(This is a longer post than usual as it’s my notes from participating in this event, so settle in with a cup of tea)
First of all, I love the name – do you want to impact millions?
Not everyone does but if it helps you impact one more person and it helps them, then why not? I certainly want to help as many people as possible so I showed up.
Impacting Millions Live was a 3 day event produced by Selena Soo and her team. It was online with more than 400 people attending over Zoom. Selena is a publicity and marketing expert and has worked with some of the big names in the online world like Ramit Sethi, Marie Forleo and Danielle Laporte and many more.
Over the 3 days she had a number of interviews with famous entrepreneurs and her team presented aspects of how they work. Their key pillars centre around Promotions, Partnerships and Publicity.
This event was from 12pm to 6pm in the States, so it was 6pm to midnight here in Europe for me Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I’m grateful that my husband looked after my little boy so I could attend.
There were many things I liked about the event. It felt very honest and real, they talked about experiences they had gone through and how it wasn’t always easy. They talked about investing in relationships and yourself. I could relate to a lot of things they discussed and it felt in line with my own values.
I was also introduced to a number of people that I had not previously heard of as they spoke about mentors they had worked with. What was evident was that they have all invested in themselves over the years and they had succeeded and failed at times in their business adventures.
Throughout the three days, there were breakout rooms on Zoom where we got to work on various topics with other participants.
We were introduced to the programs that Selena Soo offers. Selena had quite a few people in her team supporting her, she had the most amazing MC Chantelle Adams keeping the energy high and everyone on track.
At the end of the 3 days, I decided to start working with Selena Soo as part of her Impacting Millions Accelerator in 2021. I’m a big believer in investing in myself and have done that consistently for years. I liked what I saw and like I said before, what she and her team was offering felt right and in line with my own values. I’m excited!
These are my notes and key takeaways so I can also refer back to them.
Interview with John Lee Dumas – Entrepreneurs on Fire Podcast
This guy has made 2600 podcasts! He did 2000 of them over 2000 days – wow – talk about on fire!
Here’s what I jotted down…
– Puerto Rico taxes are super low – that’s where he lives. Beach, good weather, very tempting 😉
– Talk about efficient – He showed us his calendar and wow, this guy is organized. He had 4 podcast interviews one day, 7 the next, 13 interviews with other podcasts, back to more 3 interview podcasts and then a flight. Back to back meetings.
– Never compare your today with someone else. Compare yourself to you yesterday.
– Getting back up – He talked about wanting to quit and being talked back from the ledge by his mastermind group. He talked about how he launched a new product that flopped. He thinks that the time was too early for it (it was a service helping you produce podcasts). That got him speaking to his audience and seeing what they actually needed.
– Don’t sacrifice on sleep.
– His top habits are:
o Be productive – produce the right content.
o Discipline – Be a disciple to your plan of action.
o FOCUS – Follow course to success
Interview with Ramit Sethi – I will teach you to be rich
Selena’s been working with Ramit for years and has been through most of his programs. She shared that she once saw him with his parents and she mustered up the courage to go and say hi. Ramit doesn’t do many talks so it was really thanks to the relationship she has with him that she got him to come and speak. I found him very down to earth and to the point which I liked.
Here’s some of my main takeaways from Ramit’s talk…
– The power of the top 5 people you spend your time with – It’s important who you learn from. I totally agree with this point, who you hang out with rubs off on you.
– Delegate – learn to give up things – write down all your tasks from the smallest to the biggest (writing in his voice, PR, etc) and start outsourcing.
– Obstacles – Growth is hard and takes a long time. Try them, test them, there’s no magic to your business. Don’t give up and fight for another day.
– Getting good at one thing every couple of years – he talked about getting good with email, then Instagram.
– On motivation, he gave an example of people going to the gym and they say something like “When I do pushups, I get tired”. Instead he says “When I do pushups, I get stronger”. I liked how he turned this around.
– “When you truly accept failure, you can move forward. Accept that maybe your business will fail.”
– Selena asked him if he it was “scary” to invest in himself and he said he didn’t think it was scary, he had been nervous at times but wouldn’t have used the word scary. He said he lives in a world of opportunity and risk and he took investing in himself seriously. When the student shows up and is ready, it’s a good investment.
– Top 3 things that have made him successful – he says there is always a bit of luck regardless.
o Have a point of view – it separates you
o Get an awesome team – you can’t do it alone and pay them well
o Live to fight another day – 1 day will not make or break you
– Feeling overwhelmed – it’s normal to feel overwhelmed a few times a year but not everyday, that’s not normal. It can be challenging and stretching so look at what you have created for yourself
– Ask yourself what you get from your business – have you created a job for yourself? He said for him living a rich life is working with people he respects, with good values, ethics, get to travel, get to buy something, hire someone, donate to causes.
Capacity
Another fascinating talk was given by Lisa Fabrega who works with capacity issues.
She defined capacity as the unique ability to hold, handle and receive your next level of growth, wealth and impact.
She gave a story about someone who was producing caramel sweets and could just about meet the demand. Then one day, her caramels were put on Oprah’s favourite things list and boom, demand exploded. She could no longer meet the demand so she had to stop taking new orders – she didn’t have the capacity.
As Selena centres her business around publicity, partnerships and promotions, Lisa talked about the capacity around these areas accordingly – visibility, embodiment and money capacity.
You can’t just have strategies in business, you need both strategies and capacity in order to succeed.
Publicity
Selena shared the top 4 mistakes she saw when it came down to publicity and what to do about it.
1) Targeting wrong media – Create a media list where your dream clients hang out. Ask your audience.
2) Publicity does not match the offer – Tie the publicity to the core offer
3) Don’t have a powerful call to action – Create a compelling call to action and practice it
4) Don’t leverage their publicity – Promote your media appearances
Great Stories
Remember that Selena works with publicity. She has a great coach Lynya Floyd working with her to craft great stories ready for the media. Here were her top points:
1) Make it timely
2) Make it personal
3) Change the conversation
4) Target specific demographic
5) Lean on research
6) Give them immediate results
Making your success inevitable
Selena shared what has worked for her to make her successful. Her points make total sense. She shared how she used to work behind the scenes helping her clients with media and publicity and how when she decided to step out, she had to face her own fears around visibility, being on camera, doing workshops, closing sales. For any of us who have a business, there’s always some sort of challenge to be faced.
1) Get a mentor.
2) Surround yourself with the right people
3) Be willing to do things that scare you
4) Have a success plan
5) Track your progress
6) Celebrate your success
Interview with Laura Belgray – Talking Shrimp
Laura Belgray is a copywriter who has worked with the likes of Marie Forleo and Amy Porterfield. I enjoyed her talk so much that after hearing her speak, I went to her site and bought one of her copywriting products. I’m always trying to improve my skills so since I write so many blogs and speeches, it’s a good investment.
Here’s some of my main takeaways from this interview:
– Be willing to be a star. Become a leader. Set good boundaries. Be yourself publicly, don’t pretend to be someone else.
– Be prolific (I had to look this word up – to produce a lot). Go for volume as you may find gold nuggets in mounds of poop (she’s hilarious)
– Use personal stories and be specific in your writing.
– She said you can be well known and widely known. You can be well known to your tribe
as you share other aspects of your life and not only the business part of you so they really get to know you.
– Don’t wait to share your voice. You find your voice by sharing it.
– I loved the story about how she joined her first mastermind group with Marie Forleo. Marie had been working as a bartender for her husband’s restaurant in the early days – small world. They loved working with each other and partnered up with her to offer a course together called the Copy Cure.
– She had some articles (How she earnt $950 per hour from her couch or earning $6000 writing Instagram quotes) that went viral, these helped her boost her authority.
Dream Partnerships
Selena talked about the 6 big mistakes people make when it comes to partnerships and what to do about it. I’ve been partnering up with people more so it was timely advice for me.
1) Not identified the right partners for them – Find those that already serve your ideal clients. Find those that are at a similar price point and share your values.
2) Pitch to someone they don’t have a relationship with – Get to know people and let them experience your work. Gift them a complementary session, event or signature resource.
3) They haven’t built brand or reputation – Establish credibility through media or testimonials
4) Don’t have the right offer – Provide an easy entry point / payment plan
5) Don’t have a proven offer – Should sell it well (at least twice) before having affiliates. Successfully launch before taking on partners.
6) Haven’t done heavy lifting – Create high quality marketing material for your partners
Personality Test
You know me, I love personality tests! I find they give an understanding into yourself and help you figure out what other people are like too. Jamie Gulino Davis, Selena’s promotions expert introduced us to the Dani Johnson’s GEMs test to see what you are motivated by.
If you are motivated by…
– Fun – you may be a Sapphire
– Facts and Figures – you may be an Emerald
– Helping others – you may be a Pearl
– A challenge and / or money – you may be a Ruby
It seems that people have a primary and a secondary GEM and by understanding what motivates them, you can tailor your communication to get through to your clients more easily.
Phew, that was it. If you got this far, thanks for reading to the end. I wanted to write up these notes for myself and to share with those of you that are interested in growing your business. Every business mentor has their own methods and strategies and you have to see what works for you.
My biggest takeaway is we’re always growing and invest in yourself. I would love to hear what you think and what resonated most with you.