Online Summits – Are They Right for Introverts & HSPs?

Emma-Louise: [00:00:00] Hi, welcome to this week’s solo episode of the ambitious introvert with me, Emma Louise, where I’m going to provide a summary of summits. So looking at all the different kinds of events in the online space, there are so many ways that we can share our expertise. So many ways that we can learn from other people, ways that we can connect masterclasses, bootcamps challenges live.

Summits. And I thought it would be interesting to take a deeper look at summits, particularly because it seems to be the season at the moment I’ve seen so many of them mentioned, I’ve seen so many people tagged on Instagram because they’re featured in summits and. Actually a appearing in a few summits myself later on this quarter.

So I just thought it would be really great opportunity to delve into it a little bit more. Now, if you’re not familiar with a summit, a summit is an event where. A load of [00:01:00] experts are brought together and there’s generally an overriding theme. So maybe it is a summit for busy mums who are looking to start their business, or maybe it is a summit all about marketing, not using social media, for example.

So there’s usually an overarching theme, which is either an outcome that tends in the summit will help you to achieve, or it’s aimed at very specific type of person. I E an introverted entrepreneur. So what this means is that there’s generally a lot of value. If you are the person that the summit is aimed up, then you’re generally going to be really be able to dip in and watch.

Trainings from various people, but it’s all going to be relevant to what you do. And they are usually accessed either via email or Facebook group. They can run anything from one day up to I’ve seen seven day summits, probably even longer, but they’re generally broken down so that there’s access to [00:02:00] specific trainings on specific days.

Um, which means, like I say, you get really great opportunity to dip in and out and. See, what’s there. See who is useful and see what you can learn. So maybe you’re a business owner and maybe you are considering running stuff. Maybe you are looking to extend your reach of your audience and be quite fancy being a speaker at a summit, or maybe you fancy attended a summit, but you’re not sure.

Well, either way, I’m going to cover all of the pros and cons for all of those categories right here today. So firstly, let me just say, I have been part of quite a few summits, but I have never run. So my thoughts and opinions here are based on being at the other side of seeing them run of having clients that have run them and also friends that have run them.

The good thing about running summit. It’s an [00:03:00] excellent way to establish yourself as an expert, if you are the person whose name is on the summit, and you’re basically gathering up all of these other experts within your field and hosting them and presenting them to your audience. This is a really great way to establish yourself as the go-to person in that field.

It’s also a really great way to make connections. You know, many summits now are more interview style, so you’d actually be chatting with the person and that recording would be the presentation. Some of the master pre-record face to cam like with slides and masterclasses and stuff, but I I’ve seen the trend this year, be a lot more conversational interview style.

So it’s a really great way to expand your own network as well with other business owners that may be. In the same field, but with a different zone of genius, not doing exactly the same thing, so really great way to extend your network and the main reason that people host [00:04:00] summits. It’s a really, really great way to grow your email list and your audience.

Especially those of you that are less into social media, then email list growth is the, with the place to focus for your business. For sure. So if you can host a summit and you get access to. Yeah, you’re saying it’s going to be emailed to all of the people that are on the speakers lists. It’s a really, really great way to reach new audiences and the not so lots of positives of running a summit.

I have been told, and I can truly be. It takes a lot of time and admin in the background summits can often have 50 speakers. And if you think about design and all of the tech, all of the connections, the affiliate links, the sales pages, making sure that the sales copy is written, creating graphics, emails, calendar [00:05:00] management recordings.

There’s a lot, lot, lot of moving parts. If you are already an established business owner and you are busy, that is going to be a lot to add to your plate. So I would definitely consider outsource into a project manager, or if you have a VA that is skilled in those areas, having someone else to do the backend work, because it would be really easy to go down the tunnel.

Oh, Arranging the summit and not actually get much else done in your business. That is the one thing I would say to consider. Okay. So being a speaker at a summit, I have been a speaker many times. Uh, I was lucky enough to do a summit in my first year of business, a quite a few last year. in fact side note, I did too many last year.

And he got a little bit burnt out and I got invited to a few later on in the year that I had to say no to because energetically, I was not in a good place and it actually made me reassess a lot [00:06:00] of boundaries and my, hell yeses and hard nose, which if you’re a regular listener you’d be familiar with and I actually made life summits a hard, no.

which I’ll talk about and say, So the pros, the good things about being speaker, there are many good things. I love doing summits. It’s great. You get in front of a new audience, which is amazing. Especially if, like I say, the summit is very specific to your people. So for me, if it’s a safe introverts, that’s amazing because probably you would hope.

Emma-Louise: Everyone that’s going to sign up to it is literally going to be an introvert. So that is an amazing way for me to be in front of new people. Also a great way for me to grow my email list. Same way as hosted a summit does. So quite often. You’ll be asked if you’d like to contribute something for free or one of your products at discounted rate.

And then if people go on to buy unfair IP upgrade or bundle or something, and [00:07:00] they then download that product, they come onto your email list. So really, really great way to grow your audience too. And it also adds a lot of credibility. So if you are newer to business and you are looking to. I guess build up that credibility of, you know, you’ve been featured in, or you’ve been hosted on this podcast or all of these great media features that help people to trust us, then being a speaker at a summit is a really great way to do that.

You can add it onto your website. You can add it to something that you have done. You can even ask the, the summit host for, a testimonial and feedback and get really, really great way to. At that featured on credibility and now the not so positives of being a speaker at summit, the audience may not be that lines.

So this is something I learnt last year, just because it’s a summit for entrepreneurs, or maybe it’s a summit for people looking to scallop business. They may not be your [00:08:00] people. I mean, some of them will be without doubt, but it may not be. So when we thinking about the time and the effort that’s going into being a speaker, we have to also look at this is the audience aligned also are the other speakers and the host aligned.

There is nothing worse. than signing up to a summit and then seeing the speaker list. And there are people that you just do not resonate with. They don’t have the same values as you. You do not want your face next to theirs on a graphic that is going to be around on the internet for time in Memorial.

Like making sure that it is really, really aligned and you feel good about the people that you’ll be featured with is that’s a strong boundary to hold for sure If it’s a phobic summit with a lot of speakers, then people may not hear you. It’s not a guaranteed way, but a lot of the marketing for summits is like, oh, you’ll get in front of a potential audience of 25,000 people or something like that.

[00:09:00] And it is potential because no one could be made to watch your presentation or interview. So do bear in mind, especially if it’s a smaller reach, you could put a lot of effort in and not many people may want. Two of the things that have made me quite cautious about speaking in summits first is the marketing requirements.

So obviously it’s mutually beneficial to everyone. We want to market the summit because we want our people to come in and, and watch it. And we want other people to market it so that people come in and watch it so that we all get in front of each of those audiences. That in and of itself is great, but some summits have very strict marketing requirements.

So I learned this the hard way and one that required a minimum of three emails to my list. And it also required a lot of posting on social media. And there was a lot [00:10:00] of graphics that it was my responsibility to interchange. I had to keep the graphic, but I had to put my own picture and title and all of this and send in three emails to my list at that time felt a lot.

because it was three within a short timeframe and on top of my own emails, that felt a little bit awkward. Maybe think about this time and in, as you know, if you are launching as well, and then you’re part of a summit, that’s requiring you to send a specific amount of emails that could be overload for a lot of people.

Emma-Louise: So do you check the mark to requirements and what you’ll be expected to do in advance? Of course you can always do more, but just be careful if you’re being asked to do over and above as a. And the last thing that can be not so great is whether it’s a life summit or not. And either of those can be not great.

It really depends on you. So. for me I love doing things live. I’ve got no issue at all with just [00:11:00] hopping on a and ad-libbing, which is pretty much what I’m doing for this podcast right now. I am not someone that needs to be very, very prepared, but some people are. So if you are someone that likes to be very prepared and you like to be able to edit and look back and perfect things then a live summit may not be for you because that is your slot.

You’ve got to turn up, you’ve got to do it. And then it’s kind of on to the next speaker The reason that I do not like live summits anymore because of the time zones, that has been the biggest thing for me. I did. And it ended up being 9:00 PM at night, which is not my time at all. I should be tech off in bed, but it seemed like a good opportunity.

And I thought, no, I’m going to do it. I’m going to push myself out of my comfort zone, but I immediately regretted it and I didn’t have a great ROI from that summit at all. It didn’t reach many people and I just felt the whole day, like I was waiting to do something absolutely dreading to do it. So if it has been prerecorded.[00:12:00] 

I could’ve made it a time. That suits me. That would have been absolutely fine. So the live aspect can be good, but it can be bad. Okay. So if you are listening to this and you’re like, I’m not going to run a summit and I’m not quite ready to speak at one, but I do like this idea of attending a virtual event where I’m going to get all of this expertise just delivered to me and I don’t have to go looking for it.

And maybe attending a summit is the way to go. So the good thing is summits are free. So this is amazing. There’s no adverts, it’s not social media. So it’s all free, usually delivered, like I say to your inbox every day, or be a member of a Facebook group. And you just go into that and the recordings of that.

So it’s really great, really great way to sample. A lot of experts without any commitment, because you could start watching someone’s masterclass and go, not vibing, not feeling it stop. [00:13:00] That’s it then. And you haven’t made a big time investment. You haven’t made a big financial investment. You’ve just got the opportunity to see some.

Not just on their social media, trying to sell, but actually delivering some value the way they may to a client. This is really, really great way to get that kind of knowledge. And there’s often an option to upgrade to a paid version of the summit. They vary in price, but this gives you access to resources at quite heavy discount quite often.

Speakers of the summit, we’ll pull together to make a bundle and then it will be one of their products that you would usually that would usually cost. Maybe a few hundred dollars can be accessed as part of this bundle. So maybe if 50 different people are there and the bundle say $97, that could be great value for something that would usually be thousands and thousands.

The other great thing about the upgrade option is it gives you longer accents. Usually do [00:14:00] check this, if you longer access to the replays and the interviews and the last classes, which I will come to very soon in the, not so positive parts of attendance. So summits can be really overwhelming. And if you’re my people and I think you are getting overwhelmed is, you know, it, it happens.

It happens. So if this is a summit with a lot of speakers, It can feel really great. And like I say, it’s a really great way to sample lots of experts and get lots of knowledge. But if you attend a free version of summit, it’s very often time limited. So it’s often, you know, those speakers are up for that day or for two days, or maybe you get access to them for a week or whatever it is.

Which again is great, but don’t get overwhelmed feeling like I have to watch everything and then start to watch everything and then get overwhelmed and give up. Been there. I would say, decide in advance. [00:15:00] Based on the current needs of your business. So there may be a presentation in that that is about, I don’t know, scaling to seven figures, but if you’re literally just starting out and trying to send your first client, it’s probably not the best use of your time.

Even though those things are really enticing and we want to watch them and learn because we’re ambitious. I would say if there’s a lot of speakers, decide in advance, look through the speakers, look through the topics and think, is this really going to benefit? In the immediate future, say, am I going to use something from this in the next three months, this will enable you to prioritize and make sure that you don’t feel like you’ve just got to watch everything for the sake of it, but that you are watching the right things that are.

Also you could upgrade is another option. so for, like I say, usually a small investment that quite often gives access to the presentations for a lot longer. So if you do feel that overwhelmed time pressure, that could be a way to alleviate it. But I think the most [00:16:00] important thing here is that planning in advance is key and making sure that you know, which other things that you really, really want to consume.

So that said, I am very excited about three summits in particular that I’ve got coming up this quarter. I want to share a few more details of, so the first is the introvert preneur summit with the lovely Tara Reed you may recognise Tara. She’s been a guest here on the ambitious introvert and talking about blogging to grow your business.

And this is the second introvert preneur summit. I was also. Took part in last year’s, it’s an excellent summit Tara does a really great job of organizing it and she brings together some really great names. She’s got over 45 speakers this year, and this is a great all rounder. If you’re an introvert and you’re newer to business and you are looking to.

Start or grow your business in the online space. I would highly highly recommend it. [00:17:00] Secondly, and very excitingly this year. I’m part of the quietly influential summit. So this is co-founded by Fifi Mason and Matthew palette. Again, if you listened to the podcast, you’ll remember Matthew, Matthew is the author of the introverts way books.

So interest’s way to sell in and first switch networking and. This is. Really, really a great summit because I’m not allowed to say I’m not allowed to announce the speakers, but I’ve had a sneak peek at the guest list. And it’s really good. It’s very, very good, very high profile speakers and quite a few that I haven’t seen before in introvert circles online.

So obviously there are the introvert summits and podcasts and for groups and, you know, we see the same people pop up. But when I look through Matthew and fi. Speaker list. I only knew one other person, no two. So two, I needed two of the people and I think there’s [00:18:00] over 25. So I, myself am very excited to dig into that one and learn from some new people.

And the lastly. The HSP entrepreneur summit, finally, S HSPs are being looked after in the online space. Thank you to the lovely Rose Cox. Now rose connected with me at the end of last year to invite me to be a speaker. And the first summit that she hosted and I was in summit burnout summits were no at that at that time for me.

It was, I think it was the final quarter of the year, or I was wrapping up my certification or something. There was, it just did not fit in my calendar in the slightest. There were time difference issues. It was just, it was a very hard, no to say, but it was the right note to say at that time, under the lesson and boundaries.

Anyway, luckily it was a huge success and Rosanna stayed connected. She’s amazing. And. She’s hosting it again [00:19:00] this year. So as I say, HSP, thrilled to see HSP has been catered for and specific. And I’ve also looked through the guest list of this one and there are some really great presentations, not just about business, but really tailored to ask sensitive needs.

As HSPs and business. So really happy for that. I’m going to drop all of those links down below in the show notes. If you think you might be interested in attending any of those, then give them a clip. Do you have a look through, see how you feel? See if anything resonates. See if you think that it would be a good investment of your time.

And if you are thinking about running a summit or you like best speaker at a summit, then I hope this has. Being useful and given you some ideas of what you should be thinking about. So once again, the links are going to be in the show notes. Also, if you are not on my email [00:20:00] list, that is a good place to be because I will be sharing details of these summits and other exciting things.

So to be kept updated, do sign up. You can use the free. Success reading list link, which is in the show notes and by downloading the redone list, which is basically every book that has been recommended on this podcast from day one, it gets updated quarterly. You can download that for free, that will automatically add you to the email list where you’ll be kept updated on.

All kinds of good goings on just like summits in the online space that are relevant to us as introverted, empathic sensitive entrepreneurs. So thank you again, and I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful week. See you next week. Thank you so much for tuning in. And before you go, I would just love to remind you that next month sees the return of the ambitious introvert mastermind.

I am so excited for brown five. I’ve made some [00:21:00] amazing upgrades to the mastermind, include an add in all of the tools and resources that I learned in my X certification. As well as adding group energy clearing sessions to, I’m not going to bore you with all of the details here, but if you ask someone that is looking to grow your business and be part of a really small curated group of other introverted sensitive entrepreneurs to cheer each other along, then do check out the link in the show notes for more information.