Sales Funnel Radio SFR 279: OfferMind Event Walkthrough
Here's a sneak peek of the event hall, the week before OfferMind. I walk through some of the event psychology…
I’m about to take you back in time to four days before my 2019 OfferMInd Event…
So I can reveal to you…
- The secret sauce of how I set up an event
- Why I think that is that the last few years have evolved the way they have…‘cause it's NOT normal.
- Why OfferMind is NOT a funnel event (and what type of event it is).
- Why I HATE bad swag (and where I get my haircut 😉)!
- The extremely special venue I’ve chosen for OfferMind 2020
OFFERMIND 2019 TIME TRAVELING
I’m standing in the Boise Center where, in ONLY four days, OfferMind2019 is about to take place!!!
It’s a beautiful place with lots of salespeople hanging out below me in the courtyard!
I'm not finished with my slides or my presentation… and we have a ton of swag to stuff…
But I want to take a moment to show you around and share some fascinating event psychology that you may not be aware of.
What's fascinating is that I’m completely aware that…
What I am doing right now is NOT normal for the amount of time that I've been doing it.
… it's NOT a boasting thing, but it is a reality.
I haven't been graduated from college for even four years yet, which is nuts!
I'm pretty sure we just crossed $2 million in total revenue, and now we have an event that’s gonna be around 650 people - that's crazy!
Let me ask you a question…
Q: How many people have built a funnel?
A: A lot of people have built a funnel.
Q: How many people have built a funnel that has made no money?
A: A lot, right?
… and that's rough to say, but it's true.
However, it's NOT the funnel. It's the person.
At the time of me making this video, we’ve sold 624 tickets and for the last few months, we've been selling roughly 10-tickets a day…
I don't know why, but that's about what we've been at for a little while, and it's pretty steady.
Selling events is hard.
It's one thing to sell a product on the internet, it's totally different to get somebody to…
- Book a plane ticket
- Find a hotel
- Make arrangements
- Take time.
You know what I mean?
FROM CLICKFUNNELS TO OFFERMIND
I left my job, January 1st, 2018 - that's when I officially pulled the cord and decided to be a solo entrepreneur…
I very quickly realized that being a solo entrepreneur is the same thing as being broke.
- You need a team.
- You need people.
So things have changed a ton for since then… and next year’s OfferMind is gonna bring things full circle for me in an exciting way…
But for now, let’s go back to OfferMind 2019!
So when people enter the building from the courtyard, they’ll use the escalators or the elevator to get to the event hall.
Registration is gonna be in this room….
We're flying in a company that ONLY does registration for events - ‘cause the registration process has gotta be smooth like butter.
We have these iPads loaded with all the ticket data, so you come in and you plug in the email that you bought with and it finds your record…
And then, right on the spot, it actually prints out the ticket. It's really cool.
Everyone gets a tag, but if you're a VIP you get an extra little tag that says ‘VIP ‘ - that gives YOU access to a bunch of stuff.
You get a t-shirt, a ton of other things
THE WAR AGAINST BAD SWAG!
Oh, my gosh, our swag is soooo good!!!
I hate bad swag.
I owe it to my message to make nice swag... and so, I do.
This event cost me a solid quarter million.
*SOLID*
I love what I do and I want people to have a good time when they show up.
And when I say “This is marketing,” I can't be the guy who has no proof in the way he's living.
*I owe it to my message*
It's NOT about showboating 'cause I certainly don't do that...
Man, I get my haircut at SportsClips 😉
So, swag-wise, people are gonna get…
- Awesome shirts.
- A cool notebook.
- An event book, which is like a magazine, literally, in fact, I think a magazine company is printing it.
- Different ribbons if they've done the One Funnel Away with me or bought some of my other products.
There are about 30 amazing incredible volunteers showing up to do and I'm so appreciative of them.
We got A LOT of swag to set up.
We have from 1 PM to about 4 PM Sunday to stuff swag and get things ready.
AN OFFER HE COULDN’T REFUSE!
Some people have asked, "Stephen, why did you do the event on Labor Day?"
Well, if you go back to Sales Funnel Radio (maybe 50 episodes ago)...
The title of the episode is How I Pitched Russell Brunson to Keynote at OfferMind.
...I went through, in-depth, the offer that I sent to Russell in order to ask him to speak - ‘cause he doesn't speak at events anymore…
So how did I get Russell to turn up at OfferMind?
And, NOPE, it wasn’t just because we have a relationship - I was NOT willing to rely on that.
Part of the offer was that he got to choose the date.
That way, it was very hard to say, "I just don't have the time."
We were like, "Well, we’ll move it," and we did!
OfferMind was supposed to be in July, and then we thought maybe August... and then we were like, "What about October?"
One of the reasons we got Russell was because I was like, "Well, you get to choose the date.”
( … some of the others were Sushi and massage, but you’ll have to read the blog post to find out more 😉)
KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE
For people who came to OfferMind last year, we're actually doing a special breakfast for them on the morning of day one.
I'm gonna meet-and-greet and say, "Hey, thanks so much. Thanks for keeping the dream alive."
This is my second OfferMind, and the first one had 150 people - this one has 650!
That’s NOT normal growth in one year.
(...in fact, I think, it's only been 11 months.)
GET RICH GIVE BACK
So anyway, as you walk back out to the main foyer, over on the side we're doing an OUR donation.
OUR are actually bringing a booth - it's super heart-warming.
I gotta be honest, I'm actually really excited we're doing that. It's one of the things I'm most excited about for this event, frankly.
We also have a swag store that's going right over there, 'cause all you all love the Capitalist Pig...
We also have ClickFunnels coming to talk about One Funnel Away.
ClickFunnels is coming to freaking OfferMind.
- They're gonna talk to people about One Funnel Away.
- They're also gonna be inside the event for certain things, which is super exciting.
WHAT!!!
It's one thing to get Russell, (which is really hard), but to get ClickFunnels to come, I was like, "WHAT? How about them apples! What's up son?"
OFFERMIND EVENT ‘SECRET SAUCE. PSYCHOLOGY
You need to understand that one of the reasons events work is because you transport somebody.
So next year's OfferMind is actually in San Diego in the same room that my first Funnel Hacking Live was in.
OfferMind 2020 is in the same room as Funnel Hacking Live 2016.
… it’s kinda like, "Let's tie the bow on this, let's go full circle!"
We already have the room…
But what's funny is that when I saw the room, I did not recognize it.
And that’s a very key point…
When you set up an event, it’s my belief that people can't realize they're even in a room - it has to transport them to a different scenario.
There are very few things on this planet, in my opinion, that are more effective than attending a live event.
I'm a sucker for live events; I think I'm speaking at six in the next 10 weeks after OfferMind.
I'm speaking A LOT this fall.
And you have to be able to transport people to a new scenario when they come to an event.
So, at OfferMind, there’s gonna be...
- A really cool truss system with BIG speakers.
- A MASSIVE TV Screen.
- Signage ALL OVER the place.
- A HUGE OfferMind logo plastered on the window of the building.
- Music BLASTING.
We’ll have around 650 people, and about 100 are gonna be Early Access.
The doors will stay closed on purpose until right before the event because there needs to be that feeling of anticipation!
So the doors are gonna be closed, they cannot just walk in.
At 8:30 AM, we have VIPs walking into Early Access... and then at 8:45, only 15 minutes before the event starts, the rest of the doors open.
AND IT STARTS… and there's gonna be smoke and lights!
*It has to transport people*
And maybe there's a better way to say it, but if they came back to this room a few years later, (like I did at Funnel Hacking Live), they should NOT be able to recognize that this was the room they were in…
That's happened at pretty much every single Funnel Hacking Live event I've ever been to.
The change of scene pulls people out of their comfort “I'm gonna stay the same way I've always been” zone…
… so they actually have the ability to make some real changes in their life.
There’s a little state control with it, but what's MORE powerful in my opinion, is that people are doing things they've never done because they're in a place they've never been.
They're in a state that they're not used to being in, and they find out:
“Good crap! I am capable of more in my life than I knew that I was previously.”
That's why you do it.
It's a pre-frame for everything that they will hear on the stage.
So anyway, the room itself…
UP CLOSE & PERSONAL
I don't like deep rooms, I like shallow rooms that bring the people closer to the speaker and the slides.
So we're changing the long hall to a shallow room…...
...and the backdrop is gonna go across the whole back part right there.
There's gonna be tables for everybody, which I like because I take A LOT of notes.
My first Funnel Hacking Live, I took 56 pages of notes.
I found the notebook the other day too, I take a lot of notes.
Have I ever reviewed them? No. That's not the point. That's how I learn.
When I process and I'm thinking, I take notes. For some reason, adding an action really helps me learn.
I don't care if people don't read their notes, I hope they do, but that's beside the point.
We’re gonna have tables for everybody so they can go in and take notes.
We have the coolest looking notebook ever and a beautiful pen, which might sound cheesy, but I'm a little bit of a geek for that.
I don't need a crazy expensive pen, but I like a good pen.
We've got water bottles and there's an event book.
The event book is the guide of the event and the schedule of when things are happening.
We don't put times on speeches, because we don't want people cherry-picking which ones they wanna go to.
Events are crafted in an order.
You're supposed to receive the event in ‘an order’.
In my opinion, almost as hard as filling the event, is coming up with the event order.
A lot of times you'll see people who have never thrown an event before, and they just like, "Who's speaking next?”
Urgh, NO!
Events are meant to be consumed in ‘an order’ because they're experiencing a webinar over two days.
We’re obviously recording it, so I've got photographers walking around all over the place.
I have multiple videographer companies - 'cause we need a lot of creative.
I want people to find themselves in the pictures when we release them to everybody else afterward.
I think it's crazy that events will keep their pictures of the audience.
Man, if you give that out and share around, it is the craziest pieces of social proof ever.
Don't wanna hang on to it.
I want this to be a well-documented experience.
And if the audience can't do it, then it's such a big deal that I will spend a lot of money to create the creative and then hand it out afterward.
It's a BIG deal.
I spent a lot of money on creative and AV and stuff like that. AV is very expensive, but that's okay....
It’s part of the experience. It needs to transport them.
HOW I AFFORD EXPENSIVE THINGS IN MY BUSINESS…
Let me tell you…
I would NOT be able to afford this event with my current cash flow levels had it not been for affiliate marketing.
That's another affiliate marketing plug 😉
Go to makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com. (of course, it's a playoff the Trump thing, come on), and you can see how I run all my affiliate stuff.
In fact, I give access to a lot of sweet programs for FREE.
Anyway, that's beside the point… 😉
But that's how I've been able to pay for all the stuff that I do.
I actually do what I teach.
Whenever I need to pay for something expensive, I'm like:
"Hey, here's my normal cash flow levels...
We're only allowed to scale ads to a certain level, (thank you, Facebook, or wherever we're putting ads)...
So even if we did scale as aggressively as we could, it's still not gonna be the cash flow level I need in order to pay for something really expensive...
How else could I pay for that?”
I watched Russell solve that problem multiple times with a much higher price tag.
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers.
OFFERMIND 2019 - WHAT HAPPENED?
OFFERMINDDAY #1:
Who Spoke...
- Steve Larsen
Dana talked about how to find your Dream 100.
I think everybody has at least a bit of an idea on what to do once you have the Dream 100, but figuring out who to put on the list is very hard.
It's kind of a challenge - you don't take people off your list easily, so who do you put on and who do you NOT put on?
- Brad Gibb - my personal finance coach).
(I did an interview with each of these speakers, check them out…)
Brad Gibb talked about what to do to cash flow ‘personally’ harder from your business.
The reason this is important is that…
There are A LOT of Two Comma Club Winners who are broke - their business has money, but they don't.
And so Brad’s taught what to do to actually get paid and compensated for the hard work that you do.
So Brad taught personal cash flow tactics.
I taught my process; last year was good, but it was pretty nerdy…
This year was very different.
By the end of day one, people had a clear idea of what their offer is and why it will sell.
That's another thing I've noticed when listening to people who've made money...
A lot of people don't know WHY they made the money.
You should be able to have a clear understanding of your message and your offer.
OFFERMIND DAY #2:
- I'm gonna talk a lot more about campaigns and how to go create campaigns.
If you’re thinking, "Oh I know what a message is..."
*I highly doubt it*
I highly doubt it you will have heard about it in the way that I talked about.
In fact, I've had a hard time calling it ‘a message or an offer”
'Cause I don't want people to think they know what it is.
It probably isn't what you think
A campaign, definitely not - that's a dying term in today's direct response marketing world.
…. how to actually offer what you've created.
And then…
- Russell's gonna come on and teach about what we call Level 10 Opportunities.
What's interesting about some of the things I've watched Russell go through is…
Same skill set, different vehicles, vastly different increases in revenue.
So choosing the business model matters.
This is NOT a funnel event, it's a money event.
And next year, same thing, but we'll have different speakers probably every year.
But, anyway, it's not a funnel event. It's hardly an offer event. You're gonna learn offers, but it's really a money-making event, #Oink.
I'm really psyched about all this stuff.
It's extremely rare for how long I've been out to do something this big and I get that, and I feel the pressure of it.
I’ve not been sleeping a lot, which is just part of the game.
And I always get people to reach out and say, "You should sleep."
No. I'll sleep after it's over!
SELLING OFFERLAB
Of course, I'm gonna sell...come on!
My program is called OfferLab and I haven't been that public about it 'cause I've been testing it for the last year, making a lot of tweaks.
This is the second year that we opened enrollment...
We had 200 of these awesome boxes that are stacking way up high on this super tall window.
They also got what we call the golden ticket to get picture with me on stage.
My program's good and it changes tons of lives.
I know it's good, so I have a responsibility to sell, and I hope you treat your product that way as well.
I really look forward to selling, it doesn’t freak me out. I'm actually really stoked about it.
I wish we could just start with that.
We did sales tables at the front of the room and no sit down ‘one-on-one’ conversations with sales guys.
...if people like it, sweet. If not, that's fine too.
It was low key, it's NOT a high-pressure thing.
I'm also sharing the patterns I found among four or five old school marketers of how they behaved when selling products.
... and it's one of the reasons my stuff has done so well.
I looked historically at what all the old dead guys doing before social media and the easy cop-out ways to promote were even around.
I'm sorry, did I say that out loud? 😉
Well, I found those patterns and I've been applying them!
...and I'm gonna share that too.
Alright, guys. I'll see you later. If you guys want to come to next year's OfferMind, we'd love to have you.
For next year's event room, I don't wanna go above 1000 people. I just don't.
For Funnel Hacking Live or other people's events, 100 people to me feels a little bit small. Maybe I'm just kinda weird that way…
When it's a higher ticket program, I want it a lot smaller, and that's how it is with OfferLab - it's way smaller than this because it's very workshoppy.
I literally walk around the room and spot check people's funnels and offers and campaigns.
It's really fun.
So, for San Diego, we'll probably cap the room.
There's 650 at the last OfferMind, and I'm seeing where things are moving.
I'm seeing what it takes to put on something like this. I don't want the room over 900 or maybe a thousand. I just don't.
So, go to offermind.com to get a ticket and more information.
I'm hoping that this is inspiring you - that's the whole purpose of this episode. It's NOT to showboat. It's to say, "Holy crap! It's been 20 months only, not that long."
A lot of times, you can pull amazing stuff off as soon as you get out of your own way.
Funny enough, for me, one of the biggest keys was confidence.
I’d love to have you come to OfferMind next year.
Get rich, my friends.
BOOM!
If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, right? That's also good.
But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them, right?
That's what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula.
So I created a special Mastermind called an OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer, and more importantly the right sales script to get it off the ground and sell it.
Wanna come?
There are small groups on purpose, so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days.
You can hold your spot by going to OfferMind.com.
Again, that's OfferMind.com.
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