Entrepreneurial You by Dorie Clark

Author:Dorie Clark [Clark, Dorie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633692282
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2017-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

Organize a Conference

Levesque’s mastermind groups are high-dollar, high-intensity experiences that last for a year or even more, if participants re-up. But you can also create short-term events for your followers that generate significant income. Social Media Marketing World—the conference where I spoke for free in order to have a chance to connect with so many of my speaker friends—charges between $850 and $1,600 for admission, depending on when you buy your ticket. In 2016, it drew three thousand attendees. When you’re not paying for speakers, that’s a very good rate of return.

The secret, according to conference founder Michael Stelzner, is that he started by knowing a lot of writers, based on connections from his previous company, which taught people how to get paid to write white papers (a topic of obvious interest to unemployed journalists). In the late 2000s, when he realized social media was becoming popular, he asked some of them if they’d be willing to contribute long-form articles to his new website, Social Media Examiner, for free.

The promise of exposure usually doesn’t mean much, but in this case, it was true. There was a paucity of in-depth, knowledgeable articles about social media and a great deal of interest. Before long, his author friends were becoming widely recognized for their expertise, and Social Media Examiner had built a massive following: in 2015 alone, it added 250,000 subscribers. With those kind of numbers—when “exposure” actually means something—it’s not hard to get volunteers to write or speak for free.

And like me, many speakers will at least sometimes sign on to events if it gives them a chance to reconnect with their friends or meet their heroes. That was the dynamic that fueled the unlikely success of Jayson Gaignard, the founder of Mastermind Talks, in the conference world.

It was August 2012, and Gaignard was in a bad place. He’d built a successful ticket-resale business in Canada, but—never a sports or live music fan—he hated the industry and wanted to get out. He’d also fallen $250,000 into debt, with a six-month-old baby and an impending wedding. Because of his daughter, he often kept unusual hours, which is why he was awake at 4 a.m. when Tim Ferriss’s email came through.

Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, was a business hero of Gaignard’s. A few months later, Ferriss would release his much anticipated sequel, The 4-Hour Chef. But the book’s success was at risk because Ferriss had inked a deal with Amazon to publish the book, and brick-and-mortar bookstores, such as Barnes & Noble, were refusing to stock it in protest. To juice sales, Ferriss needed to think creatively. So—a noted night owl—he sent a wee-hours missive to his email list, advertising a unique opportunity: if you preordered a whopping four thousand copies of his new book for a total of $84,000, he would give two keynote talks for you or your organization.

Despite the price tag, Gaignard knew the offer wouldn’t last. “This is a great opportunity for anyone,” he thought. So he immediately emailed Ferriss and accepted the deal.

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