Business Building Event Strategies
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“Milk those Business Building Events & Programs for Everything They’ve Got and Leap to the Next Highest Version of Your Business!”
If you’ve ever attended a business building seminar, weekend or tele-summit with multiple presenters sharing their savvy success secrets then you will be familiar with what I have to share with you.
You know the old riddle, “How do you eat an elephant?”
The answer is, “One bite at a time, of course!”
The elephant I’m referring to is the 2-tons of information you receive by attending business building workshops and seminars. The last event I attended I noticed so many beautiful soul-o-preneurs begin to shake with apprehension at the magnitude of what was before them with regards to creating a “successful” business.
There was a feast of excellent information, strategies and resources provided. But like any feast, it’s easy to pile our plates so high we lose the distinction between the individual helpings.
As a previous closet personal/business development junkie I can personally speak to information overload. The symptoms are easy to spot now that I’ve experienced them first hand more times than I can count.
Phase One: there’s the eager, expressive anticipation of what’s to come. Clean blank journal pages just waiting to be filled with the transformational wisdom poised on the lips of the austere presenters. We are hungry for this information, starving for the answers to our questions. Bring it on! Give me all you’ve got, I can take it!
Phase Two: the light bulbs above the participants’ heads are blazing with ideas and a-has for implementing the new pearls of wisdom so generously presented to them. Pens are flying across the page inking out the tips and strategies being shared. People ask questions, share revelations and begin to make connections with other like-minded soul-o-preneurs. This is GREAT!
Phase Three: Wow! There’s MORE! And more and more and more incredible must do, must have, must implement powerful business building tools and strategies. By now, some of those light bulbs have actually exploded leaving nothing but a twisted piece of glowing, buzzing filament dangling above some people’s overstuffed heads. Eager anticipation has turned to furrowed brow, “OMG – how am I ever going to manage all of this?!”
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! – Information overload!
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End Result:
- Many of those great connections made with other soul-o-preneurs fall by the wayside because you’re not sure where they fit in.
- You don’t know what to do with all of that information so you don’t do anything
- You try to implement some of it but you don’t see immediate results so you figure it doesn’t work for you
- You sign up for every course offered hoping to learn how to implement this great information and realize you can’t keep up with all of it
- Or you don’t sign up for anything because you don’t know which one will best serve what you need to have happen next because you’re not exactly sure either!
- You start to compare yourself to other people who you believe are more successful than you and begin to feel anxious and dissatisfied with your own business development
- You start the search all over again for the “answer” you believe will set your business free! Because you’re sure you didn’t learn enough or learn the right “thing” for your business from all of the other events and courses you’ve attended or purchased.
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I could go on and on here but I’m sure you get the point. If you see yourself in any of this, I want to assure you there is a way out, a quantum leap out of this cycle of information overload and inertia.
Business Building events, in and of themselves are excellent resources for learning new strategies and technology as well as meeting other passionate entrepreneurs. They are not the be all and end all of helping you to create a sustainable, thriving soulo-practice that will provide you the satisfaction and lifestyle you are attempting to create.
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Here are a few best practices for gaining maximum benefit from your workshop, event or tele-summit experiences:
Research the presenters ahead of time. Is there one or two that may be able to help your particular business in a way that you have been struggling with? Make sure to connect with them directly. See if they offer any private coaching before or after the event. Or they may offer a great package price since you are attending the event.
Set a clear intention for yourself before you attend. What specifically do you want to gain as a result of attending based on what the various presenters have to offer? Pick one or two areas of your business that you feel will have the greatest impact on moving you forward.
Network, network, network! Meet other soul-o-preneurs, find out what they are up to and see if there are some ways you can help each other out. When you meet someone who may be able to complement what you do and vice-versa there is a great opportunity to create a joint-venture program or tele-call.
Be prepared to offer your own ‘free-give-away’ to the other attendees of the program. This could be in the form of a simple postcard or separate business card with a link to your splash page for that offer. You may actually pick up a client or two (which should certainly help cover the cost of your attendance) and build your list as well.
Take all the notes you want but focus on what you came to learn. Once you understand what needs to happen to implement that information get the help you need to do it right away. That help may be in the form of a mentor, a virtual assistant or a certification course. It depends on what you discover needs to happen next to move your business to the next level of success.
Implement! Implement! Implement! Once you have what you intended to get into place for your business think about what you feel needs to happen next. Go back and visit your notes and see what there is to be implemented next! Re-visit that presenters website or books, see if they have a program based on the specific set of skills or knowledge that you are seeking, then implement, implement, implement!
Follow up with the people you meet, visit their blogs, friend them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, wherever they hang out. You won’t stay in touch with everyone but you will connect with a few that you may stay in contact with for a long time to come. Offer your own pearls of wisdom on their sites and blogs and they will do the same for you. Thus, the conversation begins…
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Before you know it your business will be a well oiled machine churning out programs, products and information on a systematic platform that
you assembled! You will have the assistance needed that will allow you to ‘deliver the goods’ of what you do best in a way that also provides the space for family time, dream time and personal growth.
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Remember, just because you’re a soul-o-preneur doesn’t mean you have to do it all ‘solo’. But you do have to get into action. You have to get into inspired right action that will lead you to the next step and the next and the next. Get out of your head, stop planning everything to the nth degree and do the scary thing first – make the phone call, write the proposal, book a speaking engagement. Proclaim your service to the world and then SERVE (just remember to charge what you’re worth in the process!)
The quantum leaps you want to experience in your business ONLY happen when you are in action with a focus on where you want to land. Price Pritchett writes, “Most people confuse wishing and wanting with pursuing. You must place your trust in action.”
Merely accumulating information is like continually filling the gas tank without ever using any of the gas to fuel your vehicle. Set the Garmin to where you want to go and step on the dang gas pedal (it’s the long skinny one on the right!)
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There’s a beautiful Quaker saying that goes something like this:
“God rewards those who pray. But, while you pray, move your feet!”
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What are some of your best practices for attending workshops, events and tele-summits? How do you eat your information elephant and get into action?