Podcast Transcript:
Here are four things that you need to do before you attend your next live event.
Hey, there, I’m Jillian Kendrick and welcome to the Momentum Marketing Podcast. I’m a mama, a wife, an entrepreneur and a three time best selling co-author in each episode. You’ll get real world, practical advice and strategies and maybe a parenting tip or two along the way. If you’re ready to create a business that supports your family and your lifestyle, then you’re in the right place.
Hey, there, I’m so excited that you’re here with me today on this episode of the Momentum Marketing Podcast. We are talking about attending live events. I really think that now COVID is starting to subside a great deal. We’re seeing more and more people staying healthy. Although other germs are coming back around like this unknown congestion thing that everybody has had. I had pink eye back in January. Which let me tell you was no fun at all. But I really see now, that majority of the fear from COVID, and some of the restrictions from COVID, and some of the things that people had put in place that we no longer need, are subsiding. I really see live events coming back in ways that they never ever have before for the last three years. So I wanted to put together this list for you of the four things that I believe you need to do before attending a next live event.
Now, before we get into that, I want to share one thing on a segment that we call Trends in Online Marketing. So one of the trends that I’m seeing in online marketing is Lives are coming back in a big way. I’m really seeing a lot of marketers right now doing more Facebook lives, doing more linkedin training type of things.
Reels are still extremely popular in Instagram stories. Not so much. I feel like stories are the kind of thing that like only a few people actually watch, but reels are really huge. Facebook Lives are coming back, who knew? So I wanted to make sure that you were aware of that.
Now on to the topic at hand, the four things that you need to do before you attend your next live event.
Number one, figure out your, Why. Why am I going there? Why am I attending this event? Why is this particular event more important than another one? Am I going there because it’s close to where I live and it’s convenient? Am I going there because I need a break and need to get out of the office? Am I going there to meet a specific person? Or to hear a specific speaker? Am I going there to network? Define your, why. Why are you going, what’s important to you? What are your priorities when it comes to attending this event? And that’ll help you get really, really clear about what you need and how to make the live event a success.
Number two. And I really think this is the most important one: list 1 to 3 goals of what you want to get out of the event. Whether, it’s again, meeting someone, seeing a certain speaker, purchasing something. Maybe you want to go to an event to find a solution for your business. Maybe you want to go to network. Whatever it is, list 1 to 3 goals that you want to accomplish during your time at that event. And then make it a priority every single day to look at those three goals, even multiple times a day, and figure out how you can make those happen. Because I’ve seen so many people and I’ve done this myself over the years. Go to events just kind of haphazardly walking around, looking at vendors. They have no idea what they need. They have no idea what they want, why are they there? They’re just picking up business cards, or, I hate, going to events where you can very clearly tell that certain people or affiliates or whoever, are like very clearly trying to sell and make sales with every person with a pulse without any kind of gumption as to whether or not they’re actually a good candidate for their business. That drives me nuts. And I ignore those people if I’m honest, when I go to events. So list out 1 to 3 goals of what you want to accomplish. What you need to get done. What will serve your business when you leave that event the most. And then prioritize a couple of times a day, looking at those goals, checking them off and making sure that you accomplish them. I have definitely been to events where my goal was to sell. Where I was at that event. My goal was to sell and I made sales. I’ve been to events where my goal was literally just to have a mental break, or a mental sort of vacation, and go and network with people. Because I just wanted to see what other people in my industry were up to.
And that was the goal: to interview and talk to as many people as possible. Or I don’t know if I chose like five or six people or whatever it was. List your goals and work towards accomplishing them every single day.
Number three. And this isn’t a huge priority, but I think it goes back to helping you achieve those goals and really getting the most out of the event. Because again, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gone to events myself or I’ve seen people attend an event and they have no goals. They have no idea why they’re at that event, what they’re doing, what the priorities are, what they need in their business. They just go to an event and expect the people at the event to give them everything they need. Well, that’s not necessarily their job, depending on the type of event that you go to. Or why you went. Or what the promise was. But you, as the business owner, need to prioritize and know why did you attend that event? What are your goals? What do you need to get from that event? What is going to help you most in your business and then seek that out? So the third thing that I say is if you can. Now, I know sometimes depending on the event or depending on who’s running it, they may or may not release the schedule ahead of time. So you might even have to do this a couple of days before or the night before when you’re looking through the agenda.
But I want you to prepare 4 to 5 questions. Maybe one for each breakout session, or one for each speaker, or something. Because I have been to so many events, or I’ve seen so many events, or I’ve even hosted my own live events. Where we’ve opened it up for questions and then nobody has anything. Or we open it up for questions and it’s like something that we’ve covered already or whatever the case may be. So do yourself a favor, prepare 4 to 5 questions. Even if it’s something that that speaker or that breakout session didn’t cover, or that’s not the particular topic, prepare questions and have something to ask. So that when you’re given the opportunity to ask a question of an expert, you at least have something prepared. And you can look at your four or five questions and think, oh, this isn’t really appropriate for this particular speaker, or for the topic or I got my question answered at this other thing. But have questions answered so that you’re not sitting there in the event with an opportunity to ask something and thinking my mind has gone blank. I have no idea what I need.
And then the last thing, the fourth thing, that you need to do before you attend your next live event is to prepare as best you can for your clients, your team, your inbox, your Facebook, whatever it is. So that you can leave all of those things behind present at the event and get the most out of it that you possibly can. So what I’ll do is I’ll go into my gmail inbox and I’ll set an away message or a vacation message, whatever they call it. I’ll let my team know that I’m only available during certain times. Or on certain days for them to message me or ask me questions or that they can always ask me questions, but I won’t be available until certain times or certain days to answer those questions. That way it sets expectations for my team so that they know when they’ll be able to hear from me. And then I always let clients know that, hey, I’m going to this event and whatever I learn is going to benefit you and I’m going to come back with more information. So just so, you know, if you need anything, you can reach out to someone on the team, I won’t be available during these particular days or these particular hours.
I would also say when it comes to your inbox and social media, wherever you like to look at that stuff. If it’s on your phone or your laptop, take that app or take that browser or take whatever and put it somewhere else. So what I do on my phone because that’s where I tend to look at most of my social media is on my phone. I will take the Facebook app and I will drag that and Instagram and whatever else into its own folder. And then I’ll put the folder in the very back screen. So I have to scroll four or five times through different screens in order to get to that folder to open up Facebook. If it’s there on your home screen, on the very first fold or the very first page of your phone or all your apps, you’re much more likely to see it and just instinctively click on it and open up Facebook. And then before you know it, the session is over and you’ve got nothing out of it because you’ve been scrolling through Facebook. But if you put that stuff away and make it harder to reach and harder to get out, that will help you to stay focused, stay present and get the most out of the event that you’re attending.
I would also say, and this is just kind of another tip. Something that I have seen colleagues of mine who are in other time zones, whether it’s Europe, or Asia, or Australia, or somewhere else. What they’ve done when they attend live events that are virtual, but they’re being run live. They will actually go and get a hotel room, or an airbnb, or they’ll go to some other place. So that they can, especially my Australian colleagues, because God bless them for attending stuff in the US. They’re 12 or 15 hours ahead of the United States time zones, possibly more. And they would be watching live events in the middle of the night. So rather than disturb their family. Rather than be tempted to work an entire business day and then try to stay up all night to attend these live events for the US. They go get a hotel room or an airbnb. And they basically live there and stay there as if they’re actually at the live event. But they prioritize this is what I’m doing. I have changed my environment. I’ve changed my habits for these couple of days, and I’m going to stay here to do this thing and get it done. So that could be something else depending on where you live and where the event is being held.
Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Momentum marketing Podcast. If listening to this has brought you value, improved your life, or given you insight to help you build momentum in your business, then please share it with a friend and I’ll see you on the next episode.
The Momentum Marketing Podcast
By Jillian Kendrick
Episode: # 15
Topic: 4 To Dos for Live Events
Contact: hello@jilliankendrick.com
Follow IG: instagram.com/automatedmama
