Online summits have emerged as a powerful strategy for entrepreneurs and businesses looking to expand their reach, build their email lists, and establish authority. But how can this strategy be effectively implemented to maximise the potential benefits?
In this episode of Influence by Design, I speak with Jay Williams about building your email list through successful online summits. He is an International Speaker, Mindset & Master Performance Coach and has helped over 500 entrepreneurs to amplify their revenue.
The first step to success with your online summit is strategic planning. Jay highlights the essential – identifying your target audience, their specific needs, pain points, and goals. Understanding these allows you to tailor-fit topics or speakers that are relevant and engaging for your audience.
Join us for this episode as we explore the boundless potential of online summits and revolutionise your marketing approach. The world of online summits awaits, and the insights you gain here could reshape your business for the better.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- What made Jay decide to try online summits (01:28)
- An overview of Jay’s first summit: the challenges and lessons learned (04:22)
- How to use online summits to leverage your authority (09:17)
- Strategising the best topics for online summits (14:28)
- The process for booking speakers (19:38)
- The types of business owners who can leverage online summits (27:17)
- The value of leveraging a “big name” (32:25)
QUOTES:
- “I was forced to reconsider how much I was putting my business at risk by just relying on social media and not focusing on building my list as a source of getting clients.” -Jay Williams
- “When people come and attend your summits, they get to know you, and the way you work. And they decide whether or not they want to engage with you further.” -Jay Williams
- “There’s a level of trust and credibility that you build through online summits and this is going to influence people when you promote your products and services.” -Jay Williams
- “You learn more from having things go wrong than you do from having things go right in business.” -Samantha Riley
- “In business, everything comes back to nurturing your connections and network.” -Samantha Riley
Resources
Influence by Design episode 518: Leveraging Events to Magnify Your Business Impact with Shay Wheat
WHERE TO FIND JAY WILLIAMS
- Website:https://jaywilliamscoaching.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/6figuremindsetsecrets
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaywilliamsmindsetcoach/
SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW THE INFLUENCE BY DESIGN PODCAST
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Influence By Design podcast. If the information in any of our conversations and interviews has helped you in your business journey, please head over to Apple Podcasts, click the 3 dots in the top right corner of your smartphone screen, follow the show, and leave us an honest review. Your reviews and feedback will not only help us continue to deliver valuable content but will also help us reach even more amazing entrepreneurs just like you!
BOOK AN INFLUENCE AUDIT
If you want to be known as the leader in your industry, book a quick 15-minute Influence Audit.
We’ll work together to identify:
Your current situation and immediate opportunities for growth
Uncover the #1 thing holding you back from not being booked as an industry leader
Develop a 3-step implementation plan to increase your authority and visibility
ABOUT JAY WILLIAMS
Jay Williams is an International speaker, Mindset & Master Performance Coach. He’s helped over 500 Entrepreneurs from startups all the way to 7 figure business owners to 2x 3x and even 4x their revenue by applying the ‘Right’ thinking to proven business strategies. His fun, fundamentals based and curious style along with a hunger to learn always puts him on the cutting edge of all things performance, business and now Ai for business.
TRANSCRIPTION (AI Generated)
Jay Williams Snippet (00:00):
I simply leveraged the name. I pulled in speakers with credibility. And I wanted to leverage that. I used it as a strategic point of my Summit. So that going forward, I consistently leverage that. And I think, if I’ve learned one thing about influence is rarely about that authority is one of the things that’s just going to trump everything else.
Samantha Riley (00:34):
Welcome to today’s episode of Influence by Design, I’m your host Samantha Riley.
And today we’re gonna be talking about list building. Now, list building is such an important part of your business. Last week, we covered events with Shay Wheat.
And this week, we’re going to dive even deeper into one of these types of events and its online summits. And I’ve invited Jay Williams to chat with me today about how he has used online summits to grow his list very successfully. And he’s going to be talking how he even came up with that strategy. So Jay, welcome to the show.
Jay Williams (01:28):
Hey, Sam, thanks for having me here. And I’m looking forward to diving into this. I haven’t pulled back the curtain so much as to what I’m actually doing with many people. So it’s a rare privilege that I get to share this with you today. So looking forward to it.
Samantha Riley (01:42):
I love that I have that effect on people. It’s like, Hey, I’ve got this really cool idea I’ve seen you’re doing this really cool thing want to share, say thank you for saying yes, because it was me that pose this to you. You are doing some really amazing things with online summits.
Before we dive into the strategy, what had you like, what was the catalyst? I guess, for you deciding? Let’s try and run an online summit and see what happens. Like, where were you in your coaching business journey? Because he kind of went at the beginning of that journey where you
Jay Williams (02:17):
know, I certainly wasn’t that, for me, online summits was something that I’ve kind of dip my toe into probably about a year and a half ago, I’d seen lots of people doing it, especially off the back of COVID. Many people were doing them.
And I was thinking to myself, what are people doing here, like these virtual summits? How are they leveraging them, and I decided to run my first ever summit about a year and a half ago. And the main reason I run my summit a year and a half ago is because I just wanted to reach more people.
That was the initial intention, I was kind of this person that’s always loved to be on stage. And I’ve always looked at strategies that best align with my personality and what I enjoy, because I’ll do them for one through rather than do strategies that I feel like I have to do that are boring.
And so I decided about 18 months to get into online summits to really reach more people and do a strategy that I enjoy. But the real catalyst for what I’ve really delved into this year, which is to my moon into my fifth summit this year, I actually decided to do them because they got shut down by Facebook. Ouch. Exactly. I’d had it.
I’d been getting all my clients through social media through my Facebook following I had just under 5000 people who I was connected with on there. I was nurturing my list, I was leveraging it as a list on social media, I probably had a probably say, I don’t know 150,200 50,000 In potential revenue just sat there that I was nurturing at that time.
And then overnight, literally Facebook, 10 years of memories, everything just shut down my account, and I lost everything. Despite me appealing, I got an email from Facebook saying we’ve reviewed your appeal. The decision is final, please do not respond to this email, because basically we won’t reply. And I was there.
And that’s what kind of forced me to really reconsider how much I was putting my business at risk by just relying on social media and not focusing on building my list as a source of getting clients.
Samantha Riley (04:42):
There’s nothing wrong with social media. I think social media is a really great place to connect with people. But we definitely need to have that list on the side and the two. I guess the two strategies need to work in tandem and I know that that’s what you’re doing because you’ve got a really great Facebook group that we’re going to talk about a little We’ll meet later on.
But let’s go back to that very first online Summit. So you had your Facebook account shut down your thought, hmm, let’s just run this first online Summit. Can you walk us through some of the things that went really well, some of the challenges that you had? And you know, just a little bit of an overview of that journey of that first summit?
Jay Williams (05:23):
Yeah, I mean, I’m hesitant to tell you about the first ever summit I wrote. One, but let’s do it. So what I’m all about being real here. So the first ever summit I did at the time, I was delving into I’ve been I’ve worked with 1000s of men.
And I’ve been delving into the world of men, especially business owners, and I wanted to support more male business owners. And I decided I was going to run a summit called business men unleashed right now, to me, this sounds fantastic.
I have this image, this vision in my head of men just been able to create whatever they want to create, and just crushing in business. And I pulled together 13 speakers in total. And I must say that the whole process of building an online summit for me was absolute, how I know I’m not selling it very well, right now. I reached out to over 500 people cold, just people, I’d found online speakers that I wanted to be on my network.
And at the time, I was doing it from a place of I just got to get the speaker’s got to get the speakers, I’ve got to get the people in. And I didn’t really focus on going deep on relationships they already had, I didn’t focus on really to be honest with you the quality of the speakers, I didn’t focus on meeting my own criteria.
So there was massive breakdowns in my own integrity, because there’s a certain strategy that you do with summits that I might talk into in a little bit where people need to meet certain requirements to come and speak on your stage.
So they promote it for you. And for me, I would get on the phone with people and they wouldn’t meet the criteria. But I like them as a person. And I like them as a speaker. So I go, Oh, come on, come on my stage.
And I put together that birth Summit. And I made $0. And I generated only 113 leads into onto my email list, which, for me was sold the strike. Because I had worked so hard. I was getting on calls with speakers, I was putting all the tech together, I was doing everything on my own. And it was just like, I’d probably rather still have stuck needles in my eyes.
But yeah, now off the back of that. So that’s the way about because it was so painful for me. And I just felt this crushing feeling of failure, because I’m someone who’s always been about how do I win? How do I win? How do I win in business? And this for me, I given everything or what I felt was everything and still didn’t make it work.
Now, that summit was a pre recorded Summit, and I did interviews, just like this one pre recorded and I sent them up to the email list. And I don’t have any idea of whether or not I worked or not in any kind of did people watch the videos, because all I was focused on was the last and the last pill earlier.
And so in terms of what went well, in that I ran my first summit, which was amazing, I got myself to go through it despite wanting to give up probably 100 times, probably more. But at the same time, what didn’t go so well as the list build on, of course, the revenue that I generated off the back of that.
Samantha Riley (09:02):
Yeah. So firstly, thank you so much for sharing that. Because here’s the thing, we only ever get to do the first thing the first time once we never ever get the first time ever, ever again. And I think that I almost think that you learn more from having things go wrong than you do from having things go right.
Because sometimes when things go right, first time, you don’t realize the you know the variables. So, you know, for you you put a lot of time in you didn’t get the list size that you wanted. I mean, I’m guessing you obviously did get the speakers.
But before you share what went right in your second summer because it sounds like you learned a real law. What are some of the reasons that apart from list building that you would want to run a summit? Give us some context around some of the benefits
Jay Williams (10:00):
Yeah, great question. So as you alluded to the first reason people normally run online Summit is so they can build an email list so they could monetize, right? For me that was to reduce the risk, but also to reach more people, I really love people, I really care about people. And I really want to give, I really want to add value to my audience.
And so as well as the list builder is a great opportunity to start getting more exposure, and putting yourself out there to networks and audiences that wouldn’t have ever heard of you before. Because I always say to my clients all the time, you’ve got to be honest with yourself, nobody cares about you, nobody knows about you, otherwise, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Yeah, and they wouldn’t be working with me because they’d be out there reaching more people crushing it, right. And so you can reach more people, you can add more value. But one of the most important things about summits is some probably talks into this quite a lot is authority. So one of the amazing things about summit model is you get authority by association.
So for example, if you are following me on social media, and you notice a picture of me and Tony Robbins after a drink together, right? Now, you have no idea of the circumstances of that engagement of how we met, whether I’ve paid him a million to sit in the seat with him, whether I just stumbled across him in a bar, and I said, let’s pull a picture together and got my wife to take it, you’d have no idea. The only thing you’d probably think of in your mind of holy crap jays, with Tony Robbins having a drink.
This is the I must be a big deal. If you’ve never met me before, you must think he’s got friends like Tony Robbins. Right. And so you get authority by association. This is why I say to all my clients, if you ever go to a live event, and you get to, if there’s a big speaker on make sure you get that photo, because at some point, you can leverage that, right create authority by association.
So I had Neil Patel, speaking at my summits. And I can talk about how I get big speakers like Neil Patel, speaking at my events, which is amazing. Absolutely. So the association piece, and the authority piece is really, really important, too. Sam is clearly someone who’s been doing this for 30 plus years, now she knows her stuff, she’s got authority, she’s got credibility with her audience, and in the marketplace.
So if people see me getting speakers like Sam on my stage, then that’s going to be really powerful, and there’s automatically going to be a level of trust there. And there’s automatically going to be that level of trust that now it’s going to make it easier to sell your products on the back end.
Because if you try and convert someone who’s completely cold into a buying customer, you’re gonna need to go out there, go and find them, build that authority, build that trust, warm them up, nurture them. And you still have to do that to a certain degree, but summits allow you to accelerate that.
Because what happens is when people come and attend your summits, just like a five day challenge as an example, they come in, spend more time with you. And then the more time they spend with you, the more they get to know you your personality, the way you work your style.
And they get to make a decision of whether or not they want to engage with you further. And if someone has spent in an example, most of my Summit’s for about eight hours, eight to 10 hours, if someone does spend 10 hours with you. And they given that their most valuable asset, which is their time, it’s safe to say that probably think you’re alright,
Samantha Riley (13:50):
you’d hope so wouldn’t you up to that amount of time, if that hung around, you’d be renewed hope say
Jay Williams (13:57):
that there’s gonna be a level of trust and credibility that you build through that which of course is going to help you to influence them on the back end when you come to promote your products and services.
So those are some of the real good reasons why you might want to run a summit. On top of that, there are a bunch of fine if especially if that’s your personality type or if you have an interest in getting to know people.
And on top of that, you get to learn a bunch of shit about business and stuff. But you probably have to pay people a lot of money to learn because what am I really selfish things I like to do with my son. It says I’m like, What do I want to learn more about? Because the truth is if I want to learn about it, other people want to learn about it as well. I totally will in that sense.
Samantha Riley (14:45):
That’s what I love about the podcast, too. I get to chat with amazing people are you and all of our other guests and I get to ask the questions that I want to ask. But also knowing that, you know, again, if it’s interesting for me, it’s interesting for my audience So you did mention that you had Neil Patel as a speaker.
And I think that is amazing. Congratulations that, that you did that. Because I think a lot of people, they question or they don’t even have the courage to reach out to kind of big names like that. But I want to go one step backwards, because I think that there’s a lot that needs to come before reaching out to big name people.
Tell us about the thoughts that went into, like the strategy and the topic that you chose before you reach out to your speakers, you know, because I know you enough to know that you haven’t just gone. Oh, I want to speak to that person. Let me just see if I can pull a big name with no, with no, you know, really meat and potatoes behind what you’re doing?
Jay Williams (15:44):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So there’s a whole strategy behind, coming up with the topic for the summit, right, the speaker’s party and the speakers all the rest of it. Now, it’s a way down the line. You have to treat every summit as if you are talking to your ideal prospect. So I always start with the end in mind.
So I’m always thinking to myself, who is the type of person I want to have its clients, right? Because at the back end, I’m going to offer my coaching services. So it makes sense that I put together a summit full of people who are my ideal client.
So as with all marketing, it always starts that Who’s your ideal client, who the people you want to attract into the event. Now with that, you of course understand what their problems, what their desires are, and what they are looking for right now what they are wanting right now. And from that, you start to brainstorm Well, what are some ideas for Summit.
So for example, if my business was to help get clients, and I was, let’s say, a business coach, then I might say, I might put a summit on called clients on demand, because one of them Amerks, coaches, one, want more clients. So they want a process and a system for getting clients on the back, right for that.
So I might put an events such as that now, you can go even one step further, where you can really drill down deeper. So let’s just say you work with people who want to get to 10k. Right, you might put on a summit that’s specifically tailored around that topic.
So when we’re coming up with the name of the event, it’s really geared to solving the problem that our ideal client is facing. That’s typically what we tend to do now, with me, I went one step further, I decided that there are lots of events that happen all of the time. So I need a way to be different. I need a way to stand out from all the other events.
So how do I do that? Now, my brand is one way of doing that. But as I said, no one really knows me. So how much variability do I have? So I thought, well, what would be really great is if I do an event that’s timely.
And by that, I mean, there was a recession at the start of the year. So it makes sense to talk into that conversation, because what’s top of mind for my target market right now. And as business owners, I discovered that typically when there’s a financial Kraits crisis, or there’s times of stress, we do one or two things we either contract or we expand.
So I took us into that conversation. Then the next summit, AI exploded, it was kind of like, whoa, what’s on top of everybody’s mind right now, it’s AI, but how do you how can my ideal client use that to get the results they want? Right? How do we accelerate that process? Yes, most people were overwhelmed.
So I used that to cut through the noise because the number one term that was being searched on Google was best AI tools to use and best. That was that number one searched it. So it made sense to me that people were just overwhelmed. And I was speaking to lots of people that were overwhelmed. So they wanted this summit that would cut through and I would deliver that. So that was just my unique angle of standing out.
So everything from the marketing to the landing page video to the types of speakers I bought on and got them to engage from that angle. That’s what allowed me to start to separate myself from other people who were doing so much because they were just doing hey, let’s do an AI Summit. Hey, let’s just do a marketing Summit.
It’s like most people who’ve been in business a little bit of time and like boring. Yeah, I’ve heard Yeah. How do you be different? So that’s really the approach to come up with title. And then of course, the tagline is typically, in marketing, we love three so we’ll normally do three things. So my most recent Summit is attract more clients grow your business and become a master of influence, right? So it’s always in threes when we’re coming down to the promise.
Samantha Riley (19:57):
Love that. Love that. Love that Tell us about? Well, I’m really I guess the biggest question here is not just how you find your speakers. But how was it that you managed to get Neil Patel to come onto your, onto your Summit? Like, what was the reach out process look like? And what do you feel like was your point of difference in that he was like, Oh, totally. Jay. Jay Williams 100%, I’m going to come and speak at your summer.
Jay Williams (20:30):
You’re gonna be shocked when I give the answer. Probably. Let me just let me just paint a picture here. As I said, in the first summit, one of the biggest things I did was I reached out to him 500 businesses, cold business owners speakers, and I didn’t leverage my network, I didn’t go deep on my network.
And that created the results that created as I went through the process, and one of the biggest lessons I learned is that it’s a lot of work trying to get people who are completely cold to listen to you to trust in you.
And I would find myself reaching out or following up with people like 567 times and get nothing just get ghosted. And that process was really frustrating in the first summit. And so in the second summit, I decided to do something different. I started to lean on my network and say, you know, who your friends are.
And what would happen is that still do some cold outreach to people because I like their stuff. And I was interested in getting them on stage. But this time, something changed. What changed this time is I would reach out to them three, four, or five times and nothing. And then I thought, Ah, this isn’t working.
Let’s, who could I connect with that will could connect me to that person? And then I went out to my network and asked people who do you know, did you know anyone who knows this person? And what would happen is that get that person to do an intro to that person, that person would introduce me to the main speaker trigger.
And instantly I’d get an email saying, Yeah, I’d love to be on your Summit. And so the big difference that I noticed was leveraging my network. So how did I get nailed that sound? Well, there was a guy that I had partnered with for one of my summits.
And he’d actually had Neil Patel on one of his summits in the past in India had lots of big speakers and knew these people been out for dinner with them and stuff like that. And so I thought to myself, well, let’s leverage him. Yeah.
Samantha Riley (22:52):
What a good idea.
Jay Williams (22:54):
What a great idea. It’s not rocket science. So then I said to him any chance you can do an intro? And he said, Yeah, I’m not going to do an intro. But what I can do is give you his email. And at that point, I thought, Okay, I’m messaging Neil Patel.
I followed this guy, 10 years, he’s been someone that I’ve learned from I’ve grown thrive in Burmese strategies. And one of the main tactics you use in all of your outreach emails is to edify. In other words, make them feel great, yes.
You’re freaking amazing, but not in a copy and paste way you take the time to go and look at something they’ve done or a few things that they’ve done. And you really share your takeaways of what it’s done for you. Right? That’s the way you do it.
And with Neil Patel, what I did is I looked at all the things that I learned from him, and I doubled that art with the association to the speaker, to the guy has partnered with it had had him on in the past.
And so I talked about, you know, I’ve been following you for 10 years, and I’d probably say 80% of what I’ve learned about these topics is because of you. And now I get to do this amazing stuff and help all these people.
And I got connected to this person who I’m partnered with in a summer and he said, you might be a really good person to reach out and get on on the summit, and a guy’s email I sent his email and within 10 minutes, you just sent me an email back that said, Yeah, sure. Let’s do it.
Samantha Riley (24:38):
That is so
Jay Williams (24:43):
like mind blown mind blown that it was as simple as that. But to be honest with you, Sam, as with many other BSP is in my head. I would often talk myself out of reaching out to these people because I’d go who would Listen to me Who the hell’s Jay Williams a bit to your point why? Why would they be interested. But the thing that I really got with all summits, and especially around the AI conversation is that all speakers want exposure, right? Everyone wants exposure.
And you need to have a really compelling offer just like in any business in order to get them all in like a value proposition of some kind. And Neil Patel at the time, summits around AI is really freaking hard to get speakers. Talk about AI people who were competent at it anyway, yeah, there was plenty of people with business acumen that there wasn’t any, there wasn’t a lot of people around who were really competent at it.
And it’s so Neil Patel been a smart guy years, he’s kind of going, I want to get on this trending topic, this hot topic that everybody is wanting to know about right now. And that would be getting in massive exposure. So I just leveraged that angle to get someone like him.
Samantha Riley (26:04):
So it’s a win win for both of you. Now, what I love about that is you know, you’ve you framed that is with this is gonna be so simple, Sam, they that you just gonna laugh. But here’s the theme in business, I believe everything comes back to connections and nurturing your connections, your network.
And the reason that I I say pay for proximity. The reason I’m in so many masterminds is because I know the value of being close to these people. So I pay big money to be in masterminds because I know that I’ve got proximity to the right people.
Because when we are connected to some to world to anyone, that’s a resource that we’ve got at our fingertips as a business owner. And I think that one of the biggest values that we have in business in our companies resourcefulness, that when you know who you can reach out to at any time, then you are able to get through just about anything.
So whilst it sounds simple, in that, that’s how you got him on the show, you know, you really leveraged and understood the value of being connected to people and how to connect well. So I’m you know, thanks so much for sharing that story. I think that’s super helpful. Now you’ve run a whole heap of summits.
Now, you’ve had some big speakers, you’ve grown your list. What I probably, you know, you shared a lot about what the benefits are, who are the kind of people that are listening to this now that you would recommend this strategy for, like what could be happening in their business that makes them go? Actually, this is the right strategy for me.
Jay Williams (27:49):
Yeah, that’s, that’s a great question. For me, personally, I was at a place where I was at six figures in my business, and I knew I wanted to reach more people that would that was my thing. I was like, if, if I need if I’m going to grow and scale this, I need to be connected to more people. I need to grow my legs.
Yes. Facebook was a catalyst for me. But really, that got me in the thinking of going okay, I now I’m now ready to reach more people How the hell am I going to do it? So what are the groups of people who could leverage this strategy as people who are ready, who are looking for one variation of scaling, but don’t want to go down, for example, a paid advertising route, you can do a combination of the two, that works as well.
But they might not want to go down the Facebook advertising YouTube Advertising route. That is for people who have already validated their offer people who already have paying clients, they already have a process in place, and they’re just ready to start to scale up because with the model and the way it works, if you think about like, for example, let’s just say I generated 1000 leads from a summit 1000 leads on Facebook advertising or YouTube would cost you $10 a lead that would be what’s that 10 grand or something like that. So you want to think about it like that.
And summits have the capacity to generate you from an event from if you do it pretty well. Anything out just paying a range of 1000s who let’s say 8000 leads depending on your niche, depending on your industry, depending on how good your speakers are, and what size of lists they have. Right? So there’s lots of factors. So there’s massive potential. So let me just paint the extreme 8000 If you were to invest in paid advertising on Facebook that will cost you 80,000 To acquire. Those are less that less.
Now on top of that. There are many other massive benefits that I want people to really get. I know we’re not talking about benefits but types of person but I want you to see either as you can save yourself 80,000 on paid advertising.
And then you can monetize during the event, you might use a VIP offer or a workshop that you upgrade them to in the event. And then on the back end, you can sell them your products and services. So it’s it’s basically like self liquidating ad span, right?
So you’ll be familiar, Sam, I’m sure when people will do a lowball offer on the front of ads, which basically covers the cost of the advertising spend to acquire those, those leads, right, and then they monetize on the back end. Well, with this, it’s like getting paid to play but you’re not paying for the leads.
So it’s like 100% profit on the summit. And then you really maximize your profit on the back end. So for people who are looking to scale, that’s a really great model. And I want it to give the angles of people conceal Well, paid advertising is easier.
Well, this, I honestly believe, as strong benefits in the sense that you can save money on the front end as well, and make ads make money at two points throughout the summer, if you choose to.
There’s another model, which I won’t go into which you can capitalize on the speakers as well and getting people to pay to turn up to the event. So you can make a lot of money with it as well. It can also be for people who are in the early stages of business, because if you don’t have an email list, it’s a great way to leverage other people’s authority.
So if you’re new to business, and you want a strategy, and you do enjoy interviewing people, you’re naturally curious, or you like being on a stage, and you had the confidence to do this, you don’t have to put 21 speakers on a stage straightaway, you can just start with doing a one day event where you put five speakers on.
And that might be a really nice starting point. Each of those speakers will promote the event for you. And then of course, you can start to build your email list that way, that is way better if you don’t have the budget, which many startups don’t, to go and invest in things like paid advertising. So it does work for two groups of people. And it can be combined with other strategies as well.
Samantha Riley (32:22):
Love that. Before we wrap up, there’s one thing that has just been niggling at the back of my mind. So I’m going to ask it because it could be niggling at the back of someone else’s mind, too. You mentioned that you get your speakers to promote it. That’s how you build the list. When you’re getting big name speakers. Do they still promote to their list? Or are you leveraging the name rather than the list?
Jay Williams (32:51):
You’re a smart woman sounds. Good question. I’m glad you asked it. And I think this is really important for a lot of people, because what happens in the beginning for most people is they get carried away.
And they go, I’m gonna go after the biggest speakers with the biggest email list. They’re gonna promote the events that email list, but most of them don’t promote. And the reason for that is because, you know, they get asked 100 times a day to come on events like this. And so they get their pick and choose of which summits and events that want to be on.
And they have massive lists and stages, constantly bombarded that lists with summit summit Summit. You know, that’s probably not going to be a massive benefit to their business. They’re better off selling their products and services off the back end. So I simply leveraged the name.
For me, I identified Neil Patel and a couple of others, especially in the AI space. I have founders of companies like Jennifer Smith, she’s got a million users on the scribe platform. I did Don Bosco be human to AI.
I pulled in speakers with credibility. And I wanted to leverage that now it turns out both those people promoted for me, which is awesome. Yeah. But I used it as a strategic point of my Summit. So that going forward, I could consistently leverage that and I could leverage that to make more sales on the back end, because I already have those interviews from those people so I can leverage the name for positioning and I’ll start seeing and I think this is just, if I’ve learned one thing about influence is rarely about that authority is one of the things that’s just going to trump everything else because if you are sick, it’s kind of like influencers on Instagram or social media.
People by their Raven funded by just because they have X amount of followers and they know that You can trust them, right. And if you have that authority and credibility, it becomes so much easier to sell your products and services, in my opinion and sell virtual events.
Now, you don’t have to have that, I just want to be clear in that you do not have to have those big names. Because every single speaker that comes on your stage will already have a relationship with their email less than they will be seen as an authority and a trusted guide, if you like.
So when they promote the event, their email list, they already have the credibility and authority which you borrow. And of course, that leads people signing up to your summits.
Samantha Riley (35:40):
I love it. So really, at the end of the day strategy, and we mentioned this and just about every episode strategy first. And there’s always a reason for everything. So I love that you use both of these guests for different reasons. Jay, for people that have been listening to you, and they just want to stay in your world because of your beautiful energy and your you know, the amount of serving that you do, where can they find you?
Jay Williams (36:07):
Yeah, so they can connect with me, you can go to my website, Jay Williams coaching.com. Or you can connect with me on Facebook, I have a Facebook group called Six Figure mindset secrets for entrepreneurs, you can go and request to join that group.
And you’ll be able to engage with me on a regular basis, I do something called the run talks where and regularly sharing lots of gold the lessons that I’m learning in entrepreneurship and business, and of course, some powerful tools and strategies that help you to up your level of performance in business.
So you can create more results in your business, of course. So yeah, if you want to connect with me connect with me either via the Facebook group, or you can visit my website, if you want to engage with me in any way. I
Samantha Riley (36:51):
love that. And of course, as always, we’ll put the links to all of those places that Jay just mentioned in the show notes over at influenced by design podcast.com J has been an absolute pleasure chatting with you. And you know, thanks for reaching out after your Facebook account got taken down. You know, as I mentioned, when you reach to house like I haven’t heard from Jay for a while and then there you go popped up with a brand new profile. So it’s been great to reconnect after a few years and thanks for coming on the show and giving so much value today.
Jay Williams (37:24):
Yeah, thanks for having me. It’s been an absolute pleasure.
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
Leave a Reply