to today’s gifts and sponsors. And if you’re looking to connect with other experts who are growing and scaling their business to join us in the coaches, thought leaders, and changemakers community on Facebook, the links are waiting for you over at influencebydesignpodcast.com

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Samantha Riley

Samantha Riley is a powerhouse of knowledge and expertise, dedicating her career to transforming business owners to unapologetically stand out and shine as the leader in their industry. With a relentless passion and razor-sharp insight, Samantha empowers her clients to step into their power, boldly claim their space, and lead with confidence and authenticity. She is truly a catalyst for greatness.

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