3 Strategies That Doubled My Event ROI (Without Being Salesy)

7FL - Ep.108 - Maximizing ROI from Attending Events
Dustin: [00:00:00] multiple ways to opt in for the same thing and invite people to a private q and a after, you're live on stage right?
Dustin: And it's very casual it's super easy to do and the type of people who show up for those things are people that are very interested in knowing more about you and your services so it's a great way to, Not only build your email list, but really bring the, quality of those relationships to a higher level
Intro: you are listening to the seven-Figure Leap podcast. We're here to leverage rich relationships and smart strategies to take your business to the next level. Here's your host, Dustin Rieman.
Dustin: Let's improve the ROI that you get from every event that you attend this year and into the future. So I don't know about you, but there seems to be a real renewed energy around in-person events here in the entrepreneurial space.
Dustin: I think [00:01:00] that is still some of the lingering effects of COVID times. And, the isolation that came from that. and I think AI has a big part of it too. I feel like we are more and more virtually connected and those connections feel less and less meaningful, more and more empty. And so I can at least speak from personal experience.
Dustin: One of the things I'm prioritizing, this year and looking ahead, are in person experiences, right? And that can be the big conferences, but it can also be small group gatherings, workshops, masterminds, really anywhere that you
can actually get. Skin proximity to other humans in real life. and so. I would assume you have at least some events that you're planning, to attend or maybe even planning to host.
Dustin: And what I wanna focus on today is three strategies that have worked super well for me, over the past year in just maximizing the ROI that I get from every event that I attend. And I think the key here is. To think about this in terms of relationship, relationship building, return [00:02:00] on relationship, may be a way to put this too.
Dustin: It does translate into leads and sales and all the things, that you might associate with ROI. But I think the key to doing this well is first and foremost
to. Focus on maximizing the number and especially the quality and depth of the relationships that you're able to build when you attend events.
Dustin: So whether you're a speaker at an event, or whether you're just an attendee or even attending, sort of as a sponsor, I think there's some really key things that you can do. And I want to go through three specific examples here that, I can give you tangible results and report back, things that, that we've been doing or that I've been doing personally.
Dustin: And I like to open this by saying. I'm an introvert in a big way. left to my own devices, I, would probably attend an event, but I would spend half the time in my hotel room and I would look for like one person I kind of know and just like, hang out with them the whole time.
Dustin: and maybe, go offsite for lunch. just 'cause I don't love the dynamic of being in a big crowd and I really hate the idea of going around [00:03:00] and, shaking hands with strangers. Introducing myself, and I'm, very sensitive to the fact that when I leave my family, there's a big time investment.
Dustin: Outsized feeling time, investment, anytime I have to leave, home for, more than a day to do business activity. So these things can be intention. I'm an introvert. I'd rather just not talk to anyone. and I want to maximize the return. And I do really value relationships. I just value sort of quality, fewer relationships.
Dustin: So that's the paradigm. I'm bringing to this discussion. So without further ado, I'm gonna talk about one strategy to start off if you're a speaker, and I'm gonna talk about, something that anyone can do to build, a network effect at your next event. And then the third thing I'm gonna talk about is more of a direct monetization.
Dustin: And you don't need to be a speaker to do number three either. So if you are a speaker. most recently I just spoke at Pod Fest in Orlando. It was awesome,and I used this strategy [00:04:00] there. I don't have, all the results yet for that, so I'm actually gonna reference, the specific results from an event that I spoke at last.
Dustin: I guess summer, early summer, in 2025, an event called Agency Builders in St. Augustine, Florida. So, again, I just did this in podcast and it's working, but I don't have like numbers and I'll always love to share real insights with you here. So what's the strategy? It's, there's really like, I'd say three key parts to this.
Dustin: first and foremost, it is being very clear on what is winning when you speak. In my case, with rare exception, I don't usually get paid to speak. Like it's not a monetization channel. It's not like a line on my profit sheet. so why do I speak? Because it's great exposure and I generate leads.
Dustin: So for me, winning from speaking on a stage is getting high quality leads. Building relationship so that people can ultimately join our program if they're in an ideal fit. And like that's how I get an ROI from speaking. So with that said, I think what a [00:05:00] lot of people do, and I sat in enough sessions to know this, is they get up and, say they have 30 minutes, they just teach for 30 minutes.
Dustin: They maybe answer one question and then they leave. and maybe on the last slide they put up a QR code and sort of softly say, follow me if you want more information on this, or. grab my free PDF and that's fine. What I do is really structure the presentation to generate more leads while delivering insane value from the stage.
Dustin: And the way that I approach this is my whole presentation is focused on. why someone should be interested in the thing I'm teaching and like what to do. So in my case, profitable podcast, guessing is a usual topic. So I'm gonna teach people about the opportunity and how it works and I'm gonna tell them the five step framework, right?
Dustin: I'm gonna give them case studies. So there's some very tangible value. And I say, this is getting into the strategy. I say about 20% of the way into the presentation. [00:06:00]
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Dustin: Hey, like. Here's what you need to know to do this effectively. I don't have time today to go through all of these steps, right? Like we usually spend 90 days working with our clients, but I want you to be empowered to do this.
Dustin: So I, I actually introduced my lead magnet, my call to action about 20% of the way into the presentation. So, five slides in, there's a big slide that says grab the playbook so you can do this on your own. And it's got a big QR code. And I put the URL for people that don't use a QR code.
Dustin: And so that's opportunity number one. They can actually opt in. Before I've even, done most of my presentation and it's really powerful 'cause I can pause on that slide and be like, I have a lot to share with you. I'm gonna give
you, all of the shortcuts, all the templates, everything you need to do this on your own.
Dustin: if that's of interest to you, and you don't wanna have to sit here and take a bunch of notes, also, like you can go ahead and get out your phone. I'm gonna pause here for a second. Grab this and usually, a good number of the room, about half the opt-ins come in that first opportunity. Then I'll teach, and go through the whole presentation.
Dustin: And then at the end I do [00:07:00] again, have a call to action at the call to action at the end. It's interesting, I have the same slide up, so it's the same playbook in my case, which is the, the call to action. I give it a different framing and I say, Hey, if you'd like more examples, like I only have so, so much time up here, and more case studies, you're gonna love this.
Dustin: Scan the QR code or go to seven figure leap.com/playbook and grab this. it's the same resource because I deliver both things in that resource, but one is framed as. Get the tools. You don't have to take notes. I'm gonna give you the whole playbook. And then the second time I talk about the same thing, I'm emphasizing another part of it.
Dustin: Right? And that's the big takeaway here. And then the third thing I do from the stage, which has proven to be extremely effective, I really highly encourage you to do this, is I have like an unannounced bonus, right? And so what happens is. In my case, I only had 30 minutes this year, for Pod Fest at Agency Builders.
Dustin: I had a full hour. So at Pod Fest, I literally only had time to take one question from the [00:08:00] audience. At Agency Builders, I actually had a lot more time. So in the middle of my presentation, I brought someone up on stage and we did like a hot seat session. But in both cases, the common point here is there's never enough time to answer all the questions, right?
Dustin: Because you're always limited on time. And so what I do is I say, number one, , 20% in , get the resource at the end. We're not quite the q and a yet. I'm like not quite to the closing slide. Get the resource for a different reason. And then I say , closing sort of, thoughts.
Dustin: Hey, we're gonna do questions here. I know we're not having enough time, because we only got like four minutes left for anyone who opts in and grabs this resource. So if you, give us your email address to get this resource
during the time that I've been on stage. And we're just gonna look back at our email and see when people opted in here.
Dustin: I'm going to send you an email, within the next day or two. I'm gonna invite you to a private q and a session with me so that we have a lot more time,and I can answer all your [00:09:00] questions and make this very useful and personal to you. so just look for that email, right? So, and if you didn't, already opt in, now's your last chance, right?
Dustin: And so then the last few people who are like, well, I didn't really wanna get the playbook, but I would really like this q and a session gives, I'm a third reason to opt in. And so that's a small part of it, but the big part of it is what happens when you actually do that? so for agency builders last year I did this, there were a hundred people in the room.
Dustin: that's this full conference. I had the full stage, I think around 50. about half the room actually opted in, which I thought was fantastic about, and actually 50% opted in again at Pod Fest. So that's always a good sign that the thing that I'm, promoting as the next step is u Useful and logical.
Dustin: And so what happened was about two days later, right before I left the conference, I looked in my email platform and I just tagged all the people that had opted in that hour that I was on stage at Agency Builders. I sent a very simple email. it was like, Hey, thanks for your support and being there for my session.
Dustin: [00:10:00] And I named the session so you can remember,you might remember that I said I wanted to host a private q and a session for you, as a thank you and a follow up. and here's the kind of the kicker on this. No technology. The email says, reply back and let me know if you want to come.
Dustin: And that's it. Right? So then, people reply back and like, sure, I'd like to come. And I also usually say like, I'm thinking about doing this on say Friday, the 18th. I don't really get real specific on the time because, I wanna gauge interest before I even commit to a specific time. And so people say yes, and then I create.
Dustin: A Google invite or my EA can create one, right? so it's literally just a thing on my calendar. And then as people say, yes, she adds, or I could add the email to the calendar invite. So there's no landing page, there's no webinar stuff. It's just literally a time on my calendar. and I usually send two emails.
Dustin: So I send that first one and then. let's say it's, I'm planning in a week out then like three days in advance. so about halfway to the q and a time, I send another email to the list and I say, Hey, [00:11:00] just a reminder, if you haven't already responded and you want to come to this, please reply back.
Dustin: This is the last time ,I'll send this to you, and then more people will respond. So for agency builders, 50 people had opted in 15. Actually 18 people said yes, I would like to come to a follow-up session where I will just kind of hit the highlights of my presentation and spend an hour answering questions.
Dustin: and then 15 of those 18 people actually showed up. It was just a Zoom call. People showed up and I did just that. I had my same slide deck and I said, here's like the three slides I want to really remind you of. These are the key things. and with that, let me answer your questions. And so I built a lot more intimacy with each of these people.
Dustin: They got a lot more value. They got to kind of have me in a smaller session or a smaller setting, and. what happened was out of those 15 people that attended Live three, immediately, like that same day, bought our main program without a sales call. This, so this basically functioned as a group sales call, even though I didn't [00:12:00] pitch anything, I answered questions.
Dustin: And as part of the questions, like, it's very natural for people to be like, well, how do you help me with this? And like, oh, well we have a program. Right? And I'll have like a one slide summary of kinda what the program is. And then people just start asking questions about the program, right?
Dustin: So we start asking questions about the strategy and the presentation. One person asks about the program, then everyone just wants to keep asking questions. Well, what does it cost and how does it work? And when does it start? And all that stuff. Right? and then basically at the end I'm like, Hey, I know you guys ask a lot of questions about our program.
Dustin: I'm not here to pitch it, but, obviously I'd love to work with you. if it's a good dual fit and like. Here's how you can basically pay a deposit and start, right? So you can use whatever your sales process is at that point. But the big idea here is multiple ways to opt in for the same thing, and invite people to a private q and a after, you're live on stage, right?
Dustin: And it's very casual. It's super easy to do. and the type of people who show up for those things are people that are very interested in knowing more about you and your [00:13:00] services. So it's a great way to, Not only build
your email list, but really bring the, quality of those relationships to a higher level.
Dustin: So I did the exact same thing at podcast, but as I record this, I haven't done the, live q and a yet. So I don't know how many people, are gonna show up and all that stuff. But, that room had about 70 people. We had like 39 people opt in while I was on stage. It was actually probably more like 60%.
Dustin: and I did send out the invite or the reply back. I sent the first one of those and we had, I don't know, five, eight people reply back so far. But we're still early in that process. But this is something I'm going to do from now on, as long as I'm in the format of presenting. Non pitch presentation where the call to action is a resource for them, that I really like to add this bonus q and a time, as a strategy.
Dustin: So hopefully that's really helpful for you as a speaker. And then the last two, they'll be quicker, but the last two. Strategies to maximize the ROI at your next event don't require you to be a speaker at all. So [00:14:00] the second one is create a networking moment or create a connection event, however you might wanna say that, right in.
Dustin: 2020 five's version of Pod Fest. I did this and I did this very intentionally, but very casually. And so the way this works is you just want to have a time for people to hang out and you want to be in the seat of invitation to that. And again, I'm an introvert. I'm not going around to a bunch of people and shaking their hand and saying, oh, come to my happy hour.
Dustin: it's not like that at all. And in fact, I didn't host anything in this case, officially it didn't cost me. Anything in, in last year's version, I have this year's version, which I'll talk about next, but last year what I did was I had, I was there and I think we had like three or four clients there, just attending the conference.
Dustin: And I said, Hey, you know what, when you meet someone today that you think is super cool and like you, you would like a reason to like continue the conversation, invite, just tell them to meet us on the patio outside the bar. Here at the hotel at five [00:15:00] 30 or, kind of the end, whatever the end of the programming is.
Dustin: let's meet like around this one table outside and, That's it, right? So, throughout the day I was inviting people that I'd meet, or people that I kind of knew from online, right? I'd see a speaker and if I had an opportunity to have a conversation, very low lift, ask, Hey, like, man, I'd love to keep talking.
Dustin: I'm actually organizing a little casual happy hour tonight. Just meet us out on a patio, right outside the bar here. it'll be me and several other people, and we're just inviting people that we think are super cool. I'd love to have you come. Right? So it's a very warm invitation. There's not like tickets or I'm not, I didn't buy any drinks.
Dustin: Like I, it was nothing except me to this location. And it wasn't just me doing it because now I had other people ask, and then as someone said, yes. I will definitely come. I'd love to talk more to you and meet some of the people, that you know here. I said, great, why don't you bring a friend? So, either someone you already [00:16:00] have here that you know, or if you meet someone today, feel free to bring 'em.
Dustin: Like, we're looking to have, a good number of people there. And so we did that and, I think we had about 20, 25 people show up to this happy hour, and I was in a really interesting position as the curator of this group and the person that quote unquote, created the event. even though there wasn't actually an event, it was just an invitation to come at a certain time.
Dustin: And we ended up in that case Naturally forming this circle. and I kind of facilitated a little bit and say, Hey, like everyone, like let's take turns. Tell us a little bit, tell us one line about where you're from and about your business, right? it was awesome. And those people met a bunch of people.
Dustin: I made some great connections. And so that's just an example though of like, just create the moment, right? Like, and it doesn't have to be something that big. It could be a coffee, but the whole power here is in the, intentionality of. The event and the invitation. And when you're the inviter, the invitee feels very valued and they're very likely to show up, and they're very likely to ascribe any [00:17:00] value they got from being there to you.
Dustin: Right? So there's people that are there that I didn't even talk to, before they got there, and by the end of the thing they're like, I'm so grateful that you, organized this. I met someone here that I think could be a great partner or a great client. Awesome, right? So that's a super simple thing you can do again.
Dustin: Understand if you're an introvert, you don't have to stand in the center of a circle or anything like that. You're just like creating a space for people. And the third one, which, I would say is the more you know, the more, a direct monetization strategy is create an actual event that's adjacent to the conference.
Dustin: Right. So in other words,
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Dustin: if you're at a conference for two days, create an event that happens the day before, or the day after, right? It could be during the event. It could be like an evening mastermind dinner or something like that. But generally people are really busy during the event. and so this can take a lot of forms and fashions.
Dustin: at the most recent podcast, I actually partnered with, two amazing women, Danielle Weil [00:18:00] and, Tiffany Newman. And we decided to sponsor a happy hour. so this was actually the, technically it was the first night of the conference, but sort of like when everyone's arriving, we just rented a room.
Dustin: And,we generally had to pay for the room. We just had a food and beverage minimum, so we just got a room in the hotel and we told all of our clients and friends that we knew were gonna be there. Come. I created a simple Google calendar and we just added people as they said they wanted to come. And then, in that case we did chip in some money.
Dustin: I think I spent like $500. and we covered some appetizers and it was a cash bar. But, basically we covered people's food and they had their own drinks and we had a space for them. And it was awesome, right? It didn't cost anyone anything to come. So each of us put in our, our money, split it up.
Dustin: It was a way for us to deepen relationships with our clients, have a quiet space for us to meet, with them, but also then obviously to cross pollinate the audiences. Let people know each other. people brought,other cool people and so we had new, a lot of the speakers were [00:19:00] in the room with us 'cause we had invited them.
Dustin: It was really cool. So. Not really high cost in that case. and that was this version of the event. I've been invited, last year before crafting Commerce. The night before the event, I got invited to a private dinner. It was literally like a dinner at a table at a restaurant. I think there were 10 people there.
Dustin: and I was not the organizer I was. Showed up as a invitee. but I got to hang out with all the speakers and then we were able to socialize after that. That was super special to me. And I don't even remember if they picked up the dinner tab. It didn't matter. Right. but that a very simple thing to create an experience.
Dustin: And then sort of the ultimate version of this, which I have done, although not for a paid ticket, is to actually create a separate event that is
adjoining the conference or the, the main event. So we did this, pod Fest 2020. Four. it was actually the first time our seven figure leap mastermind met in person.
Dustin: And then now we do retreats. It's a little more of a to-do, but back then it was like, Hey, let's just [00:20:00] like all come the day before the conference. I'll create. Cool mastermind dinner and we will, basically pick up the tab and we'll have a really cool group dinner at a steakhouse. And that was awesome, right?
Dustin: So, in our case, part of the membership of the Mastermind it includes two of these live experiences. So they didn't pay to be there and I picked up the tab, but that's, part of our model. but many people. Host something like, a pre day workshop or pre-conference workshop day, I should say, or a mastermind dinner or a content creation session.
Dustin: something like that, depending on what your service is. And you do charge tickets, right? And people like to do those sort of things because, hey, I'm already gotta travel. I'm already gonna be leaving my family. It's one more, I'll just come in the day before and then I can, it does multiple things.
Dustin: They do the thing that the event promises, but they also start to meet. Really great people that now they have, a tribe to kind of hang out with throughout the conference. And I feel like that's a really powerful thing that you can do for people. So to summarize, strategy [00:21:00] one is to maximize the relationship capital that you create when you speak.
Dustin: Number two is even speaking or not speaking, create an event within the, the mastery event that can be very casual, doesn't have to cost you anything. And it's basically the idea of. Inviting people to the Cool Kids Club and telling them where to meet at a certain time, and you'll create a ton of goodwill and meet a lot of great new people that way.
Dustin: And then third is, more of a formal event where often ticketed you can create an event, you're gonna be there anyway, and you just create an experience and sell tickets to it. Or like, in my case, just make it a value add to your clients and create it. Pick up the tab,as a way to really deepen that relationship and allow.
Dustin: People to meet each other. And I, my big takeaway on all three of these is the whole, game here. the whole goal here when you attend an event is how can I create better, high quality relationships at this event, both with people I
haven't met yet and with people I [00:22:00] already know. and I've given you three really simple, but Sustainable and, comfortable ways to do this even if you're an introvert. and whether you're speaking or not, these are definitely at your disposal. So my encouragement here is look at the next event that you have on your calendar that you're attending, and. Pick one of these three strategies and go do it.
Dustin: Right? And if you end up with four people at a happy hour, it's way better than had you not done that, right? You could maybe make money with this, with a third strategy. And if you're speaking, I believe, and I've experienced, you could easily double the number of people who opt in to your lead magnet from the stage by giving the different modalities, of value propositions for doing that.
Dustin: And very importantly, you now have. A captive interested audience that you should not leave hanging, that you should invite to the next thing, which in my case is like a private q and a session, which creates, the next step in the buying cycle as well. So, I'm Dustin Reman. This is Seven Figure Leap.
Dustin: really grateful for your time [00:23:00] and attention. Hope these strategies are useful to you and can't wait to hear your feedback on how they work for your next live event. If you wanna come over, learn more about what we do. And be part of our community where we're always sharing strategies on how to build our business through richer, deeper, more quality relationships.
Dustin: just go to seven figure leap.com and if you want to have a call with us, you'll see a big orange button there on the homepage to talk about our main program and, how we help solopreneurs scale their business through relationships.