What You MUST Do 1st thing AM

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TRANSCRIPT:
Avish: Alright, Fred. A lot of people think of the start of their seminar as when the event actually begins. But there are some things that you must do before your seminar starts, correct?

Fred: Yeah, there really are. And if you are doing your own events, one of the things that you want to do is get up and be down at your room at least an hour or preferably 75 minutes early to make sure that everything has been posted correctly. And walk into the hotel or wherever you are doing to seminar as if you were a participant. And see if it is easy to find your room without any additional instruction. So you want to sort of do that initial walk to see how easy it will be for a participant if they show up here to find the room and to get to where you want them to be. That’s first thing you want to do. Other things that you have on my list for me there that you can remind me of?

Avish: What about checking on your equipment and systems?

Fred: Well that would be another natural one. Which is that frequently, and by the way I’ve had this nightmare happen to me repeatedly where I tend to use the same equipment over and over again, but there is always problems. So I went recently to an audio and video consulting group. And had them sit down with me and go over everything. And I videotaped and audiotaped everything they were doing with me and I put that into a checklist. So that in the morning, when I set stuff up now, I am just like following a map of instructions given to me by the experts. That has been shown to me and worked so that I don’t have any sort of thinking. And good to put that together into a video or sort of checklist that is physical in terms of writing. So that if you have people that are working with you, you can hand them that sheet or give it to them a couple of days before, so they can study exactly how all that equipment works.

Avish: Ok, so you want to make sure that you check that, get that all set up. So this is a really simple one, but having water with lemon?

Fred: Yeah, I like having water with lemon up front for me because it makes it so that I am constantly hydrating my throat and making it so that I don’t sort of have a problem with speaking as I go through the day.

Avish: Okay. Finally, and we talked about this a little bit before, but meeting and greeting the members as they arrive?

Fred: Yeah, good idea to not just, like I’ve said before, not just show up in the room and act like the big shot, but be there to meet and greet people, because they always feel more comfortable. And it is always better for you to get them sort of knowing who you are before you even start.

Avish: Yeah, I also find that sometimes people just show up absurdly early. Whether it’s because they are commuting or they misguided. And it really stinks if your participants get there before you do.

Fred: Yeah, and sometimes they do get there absurdly early. I was doing something, like you know, a month ago where the start time was 9 AM and somebody was there at 7.
Avish: (Laughing)

Fred: And I, yeah. It’s like, I don’t know if they read the thing incorrectly, or if they were just like eager beavers, or they live two blocks away or whatever, but that’s crazy.

Avish: So maybe you don’t have to get there two hours early, but get there early so you are there before your normal attendees.

Fred: Exactly.

Avish: Great.