Planning a Virtual Summit

Planning a Virtual Summit

Welcome to The Determine Mom Show, Hello, everyone. This is Amanda Tento. And welcome to episode number 39 of the determined mom Show. Today I’m going to talk to you about planning a virtual summit. So I want to go over some reasons I decided to host a summit and my experience with planning, finding speakers, and finding sponsors. It’s been a very interesting experience. And I want to share it with you so we can start immediately. 

The reason that I wanted to plan a virtual summit and host a virtual summit is that 2020 as you learned about in Episode Number 35, connection Is my word for 2020. And I have enjoyed this podcast, meeting new women in business and new moms in business and expanding that network and expanding the reach of their audience through my audience and my audience through their audience. 

I enjoyed the connections, referring my clients and people I know to them. It’s just been such a powerful way for all of us as mom business owners to uplevel our businesses just connecting with those other moms, a huge motivator for me to be planning the business mom summit. And that was my original vision. And then, I realized some secondary things would come out of the summit.

So not only the connections and connecting people, but also I need to grow my email list more. I usually get a Probably about 70 to 100 new subscribers per month. And that’s okay. But it won’t be the real push that will take my business to the next level. The second reason I am planning a virtual summit is to grow my audience and network and leverage the connections I’m making.

We as business owners must try to figure out the big picture for our business, what we plan on doing, and strategic ways to get there as quickly as possible. So a virtual summit is one of the best ways, if not the best, to get there quickly. The other reason is that I’d like a cash infusion into my business to help us reach our financial goals quicker and move. That’s one of our big goals and has to do with my foundation. 

I’m starting a foundation to help women and youth, teenagers to young adults in my husband’s home country of Cameroon, learn virtual skills like SEO, WordPress design, and virtual assistant skills. So then that way, they can stay and seek opportunities in other countries. 

And they don’t have to live in poverty or in a way that’s not necessarily conducive to having a healthy prospering family. Those are my big, huge goals, and I see the virtual summit as a catalyst to help me get there. I want to share my membership with as many moms as possible. And that would be the fourth reason for planning a virtual summit. I love my membership. I’m so passionate about it. And it is a great way for mom business owners to get over those marketing tech hurdles that hold so many of us back. 

The fifth reason relates to that first reason of connection because I want to connect the audience with these amazing speakers. These speakers are professionals and experts in their industry. And I want the audience to have a low-cost way of being able to have access to these 40-plus experts. There are experts from manifestation to anything you can imagine that are signed up for the summit.

 And I wanted to find a way instead of having programs that cost thousands and thousands of dollars. A lot of you listening in the audience are just starting. So many moms are already in the thick of their business, but they need a budget of thousands of dollars to take an exclusive course, or an exclusive, whatever it is, to learn everything they need. But they need more than just one topic. 

And I see the virtual and business mom summit as a way to provide that information to all moms needing it. It’s we’re all in different stages of our businesses. And so only some sessions or talks will be exactly what you want to hear and exactly what you need. So you don’t sign up for that talk. That’s a very, very simple way to narrow it down. But with that said, Everything in this summit is hand selected by me, and I have painstakingly gone through every single topic and only chosen topics that I would want to hear as a mom business owner. I say this to everyone and speaker so far in all my recordings with them. I want to hear your talk. 

Like I want to watch every single one. And I want to take notes feverishly and find out how to uplevel my business through their session through their methods because it’s so valuable, everything that they’re bringing to the table is so valuable. So very excited about that. How did I find 40 amazing speakers? The first thing I did was post to my original network. So the connections I already had last. At the end of 2019, I have to think about what year it is. But at the end of 2019, I called my network and asked them if they would be interested in participating in a virtual summit for mom business owners. 

Many said Yes, right away, and many were women I’ve had on the podcast previously. So that was nice to have them. I already know their personality. They already know me. They know how I function. They know how I operate. And I know how they operate and what kind of value they can also provide. 

And it’s really valuable to contact your network first. And then the second thing I did was ask them who might be interested in participating in this summit. I’m looking for the following topics. I already had an idea of the topics I wanted to fill. 

Like I wanted someone who was an expert on YouTube, I wanted someone who was a LinkedIn expert. I had many things that I already knew for this summit to be well-rounded. And I reached out through my network to those who fit that category. And then, after I had all of those people on board, I reached out to larger Facebook groups that I’m in that are all business moms, which allowed me to get to know more women and see more of their expertise. I used a form in dub Sato, my CRM of choice to collect their information. And I had that dub Sato information automatically go to a Google spreadsheet. 

And then that way, I didn’t have to do a lot of manual entry because I realized quickly after the first few responses that if I had to enter all of that information for dub Sato, myself, I was probably going to go crazy because we had way more than 40 applicants for the summit and just kind of monitoring and sifting through all of those applicants and all the topics and all of the everything was a little daunting at first. 

I worked on this particular spreadsheet for the last few months and got to know the women and their topics and things like that. So the next step was narrowing it down. There were many applicants and Many great topics. And I do plan on hosting more summits in the future. So what I did was I created a new sheet, where I moved all of the ones that were repetitive topics to the new sheet so that way, I can already have a pool of amazing women to reach out to for the next summit anywhere there was some overlap. 

The next thing I did was plan out the schedule for the virtual summit, sort everyone into categories, and try to make it as easy for moms to follow along, separated by different categories. So the first day of the summit is all about mind. So each day has a one-word category. The first one is the mind, things like mindset, and everything you can imagine about mindfulness. We have mindfulness and spiritual practices in your business, using mindful wellness. 

When you’re eating, manifesting money without feeling like you’re pushing sales, redesigning your business using mindfulness and gratitude, gifts of increasing emotional intelligence, overcoming fear and self-sabotage, and why you’re not taking the action that you want to take and how to make it happen. So all those are really important topics. And so that’s why my mind is on day one. If we don’t have our mind right, then we’re never going to get to mastering any of the other categories on any of the other days in this summit and in our business. So day two is all about business.

And we’re talking about financial independence, overcoming delegation beers, creating your six-figure to-do list, overcoming tax pitfalls, and goal setting. We are also talking about using Trello to create systems in your business. And also, one of my favorites is the Blueprint of a Successful online course. And we also have a trademark attorney that will talk to us about trademarking and copywriting, why it’s important, and why protecting your ideas is important as an entrepreneur. 

The next day is the self; we put it in the middle because it’s the most important. If we aren’t taking care of ourselves, we are not going to be able to take care of anyone else ahead of us, behind us around us. So self lands right in the middle of day three, so we will discuss things like finding time and motivation for fitness. As a busy mom, we will be talking about reclaiming adventure, and so traveling as a mom, teaching family, your family, how to support you and your business, which is a really important part because if you don’t have that support, you’re not going to be able to succeed. 

We will also discuss the importance of mental health, health, self-care, and personal growth. Having a creative outlet will be important for your productivity and mental health. And we’re also going to be talking about movement breaks. So how to supercharge your creativity and mood? And then, we will also discuss one of my favorites to understand how your Vegas nerve is holding you back from your maximum revenue potential. So there is a nerve. 

It is extremely important and correlates to all your body’s systems. So learning about that is going to be important as well. On day four, we will talk about marketing because now we are taking care of our minds. We’re taking care of our mindset. We have all our business systems and strategies in place, and we’re taking care of ourselves. So now we can move on to marketing. We will talk about writing sales pages that drive sales and conversions. Growing and converting our small email list design that sells, making your sales pages convert brand foundations, and ensuring that your business foundation is very strong so you can position yourself in a way that creates sales. 

We will also talk about how to take amazing pictures for your business that will come from my branding photographer. And we will also be learning how reviews are important in your business, how to get more of them, and how to set up a kick-ass CRM system for free. We also heard from Jessica Haines, who will teach us how a personal brand can make a difference in your business. So those are all the things on the marketing day. 

And the fifth and final day is the icing on the cake after you have everything set up in your business and your mindset, right your self-care. The next thing that you’re going to do is you’re going to start posting on social media. So that is day five, which is social. So we will learn how to write social posts that attract clients you want to work with. And this is specifically geared towards LinkedIn, how to start and grow a podcast that impacts your audience.

And business’s bottom line is how to leverage your Facebook group to engage raving fans and sales in less than 15 minutes daily. That’s the kicker. We only need some of this stuff to take us forever, right? Another one is why you should be using Pinterest for your business. My particular session is going to be all about using Google My Business for lead generation. And then, we will talk about Facebook ads that every business should run. And that is from Meg Runs, and she is amazing. And then, we will hear from Anita why YouTube is your business platform and re-win on authentic Instagram growth.

 I wanted all the topics to be things I would want to take advantage of. There’s nothing in here that I will not watch that I’m not going to hold my pencil and my notebook; I will have a notebook specifically for taking notes on All of these summit talks and implementing. So the next thing I did in planning the summit was planning interviews. I have a ton of interviews scheduled over the last month. And then this month that we’re in, I’m recording this in February.

 And I have scheduled more than 40 interviews to give you a preview, a great preview of the speaker, and also have their topics. I want you to learn exactly what you’ll learn and understand their style and expertise. Then the next thing is organizing, planning, getting everybody up on the website, and ensuring all their information is entered. It’s been a really fun process. I’m using a software called Hey Summit, and I would not be doing a summit if I had to use another software because this software is so intuitive. 

It has everything already figured out for you, So you just input where there are fields, and then you go from there. Love it, love it, love it. The support team from a summit is also really great. And they respond quickly to your emails and your questions. And they also will do a complete review of your event before it is time, so I can reach out to them in March before the promo goes live and say, Hey, can you please audit my event, make sure everything is present? They will do that for me, so I would only want to use something else. It’s been an amazing journey on that particular platform. 

After the interviews, it’s a lot of editing, a lot of editing. Those videos have my daughter helping me upload and change the thumbnails, settings, and Vimeo. So that’s been a fun family process. But I have enjoyed learning how to plan a summit. I am like a lifelong learner. I’m always learning about things. I’m listening to podcasts. I’m Reading books. I’m just everything I can get my hands on about Summit. I’ve been doing that for the last four months.

And it has been so much fun. And so amazing. And I think I am now addicted to summits because I’m speaking in four summits that will be airing right before mine. And I love it. It’s a great idea, a great way to connect to everyone and just such a great umbrella. 

So if you are considering hosting a virtual summit, you have an idea. You may want to host one specific to one industry. That is an amazing idea as well. I will love love love. If you have any questions answer them. Please get in touch with me at Amanda at the determined mom calm because I’ve enjoyed planning this summit. I know I will be planning many more, so I already have that in my business plan for later this year.