0:00 Discussing upcoming third event
Hayley Luckadoo
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Hayley L
Hayley L
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Hayley Luckadoo
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Julie
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Full transcript
Julie
Hey, there. Welcome back to the Virtual Summit show. I'm excited today. I have my beautiful and good biz bestie Hayley. What could do? Hi, Haley. Hi.
Hayley Luckadoo
Thank you for having me on. I'm excited.
Julie
I'm excited, too. We haven't, like, been, like, face to face in a while.
Hayley Luckadoo
It's been a minute, right?
Julie
It's been a minute. Because I think, like, I know you were on once or twice on the summit, and I know you've been on the podcast before and I've been on your summit and like, so. And. And we've done all the.
Hayley Luckadoo
All the collaborating.
Julie
I know, I know. And so, like, we've been in each other's world for a bit and actually, like, it was just so really cool. I still remember, like, finding your summit and I was like, it was like a goal to be on your virtual summit. You've been hosting your summit for how long now?
Hayley Luckadoo
Oh, gosh. We just ran our seventh round.
Julie
There you go. Seventh. So I remember finding Females on Fire, and I'm like, I'm going to be on that summit one day now. It's like an automatic in. Right.
Hayley Luckadoo
You make us sound so, like, big and famous. I love it.
Julie
No, but it was to me at the time.
Hayley Luckadoo
So much. I look at you now. I mean, you've been a part of it numerous times, and I think this
Julie
is a third time now. I think.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, yeah.
Julie
So before we dive in and we could just keep on going, but for you to take a moment to introduce yourself to our listeners.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, absolutely. For those of you who don't know me, hello, my name is Haley Luckadoo. I got started in business in a really weird way. I'm not a corporate dropout. I'm a college dropout and ended up starting as a wedding planner. And there's a whole crazy story there that I'll say for another day. But I got really lonely after I closed down my wedding planning company and I started, you know, a little podcast.
I didn't even really know it was like a podcast at the time.
I was like, eh, if two people listen, great. And it was called Females on Fire. And that was back in August of 2018. And it took off and it did really cool things. And now that's what I do. I run Females on Fire. It's a media and events company that helps women bridge the gap between business growth and personal growth. So we've got a really amazing community.
We're still doing the podcast today. We do the virtual summits all the Time. We have an in person conference now. All kinds of like, programs, courses, resources just to help women grow their businesses and really, you know, step into that very happy, fulfilled version of themselves. And over the years I've started speaking and that's where my passion really lies. I love getting up on a stage. I'm, I'm your hype girl speaker.
And then just recently launched the Blaze Agency, which is a personal branding agency for female founders.
So we're helping them just step into the limelight, you know, get, get the, the spotlight that they deserve and really grow their personal brand and get visibility opportunities. So I get to do a lot of cool things. Basically sums it up.
Julie
Don't leave your eggs all in the same basket, right, Haley? Never. Okay, so I love that and I'm like, this is so cool because this is going to be your third in person event. And I'm like, you know, we're starting from the back of the podcast episode. We're going to talk about that first because it's, it's coming up. Give us the dates, tell us like who it's for, what it's about, and then I'm going to drop that link in the show notes for anybody who's interested.
And if you're listening to this episode and it's past that time, I'm sure you're going to do it again next year. Yeah. So, so just keep, keep in mind that, you know, if you miss this one, you can, you can absolutely attend the next one.
So give us the deets on that, Haley.
3:41 Females on Fire 2023 conference
Hayley Luckadoo
Heck yeah. So it is the Females on Fire conference. And this year it is June 16th through the 18th in Charlotte, North Carolina, here in the states. Charlotte's actually my hometown, so I'm really excited to like, bring it back to my hometown. We bounce around every year to a different city and I'm so excited to bring it home, which is actually our theme this year. So it's two days of business, of personal growth, of just really getting in community with each other.
We put a very, very big emphasis on you getting to know the other women in the room and not just in a like, pass me your business card networking kind of way, but in a you're going to leave with real relationships and friendships that are going to cheer you on kind of way. And so this year it's all about coming home to yourself.
Who are you really? Who do you want to be? Why did you start this business to begin with? Getting back to the basics, getting back to the roots, which I know you love, because I know you've got a summit coming up that's all about getting back to the basics. And so it's going to be a really good time. So. FemalesOnFire Co conference. You can grab your tickets, come join us. But we'll definitely. We'll do more live events again too, if you miss it.
So, yeah, check it out.
Julie
Awesome. And that brings us to our topic of this conversation today, which is your online summit. Because we post those annually too. Like, how do you do all the things? Haley? I can.
Hayley Luckadoo
Caffeine. Caffeine.
Julie
I love it. I love it. Okay, cool. So let's talk about. Okay, we know. We already know you've been doing summits for. This was the seventh. Yeah, but this time you changed things a little bit.
So tell us about what it was. Like, it was a series. Tell us about that. But, like, what did you decide to do it this way?
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah. So when we first started these, I. I had no clue what I was doing. As is the story of every entrepreneur that launched something. Right. I really, I had kind of heard about people doing, you know, online summits, and I always wanted to run an event. I foresaw us running an in person conference many, many, many years ago. And I just knew we weren't quite ready yet.
I wasn't quite there yet. I knew it would be a big financial investment and, you know, all the things. And so I really decided, like, hey, I think there's something to this whole virtual summit thing. I should try it. Maybe it'll kind of like scratch that, itch for me a little bit until we can do an in person. And I did it so on a whim. Julie, I think. I think I've told you this story before.
It was so on a whim. I think it was like the middle end of June, and I was like, we're gonna run it on August 12, because that's females on Fire's birthday and it's gonna be four days and it's gonna be all these speakers. And I basically just went to all of my friends that ran businesses and was like, will you help me out and like, record a presentation for this? And most of them said yes. Several of them were like, oh, hey, do you want, like, sponsors?
I'm looking to sponsor. And I was like, heck, yeah, let's do that. And so it really just all came together so quickly. And we got 810 women the very first time just right out of the gate. And I thought, you know, there's something to that.
We did something right. I want to try it Again, Summer.
7:08 Planning a second virtual summit
Julie
Yeah.
Hayley Luckadoo
And so I decided, you know what, I'm going to do this again in six months. We're going to run it in February, I'm going to get all new speakers and we're going to try it again. And it worked again. And I've just really fell in love with doing it. And I think something that really kind of set us apart at the time was I really looked at it as, how do we make this feel like it's not virtual?
And so we had, you know, live networking calls, we had live panels, we had a chat box where the attendees could interact with each other. And all of those things are, you know, you see those a lot at summits now. At the time that wasn't really the case so much. And so I just, I feel like that was something kind of a little bit special.
Not that no one else was doing it, but it was a little bit special and it made people feel more connected and it really helped our summit take off. And over the years, you know, that's been great. I've loved it, it's been a lot of fun. But the one thing that we just kept hearing every single round was I loved it. I got so much out of it. But it's so hard to dedicate four days, all day long, back to back to make sure I don't miss anything.
And it's really hard to like implement what I'm learning on day one because I'm, I'm so in it on day two, three and four.
Julie
Yeah.
Hayley Luckadoo
And so, you know, I started to ask myself a couple rounds ago, like, how do we fix that? You know, like, how do we still do all the speakers and all the sessions and bring them all the value and all the things, but solve that problem at the same time. And so this was something I actually wanted to do two rounds ago and just couldn't like really put it together in time.
And so we just did a summit series. So we took our four days and we just spread them out over like a month and a half. Um, so the, it was these individual little one day mini summits. So it was way less of a commitment. You could sign up for one or two or you could sign up for all four. And they were really hyper themed, very hyper focused.
We really drilled down on like, how do we get just like the best of the best people, people for, you know, this particular area of focus and, and really just drill that down. And we still had, you know, the networking call at each one. We had like, you know, a little live event Thing at the end of the day, you know, get. Did some, like, free audits, like, all kinds of stuff to really give value.
But it gave them so much time in between summits to actually implement what they learned and not feel, you know, so overwhelmed by it. So it was an interesting little experiment that I'm glad we got to do.
Julie
So, essentially, you took your summit, which had daily themes, and you spread it over. What was it like at one every two weeks? Is that how you laid it out?
Hayley Luckadoo
It basically ended up being, like, every 10 days. So you had, like, a week and a half between them. Yeah.
Julie
Okay, cool. And it was great, I think, for speakers, because, like, it was. It kind of felt like, I don't know, like, cool, exclusive.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah.
Julie
You had your own little mini. Some. I don't know, like, it was cool. Like, I liked it.
Hayley Luckadoo
That's good to hear from a speaker perspective. I love that. It. It definitely, you know, I. I've had a little bit of time to like, sit with it now and reflect on it and look at the stats and look at, you know, people's comments and things. And I think there's definitely some, like, good parts of it. Some things that I'm like, ah, yeah, like, how do we recreate that next time? And then there's just also some things where I'm like, I don't know how I feel about that.
You know, so it's.
It was very. Like I said, it was a very unique experiment for us that I'm glad we got to do. There's highs and lows, right?
Julie
Yeah, let's talk about some of that. So first of all, how. How many speakers did you end up going with? Like, how did you decide how many speakers you were going to have on each given? Like.
Hayley Luckadoo
No, that's a good question. I feel like this is not a great answer, but I really. In my head, I was like, okay, we can't have more than 10, and we can't have less than six, because that'll be weird. So I was like, somewhere between six and 10, I'm like, that. You know, the summit's like, two hours long. That's the whole thing. Um, so I was like, somewhere between 6 and 10, but I'm not gonna.
I'm not gonna stress over the number.
Um, and so I think the first one, I think we had, like, nine or ten. And then the second little one, we had six. The third one, I think we had eight. And then the last one, I think we had, like, six or seven. So it was a little uneven. And I was perfectly fine with that because it mattered more to me that we had speakers that I knew could really bring value in such a short amount of time, because I didn't want people sitting there for 45 minutes to an hour.
So I was like, oh, these presentations are going to be like 20, 25 minutes.
12:11 Building influence and personal branding
Like, they're short.
How can you give one really strong piece of value in that time? And so that was really what was important to me was do we feel like with whatever theme we had. So, like, for example, you know, you spoke at our Influence Sign Summit, and that was all about building up your influence, building up your visibility. Like, really talking a lot about, you know, personal branding, running summits, getting on stages, like, things like that.
And so it was really just a question of are we getting people that are going to bring really good value? Because that's all we really care about. And do we feel like there's a gap missing in the conversation, missing in the theme? And so whether that was six people or 10, I didn't really care. I was just kind of like, let's make sure we're. We're filling the gaps with value.
Julie
Yeah, I love that. And I love that about your summits, because it's like 20, 25 minutes, which is such a good time, you know, because also there's so many summits now. Like, we have to be super conscious of the summits we sign up for. And if you're listening to this, definitely sign up for Haley's summits and mine because.
Because that's what we focus on. We focus on them more, be more teachable, more actionable, versus the fluff kind of piece about it. Like, there's nothing like listening for a half hour, 45 minutes, and it's just a bunch of, like, stuff, you know, like. But not giving you option.
Right. Like, I think that's what sets us apart now from all of the summits that are happening, is having something like, it's not necessarily the quantity, it's the quality. And doing that, doing a really good job at doing that is what's going to get people to come back to you and, and rave about you, rave about your summit and the speakers, but also as a speaker, being part of an event like this, it's so good because it's.
It also helps us gain that credibility and hone in on our expertise. And also, like, what a great way of, like, I call. I call them my micro workshops. That's kind of what. Yeah, it's not a summit talk anymore.
It's a Micro workshop. That's what you want it to be because that's how you're going to get people to gain trust in you, right?
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I still. And you know this. When you're, when you're an event host, you kind of tote this line between, okay, I have amazing people that I love working with. I know they bring a lot of value, but my audience has also seen them eight times already. So it's like. And if they're talking about the same topic every time, it's like, okay, now I need new people.
14:53 Selecting and trusting new speakers
And.
But then finding new people can be risky because are they going to bring value? Are they going to, you know, do what they need to do as a speaker to. To really, you know, be involved and bring that value. And so you kind of walk that line a little bit. And so I feel like this time we got a really good mix of some of your favorite people from the past years, but talking about maybe topics you haven't heard them talk about yet, but then also a lot of new faces.
But those new faces weren't new to me. Those are people I've been building relationships with for a year or two or three. And I knew they were going to show up. And so I think it's just like, it's one of those things where there's so many logistic pieces you can think about.
And for me, it's always just coming back to the value part of it. And are people going to watch this and it be worth their time? Because nothing makes me angrier than signing up for something and wasting an hour, two hours, watching it.
Julie
What were they even talking about?
Hayley Luckadoo
Like, you're not. You're not going to get a sales pitch at our summit. You're just not, like, I make it very clear. And you, you're the same way with your speakers. Like, you're not gonna teach, you know, for an hour and then try to sell people into your program. This is not a webinar. If you want to do that, do it on your own time. The whole point here is to bring value.
And yeah, hopefully those people get into your world and learn about what you do and follow you and all those things. But the whole point at the end of the day is that value, it's so value.
Julie
And the thing is, is that it's also getting, like, building your authority and your expertise and just getting in front of people on the stage so people get to know who you are and trust you. Right? And if you do a really good job, they're going to sign up for your freebie, which you want them to do. But I love what you were saying before, where you're kind of, like, very selective of who you choose, and you try to make sure to do a mix of, like, you know, the people who, you know, can bring it and maybe like.
Like me. I mean, you know, I'm a. I'm a summit girl.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah.
Julie
But I can talk about different things. Right. Like, I've made it. So. Okay. I know what I did last year. So let's switch it this time and talk about something different or whatever. But it's funny because I'm like, I want to be at your.
I want to be a speaker at your conference, Haley. And Haley's like, yeah, but it doesn't really fit with the theme. I'm like, okay, okay, I get it.
Hayley Luckadoo
I mean. And some of my favorite people that we've had in our summits were not a part of it this time. And it's. It's not because I'm bored with their topic. It's not because they're not amazing. It's literally just. Okay. It just.
It didn't fit this time around.
Julie
Yeah.
Hayley Luckadoo
So.
Julie
But. And it's. That's the thing, right? It's not personal.
Hayley Luckadoo
No. It's never personal.
Julie
It's never personal. And so. And so it's really important to remember that if you don't get selected to be a speaker at certain things, it's not. It's not because you. There's anything wrong with you or bad with you or your. Your topic. It's just because it might not be the right fit for the event itself. And so that's something to keep in mind.
Right. When we get the help.
Hayley Luckadoo
And you never know, like, that person is gonna. You. You never know when they're going to call on you in the future, you know?
Julie
Exactly.
Hayley Luckadoo
So I. Yeah. You just. You can't take it personally.
Julie
Exactly. But going back to the whole training at the summits, like being a speaker and doing a good job at bringing in the. The action and just bringing value. That's how people remember you. You don't have to sell them anything.
Hayley Luckadoo
100.
Julie
Because you're selling yourself already by bringing value to them.
18:35 Being selective with collaborators
Right.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah. And I mean, that's. That's why we're so picky. And I mean, you know, I've said this before, and I've gotten a little bit of heat for it because of the way that I phrased it, but we have a blacklist, and I'm not afraid to say that, like, we, you know, you do this long enough, you're bound to collaborate with some people that you probably shouldn't have chosen for one reason or another, whether it's just they were too salesy or just didn't do what they needed to do or, you know, whatever.
And I keep track of that. We have a blacklist and they're, you know, I'm not naming any names. I'll never name names, but I have friends on that blacklist. Like, I love them as people, I support them as entrepreneurs.
You know, I'll, I'll recommend them for their thing that I know they're really good at, but they'll, they'll never speak at my summit again. And it, that's just how it is. You have, you have to really focus on the integrity of why you're doing this and who you're doing it for. And we're doing this for our people. And if you can't show up, you know, as the speaker that you need to be and give value to our people, then there's no point in you showing up at all.
Julie
Yeah, no, I got the list too.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, I think we all do. We're just not talking about it.
Julie
We all do. And unfortunately, sometimes the list changes because one time as you know something, someone does a really good job and then the next time they shit to bed and it's kind of like, what? Anyways, but the thing is, is that you're listening to this and you want to be a speaker at summits. Be a good participant. Like, participate, invest. First of all, don't sign up for too many, but invest in the event.
Participate. Go. Go.
Like, Haley, I know you host your events on hey Summit and there's an opportunity for the speakers to be part of the chat box while you, while you do the, While you.
At the time that the presentation goes live. And like, participate in those things. Be present in the conversation, go in the groups. Like, it's so important. Plus, it's a win. Freaking win. Like, you know, by you showing up, people remember you.
They get to know you. They're like, oh, yeah, I talked to, I talked to her in the chat, or whatever. But, like, that's how people remember you. And don't be, don't be that person who doesn't show up and doesn't promote. And you know, we just. There's a lot of work that goes into hosting an event like this and we. It's a team effort. It truly is.
Hayley Luckadoo
Like, it really is.
Julie
It doesn't cost you anything to participate. In these events, for the most part, I know some you can pay, but for the most part, they're free. All you have to do is promote a little bit. Okay, yes, you have to, you know, supply a training or whatever, but, like, it's really like, it, it helps you get that visibility that you. That we also crave in our businesses and to be known out there in the world.
Right? So. But that could be like a.
21:41 Handling speaker rejections gracefully
Yeah.
Hayley Luckadoo
And that's why I'm just like, you know, I. I know people get busy. You know, they're like, I'm trying to keep my calendar open to promote my own stuff. So I'm just kind of like, I don't take it personally if I ask you to be a speaker and you're like, hey, I. I just can't right now, or I'm not doing summits right now, or I'm not. I don't take that personally. So, you know, I asked for that back.
It's like, if, if it's not a fit this time, like, give me the grace of knowing that it's because of the integrity of my event.
And, you know, like, even with the. The blacklist, right. It's like, I know life happens, so it's not just going to be like, oh, you signed up. You did a really great job with your session. You brought a lot of value. But then you couldn't show up in the chat box or you didn't promote it as much as I would have wished that you would. Right. That's not going to get you on the blacklist.
Getting on the blacklist takes like, it's three days before the summit, and I still don't have your presentation. And I've emailed you seven times. You know what I mean? Like, it takes a lot. So, like, just show up. Like, just, you know, these are such great opportunities for collaborations. And so many of my speakers have gone on to collaborate with other speakers that were at the summit. And I'm like, that's so cool that you connected from our event.
And so I think a lot of people look at it like, oh, you know, these are like free summits.
I'm. I'm being asked to promote so much. I'm giving the value now. I'm promoting, like, yeah, I get a few people on my email list, but what am I really getting out of it? And it's like, if you don't see the opportunities, then you're missing the entire point. And maybe being a speaker at summits just isn't for you. And that's Fine. But there's so many more opportunities beyond just, oh, I'm getting, you know, the attendees to grab my freebie and get on my email list.
Right.
There's so many potential collaborations that you could have happened just from showing up and participating.
Julie
Yeah. And it's so much more than that. But you're right. Like, the whole blacklist thing and. And also, like, just being honest. Like, you. You know, like, it. Stuff happened, and you weren't able to promote, like, you.
Hayley Luckadoo
Life happens.
Julie
Honest with the host that you get brownie points from being honest.
Hayley Luckadoo
100%. Yeah.
Julie
But going back to the. Oh, you said something. And I'm like, totally having a brain fart right now.
Hayley Luckadoo
Oh, no.
Julie
Don't you just love that? You're like, I thought I talked for. I'm like, oh, no. What was I gonna say? Whatever. Oh, and of course, the dogs. Here we go.
Hayley Luckadoo
You know, it'll come to you, like, 30 minutes from now.
Julie
Be able to cut that out.
Hayley Luckadoo
You're good.
Julie
I'm like, I got them blocked into, like, so they don't go bark at the back door.
Hayley Luckadoo
Life is life thing.
Julie
No, life. Life thing. I'm like, they sleep all day. Can't they just sleep for this?
Hayley Luckadoo
No. It's got to be the most inconvenient time possible.
Julie
Right? Like, and sometimes you just want to lose your. On them.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yep. That's. We. That's how I feel. We have construction going on. Oh, back that way. It'll be silent until I get on an interview, and all of a sudden, there's beeping and all this stuff, and I'm like, seriously?
Julie
Seriously. Oh, okay. Cool. Okay, Haley, let's talk about the. The. The vibes of. Like, you said that you got a lot of comments from the attendees and the speakers, and, like, so what were the. What was the feedback on the.
This, like, series that you need to host? First of all, I've never seen that before. Was that, like, did you, like, come up with the idea of the series? I've never. I'm trying to think now. I've never. I.
Hayley Luckadoo
I don't know if I don't want to, like, take credit where it's not due. I haven't seen a summit series. No. But I got the idea from a friend of mine does, like, a workshop series, and so she hosts a workshop every month, and I. I kind of took that idea because she'll go promote it to her email list and get people to sign up, and then she sells the replay after the fact.
And it's very genius model for her, you know, very similar to like a webinar model. And so I, I just kind of took that idea and applied it to our summit. So I've never seen a summit series before, but not saying it's not out there, that's kind of how I got the idea.
26:25 Event feedback and reflections
But feedback was overall really good. We obviously had some, some, you know, feedback where people are like, I don't know how much I love this. You know what I mean? And that's kind of where I'm at too. I'm just kind of like thinking through everything, looking through, you know, now that it's over and we've sat down and we've kind of filled in all our stats and looked at like, how did this really do on paper?
You know, it's kind of like, I think people really loved it. I think attendees loved it. I think especially attendees who joined like right from the jump and got to be a part of like all four of them, for example, really enjoyed it. We obviously, you know, you have those people that they didn't hear about it until the third one and they're like, oh, now I'm really bummed that I missed the first one and the second one.
And so, you know, it's, it's hit or miss, I think.
But I do think we got a lot of feedback of people saying that they felt really good about having time to implement what they were learning and not feeling super overwhelmed and still feeling like we had all those kind of connective pieces that we normally have. So that's obviously great feedback. But then we kind of watched, you know, some people drop off from the first one and you kind of start to wonder like, would they have dropped off if these days were in a row and they were just kind of doing all this in a week.
So again, it's like, there's, there's good and bad, right? There's always going to be good and bad.
Julie
Yeah, I get it, I get it. That makes sense now. So let's talk about data then. Like, since you brought it up, like, yeah, I'm a data nerd. I love data.
Hayley Luckadoo
You know me.
Julie
So like, in terms of, like, because it was, technically it was a four day summit, but you just extended it over a period of time. And so did you find that in terms of. And I know now comparing year to year also has, is, it's because every year is different, right? Like, you can do the exact same thing as last year. The numbers will be different because 2026 is different than 2025 is different than 2023.
Like 20, 23 people signed up for summits, like center. Right. But like this year, talk about like the, you know, the number of signups, you know, the number of speakers. I think you probably had close to 40.
Right? Like is.
Hayley Luckadoo
I think we only had like 20 something when it was all said and done across the whole four days.
Julie
Okay, so like 30.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, I think it, I, I think it was like just under 30. Yeah.
Julie
Right, right. Okay. Because you had like the six and then the nine and then. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so, so in terms of like sign ups for the event and then. I know you guys aren't seeing this, but Coco was decided to join us for the interview.
Hayley Luckadoo
I'm very distracted now by the dog. I, I just want to play my
Julie
seven pound Shih Tzu. Don't let the looks deceive you. But in terms of like numbers and like, you know, VIP ticket sales and passes and stuff like that, like did you see a significant difference? Like did you like first of all, like your event was live on a day, how long did you leave it up for? 24 hours or 48.
29:53 Hosting an all-day virtual summit
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, so we kept a lot of those like logistic pieces the same. So our typical summits would kick off at like, you know, 10 in the morning my time. And it'd just be back to, back to back to back to back sessions all day long.
Somewhere in the middle of that we would host like a live panel and we'd take like an hour and a half break to host that live panel and then we'd go back to sessions and it would go until 5ish my time. So it was really an all day event. And then we would leave the replays up, the free replays, for 24 hours. We'd sell a pass. So if you couldn't catch it in 24 hours, you go grab the pass.
Right. We, we did all those kind of same elements. So we kicked off at like 11am my time. We kicked every single one of them off with a live networking event. So that was an hour long. So then session started at noon. Sometimes we rolled right through sessions. A couple times we stopped in the middle of the day to do like Instagram bio audits or like just something to kind of add some more value to the day if I felt like that was needed.
And then everything usually wrapped up around like 4, 4:30. And we would have some sort of live event where like a sponsor was doing audits or we did a special interview with a sponsor or something like that, kept the replays up for 24 hours. Still still sold the pass. But if we're digging into data, it. It was actually really interesting. So this was our smallest registration that we've ever had across seven.
Like. Like adding all four summits together, obviously factoring out that, like, people signed up for three, two or three or all four.
I'm just talking about individuals. It was the lowest registration we've ever had, but it was not the lowest conversion rate. Conversion rate for our passes.
31:55 Analyzing audience engagement data
Julie
Right.
Hayley Luckadoo
It was not the lowest engagement rate for people actually watching live, and it was not the lowest, like, revenue and profit that we've ever had. So it was really interesting seeing that data because it's, like, way less people signed up than we're used to, like a significant amount less. But our conversion rate was still where we normally would like to see it. Our revenue was still not the lowest we've ever seen and people were still engaging.
So it was really, really interesting to see the stats when we actually put it all down on paper.
Julie
So you're actually. Your conversion rates for your VIP passes was higher.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, yeah.
Julie
Which is not a bad thing. That means you were bringing in the right people.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah. It wasn't the highest we've ever seen it, but it was. No, it was absolutely not.
Julie
If you were talking conversion, it could also be because it's 20, 26 and people are more conscious of signing up for stuff. You also has your summit in March, which normally you do February, and so this could have impacted it as well, because there's absolutely a summit every.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah.
Julie
And every minute.
Hayley Luckadoo
There's so many things. Right. That it could have been. It's so interesting when you, like, see it on paper and you start to think, like, oh, what do you, like, what do you think caused it? And it's like, there's so many things.
Julie
I know, but so many variables.
Hayley Luckadoo
I mean. But you also think about, you know, last year we had over 80 sessions. We had over 80 speakers. And that's eight. That's hopefully 80. It's never actually 80. It's probably closer, like 60, but that's. That's dozens and dozens of people going out promoting to their audiences.
Their audiences are now coming in. We had so many less speakers this time, and we did have some speakers that weren't able to promote because life happens. And so that. I mean, you can't ignore the fact that that definitely probably fed into it.
I do think people are more conscious about what they sign up for. There's also just the kind of like, because we did it with the series, the way we did, I'm not actually sure that we promoted it as much as we normally do, because normally it's our whole focus for three weeks straight. We're not talking about anything else. And because it was spread out over a month and a half now, we were talking about other things on the, you know, the.
In between weeks. And so that could have had a lot to do with it, too. So there's a lot of factors that go into it, unfortunately.
So.
Julie
Okay, so. So that's good. Like, I think, like, the variables makes it almost not impossible, but, like, looking at the data, you can make some decisions on whether or not, like, definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But. But I remember when I asked you, like, you know, I sent you a dm and I'm like, haley, like, oh, my God, like, how's it going? This is so cool. And you're like, you know, I'm like, well, had to be on for, like, six weeks pretty much, right?
Talk to us about that.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, I did not like that. I. I did not care for that at all. That's actually, to me, that's the biggest downside, the lower registration numbers. I'm like, you could chalk that up to a lot of things. We still got a great conversion rate. We made great money off of it. We got a great engagement rate.
Like, we track all that stuff and all that looks good. I can deal with that. The thing that really, to me was the biggest downside to the whole thing was feeling like it never ended.
It just. It really made me show up differently and in a way that I don't love, because, you know me, I'm very like, I'm going to show up. I'm going to have all. All the energy. We're going all in.
I'm so in it. I'm so ready. I'm so hyped. And I brought that energy to the first one. But everyone after that, I noticed it was just like, a little less and a little less and a little less. And for me, like, I'm somebody that can really pull energy out of nowhere.
But by that point, I was so frustrated and I was so ready for it to be over. And that's, you know, obviously I still showed up and.
36:28 Reflecting on event planning challenges
And put on the best thing that we could. Number one for our attendees, number two for our speakers and sponsors. But it just. When I think about, like, will we do this again?
I can safely say we will not do this again the way that we did it. Something that would drastically have to be different because it very much was like, okay, you Know, we, we wanted to come in and in like December and January and be talking to speakers and sponsors and getting everything squared away. And I had some personal life stuff that happened around the end of January that set us back a little bit.
So. See, that's another factor that could have had something to do with it, but basically I feel like I spent February rushing to pull it all together and promote it and like, you know, tweak all the things we had to tweak because this isn't our normal way of doing it.
And then we had the first one on, I think it was February 26th. And then it's like, okay, you know, I came in with all this energy on the day and then it's over and I'm like, okay, cool. I'm not as tired as I normally am. I didn't stay up all night the night before, like working on last minute things the way I normally do, like, that's all great. But then the next week and a half, I'm like trying to deal with clients, I'm trying to, you know, deal with contracts.
I'm trying to. We're doing all these other things that have nothing to do with the summit. But then I'm mentally like, oh, we still have to promote the summit coming up.
We still have to put the speakers out there, we still have to do this, we still have to do that. And a week and a half goes by really fast.
Julie
I know. Plus you're like planning and preparing for your.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, blip. You know, blink of an eye and it's gone. And so all of a sudden then we're at the next one and I'm like, okay, okay, I, you know, we gotta, I gotta show up with this energy. We gotta, we need more people signed up. We need this, we need that. And then rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat two more times. And so by the time we got to that last one, I was just like, wait a minute, how is it April already?
Like, it was February yesterday.
38:39 Balancing summit prep with other work
Julie
Yeah.
Hayley Luckadoo
And it made me feel behind on a lot of things that had nothing to do with the summit. And so it just from that regard, it did feel a little bit stressful. And so I think if it's, if that's something you're like considering doing, it really, it has to be your entire focus. And you have to know that it's going to be your entire focus for like two straight months at least.
And you've got to be kind of willing to not be promoting other things, working on other things during that time. And that might work really well for somebody. It didn't work well for me because we've got our in person event coming up in June and I'm traveling for speaking engagements and we're working with clients and we've got all of this other stuff going on. And so that part, you know, if I'm being honest, that part was really stressful.
Julie
It also feels like, it feels like, you know, when you're launching for like seven days by the kind of like, I can't imagine doing that for like every week or whatever. So, so that's a good point. And that's really good insight to think, like things to think about. If you're thinking of doing a series, maybe you do a series, but like, do it like two or three, not four. I don't know.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, and I mean you could totally, I mean you could do four and pull it off. Right? But you've got to go in, put them closer. Yeah, you go, put them closer. Or at the very least just go in eyes wide open to what you're committing to and be ready to commit to that. And like, in my head I'm like, would it have been different if the summit had been the only thing I was focusing on?
Yes, absolutely. But also, I'm not the type of person that for three months straight we're going to be focusing on one thing that's just not going to happen with everything that we do. And it's, it's not realistic for, for me and for our business. It might be realistic for somebody.
Yeah, I def, like, I 100% think you could have put them closer. You could have done less of them. I mean, there's so many ways you could, you could do it. Right. And we're playing with the idea of bringing the, the concept of a series to other parts of our business and, and doing that. But as far as the summit goes, I don't know, I'm like, I don't want to just go back to doing it the way that we were doing it because then you, you've got that problem again of, oh, I'm so overwhelmed.
Implement everything. I'm learning all that kind of stuff, but I don't know that I would do it this way again.
And so we're, that's what we're playing with is how do we kind of blend the options for next time or, you know, is there a next time? Because I'm, I'm also kind of like, summits are so popular now. And you know, as a, as a business owner, if you Want to stay in business, sometimes you have to look at the thing and go, is this right for us anymore? And so that's, that's something I'm questioning too.
And like, I mean, you run incredible summits, you're amazing at that. And you know, I can't ever see you giving up summits. But for me, I'm like, when we started this, there weren't summits everywhere. You couldn't just join one every week. And now you can. And that's not a bad thing.
It just means things have shifted. And that's not to say that summits aren't doing well and everybody should get out of summits. Like, I'm not saying that at all. They still do. Fantastic. But for us, is it still the right move? I don't know.
Julie
So is it still, does it still feel in alignment with you, your business, your values and all that stuff? And is it something like, do you want to pivot? Like, yeah, it could turn into also some like micro summits, for sure.
42:20 Deciding between workshops and summits
Hayley Luckadoo
I mean there's, there's so many options. And that's, that's really where I'm sitting right now is I know we want to do more things in person and so we're playing with that. And then we have our like Firestarter club membership and we do workshops in there every month. And so I, you know, I start to question, should we hype up those workshops a little more and push people to join the membership over trying to run a summit or, you know, but then it's like, I do love our summit and we get to collaborate with such cool people.
And so, you know, it's just, it's that age old thing of like, you've got to be willing to evolve regardless of what you're doing, summits or otherwise. Like, you've gotta be willing to evolve and you've gotta know, like, what's your purpose of doing something? Don't just do it because it's popular or you saw somebody else succeed with it. And so I'm very much at that trivial point where I'm like, is this still working?
It's working on paper, it's making money, it's got a great conversion rate. Like in terms of email list.
Yeah, in terms of a summit, we're doing well. But is it still the right move? Is it still the right place to put our time and our energy? And so that is, I don't have an answer to that yet. But that's something that we're, we're playing
Julie
with and we're considering something you're thinking about.
Hayley Luckadoo
Cool.
Julie
Well, I love that. This was like. It was such a good way to end our conversation. And, you know, it's funny because usually when I, you know, book a podcast interview, I'm like, what's your freebie?
And I know we've talked about your conference. Yeah, hold on. Oh, no, I haven't. Here. Okay.
The closest related. Okay. Then I'm like reading off the sheet. I'm like, haley, I'm pretty sure you had a freebie here, but it's.
Hayley Luckadoo
I put something.
Julie
I mean, it's related. It's our A to Z Community Builder blueprint. Yes. Which is. Sounds awesome. So I'll let you tell us what that's about and why people need to download it.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah, absolutely. So this is normally something that we sell, but happy to. To give it away for free for a minute for your people. But it's our A to Z Community Builder blueprint. So if you're trying to build a community, whether it's through summits, whether it's through a membership, whether it's just, you know, a Facebook group or, you know, whatever you're trying to do. Yeah. If you, if you're at school. School, yeah, let me download that.
44:44 Building a valuable online community
Whatever. Whatever you're trying to do, however you're trying to build a community, however you want it to look, this just walks you through, literally. A to Z. We have like every single letter in there, every step of things you need to consider for your community to be valuable, to be engaging, to have a great retention rate. So regardless of, you know, the platform that you're choosing to use or the logistics of how.
How you're choosing to build community, if you're trying to build one, it's a hundred percent a great resource for you to be able to make sure that you just got everything mapped out and you're not leaving anything to chance, and you're able to have that data to look back on and say, okay, you know, is this the right move? Are we headed the right direction? So it's a really great resource, so I wanted to offer that up for free.
Julie
I know, I love it because, like, it's all about community building now. Like, yeah, no. No matter what way you look at it, like business success equals. Equals community community building. And I think it's really important to, like, if you're not building some sort of community, like, that's probably a sign to start.
I think it's so important now. Like, people want community now. Like, oh, they crave it.
Hayley Luckadoo
People are craving Community and connection and, you know, more interaction and more interaction that doesn't feel like surface level networking. And so if you can be the person that brings people together like you absolutely should, because it's only going to help your business, it's only going to help your brand, it's only going to give you more opportunities. And then it, you know, it just feels so good to be connected to other people.
Julie
I love it. And you do this really well through your, your virtual summits and your in person events.
Hayley Luckadoo
Thank you. Thank you. That means a lot.
Julie
I've yet to come to. So it's.
Hayley Luckadoo
It'll happen, it'll happen, it'll happen.
Julie
And because you're not going anywhere anytime soon. So.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah.
Julie
And we're in the same time zones. Not, not to say that it could be in a different place in a different part of the. I'm guessing you're going to keep it in the US for now, but that's
Hayley Luckadoo
the plan for now. But you never know. You never know. We got a lot of friends in Canada and so you never know.
Julie
You never know. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Haley, for being an open book about your experience, your debrief, kind of about hosting a summit series. It's been really like, I don't know, like eye opening and because the idea of it sounds cool, but then when you actually break it down, it's kind of like, okay, let's take this into consideration. Right? Yeah.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah. You gotta, you gotta think things through. Right. Don't do, don't do it because it sounds cooler, it's popular. Make sure it's the right step for you. And I don't know, hopefully it gave some people some ideas.
47:38 Reflecting on past experiences
Julie
Yeah. Yeah. And that's it. Right? Like every experience has a purpose. And it's like, okay, let's, let's break it down and take, take from it what we, what we liked, what we want to do moving forward, or let's drop things and it's all about, you know, what was its purpose. And my friend says this to me all the time. Well, what was the purpose of that?
Hayley Luckadoo
Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Julie
Yeah. Thank you so much for being on the show again. It's been so great talking to you and catching up on all the things and it's always so great having you.
Hayley Luckadoo
Yeah. Thank you for having me.
Julie
You're welcome. Stop. Where's the stop button? Stop recording.
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