Please don’t let this be like the FYRE Festival. Please don’t let this be like the FYRE Festival. I would think this to myself over and over again as I got closer to hosting my first in-person retreat. You see, I did a thing. And, even though it has been just two weeks from the time of this recording, I’m still a bit amazed that I hosted the Money on the Mountain Financial Retreat, a money retreat created for financially single women. It has taken me two weeks to recover mentally and physically from the amount of stress that I was under (yes, self-imposed). And, I wanted to give a behind the scenes peak at what it’s really like to host an in-person event as an online influencer.
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This episode is sponsored by the following: my upcoming book “How to Host Your First In-Person Retreat Without Going Broke or Losing Your Mind.” Learn from other influencers who’ve hosted conferences or retreats. Discover event best practices, how to pitch for sponsors and more. Pre-order today at the following link: https://michelleismoneyhungry.com/retreatbook
Doors are now open to my new program-The Brand Building Lab. Are you a digital content creator stuck on perfect and not launching any products? So you get frustrated because of analysis paralysis and find yourself unable to get out of your own head? Are you struggling to make meaningful connections that will grow your brand and your business? Then, The Brand Building Lab is for you. Schedule your free 20-Minute Consultation call with me today! Text: NOWISMYTIME to 44222 or click the link in the show notes.
Show Notes
- I won’t ever forget one of the biggest professional disappointments that happened in my previous job-not once, but twice. I worked at an International English Center working with adult students learning English as a Second Language. I’d grown my role pretty significantly and loved the organization and the clients that we served. What I really wanted to do was market the program and what that would entail was overseas travel to participate in marketing fairs specific to those types of programs. For the program that I worked for, that mean travel to: the Middle East, South America, Asia, and potentially Africa. It was a huge deal.
- When I approached the director of the program at the time, that person said and I quote “I don’t feel comfortable with you marketing the program”
- I was devastated, embarrassed, and really angry.
- What I know now is that I was asking for an opportunity that affected what this person wanted for themselves.
- That professional slight was something that was very much below the surface and when our directors changed it happened AGAIN.
- And, this director also initially said “no” to me attending the NAFSA conference which was the conference for people in the space I was working in at the time. The next day the director changed their mind, but the damage was done. I was done. And, I knew it was time to move on.
- When I began working for myself I always thought about all of the things that I could do:
- Make passive income
- Write books
- Speak on panels
- Run amazing workshops
- Host events
- In 2016 and 2018 had the incredible opportunity to attend:
- The Lola Retreat
- Cents Positive
- Both were financial retreats for different segments of women.
- Those events were transformative for me and I decided that it was finally time to take that leap and host my own event.
- It was a humbling, scary, intense, emotional experience.
- Launching Money on the Mountain forced me to:
- Do as I said and honor my word to my future attendees
- Get out of my comfort zone of what was possible for me to do.
- I wanted to market a program/event and I was doing it.
- I had a lot of fears
- What if I messed this up and made it difficult for other people of color in the personal finance space to pitch for sponsors and get buy in to what they were doing.
- Real talk-I did NOT want attendees to arrive and feel like they didn’t get what they paid for.
- I did not want to be on-blast via social media for dropping the ball
- My reputation was at stake-seriously.
- What if I failed?
- I knew that there were people who I knew would be unwilling to support me on this project because they wanted to see what would happen. These same people will likely be supportive of upcoming projects that I work on because I was able to make things happen.
- I was afraid of owing thousands on this event and being in the hole financially.
- What ended up happening?
- I overpaid. The good thing about the overpayment was that I was able to really spoil the attendees. I paid for brunch the following day on Sunday including drinks.
- My original attendee number goal was 50, it ended up being 25 people. Thank God for that. If 50 people had attended I would have owed thousands of dollars.
- I will never host an event with more than 30 attendees including the speakers. The number that attended was the perfect number for me.
- The feedback was so good that I was overwhelmed. In fact, on Monday one of the attendees sent me a tip!
- Taking this risk creating a huge and lasting mindset shift about what I’m capable of doing. I feel differently about myself and my professional abilities as an online entrepreneur.
- I grew the following skillsets that my traditional 9-5 roadblocked for years
- Pitching for sponsorship
- Marketing (all aspects)
- Event planning
- Event specific social media and copy
- Guest relations
- Moving forward-I’ve written a guide about hosting in-person events and I will be sharing everything that worked and didn’t work as I put the event together.
- One thing that I will say is-I way underestimated how much mental energy hosting an event like this would take. It has taken me 2 weeks to recover and feel at 100% mentally.
- In 2020 I’ve decided to host a series of brunches and workshops versus an entire retreat.
- The next Money on the Mountain Retreat will be in early 2021 and I’ve already reached out to the venue that I would like to host it at (it books super early)
Resources Mentioned
Looking to host your first event? Pre-order the following guide to help you with planning.
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