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Underused Strategies For Launching Your VIP Day with Jordan Gill

the launch playbook podcast Feb 21, 2022

There comes a day in most service providers' lives where you think…can I keep doing this?

Maybe it’s because your retainer client sent you another email with just a wee small change, that in reality takes you 60 minutes  and leaves you up at 12 midnight trying to get it done. 

Maybe it’s the late payment? Or the feeling like you’re never off the clock..that’s when you might start thinking that it's time to either burn your services all down or launch a course. 

If you’ve ever felt that way, and I know I have a few years ago, then this episode is one for you. 

It’s totally possible to keep your services going without the burnout on call factor, and without shifting directly to the course launch world. 

And that’s where this episode's guest comes in.

Jordan Gill, an operations consultant and founder of Systems Saved Me, shares her best strategies for launching your VIP day and gives us the details on how her and her team launch their Done in a Day conference.

 

 

In this episode, we talked about...

  • What is a VIP Day, and who are they perfect for
  • How launching fits into selling your VIP Days
  • A few VIP Day launch strategies that are underused
  • Why collaborations improve your launch results
  • Jordan's top tips for finding people to collaborate with
  • Some insights into how Jordan and the Done In A Day™ Virtual Conference team are launching their 4th conference

...and much, much more

Things mentioned in this episode

Learn more about Jordan Gill

Jordan Gill, operations consultant and founder of Systems Saved Me, helps burned out service providers replace their monthly retainers to virtual VIP Days. Her program Done In a Day™ has supported over 270 students create and sell their first VIP Days. She also has a podcast called Systems Saved Me with over 300 episodes all about how business owners navigate success with systems - of course! She currently lives in Dallas TX with her cavapoo Vivienne and collection of 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles.

Read the full transcript so you don't miss a thing


Sara: There comes a day in most service providers lives where you think, can I keep doing this? Maybe it's because your retainer clients send you another email. It's just like a wee small change that in reality takes you 60 seconds, and leaves you up till midnight trying to get it done. Or maybe it's late payment again, or the feeling like you're never off the clock. And that's when you might start thinking it's time to either burn your services all down, or launch course, if you've ever felt that way. And I know I have a few years ago, and then today's episode is one for you.


You're listening to the launch playbook podcast, the weekly podcast for service based business owners to discover the starts, stops and tools to transformation that go into launching their online offers. I'm your host, Sara Vartanian. And if you want to launch your ideas into the world faster, with more success and less burnout. Well, friend, consider this show your secret playbook to get you there.



Sara: It's totally possible to keep your services going without the burnout and the on call factor without shifting directly to the course launch world. And that's where today's guest comes in. Jordan Gill is an operations consultant, and founder of system save me. She helps burned up service providers replaced her monthly retainers to virtual VIP days. Her program done in a day has support over 270 Students create and sell their first VIP days. She also has a podcast called system save me with over 300 episodes all about how business owners navigate success with systems. Of course, she currently lives in Dallas, Texas with her Cavapoo Vivian and a collection of 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles. And I've got to admit, I'm totally buzzing with excitement for this episode. Because not only are we going to chat launching your VIP day, but also get a peek at what goes on to make Jordans lunches work.

Jordan, welcome.

Jordan: Thank you so much, Sara for the intro and for having me on I am I'm buzzing to the excitement because I get to talk about something that I can geek out for for hours, but then something that I don't get to talk about Super often. But I also could geek out on it. So I'm ready. I'm excited.

Sara: Amazing. Okay, so let's get everyone listening on the same page before we dig in. What is a VIP day? Exactly? And who are they perfect for?

Jordan: Oh, yes, that generally is the very first question because they are a little bit elusive in the streets. So a VIP day and how we define it at our company is that it is a four figure offering that lasts between three and eight hours. That helps lead your current clients through a three to five phase transformation or method. And so how I like to compare it is most people then automatically go to Oh, I do that I do you know, strategy hours or asked me anything sessions, those are not the same thing. They are not bad or wrong. They just are different strategy sessions and asked me anything, pick my brains, those are more or less somebody asked me questions and you answer right and a VIP day has intentionality behind it, there's a method to the madness, you are taking a client through your process methods system to get an end result.

So think of like website in a day. You know, again, Sarah does copy in a day. And there's a variety of types. And so who VIP days really are perfect for our service providers are my absolute favorite to encourage to do VIP days. So again, when you think of the services you're doing right now, instead of having to go over weeks or months, or you know, client delays and things like that you can actually provide that result within a day. Yes. You know, again, Sarah can can talk about her services, but people can write really fast people can design websites really fast. I am neither one of those in those categories, but I can build systems really fast. And so thinking about who they're perfect for is service providers who already have a longer term offer that they want to build a shorter version may not necessarily mean that it's shorter and the result but it could be that you know, just the beginning of the work that you do.

We also have coaches and consultants. So people who coach married couples through communication patterns, we have health coaches, we have all sorts of people in that space as well. But I personally have VIP days are super great for service providers, because we all have experienced like Sarah said in the intro, the client delays the late night slack pings the you know, just chasing payments, all that stuff. And what's beautiful about VIP days is there's a lot of boundaries inherently inside of VIP days that makes those things pretty much not possible. Which is great.

Sara: I totally agree. I feel like and we'll get into it later on. But I'm in Jordan's Diana date program and this time recording I have a few weeks left but working with you through the program. I have a sales page pals that sales page in a day and it has been so amazing to For myself also to look at what I have already had an existence, like I already had a template for writing sales pages that I had, but like, how do I refine that even tighter? So the questions I asked so that I could actually get to that result in the seven hours I have, and I know on those days, like I treat it really nice for myself, I ordered myself lunch, I would resell Starbucks in the morning, you know, but then it's done and you send and it feels so good to have this result. And clients are so happy. It's, it's pretty amazing. And I and for myself, I use it as like a front end offer in towards the other things. But yeah, it's been pretty game changing. So weird is launching fit into VIP days, it's something we do, once just to announce that we have it or something that's on the regular.

Jordan: Oh, yeah. So like you said, Sorry, your VIP day is your front end offer. And what that means is it is kind of a gateway or entry point for people to then work with you and a variety of other capacities, right, maybe you write the sales page first, and then you know, you go on to write email sequences or other things to that, right. So that's one type of VIP day. And this is I'm explaining this so that the launching conversation makes sense. And you can also do it where you only do VIP days. And that's the only offer that you provide. Or you can do it where your VIP day is actually in a more exclusive part of your product suite. Meaning that maybe you have a membership or program or something like that. And you want to be able to give people the chance to work with you one on one.

And that's a very premium, exclusive offer for a very, very small amount of people and you pay a very, you know, they pay a very premium price for and so depending on kind of where your VIP days sit in your product suite, whether the first part, whether they are the only part, or whether they are an exclusive part of your product suite. It's kind of going to depend on how you launch, I call it debuting in my program, mainly because the word launch can have some negative connotation definitely. And you think of launches like Okay, I gotta have ads, I gotta have all these pages and timers. And it's like VIP day launches are not like that. So you may hear me interchangeably use the word debut and launch. But we're launching and debuting your VIP day fits is obviously once you have determine what result it is that you want to provide and your VIP day, then I am a big proponent for pre selling your VIP days. And by that it's it's a again, I don't even know if you can call this a launch or debut event. It's really just a little toss of the fish hook, I guess where you're with your current audience or your current client list. You go and say, Hey, like, would you want to have a sales page, you know, written in a day? Or would you like to have a website built in a day? Would you like to have this system built in a day and see if anybody says anything. And that's really an easy way to just kind of test the waters. And I'm not saying that, you know, people are throwing money at you.

But at least you can start conversations with people to see more about what it is that they need and are looking for. Sometimes people have like totally booked VIP days off of that. They're like, Oh my gosh, yes, booked me today, I needed this two weeks ago, like, let's go. But that is like the initial kind of launch or debut. And then when you actually have, you know, all of your, what we call assets, which are just generally the templates and the agenda and framework of your VIP day, meaning you know what you're going to be doing on the actual VIP day, then there is a few different ways that you could launch your VIP day one being you know, going back to a social media platform of some sort, where you have an audience and sharing that process or method that is yours.

And like how you love helping people get that result in a day and encouraging people to message you or you can launch it through like an email scenario, whether that is an email list, or it could just be like my past client list, or it could be my referral partner list or however many you know whoever that emails are that that you think would be helpful for and then also you know, between those two are generally how people launch or debut their their VIP days. It really is that initial just like coming out into the world and having more of a concrete setup for the actual selling. So again, there's kind of like the little hook to see if anyone's interested. And then there's the like, full blown okay, I've created the VIP day you guys said you wanted it. Here it is here's what it's about. And that's kind of again that that announcement, the bigger announcement piece from there.

The beauty I think of VIP days is that if you have an exclusive VIP day, then it is usually more of a launch and open up a few spots, and then close it for a while. If you have it as you know, VIP days is your only product in your product suite, then you know maybe you're talking about more often you're sharing behind the scenes of your current VIP days you are sharing why you're passionate about helping people in this area, who you best work with, etc. So it's, it's like loose launching, I would say, because you're just really seeding and sharing what your VIP experience is like, if you have it as your front end offer, then you are probably going to, you know, it's not necessarily a launch on and off as much as if it's your exclusive offer.

But you are going to have very little bit more limited spots, if you have it as a front end offer like Sarah, because if you have other ways people are working with you than your time, you can't take on usually as many VIP days as you could, if you if that was your only offer. And so there's really, really limited spots, that urgency is like seeping through the pores. And so people really have to get on it. Like if they want to work with you, they have to go through the sales page part first, or whatever your front end offer is first. And there's only so many of those spots, because then on the back end, Sarah can only have excess amount of email sequences she can do again, it's related to her time. And so I just love the built in urgency that VIP days have that was a lot of other business models, you have to finesse a little bit more.

Sara: I'm certainly I really love because I felt like before working your program. You know, oftentimes I have clients come to me and I know a lot of us who are survivors have the situation, right? Like when people come to us or like Hurry up now. They're not that ideally, like, you don't really usually want to wait three months, they need something like in the next few weeks. So it's really it solves that problem really nicely. And I know for my team and I and because it's my front end offer, what we did is we came up with, with the we did the debut thing, like you suggested, and then we came up with a couple short, dedicated, we call them like, let's call social campaigns that we're going to we sprinkle it throughout the year when they're just ready to go for when I might need to fill them type of thing.

So if I feel like oh, you know, my college a little bit empty or like there's more space right now, then we'll put it up. So we're kind of experimenting with that, to see how that goes. I'll be kind of fun. But yeah, I love how you said to like, there is such an here of the word lunching it feels like like a lot of energy because you like every boy out of the room sometimes with it. But it's it's not quite like that with VIP days. It's much lighter. And and so depending on, on how your what your VIP day, it's about and how you're positioning it. So it's neat. So by now you've seen a ton of VIP days long tribute say, Are there any ways that have really stood out to you that you were like, Mmm, that's so good. Let me take note that you want to share with us?

Jordan: Yeah, oh my gosh, I, I love seeing the flexibility that VIP days provide for people I love when people are like, Oh, let me just try this new thing. So there's a few ways that I have never done and some of our clients and donor day have done and it's been so cool to watch the, the results. So one of our clients has begun to airtable. And up until that point, I hadn't seen anybody successfully do a like webinar or training to a VIP day. And so it was kind of like you can try it. But I'm also not gonna like tell you, it's for sure. gonna work. So just precursor on that. And what was cool is she her VIP day was setting up air table databases, or people with programs or coaching container, stuff like that. So she created a webinar slash training that was all about like how to take your spreadsheet and bring it into air table, which is so brilliant, because that's talking to exactly who her ideal client is people who are using spreadsheets, and well that's Excel or Google or whatever.

But they're literally doing this manual, intense tracking scenario with a spreadsheet. And there's so much that Eric air table can do. While it is still a spreadsheet platform. And so her whole webinar was like bring your spreadsheet, let's like I'm gonna point to you probably what's in there, and how inside air table it can be automated or it can be filtered or sorted or whatever the case was. And that did really well for her because people were able to see the very, very few nuggets that could be done and then they realized like, I don't want to figure out the rest of the nuggets. I don't want to set up what she just showed me on here. I just want her to do it for me. That's so good. Now it's oh, well for her. It was so great. And then we've had different people who again even play around with you know, do I want to get on a sales call? And Akilah who does SEO work? She has been playing around with what's called like a video funnel, I guess. But the software is video ask.

And so she actually, it's basically think of a survey, but instead of like reading the questions, you're actually seeing the person give you the prompts. Like, that's video based question mean, I guess. And so instead of getting on the call, and answering and asking these questions or whatnot, she does it through this, these video prompts. And so she's seen a success. And instead, you know, her people were like, I don't want to get on a call, I want to get a call, I don't want to get on a call, but she still wanted to be able to qualify them before they actually booked a day to ensure that they were the right fit. And so she, you know, switched it up and did it this way. And voila, like, she now you know, doesn't have to get on sales calls for her VIP days and, and can make sure that her clients are qualified at the same time. Right? So it's, you know, there's a lot around like the marketing and things that has been really fun and launching and, you know, sales calls versus messaging or versus video funnels, or webinars versus referral partners. It's it really is, it really can be tailored to you and your preferences and your strengths in how you launch and how you show off your VIP day. And I think that it's it's just such a fun, it can be just as fun as as courses and programs and all that stuff, I think because it's, it can be just as playful.

Sara: I definitely agree. So at the time of recording this, as I mentioned, I'm just gonna share my time when you're done in a program. And one of the biggest things I've taken away from it is it's impacted all areas of my business, really, it's building a network of referral partners, community and collaborations. And you all do such an amazing job at creating opportunities for the members and alumni to collect to within your program. But I'd really love to hear your thoughts. What role do collaborations play in launching VIP days? And are there any really interesting ways or underused ways you've seen your members utilize them?

Jordan: This is such a good question. And yeah, I I'm very much obsessed with collaborating and connecting, I think that it is just collaborating in general is very underutilized in our industry. I think that people believe that they can have faster or better success if they do it all on their own. Or they think they have to do it on their own and in their own silo. And I do not hold that belief at all. I'm like, why would I do this by myself? This is not does not sound fun. And I'm just so you know, I'm an extrovert introvert. So I'm pretty much an ambivert. So I need equal times, nobody talked to me on puzzling to oh my gosh, like, let's talk forever, like I need, I need a balance of those things. I'm not even like, you know, extra extra, that's my husband, he's a 12. On the extra scale. He's friends with our mailman, you know, walk her down the street, I'm like, Okay, what's happening.

So the role that collaborations play and launching VIP days can go a couple different ways. The few ways that I shared previously were ways that if you just are wanting to keep it inside of your community absolutely can. But if you are open to collaborating, then Oh, my goodness, there's just vast opportunity. And how I've really sold the majority of my VIP days is through referral partners, which is always a surprise to people because everybody and their mama wants to say, you can't build a successful business or a sustainable business or a consistent business with referral partners. And I vehemently disagree, because that is really what mine was built off of, because I was able to tap into not only the problem that I solve for my clients, but also the problem that I solve for my referral partners.

I treated my referral partners very, very similar to clients, not in the sense of I'm getting money from them, right. I'm technically giving them money, but I am looking at them and saying, Okay, where do I fit in their ecosphere. For example, website designers are a really great referral partner for me, because somebody gets a shiny website, and then they think that their website isn't working because they actually don't have any back end client management systems to like glide their clients into working with them. So then the website designer gets frustrated because it's like, Dude, I built you a great converting website, but you are not converting them like that is annoying. And so I went to the website designers and you know, some of them not all of them but a few website designers and said hey, like I would love to collaborate with you, meaning that I know that majority of your clients come to you for this awesome conversion machine and you do the best that you can but they don't actually have the the systems that are needed to support a really high converting website and they're like, oh my gosh, has like they'd never do It's so frustrating and on and on. Right. And I'm like, great, well, actually, if you want to send your clients to me, I would love to be able to take that off your plate and give you all the kudos, because now they actually see is very, very clear that their website is helping them get more clients because we've actually balanced out their front end and their back end.

And they're like, oh, my gosh, thank you. Yes, like, I have five clients that I already know, I want to send to you, right? So I'm not just you know, most people just like, Well, hey, look, if you got clients send them my way, thanks so much, I five, that's why referral partners don't work for people is because it's like, it's very, gimme, gimme, it's very like, it just comes from a very strange place. And so I'm really big on solving the problem of the referral partners. And you will not have an issue with getting referrals from those people because like, she solves my problem, she solved my problems to solve my problem. So when you're launching your VIP days, you can obviously launched your audience, your own network, but also you could quote unquote, launch to referral partners, whether they have programs of where your audiences, whether they have clients, aware their audiences, whether their social media audience is where you want to go and get in front of, but I think it's definitely one of the most underutilized ways that people can launch VIP days, but also continually collaborate with people in a really great way.

And I think, you know, some interesting ways that I've seen it done are encouraged people if they believe that, that their clients are in a program or membership or something, then going directly to that membership or program or whatever, and saying, Hey, like, I recognize that your members may be struggling with XYZ. And like, I help with that. So can I come and do a one hour training or 30 minute q&a Or what however you want to have it set up to where then you can actually connect with the members and and help them and then they're going to remember you as the person right? Full disclosure, Sara came into our program as a guest expert first. And I was just like, our people need help, like, come and share, you know, what it is that that we need?

And so instead of waiting for people that have programs to come to you with that opportunity, you absolutely can go to the programs and the memberships that, you know, your people are in and saying, Hey, while you don't really know what the setup of their their program is, you can still ask, right? And if they say, Oh, I have somebody in there that already does that. Cool. All right. Awesome. But if you don't know, you know, and if you don't put yourself out there, then then you'll never get that opportunity. So I think that's definitely one of the underutilized ways as people are scared to go to people who already are talking to their groups of potential clients, and offer value. I definitely have done that. And I know tons of other people who have and I think it's a great way to get right dang front and center with your ideal clients.

Sara: Amazing. This are such great ideas. Something else I've seen from the people in the program, do our IG live cooperations, which I know or maybe, maybe it is a little bit underused, cuz I think a lot of them talk to her like they're nervous about them, but just getting on for each other's audience and having those conversations I love seeing them pop up like I know them. Yeah, that's true. That's very true. So you're coming up to the done on the day conference tune, which I'm guessing is a big driver of calling in new folks to join your day program? What role do collaborations play in your launches?

Jordan: Sara? Okay. So this is we are very big on collaboration for our conferences, and in multiple ways. And I will say that it didn't always start out this way. We started small, but we have a variety of ways that that people can collaborate with us. Number one is maybe one of the more obvious ones just speaker opportunities. So actually being able to come up on our stage and speak at our virtual conference. We previously did a call for speakers publicly. But what always, always, always was in the back of my mind was I want our conferences to be the majority, our students and our clients. So this upcoming conference, every single speaker, who is that you will hear on stage is a Dinah day client, except for one, which I absolutely love and adore and gives me goosebumps. It makes me so happy.

So I get to collaborate with our students and be like, hey, like, you want to get in front of people who are obsessed with VIP days. Like I get so many DM saying, Hey, I hired the speaker for their VIP day. And hey, I booked this VIP day from someone I heard on your stage. And I'm like, Cool. I want that to be my students. Yeah, no offense to any of the speakers from the outside, because a lot of them are my friends or people that that I've been connected with. But I truly truly want our students to be the ones that that benefit from that. So we have our speaker opportunity then additionally, we have our sponsor opportunity, which is obviously where people pay to get in front of our audience and more of a, again, they're not speaking in front of our audience, but they are creating opportunities for our attendees to get additional support.

So for example, we have this year, we have the most monitors we've ever had, we had, I think of eight. And they are all creating these really cool experiential opportunities where there's a platform to help you with hiring, there is a template shock for different systems and things, there's just a variety of different, you know, we don't do a lot of those things. And so if anyone in our community or attendees needs those things, then obviously I want to be a really great connection and resource for them to go with somebody that we trust. And we know and what's great as a lot of our sponsors, like we know, personally, and so that feels really good to me again, because it's tough when you put your name next to somebody else, right. And there's there's real repercussions if that person is not a value match with you. Very, very, very intense about with Alice, who does my partnerships about like, if you get something like yucky gross, and unemployment, like do not push for them to be a sponsor? Like we do not, we do not need that. And so yes, we have eight sponsors, and then we also have affiliates. And this year is going to be kind of an enhance, because we had over 100 people applied to be an affiliate for our virtual conference.

And I was like, okay, and that's almost three times more than we've ever had. And yeah, we are like, right, and vice systems, Gal calls like Jordan, what's happening? I didn't realize we were gonna have as many people saw what you said to me, and you know, this, we do different things. So mostly, our affiliates just shared our registration page previous and now this year, we actually are creating these private invite pages that we had differentiated from our registration page to where you know, I'm on video, instead of just the regular website URL, they have a specific URL, so that we can track everything, because I think, as you know, tech changes, affiliate tracking is becoming less and less reliable. And that bothered me, because I was like, I'm gonna make sure that I pay people, if they came through somebody like, that would really irked me to know if like, somebody did come through them.

And we relied on tech to do that. So this is a way that we're able to track that and a more, you know, it's a little bit more tedious on my team and the front end, but we do have a lot of automations that then support it on the back end, and we'll be able to really know our numbers and stuff like that, and, and we want to be known for being for taking care of our affiliates and for them trusting us with their audiences. And so those with that comes a responsibility to ensure that we are tracking right and and that we have absolutely the most information we possibly can. And so I'm really excited about what we're calling the private invitation pages for our affiliates. And those are a way that we're collaborating this year that we've never done before, but I think is going to really help our affiliates and just be a really big differentiator in the space to be honest.

Sara: I think so too. I've done a few affiliates for and have not seen like that. So that's really stands out.


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Sara: I just want to say you're talking about like values matching it I know outside person looking into what you do and also being in your program. I feel like you're always like a gold standard of community and what you do for people in community terms like the way you show up and support us create opportunities but also do things like I know that you have always make like the conference accessible for you know for hearing and all that so I really stands out to me as a person past attendees I thought I'd let you know. So those are some amazing collaborations that you haven't played us here. You see how that rolls out?

Jordan: Yeah, for sure. Well, let's you will definitely have to find out just so Sarah and maybe she'll share with you, but definitely how all that goes? Yeah,

Sara: I'm sure you know, listen to my Instagram cuz I know that you're really good afterwards about talking about how things went and like sharing your story. So our listeners love actionable steps, can you tell us your top steps to start finding people to collaborate with for launching or beyond?

Jordan: Yes, so everyone forgets that the majority of people online are starting at the same like zero Instagram followers doesn't know anybody in the space and just kind of find your way. And so it comes down to, when it comes to finding people, it comes down to first and foremost value match, which obviously, I've brought up multiple times here and will continue to bring up all the time, because I think people look for audiences, I think they look for money, I think they look for all sorts of things. And mine is always a value match, even when nobody in the world knew who I was. And I was just, you know, hanging out with my lone my 11 Instagram posts, because I'm terribly inconsistent if social media is left up to me, and I but for me, I was like, you know, if someone's doing something really cool if someone is, is showing up in a way that highlights those who, you know, are marginalized folks, or who, you know, have disabilities or chronic illness or things like that I'm very drawn to because that's very similar and near and dear to my heart. And so that's the first thing is not who has the biggest audiences, right.

Like, even with my virtual conference, it is, you know, I have some people who had generally big audiences, which is kind of subjective, but my main focus was, who was going to deliver the value, okay, that's what I want. I don't care if you have five Instagram followers, I don't even actually look at how many followers my speakers had, as an indicator of if they should be on my stage or not, I want the value to be there. And so I'm always going to look at value first. And then you know, making sure that that you know, they have similar types of folks that they they talk to, so value first, and then once you find those people who can bring, bring that to your audience, then or you know, you to them, then it's a matter of finding a connection point, I think most people think it has to be this like really, I don't know, like special statement, that means that people can, you know, people are going to say yes to you and, and want you in their thing. But a lot of times, it's like, the relationships that I've built have just been me, messaging them after an Instagram story and being like, oh, my gosh, I cry. I'm like in Portugal, and you're in Lisbon, and I went there.

And if you want the best chocolate cake in the world, go to this spot, it is the absolute last, like, you will love it. And then they go, and then we have a conversation about the chocolate cake, and how I've stuffed two of them in my carry on back to the US because it was and we have this like genuine human conversation about it. And then they're like, oh, like, they just naturally obviously go to my page and see what I'm doing. Like, oh, that's cool. Like, I do you want to come on my podcast, or Oh, like I see what you're doing. Like, tell me more about that, or whatever the case is. And I usually start with a silly message that I say about their life and about my life and how we're similar, or what we could connect on whether it's dogs or sports or the back, we both live in Texas or whatnot, those are kind of the top steps is is looking at value matches first, the biggest audiences and I don't want to say never, but generally speaking, are usually not going to get you the results that you are hoping for in my experiences with collaborations. And then after you find those value matches, then looking at okay, how can I connect with them and just a genuine like human way? Because we've all gotten those weird, creepy messages from people that are just like, hey, are you looking for PR on yon Forbes or Hey, are you?

Sara: Oh my gosh like once a week.

Jordan: Oh my gosh, that's like no I What, what? What's happening like you're trying to do with this, right? But if you tell me like, oh my gosh, I saw that. You know you're in Miami, and you should totally go this restaurant because XYZ then I'm like, Oh, thank you like that's super helpful. Like, I would love to try that food place or whatever the case is. And just coming at it from that is always going to be more preference than like, again, just like the really directness, that that people are having right now. Because, again, if you think about the last couple years, we've all been stuck in our houses, the same walls and the same people. And it's like somebody else talked to me about anything out. Like I'm done talking about transformers in my house. I'm done talking about these other things. So I would say those are the first two steps. And you know, I could get into all the fun like tool stuff, but I really think it comes down to just connecting as humans I, that's who I am drawn to. That's who I want on my stages. And that's how I'll continue to run my business. It will never be about who has the biggest audiences and can bring us the most people. Absolutely not. Because I know if I have the best, like, expertise and people that are going to bring the sauce, then everything else is gonna fall into place.

Sara: That's so good. I love your emphasis on connection. They're a good reminder. Okay, so let's talk timing. So I know we already mentioned a little bit, but you have a big event coming up. So tell us a little bit about this big event and what it is, and why is it working for you and your team as a launch event for your program.

Jordan: Ah, so our big event is called the done in a day virtual conference. This is our fifth one, it is a live two day virtual conference, we've normally had it on Zoom, this year, we have switched to BigMarker as the platform. And it really is just this, it generally follows the same rule of thumb, the first day of the conference is how to structure your VIP day. And the second day is generally how you sell your VIP day. Last time, we had about 800 attendees the time before that is around 700. And I think it's kind of just like, increased by around 100 ish per virtual conference that we've offered. And what I found so fascinating going and speaking at other virtual conferences is I didn't realize like how actually like, really good that is not to like brag or to my own horn, but I just, you know, you just you're in your own little bubbles. And like if I got 100, then I got 100.

And that's when I'm working with screens. And so it's always interesting to experience other people, you know, where I've spoken at other virtual conferences that have 20 people, 30 people, and they wanted to have, you know, the 800 that we've had, but for one reason or another, it didn't didn't get out. And I think why our launch events do really well. And by really well. I mean, those last one we did in September, again, we had about 800 people come to the come to the event, we had about 300 ish applicants, meaning that they applied to join our program. And then we had about 78 people join our program from the conference, it was wild, but we made it and it really came down to so it was about better. 25%. So one out of every fourth person that applied joined our program. And I think that was because of a few things about that specific conference, we had a whole session about pre selling, that I think really like people have sold them sold a VIP day and then we're like, oh crap, like I haven't. I have no company.

So that was that was beneficial for us. But I also think on the first day, we had a session about inclusivity and the intersections that we all have and what we mean by intersections is you know your age, race, gender, religion class, like where do you intersect as a human and that's a really fascinates me and I love being able to showcase no matter what intersections you have that VIP day is can support you. And so we had a really awesome vulnerable amazing panel that was like, not long enough, but we made it work all about you know, we had Lizzie daughter talking about being diagnosed with ADHD we had a gal talking about her experience as a black woman. We had a gal talking about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, we had we just had a variety of diagnosis and illnesses and and intersections being shared. And they highlighted why VIP days have allowed them to show up in their superpower and I think that also was a really big part of why that conference specifically did so well. And because I'm always we have our standardized ish sessions where there's like varieties of VIP days being shared and whatnot but I think that you know, we always are looking for ways to add in different spicy or topics or topics that aren't being talked about everywhere and every session that we put together in our programming has to do with an objection that someone is going to have about doing VIP days. And so we talk about am I you know, expert enough to have a VIP day one of the first sessions for this upcoming VIP the conference is about thought leadership and how like everybody's a thought leader.

People ask questions about you know, I'm a this type of person or in this industry like can I do VIP days we have a variety of VIP day show where we have a wide range VIP days being shared. People like who's buying VIP days, I don't think anyone would buy my VIP day, we have an entire panel of VIP day buyers who are sharing with you why they buy VIP days over other offers and why they love buying VIP days, will say I don't know how to market a VIP day, well, we're gonna share with you how you can market your VIP day. So literally our sessions align with all of the objections that we ever get, and, and curating really awesome people to share their experiences. And it's just overcoming objections, basically, for two days, in a way that's informative, and light and fun and whatnot. So that's why I think they work really well as they they overcome objections, but in a way that feels more informative and more connective,

Sara: Right? And it seems like whether people are buy from you or not, they're gonna come through this conference transformed, right with this information.

Jordan: Yep, I'm really present. And I, you know, I'm not in the field of Oh, my gosh, I have 800 People 800 People need to join my program. Like, I recognize that the right people, meaning the people who are qualified and who want this will join our program, and the people who are not ready or not qualified, why, and that's okay. And I sleep well at night, knowing that and there are people who've come to 234 of our virtual conferences before they've joined, and they've eventually joined. And that's wonderful. And I don't think that it means that we're not, we're not doing a good job, I think it means that we need people where they're at, and when they're ready, they'll raise their hand, and we'll totally meet them there.

Sara: Hey, that was me, I kept like three of them before I enjoyed that. That's all good thing. And sometimes, for me, that was just because I was involved in other things at the time, and also choosing where my next investment went. It was on the list to come to you next. So okay, so we're all about sharing honesty here. And I know you have a team supporting you to pull off this kind of launch. And I love that you don't talk about your team so much and share that. But are there any kind of bumps you've encountered when launching the DID Conference? And was there anything I had to change as a result?

Jordan: Oh, man.

Sara: pick one.

Jordan: So I would say one of them definitely is Tech, I will just put that front and center as somebody who, again, is a very techie person loves systems, all the things, some days, you know, tech just wants to do what tech does, which is switching up on you or having to update the day before your conference, or all sorts of things. So that that's why the reason that we switched from zoom to another platform, but also just recognizing, like, I let my team know that the system's some system is going to break and that's okay. And let's just like roll with it, we have an entire contingency plan for all of the things like Jordans internet goes down, if people can can't get into the Zooms through, you know, this link, you know, somebody can't get into this all Can we just think of all the contingencies like if Alice can't doesn't have internet if Christie like if every single we go through every single person? And if they don't have internet, then who is the go to person to fulfill their role? spacing?

Sara: So you plan for it?

Jordan: Oh, yeah, we thought we planned for everything. Because there was last time we had a fire alarm go off in my I have a an outside office, and a fire alarm went off.

Sara: Oh dear.

Jordan: And you know, am the person that is like in charge of the recording of the Zoom meeting. And I literally had to Slack Christie on my team, I brought her manager and say, hey, just an FYI. Like I I'm gonna pass you off to keep recording. And I'm going to go downstairs and make sure that my building isn't, you know, thing, I think we had a panel that I wasn't involved in next. So, like, people didn't really notice that there's like madness going on. But we were able to move through that. And now we have a whole section of if Jordan's office is, you know, happens. So you know, that's the contingency plan for tech for outside circumstances that someone gets sick. If someone again, like if our speakers don't have audio, then we automatically know what to do, right? Like we know if our speaker doesn't show up. This is the session that we're going to do like I have a built in session that will I'll only do if somebody doesn't show up. So like a Keynote or whatnot. So there's all of those contingency plans that not everybody thinks about and because I've been on and a lot of launches previous to my business. Like I just I know of all all the little things that that could go wrong or that could happen and so we just tried to prepare for them as much as possible.

Sara: So smart, and are there any bumps or roadblocks or things that you see happening people want their VIP days?

Jordan: Yes, thankfully we usually catch them before they launch one of them being trend right now that's happening around this kind of like Panera. You pick to VIP day where it's like, Hey, I do systems and I have a VIP day and here's nine different things that I can do for you or pick to have Have them. And I have yet to hear from somebody that like that truly works for I know some off the top of my head Zoe Linda does this. However, Zoe Linda is in a very niche situation, she really only is in the affiliate space. And so she does have a broad affiliate VIP day, and depending on what you need, there's like four or five items. But because she's so niche, it makes sense. But other than that I have really have not seen it work well for a lot of folks, because you're putting all this pressure and all this weight on the person who's buying it. And if you're, if they're like, trying to choose what they need, then it's too much work. I'm gonna leave somebody who knows how to tell me what I need. Right? So that's, that's one thing that for the most part, we've caught them before they went out and launched but then generally speaking, when people launched them, and they don't go, well, then they come back. Okay, just like, we're gonna, we're gonna fix it like, great. That's totally fine. So yeah, that's what I would say.

Sara: Amazing. And just a quick few quick final questions, Jordan, before we wrap it up. This is like our rapid fire questions. What do you wish people knew about launching their own VIP days?

Jordan: Oh, hi wish that they knew that is less about over stuffing and sharing every single detail about your VIP day and what happens. And it's more about sharing the result, and where your client needs to be at in order to be a great fit for being a VIP day client.

Sara: Anything? Okay? What excites you most about launching the next done in a day conference?

Jordan: Oh, my gosh, so many things. I I'm really excited that we get to showcase all students except for one that is like, I've had that. But in the back of my mind, before I even did my first my first virtual conference, I knew that that was the direction we were going I had to build up that community. So now we're at about 300, almost 300 students. But so I now have, you know, the capacity to say, hey, 300 of you like, which one of you guys want to be on stage. So that that has to be the most excited,

Sara: I always noticed that you're done day conferences pretty much everywhere, once you know coming up. And this time, I'm excited cuz like to speak on a panel on the real buyers of VIP days. So Whoo. But fill it. What's the secret to making it seem like you're everywhere.

Jordan: So I mean, younger about how many people are involved in our launches, we have a very mixed bag of promotions. We don't just focus on Facebook ads, we don't just focus on affiliates, we don't just focus on email, it really is a organic paid and partner approach. All three are very, very important for the success and to make it seem like we're everywhere, right? It's kind of like the Jordan, one. giant puzzle I love and from a data perspective, are organic, it's about 50% of our sales. So we do really well with our email lists and our Instagram than we know about. It's split between paid and partner, about 25% of our tickets come from partners or affiliates or sponsors or whatnot. And then the other 25% come from Facebook ads.

Sara: Thanks for sharing the numbers that's really helpful to always know how much is from what? Yeah, what's the number one thing you want people to take away from this episode?

Jordan: Oh, my goodness, go collaborate and connect with people. Humans are super nice. I know the Internet can be really scary. But just like, there's so much opportunity if you just ask and connect with people collaborate, because it will I truly believe that that's one of the fastest ways to build your business is through connection collaborating?

Sara: Definitely. Okay, so at this point, you've helped hundreds of people launch her VIP days. What is his legacy? Or impact? Do you hope this leaves in the world?
This is such a wonderful question. And the impact that I hope that this leaves on the world is that more people can experience true presence in their life. I think that we're living in a world where there's distractions, there's always 10 things you should be doing at any given time. And, and when people experience your presence, meaning your attention, your undivided attention. It's one of the greatest gifts you can ever give people, whether that's your family members, whether it's a friend, whether that's yourself, I want more people to experience and get to have more presence in their lives. That's really, really what I want to hear from VIP days. You know, the money is cool. The whitespace is cool, but what do you do with that whitespace I really want people to, again, reconnect with the people that that matter the most in their lives.

Sara: I love that so much. And I feel like in the end, like I think we all go into business probably hoping for that and then somehow we'll lose that for a while. I feel like your VIP days are a way to come back to that level. So before we go, can you remind our listeners how we can get in on the VIP day fun? Can you give us the juicy details and then we'll drop them all in the show notes?

Jordan: Yes, absolutely. So since Sarah is a speaker, she will have a private invite page. So go Check out the demo day virtual conference via her private invite which you also get lower ticket price for going through Sara's link versus our main link. That's a fun little surprise that we're getting with our are sharing with our affiliates and speakers. And one way that we want people to go and, and again, have more affiliates get credit, definitely go and check out that and that's coming up in March. And then we also if you're wanting to just learn things and come into our sphere, and like Sarah said, we share a lot of stuff on Instagram. So if you're just curious about our launches, or about VIP days or whatnot, then you can come and check us out at system save me.com If you're like I kind of start to figure out what my VIP day could be. Then we do have a quiz, which is really fun. And that's systems me.com/quiz or Sarah will have a link for that as well. And we'll let you know which type of VIP day maybe the best fit for you.

Sara: Amazing. Thank you so much Jordan for taking the time to join us in this busy like lead up to your conference to talk about VIP days and the done day conference on the launch playbook podcast.

Jordan: Yes, thank you so much for having me, Sarah, this was a blast.

Sara: So much fun.


Thanks for tuning in to the launch playbook podcast. If you want to get weekly launch secrets in your ears. I hope you'll hit subscribe on iTunes so you'll never miss an episode. Because who knows? It could reveal just a thing you've been looking for to make your next launch a success. And be sure to leave a five star review in iTunes telling me how this episode inspired your launch plans. Until next time, keep putting your big ideas out to the world. I'm rooting for you.

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