How To Create A Summit that is Audience Centred with Ashley Shuler

Diane: hey everyone. I am so excited to introduce the amazing Ashley Schuler today. She takes entrepreneurs, big picture ideas and turns them into systems and processes. So they operate more efficiently in their business. And today we're going to be talking about one of Ashley's favorite things for lifestyle entrepreneurs, summits. Hey, Ashley. Welcome to the show. Ashley: Thank you so much, Diane. I'm so excited to be here. Diane: let's start off with telling the listeners a little bit about you and your business. Ashley: Absolutely. So I am a business systems strategist. And so my goal is to help solopreneurs small teams create systems and processes. So they know how to generate leads, increase productivity, and enhance their client experience. I really do believe that while we are so focused on. the product, the service, the results, and all of the shininess that comes with it. And that's not a bad thing. It's a really good thing. We really passionate about what we're delivering. We have to have that our operations, our procedures, how we're going to get that person from point a to point Z. We have to have that streamline. I just truly believe that makes your business and your product and your service go to the next level. Diane: I think especially if you're planning to stay small, like the smaller you are, the smaller the team you want to have, the more flexibility you want to have, the more you need those. Processes systems in place. And so has this always been what you've done or has this evolved with your lifestyle? Ashley: it's definitely evolved because I started out, actually wanting to take, people's entrepreneurs specifically like their analytics from my Google analytics and be able to. come up with content suggestions. So it was really, it came from like a data content driven perspective. So it was like, Oh, this would be cool. Cause I worked at a marketing firm and we did this and I was like, Oh, this sounds I feel like people would need this out in the regular world. And so I just. Went out in, with no rules, no direction. And so I was just like, I guess a bird was just, I was just no home. I was just going everywhere. So I picked up like, okay, I can do some social media marketing and content marketing. Let me attempt to be a foe Wix designer. let me just do all of these things and it wasn't just landing me anywhere. And the direction really came or the pivot I should say came when I was doing, starting to ramp up outreach. I said, okay, I need to really reach out to people and see what their needs are. But then I would get a lot of dead ends because either I wouldn't see like where they, where I could send a message to like where I could set up a call or anything. Like I went in and I was like, what is going on? I was like, don't. People know how to like, have a streamlined process where like folks to talk to them about their business. what if I was Oprah's assistant? what was like, what if I thought he was in the, some, I worked for someone, like for Google and I was just like, looking and searching and I couldn't get in touch with that person. So I said, okay, I need to make a pivot. I have a great knack for project management, have a couple of certifications in that. And I really was said to myself, okay, I can do this. I can really figure out how we can go from ideation. We can go to execution and we can put processes in place. So that was my pivot. That was like the grand pivot. I was like, I'm just going to have to I'll use all of my other social media and in the content marketing, just for my own, what I've learned from my own business. And, I can still guide people who have questions about that, but that was going to be my prime focus Diane: I love that. And I think that's such a good reframe for people because I love systems. Like the way to my heart is through like a color coded spreadsheets, swiftly by click up. Ashley: to do Diane: like, I'm like a really easy business date. show me your spreadsheets. But I know a lot of people are really scared of processes. they kind of reinventing the wheel every time and they're scan of tech, but what if it was Oprah's assistance? I love that. Like, how prepared are you to figure out tech now? Oprah's assistant is going to see your tech. Are you ready to have a process? I love that. I really do. so I know that summits are your passion and what I like for them, for the lifestyle entrepreneur is it delivers it on multiple fronts. So one is getting you leads because not only are you publicizing it, but so all the other speakers, it gets you in front of different audiences. But it also, I think really valuably gets you the opportunity to ask another entrepreneur who you might feel like a little shy about talking to, but who you think would be a great connection, it gives you an excuse to go talk to them. So I think network wise, it's great. And then obviously if you do it well, it's also getting your customers, but I think the key word there is, well, we have seen the full range of summits. So tell us how we do it. Well, Ashley: I'll tell you how you do it well, and I think it may come to a surprise for people because there's so much of an emphasis of, I have to have the right speakers or I have to have the right marketing materials. And I think those are elements that are really important for the summary. So don't get me wrong there, but. One of the things in my, one of my frameworks. So I have a four step framework plan produce, experiment, and execute, but then I have a bonus framework that actually pretty much centers the whole thing. And it's called designing the people experience of your virtual event. within that framework, the question is. What do you do before, during and after with your people? It's just a blanketed, very plain question, what you're going to do with the people. And so I broke that down because I think it's important that we take it by phases. So let's take it from the before stage. So why should someone come to your summit? Let's start with visioning. Let's start with really putting yourselves in the shoes of your potential audience member. That's going to come and say, what do you want them to come out of this summit? what are the outcomes? From the audience perspective, what should they expect? So you have that piece of it and you have this vision piece before then you want to get into. The concepts and ideas of, okay, what's my message. And then you want to get to this aspect of creating community. So when you ask that, when you ask the question, how do we do it? Well, we do it well by centering your person, your audience at the center of your summit. So think of aligning your speakers. To the vision and then what you want those outcomes to be, because let's talk about your social proof. Let's talk about the testimonials. We've all been there where, we've been to a restaurant or we've been, and we left a bad review because we didn't have a great experience. They didn't make it not to be selfish about us, but we didn't. They, there was no thought into the process part to it. So I'm encouraging people when they're thinking about summits to number one, go for it because there's a lot of limiting beliefs of, I don't have enough followers. I don't know about the tech, all the things that you could list so many different reasons, but you have to move past those limiting beliefs because you can be the answer to somebody's problem. That's out there. That's the great thing about summits. The audience in the cast is. the nets wide open. So we have the before experience willing to loop it back to your question. We're having the before experience. We're talking about visioning, we're talking about the people experience, but more importantly, we're also talking about how do you build community. So you want to make sure that you are putting people in a group. Put them somewhere where people can talk to each other, you just talked about networking, right? So now you're seeing some interesting folks that you're like, you know what? There could be someone I could partner with. There could be someone that could be my podcast, guests. There could be someone that, we could do a collaboration with. So that's really important. Then we talk about, the during and an after. So during is really important. And again, a lot of this is in the planning phase. A lot of this is upfront, And again, we're talking about leading people up to the day of, so on the day of you want to make sure too, that people are enjoying themselves because we've all been there where we've been in school and you've been in front of someone who's talking and you're like snooze Fest. You're like snooze Fest. let's like, I'm ready to go. I'm going to click out of the app and go do something else. So you want to make sure you're going to do something like have. A DJ have some action, have some energy. That's the whole big thing, your Apple computer, if you're really invested, maybe, being distracted about, a speaker or something's not that big of a deal, but making sure that you're having energy giveaways, raffles, I've seen people, do paint and sips making it interactive. That's the key. And then going again back to your question, doing it well, so again, the setup is. Before during and after what happens next. Okay. Do you just let people loose? No, we can't let the people lose. People also, we have to understand that summits are a mechanism. They are trained. They're a system to funnel people through. And you can do something simple as saying, you know what? I really want to community. Now I'm ready to really grow a community. So that's one, you grow a community. You could have a course, you could be doing coaching program, you could be selling a product or service. So making sure that you're going to follow up with the people who are attending with your offer. And showing up just with the value. That's the whole, that's the whole big thing is what's the value add that you're going to be delivering before, during and after that's the key to it. So that's the part about doing it? can you be able to link all of those pieces together? Diane: I really liked that. what I see in groups is often people doing like a really vague call for speakers. So I feel like a lot of summits are put together with the focus on, Hey, I want to get as many names as possible who have big audiences, so they will share so that I will grow my list. Then you get this kind of vague water down summit of all things, so I liked what you said there about really thinking about what the outcome is like, what do you want your potential client to experience and then marrying the speakers back to that. So how do you manage all of this? Because I think once people go from Hey, I want all the big name speakers to bring me all the leads. They then get to the, Hey, I need to have. Kajabi to host the sin, and suddenly we're talking about like hundreds of bucks a month just to have a system to run this. Is there a simpler way to do it that still delivers the same level of experience? The whole way through. Ashley: Yeah. I think that. You want to really think about in the beginning stages? Okay. Let's think, budget wise, We're going to have to talk about numbers. That's one of the things that I do talk about upfront in terms of qualitative and quantitative goals, what's the one that you want to have and really have a good sense of that now. People are using Kajabi or Kartra are people using lots of big systems and tools. And I think that can be very beneficial, but this is also about capacity. And what did you, what do you have to lend yourself when it comes to setting up? So people can actually use people are using zoom. they're using breakout rooms. they're just upgrading their accounts. And also when we're also, I want to go back to this aspect of having, the hundreds of people or people with really big followings, when we're talking about, goals, you have to think to yourself, okay. What is a realistic goal for you right now in your business? is your goal, should it be like 10,000 people that you want, is that really what you're trying to level up and get to nothing wrong with that. But I think sometimes we think of really big numbers as what we should go after, rather than if you think about, 150 to 200 people. Depending on what your end goal is. that's a really decent number. that's a really, that's nothing to say, Oh, I didn't have anyone come to my summit. Now, if you had 200 people register and engaged, that's a win for you. Diane: picking your favorite bar and cram 200 people in there listening to you that is a lot of people. And like you said, if they're engaged, like rather that than 10,000 people who are watching you with one eye while they're doing three other things, and they actually only really joined to watch their mates video. And, it becomes the numbers game instead of the engagement game. Ashley: That's and that's what it is. Is he engagement game. with the tech, think about using zoom. You can certainly do that. There's a platform that I really love. It's called the hot hop in dot too. That's the website, but hopping is really great because you're able to actually have speed networking, with your, with the platform. People like zoom because you're able to have the video chat face to face. Now, when you are on the hop in platform, it's definitely like a stage it's meant for presenting, but then there are other aspects. They have a vendor expo, you can go in and you can buy things from different vendors. Then there's a networking platform and you're meeting people and it's really cool because you can click a button that says connect. And you can actually connect with that person so we have to look at the networking aspect as that's going to be a key piece of it. Diane: that piece of software almost takes you from summit where we're very used to, like there's a Facebook group and there are like some videos being played to us every single day to almost a live virtual event. Ashley: Yeah. yeah. There's certainly, there's definitely like a different trend that I love that people are using innovation. Because we have our traditional aspects of we have the 30 speakers and it's going to be for five days. And I think, those were certainly really cool, but then people love this aspect of a live component in live. Like here's the speaker and we're all listening to it. Like listening to that speaker. and that's certainly a really cool aspect of it to make it live and to make it interactive like that. Diane: I always find on summits. I'm the type of person who, if I'm really into the summit and I'm really into the topic, I've probably bought the fast action path because I want access to the videos for Ashley: Yes, absolutely. Diane: If I'm into it, then I like really intend to watch on the day. But if I don't watch live the trans of me remembering to then go back into the Facebook group and do whatever I was supposed to do to find the video or find the email is limited, but I love an event like, In-person events are my happy place. And so I miss that with, everything that's going on in the world. So if I have to turn up, live to something, I'm going to be much more engaged with it. Especially if other people around me are engaged. Ashley: And that's the beauty of it, because similar to me, like I made it a point in these last several years, to go to in-person events, whether it's, your networking, whether it's your, conference and there's an electricity that goes on by being able to meet people, being able to hear speakers, walking away with your aha moments. And I knew once COVID hit that people would say, Oh, I can't have my event because it's not in person. And so it's shifting that mindset to say you can, but you're just shifting into a virtual experience and being able to really walk people through that is it's really cool to do that because now people are seeing the open possibilities. And people are now seeing okay, like even if we do, return returning back to our new normal, we'd still like to have. Virtual conferences. We still want to have virtual events, which is great because I believe right now it's just such a necessary business model for people to have to incorporate. Diane: I think even with the new normal, I think for a couple of years, I really believe that people are going to be nervous to travel. They're going to be nervous to commit to something. someone's asked me to commit to something in a physical location in a months time. And I'm like, we're possibly going to have to cancel. that doesn't seem to make much sense to me. So I think the virtual event is definitely, coming to the forefront, but I don't think I ever thought of a summit as a virtual event. I have only ever considered it as a, somebody has collated a bunch of recordings for me in a place like that's been my experience of summit. and so I'm wowed by this idea that actually it can be so much more like it doesn't have to be this narrow definition Ashley: Absolutely. And you're right. really seeing, this aspect of, having interviews. And I was like, okay, this is really cool. And then again, people just using innovation and ingenuity to be like, I want to do something a little bit different. And then I was, so I was seeing that and I was like, okay, I'm taking these notes. I'm taking note of like how people are. Being able to use that and position themselves as building authority in their industry, bringing their, the speakers that are people they've been interacting with, they've networked with, or maybe they've been friends with for years and having that aspect of introducing new people, to others, to other SMEEs that are, in the industry. It's really cool. Diane: And I think this also goes back to if you only had a hundred to 200 people, if you were an event with 200 people, that's 200 new people you made. If you're suddenly speed networking your way through, even if you had a hundred people, 30 people, like I have been just small events where it has just been. Like relationships that are formed are so tight. And because you're the person who brought them together like that already carries. So this idea of like, how can you make it so experiential that actually it's even more powerful for smaller groups and you're not having to think about Oh, I have to go and ask this big name to do a five minute video for me to give me some like proxy authority. It can be like, Hey, come hang out with my friends. Ashley: because it helps you unlock the lid on the possibilities of how you want it to be, how you want it to be done. And, and people have often, I've been seeing people who are also doing like even recurring conference, like events where it's we're not stopping at this one that is going to be next month. You're going to see us again. in the next month and the month after that. So that's an interesting kind of thing too. Okay. Now it's a we're top of mind because we want you to come back. So then that's like a whole different thing, too, right? To be able to bring that piece of, Oh no, you're hanging out with us or we're really building this community through the end of the year. So that's been really cool to see. Diane: this has gotten a completely different direction from where I expected. I really thought we would talk through like process and tech and just as experiential quality never occurred to me. Ashley: you made another good point about the tech piece of it. I always say this to people that, I'm even teaching our training is to put the process before the tech, because you can have the tech, which is great and you need it, depending on what level that you are at in your business, you definitely want to level up when you, when it's necessary. But having your, the process together first relieves you, once you get to the attack, you know what I'm saying? Relieves you because really, even if you low, even if it was a new platform, and then you just learn about the tool that might take you a couple of weeks. But you also may need to outsource. So that's also another thing too, when you're keeping in mind for your visioning in your quantity of goals and whatnot, and what you need, you may need to outsource, or you may need to have a friend who's Hey, you're the techie person, would you help me with putting this together? some people were like, sure, why not? . Diane: it's back to what you were talking about with the journey. if you imagine your clients or prospective clients at the very beginning, like how do they encounter you? What information do they need? Okay. Then how do I get them excited then how do I keep them excited then how do I move them somewhere down the pipeline? And as soon as you do that, the kind of definition of what you're trying to do gets very fuzzy around whether it's a summit or an event which I don't think it was before. COVID I think events, retreats, Conferences, I think were very specific, almost physical things. And I love that this definition of summit is expanding, but none of it changes your process and so that takes a lot of pressure off . I think people hear summit and they think, Oh, that sounds like a lot of work, and then what if it doesn't work and then I've got to find speakers. And so there's, I think people get a bit stressed about it and then they get really caught up in the speakers. But actually, if you just think of it as an online event of some kind with speakers, it does just come straight back to that process. Ashley: Absolutely. Diane: Oh, I have so many ideas. Oh, this is the problem now. Ashley: That's the thing. Diane: I definitely feel like you've changed mine being in an online service-based summit attendee spot. I am completely. Mindset shifted on these. I want to finish up with two questions that I ask everybody. first of all, what is your number one lifestyle boundary for your business? Ashley: so I won't sacrifice and I'm a morning person. So I'm actually up at 5:00 AM. I'm a Friday morning person. So I do my devotionals, my prayers, and then I have my accountability business and accounting, personal accountability calls. So I wake up and that's the schedule. we're not changing that. That's like the it for me. Diane: Yeah. don't ever change location. Cause I'm like you I'm a 5:00 AM person, but then most of the people I speak to are in the U S so like my calendar usually starts at two-ish so yeah, I don't recommend just stay wherever you live. Stay there right now. Do not move don't change time zones. and then finally, what's the worst piece of cookie cutter advice you ever got, like something, a guru or a coach said to you and you were just like, no, sorry, not applicable. Ashley: Yeah. it's so interesting. I think even as a, in the systems world, as you explain, what you do to people. Sometimes folks are like, eh, I don't really think so. And you're like, I don't think that's right. So there's two things. I was, talking to someone . And I said, do you have someone that can come in and maybe do like project management training or something? And they're like, Oh, I don't know if that'll work , I was like, what do you mean? And they're going to be doing projects. Wouldn't you want them to have a little process? Maybe? Maybe not. Okay. so that was really, that was interesting too. I was like, okay. that's interesting. , Diane: I think system, sometimes people think Oh, I'll get to systems. I don't need a system yet. I'm very systems oriented, very spreadsheet orientated. So it's usually the first thing I'm thinking about, what tech am I going to put this on? But I find a lot of people when you speak to them about systems, they're like, Oh, I don't need that yet. Ashley: exactly. Diane: Awesome. thank you so much for sharing all of your strategies and completely like blowing my mind on summits today. I so appreciate you. Where is the best place for people to connect with you? Cause I know people are going to want to carry on this conversation. Ashley: great. Yes. Please connect with me on Instagram at Ashley Schuler underscore. So please connect with me. I'd love to have this conversation about your next virtual conference or summit. Diane: I think I'll be dropping into those DMS or some questions. So Ashley: That would be fantastic. Diane: thank you so much. It's been such a great conversation. Ashley: Oh, thank you so much, Diane. This has been fantastic.