Sarah Fejfar
Shiny objects are everywhere. Whether it's a virtual event or an in person event, guests attention wanders, but there are secrets to reeling people back in and redirecting their attention to you and all the cool stuff that they came to learn. Listen for five ways to do just that.
Sarah Fejfar
Inquiring minds want to know, how are entrepreneurs like us daring bravely to build a stage? Ditch the sweat pants? And step up to the mic? How do we create our own transformative events? So we can get our message out into the world in a bigger way. It's not only profitable, but it's actually something we can be proud. That's the question. And the answers are inside this podcast. My name is Sarah Fejfar, welcome to Greenroom Central.
Sarah Fejfar
Hey, it's Sarah, I have an invitation for you right now. You can join entrepreneurs from across the globe who share a passion for hosting their own events become part of the community that inspires and cheers you on over at greenroom central.com.
Sarah Fejfar
So I've got five big ideas for you.
Sarah Fejfar
The first is breakouts.
Sarah Fejfar
And I think these are underutilized, it's really important for guests to socialize their learnings in the moment. And I think, when you give, when you give a task and assignment of getting into a breakout, guests naturally have to get reengaged and get dialed in to what's going on. And and this is important, because if they were kind of like zoning out, you're gonna get them back in really quickly.
Sarah Fejfar
And, and so it also gives you an A way to get them closer to the other guests at your event. So you can say something like, Hey, we're going to take the next 10 minutes, you're going to get into groups of five, you're going to have two minutes each, the person who's traveled the farthest goes first, the person with the most pets is the person who's the note taker.
Sarah Fejfar
And now you've set the stage, they know exactly what to do when they get into the groups. And so they they go into either the the Zoom breakout room, or they pull their chairs together if you're in person, and they're off to the races.
Sarah Fejfar
And then you can say, hey, I want you to share your biggest aha so far, and something you need help with. And this really works well because they're going to be like taking notes. During that time of all of the other guests. They're going to be like writing down who they met and where they're from and what their business is.
Sarah Fejfar
And then they're also going to kind of like reconnect with you because they're going to be looking for those. How do I fit in rules of engagement for the breakout session. So I love this love, love love this as an engagement tool, I think they should be used early. And often. In your events, I think you can switch up the group size groups of two groups of four groups of of three, you can change up how many minutes each person gets like five minutes each two minutes each.
Sarah Fejfar
I think you can switch up the questions like hey, I want you to share one thing you're struggling right now in your business and also likeyour favorite business book and why.
Sarah Fejfar
So I think that's, that's a great tool.
Sarah Fejfar
I want you to use it more often, when you're hosting events, breakout rooms or breakouts, whether it's a Zoom Room or in person.
Sarah Fejfar
Alright, so next, I have five tips for you here on keeping your guests engaged.
Sarah Fejfar
So the second one is rhetorical questions. I want you to be asking your guests while you're live with them.
Sarah Fejfar
You know, did you did you write that down? Are you tracking with me? Raise your hand if this is resonating. Who here has like all of those questions that are kind of like low risk to answer. I want you to be asking those during your presentation. Because the more often that you're doing that kind of stuff. Almost like a vibe check with your guests. The more often they're going to kind of like be reconnecting re engaging with you and what you're teaching. And we just need a lot of we need to string a lot of these micro moments together.
Sarah Fejfar
And when we do, you will find that your guests have like just this much stronger and more intimate connection with you by throughout the event and by the end of the event. And this is especially important if you're making an offer, because the more the closer that they feel to you during the event, the closer that they feel to you, the more likely they are to be a conversion for you.
Sarah Fejfar
And and so that's why stringing together more of these, like moments of engagement throughout your event are so very important. All right, so we've done number one breakouts number two rhetorical questions.
Sarah Fejfar
Number three is direct requests to your guests to pay attention. And this may sound silly, it may say seem common sense, but is one of my favorite mentors likes to say common sense isn't always common practice. I love that Brendon Burchard said that Burchard says that, and he uses this tactic quite often during his events, like, hey, I want you to write this down.
Sarah Fejfar
Those three points I just gave you are solid gold, because, hey, you know, like, shake the shoulder of the person next to you and say like, and then give them some sort of command that those types of direct requests to pay attention.
Sarah Fejfar
They work.
Sarah Fejfar
So it's another moment that you can string together during your presentation to be reconnecting with your guests. All right, fourth one is gamification. You all know my present my position on this, I used to be a fun hater, I have, like recovering. And I want you to really, I want you to consider using gamification. It doesn't have to be cheesy. And I think ways that I love to use this are that it's seem kind of
Sarah Fejfar
I really don't like things that are cheesy. So the way that I like to use gamification is not only not cheesy, but also not high maintenance. For an event organizer for the event leader, you want things to be simple to, to fulfill on. And so things like, if you're in a virtual event, using that prize, we'll just Google it. And putting people's names on it, who maybe had their cameras turned on who maybe were the most engaged in the chat in the last session, you drop those names in the the prize, we'll give it a spin and send someone your favorite book. Those are, that's a super simple way during a virtual event to do engagement.
Sarah Fejfar
In an in person event, something that's really easy to fulfill on is just having a stack of cool swag items, or your favorite books on on the podium. And you know, on your water table just offstage and in being able to throw into the audience when someone asks a really thoughtful question, or when you notice someone cheering somebody on, like, reward the behaviors that you want people to be exhibiting during your event. And that's why I love giving away prizes with the wheel during a virtual event for cameras on and engaging in the chat or asking a question in a virtual in person setting or, you know, like being the person who's encouraging and cheering people on. I love that stuff. So gamification is our fourth. Moving on to the fifth one.
Sarah Fejfar
Hey, I don't want you to miss out. Did you know that this conversation always continues inside the linchpin nation community. It's a free modern discussion forum exclusively for greenroom central listeners that will have a profound impact on the way you look at events in your business. Get answers to your biggest questions here behind the scenes nuggets from event leaders, and get access to helpful templates, guides and checklists. As you start and scale events in your business, be part of the daily discussion with entrepreneurs just like you, you can join for free over at Green Room central.com. I'll see you inside.
Sarah Fejfar
I love this. So it I call it changing it up. So when you are working with a live audience, whether it's in person or virtual, you need to mix up what they're seeing. And so that is showing videos that is using a flip chart that is using slides that is just using you know your face that is gesturing that is moving around if you're on stage.
Sarah Fejfar
And I'll come back to all those things in a little bit. But what I want to underline here is that
Sarah Fejfar
We all have squirrel brains, we all are easily distracted. And so anything that you can do that is kind of changing up the the medium or mode at which people are learning or where they're needing to, like put their attention, the better because it just is, it is like one more tool in your toolbox to kind of like reel them back in, you think about TV, and how often the frame, the perspective like changes how often the frame is changing. It's super constant. And it's that it's super high.
Sarah Fejfar
I wish I knew the number for you in terms of like, how many different frames are in like a, you know, a minute of TV, it's huge. And, and so I think about that people are just like looking for shiny objects. That's number one. But also people learn things differently. And we need to really appreciate that. So I personally love to learn audio visually. So I love to be listening to a book, or I love to be watching like a video based course.
Sarah Fejfar
And but there are some people who need to see it written down. And there are some people who needs to hear stats, and there's some people who need to hear the, the metaphor like it's, it's kind of like this. And when we're changing up the media that we're using during our events, whether that's slides with some stats on them, or a flip chart that you're drawing like a framework on live in front of them, or a video, it just helps kind of like reel more people in and get more people to, to understand what you're trying to teach.
Sarah Fejfar
So in in Live Event Academy, I had a student go through. And afterwards, I was looking at the comments that they've dropped inside of, you know, the Kajabi portal, I was looking at the testimonial they left, and it was constantly about story. And that's another way that people learn is through telling of stories. And they just they just kept commenting on how they loved my stories. And it really keyed me into the fact that that's how they relate and, and understand best.
Sarah Fejfar
And so I just want to encourage you to really change up the change it up when you're you're teaching and be tapping into the different ways people learn and see if there are props that you can be bringing in that that help check those boxes for you. I'd also say that changing it up would relate to especially if you're
Sarah Fejfar
an an in person setting changing up the space. So we just did a podcast episode with Juergen Stross about this about how he changes the the physical spaces that they're in if they're brainstorming versus if they're like strategizing.
Sarah Fejfar
There's like different activities that they're they do behind but over the course of a day of a business retreat. And they physically move spaces so that they're in a different room. And I know there's also that whole like colored hat phenomenon of like telling people hey, this is like a green hat tie versus like this is a black hat time. I can't remember the name of what that that theory is called right now. But that's it that's kind of like the same vein that I'm going down here with this whole changing it up as a way as a means of of engaging more guests. And so I hope this kind of rapid fire format of giving you five ways of keeping guests engaged was helpful. Again, I'm a huge proponent of breakouts, of asking rhetorical questions of direct requests, to guests to pay attention of gamification and also kind of changing up the modality of how you're teaching throughout the event. I hope that's helpful.
Sarah Fejfar
Thank you for listening to the Greenroom Central podcast. If you love this episode, then be sure to please take a screenshot on your phone and post it to Instagram and be sure to tag at therapy for and let me know why you liked it and what you'd like to hear or who you'd like to hear from in the future. That'll help me know what to create. Also, if scaling events in your business sounds like something you want to tackle in 2022 and you need a coach, let's connect to see if one on one coaching is for you. Just go to green room central.com. You and I can work together one on one throughout the course of the year and dive deep into the inner workings of your events and business. You'll receive mentorship, personalized feedback and customized guidance to define your goals and achieve your next level of success. Go to green room central.com right now to apply.
Sarah Fejfar
On average, I spend about an hour a day reading every month of every year. If you love learning on the go as much as I do then go to greenroom. central.com To get a free audiobook and a free 30 day trial of Audible. My audiobook platform of choice is a sponsor of greenroom Central. I recently finished Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T Harv Eker and recommend it highly for any entrepreneur looking to access the next level.
Sarah Fejfar
I appreciate your commitment to leveling up and learning the mindset and strategy of live events. Keep going, keep learning and if you want to learn more, head over to bring them central.com For show notes and all the links from today's episode.
