Few of us conducted a 2 1/2 hour session where we invited Rory, 2-Time World Champion of Public Speaking and here are the 21 lessons I learned from putting this event together:
1) To make something sustainable, you have to start small. Too big of an event will make create tremendous amount of stress and human couldn't possible sustain that emotional rollercoaster
2) There will be emotional roller coasters throughout the journey of the event, and we just have to persist and see it through
3) Working in a team is the best ways to keep the motivation level and to fight fear. Because, when you're in the downstream of your emotional roller coaster, some one else in the team in in the upstream. Only because of that, it brings everyone higher and higher up the emotional roller coaster
4) To keep team motivated, you must first know what motivates them before asking them to join the team. To do asked someone to join the team and you have to motivate them again and again. The team member must be self-motivated. In order to get them it, they must have invested their time, money or effort in order to make sure they don't easily quit. Start at the begining and tell them what they will face in the next couple of months and how we can overcome this together. The other member must have a reason for themselves to change. If there is no leverage point, there is no motivation. Member need to be given ownership on the project.
5) Do not trust your perception when you did just one project with someone. It often takes 2-3 project before you truly understand someones motivations, perserverance and concerns.
6) For refund of money or door fees, think about giving others option to choose (ie. either refund or bring other friends to join)
7) Introduce "bring-a-friend" program
8) The "Opportunity" e-mails to 115 clubs located 10 miles radious of zip code 94109 works. Follow the e-mail format.
9) If nothing else, I learned more about recording devices, which takes awhile. If not because of this event, I would not have learned about digital audio recording devices, audacity.com and editing audio, using graphic and disk.com for outsourcing of CDs productions.
10) Rory uses a method of "seemless click" to maneuver the slides presentation (using power point presentations in the pocket)
11)I'll need a few attempt of requests before I take action because I thot no one will response. But when I stumbled upon something that works, it will roll and I can leverage that and scale it (eg. to e-mail & ask Rory to promote, to e-mail all ppl from TMs)
12) Using Music before & after the esssion. Using music before speak goes on stage.
13) Do not let anyone control your sales and registration page.
14) Don't use graphic in eventbrite.com as the conversion ratio is substantially lower.
15) Crafted a letter to show excitement on signing up and what information attendess need to kno, plus a subtly upsell.
16) Never let other team members negativity affects your goal
17) Be clear on channel of promotion and who is organizing this. There are few weeks where this is not clear and it wasted time
18) Make sure speakers are responsive and have the capability to hold up to the present. If not, don't invite them cos people will cancel and disrupt your event, agenda and promotions. Allow adequate time to look for speakers and location.
19) It's easier to sell a 2-3 hours session than to sell a FULL day session. When it comes to public speaking, people are looking for action/participation and NOT passive listening.
20) Record your conversation with Rory during the time you pick them up, so you can maximized the time spent and extract more of Rory/speaker. One lesson during my drive with Rory, when Dave asked "you discover a new humor line?". They tested material again and again.
21) Things that don't work - meetup, facebook ads, zvent.com posting, yelp.com posting and other event posting. Plan full blast promotion during last 2 weeks approaching the event
22) Use clapping to direct a coupling group to sit down, or music to be on when coupling session is in play, then lower the music volume when complete. Give all instructions before asking everyone to stand up
23) Speak slowly one word at a time and finish your sentence.
No comments:
Post a Comment