5 Ways to Do a Telesummit (Without Driving Yourself Crazy)

Over the years, I’ve seen so many entrepreneurs fall into the same traps of running telesummits. They usually swear them off, declaring, “I’m never doing one of these again!” …Right up until they see the hundreds and hundreds of new email addresses on their lists as a direct result of the telesummit.

I’m here to tell you there is a better way! It doesn’t have to be stressful, overwhelming, or feel like juggling knives!

Here’s how you can avoid driving yourself nuts while putting on a successful telesummit:

1.Book the right speakers (and only the right speakers).

I’ve seen some telesummits that seemed to drag on forever and ever. They just had far too many speakers. People get bored, they get overwhelmed and they lose interest.

It also means wrangling a lot of cats when preparing for the summit. The more speakers you have, the more stressed you are going to be.

Personally, I think 10-15 is perfect, both for you and your audience. You can get some seriously great content out there, and as people express interest in being a guest, you can build your speaker list for future telesummits.

2.Give yourself plenty of time.

If this is your very first telesummit, give yourself 2-3 months to prepare. It takes time to find speakers, build the web pages, and then get your promotions done. You really should be promoting 3-4 weeks out.

Not giving enough build time is the surest way to make yourself crazy. Things are rushed, mistakes are made and the telesummit flops. Take your time.

Once you have the structure set up, future telesummits can be done in a slightly shorter time frame.

3.Think from the listener’s perspective.

This one tip can make or break your summit. Why? Because it separates yours from all of the other telesummits out there.

Take some time to think about what you want when you sign up to listen to a similar event. You probably want:

*Technology that works and is easy to use.
*Speakers who are relevant and interesting (not every speaker under the sun).
*While some follow up promotion is ok, you don’t want 7 emails a week from now on.

The best part about sticking with those ideas on your own telesummit is that they will make your life easier! So it’s a win-win for your participants and you.

4.Choose upsells carefully.

We are so inundated by telesummits these days, that it’s getting harder and harder to garner higher prices for the replays…especially for new hosts. The more you do, the more established you are, the higher you can charge. But make sure buyers are getting a great bang for their buck.

If you charge $97 for just a few audios, you’re investing a lot of time and resources and you aren’t going to see great results, which is why this is a recipe for crazy. Make sure they get workbooks, handouts, slides, transcripts… something extra to make it worth their while.

My recommendation if you are going to do an upsell, is keep your price point around $47 (especially if they just get the audios). This way they think they’re getting a great deal because it’s not even $50!

5.Delegate the crazy-making stuff.

The plain and simple truth is telesummits really are too much for one person to do themselves, especially if they have never done this and have no idea what they’re doing. Even for seasoned hosts, it’s a lot to handle and it takes them away from other business boosting activities.

Hosting a telesummit is an extremely rewarding venture. You meet great people, build your list, and get yourself known in your industry. Think of hiring a VA or OBM for your telesummit as an investment in your future list. And you know what they say, a good email list is priceless!