Best Months/Days to Do Seminars

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TRANSCRIPT:
Avish: The timing of the seminar can actually make a huge difference as to the success. Correct?

Fred: Absolutely.

Avish: So let’s talk about that both in terms of the timing, in terms of the months of the year and also days in a week. So first of, there’s a difference, correct? In timing when the participant themselves is paying versus when the employer’s paying.

Fred: There is.

Avish: Okay, let’s talk about all of those combinations. So what are the best months of the year to have a seminar when the participant is paying themselves?

Fred: Okay, and again there’s lot of you know you can speculate and who knows whether or not that speculation is accurate on why this is, we just know from the data that’s compiled that these in fact are the right months. And it’s weird because I’m going to talk I am going to give you months in order of which, let’s start with the best months then proceed down to the worst months. So when the participant is paying, the best month to do a seminar is January. Now again, we may surmise that’s because of New Year’s resolutions or whatever and the answer to that is that maybe true it might not be true. All I know is that’s the data.

The data shows when a participant is paying on their seminar to attend a seminar themselves, the best month is January. Followed by September and then again there you might say back to school or whatever. Followed by October then March, April, June, November, February, May, July, December and August. And by the way it is difficult to say those months out of order for some reason you know we get used to it. But the thing to understand is that is across the board. So if you notice July, December and August are months that you should never do seminars they are the bottom 3.

However, you may have something that particularly sort of counter cyclical, like say for example if you were doing you know a snowboarding event that was happening in the Southern Hemisphere in Chile which happens to be the best month maybe for snowboarding was July or August. That particular seminar might work very well during what we had just listed as the worst months. So again this is in general the worst you know in the order that we give but it may not always all true if we have something that is sort of counter cyclical or would go against the grain.

Avish: So this is what the data says in general but if you got a compelling reason to go against it go ahead?

Fred: Right.

Avish: Okay, so those are months when the participants are paying themselves but the months maybe different when the employer is paying, right?

Fred: Yes and they are and if I’ll give you the list here. So when someone else is paying for someone to attend an event, the best month as it turns out, is March which is the fourth month, fourth best when the participant paying. Then it goes October which is third for the other but I’ll just give the list now. So March, October, April, then September, November, January, February, June, May, July, August and December. Now notice July, August and December, the three worst months regardless if whether or not someone is paying for themselves or if someone else is paying.

Avish: Right. So stay away from those months unless your topic in market specifically works for those months or whatever reason?

Fred: That’s correct.

Avish: Okay. So that gives people a good idea about the time of year. What about the days in week? What are the best days when the participant is paying themselves?

Fred: And again, all of these come from research done by my old mentor again in Howard Chanson that was done many years ago but those figures and the numbers on these events remain true today. They’re still accurate. So when we talk about that let’s divide those the days and to when the participant is paying, so like we did with months.

When a participant is paying the best day to give a seminar is Saturday. The second best day is Sunday. Now if you’re living in a population that is heavily you know has a large Jewish population, this might be different because in a large Jewish population their Sabbath is on a different day and therefore Sunday maybe as good as Saturday. So consider that, but in general Saturday, Sunday then Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday and Friday. So this list here you probably never want to try to do seminars in a Friday or Monday or certainly don’t expect those to have really good results.

Avish: Okay. So how about the days in a week on the employers this time?

Fred: Okay so if an employer is paying, and this would sort make a little bit of sense but again we don’t know, but it seems intuitively likely. For example, when we just talk about when a participant is paying themselves, Saturday and Sunday cause most people might be working full time jobs and that might be the best days to give them a seminar, maybe if they’re trying to get out from the corporate you know grind by coming to a seminar and learning things. But when someone else is paying, what would you guess? Well Wednesday hump day is the best day to do a seminar when somebody else is paying. Thursday is next, then Tuesday, then Friday, then Saturday, then Monday, and Sunday. So the worst day is there are the Monday and Sunday when somebody else is paying. Now I’m surprised Saturday isn’t you know isn’t Saturday and Sunday the worst but Saturday, Monday, and Sunday you should probably avoid.

Avish: Okay. Go t it. So what about things like holidays, days that have events on that sort of things.

Fred: Yeah you should be very careful I mean one time I tried to do a seminar on a Super Bowl Sunday, and it was not that not as well attended because I haven’t thought about that. Not a big football fan myself, I didn’t think about it. And you should consider events that are going on in the city or the area where you are.

Avish: So you know how can I, like if I want to do a seminar in Philadelphia in four months. And how do I plan ahead and check that date for the Philadelphia events and stuff?

Fred: I would use our old friend Google for that, which I would look up Google for you know like “Philadelphia event calendar” or something like that and then you’d probably find a chamber of commerce site or something like that that would give you a pretty good idea of what was going on. The other thing is you could also Google the date itself and put Philadelphia after it, and see how many things were being promoted on that day or if there’s anything important that you might have missed. If it’s pretty important it would probably show up in the first two pages of the Google.

Avish: Okay and now some people as their seminars grows will start moving around the country delivering their seminars as you know you’ve done.

Fred: Yup.

Avish: But there are different regions kind of active in some of these events and days as well, correct?

Fred: Yeah and again you know you just have to sort of be careful, look around, do a little bit of testing and understand that you know what might makes sense to do in the Northeast in March is less sensible to do in the Southwest at the same time.

Avish: Okay, so sounds like a plenty of information. Is there any additional things you have of the best times, days, months to give seminars?

Fred: Well I would say for anyone just starting out. Stick with what we know to be the best days and months. You may want to try and branch out the other days and months when you have a sufficient serve you know tow hold on the market having done it with the days that we’ve just mentioned. So don’t try and sort of go off the reservation initially until you know exactly what’s going to work.

Avish: Alright. Thanks Fred.

Fred: You got.