However, if you then go on to let people know that you will be happy to get the a copy of a GOOD CLEAN audio of the event at a VERY reasonable price, most will NOT try and record it on the SLY.

What is the right price?

I would say about 10% of what they paid to attend the event. If you price a good audio recording at that price, most people will think it’s worth it to pay for a GOOD quality recording.

Do it this way and you’ll have very few people who WANT the recordings who wont’ BUY them!

I suggest you do it either at lunch or right after you finish for the day.

Make it a NON mandatory session and make sure that your speaker KNOWS that you are going to promote it this way.

How do you get people to come?

Let the speaker (who should be there before the session – preferably well before) do a short commercial about what he/she is going to do at this special session. Let them tell the folks what they will learn and give them the BENEFITS of attending.

This is a good place to have someone who is a strong closer for products do their thing. As long as they deliver some good, solid, content, people won’t be offended with a strong pitch at the end.

AND, since it is a SPECIAL session that was meant for those who WANTED to come, your attendees can’t really BITCH about a PITCH!

You should always TRY and write the copy yourself You may find you are very good at it. If you’re like me you’ll find that you are NOT particularly good.

No worries.

You can have a professional copywriter write the copy for your seminar or event. IF you have a LOAD of cash!

Hiring GOOD copywriters to write an entire site will NOT come cheap.

If you’re on a limited budget, I suggest you write the copy yourself and then have someone like Sabrina Brick TWEAK the copy that you write.

This will save you a lot of money AND allow you to promote your event with some very well written copy.

You can find Sabrina at:

http://www.SuperFastTweak.com

(Make sure to tell her where you found her!)

This will help.

Make sure and thank people for coming and give them your full attention for a SHORT period of time. There will be those who want to get some individual coaching done at that time.

Let them know that you’ll be happy to speak with them more at a later date, after you’ve said HI to everyone else in the group. MOST will understand.

Getting to know a percentage of your audience is good for them and for you.

It will help you be LESS nervous when you get started and will establish a greater level of trust for later on.

There are many “gurus” who don’t do this. They stay SEQUESTERED somewhere in a back room until the moment before the event is supposed to start.

I suppose this is a matter of personal style, but this just doesn’t work for me.

If you like people and you’re prepared to deliver a lot of valuable content, do what I say to do here.

But, many people have told me that they enjoy being around me like this. Go figure!

It also works for a number of other reasons.

1. The event becomes similar to going to one of those ALL INCLUSIVE resorts for a vacation. We feed them and give them a place to sleep for the whole event. In my case I limit it to just 6 people.
2. Keeping all the folks together allows you to REALLY GET WORK DONE. I usually pack it in around 6pm and when I come down at 10 to get a drink of water, most of the folks are still working feverishly to get things done.
3. I control the environment, so I control the learning process. It’s my space, I’ve done the event many times this way and I know exactly what to expect and how to handle things.
4. Cost is reduced. I’m already paying my mortgage, so why not turn the location into a seminar space? For 6 people in a bootcamp format it works perfectly. When I do 1 or 2 day events at the house, I can even fit 12 people without a problem.

If you’re comfortable opening up your house this way, I suggest you try it. Just hide the SILVERWARE!

PS – I’ve never had anything disappear, but don’t hold ME responsible if something does! I screen people VERY carefully who stay at my house!

You need to start STRONG and end STRONGER!

Hopefully your entire event will be memorable, but when someone asks one of your attendees what they thought of your event, they will think back to how the event ended.

And how it started.

When you start putting your event together, think of how you will open and how you will close. There are NO two sections of your seminar or workshop that are more important.

If you’re looking for an example, go rent the video: The French Connection with Gene Hackman from back in the early 70s. Take note of how the film opens. This will give you an idea of how to start your event.

As for the close, make sure that do two things. First, give people a PLAN of ACTION for what they should do NOW to make things happen.

Second, give them something REALLY solid that you end with. Similar to how you started, hold back one KILLER idea until the very end. One that people will leave saying: “WOW, that one idea was worth attending the entire event!”

REVENUE:

• Registration Dollars – before the event
• Registration Dolars – onsite
• Product Sales – Your own
• Product Sales – Other Presenters (usually 50% for you)
• Coaching/Consulting Dollars
• Sales of Registrations to Future Events (usually discounted)

Expenses:

• Expenses to Market the event
• Food Expenses
• Expenses from the rental of the venue
• Equipment Rental

There will most likely be more sources for both the expense and revenue are that aren’t listed here. The KEY is to make sure that you record every revenue and expense to make sure you get the REAL profit or loss from your event.

That being said, since I OWN all of the equipment already, I capture most of my events on BOTH audio AND video.

There are a SMALL number of my customers who will ONLY buy videos. Regardless of what the content is.

There are some people who will ONLY order if I have something available in that particular form. Fine. That’s who they are.

YOU need to be thinking of WHAT MAKES SENSE?

If you are doing a program that happens to be on cooking, there is little chance that an audio program alone will BEST serve your audience.

If the material warrants the use of video, then use it.

If you don’t own the equipment, borrow it from a friend. Try not to rent it. MUCH too expensive. Once you are convinced that you will be recording a lot of your programs, then go to

http://www.BHPhoto.com

They have a wide selection of products at very reasonable prices. I buy ALL of my video/audio equipment from either them or Costco.

If you’re looking for some kind of SUBLIMINAL or HYPNOTIC formula here, you’ve come to the wrong place.

You may be able to initially get people to buy more from you, but the snake oil salesmen method of getting people to buy will only cause people to be REALLY pissed off at you later on.

I’ve seen it. Do NOT do it.

Instead, do as this section tells you on the website.

I’ve been doing this a long time. It works. Do it my way and you’ll have less aggravation in the future.

There is nothing good that come out of this. It’s great to provide people an outline of what you’ll cover and in what order, but to put the exact times you will do the various things is deadly.

All you need is for one segment to go TOO LONG and you’ll have Mr. Anal asking why the event is no longer “on schedule”?

I do the following.

I divide my event up into mornings and afternoons.

I KNOW what I want to get covered in each morning and each afternoon. I may have to cut short certain segments of the AM or PM event schedule, but that never seems to be a problem.

The one time I did put specific time frames next to certain sections to be covered, I got hammered.

Things always seem to come up or change when you’re doing an event, so don’t EVERY put specific times next to topics you’ll cover.

It will only get you in trouble!