Your Legacy

One thing that’s much tougher than selling info products in your website business is trying to sell tickets to a seminar.

That’s one of the projects I have going on right now, and while it’s going exactly as I expected, we won’t hit my dream goal sales levels.

At the same time, one of my friend’s is selling tickets to his first seminar.

The difference between us is that I’ve put on seminars before, so I know how the sales numbers work.

You get your eager, #1 fans signing up right away, and then you have a late flurry of sales as the event gets close (that is the power of the deadline in action).

My friend and I were recently emailing back and forth about this, and here’s what I said to him (NOTE: This advice isn’t just about filling a seminar…it’s about much MORE than that.)

“With the seminar, you have to remember, you are not just selling tickets to this event, you are selling tickets to your event 5 and 10 years from now.

It’s not just about THIS event. It’s about your legacy.

For example, just this week I listened to an interview that Bill Glazer did with a seminar expert, and the seminar guy told a story about how his first event had 10 speakers…and only THREE attendees. But now his events get hundreds and hundreds of people at them.

Here’s another example.

When Dan Kennedy had his first SuperConference in 2000, there were only 40 people there (or so the story goes). By 2007 there 800, and now he has 1200 attendees per year.

And you know what?

There are probably 200 or more people who go around claiming to have been at that first 40-person SuperConference, because they all want to be part of “the original hard-core attendee group” because of the recognition they’d get from other Dan Kennedy “lifers”.

The same will happen with your event. In 5 years from now when you have 500 people in your audience, there will be plenty of people claiming that they were one of the originals at your first event.

So listen…

No matter how many people show up, you want to build up an atmosphere of elitism.

Tell them…

“Hey, you will always remember this…in 3 years when we have a packed house, you’ll be able to say you were there at the 1st event.”

And make sure they know you will be forever grateful.

It will be a badge of honor for the people that were really there. Those are your lifers. Treat them like gold.

All the time, money, and energy you put into making your first event an amazing experience will continue to pay off next year, the year after, and every year that you continue to build on your legacy and move towards your vision and the fulfillment of your mission.

Now let me give you a couple of business tips to make sure that you still make this first event profitable.

1) Record the event with PURPOSE.

Don’t just be satisfied with recording the event and making the recordings available as a single package.

Instead, plan your seminar as if you were recording 5-10 new products at once.

2) Use the seminar as motivation to create your 30-60 minute “stump” speech.

This is the speech/presentation that is your calling card.

Make it such an amazing motivational speech that it could be used in many other ways.

This is the presentation that you’ll send off to corporations or event planners who are looking for speakers and want to see your skills on display.

That’s your “concert act” – the one you go on tour with.

3) Take 2 hours and plan out the spiderwebbing of your event…how can you wring every last drop of results from your action and effort.

(NOTE: “Spiderwebbing” is a term I first heard from speaker, James Malinchak – a guru in the “make money from speaking”
industry.)

By the way, you should take a full day to step away from your business and plan out your business, life, and training for the next 6-12 months.

Most people don’t look far enough ahead.

But you should have your 90-day plan, your 1 year plan, and your 10 year Mission to guide you. This will help you make the right decisions – with less stress.

So take a full day…schedule it at a resort or somewhere that fosters creativity and inspiration.

Take your business partners or key staff…and your spouse.

And never, ever forget this…

No matter how much you are struggling, and no matter how frustrated you might be in your business, just remember that somewhere out in the great big world there are dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of people who are suffering a great deal more than you are because you haven’t gotten your solution into their hands.

Let that always be a reminder to you to keep fighting, to keep working, and to keep going.

The world needs more of you – don’t let your struggles hold you down.

Always take the LONG VIEW of life and remember your LEGACY.

A legacy is not built by one event, by one launch, by one year or even by one product.

Your legacy is what you were put here to achieve…and soon you’ll go from preaching to a handful of people in a tent to preaching your message in front of 100 people in a hotel, then 500 people at corporate gigs, then TV, and then the world.

I know it’s in you.

Let it out.

Craig Ballantyne

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” – Nido Qubein