Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey, Gorgeous. This is episode number 305. You’re listening to Heart Sells! Podcast. I’m your host, Christine Schlonski. And it is. That’s right, another variety Friday. So my solo episode just for you where I answer your questions, where I share resources or where I just share what I have learned on my journey, so that you can thrive in your business. And you might know one or the other shortcut. And as this week was totally inspired by online summits with Liam Austin, I just want to dive into summits and how they have helped me to kick off my business, and why you should be considering having your own summit. And just to take the maybe overwhelming feeling around summits out of the equation right now, this does not mean that you have to create a summit with 20 speakers or 40 speakers or 80 speakers, it just means you get together a bunch of amazing speakers that you want to share on your own stage. And that can be maybe a one day summit or can be two days summit or three days summit. It does not need to be very overwhelming.

Christine Schlonski [1:18]
I also have seen summits that have only featured one guest a day, over a certain time period, maybe 10 days, 20 days, 30 days, whatever you feel is right for you and for your business. I think it’s really important that you inspire your listeners or your viewers and that you really come from that place of service. Because when they can take the next step, they will be also inspired to check you out to check your workout, and to understand in a better way, how you might be able to help them. So a summit is good from different points of view. First of all, obviously, the most important and obvious as you grow your email list. And I had to learn this kind of the hard way, I had to focus on growing my list when I started out because I didn’t start out with a list, right? So I was looking for people to come and join my list so that I would actually have an audience. On the other hand, I also noticed that by not being 100%, clear on who I wanted to invite, and who was serving my audience, or the audience of my soulmate clients, I had some people that were amazing speakers that really brought value to the summit, but our audiences were not aligned. So if you’re thinking about doing a summit, really think it through, who is your soulmate client? Who is the audience that you want to serve? So that when you invite speakers, you can make sure that you are serving the same audience.

Christine Schlonski [3:01]
So I, for example, discovered that, even though real estate agents, for example, might be inspired by my work, the likelihood that they actually say yes, working with me, is less than, for example, a coach, a consultant, a healer, a service-based business owner, because everything I deliver from the content, and also from their own pain points that they have by not being really clear on what they offer, by not having their offers and an irresistible offers in place. I’m more appealing to actually those service-based businesses, like coaches like consultants, like healers, or creatives who just love what they do. But when it comes to the sales piece, they’re not comfortable, or they even hate sales, or they’re totally self-sabotaging. So these are my people. And when I’m looking for creating a summit now I’m really conscious and mindful of who actually has the same audience. Because the more we bring to the table with our own audiences and combine them, the more impact we will have with a work that is tailored for that audience. Right.

Christine Schlonski [4:22]
That doesn’t mean that if someone is in real estate, they’re not getting any benefits out of those conversations. But it means over time, they do have different pain points than service-based businesses. And that means I don’t have the right offers for them. And by going through a summit, by working you know, for three months, sometimes four months, depending on where you are, especially when you start out I recommend you take four months for the planning. That means at the end, you filled your list with people who most likely will not buy from you and that is pretty painful, because they might come to the summit, they get inspired. And then they leave. And you will never hear from them again. The goal is to create long term relationships.

Christine Schlonski [5:12]
So when you’re looking at a summit and the summit topic that Liam described very well, in his two episodes this week, you also want to make sure that you verify who is the audience of your amazing speaker? And is the audience in resonance with what you do. And could they potentially be your future clients, because it goes vice versa, right? When you share a certain project with someone, you’re also sharing the audience. And that means if some of my speakers, for example, come to my summit, and they speak to the people I already have on my list, because obviously, I’m promoting as well, and I am inviting as well, it could very well be that someone who’s following me says, well, now it has clicked, this person is amazing, I have to work with this person, which means they will give business to one of the speakers. And it also happens vice versa. Right? Speakers are bringing people to your summit that you have not had before. And you also have that opportunity to get the business from those people because they might be your soulmate clients.

Christine Schlonski [6:28]
So I find it really, really crucial to be very clear, crystal clear on who your soulmate client is, that you also understand who of the speakers you want to invite to your summit has the same soulmate client, the same audience. So you can combine forces, which means that the force of impact, but it can also be the force of revenue to your business because you are talking to not just the right people, you’re talking to the perfect people. And so when you look for that piece of influence, make sure you check out every speaker, and if it’s the very first time that you do a summit, I also would recommend that you have short interviews, maybe 10-15 minutes with every potential speaker to make sure you are aligned with the person, you really do want to promote their work, and they have your soulmate clients in their audience already. Because then a summit is, you know, a multiplier to your business, it gives you credibility.

Christine Schlonski [7:39]
You create a stage, which also means you give a stage to the people you are inviting, which kind of gives you a very good position as well because you’re creating a stage. And people love to be on stage. And also you are really delivering something for an audience that you do not know yet, but that you will meet when the summit opens up, and that you can serve in the future. So you’re also making sure that you are creating potential customers and potential business partners with those speakers and their audience. I really hope this makes sense. Because I feel when we go into summits, this is super, super important. And by getting this piece from the get-go, you will actually, you know avoid a lot of pain.

Christine Schlonski [8:32]
So I have done five summits so far. And I’m working on number six, which will be launching in December, called The Heart Centered Business Builder Summit. And I’m so super excited about it. I’m going to put in the show notes, I’m just going to put a waiting list. So you can put yourself on the waiting list and get informed once the summit is ready for signups. And then you can get your complimentary ticket. Because in this summit, I really made clear that it’s for Heart Centered Business Builders, right, let’s take that example. So we will not have any people who are not in their hearts, because they will not be attracted by the word heart-centered, right? That might be something they don’t resonate with at all. And then also it’s about building your business. So we will have different stages from sales, from marketing, team building tech tools, like everything you need to build a thriving business.

Christine Schlonski [9:29]
Since I have been through many processes and had lots of surprises on my way to leaving my corporate job to become an entrepreneur. And I wasn’t really clear on all the moving parts I had to have in place. I thought how amazing would it be to do a summit with exactly that topic so that someone who might be in the beginning stages or who might think about creating a business or who might be in business for a couple of years, but has never really got that momentum that they come to the summit and they can learn all of these pieces. And I’m so super excited and passionate about this because I know the pain I’ve been through. And I’m trying to solve this pain with this summit. So The Heart Centered Business Builder Summit will be launching at the end of December and will take people into the new year. How amazing is that? Living 2020 behind going into 2021 with such a great topic of Heart Centered Business Building, because that is what the world needs right now.

Christine Schlonski [10:36]
So people who have been offline may be coming to the online world, people who have a job and are tired of the job, or maybe they lost their job, they have a new opportunity in creating their own business. And people who have not yet gained as much momentum as they would have liked to join us, well, because every teaching on the summit will be an amazing teaching and will help the viewer and listener to really get an idea, a golden nugget, so they can thrive in their business and in their life. Because let’s face it, at the end of the day, we are all looking, first and foremost, what’s in it for me? And that will be defined by what’s your biggest value. So if your value is freedom, is love, is connection you know, having the experiences you want to have in life, then the business can really help you to go to that place because you’re helping others to make their dreams come true. And they will help you to make your dreams come true. So when you look at creating a summit, it doesn’t need to be that overwhelming. But you need to have a clear foundation.

Christine Schlonski [11:48]
You can, for example, invite four or five people. And you can do a one day summit. Or you can say, well, you know, I can’t do a whole week. And I’m not that tech-savvy. So you can actually have maybe a live summit where you have people sign up through a simple zoom call. And then you can have the interview and people can join life. Right? There are so many opportunities when you think about it, how you can structure your own project so that it feels amazing that it is easy to handle. Because potentially, you just need an opt-in page where people can sign up for your summit, you send them a welcome email with the link so they can actually join, and then you can have it in one day. If you choose to do that. You can also go for the full-blown experience with a whole week or maybe even with two weeks, and with a ton of speakers. But you do not need to. What I’m trying to get across today is that with every single step of combining forces with other amazing entrepreneurs, all of your lives will be easier, because you are contributing to each other’s work, you’re contributing to each other’s audiences. And these joint forces are so so powerful.

Christine Schlonski [13:10]
I have not yet met a self-made millionaire so to speak, because we all have people that are supporting us, we all have people that we grow with. So that is not really the thing of self-made. At the end of the day, the money probably comes through your business at some point. And you know, if you’re looking to start a business, five figures will be great, six figures will be great, seven figures will be great. And so many people have that dream of being a seven-figure entrepreneur, but they don’t know where to start and what to do. So if you find something that you can create, that helps your soulmate client to thrive, they will also help you to thrive in your business. And the summit is a very beautiful vehicle. And as I said at the beginning, you can make a lot of mistakes. And one mistake is definitely not to have crystal clear clarity. And when you don’t have that you will just, you know burn a lot of energy and excitement. And you know, you will not get the number of people joining the project. Because you have not been clear. So really having that clarity of who you want to target and what the topic of your summit is, who you are supporting with it. And then also getting the right speakers on board is the most important thing.

Christine Schlonski [14:35]
And everything else like how long you do it, you know how many speakers you have is a little bit more irrelevant, right? Obviously, you have more people, the more people join forces, the bigger the project will become. But you could basically start out with a small summit for a day or for two or maybe three, whatever feels aligned to you and you feature other people. And that will help you to help them to grow their business. And it will help you to grow your business. So it actually is like a win-win for everybody that is involved. So I really hope that this makes sense. If you’re thinking about it, should I be starting a podcast because so many people are talking about podcasts. And you’re actually listening to one right now, I would highly recommend you go for a summit first because the impact you’re making in a shorter period of time is so much bigger.

Christine Schlonski [15:32]
Podcasting is more for the midterm and long-term game, while a summit actually is something that you have a lot of success within the first four months, right. So you have the idea. You define who you want to serve who the speakers are, that you want to invite so that it all fits together, you give yourself time, over two months, three months to prepare everything. And then you have a couple of weeks where you launch it, but you promote it. And then depending on how long your summit is a day, a couple of days, a week to actually have and hold and host the summit. And then there’s kind of a cool-off period as well, where you make sure that everybody has what they came for, that you have sold your summit packages, and that you have another offer in place that people could potentially take it further with you.

Christine Schlonski [16:29]
I really, really hope that this helps. hop on over to christineschlonski.com find the podcast tab with the show notes. And then you know, go to the resource section and sign up for the waitlist for The Heart Centered Business Builder Summit. So we can inform you when everything is in place and ready to go. So you can actually benefit from going with us and a ton of amazing speakers into the new year while having fun while learning a lot of heart-centered strategies, ideas only from the best. And yeah, that’s basically it. Hop on over to christineschlonski.com check out the podcast tab. Subscribe for Heart Sells! Podcast if you have not yet already. And have a good time. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Have an amazing, amazing day wherever you are in this beautiful world. And I’m saying bye for now.