I traveled farther than anyone else to attend Elevate Live, a live event put on by women for women (there was one man) in the coaching space. Nearly everyone was British, so this Tennessee girl's accent stuck out like a sore thumb.

Gemma Went, the woman behind this event, is a leading UK business and mindset coach. This was her first attempt, and she knocked it out of the park.

Meeting People in Person Solidifies Relationships

My purpose in going to Sutton Coldfield, a tiny town outside Birmingham, England, was to meet with like-minded women in business who I could learn from and hopefully they could learn from me as well. It didn't hurt that the New Hall Hotel & Spa was an amazing setting for such an event.

With about 60 women in attendance, I was able to meet over a dozen of them and have deeper discussions with 4 or 5 of them. Sure, I could have tried to target these ladies in groups or online somehow with my content, but there's nothing like meeting in person and shaking someone's hand. It surpasses any digital marketing that you can do to try to start and eventually build relationships.

Now I want to share some of the things I learned from the speakers. Hopefully it will help you, too.

Master Your Messaging to Capture Attention

Right out of the gate, Suzy Ashworth taught us the power of messaging and how to go deeper with people. This is undoubtedly one of the toughest things for people to get used to, especially those of us who are a bit older. We didn't grow up with cell phones and social media in our faces 24/7 like the younger digital marketers did. We aren't used to sharing every last detail of our lives with the public.

Suzy showed us a 3 step formula for masterful messaging. If the content you are posting does not fit into one of these 3 categories, don't post it:

1. Chemistry - This is where you develop the proverbial know/like/trust factor. Share your values, your story, what you stand for, what you stand against.
2. Disruption - To capture attention, you must stand out from the rest by posting content that's different and unexpected. Sure, it may be a bit controversial to post this disruptive content, but those who love you will love you more, and those who don't will tune out. They weren't your ideal clients to begin with. Don't blend in. Shake the tree. Talk about what is talked about behind closed doors.
3. Conversion - This is basically asking for the sale. You can never tell people enough about what you have to offer. Sure, there's a proper time to do this, but you must do this. However, don't go straight for the solution at first. You must show empathy for the struggle that someone is going through. Challenge their way of thinking about their problem. Then plant the seed that there could be another way to solve it, and of course, that would be when you'd release your offer that could help them.

Elevate Your Personal Wealth

Another speaker was Dominique Mullally, who taught us how to be financially fierce females. I had no idea that 80% of businesses make no profit, and that 95% of small business owners do not pay themselves a wage or work at minimum wage. To know that these people are basically slaves to their businesses is appalling, but when you've been through the difficulties of wearing all the hats as an entrepreneur, it's not actually all that surprising.

Dominique shared that there are 3 types of businesses:

• Lifestyle
• Profit based
• Legacy

She went on to tell us how to create profit based businesses.

Reach Financial Independence

When your goal is to reach financial independence, you must first identify what number you need to cover all your bills. This is not the ultimate number you want, as this just gives you a job. To create real profit, it's time to identify assets that you can build and leverage.

Your services, products, and equipment are all assets in your business. In order to profit from them, you must crystalize your vision, stabilize your finances, customize in order to leverage, then monetize by picking price points that are profitable.

There are 7 steps to prioritize to work towards your profit making goals:

1. Visualize your ideal day.
2. Identify your first freedom number.
3. Decide your profit goal for 12 months (90 days at a time).
4. Identify your most profitable assets and make sure they are priced correctly.
5. Set up business and personal account structures.
6. Automate cash flows.
7. Start emergency buffers of at least 3 months of expenses in a separate account.

Step Out with Your Unique Story

Another speaker I got the chance to hear was Chantelle Adams, a speaking coach who has an uncanny ability to pull your story out of you. Right away, the entire room was up on their feet dancing and soaking up her energy.

By the end, ladies were crying over the transformational story that was pulled out of one of the attendees on the spot and retold back to her and to all of us with eloquence and grace.

Framework for Speaking Your Truth

Chantelle shared her framework with us on how to craft a speech.

• S - Storytelling - Connect the dots of your life's experiences with your life's work.
  • Start where you are now. Give hope and vision.
  • Share the breakdown, the moments where everything is unraveling.
  • Share the breakthrough by diving deep and bringing out emotion by painting a picture.
  • Bring out the lessons learned.
• P - Practice, preparation, and presence - Practice your talk, but don't memorize it word for word. Let it flow naturally.
• E - Entertainment - Bring your personality into it. Make a list of your hobbies and interests to include.
• E - Emotion - Take your audience on a journey with you, a roller coaster ride full of emotion.
• C - Connection - Connect with attendees before and after you speak. Listen to others who speak, and tie in what they talked about with what you're talking about.
• H - How - Tell how to do something. Give the action steps needed to achieve it. Don't hide this information from your audience.

Passive Income Streams to Uplevel Your Worth

Passive income is something that allows you to grow your income exponentially. There are only so many clients that you can serve one-to-one, so you cap your income potential by stopping there.

Lisa Johnson shared a slew of passive income streams with us that add immensely to our bottom lines:

• Sell an e-book.
• Blog with affiliate links.
• Dropship products.
• Invest in stocks.
• Open membership groups.
• Build a mobile app.
• Sell digital courses.
• Create comparison sites.

Basically Lisa advises that you expand your business beyond one-to-one into one-to-many. The system she uses is named the CASsH system.

• C - Client - Work out who your ideal client is.
• A - Audience - Grow an audience.
• S - Sales funnels - Create sales funnels, structure, and systems.
• s - Selling - Sell before you create. 
• H - Happy - Focus on retention by keeping your clients happy. Give them pathways, newsletters, and metrics.

Sales Funnels to Automate Your Customer Journey

Katrina Young provided a wealth of information, and I know that the attendees are chomping at the bit to get hold of her slides when the recordings and slides are provided to attendees.

Sales funnels are meant to take your potential clients on a journey in an automated fashion, so that your time is freed up to serve your clients.

The basic structure is this:

• Attract
• Impact
• Capture
• Engage
• Convert
• Track

You must attract the right people to you with your content and stories. Make an impact on your audience with the valuable information you're providing, then capture email addresses of these new leads. Further engage your leads with more content, then convert them into clients. All along the way, keep track of what messages people have heard, where they are in your funnels, and continue to send the right messages to them as they progress.

The Entrepreneur's Roadmap

Last but not least, I'd like to share a compelling lesson from the woman behind the Elevate Live event, Gemma Went.

Gemma laid out the journey that every entrepreneur must take. These are the stages:

1. Newbie
2. Startup
3. Established
4. Growth
5. Scale

Without going through each step, one at a time, it's nearly impossible to succeed. You should never compare your beginning to someone else's middle. Be aware of where you are on this journey, and know that others who are further ahead probably have most of this behind them. That should not make you feel less than them. It should inspire you to keep going.

In the newbie phase, you're thinking of new ideas, not yet earning money, have no income streams, have no audiences, and have no website. Once you enter the startup phase, you likely have a simple website, offers that sell, a bit more consistent revenue, and an audience up to about 500 people.

As an established business, your offers are selling, your income is between 2K and 7K per month with an audience around 2000. Next comes the growth phase where you have proven offers, are making 8K to 20K with an audience around 4000, and you start getting approached and quoted as an expert in your field.

Then comes scaling. At this stage you're an expert, have proven offers including a signature offer, make about 20K per month, have an audience close to 8000, and are considered a featured leader. You're also growing a team and acting like a real CEO.

Setting Goals

The thing I loved about this conference is that we had time to reflect on what we learned and to set some goals before we adjourned. We weren't just instructed to write them down in our journals though. We had table discussions with each other and with the speakers about our goals and where we were on our journeys.

Granted, there were more speakers that I did not highlight. I didn't take copious notes on all of them, but I did share the ones whose messages affected me the most.

Over the next month, I'll be working on the first goal with the other ladies from the conference. This event not only included a ticket to the live portion, it included a month of masterminding with each other with Gemma leading us toward the successes that we all will have. 

What a gift!

To hold myself accountable to my first goal, I plan to write a blog post that explains my thinking, the things I try, my research techniques, and finally the outcome of the goal. But I'm not going to share what the goal is right now. I'll save that for later.

Stay tuned for the reveal!