Events - Dave Woodward - FHR #293

Why Dave Decided to talk about Events:

Dave goes to a lot of events. Learn what value events can have for you and your business

Tips and Tricks for You and Your Business:

(2:10) When you go to events, go ALL IN

(4:48) Jump at the opportunities for learning

(6:48) The contacts you can make at events are “off the charts wild”

(9:00) Give effort and value when you’re at an event

(11:00) There’s an essential component to pushing yourself out of your original comfort zone when you go to events

(13:10) Getting to events any way you can

(15:28) There is nothing that has changed Dave’s life than events, so what are you waiting for? Get to one and let it change you

Quotable Moments:

(1:40) “What I want to talk to you about is the importance of getting out to events even when you think you can’t afford it. This is one of the things that changed my entire business, it changed my entire life

(4:24) “I remember I walked into that room and I literally felt different. All of a sudden I got filled with hope, I was like “You know what? If these guys could do it, maybe I could to”

(6:30) “If you do it right and you’re providing value to these people, my gosh they’re more than willing to help. It is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

(10:10) “You’ve gotta make sure that when you’re actually at these events that you literally get so far out of your comfort zone. Not by being obnoxious, but by giving value to as many people as you possibly can.”

(15:40) I understand, I know what it’s like when your entire world is falling apart and you’re like, ‘I’m so excited at this event but I’ve got to call home and deal with the stuff that’s there.’ I know. I’ve been there and I know what it’s like”

Other Tidbits:

When Dave was starting out, he would volunteer at events simply to just be in the same room as some of people who were far more successful in his field.

Dave unknowingly met Russell for the first time at Dave’s first Affiliate Marketing event he went to.

How did you first meet Russell Brunson? Dave pushed people out of his way just so he could pick his brain at a lunch

DO NOT do business cards at events

Going to events can honestly make you become a better person, as much as David hates saying corny lines he is still a firm believer in it

Dave understands being broke and scraping pennies to get to an event

Important Links:

FunnelHackerRadio.com FunnelHackerRadio.com/freetrial FunnelHackerRadio.com/dreamcar

---Transcript---

Speaker 1:     00:00       Welcome to funnel hacker radio podcast, where we go behind the scenes and uncover the tactics and strategies top entrepreneurs are using to make more sales, dominate their markets, and how you can get those same results. Here is your host, Dave Woodward.

Speaker 2:     00:17       Wow. There's so much craziness going on right now. I don't even know where to start. So first of all, welcome back to funnel hacker radio. I'm super, super excited to talk about this topic. It's one of the things I'm I'm extremely passionate about only because literally has changed my life. So I want to dive right into this. Kind of tell you if you first, if you haven't seen episode 100, three of funnel hacker TV, you've got to go to youtube. You got checked that one out because that's all about dreamforce at our event there and Russell has some amazing takeaways. I want to talk to you guys right now about this crazy, crazy concept of events and what works, what doesn't work, why they are so successful and the importance of you getting out to them on a regular basis. So I'll just. I'm looking at my calendar last week.

Speaker 2:     00:58       Basically, I used two weeks ago, we're in dream force and was most mind blowing thing. I'll talk about that in just a second. Uh, this weekend I'm actually here, but miles and the team just flew down to be with Russell at, uh, uh, as Russell's got a brand new presentation he's presenting at that flip, hacking live, following that done next weekend, 20, 26. We actually do have traffic secrets. Uh, again, I'll talk about this whole content thing just a second. After that. The following weekend is genius network all by launch con followed by a, a event as far as the national entrepreneur of the year event. So what I want to talk to you guys about is the importance of getting out to events even when you feel like you can't afford it. This is by far one of the things that literally changed my entire business, changed my entire life.

Speaker 2:     01:48       And so first of all, for those people say you can't afford to go. One of the things I've been there, I know exactly what that's like. And so I actually volunteered at a couple of events to do nothing else. I just wanted to be in the room, I just wanted to be there to hear, to feel the energy of the event. Now, if you guys haven't already signed up and bought a ticket for a funnel hacking live, you got to go there first, so called funnel hacking live.com and now I want to talk to you guys about events and why life changes at events. There's a ton of different reasons. Some of the main ones I've seen for myself is as an entrepreneur, it's extremely lonely. It's you miss out on the comradery that you get in an office environment or just by being around people and whether you're introvert or extrovert doesn't matter.

Speaker 2:     02:36       You still need to have people in your life and the crazy thing for me is adding an event. The energy there, no matter what, whether you find yourself shy entrepreneur or extrovert, introvert doesn't matter. You will. It is contagious. When you're at an event, you literally feel the energy there and because of that you have to get out two beds on a regular basis. Now regular for you maybe once a year, maybe once a quarter, don't care what it is, but it's got to be at least annually and the whole thing for me as far as when you go to an event is to suck it all in. Literally immerse yourself, try to be in the front, try to feel the energy, try to literally get it lilly in into you. I'm a huge believer in going all out whenever you go to something like that. I see so many people who are really, really timid, realized at events.

Speaker 2:     03:26       I remember my very, very first event. I'm very fractious. Kind of a weird story. I actually met Russell and my very, very first event I ever went to. My first event I ever went to was one that Russell put on a and I was just trying to figure out the whole affiliate marketing thing and I was kinda confused, kind of lost as far as could this really work. I don't know if it'd be worth it and I couldn't afford to travel and 14 there was an event I didn't even know it was Russell's event. There was an event that was coming to southern California and in fact, you know what I'm going to go and literally script my script together, pennies, whatever it took to afford the ticket just to get in. And I remember thinking, Gosh, I would love to have been able to stay there at the hotel with everybody.

Speaker 2:     04:13       I couldn't afford that. So I drove back and forth every night. Um, but I remember I got to that event and it was a small event. There's probably a hundred hundred 50 people there. And I remember the very first thing that happened was I walked in that room and I literally felt different. All of a sudden I got filled with hope. I got filled with this idea that, you know, what, if these guys could do it, maybe I could too. And at the time life wasn't going and exactly where I wanted to. And I thought, man, I don't know how I'm going to pull this off. So I sat in there and very, within the first, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes, uh, is actually. And Stu mcclaren got up and Russell said, you know what, if any of you guys want to take any of us out to dinner or lunch, you can go and just kind of pick our brand.

Speaker 2:     05:00       You can just go to the bathroom and sign up. I jumped out of my seat. I could not. I think I either flu or I knocked everybody else out on the way to there. But I literally signed up for every single lunch and dinner that Russell had. I thought I've got to get to know this guy. I've got this guy, the guy, the guru, the guy who's up there on stage figuring this out. I want to know. And I literally signed up for every lunch and dinner he had. And I think, Gosh sees this is probably 12 years ago. It might've been 26, 27 at the time. And I thought, I don't care. I don't care what this guy has got, something that I don't have and I want it. And I signed up for every single lunch and dinner he had. And at that point is really well how it started for, from my relationship with Russell and since then we became lifelong friends.

Speaker 2:     05:45       He's like a brother to me and it's just been an amazing, amazing, passionate, exciting relationship. But it all started at an event and it started by my literally getting outside of my comfort zone. I didn't have any of them. Might even afford to pay for his lunch. I was like, I don't care. I don't care what it's gonna take. I'm gonna do it anyways. And I remember just the opportunity of being there and feeling that energy and getting to know people, uh, you will find out an event. People open up and are so much more willing to talk gurus and everyone else then you would ever normally be because they're there, they're captive, they are not going anywhere. And again, if you do it right and you're not, if you do it, we'll talk later about how to do it right. But if, just realize if you do it right and you're providing value to these people, my gosh, they're more than willing to help.

Speaker 2:     06:40       It's the craziest thing I've ever seen, so you got to get to an event for the energy. Second thing you've got to get to an event for is the contacts. The contacts at events are off the charts wild and it's where it. This isn't one of those things where it becomes a business card exchange. I'm a huge believer that you will never see me hand out a business card. I don't have business cards. I've always personally believe that if a person wants my contact information and I'm in providing a value to them that they're going to want it. We're going to exchange phone numbers and or emails or something and it's actually going to go into their phone and into my phone. I'm also a huge. That's why so many people take pictures and stuff of other people that they're with is to get that, get that information there.

Speaker 2:     07:22       One tip, when you're ever had an event and you're gonna, meet a ton of people. If you want to remember that person, have them actually take a take a picture of that person. Having them hold up their name badge so you don't forget their name. Um, it's one of the tips I learned and when we're doing a ton of real estate events and it worked extremely well. The other thing though about events that I, I just love is the hope and what I mean by that is you look, you will leave. If you go all in at any event and you give your all, you literally, it's becomes this hope muscle that gets refueled and you start to think and believe and act as if you were already doing it because you've been there and you're experiencing it. It's a totally different experience than if you were actually to watch it live stream or anything like that.

Speaker 2:     08:11       Physical events are off the charts, the number one best place to network. They're the best place to get into. Neat to absorb content. Turn your phones off, turn, turn off. Literally shut your life down and go all in when you're at the event. Last year, Ryan, when Montgomery and I were actually at dreamforce and we came back, we were all excited telling our other businesses. The other part is good for us all about it and I'm like, that's really cool. I can't believe hundred 70. And then we said, listen, okay, don't take our word for it right now. Let's sign up and get you guys there next year. And so, uh, todd and Russell came out with this, this, this last year, just let a couple of weeks ago totally, totally changed their opinion of where we're going as far as click funnels and how big the events can get and how you can connect with people.

Speaker 2:     08:58       Um, realize that the whole idea about events is getting involved, getting, becoming a piece of that event, uh, helping other people out, literally given, given, given, given, given, give, don't. The more you will give out an event, you will just, you will see the reciprocity. It just stacks up and it comes. It doesn't come actually at the event. You'll find it comes much later, but it will come. Oh my gosh, I wish I could go on for hours about this. Uh, there's so many crazy events. I can tell you. I literally, one of the things I remember at dreamforce dreamforce is off the charts. One of the craziest events I've been to only because it's 172,000 people, they literally shut the entire city of San Francisco down. I mean restaurants were open for free food if you had a vip pass, and I mean it was just the craziest thing.

Speaker 2:     09:45       I mean literally billboards, cabs, buildings, everything had dreamforest everywhere, all around it. The cool thing was the actual Armenians had changed and what I mean by that is they literally, when you walked into an event, the event room, it was like you were walking into Cabela's in one area where it was all about the trail head and the trailblazers in and it literally looked like a forest and I expected to see a whole bunch of trophies on the wall, but it was fascinating. The crazy thing is they had music playing and the lights and the setting and everything else literally made you feel as if you were out in the woods where the keynote was. Every one of the columns in this convention center had lights shining on it as if they were trees and you could see the branches and the bark and I mean it was just the walls.

Speaker 2:     10:34       All we're all draped and lights were on. You literally felt like you were a forest and I'm obviously they've got a billion dollar company to put it on a huge event for 170,000 people. They went all out, but the amazing thing for me was to see how how involved people got while they were at that event because they were connected to it. They, they. They became a part of it and all about community. Everybody was a trailblazer. Everyone of the sponsors were. There were signs in and the artwork was all aligned with trail based, their artwork. It was just fascinating to see how they've pulled all this together. The other thing I can tell you is you've got to make sure that when you're out at the events that you literally get so far out of your comfort zone and not by being obnoxious, the but given value to as many people as you possibly can.

Speaker 2:     11:24       You'll find that as you get out to these events and did you spend time at these events, you will become a better person. I know that sounds weird. I know it sounds crazy, but you do because you're helping other people and you'll find that you're at a different level in there and there's people who are above you and people who are below you in experience and and yet as you're asking for others and they're providing value bombs to you, you're doing the same thing to the other people. I can tell you that I am such a huge believer in attending events because of the networking that takes place, the content that you get, the emotional connection that you have to your dreams where you now are able to see it and experience your future. It might only be weakened, but you literally can experience your future and it's kind of like future cast and we talked a lot about that from marketing standpoint.

Speaker 2:     12:11       When you're talking with anybody of your that you're selling to is helping them future cast what buying your products are going to do for them. When you're at an event, your future casting your life, we're all of a sudden you're like, I'm going to be on that stage one day. I'm actually gonna be on that stage. I can tell you we had. I'm knocking live last year, a couple of the people who literally sit in the audience with the very first time, that amazing years and because of what they did during that year, they actually wore on stage that next year. I think Rachel Peterson was one of them and it was just so cool to see Alison Prince. I think she was in the same situation. Just realize that you go to an event and your life will change. It will completely completely change, so whatever you've got to do to get to an event, you got to do it.

Speaker 2:     12:55       So if it's saving money right now, you start setting aside money right now to start saving. If it's going on a partnerings shared a room and whatever, it's, I don't care what it takes. A Steven Larsen of a dear friend of mine, I love his funnel hacking live story. I'm hopefully going to get it to sell it on a video we're going to share later. But uh, where he literally couldn't afford it to get to funnel hacking live. And the only way he was able to get there was by building funnels for other people. So he literally built funnels in exchange for money or for a ticket to get to funnel hacking live. He got his actual ticket from funnel hacking live for, I think it was two years ago, two or two or three years ago, maybe three for three years ago this year, three years ago.

Speaker 2:     13:40       He literally built funnels to buy his ticket. He built funnels for someone else to actually get money for his airline. He built funnels for someone to actually get money for hotel. And the crazy thing is, as you hear his story and he can tell it only knew how steven can and I was just so I remember when we were out there this last year back in San in San Diego and how surreal it was for him because now he's one of our two comma club x coaches and at the time he literally couldn't afford a cab. And so what he was doing it, you've seen it in San Diego, was a little bikes that you can rent a. they're basically all over the place with the scooters. But literally we would rent the bike and pedal from a cheaper hotel to the event hotel. And then he didn't have enough money for the last night.

Speaker 2:     14:27       And so he literally just stayed up all night long in the hotel lobby of the event hotel building funnels and doing it. So real is I don't care what it takes. And I, I can tell you story after story after story. Every one of us has a story like that where we really didn't know how we're gonna make it and how we were going to get there. But where there's a will, there's a way, and you gotta find a way and you've got to get to funnel hacking live. It's man, it's gonna. Be Nashville this year. It's by far one of my. It is my favorite event in the entire year. I'm not only because it's our event because of the lives that get changed at funnel hacking live. So go to [inaudible] dot com. Get your tickets. Most importantly, make sure that you've, you're starting to schedule right now.

Speaker 2:     15:08       What events are you going to be at next year? What events are going to be October? Is there anything you can get to between now and the end of the year? A funnel hacking live is the 20th to 23rd of February in Nashville. You want to make sure you're there and when you're there, give you go all in, man. Just being, they're absorbing. Get excited about it. Uh, get involved in the community. Realize that there's nothing that has changed my life more than events. And I would encourage you guys, do whatever it takes to get to events. And when you're there, shut the rest of the world down. I, I understand, I know what it's like when your home life is falling apart and you're like, I got to. I don't know, I'm so excited this event, but I got to call home and I got to deal with the staff that's there.

Speaker 2:     15:52       I get that had been there. I know what. That's like the same time. I know what it's like when you're there and you absorb and you take a piece of it and you take that piece and that piece changes your life and it changed your family's life and changed your family's family's lives and change your friends' lives and all of a sudden you make new friends. Whatever it takes, you've got to find a way and I just encourage you, get to an event it dreamforce. As exciting as it was for me, it was even more exciting for me to see what it was like for Russell and todd to experience it. This is my second year there and again it's. I cannot even begin to explain what dreamforce is like. It's one of those events you literally have to experience where there's 170,000 people in a city, I mean shuts down the entire city.

Speaker 2:     16:33       Um, but at the same time, I look at seeing where we can go from here as far as, as funnel hacking live. I don't know who'd be a hundred 70,000, but all of a sudden what matters most to me is that we're providing massive value to you. That is my commitment to you. If you're funnel hacking live, I promise you, you will leave changed for the better and you will. You literally are just one funnel away. So do whatever it takes. Get to funnel hacking live. Can't wait to see you. Um, I'm always excited and appreciate. If, if I'm providing value to you on this podcast, let me know. Hit me up on Instagram, hit me up on facebook, send me an email, a rate review like this, these podcasts. Most importantly, this is about you and I want to make sure that I'm providing value to you guys. And more importantly, I want to make sure that you're implementing, taking action on what we're talking about. So have an amazing day. We'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 3:     17:23       Hi everybody. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to the podcast. If you don't mind, could you please share this with others, rate and review this podcast on itunes. It means the world to me or I'm trying to get to as a million downloads here in the next few months and just crush through over 650,000 and I just want to get that next few 100,000 so we can get to a million downloads and see really what I can do to help improve and and get this out to more people. At the same time. If there's topic, there's something you'd like me to share or someone you'd like me to interview, by all means, just reach out to me on facebook. You can pm me and I'll be more than happy to take any of your feedback as well as if the people you'd like me to interview more than happy to to reach out and have that conversation with you. So again, go to Itunes, rate and review this, share this podcast with others and let me know how else I can improve this or what I can do to make this better for you guys. Thanks.