IAM1582 – Coach Helps Business Owners Achieve High Conversions Through Virtual Summit

At Summit in a Box®, Krista helps you replace slow-growth and costly marketing strategies with a high-converting virtual summit that will multiply your revenue and lead to your biggest course, membership, or group program launch yet. Her method incorporates highly-targeted positioning and feel-good, engagement-based strategies that lead to higher-than-average conversion rates, true connections, and making a difference through your summit in a way that creates ongoing benefits for months after the event wraps up.

• CEO Story: Started working in a corporate company as a web dev and software dev. Sneaking to Pinterest and saw some businesses doing graphics, and thought, she could do that. And so she started her own business as a WordPress developer for 6 months went on full-time, and left her job. In trying to grow that business, she tried to host a virtual summit. And so her first summit in 2018 was a huge success, people wanted to learn and buy her template. From there, not just a host, but she’s also teaching others through her courses and programs.
• Business Service: Group coaching program – businesses that have courses that sell, but they don’t have people to sell them to. Help them host a virtual summit.
• Secret Sauce: Going to people first. Giving first. Makes People want to promote you.
• CEO Hack: Daily planning pad. With so many tasks to do, there will be 3 action lists to narrow down.
• CEO Nugget: Setting aside time to revisit what you are doing, whether personal or business, that matters. What are things you want to get rid of? Just to make the time you spent more worthwhile.
• CEO Defined: Focusing on what kind of business you are creating for yourself and for your employees, clients, and students to the best that it can be. Creating a company with integrity and strong values in valuing people as people.

Website: www.summitinabox.co

Instagram: www.instagram.com/summitinabox

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Transcription

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00:27 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:54 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Krista Miller of Summit in a Box. Krista, excited to have you on the show.

01:03 – Krista Miller

Thank you so much for having me. This is gonna be fun.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. I think it's gonna be fun indeed. Of course, before we jumped into the fullness and all the awesome things that you're doing, I wanted to read a little bit more about Krista so you could hear about some of those awesome things. At Summit in a Box, Krista helps you replace slow growth and costly marketing strategies with high-converting virtual summit that will multiply your revenue and lead you to your biggest course membership or group program launch yet. Her meth incorporates highly targeted positioning and feel-good engagement-based strategies that lead to higher-than-average conversion rates.

True connections and making a difference through your summit in a way that creates ongoing benefits for months after the event wraps up. Krista, again, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:50 – Krista Miller

Absolutely.

01:51 – Gresham Harkless

Let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:58 – Krista Miller

Yeah, so I started in 2015. I'd been working a full-time corporate job doing web development and software development and just kind of got to where I wasn't loving the corporate vibe, wasn't loving the vibe of the team I was on. Just like wasting time on Pinterest, saw people running their own businesses and doing design and Stuff like that. I was like, I can do that. I do that every day. Like, yeah, I can start this business and so I did. I started as a WordPress developer, went full-time with that within about six months, was able to quit that job, and in trying to grow that business, decided, I was going to try hosting a virtual summit. This was in 2017 when I made this decision and at the time it was a lot of the biggest names in business hosting summits.

I was like, I don't know if I should do this. Like, people are going to laugh when I pitch them. Who am I to do something like this? It was just like a realization I had one day after throwing this idea around for way too long. Like, I can do it my way. It doesn't matter if I have a couple hundred people signed up. Even, like, that's going to make a big difference for me. We can do this differently than all the other people who are doing it. So I did. I went ahead and hosted my first summit in 2018 and blew my goals out of the water. I was hoping to have a couple hundred people registered, and maybe make a couple thousand dollars.

We had 1500 people registered and made 16,000 with that first summit. At the time I was making like three, maybe $4,000 a month. So to bring in 16k with one thing, literally life-changing, Like, I know that's dramatic, but it felt dramatic. This changed my life and I didn't plan to do any with it. I was not going to, okay, I did this thing, now I have to go teach it. I was just going to stay in my lane and keep hosting summits to grow my own business. However, my speakers and attendees had different plans.

For the next few months, I was just getting constant emails, and messages on social media can you teach me how to do this? Do you have any resources for this? It's like, leave me alone. Then eventually I just gave up. I was like, fine, here's the Asana template I use. I took my Asana template that I had used to plan my own event and made it a little prettier for other people to be able to understand. I was like, here, you can buy this if you want and they did. After that, they just kept wanting more. Like, well, do you have like, what, what did you say in your pitch to your speakers? What was on your registration page? I was like, all right, here's that template.

Eventually, like, you can see where it's going, it just kind of exploded. So now I have literally thousands of virtual summit trainings and templates, everything someone needs to host a summit. So I kind of feel like I fell into the role I'm in right now just by listening to my audience and what they wanted, and it made it a lot.

04:36 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely love hearing that, especially the organic nature of everything and how it just kind of came about. Who am I to do the virtual summit? I think there's this motivational quote or something I said, and it's like, who am I? Sometimes we get that imposter syndrome and those questions, and then a lot of times we hear or we hope to hear answering back, like, who are you not to? I love that you took that and you kind of ran with it from everything you've been able to do.

05:02 – Krista Miller

Yes. Oh, my gosh, who am I not to? Is like, one of the things I tell my students and clients now when they are doubting themselves, like, you can make such a difference for your people. Who are you to hold that from them? So I love that you brought that up.

05:14 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. A lot of times we have those gifts, those things that we learn that we acquire, whatever it is, and they're not often for us to just hoard and not share. They're actually for us to do some of the awesome things that you've been able to do and make that impact in so many ways.

05:28 – Krista Miller

Yes, I love that.

05:30 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. So I know you touched on a little bit on how you're working with your clients and how that process works. Can you take us through a little bit more on how you make that impact and how you are helping people to be armed, to be able to make those impacts?

05:41 – Krista Miller

Yeah, yeah. So we have a couple of programs, but our core program is like a group coaching program called the Launch with the Summit accelerator. We help people who are kind of already established in business. So they have the course membership group program that sells but is kind of in the place where, like, I can sell this, but I don't have people to sell it to. We take those people and help them host a summit that converts highly, and gets them, the audience, gets them, the subscribers, and the revenue through the event itself.

But also we teach them how to use that summit as a launch mechanism for their course membership or whatever it is. So we have all of the templates and training and everything, but we also work really closely with them in a coaching capacity where we're Chatting back and forth with them daily. A lot of it is going through the mindset stuff like, I promise you can do this. Just follow the process. You are good enough, your people need you. It's just so fun and so rewarding to be able to help people make this impact and see how it continues beyond them. So we are able to encourage this person to make big moves in their business.

By doing that, they, a lot of times are like changing the industry. As far as their speakers go, they're making a huge impact on their audiences. Then their audience, like thousands of people now know what they learned at the summit can go on and spread it from there. So it just makes it all so rewarding to see that impact continue to spread.

07:00 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. That domino or ripple effect is so powerful and I love that. You talked about that mindset piece as well too. Even you talked about it in your story. Like sometimes we can stop ourselves before we actually get going and we have the opportunity to think, to share, but not only is it good sometimes for us to get obviously the attendees and to be able to have a successful summit, but also to those speakers, the people that might be sponsors, I just, I imagine there are so many different ways that that impact can happen. It's so, it's almost like, I don't want to say required, but it should be required of us to actually take that step and do that.

07:36 – Krista Miller

Yes. Oh my gosh, I agree. Like a lot of times when I'm talking about our approach to summits, it's easy to focus on the benefits you're going to get. You're going to go through all this work so you can grow your email list and you can make all this money, but when you actually focus on the other people first, it always comes back to benefit you. When you go in with how am I going to grow my speaker's email list, how am I going to make sure my speakers make money? How am I going to get them in front of these people? How am I going to change my attendee's lives? Lives or businesses? When you go in with that first, it always comes back and means bigger results for you as well.

08:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's so powerful. I wonder if that's like even part of your secret sauce, the thing you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique. Because I almost feel like a lot of times when you have people that are truly givers they often will do things for other people prior to Themselves. I'm sure that it probably does help them to actually put the pedal to the metal, for lack of a better term.

08:29 – Krista Miller

Yes. Oh, my gosh. So true and it makes it like, for example, it makes your speakers want to promote when you are, like leading when you're giving first. It makes them want to support you however they can.

08:42 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, it ends up coming back in so many different ways. I imagine, too, like, even having your summer and being able to help and coach people and help to support them, it probably also creates benefits that sometimes you don't always expect or see initially like I imagine your first summit did for you.

09:02 – Krista Miller

Oh, my gosh. It's. I feel like it still surprises me every time. That's also one of my favorite things about coaching people they expect the summit to be, like, the big thing that they get. Afterward, you're like, oh, my gosh. I wasn't expecting all this momentum. I wasn't expecting, like, these speakers to want to keep collaborating with me or this person who attended the summit to hire me for this thing. It opens so many doors that no one ever expects. I can tell them I can be like, this is going to happen, but I think they just don't believe it until it actually starts happening. So, yeah, just the good stuff just keeps coming.

09:35 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I absolutely love that, especially now that's the. Obviously, the ven. In and of itself is a really great opportunity, but then there are just so many other opportunities and dominoes that fall from that, too, so. Absolutely. Wonderful. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an App or book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:57 – Krista Miller

Yeah, so something I have been doing for the last couple of months. I have it sitting next to me for the people lucky enough to see the video. But I have this daily planning pad. The exact pad doesn't matter, but I am someone who always has lots of things on my to-do list.

10:12 – Krista Miller

More than I should have. But I'm a planner, so everything I want to do ends up there. If I just, like, sit down in the morning, which is what I was. Was doing, I would sit down, I would look at my calendar and what I needed to do for the day, and I would just sit and look at it, like, okay, I don't know. What to do first. I'd pick something and I'd go do it. Then I'd come back to this calendar and be like, okay, now what I'm going to do and go sort through those things. Where now I have this daily planning pad. I actually get an actual pen out, which I know is wild in the digital age, but I brain dump, like, what all I need to do.

Sometimes it's literally just copying the list from my computer to this pad, but it lets me run through in my mind what could happen today. Then underneath that, it asks for the top three action items. So that forces me to narrow down what are the three things I have to get done today to really feel like I accomplished something. Then there's a section where I can map out the day for me. I have two little kids at home. I have three distinct times of the day. I work. I work before they wake up. I work in the morning while the babysitter is here. Then I work during the nap time for the youngest. Then I take and sort the tasks that I identified I needed to work on into those three areas.

I can sit down at each of my distinct sections or sessions of work and look at this and be like, okay, this is what I'm working on during this session. I don't have to revisit my task list every single time I sit down to work, and reorient myself with, what was I working on. What am I supposed to be doing? All I do is glance down like, oh, okay, I'm getting on this call right now and, like, go do it. It just makes me so much more effective and helps me make sure I'm getting the most important work done every day.

11:49 – Gresham Harkless

I absolutely love that. I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client or potentially, if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

12:04 – Krista Miller

Yeah. Oh, my goodness. This is such a good question. I think I would encourage myself to look at the things I'm doing that are actually. I guess this just kind of ties right into what we were just talking about. The things I'm doing that actually matter. Like, with this, I'm speaking kind of more in terms of, like, the marketing stuff. I'm doing what I'm focusing on in my business. But I am someone who, like, When I see someone talk about a new strategy that they're using, I'm like, ooh, that looks fun. Let's try that. I do the thing, but then I don't have or in the past, didn't have a way to go review that and be like, okay, is this thing actually working?

Instead, I would just keep doing it because now it's a habit. It's on the to-do list. It's a repeating task. I'm going to keep doing it. That's how, for me, that's how you get really overwhelmed, is when you just keep adding all these new strategies and never stop to be like, what actually matters? What does it matter? So something I would tell myself and something I work with. This comes up a lot with what I do because hosting a summit is like a big project. A lot of people are like, I don't have time for that. I'm like, okay, well, what are you doing?

Let's look at what you're doing. Are those things actually, do they matter? You're coming to me because you want to grow your audience. That means that the other things you're doing aren't growing your audience, so why are you doing them? So setting aside time to revisit what you're doing, whether it is business or personal, matters, what are things you want to get rid of? Just to make the time you're spending on whatever it is more worthwhile and help you live the life you want to live and run the business you want to run.

13:35 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different, quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Krista, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:45 – Krista Miller

Yeah, I think being a CEO to me really focuses on, like, how I'm running my business. Not necessarily what I'm doing, what strategies I'm using, even, like, how much money I'm making, how much I'm checking off my task list, but, like, what kind of business I'm creating for myself and my employees and our clients and students and just making that the best it can be. I'm so thankful for the time I spent in the corporate job that I didn't love because that helped me know what I didn't want to make. I know I want to stay away from those things.

My husband has had a job that wasn't so great recently, and now he's in a great job. So it's for that even it's so nice for me to be able to say, okay, that experience was terrible. This one's great. What's the difference? What do I want to create from that? So for me, being a CEO is creating a company that I can be proud to run, that I would want to work in, and that people want to be a part of because it's run with integrity, strong values, and valuing people as people.

14:48 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I absolutely love that. It sounds like having those experiences as less-than-ideal jobs and opportunities allows you to really, I think, love and care for what you have, but also want to kind of recreate that for many people that you work with. I imagine too.

15:06 – Krista Miller

Yes, I love that and it like, it makes. Even though I have been able to look at the not-so-great pieces and make good out of them, hearing you actually call that out like the hot and the cold makes it like even more worthwhile. So thanks for that.

15:22 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I just called it out. You actually and are actually doing it, so that's a lot harder. So thank you for doing it and thank you for sharing that so much with us. For people who want to reach out to you and find out more about it, I wanted to see if there's anything additional you want to mention to our listeners and readers and of course, how best people can get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

15:43 – Krista Miller

Yeah, so you guys can find me@summitinabox.co we have over 200 podcast episodes about running Summit, some over on Instagram, and way too much at Summit in a box. Would love to hear from any of you who are listening to this. We have all kinds of freebies resources and checklists and all the things you need to get started with the Summit. So would love to connect with anybody.

16:02 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely and to make that even easier, we're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. Subscribe to the podcast, and find out about all the awesome things that you're doing. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:13 – Krista Miller

Thank you so much for having me.

16:15 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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