Mastering Event Success: Insider Secrets with Jessie Schwartzburg

0:01 Welcome to The Coaching Equation, brought to you by Empire Partners and hosted by Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop. Our mission is to help you build a profitable and impactful coaching business by cutting through the noise and all the expert advice to deliver tried and true, actionable insights that you can deploy in your business today. Each week, we bring on expert guests, unveil cutting-edge tactics and strategies, and share the secrets and stories that we've gathered from working with the most successful coaching companies on earth. Welcome to Episode 7 of the Coaching Equation Podcast.

0:42 I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners, alongside my co-host and co-founder, Brooke Bishop. And in this episode, we are diving deep with event producer extraordinaire, Jesse Schwartzberg. Jesse has over 25 years of industry experience specializing in speaker, author, and celebrity events. She's produced events all over the world. Prior to starting her company, she served as the West Coast Regional Director of the Learning Annex. And some of her former and current clients include Your Best Life, Tony Robbins, Bo Eason, Shalene Johnson, J.J. Virgin, and John Assariff, among several others.

1:26 In addition to that, she's co-produced the Real Estate Wealth Event Expo. Headlining names such as Susie Orman, Pitbull, Magic Johnson, Damon John, Need I Go On. This gal is a boss when it comes to putting on incredible events. Now, during the episode here, we're going to dig deep on how to put on a profitable event. One of the hardest things to do in the world of events is to actually do it profitably. Jesse's going to give you the secrets to that. What do people really care about when they come to events? What's actually important? What are some of the biggest mistakes that Jesse sees people making when they go do their first event?

2:07 Whether you are an event veteran, whether you are a beginner as it relates to events, or whether you're just thinking about putting on something amazing, this is an episode you absolutely need to hear. Let's dig in with Jesse Schwartzberg on Episode 7 of The Coaching Equation. Welcome back to The Coaching Equation podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Lang, alongside Brooke Bishop. And we've got a good friend and colleague in the house today, Jesse Schwartzberg. Good to see you, gal. Hi there. How are you guys doing? Good. Awesome. We have been super excited for this, Jess. And before we really get into this and what we're going to be talking about today, we're going to be really diving into events and speaking and some of the biggest pitfalls, how to do it right.

2:55 What are the biggest mistakes, all of that stuff. But before we even go there... I'd love for you to share just a little bit about how you ended up... I mean, first of all, describe what you do right now in your business and how you help people. And then let's talk a little bit about how you got into this in the first place. Sure. So I am an event producer. I have over 25 years experience. And my niche is I help speakers, authors and celebrities. So every type of event I produce is going to have a speaker, author, celebrity on stage. Recently, the past, I would say, three years since COVID, my events have really, really turned to like immersive experiential events.

3:38 So I'm still producing those, you know, maybe an annual event. an AGM and annual investors meeting, but I'm taking these events and putting a spin on them, making them immersive, just not your regular boring ballroom events that the world has been so known for in the past. My path to how I got here was really when I was in college, I was a broadcast journalism major. I was an anchor at my college station, University of Kansas. And when I graduated college, I kid you not, I had a quarter life crisis. I realized I don't even like watching the news. What am I doing? The news is sad. It's depressing. It's a scary world. What am I going to do? What am I going to do?

4:19 So I just had this core life crisis. I moved out to San Diego, lived on the beach in this little beach house with a bunch of friends. I was trying to figure it out. A company called The Learning Annex was hiring. And if you guys remember The Learning Annex from back in the 80s, 90s, early 2000s, it was the event company that put on events with speakers, authors, celebrities. So I got a job with them. And that's really how I got my start doing events. I have had my own company for 10 years. I've worked with pretty much every single bestselling author that there is out there. For three years, I was executive producer of Tony Robbins Live Events. That's how Brooke and I met. But yeah, it's been a really fascinating journey so far, working with all these experts in their fields.

5:03 One cool piece, when I first met Jessie, she was running the... I don't remember if it was Date with Destiny or UPW. I'm trying to remember which was the first event that I actually met you at. But I remember you had on your Converse that were just awesome. And I was like, who is this girl rocking Converse at our event? I was like, that was rad. But he's absolutely smashed the events that we had there. It was pretty wild. And what a lot of people may not know, when you're running events of that magnitude, the numbers just become that much more critical and that much more important. And I don't remember what the percentage was. But I remember Tony was very, very happy at how much money you saved on those events when you took over. So Jesse's kind of a badass. Not gonna lie. Thank you.

5:43 Yeah, that's interesting. Events. can be really expensive to put on. They don't have to be. I mean, I can give you some of your audience tips and tricks of how to do affordable events. But when you're doing big arena events, like we did with Tony Robbins, that are the $10,000 to $35,000, those budgets are $10 to $40 million to put on, right? They're crazy. And they can scale, they can spiral out of control really, really fast. So yes, I did come in and kind of peeked under the hood and saved them a lot of money, which was rewarding. Yeah. I love that we're talking about this because Jesse, one of the things that I really appreciate having worked with you as well and another venture that we're both still involved in. When I listen to people, especially in the coaching space, talk about events.

6:27 And really, I should say when I listen to people who have actually done events, not the ones who would like to do events, but that have actually done them. If you just don't lose your ass... On the event, it's like there's a badge of honor if you just don't get crushed on the thing. And one of the things that I love about working with you is that you're so good at not just projecting ahead of time, but making sure along the way that we've done multiple events together that have made plenty of money, which is definitely the exception to the rule for most that go out and run events. For a minute, let's talk to the person who has done some events and they're in that crowd of, hey, I would just love to not get my ass handed to me on the next one.

7:16 If I broke even, I'd be really happy. And if I made a couple of bucks, I'd be even happier. For that group, let's start there. What are a couple of high level things that you see that could help that group kind of turn the tide from I'm losing money, maybe it's not a ton, but I'm still losing money to, hey, I broke even or I made a little bit on this one? Listen, when you're putting together an event budget, the biggest line item is going to be your venue costs, right? So whether you're going to a hotel or a theater or a local library, I mean, that is your biggest chunk. So the first thing I would say is, you know, most people are like, I need to do an event in a ballroom and a hotel.

7:57 And I would say, but do you, right? Could you... Do it in a library, a community center. One of my clients, Boisa and I have an event coming up. We do it in a theater in La Jolla. The beauty of that is you walk in, all the sound, light, videos, chairs, it's all there, right? So it's like, we're not having to stack on all these costs. When you go into a ballroom, you're in an empty box, a room with carpet, right? So now you're having to add sound, light, video, team, hotel rooms. So it's like, could it be in a theater? Could it be in a concert hall? Could it be at your kid's school? Right? That's a big, big cost saver that I would say. The second thing is looking at it like, I mean, I always want to put an event together.

8:41 I reverse engineer. What is the end outcome? Is this a fulfillment event for my clients? I sold a coaching package. Now I need to get together and do a meetup. Am I doing this to make money? Am I doing this because I want to make content, right? So you have to really ask yourself that. But yes, the ultimate goal is break even on your event. Don't lose it in any of those scenarios, right? Well, other ways you can make money on events though is are you going to make an offer at the event? Are you selling a high ticket item like a mastermind or coaching program? If you're not personally going to make the offer, there's other ways where you can have some of your other speakers sell from the stage and you take a percentage of their stage. Now, in our industry, it is typical that if you're speaking on someone else's stage and you're going to make an offer, whoever's producing that event, putting that event on...

9:30 is going to take a 20% to 60% cut of your sale. Back in the day, I was on the road for 8 years producing this real estate wealth expo. Huge names spoke at it. These were big, big 10 to 25,000 person shows. And the model that we did for that show was it would be a content speaker followed by a sales speaker, a content speaker followed by a sales speaker. And when I say content speakers, I mean like the big keynote. the people that would get the butts in seats, right? All of those sales speakers that we sandwiched in between, we started at first, we took 40% of their sale. Then we took 50% of their sale. Then we took 60% of their sale. And guess what? People were lining up to be on our stage because we were the ones that had to foot the bill, pay the money to have those big headliners like Tony Robbins there and put butts in seats.

10:16 So that is another way to make money with your events is either you sell or you have someone else on stage that sells it. Now I'll put it in perspective too. One of the clients that Ryan, you and I both like work with, right? We were putting together an event in Greece and the budget was looking like, Ooh, we were maybe going to be at a little bit of a loss. Well, one of our speakers is a real estate speaker. And I'm like, let me have a make an offer. I'm just going to make an offer and I'm going to pull them aside. And I don't want it to be an icky sales pitchy thing. I just, hey, by the way, if you want to go further with me, I offer this real estate syndication program. This is how much it costs. It was so low key, not gross the way he sold. But I had already talked to him ahead of time. And I said, if you sell, we're getting 20% of that sale.

10:58 Okay. So it was a $10,000 product. We took $2,000. What ended up happening with that is an event that I thought we were going to maybe lose some money on. We ended up making a profit of $20,000 just because we took that cut of his sale. So that's just another little tool to keep in your toolkit. So smart. I love that. Let me ask you a question. I want to just piggyback on something that you said. You've worked with so many incredible speakers, authors, you name it. What are the couple top qualities that come to mind for you for those people that you feel are the best at selling from stage? Because that truly is an art. They have completely orchestrated their presentation and their pitch.

11:40 Okay. They've started with the offer and then they reverse engineer into their talk, right? So you're leaving little sales seeds along the way. Now, the ones that are pitching from the stage, the best thing that they do is they try to get that table rush, meaning they're going to try to get people out of their seats, running to the back table to get in on that offer. And the way you do that is a couple of things. One, you do an event special, right? Like this is the best price you're ever going to get this for. And legit, have integrity with that. If they looked online and they saw your product for $10,000 and you're selling it for $10,000 there, like legit, make it the best event special there. Also, you want to stack in all these event special bonuses.

12:21 I call one of them that I think is so key as a fast action bonus item, something physical. Okay. So for the next 50 people that get to the back table, you're not only going to get this program that I'm offering for a thousand dollars off the best price that you're ever going to find it for, but you're going to get all these event specials, including this fast action bonus item. So the fast action bonus item, I like it to be something physical and that they're taking with them and they're walking around. It's like they're bragging, right? I got in. I'm one of the top 50. So let me give an example. I'm getting ready to do an event in Vegas. It's called Grow With Video Live. It's a bunch of creators, content creators that come in and learn how to basically scale their businesses through YouTube.

13:03 One of the fast action bonus items is a whole gear kit, right? So it's in a bag. It's got a Rode microphone, tangible stuff that they can use. Small, though, that they can travel home with, right? Nothing huge. Like, I don't want to give them a big, huge camera. It's like a little small road mic and a little tiny gear bag, but just a physical something that they're going to take home with them. Now, a lot of times you can get these fast action bonus items from your sponsors, right? So road partners. with my client. So they've donated these 50 microphones because they want the product plug anyways. So you can get creative on these fast action bonus items. And then the other thing is the best salespeople have the best coaches that are training backstage saying, Hey, listen, last time you, I'm going to transcribe this for this.

13:51 I want you to watch this ahead of time. You nailed this. This is what you did. Great. This is what you need a little improvement on. So they have They've tweaked their presentation every time. And then they have that sales coach, the me's in the world, the brooks, the Ryan's in the world that are on site with them, building table heat at the back. So when I go on site with a client, I'm training the sales team. Now, keep in mind, a lot of times these sales teams are volunteers, right? Or they're temp workers. They don't know. But I will say to them, look, I'm going to get on the table and I'm going to be batshit crazy. I'm doing this intentionally. I'm going to be on the table and I'm going to be one, two, three. Let me have your form.

14:31 We're almost out. Okay. It's like this orchestrated thing that we're doing to build heat at the table. So that's important too. If you're not going to hire a sales coach to be with you on site, that's fine. But just make sure you've taken that sales team ahead of time or your team upside ahead of time and set up. Here's all the things we need to do. I want to order the forms. I want to have the fast action bonus items. I want to give the event special. Okay. So all that's so important. offer one sheet. That's what's so important too. Some people's offers get like out of control. They're so long and you lose people. It doesn't fit on a half a sheet of paper, what it is you're selling. You're in trouble, big trouble. There's so much gold in what anyone who's listening, go back and listen to that whole last segment.

15:12 If you're running an event that was like literally millions and millions of dollars of experience wrapped into one little segment right there. You're my dog. I'm sorry. She's... It's okay. We're canine friendly here. You're welcome dogs. Okay. Okay. But no, I remember we ran an event in Vegas. I remember one of the things that you and I had a conversation prior to that event, we created a cheat sheet because the sales team, you're absolutely right. So many of them were volunteers or they just really wanted to support and be there and helping. And with creating that half sheet, we created this two-sided piece for all of our salespeople. One side was, here's all the frequently asked questions, the things that you're likely going to get asked. And here's the right answers because what will end up happening when you get that rush, we get people that would come back with questions and you see all the volunteers looking around with like deer and headlights and like, I don't know how to answer this.

16:02 And so they would try and then bring people around and it just clusters up everything. And so I know that there was, yeah, creating that heat that was there, but also making sure that that team was fully supported so they could answer those questions and just get people to sign. But yeah, there's so much gold in what you just shared in terms of both keeping your offers stacked the heck out of it. So there's the incentive, but also make sure it's not so complicated that you lose everybody because it's just madness. Yeah. And the thing was, when I said you make your offer sheet and you only get a half a sheet, because guess why? The top part is what you're getting in your program. This is the title. You get this, this, this, and this. This is the price, the event special, the fast action bonus items. The bottom half is where you need them to fill out their credit card information. So you only get a half a sheet to do that.

16:44 But what you said is goal two, making sure you have come up with the most common objections that you're going to get at an event. And the responses to train your team on. It all needs to be practiced. It all needs to be rehearsed. And guess what? There's a lot of the same questions that come up. It doesn't matter whether you're selling love, you're selling fitness, you're selling finance. It doesn't matter. There's still some of the same questions and objections that you're going to get always when you're selling. For instance, you sell a mastermind and people are going to ask, what are the dates? What if I can't make it to that date? What if I want to bring a guest? Can my wife come? Can my husband come?

17:25 Can my business partner come? Some of these are just universal questions. You get across every single niche. So you got to make sure you have those answers and those cheat sheets for your team that you practiced and rehearsed ahead of time. What's super cool about this, Jesse, we just actually did... We did an episode semi-recently called The Six Cylinders to Success. And it's a part of our sales process that's actually woven into a sales conversation that basically anticipates objections and kind of weaves things into the sales conversation to eliminate them before we get there. And what I love about what you're saying, and where I think this is going to be really pretty enlightening for a lot of people is that... Selling is selling.

18:05 And what we do on a phone call or in a one-on-one interaction at a coffee shop is the same kind of thing that we do when we're on a stage. We might do it a little differently. One of the things that I equate it to having a background in both broadcasting, but also in acting is like... There are certain things that I can get away with when I'm on a stage and I've got to be super big and bold and loud and that kind of thing. I can't do that when I've got a frame around my face where I can't move my head. And so there are these little nuances that kind of get thrown in there. But selling is selling at the end of the day. And I love that you highlighted that. The other thing that I really, really loved about what you said... is you really highlighted the preparation that the best in the world undergo to get really good at this.

18:53 And I think that there are a lot of people that are in tune with the idea that, Hey, if I want to go out and be a good keynote speaker or something like that, yeah, I got to go prepare. I got to work on it and that kind of thing. But I don't think a lot of people put as much time or effort or attention on rehearsing what they're actually pitching on the back end of it. So that is so well said. So well said. And even the speakers that don't pitch from the stage, still the best of the best in the world, practice and rehearse. They show up early. They ask for the sound check ahead of time. They have sent their slide deck in ahead of time to the event producer that, you know, like they have followed all the checklists.

19:39 They don't just show up. Now, I think an important part like with this is what are the best of the best to do? Let me tell you the ones, the worst of the worst that I never hire anymore and get blackballed in our industry. The ones that don't prepare. Okay. Or... I mean, this is my biggest pet peeve. When I say, please send me your event deck a week before the event. The reason why I want to do that is because it is my job as an event producer to make you as that speaker, that expert, that coach look good on stage. So I'm checking that your fonts load correctly. Are there any sound or video embedded in here so I can prep my AV team so we're ready for it? So these speakers, I understand that sometimes you're going to be changing it right up until the event.

20:19 That's okay. Okay. but you need to bring me your presentation on a thumb drive. Okay. Be professional. And don't ask me, can I play it off of my computer? That drives me crazy. We have spent all this money setting up elaborate AV, testing, doing a full rehearsal. It's called a cue to cue the day before where I've gone through with the AV team, every single lighting cue, audio cue, pulling up slide decks. And when you say here, play it off my computer, No, do not ask a producer to do that. Okay. That drives me crazy. And then the other thing that's been driving me crazy lately, and this is now in the times where everyone's content creators are these huge entourages.

21:03 So many people are coming in now with their camera, their video, they're this, they're that. And it is... I get it. It's okay right before you go on stage to have that backstage, but do not keep all these people back there. Backstage is a sanctuary for whoever is on deck to get in the zone, to prepare, to have water, to look at their notes. When there's all those hanger honors, the photographers, the videographers, the security, all that backstage. Oh my God. It drives me crazy. Sorry. I vented. I hope that helps people. Yeah. I think it's important to bring up though, because I think there's a lot to be said for the fact that in this day and age with all the... As you said it, with all the content creation and all of that stuff, I think there are a lot of things that get done to look cool or to feel like you're playing the part.

21:52 And what I just heard you say is like, look, hotshot, if you really want to play the part, ditch your entourage and prep like a pro. That's what I heard you say. Yeah. And then one other thing too, right, is acknowledging everyone at the event. The best people in the industry are the ones that will go around before, after, and thank the lighting guy. Thank the audio guy. Get a photo with them. I do this. Bo Eason's like one of my favorite. The guy is like such a pro at this. Okay. He literally will walk around to like the security The temp staff, guess what?

22:33 All the people that are making the event run smooth and make you look great on stage. He's going around to them. I'm walking around with them too, saying, so nice to me. Let me get a picture of you. What's your phone number? And then I'm texting them that picture. Do you know all these people that work in this industry, they cherish that stuff and no one does it. And how much time does that take you to walk around, say hi and shoot a photo with some of these people and then make sure someone sends it out to them? That's huge. So do that. Like for sure. Just to double click on that, just to add a little extra spice on there. You have to remember, you're going to come back to do another event. And these people will remember you. And they're going to remember, did you light the place up? Did you make everyone feel amazing? Were they pumped to work your event? Or were you just a complete shitshow where they're like, Oh, no, they're coming again?

23:16 Because that... Trust me, word travels so fast in the space when you're doing events. It does not take long to tarnish your name in the space of the event world. And they'll put on... I mean, shoot, you and I have seen this, where they'll put on a little bonus tax because you're a pain in the ass. It's like the PIA tax goes on to the negotiations. It's like, Yeah. So there's so much magic in that of really treating everybody at the highest levels. Because they'll cut you deals if they love working for you. They'll move calendars around, they will jump through hoops. And they'll make you look amazing. Just like you're saying, part of your process is making the people who are speaking look fantastic. It doesn't take much to go that extra mile to save your ass in the future. Agreed. That's so well said.

23:56 And I think it comes down to intention, right? It's what are your intentions, not just for yourself, for the people that are there, for the people that are there serving you, serving the overall outcome of the event. I love that you mentioned that. No one else would bring that up. I love that. Yeah. Let's now move on to a different crowd. Let's move on to the crowd that has been dreaming of doing an event for a really long time. And they've got a coaching program. They've got people in their program. They've been thinking about it, dreaming about it. Let's kind of start with what are some of the biggest mistakes that people make with their first event? Listen, everyone that starts their first event has high hopes, right? And they're always when I'm producing an event for like a first timer, right?

24:40 A newbie. They will start with like, yeah, I'm going to get hundreds of people in the room. And guess what? It is really hard to get butts in. It is. You're breaking hearts right now. So I want you to be realistic is my point, right? Like you need to be realistic about those numbers. Take what your goal is and like literally chop it in half. Okay. And build a budget around it. And don't be thinking you need to do something in a hotel. I have so many people have been so burned by hotels because they didn't understand the contract. Contracts from hotels are like 20 pages and they're meant to confuse you. People sign these all the time where they're like, I didn't know what a room block was. I didn't know what that food and beverage was.

25:22 They didn't know. And all of a sudden they put on their first event. They didn't fill their room block. They didn't realize that food and beverage also has a 25% service charge, a 10% this. So maybe stay away from hotels for your first event and try to do it at an Airbnb, at a retreat center, at the theater, at the community center. That's what my first advice is. Also, I think when you're starting in the event world, a good thing to do is maybe try to get booked on someone else's stage, just so you get your practice and you see how events are done, you know, like try to get booked on those other people's stages or put together a group with an event with a. three to maybe five of you where you're sharing expenses, you're sharing the workload, you're maybe doing a TED Talk format where you're getting a bunch of people together, you're booking that venue, you're booking that theater, you each get that half an hour or hour on stage, but you're sharing the cost and all the responsibilities that come with putting an event on.

26:20 So those are just a couple of tips if you're just starting out. Split and the liability. It's brilliant. So smart. That is such a smart idea. And honestly, that's something that most coaches know other coaches. And it's such a great idea, such a great approach. I want to kind of circle back to your comment about the event space, because this is one that you brought up at the beginning again now, and obviously something that people need to hear. But what do you say to the person who's like, oh, but... you know, I just feel like the experience isn't going to be what I really want it to be. You know, they've been dreaming of this magical experience for their clients. Let me ask you a question because you've done so many of these and you can answer this the way that very few people can.

27:03 What do people that come to an event really care about? They really care about great content, right? Like the person's going to deliver. They need to be able to make connections with people, people that are going to live events now. It's because they want to connect with other people too. So are you building in enough break time, meal time where they can connect outside of what's happening on the main stage, right? And then people really, what I'm finding is they really are wanting experiences. So after COVID, it changed the way people like to consume information. We were all in our homes for so long, we couldn't connect with people. So now people are like, yeah, heck yeah.

27:45 I want to go to those live events. I want to go to those concerts, but make it an experience, right? So when I'm putting together events now, I am always looking at it holistically like, okay, cool. We're going to deliver all the content. It's going to sound, look, feel great with AV. Or maybe I don't need AV because it's only 10 people in the room, right? But at the end of the day, what's the experience? What do I want them to feel? So I put in a bunch of little things. I call them surprise and delights now. Okay. So you look at the schedule and then you literally are slotting in surprise and delight. So I'm going to give you an example for an AGM, an annual general meeting for a client out of the Bay Area who they need to get people together once a year to report on numbers.

28:27 Boring, right? Boring, boring. But it doesn't have to be boring, boring. Here's what we did last year, okay? So we've added all these surprise and delights. So this client, it's called At One Ventures, okay? So they invest in sustainable, earth-friendly, cutting-edge companies doing great things for the planet. We did do it in a ballroom. However, what we did is we brought in a bunch of trees as decorations, okay? These trees, we made a donation to an organization, Friends of the Urban Forest, and they were where we made a donation, they worked as our decor, and then we went and planted them to beautify and reduce the carbon footprint in San Francisco, okay? We also had all these little surprise and delights in there.

29:08 They have a tractor that they invest in. that we have the tractor outside. They have a company that does coffee, Verve Coffee. They're a company that makes the shipping styrofoam containers. So we did instead of a coffee break from the company or from the hotel, right? We drop Verve Coffee in these cool styrofoam things. One of their companies does cheese that's made in a science lab. OK, so we did a whole charcuterie tray with the cheeses and the samples. We did really cool music. We had really cool graphics that were earth friendly. Like all these little surprise and delights are things that I think you can look in and be like, OK, yeah, I need to give them coffee. But is there a cooler way to give them coffee?

29:48 Yeah. Yeah, I need to do decor. But is there a cooler way I can do decor? Yeah, I need to do music. But can I really make it on brand? So it's like just really looking at all these little moments, these little touch points, surprise and delights, I call them, that you can add in. I think that's really important today. I just want to say, having seen you do this in action, you're so fucking good at this. Yes. I'm sitting over here taking notes too. I'm like, oh, we got to... Some of the, you know, having been to a couple of events that you put on, Jesse, you are so good at that. And it's funny, I'm right in the middle. I don't know if you've read this, but I'm right in the middle of reading Unreasonable Hospitality, which is a phenomenal book.

30:31 But really, you're talking about the same thing. It's looking at all the different touch points and going, what could be done to make this feel extraordinary? What's that little extra bit? Yeah. And I love that because, you know, one of the things just circling back to the idea of the event space, you can do inexpensive event space, deliver amazing content, create amazing opportunities for connection amongst the people that are there. And then spend some of the money that you would have spent on an event space that nobody cares about on those little surprise and delight things that people are going to remember forever. I mean, I love that. That is so good. So good. If you were to think about some of the...

31:13 I think we've given a lot of really good tactical stuff here in terms of newbies, people that are right in the middle of it. I want to talk to one more group of people before we have a little bit of fun. And that's the person who has done some events. They've done them successfully. They've been out there. They've done... Maybe they've spoken on a couple of decently sized stages. But right now, they're looking at the gap. between themselves and the people like the Bo Eason's of the world or, you know, God forbid, at an even larger scale, Tony Robbins or... What do you feel like is one of the separators between the people that are good, solid speakers that probably have the capability to get to that level?

31:57 They're not there yet. And they're going, man, all right, what's the next step for me? What's the thing that I need to do to get myself on that kind of stage at that kind of level? So this industry is one of those where word spreads fast. You can get blackballed really fast if you're a PETA, right? So one, be careful, right? To how you are behind stage. You need to be authentic backstage and on stage. That's important because guess what? Guess who the people are that are booking the speakers? The me's of the world, the event, whoever's putting those events on. So I have some people that every time when they're like, hey, I need a really good sales closer, who should I book? I'm like, this person, this person. hey, I've been hearing a lot about this up and coming person.

32:38 I'm like, nope, total pain in the butt. You won't believe the entourage, I mean, the ego right now, no, right? So you need to get in good with the event producers of the world, but also you need to start going to some of these events, making friends. It's a very tight circle of people. It's like the same speakers will be on the circuit, right? For a long, long time. And it's like, how do you get into that circuit? How do you get in to be those big names? The Tony Robbins, the names that constantly you're seeing like, booked on these stage. Well, you just have to get in with these groups. And one way to get in with these groups is joining a mastermind or joining their program. It is. So it's like you want to get on the stage of let's just say Tony Robbins, right?

33:20 Join his platinum mastermind, right? So you're there. He sees you. He starts seeing you. The people know the people that work for that company start knowing your name. You want to get on Boeison's stage. All these big name speakers, Get them to know who you are. And then you'll just see what happens. It's like once you're in, you're in. That's so good. Okay. I want to have a little fun. You've been doing this for so long and you've got so many amazing stories. And I'd love to hear from you. What is one of your favorite stories about an event that looked like it was going sideways really fast and somehow figured out a way to kind of pull it together?

34:04 I was doing an event in Russia. This is a Tony Robbins event. And it was a 35,000-person event. And it was hot. It was so hot in this room. And I always go in the day before and do these cue-to-cue rehearsals. And it was so hot. And Tony does not like hot. So that was one. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is not good. This is so hot. How am I going to cool this 35,000 person building down? You know, HVAC is old. Our sales materials, our marketing materials didn't show up. So the person in charge of sales that was with us was losing his mind, freaking out. How are we going to get this? Oh, my God, what are we going to do? So kind of like all this stuff was unraveling, right?

34:45 Where's a language barrier? The person that was with me that was translating, there was a disconnect. I mean, it was just like all this stuff. I'm like, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? And it's the day before the event. Well, long story short, it's just you have to get resourceful, okay? You know what? I'm not going to say this online because it was in Russia. And never mind. We... We solved all the problems. Okay. We solved all the problems. We got resourceful. We made friends with people and we solved it. But there's always times. I mean, I did an event in Rwanda, right? It's the, all the swag. They were going to go on a two day gorilla trek. The swag didn't show up. Meaning they're like backpack. That was their hydro pack and things that they needed did not show up. It got stuck in customs. What do you do? You've got to get resourceful. you know what, you just go out, you know, a lot of times cash can solve things, right?

35:28 You just went out, we went shopping, we made friends, and we made do with what we had. So it's just the thing with when when things go sideways, though, is you have to be so prepared with a really detailed run of show. And then, you know, like you guys have worked with me. I make a really detailed run of show that literally lines that line items out every single thing that's happening every minute of the day. I then turn that into a visual deck that I've taken the team through and I've trained them ahead of time because if something were to happen to me or to you, I need the team to be able to jump in and take my run of show that details out every single minute. They can take the visual plan of it as well and run with it.

36:08 So we pre-plan everything. For all this stuff, because we know inevitably there's going to be fires that come up. So you need to have the space and your team know what's going on so you can jump in and put those fires out really fast. I just want to double click on the importance of that, just because it was definitely something that I got to learn from watching you and witnessing you with events we were doing with Tony, right? Because when you go to that magnitude, one little screw up at that magnitude is huge, right? Not knowing when the lunch break is going to hit or not knowing where they're at in syntax or not knowing like or the light guy, you know, falls off the scaffolding. That's never happened. But just the random things that can come up, the beauty of that is build that muscle. When you have your first event and you're running a small event, it's equally critical to know where you're at.

36:52 Because what you don't want to have is you don't want to have your audience feeling the experience go sideways. And that was one of the most beautiful things with doing events with you with Tony. The people that were attending, they never knew if something was off. And meanwhile, we'd be behind the scenes and there was moments where there was definitely chaos that would ensue and things that would happen. But you were so dang good at having that dialed in that the whole team could just rally around pieces of the puzzle. I just remember in one of our events, it was like the Wi-Fi went down. And we were trying to do sales and we had Same person in sales that you mentioned a moment ago in Russia. We won't drop names because we like the Russians. But within that space, another moment of freak out, meltdown.

37:33 Tech went down. And I remember you rallied so quickly around that. I think we were 5 to 10 minutes away from the pitch happening on stage. And it was like you had them printing agreements. We didn't even have agreements at that point. It was like, full court press, we don't have technology. We're going old school. But you knew where the pieces were at, what was coming, and you were so quick to rally behind that. And it comes from that run of show and having your team dialed in. So I think that's just such a great golden nugget for no matter what size your event is. And redundancy plans, especially if your event is built around, I need to sell, right? Like everything's been built around this 60-minute presentation where I'm going to sell, make my money back and then some, right?

38:16 You have to have redundancy plans. I don't like relying on Wi-Fi in arenas, in hotels. And guess what? One, they're going to gouge you. Like it's unbelievable. I have this event coming up in Vegas next week. And it's like $5,000 for Wi-Fi. For like 26 connections. Like it's stupid. Stupid, okay? Why? It always goes down. It never works. Go freaking old school. You make a two-part carbon copy. But guess what we even do too? Like it's just having redundancy plans. You know those little red golf pencils? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you can get a credit card imprint with those by swiping on a two-part carbon copy. So that's like, I always have like crazy redundancy plans. We've got it online.

38:58 Shit hits the fan. I have my two-part carbon copy. I've got my pencils. I can get the imprint right on this form. You have to be prepared for everything because there will be fires when you're on site. There always are. And those fires always hit at the worst time. Yeah, thank you. It's never like, oh, we're at... Well, even registration will have fires. But any piece of it that you're like, oh, we're lunch break. It's never at those moments. It's always the money making pieces or it's the ones that people walking on fire. Right? You have to be prepared. I think it's so, so brilliant what you just shared. Yeah. Well, I have to tell you, I have to tell you one more funny story while I'm thinking of it. This is a Gabby Bernstein story when we're in Peru with Your Best Life.

39:38 So this is the beauty of having a really detailed run of show and that presentation deck that you've gone through. I always do a one week out call with my team, right? Whether it's one person on site with me or 100 people. One week before, I take them through the run of show. I take them through this event deck. And guess what? Even the AV guys are listening to me talking about food and beverage. They don't care. And guess what? Even my food and beverage gals are listening to me talking to the AV guys because I don't care. I want all the knowledge to be out there. OK, I want us all to know everything. I do not have too big of an ego to keep it inside. I want it all shared. OK, well, so we're in Peru. And this is an event where the format was the morning was content with the speakers.

40:20 Gabby Bernstein was one of the headliners in Peru. Yeah. And then the afternoons were filled with immersive experiences. So we took them for this eight course dining experience. And then we're putting them on these ATVs and tuk-tuks to go through the countryside to where we're going to get to this church. And we're going to do a blessing to Pachamama. Okay. So blessing to mother earth. Okay. So I had cited the ATVs. I hadn't done the tuk-tuks. And when we're trying to get all these 50 people on the tuk-tuks and the ATVs, it got really crazy. Okay. Okay. So we have all the people off on the ATVs. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, I got to get in a shit in a tuk-tuk, right? And I'm with Phoebe, we broke the cardinal rule, you always need to have one person advancing these excursions and one person at the back.

41:04 Phoebe and I are both in a tuk-tuk. We put Gabby Bernstein and her husband in a tuk-tuk. Okay. And they have one of our attendees had brought their baby with them. And the attendee was like, we really want to go on ATV. Gabby, will you take our baby? And I'm like, what? But everything's happening fast. Okay. So imagine this. Everyone goes off on ATVs. Phoebe and I are in this tuk-tuk. Gabby Bernstein or her are in a tuk-tuk. with someone else's baby and off the group goes. And all of a sudden, I had already done this as a site visit. So I knew the route we're supposed to be going. I see all the ATVs going this way. All of a sudden, the tuk-tuks are going down this hill really, really fast, not going the route. And I go to Phoebe. I'm like, oh my God, this isn't the right route. This isn't the way.

41:45 I think we're getting kidnapped. I think we're getting kidnapped right now for ransom. We've got... Okay. And I'm losing my mind. I'm like, oh my God, this is... Anyways, long story short, the tuk-tuks got lost. Gabby Bernstein is the most beautiful soul. She was like, that was the most beautiful experience ever in this tuk-tuk. I trusted you, Jesse. We had this beautiful child with us. But fast forward to our team that made it there ahead of the time, right? They didn't panic. They knew what was supposed to happen. They knew when they got to that church, there were supposed to be dancers greeting them, that they were going to have the Pachamama blessing. So it all worked out. Make sure your team is prepared and knows what's happening, not just you, or you're going to be in trouble.

42:26 Watch your tuk-tuk. Yeah, watch your tuk-tuk. Watch your tuk-tuk. Moral of the story. That's a chapter of my book. Thank you. That's when I write my book. That's a good chapter. Yeah, you can credit me for that one, Jess. I will. Oh, man. This has been so incredible. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I know how much value this is going to give people no matter what stage they're at at their journey. And I know that a lot of people are going to listen to this also and go, holy shit, how the hell do I work with this lady? First of all, tell people where they can find you and all of that good stuff and how they might get in touch. And we'll wrap this baby up. Okay. So you just go to my website. It's jessievents.com.

43:08 And my email is on there. And even if I'm not like... If you don't need to hire an event producer, maybe you just need to hire me for some consulting to help you find a venue or to help you look at a hotel contract. I've done that before. Some people Brooke and I have worked with in the past. Because again, I just... caution you to some of those contracts with hotels and larger venues, they can be tricky. So you could just hire me or someone like me just to help you get through to the contract process or come to any of these events that are coming up. I know this is a podcast and who knows when people will be listening to this, but come to an event, see me in action, reach out to me. Maybe I can get you a discount to some of these events.

43:49 One that's coming up that's really cool is Your Best Life Sedona. So this is a fitness event, but we're really doing inner health. We're going deep in meditation, breath work. workouts. We're going to do an epic hike when we're there. Always, you know, every time we stay at a five-star property, but check out that group, yblnow.com. We do, those are where it's like, if you really want to do those immersive, cool bucket list places, that's the group. Epic events. Absolutely. Amen. Well, Jesse, thank you again for taking the time. And listen, I want to honor you for a number of different reasons. I mean, number one, you are such an example of true authenticity.

44:30 You are exactly what you preach, exactly what you portray yourself to be. You're such a genuine human being who is, again, you talked about it earlier, so giving and gracious and also probably one of the more tenacious humans I have ever met in my life, which speaks a lot to the success that you've had in business and in all the other areas of your life. And both of us are grateful to be able to call you friend and excited to do more things with you down the road as a colleague. And guys... make sure you get to Jesse's website. Go check it out. She mentions YBLNow.com. That's a group that actually all three of us have done work for. They're an amazing, amazing group and I highly recommend checking them out.

45:14 If you can't make this trip, every single one of their trips is bucket list. They're just amazing. So go check that out as well. And Brooke, any last words before we wrap it up? Yeah, I'm just super grateful to Jesse, just both in terms of all the events we've done in the past and for the sanity that you've helped keep. And thank you for taking the time today to share with our audience. There's so much gold in this episode. I'm pumped because I'm going to go back because I was frantically taking notes on my side. So there's so much gold in this. So thank you again for taking the time and sharing with our crew. Well, you guys, thank you. You know, I love you both. And what an honor to be in this seat. I, you know, I'm normally backstage with my headset on directing a show. It's so rare that people ask me to be a part of a podcast or an event.

45:55 So I really appreciate it. I'm so honored. Thank you. Awesome. Well, guys, thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Go check out all of Jesse's stuff. Check out YBLnow.com and we'll see you on the flip side. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Please hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast. And if you got value out of this episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it out with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite platform. To learn more about Empire Partners or to inquire about working with Ryan and Brooke, please visit www.empirepartners.io forward slash go.