Caterina Rando 0:00
When you get people out of their normal environment, their home, their office, their family, their city, transformation happens more easily. When you're transforming, that's going to improve your RE signup rate too. And by the way, let me be very clear. Sometimes I don't even know anything about what's happening at that retreat. The next one, I just have the dates, the times the location, and the price. And that's all you need to make an offer. And I want everybody to hear this because a lot of times people spent Oh, I gotta get all this together. I got it all this together got to figure out what we're gonna do every moment of every day. What do they care about? They care about being together with each other. They want to be with you. They want to know when it is where it is, and how much it costs. And if you can give them a multi Extendo payment plan Super Extended Oh, as I call it payment plan, then they're going to be instant. Yes.
Sarah Fejfar 0:58
How are entrepreneurs like us during bravely to build a stage? Ditch the sweat pants and step up to the mic? How do we create our own transformative offense? 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 of. That's the question and the answers are inside this podcast. My name is Sarah Fejfar. Welcome to greenroom Central.
Sarah Fejfar 1:26
Today I brought into greenroom central studios, Katarina Rando, founder of thriving women in business. Katarina is a woman on a mission. She shows women entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and speakers, how to build influence, gain instant clients and scale their businesses with authentic speaking, authentic selling and hosting retreats. Katerina hosts a variety of retreats and summits for women entrepreneurs, she hosts a speaking mastermind retreat focused on upgrading her clients speaking skills and message clarity. She hosts a bliss retreat for women leaders that serves as a container for pampering and relaxation and networking. And she hosts a thrive with women's events and retreats certification retreat cruise for women who want to host their own retreats. Katarina loves to get women together because when women gather Amazing things happen, Katarina welcome to Green Room central studios say hello to linchpin nation,
Caterina Rando 2:32
hello linchpin nation, bing, bing, bing,
Sarah Fejfar 2:35
oh, my goodness, I love your energy, I want to dive right in and ask you, what is your superpower when it comes to hosting retreats? Because I know you. You even certify women as retreat leaders. And so I want you to share a little bit about your superpower there with us.
Caterina Rando 2:56
I would say my superpower is making sure that everyone that walks through the door, feel seen heard, valued, welcomed, included. They know that they matter. They know that they have massive value to bring and that their voice will be included. I know that's a long list. That's my intention for every single participant. And part of what helps do that is focusing on cultivating community and connection between the participants right away.
Sarah Fejfar 3:32
So let's get into some specific tactics. What would what would you do?
Caterina Rando 3:36
Yeah. Well, Sarah, some of our programs we do on cruise ships. And I mentioned that because we do some special things like on the cruises when they arrive at their cabin. They have a sign with their name on it that says welcome. Before the welcome reception. I run around to everybody's cabin, and personally individually, welcome them. When they come to the welcome reception, of course, they get a welcome loot bag, which is not to be confused with their tote bag, they're going to get the next day. And we have of course everyone gets a voice in the room right away. Everyone introduces themselves says the intention. By the way in their welcome bag, they're going to have a personal note written from me. That's going to acknowledge them and thank them for coming and share with them what my vision is for them at this retreat, those are some of the things we do and then you know what, because we're on a cruise ship, Sara, I cannot have you know, my 10 big speaker friends come and be the speakers because I would have to pay for all of their cabins, which I don't want to do that.
Sarah Fejfar 4:50
Right
Caterina Rando 4:51
and we we pull a lot of talent from our participants. On our next retreat one Many participants doing belly dancing. One is doing cardio drumming, one is doing meditation. One is doing yoga. So that you also are I'm also showcasing the talent in the room. It's not all about me. And I have a very important distinction to make here. I have what I call a community culture, not a celebrity culture. And a lot of speakers and trainers and mentors. They have built celebrity cultures. No, no, I'm the leader of my community. At the same time, I look for how can I showcase? How can I feature? How can I include as many community members as leaders as possible, I'm always giving them opportunities to showcase and practice their leadership.
Sarah Fejfar 4:51
Catarina, I want to pause there, because there's a couple of things you said there that are absolutely solid gold, and I want to make sure linchpin nation, like wrote this down and start it. First, you this point about community versus celebrity culture, what you're doing is creating a movement that will continue beyond you. Like, they're not there just for you this figurehead there, they're there because they want to be with each other. And you're intentionally creating that. And that's so smart, because there will be come a time when, you know, they're in when your community's infatuation with you as the leader kind of wanes. But, you know, like when the shininess you know, like, wears off. But they it's kind of like when people say like, they buy the mastermind for the person who's leading it, but then they stay and renew because of who community, the community that's there. And so that's what you're doing here. And I love, love, love that. The second thing that I noticed was so much intentionality about those personal touches that make people feel seen and heard, and celebrated. And that's just such a huge key to engagement. And then the third thing would be around how you said you were gathered, having, showing, showcasing people that are a within the community. What I heard there was even beyond the showcasing, you're using a really smart facilitation tactic of coke, having them co create the experience with you. And when people co create, they buy into the vision and the mission and like the whole experience so much more and deeper. Do you find that to to be the case?
Caterina Rando 6:01
Absolutely. And of course, that helps with your signups at the end of your retreat for what's next.
Sarah Fejfar 7:58
You tell me more about that?
Caterina Rando 8:04
Well, we've had as much as a 90% signup rate for the next retreat, at a retreat, with the exception of the gals that were moving to another state or life in transition. And I share that because at multi day events, especially retreats, you're going to have a higher signup rate. Because they're getting so they're getting 24/7 Yes, experience, rather than just a 10 to five or nine to five with an evening event. They're sleeping together. They're dining together, they're going on little adventures together. And we always include a group excursion, which is always very fun snorkeling or something, oh, I love it. And so it's more holistic. And here's the other thing. When you get people out of their normal environment, their home, their office, their family, their city, transformation happens more easily. When you're transforming, that's going to improve your resign up rate to and by the way, let me be very clear. Sometimes I don't even know anything about what's happening at that retreat. The next one, I just have the dates, the times the location, and the price. And that's all you need to make an offer and I want everybody to hear this because a lot of times people spend, Oh, I gotta get all this together. I got to hold this together got to figure out what we're gonna do every moment of every day. What do they care about? They care about being together with each other. They want to be with you. They want to know when it is where it is how much it costs. And if you can give them a multi Extendo payment plan Super Extended Oh as I call it payment plan, then they're going to be instant Yes, to come and join knew. And by the way, let me make one thing, biggest making point, most people make the mistake of scheduling their retreats to close in, hey, we're going to do it in three months, we could do it in six months. If you want people to jump on a plane, if you want them to take multiple days, you've got to give them more time to make it work in their life, but also to pay for it.
Sarah Fejfar 10:24
So how much time Caterina?
Caterina Rando 10:28
If so the bigger Okay, here's the here's the guiding principle, Sara, yeah, the longer your event or retreat is, the more time you want to give them. So if I'm doing a three day, yeah, I could do that. In even three months, I could do a three day. What if I'm asking them to give me five days, seven days, my next retreat is 10 days, I want to give them even more than a year for a 10 day. Now, by the way, let me also say Nobodies, don't start with a 10 day, start with a three day because people are not going to think that they're going to want to go across the world and be with you for 10 days. If they haven't been with you for one day, or two days or three days. And that's another mistake people make they start with a seven day in Hawaii or a seven day in Paris. Yes, it's exciting. But then when people think okay, well, I've never hung out with you for a day. So I don't know. Go to Paris for a week and be with you. Right. So this really helps to start 357 and then go to 10. And you don't have to do 1010 is a long time seven is fine thing.
Sarah Fejfar 11:37
What would it look like to put on something before? A seven or 10 day? What kind of event Do you like to stack before it?
Caterina Rando 11:44
re a three a five is great. And now I live in California I live in San Francisco. But my first retreats were in Napa Valley, which is an hour from my house easy. Yeah. And, and 75% of the participants were in or even 80% were in driving distance. There's a couple guys that flew in. But so that's going to be a way easier, yes, when they don't have to jump on a plane. And they're within driving distance. So they don't have to take another two days, for the before and after. And so start with start with three days or five days. And you don't even have to do seven days, or get that big that long. Because remember, the more longer it is, in my experience, Sarah, the harder it is to fill it. Okay? Because people have a lot of other considerations when we're going for more than a week. But again, because it's not my first rodeo. I can do that now. But when we go to Hawaii when we've done four retreats at the Fairmont Killarney and Hawaii, your that has all been five days. And of course they can and that also say, Hey, you could come bring your family come early, stay late. Normally there five days when we get on the cruise ships, though, they tend to be seven. And
Sarah Fejfar 13:04
you talked about framing up the using the event as a vehicle to make the offer for the next retreat. And I'd love for you to share specifically how you make that offer. And at what point during the retreat you make it? Because I know you're also an expert at sales.
Caterina Rando 13:25
So yeah. Well, let me be very clear, Sarah. I remember a slight aside from retreats. I remember my best sales day ever. Yeah. Which for me, and I know a lot of people have a lot bigger numbers, but for me was I gave up, not not including my own events. But speaking on someone else's stage. I gave a talk it was about an hour and a half. And I sold $35,000. And I didn't even feel like the offer was that good. But everyone had so much fun at the speech. Yes. fun and laughter, and community this all impacts your sales. If they feel in all those things I said at the top, say feel valued included. I remember one year or last time we went to Hawaii. I just you know basically said to them, Hey my friends, I'm not gonna give you the big report. Here it is. This what we're doing this when we're doing this is the price. Here's the extra extra early bird price because you're here and who wants in? And on that day I sold 80%. Why? Because they've already had an amazing experience. Yes, they're ready for more. So part of it is reading the room. You know, even when I do a workshop, sometimes I notice who I've got to give more more selling to more more convincing, more reminding. And some days they're just with you. And I share that because people think it's about the offer. I have seen over and over and over I can tell you other days. I've sold a ton. And I've been shocked, because I didn't think the offer that was that great. But the program was amazing, the massive value. And also it's not just about the content, it's about the engagement. And if they're having fun, we do know a lot of people do. Look at the research, that fun humor, this helps get more sales.
Sarah Fejfar 15:23
I totally buy into that. 100%. I also buy into the whole concept of people buying while they're with you. Yes. Because especially because they're, you know, they say people buy more when they're on vacation. You just like you're in a different headspace. Yeah. And you just make decisions differently than you would in your normal everyday life. And so I love that. You're like that that's working for you within your retreats for re signups. But I want to, I want to go into the piece where we're talking about someone starting retreats for the very first time. Yeah, yeah. And they need to get their very first people to make this big leap from I'll buy something digitally from you, too. I will show up for you in person. What talk to me about that sales process.
Caterina Rando 16:17
I remember Sarah way back when when the retreat started, let me say that okay. So if I if I Sarah was going from digital online, and then now I want you to come and be with me live. Yeah, that's gonna be a two or three day Max. Okay, even two and a half day and having it be a retreat, especially if you sell to women. That's gonna get you more derrieres in chairs. Okay, a name ended up itself, calling it using the word retreat or getaway. Yes, yeah. Now you're gonna have to, but here's the other thing that people make a big mistake, Sarah. When people are making a big buying decision, you don't want to just rely on your great video and your sequence and your Facebook ads. You want to pick up the phone and you want to actually talk to people and invite them to come. And that is the difference between me and a lot of people is I talked to people all the time. And we have and by the way, I've done this will be our I do retreat retreats, but I also do programs. on cruise ships. We do our retreat certification on a cruise ship. I do a speaker mastermind on a cruise ship. I also do it in Napa Valley. I'm sharing this to say that I've sold probably 16 retreats if they're even a retreat or a program with retreat over the years and here's what I want to tell you. In all this time. We got the videos, we got the sequence we got the we got the all that okay. Yeah, that's all promotion. In all these years, I've had one person Sarah, sign up through the website. Okay. Now she already knew me. She'd already talked to me without shirty heard me speak a couple times. So I'm sharing that because I've got 26 Ladies coming with me next January for our bliss retreat for women leaders on a mission had a conversation with every single one of them. Okay, every single one, and I will tell you, one of the gals that's coming. She said no, I circled back a few months later. And here's another important thing to know. I said, I'm thinking about you may we revisit that conversation. And she was a yes. Also, again, well, because that gets more into sales. But my point is that if you want to get people to jump on a plane to come see you and be with you or go to a destination location, and they've never been with you pick up the phone, or better yet, meet them on zoom that creates relationship much more effectively. And that will support you for this one. And for the next one because by when you have the dates for this one, by the way, you want to have the dates for the next one. So if they tell you they can't come to this one, you can sign them up for the next one. But you can't do that if you don't have those dates already. And that's another place where people can really make a difference is having your thing and the next thing at the same time that you're selling.
Sarah Fejfar 19:18
That's so smart. That that one like Linchpin Nation, I want you to star that one underline that in your journal because that you can't you can't sell the next thing if you don't have it ready.
Caterina Rando 19:34
I can speak to this you know, I do I do a nine week thrive at sales program. That is my entry level lowest cost program. And I can tell you I'm doing in we have one that starts at the very end of September. I've been putting in people in the September class. Even though I have a June and a May in April and a march and a February and a January. I've been putting people in the September class since the beginning of the year, why? Because some people say, Oh, Catarina, I'm doing this right now. I'm doing that right now. And hey, okay, good. I support you. And when would you think you'd like to do it and when they say it is me, late summer fall, I put them in that class. And then now I can give them six months to pay for it. And I can start to serve them. So one of the things that I do, which is also I think, big for sales, and big for community building, is as soon as they sign up, their service starts. And what I mean by that is, for example, the ladies coming on my retreat in January, they signed up, Sarah, Okay, listen to this. Some of them signed up for a retreat with me three years ago, before the pandemic, we were supposed to go to Alaska, we didn't get to go. Then we were supposed to go to Mexico last year, we didn't get to go. Well, how do I keep these people engaged? For this is really testing for three years? Yes. Well, guess what, this year, we're doing virtual retreats. Every month for 90 minutes, they get a swag box in the mail with our excitement for the month, so that nobody drops off. And last year, I had engagement for them. Nobody dropped off 100% retention rate for a retreat that some of them signed up for three years ago. That's huge. Katarina. Yeah, it's huge. And it's all about engagement. So when I sign up, ladies for six months later, I tell them, hey, you could start to network with us right now. We have networking once a month, hey, come to our monthly sales blitzes, hey, come to our quarterly planning, your service starts immediately. And that is really important for retention and engagement.
Sarah Fejfar 21:47
And so do you build any hard costs like that into the price of the retreat? Because you know, you're gonna want to kind of wine and dine them beforehand?
Caterina Rando 21:57
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And this is where you want to really put attention on your pricing, you know, know, your overhead know your monthly not, because I look at that, and I say, okay, if I'm gonna have this year, last year, right now, we have about 85 clients. The end of last year, we had a little bit over 100. My goal is 125 clients for this year in programs that doesn't include summits and, and the lower the, the smaller events. And with that, I we figure and I calculate, it cost about $1,500 per client for the overhead for the for, that's not only the overhead, that's all, so paying my team for their work during the year. So yes, so I have to I know that so whatever my hard costs are, because when you're going on a cruise, yes, you got to pay for the cruise. There's the hard costs, there's the overhead, and then, which includes the cost of paying my team. And then there's Okay, how much do I want to make on each person? Profit? That's gonna go in the business from the registrations.
Sarah Fejfar 23:12
Super wise. Yeah. I love how you think through that. But that's come from experience in doing this, a lot of years.
Caterina Rando 23:20
And I will say, my first one, we first retreat, I broke even on my first retreat. So somebody brought a coke bottle coaching package, you know, three years before they never used it. I said, Hey, come to my retreat. Someone called me for some coaching. They wanted to, you know, do three sessions with me, I said, Hey, why don't you just come to my retreat, and I'll give you three sessions. I mean, I did whatever I could. And we have 13 ladies in the room. But here's what I want to tell you, Sarah, I broke even on the retreat, I made more money on the upsell than I think I've ever done from that if we look at per person, so that set me up for the whole next year. We're not just enrolling them at our retreats for the next retreat. Of course, we're enrolling them for our group programs. And so because that happened, that convinced me that retreats were the way to go. Now, of course, now I teach people how to do retreats, we want everybody to make money from the get go. But the reason I'm sharing my story is because too many women are getting ready to get ready to think about getting going. And by the time they get going they could have done six retreats and not only are they pushing off the revenue, but they're pushing off mastery. That's why we want to get in the door right away. Because the more we do it, the more masterful we get. And then pretty soon you could do it with one eye close one hand tied behind your back.
Sarah Fejfar 24:46
Right. But getting ready to get ready to get ready. I have been the queen of that for a lot of my life. I know what that's like
Sarah Fejfar 25:01
So do you, how do you finesse the the offer of multiple things at the end of your getting people into your ongoing group coaching programs and the retreat? How do you handle that?
Caterina Rando 25:18
Well, if somebody's coming on the retreat with me, they're making a bigger investment than a lot of people. And so, remember, it's called Sarah's called the upsell, right? So I think about what that's what's the cost that they spent. And the offer is going to be more than that. Okay, if it's the next retreat, it might, it might be around there if it's the next retreat. But if I'm offering them a program, I'm going to My offer is going to be whatever my most elite program is. Because they're the ones who are most likely to be a yes for it, since they've spent a lot of time with me and invested already. And then if there are no for that, then in our one on one conversation, because when I do a retreat, I also have a one on one, sit down with everybody. Now, that's more of a to talk about whatever they want to talk about session consultation. But then at the end, I always ask them, Hey, are you thinking you might want to join me next time or whatever it is, and then we can have a little more sales conversation around it, as well. So that has been extremely effective. Now, if you have 100 people, you can't do this. But when I've got 26 gals on a cruise ship, and I've got 10 days, I've got a day or two, that I can do appointments, and get a ton of sales.
Sarah Fejfar 26:46
So you set do you set those appointments up before the event even starts.
Caterina Rando 26:51
They sign up when they're on the ship, they tell me that we have a sign up sheet. They pick the time they want that doesn't conflict with their massage or whatever they're doing. Yeah. And I do have a team. But here's what everybody wants. Want to make sure it's very clear. When people sign up for your retreat, they want to spend time with you. And they don't want to spend time with your team. I mean, they're happy to, but you better be eating with them. You better be doing the activities with them. You better be going to whatever they're doing, even the excursions or, or the impromptu things. When I do my speaker mastermind in Napa Valley one evening, we go and we play bocce ball. And by the way, bocce ball is great because it doesn't cost hardly anything go play bocce ball, right, right. But it's a unique activity. But recognize you cannot be this is again, Sara, the difference between community culture and celebrity culture, you cannot be with a trainer who comes out of their cabin for the teaching, and doesn't talk to the participants the rest of the time. That's not gonna, that's not going to have them blissing when they finish the retreat with you. Another big mistake a lot of people make in my opinion. And I know when I was support for people way back when when I was supporting other people's retreats, they loved that the leader would have dinner with them, and sit down with them and go for a walk with them. That's what they want, when they're coming to be with you.
Sarah Fejfar 28:25
How do you, I appreciate what you're saying there. But I'm also wondering about the flip side of the coin about making yourself too available and losing some of that.
Sarah Fejfar 28:41
I don't want to say like the air of expertise or also protecting your boundaries. You know, if you're available to them all the time does, how does that? How are you managing your own energy?
Caterina Rando 28:54
You know, so one of the things I do is I tell my clients, they can call me anytime. They can text me anytime. They can Facebook me anytime. And this is a practice that I've had for years. And I want to tell you, if you get good at discernment, meaning who you let in the door in the first place. Sure. Okay, I right now I have one client who's in my super elite group, which meaning she's paid more than any, her and a few other gals have paid more than anybody. She probably texts me or calls me maybe a little bit too much. But that's one client in 85 or however many clients we have. Okay, and because she's super elite, a little extra service for one gal doesn't bother me. Yeah. And so yeah, so you have to know your people. You have to be discerning about who you let in. But I've never nobody comes knocking on my cabin door. Sure. And if they did, hey, Catarina, you want to go to the blah, blah, blah? I can always say no, right? But the thing is that these people came to be on a retreat with you or me or whoever they're signing up with. Do not be that speaker who only shows up in the front of the room, right? In my opinion. Because when they feel in relationship with you also, that they're going to keep coming back.
Sarah Fejfar 30:25
Mm hmm.
Caterina Rando 30:29
It's back to the scene heard, valued, welcomed, appreciate it, know that they matter. Now, I know everybody's different about this, right? But, but again, the people in my community, they want to community culture. And it's never felt good to me as a participant, when I go to somebody's three day event, and I can't even ask them a question because they, they're like Harry Potter, they operate and show up on stage. And that's it, you know, doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good to pay money to go and be on a retreat with someone. And they're never available, even for a quick conversation. So everyone has to, again, create their own culture. But I'm going to tell you something my community culture is not only working great with for me, but all my clients are blissing because they're part of a community where they also have visibility, not just me, right.
Caterina Rando 31:33
The other thing I want to say is, they get clients. Okay, I believe there's pie for everybody. There's enough pie, there's enough pie for everybody. Okay, sometimes? Well, anyway, I'm a big fan of pie. There's enough pie for everybody. And what I mean by that is, I've got clients that have created their own communities, that most of the people in their community are from my community. That's okay, there's enough pie for everybody. I've got clients that are getting tons of clients, that's okay. There's enough pie for everybody. There is and a lot and I've been in communities where they've said, don't talk about what you do, don't promote bah, bah, bah. Now, at your initial events at your one day or two day, your three day where a lot of those people are not your clients, I think that's important because some people do come just to skim off your room. I don't like that. I'm not I don't agree with that. And I watch and we don't invite those people to come back, if that's how they operate. But once somebody's in the community, part of the value of being in the community is that they're gonna get return on their investment. So that is also something I want, because if they get ROI, what does that mean, Sarah? Bing, bing, they're gonna sign up again. I've got clients have been with me. Five years, six years, I've got a woman that's come on every single one of my retreats over the last 13 years. Okay, we want our clients to keep coming back. We it's not the churn and burn. I'm looking for long term client relationships.
Sarah Fejfar 33:10
Yeah, no, it's definitely the long term kind of your ride or die, folks are the people who are coming to be in person with you for these retreats. This is not for the here for just a moment time, right? You know, we've talked a lot about your longer, more intimate retreats. But um, before we wrap up, I want to ask you about how you, you when you have your bigger events, and you go to fill those you you've said that you have a strategy, you call it the rinse and repeat zoom strategy that we fill bigger events. Can you talk to us about that?
Caterina Rando 33:48
Absolutely. So my my next bigger event is called the Shero speaker Summit, which is right now it's just two days virtual two days, we used to do it live and in person. I like virtual better around how to use speaking to grow your revenue and gain clients. I do. Every month I do two zoom workshops. So now when I'm speaking, when I'm networking, when I'm getting referrals, I always have something to invite people to sure it's not intimidating. It's not like hey, let's have a sales conversation. Because I want to build influence with people. This is a big super tip, sir. I want to build influence with people before I asked them to buy. That's another big thing people mistake people make say, hey, let's get on a call. Now you're trying to build influence on the call. That's much harder than inviting them to a workshop first, and then inviting them to a conversation. So now they're going to be show me versus prove it to me when we get on a call with people. Sure. And so so two works. Now you can do one or two workshops a month, you always have something to invite people to. I did one yesterday, already got a new client, some people will be a slower cooker, some will take many more conversations next week, some people will take two or three conversations, that's fine. Okay. But by always having something to invite people to. The other thing that happens is you get really good at your virtual speaking. And then you're building influence, and you can invite them to your program. I go from workshop to my lowest cost program. And I go from workshop to come to my bigger event. And it's extremely effective. Hmm.
Sarah Fejfar 35:46
You said you prefer the I think it's kind of starting to settle out in the marketplace where people feel like virtual events are the the exact right fit and where they feel the in person events are the exact right fit. And I'm sensing from you that you're really loving to use the virtual as the beginning of the funnel for the low end, warm them up into your world.
Caterina Rando 36:11
Yes, sir. The beautiful thing about it is that as someone who lives in San Francisco, you know, my clients were pretty much up and down the West Coast corridor, some clients jumping on planes to come and be with us from Oregon or Southern California. But now that we've gone virtual, you know, I have clients from Canada, I have clients from the East Coast and all over the country. And so that's part of why I'm loving it. But it's also for me, there's so much pressure involved in live and in person, a room blocks big prices for hotel ballrooms, that I, I'm really enjoying the virtual. And what I will say too, is that we were doing hybrid workshops, before the pandemic even started. And I actually have a center in San Francisco, where I used to do my group programs and do my workshops, and do we did events and get togethers. And we'll start that again. But our, our town is still opening up from yet from the pandemic. And so, so we haven't really started that yet. But in terms of our enrollment events, we're gonna keep those virtual for now, because it's so much less pressure and so much less cost of that. And though and the return on the, the signup rate, the signup rates are pretty much the same, because we are booking appointments with everyone after with anybody that wants to talk to me,
Sarah Fejfar 37:48
sure, okay, I'm tracking with you. And then you kind of you can kind of choose your, they can kind of choose their own adventure, then you can get to know them a little bit better and figure out what what's the right fit for them,
Caterina Rando 38:00
right. And we do make an irresistible offer in the room. And we do, you know, add extra bonuses if they sign up today. But again, not everybody is an instant client, not there's people never going to make a decision, Insta, you know, there's only 25% of the personality types, that will make an instant decision. And I'm looking for the instant and the slow and the super slow. I'll take all kinds of clients. And this is why you're circling back and you're following up is so important, because you will get more clients. But if you're if you're doing the event, and then you're done with your sales, you're missing a ton of sales, in my opinion,
Sarah Fejfar 38:42
oh, I completely agree because I'm one of those. So I, you know, they talk about the logical versus the emotional buyers. And I think the emotional buyers would be that like Insta buyer that you just talked about. But I am firmly rooted in the logical like I will always buy on the last moment of the last day of CART open period. I need the most amount of information and research and so I do appreciate the follow up because I am still interested. It's just gonna take me longer to get there and I'm gonna need you to keep reminding me and I love also being the energy in the room during the event and watching the table rush or hearing on the virtual event people you know, saying the names of the people who are already jumping on board because it just gives me that fear of missing out it gives me that reassurance that other people are jumping in and you know going to the retreat to just to help me nudge me along on that Irish journey. Absolutely. So good. All right, Catherine. Before we wrap up for today, I want to do a few rapid fire questions. Just tell me the first thing that comes to mind. Okay, okay, I want you to tell me What'd you say to yourself backstage and onstage?
Caterina Rando 40:05
I said myself, Caterina, you have massive value to bring. There's a lifetime supply of people to serve. Go be loud and proud. Bring your massive value, so you can sell more, serve more and uplift more lives.
Sarah Fejfar 40:20
Hmm.
Caterina Rando 40:21
Bing Bing. And that's what I tell my people to.
Sarah Fejfar 40:25
What is we've talked a lot about this today, but if you can only pick one, what's your best tip for filling events,
Caterina Rando 40:33
personal invitations, personal invitations, we'll put smiles on the screen and derrieres in chairs. 100 times more than promotion. Because a personal invitation evokes a decision. Promotion in forms. Very big difference.
Sarah Fejfar 40:54
So good. Say it one more time.
Caterina Rando 40:58
The reason why personal invitations work, is they evoke a decision. If somebody just invited me to to two of their upcoming talks, I gotta check my calendar before I respond. My mama raised me right, I'm not going to not respond. Right. But with promotion? No was no response necessary. Therefore, no decision necessary.
Sarah Fejfar 41:19
Hmm, solid gold. Catarina love that. What's your favorite moment at events that you host
Caterina Rando 41:27
I'm at the at the end when people are telling me about their transformation and their impact. And sometimes I've had it happened seven minutes into an event too, you know, but when people start to talk about how they're being impacted, and then when clients get up, and they talk about how their lives have changed, you know that that's gold. I mean, that's why I do my thing is to save lives.
Sarah Fejfar 41:52
What's the best thing about hosting your own events?
Caterina Rando 41:57
Community, Building community, having community, having community in all because of my events because of my business. You know, I've got I've got girlfriends for life. I've got friends, I could call at any moment. Of course, you have more intimate and less intimate relationships with your clients. And I know that I'm never going to be, you know, old lady by myself in some apartment, because I've made 1000 amazing friends over the course of my business.
Sarah Fejfar 42:36
Oh, I love that. I love to know what you're reading right now.
Caterina Rando 42:41
What am I reading right now? Well, the first book that comes to mind is atomic habits, which I'm a huge fan of. Let's see. Yeah, I would say I would say atomic. I mean, I've read it like three times. But it's, it's on my audible right now. Also.
Sarah Fejfar 42:59
You're going at it again. Yep. There are some books that i star like that. And I tell myself No, this needs to be a once a year type story. Like I need to revisit this.
Caterina Rando 43:11
Let's see. I'm Psycho Cybernetics is probably the best book I've ever read that is not in the, you know, out there now. I encourage everybody to read PSYCHO CYBERNETICS by Maxwell Maltz.
Sarah Fejfar 43:26
Thank you. It's on my list. Actually, I think it's even in my audible bookshelf, but I have not read it yet. What have you got going on right now, Caterina that we should know about? And where can linchpin nation find you.
Caterina Rando 43:42
My Shiro speaker Summit, which is all about using speaking to gain instant clients, which is coming up and that'll be in the show notes. And of course, we're starting to enroll people for our thrive with women's retreats, certified Leader Program, bing, bing, bing, and come to come and join me for a free workshop. I do two a month and they're always fun and massive value. But even just a little sales,
Sarah Fejfar 44:09
little sales. Well, we all have to sell sales. I will link all that up in the show notes. Katarina, thank you so much for being here today. It's it's been a true pleasure and just in awe and just deep reverence for the the amount of work that you've put in on retreats and mastery in that space. And thank you for sharing your wisdom with us today.
Caterina Rando 44:37
Sarah, thank you so much. And I want everyone to hear that the goal is not to do stuff. The goal is to master stuff. And that's why the getting ready to get ready is really a myth. Get in action. That's how you're gonna get to mastery. Sarah, huge honor privilege to be with you today. Thank you.
Sarah Fejfar 44:55
I thank you for listening to this episode of the greenroom Central Podcast with Catarina Rando. If you love this episode, then please take a screenshot on your phone and post it to Instagram and tag at survey 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 for you.
Sarah Fejfar 45:16
If right now you're thinking, Sarah, yes, an event is happening. But here's the thing. I have a sizable team who can make this happen. But we need someone to teach us how then go to greenroom. central.com To book a private workshop, you'll get a customized two day workshop for your team. during that workshop, everyone will learn a repeatable framework that can be used to start or scale events in your business. You'll then create a roadmap as a team so that everyone leaves the workshop with a shared vision for how to move forward.
Sarah Fejfar 45:52
Now, in case you're curious, this podcast is built on Kajabi. I'm loving how easy it's been to get things set up. But more so. I'm thrilled that my entire business is run on one platform, from my emails and pages to my courses. And now to my podcasts. It's all under one roof. If you love simplicity and scalability as much as I do, then go to greenroom. central.com and get a free 14 day trial of Kajabi.
Sarah Fejfar 46:21
I appreciate your commitment to leveling up and learning the mindset and strategy of five events. Keep going, keep learning. If you want more head over to greenroom central.com For show notes and all the links from today's episode.
