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Hi. My name's Natasha, right? And you're tuned in to event gems where I will discuss all things event related and take a deep dive into creating concepts, market in and execution for your next biz event. My goal is to bring industry experts who can help you properly monetize and effectively strategized so that you can make your business. Sean. Everyone, welcome to another episode of Ben Jen's My Name. Natasha. Right, Chief Experience Officer at the Diamond Runner Blood. And today I am joined by my featured guest, Audra Richmond. Argue ritual is a marketing and lot tragedies, and she's basically someone you go to when you're ready to scale your business and make more money. So please welcome Andrea Richman, Adrienne, that he suffered from being here with us today.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
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Absolutely So, Audrey, it tells a little bit about your background and how it is that you got started with unclothed market in
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so unclothed marketing pretty much came about. Let me go back, right? So prior to getting into marketing. I was a professional photographer and grab a designer and I was doing it for quite some time, and I did okay, but it seemed like every business I was start. It will always feel like I would get a little business. And then I'd be like, Okay, well, then basis must not be a good business. Let me get until another business. So I would start a business in the business, started business in a business, and I was like, Pretty creative person. It can't be these businesses like, what is the coming the nominator and why things aren't working. So like most entrepreneurs, we start a business, and we want our immediate friends and family to support us. And I noticed that was my tree. And so every time I started business, I'll tell my friends and family, And when them sales will stop, I would think it was a bad business, not knowing that I needed to expand and diversify my marketing. And so I decided to really get into marketing because I was like, That's why my businesses are filling. These weren't bad ideas. I just wasn't reaching enough people. And so I decided to really get into marketing and double down and learned and really understand it in the first year that I learned marketing. I made over six figures. Now I was like, Okay, like, how go from making 20 $30,000 a year over six figures? And it was because I really took the time to understand marketing. And then once I understood it, I said, Okay, I want to teach everybody. I want everybody mark me. I want no more small business, Honest to feel like they're idea is trash when it's all it is, is just marketing. You're not reaching and getting in front of enough.
spk_0: 2:36
So basically what you're saying that it is the common denominator for making a business successful is your marketing strategy a new marketing plan, right? And so that's what you teach business owners. How to do is to howto market their business and how to launch your business and in order for them to scale on. So I wanted to get into talking a little bit more about that marketing process or marketing strategy more specifically, as it relates to events can. So can you walk us through what that process would be for someone who they are a business owner, So one part of their marketing strategy is to produce events, right? And to get more brand awareness and, um, and to bring more customers into their businesses. So can you walk us through what? That process that marketing process would be like for someone who wanted to use the bends as a marketing strategy?
spk_1: 3:25
Yes. So what? Marketing it does wherever. A lot of times, people always think that marketing is different for their industry, and it's no marketing is the same across the board. So because we're talking about events, events is all about getting butts in seats, right? Oh, how many people can we get to the event? There are so many factors that go into consideration before you even need to develop a marketing plan. So is this it ain't going to be free. Is going to be paid Is going to be online, is gonna be off line. Um, are we is the venue was Do we need to pay for the venue? What needs to be paid up front to secure the date once we secure it, date what other vendors do we need? Right? So all of those things have to be considered before you even think about the marketing, then Once you decide on who you want to be at your event, who you want, who you want to come to, your event, they need to think about Where are these people hanging out it? Who cannot collaborate with partner wits on so forth? The traditional channels of marketing people normally do PR they normally do. Um, you know, radio ads praise like that. If it's a local event, it isn't event where you want people to come in. From my love of the world, I'm You're definitely gonna have the ramp of your advertising because you need to be ableto People need to know in other cities that you are coming right. That's where your TV ads and your Facebook ads and your instagram ants and all of those things coming to play. Another, another underutilized strategy that I don't see a lot of events people doing is current incontinent, just more live in creating life stream content or creating on pre content to get people excited about the evening, creating tools and resources for their guest. Most event people just creating event, throw the tickets out and be like coming holiday. Me and
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I'm like that is not how it works. So I
spk_1: 5:14
feel like if you want to properly market your event, you obviously need way more time. I see a lot of people went to the last minute to start marketing to sell tickets. Let's just say you have any annual event at that event you need to be selling tickets for the next year was missing if you know you're going to be doing it. So there's a lot of actors and strategies that you could do. But for the most part, I don't see a lot of people mastering advertising. But I don't see a lot of people mastering constant creation.
spk_0: 5:40
Okay? And then So I know for a lot of people who might be them producers, you know, you might go on Facebook and you say, Okay, well, I'm gonna boost this post, right? Do you recommend they boost the post or what are some things that they should be doing when they're advertising our way? But okay. Stay away from the booth. You had
spk_1: 6:01
the perfect audience and you know, for a fact that they buy. I also work now will say this. The blue boy has got It has gotten better okay has advanced over time. But for the most part, you definitely want to go into the Facebook at manager because you have so many more options. You can pig zip codes. If you know your event is gonna be in a certain area, you can say, Hey, I want a target 2030 miles outside of his go to find people and come to my events Or, if you know that your event is gonna be in Atlanta is an example. You may want to target North Carolina or South Carolina. You might want to target Alabama. Mansfield misses all of the cities where people would actually drive to your event. And so the only way to do that is to be able to say, OK, I want to target people in New Orleans. I want to talk to people in Nashville so on so forth and so you don't have that kind of capability with the blue bud. You also can go down to interest. You know, if your event is about fashion and maybe you need to find people who were into fashion, there might like other fashion brands or if you're trying to get a more mature audience, you can say, Hey, Facebook only show my ads to people who are 30 plus or 40 plus or feet plus. However you wanna do it based on your event. So you have way more targeting options and features than you would have if you just utilize this bull. But
spk_0: 7:19
right, Okay, that's great on. And then the other thing, when you're talking about if in producer is actually creating content beforehand. So then are you saying then that back content should also be used when you're doing your online marketing as well? Okay. Absolutely. Okay. All right. So that's three
spk_1: 7:34
things that I saying essence. That's what we'll do one year that that was cool. Um, you know, when you come the essence festival, you have to have, like, a clear bag you can't bring like, a regular purse. And they were They literally had, like, a resource guy like, hey, things you need to know before attending, you know, essence festival. So if I had never been, this will be great for me. And if I have been coming and I needed to know and refresh myself, it was a great resource, things that would amplify and be better for the for the attendee. A lot of the times that you noticed this assumption that people should know that Assume that people know stuff, Just be a resource. And will you be a resource? People definitely appreciate that more.
spk_0: 8:14
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's great on especially maybe even on the event registration page. You could put up with that. Thank you. And so let people know, like, what are things that they can expect or what is not allowed or what is it out, right? Just provide them with that additional information. But I just wanted Thio touch on one last thing around. Creating content before the event are free men content. Uh, how how do you create that content? Because there's a thin line between, like, giving too much away before the event and still wanted people to come in and experience the information that you want to give. Right? So So how do you deal with that when you're doing? Maybe releasing content, maybe for information about the event or releases are maybe doing interviews with speakers. How do you, um, mitigate that thin line?
spk_1: 8:59
I think the best thing to do is. I feel like if you are afraid of doing that, then what? You're gonna be really talking about it The event enemy. So you should be able to pull out a very small piece. You know, let's say you got a key note. You might want to talk about one talking point and then the rest of the talking points for the actual event or less, that you might give a beginner version for your pre content and to say we're going to go deeper at the event. Or you might say, Hey, I'm going to give you three strategies but this is three of 20 to the event I'm to give you 20. So it's kind of like tease or content line. Okay. Oh, she drop it nuggets. Oh, that's fire because you want to think about it. If you could give your attendees a win before they even come. Yeah, you already know it's going to be amplified when he has to get to the evening.
spk_0: 9:50
Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so that's great. So one of the other things about like being able to get butts in the seats is around Brandon, right? I think that that's so important for for an event is really good brand, and you have a lot of people. They have really good flyers, right? But then when you get to the event, that is not consistent across the board. So let's talk about how do we have consistency with Brandon From the point of whether it be your your flyer, your then Paige, I'm bringing that Brandon all the way through to the actual event and after. Can you talk about what that process might be and how small business owners can develop that that Brandon's drafty for themselves?
spk_1: 10:29
Okay, so there's a lot of strategies, So the first thing you want to do is create a branding event style. Got your brand even style. Guy should have the event logo. Any event colors in any event brand elements, so this could be different. You know, characteristics like patterns and elements and icons. Things are going to be very consistent throughout the entire experience. So and then you want to have more than one flyer. You should have a flyer. For every speaker. You have a a general flyer, that incompetence, all speakers. You should have some flyers and don't have people on it, period. You should also make sure to show your evening website is a representation of what I've seen on the Flyer. Like you said, I want to see an amazing flyer and its own Transworld site, right? No. And then on top of that, when I get to your evening that brandy and neck color consistency just still be consistent. When I get to the vent, what does my badge looks like? What does my event guide looked like? Or my booklet if I'm even going to get one. What do the banners and the resource is look like in there is their proper sign it centuries. It's been times where I get to even seem like work is browning, you know, having proper sign. It's another thing you want to think about is like your vendors. Don't be putting your vendors in the dungeon. You know it's not cool, because I paid your money to be a true events so that people who are supporting your event are in the proper location and can get traffic. Yeah, so from a branding perspective, you definitely want to make sure that it's consistent. But the best way to do that is to look for it is to create an event branding style guy. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can literally go to Google and typing event brainy style guy And a lot of these huge conferences that we see they actually have one. You will notice that I like what essence festival? All the graphics look the same. All of the graphics look the same at the vent. Social media graphics look the same. If they're streaming the event, then those graphics looked like the event graphic. So the way that they are making that consistent is toe. Have any event Brandy style guy.
spk_0: 12:37
Okay. Okay, that's great. I'm in one of the things. So I know this that you posted somewhere on social media might have been a while ago and you said that you hadn't done your own event. You have been in business for many years, but you hadn't actually produced your own event, right? And so now that you have and I have seen some of the images and the pictures from that and it looks beautiful, I mean, you're Brandon is consistent throughout. Whether it be from follow you on Facebook and you step into your event. It's exactly the same. Vibrant, energetic. Um, it's really magnetic. And I love it. I love everything that you do with branding at the event, so I think it's great. But can you talk about why it is that you waited for a while before producing your own event? And on the other side of that, what have you seen? Um, the benefits to be of actually producing your own events.
spk_1: 13:27
Okay, so let me give clarity. Prior to my event, I have produced events for other brands. Okay, I for my current marketing brand, just like my first big event for my marketing brand. Most of my other events were, like work for my magazine to target humans stuff like that. So I had event producing experience. I just had created one for my marketing brand. So the reason I waited to do one for my marketing Marine is because hey, I tend a lot of events and I wanted to make sure that I did things right. And I'm one of those people where if I can't do it right, I'm not doing it all. I'm not one of those people who think that like Oh, well, it'll be I because I think my thought process was This is the first version of people will see, Huh? I have to set the tone from this event going forward so that my announce that I'm doing another event or another retreat. I've already said the expectations. So I knew that the colors had to be on point. I knew that I needed the right vendors. I knew we needed to capture it by having photography in the core. And I was cool, was spending all the money that was required and produced this exam. And I knew that I was going to leverage the evening. And I knew that that those that that event was also gonna be a form of content for social media. But I was thinking of everything. I was thinking about you three men. I was thinking about social media content, and I was thinking about setting the stage going forward for future attendees. And then I was also thinking about the experience that I wanted my actually attendees tohave and so as a person who has a teen previous it previous events, I wanted to make sure that I created what I hadn't seen before. And I wanted to make sure that I paid attention to details that have been left out for me as an attendee because I attended other retreats and things like that, and I didn't get anything, and I showed up and I wasn't greeted. And the food was nasty and nobody actually what I wanted to eat. And I was just like, I'm not gonna read that experience with my people. And so I waited so I could have the money to do
spk_0: 15:27
it right the first time. Okay, I love that. I love that. And I think that a lot of times we were producing event. We don't think about how that works in tandem with social media, right? And how that's amplifying on social media. So can you talk about how your strategy with using the live event, um, to work in tandem with social media? How do you create content social media afterwards being with the line of them
spk_1: 15:50
so you could do recaps? You can, um, obviously have people talk about their experience. You can use quotes From what people? What Speaker say? You actually could probably make another 3 to 6 months of content from your even just by capturing quotes, taking snippets of the speakers. Especially if you haven't event coming at makes a year. Ugh, That's it, actually, presale tickets for the following year. Um, what else could I do? I showed pictures of the details because it made people say, When is that makes you think, Yeah, fire, like right? Yeah, It also said the tone for how you get down, you like, Hey, you come over here. That's what we do it
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It's on cloned over here. I love it. So can you talk about that and talk about the uncool mind said, You know what? What is what is the on cloned mindset and that leads you to be able to market in an unknown way.
spk_1: 16:53
Well, before I even got on clone, I had to get to a place where I trust myself. I feel like as entrepreneurs, we don't trust ourselves or ideas, and we tend to lean on our industry, our Miers and our families to help us make creative decisions. So you may have an amazing idea, and you might run about your husband, your husband. I'd be like, Oh, that's trash. I don't like you won't even do it. But that could be the thing that makes you the makes billionaire you because you are listening and getting so much input from so many people. We tend to not trust ourselves. We tend to overthink, and I take action. So when I became unclothed, I decided to trust myself. I've decided to be the first to do it first. That's it. You may not find a Google version of what you're trying to do. You might can't go to Google and search what you plan on doing, right, Maybe inventing it for the first time. Right? And the next thing you know, it's a sw far as having a unclimbed mindset is to challenge the norms if everybody is going left, go right. Ryan, I have someone that I had a meeting with. She was like, Oh, you're bright. You're bowl. You're in people's face, Absolutely that survive.
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You have to be right.
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Even when I go, I'm gonna be honest with you. Even when I go into, like, events and stuff like, I'll be rocking my my peril like my bright jacket and got on these muted colors
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And it like, who is this chick like you said, right. It takes.
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It takes a person to trust in sales who they are to be able to do those things. I'm not saying go get the brightest colors in the spectrum and you're gonna be on call when a thing is trust yourself. Believe the ideas that you have Gold force, even if you don't see any previous version of it,
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right? Right. I think that's good. And I love what you said about trusting yourself and being bold because I really do feel like as an entrepreneur, there is a lot of times where you second guess yourself. You wonder if what you're doing is right. Wonder if you're ever gonna get to that next level, right? You've been at a place for so long your survive in right. And you're like, How can I scale kind? Well, how can I really get to that next place? What you're saying is you have to trust yourself and also think about innovative ways that you can approach the industry that Karen and maybe even look in different industries for what they're doing. How could you can incorporate that as well. Uh, and so one of our listeners, they posed a question and they were asking, How is it that you know, for example, if you do an event and you're trying to be creative, right, you have creative elements that people are so used to and they keep coming back for that year at the year. But how do you keep innovating and keeping creative? You know, how do you keep fresh ideas come in here after year so that people can come, come back and expect to be wowed, are odd and have just as a memorable experience that they had the first time they came
spk_1: 19:43
out? Well, the first thing is you have to be constantly educating yourself and being in new environments and new experiences. Ah, lot of the times of you. If you're lacking innovation or creativity, it's because you're not doing anything new. So if you want to keep that going and keep yourself refreshed, you have to be putting yourself in creative environments. That means going to you know you're so used to going to a fastball. Events go to a $2000 event, see how they get down you know, And then you know what the $5000 even look like? Well, the 10
spk_0: 20:16
$1000 even looked like, Whoa, that's a money mind shed Shit right there. But you have
spk_1: 20:23
the gets old. Want where you again? It goes back to trust. You gotta be able to trust yourself. You gotta be able to trust your ideas. You gotta also be able to bring in the take. There are a lot of people who are just, you know, still doing paper and sign ups. When I get to your event s 0 1990 had to get with the times. And so that also means you need to keep yourself a breast to technology, Any vits and all the things you can do from a technology respect.
spk_0: 20:53
Okay, also. Well, thank you so much either. Richmond, for this interview. It was wonderful. Please let us know What's one last gem that you want to drop. It could be about events, personal development, anything. Let us know one last, Jim, that you want to leave with us.
spk_1: 21:06
I would definitely say trust yourself. I feel like a lot of ideas. Are it that level, right? You begin to trust yourself. People will be like, Well, you normally used to call me and ask me for my opinion. Now you just do it. Go. I definitely want entrepreneurs to get to a place where they trust themselves, because that's what we're gonna see. Innovation.
spk_0: 21:28
Awesome. Well, you know, every time I say there's gonna be the last thing, but I hear something else, and then I want to delve a little bit deeper into that. How do you get to a place where you can trust yourself when you truly trust yourself? What is what is it that you do that allowed you to be in that space?
spk_1: 21:44
I've come up with an idea, and I don't want it by anybody. And I just take action person that come up with an idea. And I would call her mama. Would you say what you think? Hey, sister, What you think? And I got talked out of the event or talk out of the idea and now I'm back to square one like you
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said, you know, I did for you in
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this repetitive cycle over and over and over, and I was like, No, I've got an idea I think it's gonna be awesome. And then I'll do it. And it was
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awesome. So yes, I trust yourself and take action. That's what I heard. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much are different being here. Please let people know how they could stay connected with you on social media or anywhere else.
spk_1: 22:27
I am Arya Richmond, across all platforms. So you can find me at my website, which is Arjuna Richmond and all social media platforms as Andrea Richman.
spk_0: 22:37
Thank you, everyone for joining us on another episode of it and jams will see you soon. Bye.