139 - Summit Wrap-Up Part 1 - Let’s Hear it From the Speakers

As coaches, our ultimate goal is to make a positive impact. The Design, Live, Thrive Summit 2 day workshop series was our opportunity for women to learn about how impactful coaching can be. Coaching is transformative!

In today’s episode of the Life Coach Business Building Podcast, I will be joined by 5 of the 16 incredible coaches and speakers from the recently concluded Design Live Thrive Summit. From planning their signature talks to delivering them at the live virtual event, these women will tell us what they learned and what they thought about the whole experience. 

Preparing for the signature talks was a substantial amount of work for each of the speakers. Some of the coaches were new in business and wrote their first marketing copy, learned how to use the technology that was needed to make the most of the Summit, and they also spoke in front of many people for the first time.  All of these efforts were made to make sure that the Summit was a great experience for the attendees. (And it was!) We wanted each session to focus on something important that the attendees could remember and use to make change in their lives that day. Based on the feedback we’ve received from speakers already, we give the attendees so many great insights, they loved it!

Join our conversation as we dive deep into the highlights of the Summit and the things that we could have done better to give everyone – the speakers and the audience an amazing Summit experience.

Transcript

Stacy: I think as a coach, we all just wanna help as many humans as possible. And it found us more humans to help, you know? And I said, before I gave my thing, I'm like, here's the thing. If one person out of however many are there, hears what I say, learns something and changes their life, then I've done what I need to do here.

That was it. And I really believe that. So I'm like, just go help one person today. And as scary as it was and as hard, I learned so much. And it also gave us the opportunity. Now we have all this content, these amazing videos that we can then use and just continue to share.

Debbie: Hello, I'm Debbie Shadid, the host of the Life Coach Business Building podcast. If you are ready to have more clients in your life coach business, then you're in the right spot. Each week I'm gonna teach you super simple strategies to grow your business without feeling overwhelmed and without spending money on paid ads. If that sounds interesting. Stick around and let's get started.

Debbie: Welcome to today's podcast. I'm excited to be here. I have, as my guests, some of the speakers from the Design Live Thrive Summit.

I wanna tell you that this podcast is a series, part one and part two. Today we're gonna be talking to the speakers about their experience in the Design Live Thrive Summit. And then next week I'm gonna be sharing all of the details about, you know, what it took to put it together, kind of my takeaways from it, and if I'm going to do this again.

So let's get started. I want you guys to introduce yourselves. Tell us kind of what your talk was. Some of the people listening to this podcast obviously didn't go to the summit. So Sue, why don't you start, tell us what you did. 

Sue: Thanks, Debbie. I am Sue Christensen. I'm an advanced certified weight and life coach, and I work with midlife women who are ready to stop their lifelong obsession over food and their bodies. And my talk was about loving the body that you're in right now so that you can live your very best life. Stop letting your body image hold you back from doing all the things. 

Debbie: Yeah, so good. If you guys purchased the replay and I should just say right now, go buy it at designlivethrive.com. It's 15 bucks. If you purchased the replay, you're gonna hear me say after every talk. Oh my gosh. That was so good, and it was. I'm thinking about your talk yesterday, Sue, and it really was. Every talk was unique and really, really powerful. So, All right, Stacy, introduce yourself and tell us what you talked about. 

Stacy: Hi everyone. Yeah. I'm Stacy Bahnsen. I, I coach midlife women, to just kinda like, overcome the fear that it's too late and create the future that they really want.

So my talk was about uncovering the beliefs and kind of overcoming any limiting thought processes that you have that might hold you back. And then also kind of going through and understanding what's possible for you, and then how to actually create a plan to live through those beliefs and to walk through life with this new possibility to then actually make the change to follow realizing it's not too late. 

Debbie: Yeah. So good. All right. Thank you. Cynthia, how about you? 

Cynthia: Okay. Hi, I'm Cynthia Coufal and I am a podcast host and life coach. My podcast is Better Regulate Than Never, and I coach mostly young people aged 13 to 24. But during the summit I talked to parents because we had adults attending that. Because I have so much experience working with young people, I just took the things that they always told me they want their parents to know, and I told the parents those things and kind of ideas on how they could parent towards those actions. 

Debbie: Yeah. Again, a really good talk if you have kids, in any age group. I think even adult kids, you really gave some good ideas about communication.

So, all right, Lyndsay, you're up. Introduce yourself and tell us what your talk was about. 

Lyndsay: Okay. Hi, I'm Lindsay Hume. I'm a certified life and empowerment coach for women, really who are ready to let go of their past or maybe have healed a past, and design an extraordinary future for themselves in the areas of life, love, and money.

I help them do this by overcoming, again, like Stacy talked about limiting beliefs, but also how to overcome things like people pleasing, self-doubt, and fear. And so my talk was about people pleasing why it is actually making you miserable, which is the opposite of what you think it will do and what to do instead.

Debbie: Yeah. All right, Erin. 

Erin: Hi, I'm Erin Thompson and I am a licensed assisted living administrator. And my talk was what to expect when you're not expecting to care for your elderly loved one. And I help families through every point of their caregiving journey, just through advice and crisis points and counseling type conversations.

Debbie: And you also have a podcast? 

Erin: Oh, yes, I do. Sorry. I have a podcast and the title of that podcast is I have Fallen and Need Some Help. 

Debbie: That's a good one. Yeah. yeah, and if you are taking care of any elderly parent or you think you're going to, or you would need to make some plans, she gave very, very specific information about preparing for that. So it was very detailed and a lot of really good stuff. 

All right. The next question I wanna ask you guys is about being a speaker. Now, I should tell the people who are listening, this was a lot of work. This was no joke for these guys. I had really a lot of expectations from everybody because my goal was to make sure that the people who attended left with a great experience.

And so part of what I wanted was a consistent outline for each person's talk. That made sense. We did not sell any coaching during the day. I wanted it to be really an opportunity for people to come to the workshop and just be exposed to what coaching could do for them without any sales. I wanted the talks to really highlight something that somebody could take away, and be able to make a change that day, some awareness, and I think for sure all of the talks did that.

Also, everybody prepared a summit gift, basically like an opt-in. But I would say these were all better than a basic opt-in. They really have something nice to give the attendees, or the people who signed up and purchased the replay both. So each person's talk was reviewed by me, sometimes more than once, because I also wanted to make sure that every conversation was different.

Because some of the people we're talking about are all similar topics, I wanted to make sure that there was nothing repetitive, about midlife women or about weight loss or whatever the topics were that were similar. I wanted to make sure that they all had a different approach. So, as a speaker, some of the people, I can tell you, built websites for the first time.

They wrote their first marketing copy. They learned how to use Flow Desk. They learned how to use Canva. They learned some technology that they hadn't learned before. They spoke for the first time. They wrote their first workshops. I They posted on social media for the first time some of 'em.

They emailed a list that they had never had before. They downloaded their own personal contacts, so there was a lot that people had not done, and we did it in a short amount of time. So now with that said, Sue, what was it like basically to prepare and be a speaker at the summit? What's your take away? 

Sue: It was an incredible experience, incredibly challenging also. It happened because all the due dates coincided with my travel. I was on vacation prior to Christmas, and so I was doing a lot of this work in airports, at the family's home that I was staying with. I was leaving them to go to the coffee shop to work.

I had a lot of like circumstances along the way that were completely unexpected and it was perfect. Because of all those obstacles in my way, it made me realize how badly I wanted to do this, really helped me prioritize and manage my time and get more disciplined. The tech piece, I know for many of us, was super challenging.

I have given presentations before, but not in this way and not through a webinar, and there were so many pieces that were different. And Debbie, I am ever so thankful for our meetings to do the tech checks. I even came to several of them just to make sure, and you really helped guide us through the whole process, which I am forever grateful for.

I felt really supported by you. any questions I had, I loved how you had everything outlined and all of our expectations were just thoroughly thought out and presented to us, and I found that to be extremely helpful. 

Debbie: Well, thank you. It was, you know, the timing of this. I don't know when there would be a perfect time because I think that the summit should be held this time of year.

I think this is the perfect time for the women who attended. The imperfect time for the people who were preparing meant that that was during the holiday season. So we started preparing for that. November 1st was our first when I announced it. And we didn't have our first actual real, extra summit coaching session until, I think it was December 4th.

So there was a very tight deadline before Christmas. So I am sure that that's feedback from everybody. That would've been useful if it was a different time. But, you know, I think the first of the year was the best time for the attendees, so if there's a next time, maybe we'll do it differently.

So anyway, thank you for that. All right, Stacy, what was it like to be a speaker? What did you like most about the experience? What do you wanna share? 

Stacy: Well, I'm just gonna cut to the chase. It was honestly more challenging than I thought it would be and I knew it was something I'd never done before, but it was one of that opportunity that you gave us all to kind of just do the scary thing or, and a lot of people probably knew how to do it, I don't know, but I didn't, and I was like, I'm just gonna do the scary thing.

Debbie's got our back. Right. And you did, which was so nice because you did have every single timeline laid out marketing for us to use in advance that we got to just use and share, you know, steps on how to create the presentation, steps on how to create a speech, all that kind of stuff. And a lot of this we've learned in advance just through working with you, whether it be Canva, how to do Canva, how to do F low desk, how to, you know, create content.

We already know how to create all the content cuz we've learned that through you prior to this. So a lot of that was very helpful because I knew what I wanted to say. I just didn't know how to piece it together. But I think in the end it was also really nice too because it helped us to, you know, impact more people than we would've before. Because I think as a coach, we all just wanna help as many humans as possible. And it found us more humans to help, you know? And I said, before I gave my thing, I'm like, here's the thing. If one person out of however many are there, hears what I say, learns something and changes their life, then I've done what I need to do here.

That was it. And I really believe that. So I'm like, just go help one person today. And as scary as it was and as hard, I learned so much. And it also gave us the opportunity. Now we have all this content, these amazing videos that we can then use and just continue to share. So, yeah. And now I'm gonna make everybody I know on the planet buy this replay because you, I seriously have to have it cuz there's so many gifts in there from 15 of us that everyone has to have for $15. So amazing. 

Debbie: There you go. Yeah, a dollar, a dollar a thing. A dollar each. Yeah. Fair. Thank you. alright. Cynthia, how about you? Cynthia's a teacher, so her background is a little bit different for the rest of everybody. And I have to say, it wasn't that long ago, not that many years ago, that this was equally as terrifying for me. I've just done it so many times now I'm in a different place. But anyway. Cynthia, how about you? 

Cynthia: Well, I was gonna say that I've done presentations many times, but almost all my presentations prior to being a coach were like live in front of people kinds of things, and never large audiences, always, you know, classrooms or professional development or whatever. So this was my first experience of having a larger audience virtually. I've done a few workshops on my own, but very few people attend and so this was like more people hearing me and I liked that we couldn't see who was there. That was nice. And if I was doing it by myself, I'd feel like I needed to watch the chat or pay attention to questions or whatever.

And it was so nice that we didn't have to do that. Like afterwards, we just were given the questions or asked the questions live which was amazing. if I ever did this in my business by myself, I would probably wanna have somebody helping with that, cuz I don't even know how you would have a talk and pay attention to all that stuff.

But I also loved having the social media, like we got a file that had everything lined out. Say this, here's what it should look like. Here are the Canva templates and stuff to use. It was amazing and it was helpful to see how does this actually get put together, because I haven't spent a lot of time having email sequences and I mean, I've tried some of those things, but all of that stuff was kind of on my own before I met Debbie, and she's been helping me figure that stuff out.

But, It's so nice to have somebody who knows what they're doing, kind of help you and tell you what to do and give you some stuff to use. It just feels so much better. So I just am so glad that I had the opportunity to talk to a larger audience that I wouldn't have and be able to use the webinar because I don't have that feature so to see how that works. 

Debbie: Yeah the recordings are going to be, they've already been edited for the replay, but also the speakers will eventually get their own talk that they can use later for marketing purposes. And they're edited, so, not edited out every, um, or whatever, but they're edited so they can use those again. 

And yeah, one thing I can tell you that I wish that I would've done, and maybe I'll go back and try to get from you guys, so beware. I should have had a spreadsheet that the dates of the emails that you guys could have filled in, like how big your lists were, what day the email went out on how many your social media following was, what day you posted it, because I would like to have a better picture of, and even myself.

I started with my list. Then I found another list that I had had from another business. Then I found another list. So all of my emails didn't go to the same list. So it's hard for me to put a measure on exactly what our marketing was. I'm gonna have to go back and kind of reconstruct that to find out what we need to do better or differently, to achieve different results.

And for sure the emails and the copy, I will say, you know, I'm pretty sure there's gonna be another summit, but if there's another summit, I'll keep saying if, I need to do a better job of writing those. I was so overwhelmed with all that I had to do that I had to do as well. I had somebody help me with those and I don't think they sounded really like me, but anyway, you know, we call it B minus work at the Life Coach school.

You just gotta get things done. And it was my first summit too so All right, Ms. Lindsay, how about you? 

Lyndsay: So I kind of echo what everybody else was saying. It wasn't something I planned on saying before, but what's come up for me since we've been talking is that, so we all signed up to do this summit, thinking that the presentation itself is our massive action, right? That we're just gonna speak to however many people come and take on this, like wonderful gift and opportunity that you gave us, but also, This fear, if you will, right? We're all gonna take this on thinking that that's the result we're gonna get, which is that we showed up and we did a presentation, 

but as we're talking about it, I'm like, yes, that's great. We all got to do a presentation as part of this wonderful summit, but it's all the things that we had to figure out and learn and like tweak and change and rethink. And you know, like Sue said, the technology, everything that we had to do to prepare that I think is like worth the gold, right? you don't think about those things when you sign up for a summit like this.

I didn't anyways. You're just like, yes, let's go. I wanna be a part of this. And you get so much more out of it than just being able to present to a large group of people, right? You learn all these new skills. You put yourself out there in new ways. You have to think more creatively. Yeah. So I just think that, for me, I didn't realize that was kind of the thing that I liked best or my big takeaway until we started to talk about it and I was like, wow, we really had to figure out a lot of things we'd never done before.

Debbie: I think that's so true. I think each one of you, everybody became somebody different. It was definitely like taking your business on a whole new level.

Yeah. So, yeah, very insightful. All right, Erin, how about you? 

Erin: You made a comment one time that there's nothing better than a deadline. And I think that the deadline is what pushed everyone to do what we needed to do and provoking us to be better versions of ourself through our actions and echoing what everybody else has said.

But there's a different level of motivation when you're presenting yourself on stage. And then also when you're part of your responsibility of being on stage is the marketing piece. And I think that what I realized is for me, the struggle of how much is too much and identifying my reluctance of I don't wanna like flood everybody, but then you analyze other people's marketing, you know, on the tv in the commercials and you see, you know, you need to do that.

And so it was a good analyzation of lots of different things and the deadline being the biggest motivator tied with being on the big stage, you know? So that was powerful. 

Debbie: Yeah, there were a lot of social media posts. I mean, there were very close together.

And Erin's right, you could have the thought of, everybody's gonna see this stuff over and over and over again, but we know how the algorithm is and it's like, who knows what, who's gonna see what on what day? so, and it takes a lot of, you know, a lot of impressions for people to do something.

I know since I just prepared for the part two of this, that the signups were slow. We ended up with like 358 signups, but we didn't have the signups. Even with all that marketing initially up front, really, they didn't start. That was about, what, from Christmas to New Year's?

Kind of nothing happened then. I mean, I shouldn't say anything. Let's say 50 signups. Not very many. It really wasn't until after the first of the year that the bulk of the signups started. And really last week, right before the summit is when the signups happened. So, you know, everybody waits even on something like that.

It's free until the last moment, So I think it took that many impressions, but that's again, a really interesting insight of you having to have a debate with yourself over should you post this stuff or not. So, alright. So what would you say, let's just talk two questions here together. Each of you guys, what would you say that you liked best about the experience, which I think we've kind of already covered also, how you think this is going to change your business. Maybe that's where we should focus. How do you think it's going to change your business or how has it changed your business? Sue, do you wanna start? 

Sue: Sure. Yeah. So I think right after I was done, I thought, wow, I'm gonna start doing those workshops I've been telling myself I'm going to do for the past year. You know, the monthly workshops and I'm like, they're gonna be so easy now, how can I not do them? I mean, they just seem like seriously a piece of cake after what we just went through because a lot of it is the same steps, right?

And now that I've done it once and I wanna keep that momentum going cuz it's fresh in my mind how to pull it all together. But so for that piece of it, it's made me want to take even more action in my business for sure. And the other piece of it is that people in my life are starting to see me a little bit differently.

Like this life coaching thing is more than just a fun little hobby that I do and I talk about. And they're just seeing it all, not just me, but life coaching in general in a whole new light. And it's sparked a lot of interest, a lot of conversations. even my dad asked me about it, and that you know, our families usually are the last ones that know what we do, but yeah, just the exposure of life coaching in general and then me being a presenter was really impactful.

And then the confidence and some know-how in how to put this together on my own. 

Debbie: Yeah. It was exactly what I wanted which I hoped everybody was gonna get. Kudos for, like being an expert speaker. I was hoping that that would be the case. And by the way, you guys, I have little badges for you to put on your website too, so I need to get those to you so you can put that like down there in the footer with your certifications or with whatever else you have down there so everybody can see that you were a speaker too.

Stacy: Oh, nice. 

Debbie: All right, Stacy. 

Stacy: Well, everything changed pretty much after this. It's so crazy. Like I'm really outgoing and talkative and stuff, but I'm actually really shy. It's so weird. And if I'm out of my comfort zone with like things, I tend to like recoil and recluse with it. And it's just me, I get nervous and I get embarrassed or something. I'm not sure what it was. So this kind of actually doing this and being forced to do this. Not forced. I volunteered, but I mean, I wasn't not doing this even though I wanted to cry some days. I'm like, but it really, it just broke down this whole wall of exposure that I was like, oh my gosh, I would probably still feel this urge to hide, but now I'm not afraid to not expose myself anymore as this person that people can see and hear and talk to. And I probably won't walk around videoing myself yet. That still scares me to death. but I just realized we're all human and we're all doing the best we can.

And it showed me that, If I let people support me and help and stuff, which I need to rely on people more, they do, versus wanting to just be on this island and feel safer there versus exposing my vulnerabilities and stuff. But, so I learned just how to be brave and how to, like, there's a difference between not knowing how to do something or just being scared of it, cuz it's not something I'm good at or I don't think I'm good at.

And then also it benefited my business because now obviously there's a lot of exposure to a lot more people who can learn from all of us as life coaches and myself. it's so great, now I know what so many other people do. If somebody comes to me and that's not something that's like my niche or I can really help with, I can now send them to these other women who are so amazing at what they do in their niches.

Debbie: It's a good point, Stacy. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody really learned more about everybody else. Yeah. Awesome. All right, Cynthia, how about you? 

Cynthia: I think what is helpful to me is working with teens. I've struggled so much with how do I market to teens? And you know, teens don't have money, so then their parents have to be on board.

And I've talked to myself about, well, maybe I should talk to parents, maybe I should have a parent workshop. And this showed me that now I have a parent workshop that I can use and I had good feedback from it, and it really resonated with parents and I thought, oh, well, maybe I do need to be talking more to parents because they're gonna want me to work with their kids.

So it kind of really opened up a whole new area for me that I'm really excited to explore and see what else I can do with that. So I think that was the biggest, I think the biggest change. And my mother-in-law watched some of 'em. I bought the replays so that she can watch all of them, but she was like, oh my gosh, those were really good and I learned a lot. And she's already using some of the information and talking to me about it. And so I'm like, oh. So now she knows more about life coaching too, even though that's what I do. We don't talk about it. So it was cool. 

Debbie: What was happening in the chat from your speech, your workshop, I should say. You just had lots of, I mean, it's like there was little buzz going on. Everybody was really, related to your talk and, you know, as I said, it's so, so needed. Our youth needs people who can support 'em and parents need to know how to do that.

Uh, because, you know, I think most parents like everything's gone crazy and maybe that's how parents have always felt probably. But, um, anyway, yeah, it was good. So I'm excited too for you that now you see a way that maybe there's a business angle with parents cuz I definitely think there is.

Cynthia: Yeah. So definitely. 

Debbie: All right. Lyndsay, how about you? What do you think has changed about your business from your perspective? 

Lyndsay: Again, I echo what both Sue and, um, Stacy have said. I think for me what it did was build my confidence and then opened up my mind to, I guess possibility is the right word.

There might be one that's better and, and we'll see if it comes up. But after the summit, it may have only been like a day or two after, and I feel now, like it was just meant to happen. I somehow came across on my Instagram feed. It's not like it's someone new that I was following or anything like that.

But this women's conference that gets done here in San Antonio, and it was specifically for a call for speakers. And I was like, oh, you know, maybe I could do that. Right? And then I was sitting there and I was like, I can't do that. You know, like I'm too nervous to speak in front of people. I had all these back and forth conversations with myself, and then I was just like, wait, you just did this.

Right. You just did this and you can't make this decision out of fear, right? That was the first step was doing the summit. This is the next step. Like it's very obvious it's being put right in front of you, right? It's the next kind of thing that I need to do to move myself forward and move my business forward.

So I haven't heard yet, but I have submitted three separate topics for that women's conference, and I'm really excited. So I really am hoping that I get the opportunity to speak again, and I don't know that it would've been a step I would've been able to take without this because it is in person. So it's like for me, the summit was a first step because at least like we said, it's a webinar and you can't see how many people there are and you don't see face-to-face.

And so I think it was just the way it was meant to happen in this order. And so I'm excited to see how it keeps progressing. 

Debbie: You know, I was just thinking when you were talking, it's like, oh yeah, she's got her bio, she's got, you know, , the speech is already ready. You just have to modify and add your bio into the speech and a little bit about how you can work with you at the end, but you'd be like, it'd be ready to go.

Lyndsay: Yeah. It was so easy to do thanks to all the work that I've done and we've all done in this group. It was just like , you know, whatever time it literally just took me to type. I didn't have to think a lot about anything. It was like a lot of copy and paste from all the stuff that we gathered in the group. Yeah. 

Debbie: Yeah. All right, Erin, your turn. 

Erin: Again, it's pretty much everything that everybody has said, but I do have some speaking engagements kind of already booked, and that's kind of what I'm going to be doing. And so for me it was confidence in that. And then I have something already prepared. so if something comes up I can use that. Understanding webinar and Zoom a little bit more cuz I did not know how to do that from a speech standpoint.

So I'll be doing like Sue says, and starting my monthly webinars, weekly webinars, kind of stuff like that. It was good practice. you know, my desk is in the playroom, so, I thought about doing this reel where it's like me walking into my, some, some music and then showing off, like I'm just in the playroom upstairs and it just feels really weird, like walking off the stage, stepping on a Lego, you know what I mean?

So the concept of it was kind of funny, to build your confidence in, in your home instead of on a stage somewhere is an interesting dynamic, but it was, it was good. It was something that will propel me hopefully into the next few phases of what I have planned. 

Debbie: You do have that talk with Alabama something, something coming up.

So we need to talk about that. Yeah, that's interesting. Uh, when you talk about showing up at home, you do have to bring a little bit different energy when you're at home by yourself talking to a screen, and when you can't see anybody else, and you're not even really sure, like who's really actually there.

I mean, there's numbers on there of how many people, but you're not really sure who's there really. So, it is a little bit different kind of approach to it than, like you said, walking on stage. So, anyway. Alright. I would love to have, as we wrap this up, from each of you I would love to have suggestions on how you think that we could create a more positive experience for either you guys or for the attendees.

Is there something that comes up that you think we should change or we, I keep acting like I'm gonna do this, that should be changed. Or something maybe would be better. You know, I originally wanted to do this as a three day summit. I don't know what I would've been like after three days, but, or preparing for three days worth of speeches.

But, I don't know. What are you guys' thoughts? Does anybody have any feedback on what you think should be done, differently or what you would like to see? 

Erin: I think three days may have been a lot. I've been a part of some three day summits and they seem really long. I think the two and a half days for me was because I watched all of them. was a great timeframe. 

Debbie: Did you guys like the morning, afternoon, Friday, Saturday? What time did you like better? 

Sue: I would have preferred morning myself, but I was afternoon, which was fine. But morning is my time and I'm an early bird. 

Debbie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Stacy: I think having it on a Friday and on the Saturday was good because, and even in the morning and afternoon, I don't think you always know when people are available or aren't available. And I think on a Friday is nice cuz some people, you know, a lot of people are from home now.

They take maybe half a day or something, or they're able to get on, on a Friday morning because their kids are in school and it's a perfect time for them, right? But their kids are home on a Saturday. It might be harder, So it opened it up for all types of people to be able to attend when they can, and buy the replay if they need to.

And then some people, like we all, most of us were there the whole time, you know, as well. And I think between morning or afternoon regarding a speaker. It's just, yeah, like she said, your preference. I prefer being first and being done. And then I'm less nervous the whole time , like, I just wanna do it and be done.

But, um, I do think they'll, for, you know, the audience, I think it offered a variety for people who are moms, not moms working, not working. All kinds of guests take part. And then I would offer for us mindset coaching. Mindset. You know what? Just me, 

Debbie: It was actually scheduled. Yeah, there was mindset coaching that was scheduled. the person who was scheduled to do that, not able to do that, but I actually did have, it was going to be on the Sunday before and on either the Wednesday or Thursday right before the summit, so it was gonna be group mindset coaching. I looked for other, you know, I'm sure the coaches out there, like you could have called me, but you know, that was down to the wire. That was not the way that I expected that to turn out. So I do agree that mindset coaching would've been good. And even to almost have a mindset coach there, like on the, you know, summit with us almost. I think that would've been helpful.

Cynthia, Lindsay, Erin, e you got any feedback on what could change to make it better or what you'd like to see done differently? 

Cynthia: I was glad I was in the morning too and right after because whenever I'm gonna speak at something, I can't really focus on what's going on ahead of me until I get done.

So I was glad that I was the second on the second day, so I get to enjoy the rest of the time. And I felt so bad because I couldn't really pay attention to the one in front of me because I was just like so much in my head about what was about ready to happen. But, I thought it went well and I don't know if people that are not used to conferences and summits understand like, have your snacks and drinks there, you know, like kind of get cozy and, I don't know if we talked to people about, cuz my sister had never been involved in anything like that and she was like, Do we just sit there and is it one person all day long?

Like she was just so confused about what it was or what do you do? Because she's never experienced that before. So I explained to her, you know, they don't see you so you can get up and do other things. You could just have it in the background if you needed to, if you were like doing the dishes or whatever.

But, That, kind of maybe explaining to people that don't know what it is or don't understand what a summit is or haven't been to that. Like what does it mean? 

Debbie: That is super valuable. That is really good. Now, if I would've written the emails, you guys know me, I would've been like, grab a cup of coffee and come, whatever.

I would've been a little more looser than, and I shouldn't say I didn't write the emails, but you know, somebody else that was an expert that does this full-time rewrote the emails to make 'em sound a little more professional. She said they're a little, probably too happy or something.

So, but that right there, you're right. If we're trying to talk to people that don't know about life coaching, there's a high chance they've never done anything like this and they didn't know on their end what to expect either. 

Cynthia: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. 

Debbie: That's good. All right, Lyndsay? 

Lyndsay: No, I love that idea actually because you don't want someone to kind of self-select out because they think they're gonna be too busier cuz they're not gonna get time to maybe feed their kids when they come home from lunch or so. I like Cynthia's idea a lot of sharing that upfront. And also, I was gonna say, I love how the fact that like, our thoughts aren't fact is being revealed in this podcast even because everyone so far has said that they love the morning and I loved the afternoon, and I wanna be part of the afternoon because I don't get nervous unless I don't have time ahead of my speak to like mentally prepare myself or maybe look at my presentation again, whatever it is. I don't wanna have to jump outta bed, get ready and get on.

So I think for Debbie, if you were to do it again, it's probably just like there's gonna be times that work for everybody. And you're never gonna get it right. it's never gonna be perfect for all audiences. So I think it's just, I mean, you could have done it on a Monday and Tuesday and you would've had a, maybe a different 300 and some odd people, right?

So, I don't know. That's my take on it. We all like different things and so, I don't know that there's an exact right way to do it, but I definitely like the afternoon. 

Debbie: Well, it was interesting, so you guys had a different perspective than I did because I was, I mean, we were all there together, but I was really looking at the numbers and I was looking to see who was coming in and out, and thank god I had an assistant that literally stayed up 48 hours. Her night and day are opposite than ours. She stayed up there and kept that going, as a backup for me to make sure she had all you guys' slides, she had your videos. She had to make sure that nothing I, you know, I tried to cover every bases. You guys probably don't know this, but I even had Thais have my login and all that stuff in case my internet went down and I had a hard wire. But it was like, I don't wanna invite people and have any chance of anything that could go wrong, that is within my control. So, but what's interesting is on Friday morning there was the highest attendance. it dipped in the afternoon and then it sort of peaked back up. 

Saturday morning it was super slow. I mean, we got a late start on Saturday only by a few minutes, but because I was stalling trying to get people to come on. But what was interesting about the Saturday people is it was fewer people, but they were very engaged. I mean, I think they stayed engaged in every single talk that went on.

So it was like maybe the Saturday people were even fewer. They might have been actually sitting down at home with their laptop where the Friday people might have been maybe, you know, doing stuff around the house or maybe, maybe had been at work and listening, something like that. So, anyway, and the other thing, Cynthia, about what you said is to let people know that they could come only for one talk.

you know, it wasn't till after we were like a day from it, somebody was like, well, could I just come for whatever? And I'm like, yeah. But again, it's, they don't understand the technology, so they don't know they can log in and log out, so. 

Cynthia: Mm-hmm. Exactly. 

Debbie: Anyway, Erin, what's your feedback on that?

Erin: I think all of it's great. All the feedback is great. I think as a speaker now, granted my Talk was a little bit more facts like pumping out. I could have talked for a very long time, so, you know, from a speaker standpoint, morning or afternoon doesn't bother me. I don't even know if I went over, I don't, I have no idea.

I feel like maybe I did, I don't know. But, maybe just a little bit longer of talk time. But also I know from having so many different changes, that would've been really hard. So I can appreciate why the 30 minute time was so important, you know. I think it holds the attention better having the short clips, 30 minutes, you know.

Debbie: I had no evidence, but that's what I decided was the right amount of time. So, you're right Erin, for you, you could have probably used more time. I think almost everybody on Saturday went a little bit over, but again, I didn't have the hard start exactly at the top of the hour because I let us start a little bit late.

So I wasn't really sure exactly how it all ended up, but we ended up 30 minutes behind by the time we were done, which wasn't a huge deal. It doesn't seem like we lost people or lost engagement. So, all right. We should wrap it up cuz you guys that are listening to this, thank you for listening and staying here so long.

We appreciate it. I will leave all of you guys' links. All these coaches are for hire. They all wanna help you change your life. they wanna, you know, do what they know they're born to do. I want you to purchase the replay and listen to all of them, designlivethrive.com. schedule a consultation with them, buy some coaching from 'em.

Thank you guys so much. I mean, seriously, this is really just. It's been a highlight. I don't wanna say the highlight of all my coaching, cuz I wouldn't wanna hurt anybody's feelings, but it's been pretty darn fun for me, so I really, really appreciate it. 

All right, you guys have an amazing week. Until next time, bye-bye. 

Debbie: Okay ladies, that is it for today. Before we go, I want to invite you to head over to debbieshadid.com. I have this incredible Canva training, specifically designed for life coaches where I'm gonna teach you how to use Canva to create beautiful graphics to market your life coaching. All right. Have an amazing week.

I'll talk to you very soon. Bye bye.