Terminology

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TRANSCRIPT:
Avish: Just to make sure there’s no confusion as we move forward through this interview, I want to clear up and talk about the terminology we’ll be using.

Fred: Okay, sounds good.

Avish: This is the seminar on seminars but sometimes if people talk about boot camps, workshops, seminars. What’s the difference between those things?

Fred: Well, you know a lot of people used the terms differently so I’ll give you sort of my definitions. When I use the term seminar, it implies to me that I am up in front in a group of people or whoever’s giving the seminar, is up in front of a group of people. And primarily it sorts like a didactic mode I teach you listen you take notes and occasionally you can ask a question. So seminar would be that.

So if I use the term workshop to me again that would infer that there would be a greater amount of interactivity. So if I see the term workshop being used, it would mean to me that the participant seems are not really sitting there in a listening and learning mode, but they’re actually actively involved doing exercises and there’s a lot more participation. So seminar much more like a classroom style learning environment, like you would be in college or high school and workshop much more interactive. Now boot camp which is a term that I use a lot, because I got a Fred Info Boot Camp that I do on a regular basis, and the Fred Info Boot like many boot camp that I would be subscribing on longer events in which something actually gets finished and accomplished at those events. So to me those are the distinction between the terms. Does that make sense, Avish?

Avish: Yeah, absolutely. But for the purpose of this program when it comes to structuring the event and marketing it, does it matter which one would the listeners would want to do?

Fred: I think it does because you know depending on what the goal is of the person who is going to be attending your events. If you’re sitting here listening to this program and saying “Ok, well I know what the difference now between a seminar and a workshop and a boot camp.” I really think the listener has to be taking more in terms of who’s going to be attending the events and what do they want to get out of it. Are they strictly looking to deliver information? And will that be the most saleable item? Or are they looking to be very participatory? You know is that an essential ingredient? You know like our friend Bill O’ Hammond, if it’s a psychology workshop? It probably —again I use the word workshop instead of seminar because may be there will be a lot more activity or is it something like the Fred Info Boot Camp in which we try to get people always something done. And that becomes a reason why they are signing up. So I think that really the person who is listening to this program should be thinking about the person that’s going to sign up for your seminar, boot camp, or workshop, and what they would want if that makes sense.

Avish: Absolutely, got it. But the techniques we’re going to learn to make this successful can be applied to boot camp, workshop or a seminar?

Fred: Yeah absolutely. I think that the promotion. How you get the butts and seats. Once they’re there, how you deliver the best information and everything else that we’re going to be talking about really are the same regardless which one are we talking about.

Avish: Okay. So what if when it comes to making revenue, you talked about making it on a front-end or the back-end. So what exactly do you mean by those words?

Fred: Okay, front-end and the back-end. Front-end, if we’re talking about seminars boot camps workshops, the front-end revenue would be the revenue that you generate from the registration dollars. So you’re charging for your event that means the money that people pay in terms of fees to show up, that would front-end revenue.

Avish: Alright.

Fred: And back-end would be anything that you make after they have paid that registration money. For example, a good example is that say for example when somebody signs up for the Fred Info Boot Camp, as an example, the money that they give me upfront for registrations one thing. Now then they also end up having to pay some additional things as part of they are, you know, they are being a part of that boot camp. Sometimes you’re going to have to set up a website or you’re going to register a domain names those kinds of things which I make a small piece on some of those and again I don’t hide that from them and I think that’s critical.

But anything past the registration dollars, in seminar business would be considered the back-end so you have to think about okay, when someone pays like you pay today and then you find out there’s another additional items that you need you know to be involved in that event. So you’re going to be paying some of those things and you possibly you as a seminar organizer might get a small piece of that. Now when they come to your event, then that would sort of the next stage where back-end revenue can be generated which is, so the three parts: before the seminar begins but after registration occurs, there’s at the event itself, and then there’s after the event. So you got three areas in which you can generate back-end revenue. Again back-end refers to anything after they paid registration dollars.

Avish: Okay, so as far as what it is I’m sure we’re going to get a lot more into throughout this program.

Fred: We will.

Avish: Super. Well one more bit of a terminology then, sounds obvious but when you referred in creating a product or selling a product. What do you mean by that?

Fred: By selling a product I mean any kind of, and again, I use the term product very loosely to refer to any kind of back-end revenue that can be generated from a physical product, a digital product or a service that you provide for the people who attend your event. So product, very loosely defined, is anything that you can sell people having to do the information about the topic they’re interested in that may come in a form of audio, video, possibly another seminar or event or some kind of a downloadable program, or any kind of services that would be coaching, tele-seminars, webinars et cetera.

Avish: Okay, so when you mention product when we talk about it, you don’t mean necessarily something physical?

Fred: That’s correct. It would refer to anything. The product is being, the term is being used loosely for anything that you can sell to people that would include physical products and all the others that we just discussed.

Avish: Okay, got it. Okay we have talked about front-end and back-end and products which kind of leads nicely to our next bit here is, you have what you call your seminar success formula. And you say the most important formula in the seminar business. So could you tell us what that formula is and explain it a little bit?

Fred: I will.