𝐒𝐈𝐗 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐒 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 (𝑷𝒔𝒔𝒕… 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒀𝑶𝑼!)

SIX mistakes? There are way more than six… I’m just sharing the most obvious ones here. Seriously, there are many, many more.

Here’s the thing… everyone’s leaping onto the events bandwagon. Every coach, trainer, author and business ‘expert’ wants to create a special occasion and has big ideas of speakers, staging, crazy ticket sales and every seat sold.

In reality, it rarely works that way.

How do I know this? Experience!

It took me a long time and lots of empty seats to understand what was happening.

And that’s okay… we have to start somewhere. 

If you’ve lost money, or just broken even, on your events so far, see it as a marketing and branding expense and build on everything you’ve learned.

If you *keep* losing money, or just breaking even, you have a problem. 

You might need to park your ego, get back to basics and either go back to the drawing board or stop trying to skip the steps. You know what they say about people who keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result, right?

To be clear, I’m not talking about pro events with sales and marketing teams here - I’m talking about those first time events being run by individuals, on their own, with just a social media presence and a big idea. 

Remember, when we plant those seedling ideas, they really can grow into beautiful, majestic trees, but they’ll take plenty of care and attention to reach their full potential. 

Let’s get onto those six rookie mistakes:

𝟭. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝘄 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗲𝘁. 

Just because you have 100 Facebook fans, or 1,000 LinkedIn contacts, or a cracking Insta following, it doesn’t mean you’ll sell 100 tickets. Or 50. Or 10. 

You need to create enough interest and demand that people are ASKING for more. 

Build your brand first, THEN create the products - and events - people are waiting for. 

𝟮. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. 

Until you’ve built your audience and following, keep it simple. 

You probably don’t need to spend thousands on venues, videographers, branding and posh workbooks. 

Aim to AT LEAST cover your costs. 

Want video testimonials? Buy yourself a cheap smartphone tripod and film people yourself, maybe standing in front of some low-cost pull-up banners. 

That’s more than acceptable. Hell, I still do this NOW for some of my events. 

As for videos of the event itself… you probably don’t want to spend all that money filming a half empty room; save the pro camera people until you’ve built your event and have a capacity audience to capture!

𝟯. 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲. 

You need plenty of time to market and promote your event, to build the desire for it, to encourage people to mark that date in their diaries. 

Especially for a non-virtual event, we’re talking months, not weeks.

𝟰. 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝗻. 

You need to be showing up regularly, building your personal brand AND your event brand. 

People need to buy into YOU and want more. 

Most people hugely underestimate the amount of energy and effort it takes to fill an event. 

You cannot just create an event, drop some pretty pictures on Insta, Facebook and LinkedIn, and expect people to show up. 

By the same token, if you’re running an event with other speakers, you can’t rely on their following to fill your event - unless you’re talking about really big names with huge followings (which probably won’t be the case with the kind of events we’re talking about here). 

Oh, and you can’t just leave it to social media either… you’ll need to actually speak to people directly!

𝟱. 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵, 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻. 

If you’ve never run an event before, you probably don’t want to be aiming to fill a room with huge capacity. 

Go for a smaller room, a smaller crowd. 

Bill it as an exclusive, intimate event with limited availability. 

Maybe aim for 25 attendees, rather than 500. 

Then, you can grab some pics of a genuinely sold-out event, with no spare seats, AND proudly declare your event is fully booked. 

This will boost your credibility AND enhance demand for your next event. 

One more point here… if you’re trying to keep your costs down, you don’t actually need to cater your event - provide teas and coffees and build in a lunch break for people to go get their own food. 

𝟲. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲. 

I mean truly, genuinely care, about your audience and what you’ll be delivering. 

And you need to show that way before your event even happens. 

On the day, you need to be committed to giving them an amazing experience they’ll be raving about to all their friends. 

Side note: that amazing experience actually has very little to do with how much you SPEND on the event, and EVERYTHING to do with how much your audience receives in terms of content, energy and inspiration. Don’t discount the networking opportunities either. 

Does that help? I hope so. 

Dream big for the future and keep growing your audience and brand, just be really, really, hyper aware of developing delusions of grandeur for those early events if you don’t have the budget, team and energy to make it happen. 

Start as an acorn, grow from there.

#UnleashYourAwesome

Taz

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