101: Rich Brooks – How to Set Up Successful Online and In-Person Events
“Do you ever wonder what it takes to create your own event – a webinar, seminar, or conference – where you can position yourself as a thought leader as well as meet hundreds or thousands of potential clients?
Our guest for today is Rich Brooks, author of The Lead Machine and Founder of flyte new media & The Agents of Change. His company works with SMBs and nonprofits to help them increase their online visibility, drive more qualified traffic to their sites, and convert that traffic into leads and business.
In this episode, we talk about sales and personal growth, the importance of having a working website, and leveraging events – what makes a successful event, how to set it up, how to make sure people come – and a lot more.
There’s a lot to learn in this episode so click that play button to listen. Enjoy!
What Do You Do When Somebody Says ‘No’?
Rich actually had a background in sales. His previous job was selling products to nursing homes, and he did that for four years. And those were probably the most important four years of his life.
I was a very shy person; I had very little self-confidence.
My boss liked me and took me on the road, taught me a little bit about sales, I listened to all those sales tips and stuff like that. And so I learned a lot about sales, and also the process of not taking it personally.
I learned that just because somebody says ‘No’, it’s not a reflection necessarily on you. There’s a million reasons they might say no.
That was actually a huge part of my growth as a human being. I would say my sales job was possibly more important than me going to college. That’s how much of an impact it had on my life.
The Evolution of Sales
When Rich started out, he literally opened up the Yellow Pages and went down the Graphic Designers list. When he moved to Maine a couple of years later, he did the same thing. He called up each graphic designer on the list and found the ones that were looking to do more websites but didn’t know how to do it and developed a relationship with them.
That was an early way in which he grew.
These days, a lot of our sales comes through inbound marketing, which is what we do for a lot of our clients.
We do things like search engine optimization, paid search, Facebook ads, a lot of content marketing – that sort of stuff. That’s been a big component that’s really grown over the years.
And then the third leg I guess would be putting on events. Small events that take place in our office, sometimes we do these masterclasses and we limit it to six people.
On the other side of the spectrum, we put on this event called Agents of Change, which brings in 400 people, and then maybe another 100-200 people who buy virtual passes.
Work on Your Website
Everybody’s an armchair detective. Everybody’s already done a lot of the research online.
If you’re not putting out on your website all the information they need to make a decision, then they’re gonna go to your competitor’s website to get that same information.
I’m all about putting out that content. I try and share as much as I possibly can.
