Tom Bailey 0:07
Hello and welcome to Succeed Through Speaking. The place for experts and entrepreneurs who want high value ideas to boost business results.
Hello, I'm Tom Bailey and in today's episode I'll be getting started Liam Austin, who is the co founder of entrepreneurs, HQ, and a virtual event strategist, having launched over 15 virtual summits, and 400 speakers and educating 100,000 plus business owners through these programmes. So Liam, hello, and a very warm welcome to today's episode.
Liam Austin 0:46
Yeah, cheers, Tom. Thanks for inviting me on.
Tom Bailey 0:48
I really appreciate you being here and out of interest for a guest me other listeners whereabouts in the world are you right now.
Liam Austin 0:54
I'm in Sweden right now. But I'm Australian and fun, little factory. But the local weatherman that I grew up with in Australia in Sydney. He was super famous, like super cool kind of surfer guy. His name's Tim Bailey. So yeah, you've got some similarities there.
Tom Bailey 1:17
Maybe a distant relation, we'll have to look into that. Brilliant Oh, thank you so much for sharing that I just want to share a little bit more about you before we get started. So Liam is also the creator of the million dollar virtual summit programme. And it's a six week implementation programme called Virtual events that sell makes it easy for you to create your own high impact virtual events, from workshops, and masterminds to summits and conferences, with the end goal of selling more of your high ticket offer. The title for today's episode is how to run 90 minute virtual workshops that fill your courses and programmes. Liam's gonna show us how to do these in just seven minutes. So Kristen wants days, who are your typical ideal clients.
Liam Austin 2:02
So anyone who wants to be known as the go to expert in their niche, or the authority and have credibility with their own email list, their audience? So typically, we look at our clients being speakers, authors, podcast hosts, anyone who Yeah, really wants to have more authority with their potential clients.
Tom Bailey 2:26
Great. Love it nice and concise. And before your clients work with you, what would you say is typically the biggest challenge that they face?
Liam Austin 2:35
Not enough exposure authority. So maybe there's not a big enough email list or audience there. So typically, we work to address that, how do we get in front and reach much more larger audience gain more exposure, and gain a know, like and trust factor with that audience? So they want to do business with us, essentially? And then it's like, Well, okay, I like this person. I've got a bit of trust there. But like, are they the right person? For me? Do they have the authority? Do I see them as the go to expert. And that's essentially what we like to do, we like to make sure we address all of that. So becomes much easier once you have that conversation about bringing someone on board into your courses and programmes. It feels like a natural conversation to have. Right?
Tom Bailey 3:26
I love it. And I guess for those people that don't have enough of an email list or enough of an audience or impact, and what impact might this have on either them or their business as an entrepreneur,
Liam Austin 3:37
you're so more more traffic, more leads more exposure just means more more clients more revenue at the back end. And typically, I mean, we've run events, as you know, Tom's introduction shared. But we've been running events, virtual events, since 2015. I've had over 20,000 people attend just one of these events. But they it's really big spikes in email list and audience. And then once the events over it disappears. Yeah, so we put a big focus on Well, if we run an event, once, whether it's a workshop or a summit, we want to make sure it's recorded. And if the funnels are built by the system, the tech, the emails, the copy, the sales pages are all built, we want to turn that evergreen and sell it as like a mini course, essentially, so that we can get predictable, traffic predictable and consistent flow of leads coming in that we can turn into clients and then a predictable income and revenue stream for the business.
Tom Bailey 4:40
Nice. I love it. And I guess this predictability and consistency in terms of revenue and prospecting is so important for these business owners. So what would you say is one piece of valuable advice that you might give to somebody who's thinking about starting in this space?
Liam Austin 4:57
Yes, sometimes A lot of people I speak to are maybe nervous about getting on camera, especially pre COVID, where everyone was like I'd rather meet in person, I'm a veteran person, talk to the person, that confidence on camera. If you're natural, and just yourself and your authentic about it, it does become very easy. Once you just take that leap to do your first speaking engagement or host a q&a or just interview someone, it can be as simple as that. And the best advice is just jump up and do your first interview. And it might be with someone that's an existing colleague, client, someone that you've feel comfortable with. So that first conversation, that first interview presentation that you host, the first event that you host doesn't feel as such a big leap. It can be something small, like our 90 minute workshops, where maybe it's just you teaching, and you teach on something that you know, inside and out, you feel really familiar with, you know, whenever you teach someone this, this thing, whether it's a tactic, or a strategy, or a tool or a technique, they always like, it's like an aha moment for them. They're like, so thankful, or they look back. And they're like that moment in time where you're taught that one thing was amazing. So it should be something that's very simple for you to teach, teach it just in 90 minutes, it's something you know, really well. So should be very easy for you to present, this doesn't only match time preparing. And you spend, say, a week, actually filling the room. So marketing the event. And that's where really you focus on marketing the event to teach this thing that you know, really well. And you know, it, doesn't it, maybe you get half a dozen or a dozen or a few dozen people, they're awesome, great, you get that first one under your belt, and you see the those aha moments your attendees get from the event, gives you that confidence to do it again again,
Tom Bailey 7:01
right? Yeah, I love it. And I love that point you made about starting small because I always say that confidence comes from competence. So if you can just get that first one under your belt, the next one get a lot easier and just build from there. So the next question for me then is based on our visit, somebody is listening and trying to think maybe I could get involved with all of this. What's that one resource that you want to offer to people to help them get started?
Liam Austin 7:25
Yeah, sure. So I love step by step processes and systems. So I felt like checklists would be great to actually create and run your very first 90 minute workshop. So very, very simple to create, you know, you're creating and teaching something that you know, really, really well it's just about really marketing it, but how do we pull it all together. So it's a virtual workshop checklist, and it's literally every step every little thing you need to do to run your very first successful workshop in just 90 minutes that will help you identify and build those relationships with your prospects to enrol more people clients into your courses in progress.
Tom Bailey 8:13
Great love it and where can people get hold of that? Yeah, go to quick workshop
Liam Austin 8:17
when.com you can just download it there enter in your your name and email and you will be able to grab that that checklist as well as it's like a nine page PDF with some we go into real detail. So it's not just like something download like a sheet thing. Yeah, one pager, it's like, yes, seven pages. I think don't quote me on that. But there's a lot of information in there just any details about how to how to run that yourself. Great.
Tom Bailey 8:40
Thanks. That was I'll put that link in the show notes as well, quick workshop when.com. And people can download that today. So next question for me is obviously you've been in this game for a little while now. What would you say is one of your greatest either mistakes or learnings that you've made along the way?
Liam Austin 8:57
Yeah, sure. So I started working in a startup in Sydney, in the year 2000. Yeah, I started 21 years ago. And ever since then, I've been hooked like this was a business that was having a huge impact on the world. I was in the dating niche. So as Mark matching people, people were getting married, and we're inviting to their weddings, it was amazing impact we're having on the world. And ever since then, I just was trying to figure out the right business that I could have as big an impact is that and when I got my first summit, that really changed everything for me in 2015. And it took me a year from 2002, three, to 2015 to really have an impact to grow business to make money online to have this predictable income machine working in my business for me so I don't have to work so much freeing up my time. And so the biggest mistake was just like trying to figure this off. And making mistake after mistake after mistake and just realising one thing you really need to launch a business and I mean there's plenty of other things I'm sure the only thing that really worked for me and I've seen works for hundreds of our clients is running your own either virtual summit or virtual workshop because it just really announces you to the world. Build your authority, build your email list, and helps you enrol. more clients.
Tom Bailey 10:24
Love it sounds like a no brainer, every listing, get involved, look up Liam online and download that checklist. And yeah, I'm sure this will help make a big impact in your business too. So, Liam, thank you so much again for your time today. I really appreciate you coming along and add in such great value to our audience.
Liam Austin 10:39
champion. Thanks very much for inviting me Tim... Tom... Tom!
