LY Podcast: Ep. 55: Create a Profitable Online Summit with Jaime Slutzky

Melissa Anzman (00:00): This is the Launch Yourself podcast episode number 55 with Jaime Slutzky. For more information and show notes, go to launch herself.co/ 55. Welcome to the launch yourself podcast. My name is Melissa Ant-Man. I'm a bestselling author and the CEO of two businesses, an employee experience company, and launch yourself where I help entrepreneurs diversify and scale their business by launching digital products each week, you'll hear mind blowing interviews, where we peek behind the curtain of other people's launches, as well as actual tips and strategies that you can implement in your daily work life to create launches that actually make you money. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let's get started in today's episode. I have a new friend of mine, Jaime Slutsky on the show. She is so interesting and we are going to talk all about creating online summits, why and how, and how they can pay off big for not only your business, but for your speakers' business as well.

Melissa Anzman (01:07): And she shares not only the things that are awesome, but also some of the things you should consider before thinking a summit is right for you and all the details that are involved, we may or may not geek out a little bit about the tech and the detail that are needed for something so big. Now, Jaime Slutsky is an experienced and knowledgeable online technology strategist who works with artists who have caps in their personal income to create scalable online products and services. With her degree in computer science, 11 plus years in corporate it and a decade supporting online businesses. She has the expertise, insight, and grit to help you expand your business online, using her signature strategy, support and tech methodology. She walks you through the process of taking what you already know and love in your in-person classrooms and studios, and then transforming them into a global online art education business. Now, listen, she does that really well with artists and creative. So if you are in that category, you want to listen to this, but she also does this great for those of us outside of that business. So you can learn a ton from everything she shares on today's podcast. You ready? Let's dive in. Thank you so much, Jaime, for coming on the show today, I'm really excited to have you on, if you could, can you share a little bit about your business and what you do?

Jaime Slutzky (02:42): Absolutely. Thank you, Melissa. So my business is called the tech of business and I help artists and musicians expand online with online programs, with virtual courses, membership sites group programs, one-on-one services, all of that stuff. I helped them create the, get the technology, working, making that part, not a four letter word and making it so that they can be truly present with their students and helping them make progress.

Melissa Anzman (03:14): I love that so much for those of you who listened to this podcast all the time, you know, I'm a super tech nerd and do all the backend and love all the pieces. Jaime is the same way. So they peak out a little bit on the tech side. So I'll try and keep it less than a four letter word for those of you who don't do that. But I love how you are doing it for really creative people, how you're taking care of it or teaching them to take care of it in a way that isn't the thing that's preventing them from being successful online.

Jaime Slutzky (03:48): Right? Yeah. Thank you.

Melissa Anzman (03:49): Which is usually the thing, right? Oh, the tech, right? That's the objection I get is like, but the tech, you know, like it's not that hard. I promise we got you covered. Okay. So with that on launch yourself, we'd like to talk about a specific launch or a moment or a pivot so that we can learn from you and understand what worked, what didn't work and get all the advice and nitty gritty details along the way. So with that, Jaime, which launch do you want to talk about

Jaime Slutzky (04:16): Today? I want to talk about the expand online summit. I hosted the first summit in may of 2020. And that just was my entry into working with artists and musicians on a formal sense. So it's a really big pivotal moment for me personally, and for my brand. So I thought that was a really good one to kind of bring in here. I love it.

Melissa Anzman (04:42): I love it. There's so many things I can ask you about it. So why don't we start with why you decided to do a summit and make this big pivot into this market?

Jaime Slutzky (04:52): Well, the simple answer with why I decided to do the summit was because I knew I had to lean on people who had come before me in the musician and art space, because I don't have deep connections in that space. And I knew that a summit was a very effective way to have some rapid growth in my business, in my email list, in my reach. So that's really why I did that because prior to this, I had just done general freelance work, tech work, same type of work, but for pretty much anybody. And I really wanted to work with creatives and people who bring joy and opportunity to the world and to the online space. And so I knew that I needed to lean on people that were in my circle, who were artists and musicians and creatives. I love it.

Melissa Anzman (05:48): And it was may of this year, which means COVID and everything moved virtual. So your timing seemed right online with what people were trying to do, getting, I should say absolutely in-person stuff. Yeah. Like not planned, but here we are. Okay. So you decided to do a summit so that you could leverage other people's audiences and connections and their knowledge base and all of that stuff. So how, like, tell me the planning about the summit. Like how did you sort of go about it? How did you get those people to connect and want to buy it? Yeah,

Jaime Slutzky (06:24): So the speakers, that was an interesting journey. Some of the people that spoke on the summit were past clients and people that I had a relationship with who were musicians. And then I basically did a lot of cold outreach. I did cold outreach to podcasters and to artists who are doing kind of things that I thought made sense through Instagram. And I sent emails, I just reached out. I kind of came up with a list of what I wanted the summit to accomplish, which was to open people's eyes to the opportunity of being online. And again, I started this before COVID and I recorded my first interview, I think two days before, three days before my kids got out of school for COVID. So all the other interviews I recorded once they were, were already at home.

Melissa Anzman (07:23): So it was definitely a jumping into the frying pan type of moment, for sure. Yeah. So, okay. So how many people, how many speakers did you have on your summit?

Jaime Slutzky (07:35): I think there were 22. I think there were 22 speakers plus myself. So 23 and four of them were were presentations or masterclasses. The rest of them were interviews.

Melissa Anzman (07:49): I love it. That's a huge summit. That's a lot of people to participate, which is fantastic, especially for your first visit into that world. That's a huge undertaking. Okay. So we're going to ask some of the tech details. What platform did you use to host the summit or platforms if you did that?

Jaime Slutzky (08:11): You're letting me put my geek hat on. And let me just preface this by saying that I have supported people who have done summits since 2015. So I have had a lot of experience in the summit space as the technical implementer. And so I built the summit website on WordPress and then I used thrive cart for my affiliate management and payment processing. And I put my all access pass on member vault and I use active campaign for my emails.

Melissa Anzman (08:42): Love it, love it, love it. Fantastic. So we'll provide the links. There's so many ways to do a summit like that is, I would say a medium difficulty way to do it because all the pieces are separate. But you can do it easy. You can get on a platform like a Hey summit or hop in or something like that or Hova or you can do it via zoom. Like you can truly do it via zoom and host them on a website or host them on a lead page or something like that. So there are definitely different ways to do it, but the tech is so interesting because it's not as hard as you think it is right in general and you can, or you can make it as hard and fancy as you want. So I love knowing that for you. Okay. So for the, the interviews themselves, so you did interviews, you did a, some presentations. How, like, what was the plan to get people into the summit? How did everybody either promoted or what was your ask of those who were coming and were presenting

Jaime Slutzky (09:45): My speakers? I gave them all affiliate links. They all were able to earn 50% if anybody who actually purchased the summit, all access pass. So I incentivize them in that way that they, you know, anything, anybody that came through that turned into a sale they were paid for. And so that was pretty easy. So everyone had individual links. I could track where people were coming from. Again, cause I'm a techie. I tracked it on the front end, not just on the payment side. So I could really see the kind of numbers that were coming through. Myself personally, I ran some Facebook ads. We're going to ignore the fact that Facebook shut down my account partway through. And that I, thankfully I had an ad Facebook ads manager who was able to redo things, but we lost our pixel and we lost all of our pixel data because of that. And then I ran an organic campaign through Instagram and my, and my speakers. They promoted through email. They promoted a few of them had me come into their Facebook groups and they interviewed me inside their Facebook group. And that brought a lot of people over to the summit because they got to know me and they got to know what the passion was behind it as well. So I, I kind of threw everything at it.

Melissa Anzman (11:04): Love it. So I think I jumped ahead a little. So why don't we talk about what your actual offer was? So, okay. Sorry about that friends. Hope you're still following along with us. So the summit itself was hosted on a website through WordPress and the summit to attend for attendees. Was that a free summit? Like, okay. So it was free access for a limited amount of number of days is that two days 48 hours. So you had two days where all the 24 interviews were leaked out or shared or available. And then at the end of that time, what happened? So when someone

Jaime Slutzky (11:41): Signs up for the S for the free summit, they got an offer for, to buy the all access pass at my lowest price. So that was the first opportunity that they knew that they could have longer than just the 48 hours. And then once they were watching the summit sessions, there was a banner that allowed them to update upgrade from the free summit to the all access pass. My all access pass included all of the interviews with the, with the sessions, like all of the sessions, plus a bonus interview with every single one of the speakers, I went one step further. And so there was a double, the amount of content because we went one step further and had the second interview in there. So it was really compelling for people to say, yeah, I want to learn more. I want to go into this.

Jaime Slutzky (12:30): And then after the summit, the free summit all wrapped up, I made the all access pass still available for purchase at any point in time. I mean, it's still available for purchase. If someone wanted to buy it. I also was selling a weekend pass because some people found out about the summit a little too late. So I was selling them access for 48 hours over a weekend. It was very specific. It starts Saturday morning at 1201 local time and ends Monday morning at 12 midnight, 12 o'clock on Monday morning, it's local time. So whatever time zone they were in. So I was able to set that up, which was just a little bit of a little icing on the cake, I think.

Melissa Anzman (13:12): Yeah, really interesting. So let's break down the, the sales and the cost for each of them. So the first offer was your early bird offer and that was early access when they signed up, they could upgrade. So what was it almost like a bump self to a free sign in, so our signups, so what was the price of that?

Jaime Slutzky (13:33): That one was $67. Okay.

Melissa Anzman (13:35): Right. And do you have, like, did that convert well for you? Was that like on track for what you were hoping for?

Jaime Slutzky (13:42): It converted, it converted well for certain affiliates. It's really interesting. Yeah. So I had some affiliates who have had lot more longevity in the online space and their audience was used to the idea of quick bump offers and upsells and things like that. So that was something that converted well for some of the affiliates and some of my speakers didn't end up getting any, but anybody to purchase at the $67 price point, it just happened that they didn't use the right language or other things like that. But again, the, I left a lot of the all of the marketing side of it to the specific affiliates the speakers. So,

Melissa Anzman (14:31): Yeah, let's see. Did you provide your speakers with like an affiliate tool kit with the marketing language and stuff, and then it was just really up to them how to implement it?

Jaime Slutzky (14:40): Yeah. So I had drafted seven or eight emails, and then I had created a couple of videos for them to be able to share on Instagram stories. I had individual images that were sized for Facebook, for Twitter, for Instagram, for Instagram stories. I created all of that artwork and stuff for them. And I also offered to do something custom for them. If they wanted me to do an Instagram takeover, for example, we did that. That was a really fun one that I was able to do specifically for them. I wanted them to drive their marketing because they were promoting and they were making money.

Melissa Anzman (15:22): Awesome. It's awesome. Best of both worlds, really. They could really lift it and shift it into their own ecosystem if they wanted or get something custom. I love that. Yeah. So the first opportunity was early bird, and then you had day of live banner, and then you had post summit conversions, which of which of those three really converted the best consistent

Jaime Slutzky (15:45): The early birds definitely can, can converted the best. I think that if I hadn't had the early bird offer that probably 60 to 70% of the people who bought the early bird would have bought at a later point based on just the, the engagement that they had within the Facebook group and the communication they had with me, I got the feeling that they were in any way. So that's the best I can say.

Melissa Anzman (16:13): No, that's so interesting. And you just dropped another sort of touch point, which I love, which is that it sounds like you created a Facebook group. Is it like a companion group?

Jaime Slutzky (16:23): Yeah. Yeah. So for all the attendees they had the option of joining my Facebook group. I have since moved that Facebook group into my main Facebook group for all artists and musicians. So it's, it's kind of living and breathing and, but the original people who came into that group came in through the summit.

Melissa Anzman (16:42): That's so great to really create a space to implement and talk about what they've learned in the summit and ask questions live. I think that's a great idea. Totally. Okay. So this is super exciting. So your goal was to gain visibility and to grow your list and obviously make some sales and make some friends through affiliate partnering. So tell me more, like, did you accomplish those goals? Like, did your list grow? Was it worth it?

Jaime Slutzky (17:08): My list grew. Absolutely. I my summit registration was about 700 people. And we're about six months post summit at this point. And I've lost about a hundred of those people. Wow.

Melissa Anzman (17:24): That's really good. Staying power and growth. Really. That's great. Yeah. And out of pocket spend for the summit, it sounds like you didn't have much cause you could do all the tech. Right. but did you have any other spends that you, that you had to invest in for the summit itself?

Jaime Slutzky (17:42): The ads and the person who ran my ads, she was, that was an expense. Everything else that I used for the summit already had either lifetime licenses for or subscriptions for. So I didn't have any specific out-of-pocket expenses other than the ads and the ad manager.

Melissa Anzman (18:00): That's so exciting. Oh my goodness. Okay. So Jaime, what do you think if someone was out there thinking, you know, what a summit may be for me, what would you advise for them as to like yeah. That's for you or no, probably isn't worth it for you.

Jaime Slutzky (18:16): Yeah. Knowing why you're doing it. Absolutely. 100%, you got to know why you're doing it. For me, it was because I needed to get my name out there in this particular group. I know for some other people, they do it because they want to make connections with their speakers or they want to have make connections with promotion partners or sponsors or things like that. Knowing what your goal is. My goal was, was very simple. It was grow my list, prove my authority, prove that I am the right person to help these artists and musicians to come online. And I think that if you are not a hundred percent clear, why you're doing it, take a step back. Yeah.

Melissa Anzman (19:05): A little bit too much effort if you're not super certain right. On like what it's for. Yeah. that's so helpful. And then like time investment. So, you know, the tech aside and that, I'm just going to be honest, like for someone like Jaime or me, the tech is something that we don't think about or plan for. Like, we just know how to do it. So it doesn't take any time. So I understand that when I say this, you're going to roll your eyes at me and be like, Melissa, you know, tech, I get it. But for most of you out there, the tech is going to be an investment or a time or both. Right. Like, so just understand that that is going to be a cost for you in both time and money. But outside of that and outside of like Facebook ads, there was a time in mass men for a summit in particular that I think we have to be clear on. So with that JV, like how much time does one should one expect to spend on setting up a summit and how far in advance would you get started with it?

Jaime Slutzky (20:07): Well, I'm already starting for mace summit. I'm just giving myself six months. I say a minimum of three months. Just because there are so many bits and pieces that need to be done and I didn't want to overwhelm myself for next summit. That's why I'm starting this early. The biggest amount of time that you are going to spend is on your sessions. I had to do recordings with 18 or 1920 people. And so each of those sessions was an hour long because we recorded the main session and we recorded the bonus session. And then I had to edit, I had to splice them. I had to put my intro. I had to put my lower thirds if I was doing that, which I did for a couple of them, I didn't end up doing it for all of them. And then I had to upload them. And so the video production side of things definitely was the biggest piece. And I would say for every hour of content that I created, I probably spent six hours.

Melissa Anzman (21:09): I love that. That's so helpful. A one to six ratio and maybe add like two hours for the tech. If you're not adding the tech, I was adding a second. So for every one hour interview, about six hours of work is needed for that. I think that's so helpful to plan. Okay. So what is your absolute best advice to someone who is looking for a summit to grow their lists or to become an authority like other than knowing your purpose and your why for it? Like, what is that winning ticket, winning moment for a summit person that they should just sort of think about before they dive in?

Jaime Slutzky (21:52): You know, I think for that one, I would have to say, don't just go for A-listers like your speakers are critical. It is the journey that you are taking your attendee on that matters. If your speaker has 200 followers and they are absolute raving fans and they are so on-point with your topic, bring them in, who cares that they only have 200 because 197 of them are going to show up, you know, rather than just going for vanity metrics. I had a celebrity on my summit and he's been on Broadway. He's been on American idol. He was amazing. And I tagged him a few times on Instagram and he shared it once. And I think I might've got seven people sign up for the summit, but his name meant something. The fact that he was on there and that people can say, Oh, wow, okay. Yeah, this is legit. She's got, you know, this, this really amazing person on here. So I banked on his name more so because I knew it would give me additional credentials and, you know, people would trust me more, but I didn't bank on him for him, for his followers. And so it's really kind of balancing that out that you don't have to go with, just A-listers go with the right people.

Melissa Anzman (23:19): I love that so much back a few years ago when summits were first starting and they were everywhere. You know, there were a lot of people who only would invite people with 10,000 or more on their email list or like these huge. And I'm like, wow, I I'm in that smaller group. Right. Like I have a smaller list, but they love the stuff we do. And I always was like, but don't forget about the little guys. So I, that you're saying that because it's so true. It's not about numbers. It's really about content. And I loved how you said the journey that you're taking them on in the summit. It has to be a cohesive journey or topic. Right, right. Can be effective as a summit pulled together. I love that. What what in the summit just did not work? Like what was something that you thought would be easier than it ended up to be, or would have worked out better or you're like, I am never doing that ever again.

Jaime Slutzky (24:16): You know, I think that my numbers were lower. I think that having more, more stringent ma recommendations or, you know, more requirements for my speakers to actually promote, say that you have to do a, B or C, you can do more than those, but we have to commit right off the bat. Because I think that amongst all of my speakers, I probably got about 50% of what I had anticipated numbers wise. And it was just because I didn't require them to promote. I think that there's different levels of promotion. And I think that I should have, and could have spent more time on finding the right promotion strategy with each of my speakers which I think would have then created more buzz inside the Facebook group. Obviously it would have created more income. I had with my all access pass. I had some co-working sessions for the people who were implementing what they had learned from the summit and the show up rate for those was lower. I think that if I had had more people in the front door, we would have had more people in those groups. So it's all a trickle down effect. And I think that the biggest thing for me is because of summit relies on other people's audiences, I needed to spend more time and energy on making sure that they were promoting in a way that made sense for both of us to be beneficial.

Melissa Anzman (25:45): Love that. That's so helpful. Jaime, this is so exciting. I've learned so much. And I think some like insider information about what to really consider and how much time to plan. I had no idea. It was like a one to six. So my mind, my mind is blown by that. Right. And of course, when it's your first time, there was probably a little bit more like some of the first sessions probably take a little bit longer to get in the groove on that. So I love that. Where can people find you online?

Jaime Slutzky (26:12): Instagram is probably the best place to find me. And I'm just at Jaime Slutsky and I'm sure you will have that spelled out for people so that in the show notes,

Melissa Anzman (26:22): I hear you on that. And we'll definitely include all the information of where people can find you in the show notes, including if they are an artist or a creative who needs some tech help, we will be able to get them over to your page and your Facebook group if they want to continue those conversations. Because I think it is such a great place for them to be. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Jaime, it's been really a great pleasure. Thank you.

Melissa Anzman (26:50): To join the free Launch Yourself workshop where you'll learn why your digital products aren't selling nearly as much as you planned for and how to diversify and scale your income by launching the right way, go to launchyourself.Com/Join.