by Nicole Richardson | Oct 23, 2018 | Business Alchemy Podcast, Free Resources |
In this Business Alchemy podcast, we are talking beyond business and who you are at your core and how that is expressed in all areas of life. Take this journey with us as we explore topics like what it means to be Christian, how the black community is questioning their faith in light of the recent administration in the US, and what it means to be fully expressed in your business.
by Angella Johnson | Oct 22, 2018 | Biz Tips, Events and Workshops, Free Resources, Live Events and Tips, Resources and Invitations, Speaking and Events, Uncategorized |
Did you catch the intro, part 1 about Speakers and part 2 about selling in this series? Part 3: Hosting Yes, there are speakers who don’t care and their focus is to get as many sales as possible, whether it’s a fit for someone or not. I’ve been behind the scenes at enough multi-day events to hear the conversations about how to GET as many sales from people and it doesn’t matter who the person is, what they really need, or if what they’re being sold is actually a fit for them. In my experience, there are a LOT more people who actually care then don’t care. Remember in the very beginning of this article series and I shared that one of my events called THRIVE was more salesy than I was comfortable with? How did I let that happen? Why did I let that happen? The answer is simple: I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do. Fear or Out of Alignment? When I expressed my concern that it was too salesy to my mentor, I was met with “Oh that’s just your fear talking. I promise this will work.” That was one of the many experiences I’ve had that taught me the difference between being out of alignment and fear. At the time, I was experiencing both fear and that something was WAY off for me. I didn’t know how to discern it and I was paying people lots of money to tell me what to do and no one was asking me what was true for me. I now make very different choices when...
by Angella Johnson | Oct 22, 2018 | Events and Workshops, Live Events and Tips, Resources and Invitations, Speaking and Events |
If you missed the intro to this article series, check it out here. Part 1 about speakers is here. Part 2: Selling at Events At one of my conferences, I allowed my speakers to sell something less than $200 and they could use the last five minutes of their 50-minute presentation to “pitch.” A friend of mine later told me that she “heard” my event was just a big sales pitch. Clearly, they had never been to a true pitch fest. I was happy to let my speakers sell and felt confident that they were focused on providing value. Even though that was my experience, some people felt that was just too salesy. I share this because I learned that I can never make 100% of the participants happy. One person will criticize the event or speaker while the next person is elated with joy. Is victimizing event participants the solution to putting more value and integrity into events? The real problem with these pitch fests isn’t the pitch itself, it’s the participants. How could I possibly say something so absurd??? After attempting to change the way events hosts were hosting and speakers were selling to be more authentic and getting nowhere, I realized that I cannot change events from the top down. I gave event hosts feedback. I asked= my coaches about their strategies that were more pitch fests than events and was met with a nice pat on the head. It was clear my feedback wasn’t going to change the way these events were being done. I had to go from the bottom up and from the...
by Angella Johnson | Oct 22, 2018 | Biz Tips, Events and Workshops, Live Events and Tips, Speaking and Events |
If you missed the intro of this series, go here. Part 1: The Speakers In 2009, my vision of hosting transformational women’s conferences came to fruition with my first Ignite Your Spark conference. Since then I’ve had over 100 speakers on my stages and many more on my virtual stages for telesummits and podcast. Why am I mentioning this? Speakers vary and while there are speakers out there like Leonie’s article mentions, there are amazing speakers too. Unfortunately, I’ve seen the ugly side of speakers at events. Speakers who… … threw a tantrum (literal tantrum) because I didn’t have the right kind of tea in the speaker break room. … flat out lied on how much they sold so they didn’t have to pay me my percentage… … at the last minute changed their offer to a $20 offer from the stage so they only had to pay me my 25% of the sales and then quickly upsold people to their higher-priced programs but since the upsells weren’t technically sold at the event, I didn’t receive a commission on those sales. I’ve seen the absolute delight and integrity by speakers too, which is what I experience most of the time. The difference between the dramatic and the delightful? There is a big difference between speakers who want to speak to my audience to GET something vs speakers who genuinely desire to contribute value and CO-CREATE something with me. Get vs co-create. Do you get the difference there? Guess which speakers I have on my stage? Tip: when speakers ask me what my vision is for the event and how they can contribute...
by Angella Johnson | Oct 22, 2018 | Live Events and Tips, Marketing, Overcoming Blocks, Resources and Invitations, Speaking and Events |
What inspired this article series: Leonie Dawson, a woman I’ve authentically admired for years, posted a fantastic and brutally honest blog about attending a 1-day Gary Vaynerchuk event that you can read here. A friend of mine shared her blog on Faceboook and I commented: It’s why I started teaching how to do events differently. This is not just Gary but I can name dozens of events I’ve been to like this. I started hosting my events with more of a sales focus as this was ALL I saw where people actually made money. But I changed things. You can make great money by hosting events and they don’t have to be a pitch fest! And my hope is that consumers wake up and powerfully choose what’s aligned for them. No one forces anyone to use their credit card and it can feel that people have “no choice” and have buyer’s remorse. But we’ve got to speak up and choose what works for us! It’s the second paragraph that I want to emphasize here. Is anyone truly forced to buy something? While it’s great to educate people that events like what Leonie describes actually happen, I feel that it’s important to empower people to exercise their intuition and to learn how to say no. This goes far beyond being slimed or “forced” into buying something. No one is forced. Convinced? Yes. Coerced? Yes. Shamed? Yes. Persuaded? Yes. But actually forced, as in someone MADE them pull out their credit card? No. It can sure feel forced though, can’t it? Am I preaching to the choir? I think sharing experiences like Leonie...
by Angella Johnson | Oct 16, 2018 | Business Alchemy, Business Alchemy Podcast, Free Resources, Money |
When three established business owners let go of their main sources of income and form a partnership, one of two things will happen: it will implode or it will be magic. The founders of Orange, Listen and Dew transparently share what it takes to form a true collaboration and what they had to let go of to create what they’ve seen missing in the coaching marketplace. You’ll hear what they love about this new way of working together, what they’ve struggled with, and the tips they have for any kind of collaboration you are considering. Join Orange, Liston & Dew for Coffee Talk, where they help business owners come up with fresh and different ways to meet their challenges in real time at StellaOrange.com/Coffee-Talk Watch here: Listen here: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS | More About Orange, Liston & Dew: Orange, Liston & Dew is a marketing shop and business incubator co-founded by a copywriter, business intuitive, & integrator-at-large. They serve coaches, healers, consultants, and brick-and-mortar business owners who love their work and are building singular, sustainable, and satisfying businesses. The trio offers a full range of proposal-based services including strategic vision, writing, planning, and implementation support. As a business incubator, they hold an uncommon and rare place for their clients’ business dreams to be seen, nurtured, and grow in the community – while deeply rooted one’s own values. They host BeaverCon in person several times a year and Beaver Lodge LIVE online, gathering business owners around the world who know that we can go farther and build faster when we do it...
