Why In-Person Events are Great for Business and Your Mental Health [Episode 97]

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome back to the Holistic Marketing Simplified podcast. I am so happy you're here. I hope this gives you a moment of reprieve from holiday madness. And today I am talking about one of my all time favorite topics, which is in person events. Oh, man. Okay. My disclaimer, I realized that I'm an extrovert, but fun fact, even though I'm an extrovert, I still, when I go to like big conferences and events and stuff, I'm usually not the one like going out at night.

[00:00:34] Like I, I do need to like go back to my room and like recharge for sure. I'm not the one who's like the life of the party, but this probably doesn't apply. To the majority of you, because so many of you are in, like if you're a brick and mortar chiropractor or massage therapist or acupuncturist or whatever, even if you're an online health coach or life coach or therapist.

[00:00:55] You're probably seeing a lot of people in real life every day, unless you're online only. But if you are online only like me, I have found that working from home, while amazing and while it has so many perks, like actually, as I record this right now, I am still in my bathroom because it's not even nine and it's cold outside and I can say, yes, there are a ton of perks.

[00:01:20] I love that. It's flexible. I love that. I can take breaks to do the dishes. Um, my daughter was home from school sick yesterday and it, you know, didn't interrupt my schedule, but at the same time, it is just really isolating. I think whether you're an extrovert or not. And so I find that even if you are, or I would venture to guess that even if you are seeing a lot of people in real life, in practice every day, They're not other people doing what you are doing, right?

[00:01:50] Like you're just, you're seeing your patients. You're not seeing other health, other chiropractors or other massage therapists or whatever. So like I said, it can feel a little like, Oh, nobody understands what I'm doing. And yeah, this is why I just love in person events. Now I have been to some where I'm like, Ooh, I probably won't, wouldn't do this one again.

[00:02:10] You know, obviously the energy is different at different ones. But like I said, today's episode, I'm going to talk about some of the favorites I've been to, some ones I am going to that I would love to see you at, and the benefits of attending in person events that you might not have thought about before.

[00:02:30] So let's get into it.

[00:02:37] Hey, welcome to Holistic Marketing Simplified. This podcast boils down to the fact that we wholeheartedly believe that more humans need to know about holistic health solutions. And you didn't go to school to learn how to be a Full time content creator and show up on Instagram and do all of this marketing stuff all day every day.

[00:02:56] So let's come hang it out while we chat all things, even your marketing and my goal is that you shift your mindset around your marketing from a quote should to a, I get to more dream patients and clients. Yes, please. My name is Morgan Adams and I am a holistic sleep coach in Richmond, Virginia, and I listen to the holistic marketing simplified podcast.

[00:03:22] Okay. So I first just want to start out by talking about now, like I said, it's a little different when you're at a type of conference. Like for me, when I'm going to a conference with other chiropractors. Then, like, I am the one, like, I am surrounded by potential new clients, right? So for you, that could still, like, I guess I just want to talk about the two different types of events you could go to.

[00:03:46] Yes, there's the one type of event where you're maybe at like a CE or a workshop or something where you are an attendee and you're in attendance with all other, you know, health coaches or all other functional medicine providers who do what you do. Will you get a ton of potential new business from that?

[00:04:05] I mean, potentially, I wouldn't write it off because you never know who you could be networking with, who might be like, oh my gosh, I have a patient who's moving to that area or You know, my sister in law lives in that area. Like I said, I know that's not like crazy common, but it's always great to, you know, build up your network even to just don't discount like making these relationships to have people that you can talk to as like a phone, a friend.

[00:04:33] When you leave the conference, so obviously, like I said, if I was going to like a social media marketing conference, right? Like would I get a whole lot of new business? Like maybe not, but would it make me better at my job so that I can retain more business? Absolutely. So don't discount the types that are like, oh, well, I wouldn't be.

[00:04:51] Like customer potential customer facing because even if you could pick up one little skill It makes you better at your job Then I have found, you know, it's totally worth it to be somewhere in person Other type of event is obviously the opposite of what I just said It's like maybe you are the guest expert like so maybe Locally somewhere in your town like the Chamber of Commerce asks you to come present on health Obviously, that's just like a perfect place to be able to, to grow your business and get more clients.

[00:05:24] So there was an article when I was researching this, this episode, there was an article in the Harvard Business Review that said that face to face interactions tend to be 34 times more successful than digital. So, yeah, like if someone actually, this is why it kind of goes back to why I am so adamant about you having a actual photo of you or a video of you or a video of you speaking on your Instagram.

[00:05:50] Yes, I realize it's not the same thing as face to face, but when somebody can actually be interacting with you face to face and like see you, meet you in person, they're way more likely to be like, yes, I'm going to schedule that appointment, right? Like you didn't need her Harvard business review to tell you that.

[00:06:06] That's networking at its finest, right? I know like for me when I was graduating college, it was like when I was looking at jobs, my first job out of college was through some networking I did. It was like a friend of a friend of a friend. It wasn't that I just like put my resume out there and someone called me.

[00:06:22] So yeah, thinking about the networking piece and then also there's, there was a cool study showing how. When you're physically present somewhere, you actually have eight to ten percent higher retention rates. So let's say you're at a CE, um, and you're either going to do the CE online at home and sitting in your bathrobe like I am, or you're going to be in person actually learning from the person in person.

[00:06:47] The studies show that you actually have an eight to 10 percent higher retention rate. So the other benefits are great. Like you've got real time problem solving with people in person. You've got peer learning opportunities. As I said in the intro, you've, you've now got this network that's like phone a friend.

[00:07:04] You've got direct access to industry leaders and mentors that you might not have had the chance to actually meet and have FaceTime with before. And then you also get Like immediate feedback and personalized guidance, because usually unless you're in just like a ginormous type of conference, you can ask questions.

[00:07:22] And yeah, like I said, also in the intro, it just kind of helps you be better at your job. Like I said, even if you could just take one little nugget away, a lot of people like to think about like, okay, when I'm going to a conference and I'm spending the money to sponsor it, and you're thinking about ROI. I, you know, say you add up like your plane ticket, if you had to fly there and your hotel and then the ticket for the event and then your food and all of that.

[00:07:47] I might not immediately, let's just say in my example, make enough sales of the hub within like let's say a month after I get back from the conference to make up for that amount that I spent. I. Great. Don't consider that me not getting ROI. Like that's crazy to think that because what have I gotten now?

[00:08:09] Now I've gotten photos of me at events. I've got people who are seeing me in different places and I have become more of like a, I don't want to say household name cause I'm, I'm not, but you know what I mean? Like I'm becoming more of like a, Oh, she's at all of these events. And so people, some people have longer buying cycles.

[00:08:26] I just had a, use the chiropractor example, I just had a, um, one of my holistic marketing hub students tell me that, uh, she had a patient who told her, a new patient who told her she'd been watching her Instagram for three years before she booked an appointment. So obviously not everyone has that long of a buying cycle, but I did, I just sold a hub student.

[00:08:50] This is like a couple months ago, and I looked back and they came on to my email list in 2021. And this is the first time they bought from me. So even if you can take away, like, even if I had gotten zero sales and I look at everything as a learning opportunity, okay, what did I take away from that? And I know I'm flip flopping talking about whether or not you're like an actual presenter or vendor versus like being an in person attendee, but I know that you can make the leap and see how you can apply this to you.

[00:09:19] The very first conference I ever sponsored was one of the women chiropractors events in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I didn't do a great job of writing down everyone's names that I spoke to. And so then when I would get, when I got home, I was like, lady from the bathroom. She said she was a chiropractor in Arizona.

[00:09:37] She had short hair. I was trying to like figure out who these people were. The more conferences I have been to, I've gotten better about literally right there with them. I don't think it's awkward at all. I'm like, hold on, let me just write your name down. And I like have them flip over their name tag because I need to almost like see their name for it to be kind of embedded in my brain.

[00:09:55] But even if you're just there for networking opportunities and you're not there to get potential new patients or clients, make sure you connect with them right there. Be like, Hey, I'm just going to send you a DM on Instagram real quick so we can connect after the conference. Make sure to, like I said, be intentional about the followup.

[00:10:12] So now, anytime I go to a conference, we have a whole follow up system of how we follow up with people after I've gotten home. Um, it's usually, you know, really just like low pressure, just like, Hey, it was nice to connect with you. It's not a big deal. And I just was talking about all of like the business benefits, but in terms of just like your mental health benefits, sometimes it's just.

[00:10:35] Being outside of your home, being outside from your day to day life, maybe if you have kids, like you're not taking care of kids, you're not running the practice, you're, you know, in a hotel room, possibly like actually getting some sleep by yourself. Maybe you get to order room service or maybe you get to wear the nice hotel robe.

[00:10:50] That's my personal personal favorite. I know when I went to Cairo wealth con in Miami, I was just coming out of like a really big mental health slump. And I was really, really anxious about going because I was worried that, oh my gosh, I hope this doesn't make things worse. But what happened is it actually made things better.

[00:11:12] Because even though the weather in Miami was like not Miami weather, the first two days we were there, it was still nice to just pattern interrupt. Because I think we just get in our patterns of like, Everything is the same, day in and day out, the symptoms, we just need that pattern interrupted and it's so good for our mental health.

[00:11:29] So, yeah, and it's fun because, you know, we need this social connection and it's just so great to be with other people who understand what it is that you're trying to do. Also, another thing that's come out of coming to conferences, and I know I talked about building networking and referral networks as being an attendee, but when you, if you are a vendor, like I have become really good friends with some other vendors who serve the chiropractic industry, like website, like Jill Cherry does Cherry Picked Webco.

[00:11:57] She does great websites for chiropractors. She and I have become friends because we've been to a couple of conferences together. I've also gotten to hang out with Lauren from Perfect Patients, also great chiropractic websites in person. You know, I got to sit and talk to Dr. Tamara McIntyre in her hotel room until like we just talked about all things life and it was just like so cool to just connect, like just have that human connection and networking, whether it turns into be any type of quote business benefit or not.

[00:12:25] So let's talk about some events that I'll be at in the, um, upcoming year. And I would absolutely love to see you there. So this first one I'm going to talk about is chiropractic only. And it's the, from the collab, which is my dear friend, Dr. Christy Wick. She is truly, she's the first chiropractor, chiropractic business coach that took a chance on me back in Gosh, 2020, and I've had the pleasure of going to her and when she used to have the squad, I would go, I went and spoke at one of her events in Clearwater, Florida, like way back a couple of years ago, but her and the Floriani's Dr.

[00:13:00] Jen and Dr. Simon Floriani, they were And then Dr. Jake Greniker have gotten together to host the Collaborative Cairo Summit and that is, let's see, January 10th and 11th, 2025. So I know this is a tight turnaround, but Dallas is, it's in Dallas. Dallas is so easy to get to that, like, I haven't, I definitely have not booked my plane ticket yet.

[00:13:21] I should probably do that when I stop, uh, when I stop recording. It's at the Hilla, Hilton, Dallas Salt Lake. And it's very, very reasonably affordable. It's 688. Um, I believe there's going to be some CE available and the speaker lineup is like pretty banging and I'm going to be one of them, which I'm so excited.

[00:13:44] So I would love to see some friendly faces that I know in the crowd. So this is going to be, I've done a lot of speaking engagements before, but this is going to be like my first, like biggest one, like on stage with biggest. you know, biggest audience. So yeah, again, that is January 10th and 11th. So I'm super excited about that one.

[00:14:06] The next event is actually my content creation retreat, and this is open to, um, women only, but anyone. So we did this last year and we just had the best time. I came home ready to run through a wall. I mean, yes, I was a little tired, but I'm so recharged. I got great feedback from every attendee. The only complaint we all had was that the Airbnb that we were in.

[00:14:31] It was literally like right off an interstate and it was very loud, but we have remedied that because this year we are actually going to be staying in Folly Beach, which is right outside of Charleston. It's a four minute walk from the beach. It's on this quiet street. It's this beautiful, humongous beach.

[00:14:48] house that they have turned into the coolest Airbnb that each attendee will have their own suite. So last year, every attendee had their own room and bathroom. This year, you'll have your own suite in the house. Like there's different doors and each door is like the so and so suite. And you go in and it's like its own little mini apartment.

[00:15:11] It's so cool. It's beautiful. I said a four minute walk from the beach. Um, and it's the whole purpose of this retreat. It's, it's a content creation retreat. It's April 10th through the 13th, 2025. It's a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. We'll get in Thursday night. It's going to be pretty casual Thursday night.

[00:15:28] We'll just do like some order food to the house and everybody gets settled, meet and greet chat. And then Friday morning, we have pro hair and makeup coming. If you want it, we have a professional photographer coming. It's the same photographer we had last year. She's incredible and everyone's going to get brand photography.

[00:15:47] This is all included in your ticket. Hair and makeup is separate if you want it, but I'll throw in a little promo. And if you heard about the retreat on this podcast and you book your. Book your ticket. I'll throw in hair and makeup for you for free as my little bonus to you for listening to the podcast.

[00:16:05] Just let me know, just DM me and tell me that and I'll, I'll note it for you. Yeah. So Friday, the hair and makeup photographer gets there and there are going to be video stations set up throughout the Airbnb. And when I say video stations, this isn't fancy. It's literally just be you, you'll have your own phone.

[00:16:23] And so it'll be like, okay, sit here. And at this station, film yourself drinking a cup of coffee at this station, we're going to film a face to camera reel. And here's your script. And at this station, you're going to film, you know, yourself, um, working on your laptop and Once we get all of that video footage together, then Saturday I have, um, Keeley Scheider, who was actually on the podcast a couple of weeks ago.

[00:16:47] She is so organized, so fantastic and so creative. She's an Instagram whiz. She's coming as my co coach. We will help you take all of that footage that you filmed on Friday and put it together into actual reels that you walk away, leaving the retreat on Sunday done, ready to post. As a bonus, Every attendee will get five additional reels edited from start to finish by my team that we will deliver after the retreat.

[00:17:16] So whatever you don't get done, we will do five additional reels for you. We have a breath work and sound bowl, sound healing that's happening Saturday night at the Airbnb. My friend Kristen Svets is coming. To do that, um, we'll be, you know, one night we'll do dinner at the house. One night we'll be going out to eat in Bali beach.

[00:17:38] We're going to have some downtime for you to go to the beach if you want to. And every single thing is included in your ticket. The only thing that's not included is getting yourself there. So plane ticket, or if you're driving, if you're close to South Carolina, like, and then your transportation to get to the house, like if you're going to Uber or whatever, everything else is included in your ticket.

[00:17:57] And, um, I was talking to one of my clients who's going to come last week and she's a mom and she runs a really busy practice. And I was like, the beauty of this is it's like for the people who are used to being the decision makers all day, every day. You don't have to make a sequel decision once you get there.

[00:18:13] Okay? Once you get there, everything is taken care of. The snacks, drinks, everything is going to be stocked. We send a questionnaire ahead of time to see what, you know, what kind of creamer do you put in your coffee? Or do you drink tea? We have that all stocked and ready for you. You'll just be so taken care of.

[00:18:30] At the time I am recording this, I have five, um, suites left. So room for five people. However, I did have someone who is wanting to bring her associate, um, and some of the suites are set up with two beds, not all of them. So if you did want to bring someone with you, I can give you a discounted ticket. If y'all both want to share a suite.

[00:18:55] So like last year, my friend Dawn came and she brought her cousin who is actually also her podcast producer. And so I gave them like a discounted ticket to be together in the room. So just go to mollycahill. com slash retreat and all of that information will be there. I did have another, um, Oh, I should backtrack and say at retreat, at that retreat link, you can't just like check out because obviously I don't want just like someone I've never met before.

[00:19:22] I haven't had any conversation with booking a ticket because we're all going to be together. So if you know, if you know me or like we've chatted before, or even if we haven't chatted before and you want to bypass that application process, you can just DM me and I can send you the direct link to check out.

[00:19:37] I just don't, like I said, I just don't have that available for like anybody just to go purchase. The next event that I will be at, well, I should say I may, I might be going to this really cool, like healing breathwork retreat in May in Nova Scotia, but I don't know for sure about that yet. I, um, there's this amazing woman named Lana Grant who my friend Kate Matheson told me about.

[00:20:02] And I did like this, like four hour hypnosis with her breathwork session. She's just like absolutely incredibly talented. And she's hosting this healing retreat in whatever weekend is Victoria day in Canada. Okay. It's May 16th weekend in Nova Scotia. I've never been to Canada, so I'm not positive I'm going to that one, but I'm thinking about it.

[00:20:23] I really want to. And then I'll also be presenting to, um, Dr. Kevin Christie. This is also just for the Kairos. He has the Modern Chiropractic Mastery podcast. Um, I will be presenting to his group in Boston in July and that's July 18th weekend. Uh, the next one I have on my schedule is the Women Chiropractors Unconvention, which I absolutely loved it with.

[00:20:51] They have this every other year when I went to the one in Scottsdale and I will be there this year again. It's in San Antonio, Texas on September 25th through the 28th. They also usually have a C. E. Available C. E. Credits available. That one is, it's at this beautiful, like, you should just go, go to womenchiropractors.

[00:21:12] org slash unconvention, or you can just go to womenchiropractors. org and find it. But holy cow, it is at this resort called La Quintera Resort and Spa, and it is like a postcard. Like, it's like a dream. It's beautiful. So, um, I will be going to that September 25th through the 28th. That's all I have planned for now.

[00:21:34] Let me know like some of your favorites. Um, if there's anything you're like, Ooh, you should definitely go to this and I'll look into it. And then also I'd love to know where you will be. So that is all I have for you today about in person events. Thank you I said, I would love to talk to you about my content creation retreat weekend.

[00:21:55] Um, I had a, a student who thought it was only for like influencers and like content creators. I'm like, no, it's just for like normal people. Last year it was, um, I had chiropractors, life coach, therapist, health coach, and a business coach. So yeah, it's, it's for anybody, um, women of course, cause we're all going to be in one house.

[00:22:18] But yeah, I would love to see you there again. You can just DM me about it or it's mollykahill. com slash retreat to see all of the details. All right, guys, I hope you have a fantastic day and we'll chat soon. Thank you for listening to Holistic Marketing Simplified and hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast.

[00:22:38] Well, that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce, to bring you free information. So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day.

[00:22:56] To leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag at Molly A. Cahill, that's C A H I L L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support. I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.