Getting as Many Registrations as Possible Isn't What Matters

summit attendees summit success Jan 30, 2024

In this episode, I'll highlight what you probably think about when you're reflecting on the success of your event and uncover what is truly important.

This week, instead of giving you a strategy, I've got a bit of a different topic for you to encourage you to shift the way you think about hosting your summit and the goals you have around it.

It's so easy to go into planning your summit with the mindset of how many registrations you can get or how much money you can make.

But that's not where I want your focus to be.

So let's dive in and you can hear about why I say that and what you should focus on instead!

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The Number of Registrations Isn't What Matters

Let's start by asking you a few questions and I don’t want you to feel guilty about any specific answers or try to force anything. Let whatever comes up just come on up.

When you sit down to plan out your summit and your goals for it, where does your mind naturally go?
When you are stressing about your summit and whether or not it’s going to work, what does “not working” mean?
When you envision yourself recapping after your summit and deciding whether it was a success or failure, what do you picture yourself looking at?

Stop here for a few minutes if you need to think about your answers.

I would guess that you went to the numbers, right?

"How many people will I be able to get signed up?"

"I hope I can get 3000 people signed up and make $30,000 in revenue."

As you’re worrying about whether or not it will work, you’re thinking bout whether anyone is going to sign up or buy your all-access pass or the offer you're going to launch.

When you think about recapping afterward, you picture deciding the success of the event based on the numbers: the people signed up and the money you make.

Here’s the thing...

Numbers are important. You’re running a business, summits are a significant amount of work, and you need to make money.

But the numbers literally don’t matter at all - AT ALL - if it’s a terrible experience for the people who sign up.

You can have 100,000 people signed up, but if the experience is crappy, those 100,000 leads are going to hurt your business far more than help it because it’s 100,000 people who now know they don’t want another experience with your brand. We don't want that.

I see so many people stressing out about the number of leads they'll get signed up for their summit...buuut the leads don't matter if it's a terrible experience for them.

So instead, I want you to think about this...

What kind of pressure does it release if you focus less on the leads and revenue?

Instead, what if you focused on creating a gold-standard summit experience that your attendees will want to come back to again and again?

When you do that, the attendees who sign up will stick around and have a much higher likelihood of buying not only your all-access pass but your other offers. They'll want to continue learning from you and telling others about you.

In addition, you're naturally going to see your registrations soar because the entire event was created with your audience in mind, rather than your list growth or revenue in mind.

Just a small shift, but so important!

I know I don’t help with this in my outward marketing. I catch your attention with the numbers, right? I wish I didn’t have to, but I’ve done a lot of testing, and that’s what it takes. I do try to mix it up as you see in this very episode. But don't let that dictate the way you judge a successful summit or the way you plan yours.

The numbers mean nothing if the experience is terrible.

So, What Does Matter?

Focus on making your summit a positive experience, for everyone involved, at every stage of the process. From how you get speakers, to the content your attendees will engage with, to how you can infuse your own values...the experience of your event will make the biggest difference in how well your summit does.

What does it mean to have a good experience?

This episode isn’t about that, but we have others that talk about the experience, your speakers, giving back, and infusing your values, such as:

I also teach you how to do all of this step-by-step and give you the templates in our programs, but here’s the shift I want you to make as you’re planning your summit to get you started.

Instead of looking at each decision from the lens of, “How can I get the most from this?” Look at it from the lens of, “How can I get my attendees the most from this? How do I want them to benefit and how can I make sure this benefits them?”

That’s what will get them brought in after they sign up. That’s what will get them excited and engaged throughout the event. And that’s what will make them decide they want your all-access pass and to join your signature offer either right away or down the road.

To learn about our process for hosting a gold-standard summit that makes you more revenue and makes your attendees want to come back to your event again and again, DM me on Instagram with the word EXPERIENCE and we'll chat about it! If you don't have Instagram, email me instead.

I know the experience isn’t something we talk about much, but it truly is one of the most important parts of a summit. Really nothing else matters when the experience isn’t there. So DM me the word experience and we’ll see how I can help you create a memorable experience through your event.

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In this episode, I'll highlight what you probably think about when you're reflecting on the success of your event and uncover what is truly important.

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