SFR 201: How I Made My First Event, OfferMind...

Boom! What's goin' on everyone? It's Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio.

 

Today I'm gonna teach you guys how I was able to pull off OfferMind so grandly as my very first event.

 

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

 

The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt? Completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

 

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.

 

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. What's up?

 

Hey, I'm excited for this episode. I'm excited for today, I'll be honest. So, just know that what I wanted to do, is I had OfferMind happen just very recently. OfferMind was my event that signified me moving into the offer creation category.

 

No one has become the category king of offer creation. I am trying to make my stand there as being the best and the first in that area as the solution provider for that area. You know what I'm talking about?

 

So anyways, I'm really really excited about it and all of it. OfferMind has signified a lot.

 

What this episode right here is not about is the content about OfferMind. What I wanted to do is take a kind of an objective look at how I pulled off OfferMind so grandly as my very first event. Anyways, it'll be fun. It'll be really really cool.

 

I love events. Events are very special. If you guys think about it, there are seven phases of a funnel - we learned that from the book, Dot Com Secrets.  The seventh phase of a funnel is to change somebody's environment. That's why events are so powerful.

 

If somebody is agreeing to come to an event - they've gone through the first six phases of a funnel. I'm not gonna go through all those right now, but you can look them up in Dot Com Secrets. The seventh phase of a funnel, the last phase of the funnel, is to change somebody's actual physical environment, and that's why it's so awesome when they show up... but it's also why it's so hard to get them to the event.

 

So if you're about to throw an event, and you're like, "It is super hard to get people to an event."  Yeah, I totally get it. I completely understand.

 

I was at this Inner Circle meeting a little while ago. It was probably like six month ago, I think... I dunno, my timetable is totally messed up now...

 

It was a while ago, and I was at this inner circle meeting, and I learned from some people, that what they've been doing is in some of their products, is giving away a free ticket to their event.

 

So when you buy the book or the program or whatever, included in that is a ticket to the event. That's clever. Now let me ask you a question though...

 

Do you think the person who shows up with a free ticket has the same mentality as the person who shows up with a paid ticket? No! Totally different.

 

In fact, if you give away a thousand free tickets, I would guess maybe 200 would actually show up. That much of a drop-off, okay? Huge drop-off. And a very different mentality; you will attract a broke room, a poor room if you're going to be selling something. Not to offend anybody, just being honest okay.

 

If you pay to get to an event, what do you think the attendance rate is gonna be? A lot higher.

 

It's pretty standard inside of events that have a 10% drop-off rate. A 10% no-show rate. They just don't show up. Baffles me. Blows my mind. I have no idea why it's that way, but it is. Even with the high ticket events, paid ticket events, whatever.

 

When I was running a lot of FHAT events, or Funnel-Hack-Athon Events... Guys, that was a 15000 to 25000 dollar event for people to show up. That is how much they paid, and still, we'd have people who would not show up after paying that much money. Yes, I'm serious. It's like, "Holy crap are you serious?" Yeah, I am. And that's what's interesting about this.

 

There's always a no-show rate.

 

There is gonna be a different mentality of person that shows up when you gave away free tickets versus the mentality of a person who showed up with paid tickets.

 

So I was like, "Well, I need validation to even move forward on this idea. How can I validate throwing my own event?"

 

I mean I've always wanted to throw my own event. And so what happened was, about four months ago when I knew that Russell was gonna be doing the, (wait, it's November isn't it? November/December by the time you see this episode it will be December? Okay, but right now, recording this, 'cause I match my content, practice what I preach here, right.)

 

...It was back in February when Russell first started talking about doing this book. The 30 Day book. When he first started talking about that, and he started reaching out to all the people for it, I was like, "Sweet, this is gonna be so cool." And I went in, and I got to write my chapter - it was really exciting and awesome.

 

What was cool, is when he wrote this book, when the idea came out for this book, I thought to myself, "That's it. That is how I can fill a room. That's the vehicle that I can give a free ticket away with when I sell it." So that was super exciting.

 

I knew that OfferMind was gonna be comin' up some time in the future. I didn't know when, but I knew it was there. Most people will stop because they don't see all the details yet. Don't stop... if you've got a sweet idea, just know that clarity will happen as you move, not before you move. Little nugget there, just threw it out.

 

...So when I saw Russell go out and say, "You know what, we're gonna give away, for everyone who promotes the book, we're gonna give 100% commissions." He's like, "I'm not gonna take any commissions on that book." I was like, "You're kidding. Oh my gosh, this is actually really really big. Okay, okay, dude, can I interview you on my podcast?"(Russell was on the podcast a little while ago.) "Dude, can I get this, can I do that." Alright?

 

And I started structuring a campaign around this book. Knowing that when I drop out a free ticket with the book, I'm gonna get more sales because the perceived value of my offer is gonna go through the roof.

 

I also knew that people were gonna be like, "Oh my gosh," and it was gonna be more talkable.

 

I sold 375 books, and I was like, "I bet a third of those people will actually show up." And that's about what happened. About 120 RSVP'd, but I think ab...