Meet Your Hosts

Kathi
Well, hey friends, welcome to the writing at the Red House podcast where we gather at the table to break bread and tell tales with some of our favorite writers and creators who share their wisdom to help us all share our story. And I am back, this is part two. If you haven’t heard part one, go back and listen to it because it’s such good information. But I’m here with Tiffany Jo Baker, she’s a podcast producer.

She is her own online event coordinator and she does it for other people as well. And so we’re getting the skinny, the scoop on how can you do this on your own? Because there are people like Tiffany Jo who will do it for you for a price. And sometimes that is that can actually save you money because sometimes, you know, Tiffany Jo has, she knows what to do. She knows the software to use. She knows all the things. And so she can save you a lot of angst. But.

She’s also gonna save you a lot of angst here. So we’re gonna give all the scoop. Tiffany Jo, welcome back.

Tiffany Jo Baker 
So excited to continue the conversation.

Kathi 
Yeah, it’s a good one. So what I wanna talk about is, okay, how do you actually plan the content for this online event? It seems like it would be the easiest part, but you gotta have a program that keeps people moving, but also has enough bio breaks so that people don’t get frustrated. You don’t wanna wear people out. You wanna keep the energy high. Like, how do you plan for that balance at all? And also,

Tiffany Jo Baker
What the?

Kathi
not lose your voice. Like I literally if you’re trying to talk for four hours first of all nobody wants to hear any human being for four hours. It’s it’s hard to listen to a person for more than 45 minutes so give us all your inside scoop

Tiffany Jo Baker
Oh my goodness. Well, I think that’s another beauty of the online events is that honestly, there’s so many different ways to do them. I’ve been a part of them as the host, but I’ve also been a part of a number of them as a speaker. So I’ve also gotten to see how other people run their online events. So when you’re coming up with creation, there’s two ways to go about it or the content. You can say, I want to talk. I want this.

this summit or this conference or this workshop to be about these things. And then you go to the speakers that you wanting to have, and then you tell them what you want them to speak on. The other way, the other option is you create, create the main primary theme of what it is with a couple examples of what it might be. And then as you’re approaching speakers, you ask them what they would love to share about. A third way,

is to have a speaker application where speakers are submitting their ideas and then you get to choose from them as you’re creating these online events. So there’s a number of ways, you know? And let’s remember, an online event doesn’t have to be four hours long. It can literally be 30 minutes. It could be 15 minutes. It could be five whole days. So you’ve got so much flexibility of how you’re running these online events.

Kathi
Yeah.

Tiffany Jo Baker
who’s speaking, I’ve been a part of some of them where I record my session, provide it, then they put it in the program software and they play it at the time and place. I’ve also been a part of them where the host will interview every speaker. And so there’s different ways of providing content to get that out for your event.

Kathi
So, and I think it’s really important to say bigger doesn’t always mean better. I’m part of an event where we’re all just doing 20 minutes. But this event coordinator said 20 minutes has been the sweet spot. This is what keeps our people engaged. And knowing that, you definitely don’t wanna go much beyond that unless you have a keynote that people are excited for.

Tiffany Jo Baker
Mm-hmm.

Kathi
You know, oftentimes people are coming to these not necessarily for the name of the person, but the content. And so that’s what you want people to be able to look at. Okay, so is there a magic number or what have you found to be a good number of different presenters if you’re doing kind of a summit idea?

Tiffany Jo Baker
Yeah, if you’re doing a summit idea, I think to get a round number and to really get a good variation of your topic or interest people, you know, I’ve seen in some successful ones anywhere from five to 12. I think you get more than that. It gets a little overwhelming depending on how far you’re spacing it. Now if you’re saying, if you’re providing 12 speakers,

and it’s like you’re dropping it once a day and it’s a 15 minute message, that’s doable. But if you’re trying to put it all into like one day, two days, having too many just gets overwhelming and people drop out. And so you tend to put people up, stack people up at the front. I like to think of it like binging a podcast. The sweet spot for podcast episode links is often 15 to 20 minutes because most people that’s their.

Kathi
Right.

Tiffany Jo Baker
their commute time, or that’s how much it takes to do a certain errand or a certain tour at home. So think about they’re basically binging content. It’s basically like binging a podcast, listening to it. So think about as a human, the length that you binge at and how many of those you can do in a row.

Kathi
Yeah.

Kathi
I love that. Okay, speaking of content, do you provide workbooks with your summits?

Tiffany Jo Baker
I have provided free printable, so a one page. Now, if you’re getting into workbooks, the summits and conferences I’ve been a part of, if it’s actually a workbook, that has been an upsell. That has been something that they will charge for.

Kathi
Okay, oh interesting, all right. Oh, interesting, okay, I hadn’t heard that before. Okay, now here’s the thing. Marketing and promotion, this is the part that people are like, this is gonna kill me, why did I wanna do this stupid summit? So, how do you market these things? How do you get butts in seats? Explain your strategy, Tiffany Jo.

Tiffany Jo Baker
Yeah, that’s the that’s part of having multiple speakers and having people with you. This is considered a collaboration event. So when you are speakers are applying or you are interviewing speakers or asking speakers part of the requirement and the ask on their end is that they also share about it. If they’re going to be speaking at it, you want them to share about it. And so normally general best practice is one or two solo.

solo emails that they’ll send out, you know, one or two solo posts. And so when I say solo, that means it’s not just part of a newsletter, it’s the only thing that’s in your email. So you’re, as a speaker, you’re sending out an email just about this event. So as the host, you can ask whatever requirements you’re really wanting, but also knowing that they’re also…

Kathi
Okay.

Tiffany Jo Baker
advertising and marketing and sharing a bunch of other things that they’re doing as well. So you want something that your speakers can say an easy yes to and make it a win-win for them as well. So sharing the load of marketing comes with all the speakers who are also sharing about it. Some people do small Facebook ads to do it, but you’re sharing it on email lists. You’re sharing it maybe in your podcasts. You’re sharing it on your social media.

Kathi
Right.

Tiffany Jo Baker
like anything that we would try to get out, we’re using all the resources that we have.

Kathi
different question. As a speaker, have you ever been asked to pay to participate in something like this? Okay, I’m seeing you nodding yes, so tell me more about that.

Tiffany Jo Baker
Yes. Yeah, I have. So I will I’ll think one specifically, I am a part of a speaking network. And so as part of my membership, I am I am able to do speaking summits for free. People who aren’t a part of the membership, they pay to be a speaker in certain summits. So, yes, people do ask some people.

Kathi
Okay.

Tiffany Jo Baker
depending on what the win-win is for you. If it’s an ongoing annual type of event that gets, you know, that they can confidently say, this goes out to 10,000, 20,000, 100,000 people sign up, people will have you pay to be a part. If they can’t say that, usually what your buy-in is, what your win is, is notoriety, awareness, getting out there.

but also a lot of them will let you do a freebie or an opt-in that’s related to your talk. So you can help build your email list from what you’re doing. Another piece that a lot of online events will do is if you wanna be a part of the bundle resource that they sell. A lot of times what they’ll do is they’ll get all the speakers, if they want to submit something that they normally charge for to go to everybody.

Kathi
Okay.

Kathi
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Jo Baker
that they’ll bundle together for a really low price, usually you can get a percentage of sales from those type of bundles if you get something.

Kathi
Got it, okay. If you’re going to ask somebody to participate, make sure if there’s a cost, you put that upfront. Because I understand there’s a cost to putting on these events. I’ve had a couple of times where somebody says, “‘Will you do this?’ And I say, “‘Yes,’ and then I find out about the cost later. And I don’t think it was, because I know these people and they’re good people,

Tiffany Jo Baker
Yes.

Kathi
I think it was a mistake instead of a mislead, but I’m just telling you, it does feel weird to say, oh, and by the way, I would not suggest that. Okay, so what are some of the best practices when you’re actually hosting the event? How do you engage with the attendees live during the event? What, you know, Q&A sessions, how do you keep that energy up?

Tiffany Jo Baker
Yeah, good point.

Tiffany Jo Baker
Yeah, I think I’ve seen it all the way from you’re the emcee. I’ve seen to where there’s multiple emcees. I’ve seen to where it’s there’s not even emcees and you’re literally just doing content, content that people are getting on. So I think it’s really just determining how what works best for you. I’ve seen also people do a type of game throughout the conference where maybe you’re dropping like

code words or secret words or playing bingo throughout the conference. A way to keep people engaged in the conference and to be listening and aware and then have there be some kind of prizes at the end. So I think you can get as, as complicated and fun as you want, or you can keep it as simple as you want as well. But in general, as speakers, you want to do the same thing that you would do when you step on a stage.

You want to connect with the people. You want to hook them, letting them know what’s coming, and you want them to stay with you.

Kathi
Yeah, I think oftentimes it’s really interesting. We have to earn our audience. And people say, well, I’m giving away all this great free content, but it needs to be more. To have people take time out of their day when they have probably not just other things that they want to do, there are other things they need to do. And so to be able to say,

this is worth taking some time out of your day because oftentimes they’ll pay the money, they’ll do what they need to do, but it’s the time that’s the biggest cost for them. So you have to let them know why it is worth doing that. And yeah, we do giveaways throughout our day. We just do it from people who are attending live and then we’ll also do one for anybody who comments.

after watching the recording, we’ll take those comments and put them in so that they can win a prize as well. But we want as many live people as we possibly can because that really keeps the energy up and it’s great. What is, you’ve given us so much great content. What platform do you use? Are you a Zoom girl? What, StreamYard, what are you doing your events on? Okay.

Tiffany Jo Baker
Yeah, I’ve done both. I’ve done both. And you know, if let’s break it down to the simplest of measures and doing a simple recording on Zoom and everybody signs up, let’s say you’re going to do a workshop and it’s a 30 minute workshop. You’re wanting people to sign up and it’s you’re going to play it live on Friday at noon. You know, you can simply record that on Zoom, put it live on YouTube.

Kathi
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Jo Baker
have it scheduled to go live and provide everybody a link to it. You know, that’s as that’s as simple as almost as simple as I could get for an online event. So I think it’s important to let people know. I think that’s one of my biggest, I would say, tips and word of advice is don’t start with a summiter conference, like start with something that’s very simple and small and see what you learn, see what you like, and then grow from there.

Kathi
small.

Kathi
Tiffany, if these listeners would love to find out more about you and what you’re doing, where’s the best place for them to do that?

Tiffany Jo Baker
Yeah, you can find me on Instagram or Facebook at Tiffany Jo Baker.

Kathi
Yeah, and she’s a good follow you guys. She puts out great content and she’s very engaging. Go give her a follow. Tiffany, thanks so much for being here today. I so appreciate you.

Tiffany Jo Baker
Thank you, Kathi.

Kathi
And friends, thank you for being here today. You’ve been listening to the Writing at the Red House podcast. I’m Cathy Lip. Hey friends, God has given you a message. Now go share it with a waiting world.