How Virtual Summits Can Be a Game Changer for Your Business with Krista Miller
When we talk about growth for our podcasts and businesses, getting visible is really important. And hosting or participating in a summit might be an excellent way for you to grow your audience and to position yourself even more as an expert in your niche. Just think of the amazing collaborations, and email list growth, that can happen. It sounds like a win to me!
In today’s episode, I’m chatting with Krista Miller, a virtual summit strategist and founder of Summit in a Box. Krista shares what makes a successful summit, how you can grow your podcast with a summit, how to become a summit speaker, and the first steps to take when planning your own summit. This can be a game changer for your business, so tune in, friends!
What’s in this episode…
[04:20] Krista shares how she became involved in summits
[07:17] What makes a successful summit
[14:17] How you can incorporate and grow your podcast through a summit
[19:20] Krista’s advice on how to become a summit speaker
[22:42] The first steps to take when planning your own summit, plus resources to help guide you
Are you ready to build your podcast strategy, simplify your marketing, and finally make your podcast work for you? Join the Strategic Podcast Academy, my signature group program that’ll support you with monthly training, resources, and an amazing community!
About Krista:
At Summit in a Box®, Krista Miller helps you replace slow-growth and costly marketing strategies with a high-converting virtual summit that will multiply your revenue and lead to your biggest course, membership, or group program launch yet.
Her method incorporates highly-targeted positioning and feel-good, engagement based strategies that lead to higher than average conversion rates, true connections, and making a difference through your summit in a way that creates ongoing benefits for months after the event wraps up.
Connect with Krista:
Visit the Summit in a Box Website
Free Training Series: Summit to Sales
Listen to the Summit Host Hangout Podcast
LINKS:
Join the Strategic Podcast Academy!
Check out our services to Launch, Uplevel or Grow your Podcast
Unlock your FREE Podcast Content Kit
The Transcript for Share, Strategize, & Shine:
Ep 139: How Virtual Summits Can Be a Game Changer for Your Business with Krista Miller
[00:00:34] Caroline Hull Hi there and welcome to Share, Strategize and Shine. I'm your host, Caroline Hull, a podcast strategist and CEO of Wild Home Podcasting. I've built my entire career through podcasts by sharing my experience using strategic systems and shining a light on the power of podcasting. If you are looking to cultivate leads for your membership, group program, or consulting services, I'm here to help you create a holistic and integrative podcast strategy that will let your business thrive. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to Share, Strategize and Shine. Today I am so excited to be chatting with Krista of Summit in a Box. Now I wanted to talk to Krista and have her on the show to talk about summits, because when we talk about growth and podcast growth and business growth, I think getting creative is really, really important. And hosting a summit or participating in a summit might be a really great way for you to grow your audience, for your podcast and of course, for your business. Krista helps you replace slow growth and costly marketing strategies, or the high converting virtual summit that will multiply your revenue and lead to your biggest course membership or group program launch yet. Her method incorporates highly targeted positioning and feel good engagement based strategies that lead to higher than average conversion rates, true connections and making a difference through your summit in a way that creates ongoing benefits for the months after the event wraps up. This is such a great episode for getting a taste of what it will take to host a summit and also what you need to do if you want to participate in summits as a speaker. So be sure to stick around for the whole episode and enjoy. Okay. Hi, Krista, Welcome to Share, Strategize and Shine.
[00:02:33] Krista Miller Hey Caroline, so excited to chat with you today.
[00:02:36] Caroline Hull I am so excited to chat with you because I have been thinking about summits a lot and I know a lot of my listeners have as well, so I'm really excited to dive in. But first, I would love it if you could just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do and all that good stuff.
[00:02:52] Krista Miller Yeah, well, I'm Krista, of course. I run a company called Summit in a Box, and my goal there really is to just make hosting summits more accessible to, like all business owners, business owners who aren't big, huge influencers, but also more likely to return a big ROI than like typical summits that you see done by people just kind of throwing together a strategy. I'll never sit and say that summits are like this quick and easy strategy, but what I will say is that they should give you a significant ROI the very first time you host one. And my mission as at Summit in a Box, is to make sure that's true. So we have a couple of different programs. We have one that's for people who are more beginner in their business or maybe have one on one services. And then we also have a program that specific to people with memberships or courses, something scalable where you want to launch with your summit because that just brings it to a whole new level of building awareness for your offers, launching through a summit and getting all of those like bigger long term benefits that summits have to offer in terms of visibility, list growth, just momentum in your business and all of that good stuff. So yeah, we try to make summits as easy as possible. We try to make summits that feel really good to everyone involved. I'm sure everyone listening has seen like gross, sleazy, slimy summits. That is not what we're about here. So, yeah, I want summits to feel good and give you a really great ROI as a host and for your speakers as well.
[00:04:14] Caroline Hull Okay. So we're going to we're going to chat more later about this. I have questions for after the call. So like, why summits? How did you get involved in summits? Like how did that happen?
[00:04:29] Krista Miller Yeah, I definitely never saw this as the thing I was going to do. I started out doing like one on one web development services for designers, so I was like doing all the things. I was on all the social media platforms, trying all the networking strategies, all the different launch strategies. And I was just kind of at the point where I was growing just at a snail's pace, like I was getting the clients I needed. I was able to quit my full time job and it's like, Now what? Like I'm making three, $4,000 a month. I you know, when you're considering business expenses in there as well, like, I needed more than that. And I would just, like, felt lost with how to do it. And it kept coming to mind for me. This was back in 2017 where, like summits were a thing, but they were really only a thing for really big people. Like you only saw big influencers doing this. So I just kind of kept ruling myself out like, I'm not a big enough deal for this, not going to work, whatever. But there was a day in the car. I can still picture exactly where I was on the road, where I just had the realization like, I can do this my way and I can make this really cool. At the time, summits were happening, like just for a really wide audience. It's like summits for business owners to grow your business. And I targeted designers. I was like, There has never been a summit just for designers. How incredible would that be? And I did it, and my goal was to add like a few hundred people to my email list and make like two or $3,000. And I felt impossible. I wouldn't even say those goals out loud because I didn't think it was I didn't think I could do it. Yeah, but that first summit grew my email list from 500 people to 1500 people and made $16,000 right off the bat and booked my services for six months in advance. And for someone who was just like going client to client, that was absolutely life changing for me. Like there was nothing else that topped that and I didn't plan for it to be something I taught. I was like, I'm just going to do this again in six months. But people are like, How did you do that? Like, there weren't many courses. There wasn't like there weren't people helping with this kind of thing, right? And they eventually won me down and I made like a quick offers like, fine, if you say you want to pay me for this, like, let's see what happens. My entire my cat is playing with the jingle ball and eventually I just I packaged up my project plan that was like, fine, if you want to pay me like 97 bucks for this, let's see what happened. And they did. And I had never like, put an offer out that people actually bought before. So I was like, What is happening? And here we are.
[00:06:52] Caroline Hull That's amazing. Can I tell you, I actually remember when you started teaching summits, like I've been following. You got mine for that long? Yeah. Like I've known who you are for a very long time. So I remember when you made that switch over to doing teaching how to do summits. So that's really cool to hear the background story.
[00:07:11] Krista Miller That's awesome. Yeah. Back in the good old days. No, no, I was having the good ol days, but you know what I mean.
[00:07:16] Caroline Hull Yeah, I do. I do. So can you talk a little bit about what makes a successful summit in your view? Because I think when I look at summits and the possibility of wanting to host one. And we're also going to dig more into like other ways to participate in summits for podcasters. But when I think about hosting one, I get a little overwhelmed by like, I want it to. I want, like you said, I want it to be good. I don't want it to be lame. Like, what are the things I need to think about when I'm thinking about what makes a successful summit?
[00:07:50] Krista Miller Yeah. So, I mean, we can. We can. There's a few different standpoints. You can look at it through and like. And one end of that, you can look at what is it going to mean for it to be successful for my business. So like, the easier the things I talk about most because it catches people's attention are the email is growth and immediate revenue. Right. Like people like seeing the big numbers which summit's definitely deliver. But honestly, those are not even the most exciting and impactful pieces of hosting a summit for you. They should connect you with other people in your industry who target the exact same audience that you target. So you are connecting with people you're getting in front of their audiences through this summit, but also you're making connections that will lead to collaborations and opportunities down the road with these perfect fit collaborators. When you do all of that, when you're bringing in thousands of people for the summit, when you're connecting with, you know, these others, other experts in the industry, it just automatically creates a momentum in your business that I have never even come close to experiencing with any other strategy. Like it's just it can't be matched when you're bringing this influx of people, giving them an incredible experience, making them money, making the connections with them, like you just can't top it. So like, that's what you can look like. Look out for your for your own standpoint. But you kind of hinted at the fact that you don't want to host a crappy summit. So what does that look like? And really, it comes down to a summit that makes some sort of impact for your people. And what that impact looks like for you is going to be different based on your industry. Are you B2B? Are you B2C? Is your business built to solve a problem for someone or like, you know, help them have more fun with like a passion or a hobby or something that's going to look a little bit different, but you need to key in on something specific you're going to help them with and make sure your summit delivers on that. So a lot of times that comes down to how your summit is positioned. So who is the summit for? You want to be specific. What does it help them do? That needs to be specific and attention grabbing as well. We see a lot of really vague summits, like you're going to help people grow their business, make more money, be happier, be more peaceful and calm. That's just not what works. That doesn't grab people's attention. So it doesn't work for you, but it doesn't mean anything. What like what do you really want for these people? So you really have to have that in mind throughout. And when you go into your summit dedicated to making an impact, I usually see the other pieces kind of fall into place where you're creating a great experience because you care about it from the beginning. You care about your attendees from the beginning. So it's not just like this boring event where they're just like watching prerecorded presentations like, Mm, okay, like why.
[00:10:28] Caroline Hull Yeah.
[00:10:28] Krista Miller You know, you're making an experience. People want to be involved in that. They're excited to be involved in where at the end they're like, Oh my gosh, I don't want this to end. Like, can this keep going? Type of situation that comes into the experience, how you're showing up, how you're interacting, giving them like the attendees the opportunity to interact and things like that. And then you also want to think about it from a standpoint of your speakers of like, how are you going to give them a great experience too? Because if you want this to turn into collaborations that will be beneficial down the road, they need to have a good experience when they come. So again, that ties back into positioning as well. If you're hosting a summit for the audience they want to be in front of and you're giving those people a good experience and the speaker gets to be a part of it that is automatically like 50% of the way there because like so many of us are paying for Facebook ads and paying to get in front of these audiences and you're you're making that for them. You also want to look at how how can you make it as easy as possible for them to participate and how can you build in the biggest benefit for them as well. So like, you know, affiliate commission, that's part of the deal. Some people don't care at all about the affiliate commission. I think it's very important to give that because you would not have your summit without your speakers. But usually the most impactful things for your speakers are going to be the list growth and just being seen with these other experts out there. So you need to build in ways for them to grow their lists, make money and get attention from this audience. I know that's a lot of different pieces. There's your standpoint, there's the attendees are the speakers, but when all of those things come together, that's when you're creating a really high quality event that you can feel good about and look back and be like, That's successful. Even like no matter what the numbers were like, that was a success.
[00:12:12] Caroline Hull Did you know that your podcast can be so much more than a hobby? It can be a way for you to attract your ideal client and establish yourself as an authority in your field. But you need a strategy. And that's why we've created the Strategic Podcast Academy, a monthly membership designed to help you build a strategy for your podcast. You can grow your business and get off the content creation hamster wheel. With support from myself and a community of like minded podcasters, you will create a strategic plan for your podcast and start implementing impactful changes. During our time in the monthly membership, we're going to cover topics such as customer path planning, content planning for sales, podcast SEO, creating connection with your listeners, email marketing for your podcast, and so much more. So if you are an online business owner, coach, consultant or service provider, and you're ready to have a podcast that supports your business, then the Strategic Podcast Academy is for you. Head to wildhomepodcasting.com/membership to join today. Right. And I think there are a couple of things you said that I think I really want to point out and drive home. Like you talked about collaboration, value, and I think that's really where you should come at it from, right? Like, I'm not necessarily like, yes, making money and growing your list are the byproducts of that. But I love this just this idea that, like, you're really there to create an experience, add some value to the people who are attending and to your speakers, but then also creating some amazing networking relationships and collaborations. And I think when you kind of approach things from that energy, it can really make a difference in how the event goes as well.
[00:13:58] Krista Miller Seriously. And it makes it all so much more enjoyable when you are focused on how you can serve other people versus how you can make the most money and get like the most list growth, it feels so much better.
[00:14:11] Caroline Hull Right. Well, and that's you know, that's really what we're all trying to do, right? We're really just trying to help people. So that makes a lot of sense. So I'm curious. How can you, like, incorporate? Let's say you have a podcast and you're trying and you want to host a summit for your business. How can you make your podcast a part of that? Or maybe I'm wanting to grow my podcast through the summit. How can I do that?
[00:14:36] Krista Miller I love this. So I haven't done exactly what I'm going to say myself, only because I wasn't smart enough to and I did it in a different way instead. But what I would recommend for something like this is to build your podcast into the summit. So something we did with our most recent event we ran was we actually started like a private podcast just for attendees. And before the summit started, I was releasing like bonus episodes in there. So I was releasing episodes that were giving summit attendees, like the 101 of how to host a summit. I was doing interviews with some past students and clients to help them see what was possible with summits. We were busting myths. We were doing all of these things that I wanted them to know before they started going to the summit. Why didn't I just do that on my podcast? Oh my goodness. We had hundreds of people going to listen to this private podcast, which was like, cool, right? It felt exclusive, but I could have got those hundreds of new listeners on my actual podcast instead. So that is what I would recommend. Like, yes, use your podcast to promote your summit, but also build your summit into your podcast. Yeah, you could even like release some exclusive interviews or sessions for the summit that are only on your podcast. Like there's all kinds of different things you could do bonus sessions that are on your podcast, but purposefully build it into your summit rather than just like linking to it here. And there were a few stragglers might end up clicking over, right? There's you can get a lot more strategic with that.
[00:16:07] Caroline Hull Yeah, I love that. And I also, like I will say, I do love a private podcast. Like, I always get excited when I see a private podcast as though I feel like there's a way you could do both and be really, really effective. My other question for you about podcasts and summits. When we were talking about doing this interview, I was even thinking to myself, could you like could your podcast host a summit and could that be an effective way to grow your podcast? Do you have any thoughts on that?
[00:16:37] Krista Miller Yeah, I mean, I definitely think you could do it that way. Like the audio podcast. Audio summits are definitely a thing, and I think they're such a good fit for certain audiences. Most people do that in a private podcast feed because there's like the quote unquote issue with, Oh my gosh, if I put it somewhere public, someone could listen without being registered. But like my in my mind, who cares? Like, you know, if your goal is to grow your podcast, I think that's a really great option. You know, you just might want to consider things like people who are regular listeners of your podcast are probably some of your warmest people, so you could be missing out on some all-access pass sales and certain things that could come from them being registered. But also you could just do your homework ahead of time and give them reasons to want to register. What is the benefit of getting emails each day? Is there anything happening outside the podcast that they want to know about? Are they going to get a special offer for like your all-access pass or whatever that's is going on if they register? And I think if you give them reasons for it again, because they're people, your people because they're showing up to listen to you week after week, there's a pretty high likelihood they're going to follow those steps.
[00:17:44] Caroline Hull Oh, my gosh. I have so many wheels turning right now because a like I think in my brain when I'm thinking about a summit, I think it has to be video. But I have seen a couple of these audio only summits popping up. And I think it's really a really interesting idea. I mean, you know me, I love audio like here for it. Are you telling me I don't have to be on camera here for it, but so I kind of love that idea. But really, like what I hear you saying again is like just adding value. Like, the idea is that we want to give them more, not just the actual sessions, but we want to add some value in other places.
[00:18:19] Krista Miller Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, the value in your summit outside of the presentations should still also like, there should still be value there. There's only so much someone can get out of signing up for something. And like I said before, just having these prerecorded sessions to go watch, you need to build in some excitement, build in some community. Sometimes the community feel is all people want. They're like, Oh my gosh, I'm learning about this with other people. Like that is that's all I need. But sometimes you can build in other ways of helping other ways of coaching. For me, helping our clients directly is a really like it just feels like a big part of what I do. I love doing it. It fulfills me and I can get people results when I work with them closely, so I build that into my summit as well. So maybe where if you had an audio only summit you build in live Q&A is live hot seats, something that makes sense for your business, of course, but there's still other opportunities to be connecting outside of that as well and providing more value.
[00:19:14] Caroline Hull Oh my gosh, I love this. I'm like, I'm like everything. Everyone knows Caroline is thinking, what she's planning. You know, the other thing I think, too, that is and that I have found a lot of value in as someone who is trying to be more visible and to get out there more meet more people, collaborate, network, all those good things is actually participating in Summit. Do you have any advice for someone who's like, you know, I think I might want to start being a speaker at summits. How do I find these summits to get involved in? Or what are your what do you suggest for starting to kind of put yourself in that space?
[00:19:50] Krista Miller Yeah. So I will say there is not like a quick and easy answer here necessarily. Like you could do things like there's a website called virtualsummitsearch.com. It's hosted by my friend Jen. She her like her mission is to connect summits with speakers and attendees. So she promotes summits and but she also has a speaker directory so like go get listed in places like that. Other collaboration platforms like I'm a part of a couple other collaboration memberships and people are always posting about summits and they are so like you can do things like that. I will say the best thing you can do is like be known in your space, connect with people, network with people, make friends so that when they're like, I'm going to host a summit. You're the first person that comes to mind just because, like with the timeline of how summits work, by the time like the general public knows about a summit coming up, it's usually too late. Like, the speakers are usually there and like, it's not about I need to be like, Hey, if a speaker drops out, I'd love to get your presentation really quick. Do that because speakers do drop out. But the more well-known you are, the more likely you are to be approached. Something else you can do if you already have a platform, a podcast, or whatever. Yeah, just make it known that you want these opportunities. Like, say I am looking to be on two summits in the next quarter. If you're hosting one for this audience, let me know. Sometimes that's all people need to to extend the invite. I've done that with podcasts before. Like I'm looking to be a guest on some podcast. Let me know. Am I like, Oh my gosh, Now I have five interviews lined up. That was easy. So do that for summits as well.
[00:21:22] Caroline Hull Yeah, I love that. So this episode will air a couple a while after, but I literally just released an episode the day before we're recording this about visibility, and that was one of the things I talked about a lot was no one knows about you unless you get out there and you put yourself in front of people. And so I love that you mentioned all of that because I think as podcasters, it can be especially easy to hide behind our microphones and say, Well, if somebody hears my podcast, they'll want me to come speak like they just had to go listen to my podcast. But it really does take like, you know, getting to know people, some networking, doing podcast interviews like this even are such a great way to build relationships. So like you said, which I'm pretty sure I said the exact same thing, is that when people think of the thing that you do, you're the first person they think of. And so I think that's such great advice for getting into summits. And I'm just so grateful for this conversation. Like, I feel like it's so funny how the universe works. I've been connecting with a lot of business owners that I've known for years, but like, don't actually know, like I've known online. And so I was so excited to have you on because I just feel like I've known you forever. So this is so great. What would you suggest if someone like me is thinking about hosting their very first summit? What is the first step they should take? What resources do you have for them so they can start to plan?
[00:22:56] Krista Miller Yeah. So I'm really glad you asked this question because a lot of you are like me and you have an idea and you're like, Here we go and you're off to the races. But with the summit, there is some really important ground work you want to do first. As much as I don't want to slow down to set goals, I want you to know what are your goals for this? Is it monetary? Is it to grow your podcast? Is it to get people into your membership or course or program? I want you to know that ahead of time, because that will have a really big part to play when you're planning how your event will be positioned and the experience you're going to create through it. So do all of those things, work on the positioning, work out a plan for how you're going to go from summit to launch, like all of these basics. And I know I'm just kind of like rattling off random things. And that's because, like, they're they're not like super easy things. But we do have a free training series that walks you through it. You could watch it on video. We have an audio option. We have an option where you can read it. So, you know, we were kind of mentioning on here video versus audio segments. We have all the things, but it's a ten part training series called Summit two Sales, where I walk you through the ten beginning stages, the first ten steps of how to create a summit that is going to become your most effective lead generation strategy, cash injection method and lead to long term reliable increases in your signature offer sales and just connect you with a whole bunch of really incredible people in the community. Even for those of you who feel like you're not getting traction with a lot of other things, summits are wonderful. So our Summit to Training series is perfect for that. It is at summitinabox.co/series.
[00:24:33] Caroline Hull Awesome. We will definitely put that in the show notes. And then where else can people connect with you and follow what you do? Oh, and also listen to your podcast.
[00:24:43] Krista Miller Yeah. So I'm over at summitinabox.co. Our podcast is linked there. It's called Summit Host Hangout. You can also just search that in all the places and I hang out over on Instagram all the time at summitinabox.
[00:24:55] Caroline Hull Awesome. Thank you so much, Krista. This was so great.
[00:24:58] Krista Miller Thank you for having me.
[00:24:59] Caroline Hull Oh, that was such a great episode. I know that my wheels are turning and I hope that yours are as well. And I really hope that you take from this conversation that like getting out there and doing collaborations can be such a game changer for your business. And so really just, you know, networking, getting to know people and putting yourself out there. And I love what she said about letting people know that, hey, you're interested in being a speaker. So I really hope that this helps you think of some creative ways to grow your podcast and your business and possibly host your own summit one day. Be sure to check out all of Krista's resources because she really does an amazing job of teaching you how to host a summit in a really impactful way. And I will be back next week with another episode. Thank you so much for listening to Share, Strategize and Shine. To give your own podcast some shine, download my free podcast content by heading to the link in the show notes. Be sure to leave a review and connect with me on Instagram for more podcast strategy insights. Until next week.
