This is surely to be controversial, but someone needs to let the cat out of the bag.
Some may take this post as me giving you guys a excuse for not attending a live event this year. But that's not the case.
Lord knows I've spent enough space on this blog heralding the importance of attending live events, to get out there and meet others with similar goals and dreams and, more importantly, to visualize your success from others in the industry who already have it!
And there's nothing comparable to live events for making those connections that can end up as very cool collaborations that makes everybody money! 🙂
You may even meet the occasional famous person (that's me with Wayne Allen Root, the former VP candidate of the Libertarian Party).
But here's the thing….
I'm pretty good at knowing the struggles of Part Time Marketers and the truth is this:
Not everyone has the flexibility to drop everything and fly off to an event. Sometimes your full time job or your family obligations won't allow it.
And some people, despite their full time jobs simply cannot afford it.
There, I said it.
To all my fellow pie-in-the-sky full time marketers out there who say you need to attend an event AT ANY COST or you'll never succeed, sorry… the truth hurts.
Sometimes life just gets in the way.
How To Benefit From a Live Event Without Actually Attending
So you can't go to the next big industry event, for whatever reason.
Money, time, health…. we all have our reasons.
Lucky for you, times have changed.
It used to be where marketers could just throw up a sign up page and sell out events in a week.
Those days are gone, and the reason is…. Competition!
Take the Inter-Network Marketing industry for example – you have specific company events, team events, smaller single purpose events, and the large industry events… all competing for your time and money.
The organizers of these events know and understand that they need to EARN your attendance and to do this, they must….
LEAD WITH VALUE
This is a really good thing for you, especially if you just simply cannot attend.
Why? Because the people running the event are out to show you that their event is worthy.
Instructional videos, How to Webinars and Expert Roundtables are the order of the day, all leading up to the Event Launch.
And these are usually not just fluff — these are trainings that are meant to wet your whistle for the Event, but are valuable in and of themselves.
And they are their for the taking… for FREE!
How To Extract The Gold Nuggets
So how can you get all this training for free?
It's simple.
When an event is getting ready to launch, keep your eyes and ears open.
If you're on my list or any of the major players out there, you'll hear about it early on.
If you're on Facebook or Twitter, you'll hear the buzz.
That's exactly what's happening at this very moment with the No Excuses 3 Live Event.
It's launching tomorrow night, and you should be there… even if you can't go.
Simply go to this page and register.
You'll get a confirmation link and a seat to the launch. You'll get access to all the valuable training leading up the the launch.
Bring a notebook and be ready to take notes.
Am I Saying You Shouldn't Attend the No Excuses 3 Event?
No, not at all.
In fact, Rosemary and I will be there and would love to meet you.
But if you just cannot go, there's no reason you shouldn't benefit, right?
So go ahead and register for the launch on Tuesday, 2/21/12, grab your seat.
Tip: Get there early because I've had it happen where the system only holds so many and then shuts down.
Bring your undivided attention and your pen and paper.
After all, you shouldn't be left out with nothing to show for it because you can't attend.
16 replies to "How To Extract Gold From Live Events Without Actually Attending"
Hello Bob, I am learning so much from you. 🙂 Love to be part on extracting gold but I think I cannot afford to join in. Anyway Bob, thanks a lot for letting me know about this.
Thanks for the tips, I will definitely be using this and sharing with others.
I find it useful Bob, your post is packed with great information and I see it clearly about watching this Expo. I will look forward to attend this one. But not so sure its because it depends of the availability of time.
Hi Bob,
I appreciate your candor here. So many people pitch these live events as the “end all be all” when the truth is that this is about driving dollars for companies to a large extent.
I agree with what Ken said about leveraging connections you can only make at live events. And let’s be real about that…most people who will benefit from this kind of action are a bit more seasoned and successful.
I agree with what both Adrienne and Nicky said about the inconvenience of attendance. It’s fun to get hyped up at live events, yeah, but these can also be very distracting for networkers (especially if they are dealing with things like compromised hearing).
In the “old days” when I started network marketing, these kinds of meetings were the best thing for recruiting. I remember getting all my people to live events with their prospects was such a fun and easy way to build the business (if travel and such were not roadblocks). Nowadays, with the virtual world here in our pockets, thanks to smartphones, we can do a lot on the go and from home.
I think that though there is much to be learned live at events, for the average newbie, it may be a distraction. Time and money are huge factors in this and the truth is that most spend themselves out of business before they start taking action that equals money in the bank. I’d love to see the newbies getting some action, having some fun, and making some money, period. If there’s leftovers to put their rears in a seat at an event, so be it, but if not, I think as leaders we need to help them take actions which may be quickly monetized so that “next time” they can attend and enjoy without imposing undue stress.
I know you and Rosemary will have a ball at the NES3 event! Can’t wait to get your notes on that!
Cat
BoB,Your article is really research based and full of coaching material for newbies and mature bloggers.
Bob,
Yes live events are a must if you want to leverage the connections there to grow your business. We always hear story after story about what gold nuggets came out of live events, or what turning point people had. But you’re right…some times we just can’t get there. Between other priorities or any of the issues you have mentioned. I would still encourage people to go though.
But now here’s the cool thing with gleaning gold nuggets if you can’t go. You are right on the money when you mentioned competition and event planners need to do their best to attract you. I’ve been on a couple of live events from my home. The smart planners are linking up live internet feeds and are selling “home tickets” at a fraction of the cost.
This is a huge win for people who just can’t get there but have the drive to get as much information as possible. Again I would have to say that there is nothing like attending a live event and I’m looking forward to seeing you at No Excuses 3!
Ken Pickard
The Network Dad
HI Bob – I love the honesty in your blog and I agree with Adrienne’s comments above too – I was always made to feel that I would never achieve success if I didn’t attend all the live events in my first Network Marketing business but exactly as Adrienne said – they were coaching on strategies that did not work for me. I gave up plenty of my weekends, before deciding that this was going against the very reason that I had joined, which was to spend more time with my children and not less.
Moving on to my online career – I attended my first live event in Las Vegas a couple of years ago (which was the very first NE event) – as you can imagine, the trip was a big expense as I live in the UK, but the pictures that I had taken there and the relationships I formed with people whilst over there have served me over and over.
I can wholeheartedly recommend attending live events, but not ALL ! It’s all about finding balance with what fits in with your life and exactly as you say, the marketers are VERY good and will make you feel that you are missing out if you do not attend – of course they will – it’s their (our!) job!
Great post Bob!
Nicky
Hi Bob,
thanks for sharing this. I fully agree: Going to live events is fine, not attending them for whatever reason is fine too. The people you mention just work with the “fear of loss” tactic, don’t they ?
Thanks to the internet, we don’t have to travel everywhere to be there physically.
We can definitely, and it makes perfect sense to attend a certain event when we truly know what we have to expect from it.
But don’t follow “fear of loss” raa raa from a certain type of people.
Be blessed
Oliver
Hello Bob, this is an amazing option in watching Blog Expo Shows… I never thought of this prior to reading your blog. Thank you for sharing the idea..
Thanks bob for sharing this kind of article I will share this to my freind ..
Hi Bob! My gripe is that none of these events are scheduled out far enough. I have to sign my gymnastics judging contracts 6-8 months in advance, and now I have conflicts for several events.
Hi Bob! The thing that irritates me is that many events are not scheduled out very far. There are 3 things I might have attended this spring (including NE3), but I can’t. You may remember that I am a gymnastics judge, and we get contracts for competitions about 6-8 months in advance. So I am committed with signed contracts and can’t attend any of these events.
Hi Bob, I am usually unable to attend many functions, but usually catch snippets of something I’m interested in from you and some others. As for connections, I have them right here at my fingertips.
I do extract Gold from events that I cannot attend. This is because of people like you who share and educate others.
Many thanks,
Donna
Hey Bob,
Boy, do I ever know what you mean.. Now people may not be able to relate to what I’m about to share but so be it.
I’ve been to two of my companies live events. One was a regular weekend training, their big one they do every four months, and the other was one of their fancy huge meetings that I had to travel out of town for. Here is my problem.
I have extensive hearing loss so I can’t hear a good bit of what the speakers are saying. That is my number one issues with live events. I do wear hearing aides but all they do is turn up the volume, they don’t make what they are saying any more clear.
The second reason I don’t enjoy our company events is because they trains us the old school way which is exactly how I do not want to build my business. Every call I’m on and every training I attend is the same thing. So I quit going but that doesn’t mean I don’t back the company, their product or the compensation plan. I just don’t want to sit through an entire weekend of hearing how they want us to build our teams.
Sure, the connections you can make there are good but if I do make it to another event, which I’m just not sure I ever will since I don’t hear the majority of it, I would much rather attend training events such as the No Excuses. So you’ve probably guess it, I’m not going to this one. I would like the experience of attending one but I just don’t know if it’s worth the money since I have such a hard time hearing. The more noise in the room, the less I hear. I can’t even hold a conversation with people because of it. It’s definitely a hindrance for me.
By the way, I’m signed up for it tonight Bob so I’ll be there. But time, finances, other obligations and like me, my hearing, do get in the way. As long as you can get your hands on their training afterwards, I think it’s all good. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Thanks for sharing this and I hope you don’t get repercussions from it. I’m with you 100%.
So nice to hear someone say that NOT EVERYONE CAN GO!! According to what we are so freqently told, over 90% of all people who start in business fail, and also that they are doing their own business part-time while holding down other jobs, so it follows that they are unlikely to have either the time or the money (or the energy!) to attend a lot of live events. Anyway, most live events are so expensive it automatically knocks out the little guy, who is probably the one who needs it most!
Hi Bob, so I take it this is some sort of online version of the show we can watch from our pc? I’ve never heard of this show before actually… With that said I would love to have this options for the Blog Expo show. I think that’s a huge potential for me to learn from and I would love to watch it.