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Episode at a glance:
[1:36] Tara shares how attending summits that didn't quite fit led her to create her own introvert-focused event. She gave herself eight months to plan her first summit (instead of the typical rushed timeline) and used Summit in a Box® to guide the process.
"I started attending summits as an attendee, feeling like they weren't necessarily for me. It was a lot of social media marketing, a lot of networking advice that didn't really fit with how I wanted to grow and build my business, which started to make me think, Hey, maybe I could do this differently. I felt like there was a little bit of a gap where there should be something for introverts like myself to learn and connect different ways to market and grow their business"
[3:31] After planning her first summit, Tara was surprised to discover how much fun summits can actually be to host. Even as an introvert! She also realized the multiple benefits that come from one event - authority building, visibility, launch strategy, relationship building, and email growth all rolled into one.
"Another big thing that surprised me was actually the number of different benefits that comes from hosting a summit. Like, it's authority building. You increase your visibility. It can be a launch strategy. It is great for relationship building, especially as an introvert, networking, email growth - all these benefits into one event, which is fantastic."
[5:47] The key to enjoying the experience hosting a summit as an introvert is energy management. This is really about figuring out and understanding what things drain your energy versus the things that give you energy. This is a personal process, because we're all different, But there are some things that most introverts tend to find draining about summits, especially live sessions.
" Extroverts tend to get their energy from other people, so they probably thrive doing a bunch of live sessions or live panels or live engagement. But for most introverts, that typically drains our energy. So we either want to avoid that, or we want to be very intentional about how we're adding that into our summit strategy or our summit week.
[7:47] Tara shares how she adjusts her summit format based on how she's feeling. Sometimes it's entirely prerecorded or evergreen, and other times she includes strategic live elements with buffer days built in for recovery.
"Last year I was feeling super low energy, so I actually made it entirely evergreen. There was no live components at all. It was just the evergreen presentations, and the Facebook group. This year, I really wanted to bring back some live but I knew I still wasn't feeling super, super high energy. So we had three live panels with one day in between each to not have days where I did not have to show up on Zoom. That really helped."
[9:17] As a recovering perfectionist, Tara emphasizes that another big part of energy management is letting go of things that don't need your direct involvement. For example, she uses Airtable for automated speaker communications and creates systems for anything that happens repeatedly. She also brings her virtual assistant on for more hours during summit planning, and batches tasks to save time and energy.
"Having systems in place for things that you know you're going to have to do on a continuous basis is important for energy management. Anything that can be automated should be automated. Save yourself some time so that you can do the big picture things."
[17:52] Tara proves you don't need to be everywhere to have a successful summit. She doesn't use social media in her business, and so when it comes to her summits, she doesn't use social media either. She focuses on SEO, organic traffic, her email list, and leverages her affiliate program. Many of her speakers do promote on social media though, so she makes sure they have what they need for their promotion.
"There's a lot of ways to get visible and get your summit out there without social media... I don't necessarily have to be there. I personally will stick to Pinterest, organic traffic, my email list, which is always 100% my ideal audience, because this summit is so on brand."
About Tara Reid
Tara Reid is a Business and Marketing Strategist who helps introverted entrepreneurs grow sustainable, hustle-free businesses. With over 17 years of experience and multiple 6-figure businesses under her belt, she’s hosted more than a dozen virtual summits — including fully live and fully evergreen formats. Tara’s passion is helping others build success in ways that feel aligned, authentic, and energy-friendly.
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