When most people think of virtual summits, they think email list growth and some added revenue. But the power of virtual summits is so much bigger than that.
This week, I’m so excited to introduce you to Shelby Devore, an experienced summit host, who has seen the results of her summits grow far beyond her wildest dreams, getting bigger and better with every summit she hosts. She went into her first summit hoping to add a few hundred subscribers to her email list. By her fourth, she was adding hundreds of members in her membership, along with thousands and thousands of new subscribers on her list.
The power of virtual summits truly gets bigger and better as you continue to host them and think strategically about how you can build on your previous results and aim higher with each new event.
Whether you’re just starting to think about the idea of hosting your first summit, or you’re a seasoned summit host looking for more momentum from your next event, this is an inspirational episode that you won’t want to miss!
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Episode at a glance:
[2:32] Before hosting a summit of her own, Shelby started looking for opportunities to attend or speak at summits in the homesteading industry she works in, but she quickly realized that there weren’t any! Instead of letting that stop her from pursuing her ideas, she saw it as an opportunity.
I couldn't find any summits in the homesteading space. There was literally nothing out there, soI just thought, maybe I need to be the one that starts this in my industry. It’s a huge opportunity, and no one else is taking it, so I’m going to.
[5:59] Shelby now has 4 virtual summits under her belt, with two more planned for 2023, but before hosting the first one, she was feeling frustrated that her business wasn’t making money that matched the impact her products and courses were creating for her audience.
In the back of my mind, I kept thinking, if people enjoy my stuff as much as they say they do, why am I not making more money? Looking back on it, I was just in the early stages of my business, but I knew that I needed to do something different. I felt like I was stuck in a rut and needed to get out of it to go to the next level in my business. Soon, she found herself in full summit planning mode!
[9:03] We regularly hear from our clients that they are hooked on summits after finishing their first one, and Shelby was no exception! Her first summit far exceeded her goals of adding 500 subscribers to her email list, and her 2x annual summits have contributed to incredible growth in the years since.
I had 1,200 people on my email list and had made a couple thousand dollars total in my online business before hosting my first summit. Four summits later, I have about 35,000 people on my email list and made about a quarter of a million dollars in revenue last year. We’re also planning our 5th summit right now, with a goal of 25,000 attendees, but I actually feel pretty confident that we’ll do more than that. Quite the jump from where things were before that first summit!
[12:40] Initially, Shelby saw her summits primarily as a list builder, but after her third summit, she was ready to take a different approach and use her summit as a way to grow her membership. She hosted her first 3 summits following the Summit in a Box® system, but she knew with the goals she had for her next one, she needed some support. That’s when we got to work with her even more closely in the Launch with a Summit Accelerator™!
After my 3rd summit, I decided to launch a brand new membership following my summit, and we ended up with 27 members. Over the next few months, we worked our tails off to grow that to 68. I knew I was missing an opportunity to really tie my membership launch into the summit rather than introducing my new leads to the membership after the event was over. That’s when I joined the Launch with a Summit Accelerator, and the results from our next summit completely blew my mind. We had worked so hard just to get to 68 members in our membership, but when we followed the Launch with a Summit strategies, we added 300!
[15:03] I asked Shelby what the biggest factor was in increasing her results so quickly, and hands down, the most important piece for her was shifting her mindset. She went from seeing her summit as simply a list builder, to the start of a journey she was taking her people down. Instead of feeling like she should wait before launching her membership when she’d just sold an all-access pass, she started to feel like she was leaving them hanging without offering her membership as a way to keep the journey going. That’s when everything started shifting.
During the summit, people are so pumped up to hear from you and hear from the speakers. They’re learning and taking it all in and, and starting to build a community, but then when the summit ends, it’s just gone. I used to feel like it would be sleazy to sell something else when I’d just finished promoting the all-access pass, but in reality, that’s not how it works at all. It just made sense to sell the membership after the summit so attendees have a place to continue learning and continue building community.
[21:56] Another big mindset shift Shelby has experienced over her years of hosting summits has been thinking about the results the attendees will get from the experience, rather than the business results it will create for her. Instead of focusing on revenue and business growth, she thinks of it as an opportunity to serve her people and show them what she has to offer, and the business results follow.
It absolutely blows my mind how much people love these events. We host two summits annually, and at this point we get emails at least once a week from people asking when the next one is so they can plan for it and take off work to attend. It’s the best feeling when I get those emails and realize that people are really into the event and it’s life changing for them.
[24:55] I swear we don’t tell people to say this, but when I asked Shelby to share her advice for anyone looking to host their first summit, her advice is to follow the Summit in a Box system, to a tee. We believe that summits are too big of a project to ever have to start from scratch, and following our system, Shelby was able to host her first summit entirely on her own, without any help from a team.
I followed the system to a tee and was able to host my first summit on my own. It covers everything you could possibly think of, and the things you wouldn’t even know to think of, and I’m so glad that I followed it exactly for my first summit. Once I had a summit or two under my belt, I started experimenting a bit more, but it really gives you a foundation for hosting an amazing online event.
About Shelby
Shelby Devore is a former high school and college agriculture teacher and homesteader with over 20 years of experience. She teaches moms traditional living skills like gardening, raising livestock and cooking from scratch.
Shelby's Website | Garden. Farm. Thrive. Academy
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