“The rooms you frequent determine how fast you make the move to millions.” – Darnyelle Jervey Harmon
Episode Summary
This episode is powered by the Move to Millions Live (and the Million Dollar Intensives)
When you are leveraging and scaling your company, it’s important to understand the significance of attending live events. Live events often unlock next level success and if you’re not attending and planning how to be strategic with events, you are certainly leaving money, relationships and strategy on the table. That’s right, another live event season is underway. There is something to be said for leaving the comfort of your home and getting into proximity with people who can shift your business. As the host of my own live events, I take great care to make sure that not only do we create a life and business changing experience but that we attract the right attendees because it’s true – your network determines your net worth. With another event season already underway, allow this to be your live event and conferences guide so that if you’re booking a flight and hotel to attend you maximize your experience and leave with new contacts and contracts. Grab your pen and paper and listen in now to discover:
- The #1 mistake we make when choosing live events and conferences to attend
- The importance of creating an intention before you go
- 5 reasons to get in the room
- How to create a follow up plan that will change your business
- And so much more
Important Links:
Powerful Quotes from the Episode
- “Your network is your net worth.”
- “There is elevation in the power of proximity.”
- “Plan to attend one live event every quarter to keep your business scaling toward the million-dollar mark.”
- “The Law of Fellowship – wherever 2 or more are gathered, results are doubled, tripled, quadrupled.”
- “The right rooms can shorten how long it takes for you to hit a major milestone in your business.”
- “Your results will always follow your beliefs and your intentions.”
Want more of Darnyelle?
Social Media Links:
- http://www.instagram.com/darnyellejerveyharmon
- http://www.facebook.com/darnyellejerveyharmon
- http://www.twitter.com/darnyellejervey
- http://www.linkedin.com/in/darnyellejerveyharmon
Subscribe to the Move to Millions Business Podcast:
Listen on iTunes
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen on iHeartRadio
Listen on Pandora
Leave us a review
Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss an episode. I’m adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you’re not subscribed there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on those.Now if you’re feeling extra loving, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!
====
TRANSCRIPT
This episode is powered by Move to Millions Live AND our brand new virtual workshop. We created the virtual workshop, so that you can learn if you should join us in. May.
Go now and learn more and grab your seat today at movetomillionsevent.com/workshop.
Hey y’all! I’m so excited to and welcome you to another episode of the Move to Millions Podcast. I am so excited for today. Now, before we jump in, if you are new around here. First off, let me just say welcome. I’m so excited I’m grateful. I’m delighted that you are here, because that means that you are millions minded, and you are wanting to learn what it takes to make, move and leave millions. You will quickly come to learn that this podcast is about so much more than your business. It’s really about the convergence of spiritual principles and mindsets with business growth, strategy that will allow you to be successful in business and position yourself to normalize wealth, legacy, and abundance, because that Incredible One, is our mission, and we will probably spend very little time talking about money, but everything we talk about will not only make you more, it will also deepen your impact and establish your financial legacy, so I am so excited and grateful that you are here with us in today’s episode.
We are going to talk about one of my favorite topics, and I’m calling this episode the company you keep. Okay. So we have officially entered into event season. Event season happens twice every single year, first from March through June and then second from September to November early December.
Live events are crucial. If you are a millions-minded entrepreneur, let me say that one more time. Live events are absolutely crucial. If you are a millions-minded entrepreneur now, I’m gonna go so far as to say that you should probably plan, if you desire to get your business to and beyond the million dollar mark, to attend one live event each quarter.
Now you know me. If you’ve been here for a while, if you just got here, you’ll come to learn this I like to overachieve, and not in a way that is because I don’t understand who I am or what it is that I bring to the table. But I just love events so much. My primary love language is quality, time, and so I’ve already been to 7 events this year. Now some of them were fulfillment events like masterminds for organizations and groups that I’m in. And some of them have been enrollment events where attendees are invited to enroll in programs based on the hosts ability to help them to get to their next level, and some were just to be in the room to meet people and others were supporting my clients in their enrollment events. I love events.
You can’t tell me attending events is not a game changer for your business. I love it so much that I actually got to the point where I perfected how to generate 7 figures from a live event, and I created a course that talks all about it. Now, this episode is not about that course. This is for you the event attendee, so that you can learn what you should be doing, how you should participate, at events, so that they actually do what you set out for them to do, because let’s keep it real. You know you are investing your “hard earned money”. I’ve got my fingers in the air post, you know, around here we don’t do, hustle and grind. We like sweatless victories, but the money that you earned, if you’re putting it to an event, you’re putting it there because you believe that there is something about that event that is going to help you to get to your next level. And so I want to make sure that I can use this episode to guide you and advise you on how to make sure that you are keeping company with people who can accelerate and bring your next level into view that much quickly. Napoleon Hill, in his book Thinking grow rich, calls it the emergence of the third brain. Whenever 2 or more like minded people together there, Matthew 18 is considered the law of fellowship, and you know the Scripture. Whenever 2 or more people are gathered together there, the Holy Spirit, God, is in the midst. There is something magical. There’s something amazing. There is something life transforming that happens at live events that just can’t happen in other places, and I’m so glad that the world is back open and that we can go to live live events that we don’t have to be continuing to get caught up in zoom fatigue because we know we wore zoom out during COVID-19. But I just want to be clear that you understand that there are different types of live events, and you need to be clear of which you should attend, and why and why you should be attending them now. So, personally.
I like to attend at minimum 4 events a year once per quarter, and I like to do lots of different types of events. Some of those events are just to meet the people in the room. I know there are specific people who at my level are gathering 8 and 9 figure entrepreneurs together, and I want to be a fly on the wall. I want to be in the room, so I invest in those types of events. There are events that I go into continue to home my skill and for my own personal development. I have a couple of certifications, and I go to their annual events to continue my education, and to keep myself abreast of what is happening in the industry, and what I might need to know in order to be able to serve my clients. I go to some events because I want to learn something new. I want a new skill set. And then I go to other events, because I know that if I’m there I am going to be in the place where I can meet ideal clients. I’m just keeping it real with you. Lots of different types of reasons to catch events. So, I want you to be clear about your so write this down. If you’re taking notes, the right rooms can shorten how long it takes for you to hit a major milestone in your business.
But you have to be careful and not believe the hype. I Don’t ever recommend that you attend an event just for the speakers? Why? Because most speakers, at events, are untouchable, and you’re not going to be able to have a long enough conversation to really get what it is that you need. And let’s keep it real today. The marketplace we exist in means that you can see any speaker and learn from any speaker anytime you want based on social media and YouTube. I’ve always looked at the speakers as a bonus to attend an event. I make my decision to go to that event based on what I know about the organization and or the host that’s sponsoring it, and which goal I’m trying to achieve in being there any speakers, especially if they bring in celebrity. Speakers are a bonus.
If that matters to me, what I also find is that often the celebrities that are coming to speak aren’t great speakers, because they’re not professional speakers. They are celebrities, and I’m going to keep it real with you, I’m an event snob and a speaker snob.
I often have those I could have had a V-8 moments, so I learned a long time ago to not base my attendance at an event on the people who are going to be speaking there. I get excited when they have amazing keynote speakers, when they have speakers who are amazing storytellers. But I do not make the decision to attend, based on the speakers as an example. In a couple of weeks. I’m going to the WBENC Conference, the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council Conference. It’s a certifying organization. If you do work in corporate America and governmental agencies and I have no idea who the speakers are. I’m very clear why I’m going. I have my intention set. I have my plan of how I’m going to maximize my 2 days at that particular conference and that may or may not include listening to speakers.
So you have to figure out what it is that you’re doing, and why you’re going there at the end of the day. We attend events, because we want to get into proximity with people who can benefit us in the long run we can benefit being connected to them, and they can benefit from being connected to us. Now, the only way this really works, of course, is, if you actually are clear how to network and how to work a room when you arrive at the event, we are going to take a quick break, and when we come back, I’m going to tell you the story of the very first event that I attended, and one of the amazing things that happened to me that I am still eating the fruit of today.
We will be right back.
You’re listening to the Move to Millions Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Darnyelle Jervey Harmon, and we are talking about the company you keep as it pertains to live events. I love live events, and just before we went to break, I told you that when we came back, I was going to share a story with you about the very first live event I attended under the guise of my company Incredible One Enterprises. It was in 2010. Now I had attended events before. You guys know I was a former Mary Kay Cosmetics Pink Cadillac Sales director. So that meant I went to Seminar every year in July or August, and I went to leadership every January, always in a different city. That was a different type of an event based on where I am today as a service based entrepreneur and million dollar CEO.
So that first event was back in 2010. I would consider it to have been a conference and not an enrollment event. There were lots of speakers and breakout sessions, and as an attendee
I got overwhelmed instantly. I want to tell you a little secret. In general. I’ve gotten a little bit better. But I don’t love multiple speaker, multiple breakout session events when I’m going as an attendee. Now, as a speaker, I love multi speaker and breakout session events, because I know everyone who’s coming to my breakout session wants to hear my topic. They want to hear what I’m talking about. So they are self-selecting in. But that’s another episode for another day.
So, this particular event, back in 2010 I was going. There was a lot to navigate. I will be honest. I went because several people are like you really should be at this event. If you want to do this work, then you need to be at this event. And so I pulled my little pennies together, and I attended, and that was because you know, at that time in my business I really wasn’t tripping the light fantastic. I was newly bankrupt. And of course, as a result of that, my confidence was waning, but I knew that I had to get in that room. People I trusted told me I needed to be there, and so I did. It was like the woman who knew that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’s garment she would be healed forever. I knew that if I could get there, if I could make the sacrifice financially, because let’s keep it real. It was an extreme sacrifice. I mean. Yeah, money was not flowing at all during that particular point in time in my life. And it took a lot out of me to actually be able to put the money together because the conference was in California. You guys know I live in Delaware. That means I fly out of Philly. That means I have to cross the entire country in order to go to a live event in California typically a 5 hour flight. If you can get a direct flight. I can’t remember whether my flight was direct or not, but I knew that I was going. I also knew that I was very nervous because a lot was riding on it.
Now I would sidebar right here and tell you today. You don’t want to attend events in desperation. You want to be intentional about attending events, but you don’t want to attend an event hoping that your last proves to be beneficial. That’s being very attached to the outcome, and the more attached you are, the less God can show up and show out inside of your life, and even at that event. So I knew that attending that event was going to be a game changer. I want you to write this down, your results will always follow your beliefs and your intentions. I intended to make a content, a connection that would change the game for me, and I did listen like I literally remember writing in my journal after buying the ticket for the conference. The conference was a $1,000 ticket. My flight to get out there was about another $500. The hotel was $200 a night. I was gonna be there for 4 nights, so that’s another $800. So we’re talking a good $2,500 just to get to the event. I don’t know about you, but especially for me at that particular time in my life experience that $2,500 needed to produce a return on investment as quickly as possible. I did have some of that desperate energy that I try to tell you guys not to focus on these days.
I’m just keeping it real with you, because I always want you to know that I did not wake up like this, that I have been where you have been, and I have gone to the other side because of everything that it is that I share with you in this podcast. And so I intended to make a connection that would change my life, and I did. The person I met was a client of mine for nearly 5 years, and through that connection I was able to generate more than $300,000 from that one connection.
See, this is why attending the right events, the ones that you do your due diligence around make all the difference, because all you need is one connection in order to change the trajectory of your business. In my particular case this client was a corporate client. And that corporate client initially brought me in to do a works a one day workshop with them actually wasn’t. Even a full day was like a 3 hour workshop they paid me about, I think, $5,000 for that very first engagement. My only request to them was that they would have any key decision makers present for that workshop.
See? I’m always willing to bet on myself, and I knew that if I could get the right people in the room to experience me, then I could turn it into an opportunity to build a deep relationship and to make way more money in this case over $300,000. So, I did that first workshop for about 5 K. A couple of clear decision makers and multiple departments in the company were there, and they collectively made a decision that they wanted to bring me in to teach what I taught to several departments in the organization that turned into an immediate $100,000 contract that got renewed for second year, and at the second year it got renewed for $200,000, actually, you know what over $300,000 as I’m reflecting of what I made in entirely. It got it got renewed for the second year. and then and then I became a consultant and advisor for the following 3 years, and the point at which I, because I decided to step away from the relationship. Management, had changed hands in the organization and their culture and for values were no longer in alignment with mine.
But that one connection from $2,500 that I barely had. But I believed in, invested in myself made the difference in it. I mean, I don’t even know how many x’s that it’s like a 100 X return on that $2,500 investment. Yes, sometimes you will attend an event just to deepen your connection with one person. but you do have to be careful and do your due diligence about any event that you’re thinking about before you buy your ticket, and you also need to create a plan about why you are attending that particular event that is actually the number one mistake that I see.
I don’t want you to just be willy-nilly choosing events. And I don’t want you to choose them without a clear target or reason that you can justify the expense, the investment, because it is, in fact, an expense and an investment.
You have to remember also that the ticket price is not your only expense when you’re attending an event that isn’t happening in your backyard right? You want to make sure that you’re very, very clear about why you’re attending. I attended an event recently.
That was an event that everybody in their grandfather was talking about. They were like. Oh, my gosh! You have to attend this event! So I gave in, and I attended the event. But it didn’t do it for me. There were way too many speakers. Even the speakers were disjointed. They weren’t following a path or a progression to allow the attendees to walk away with something really tangible, and that’s what’s important for me. If I’m attending an event that I’m not speaking at, or it’s not a client event, then there has to be a very clear progression of the content. I’m going to learn, so that I can add it to my toolkit.
That’s not the type of an event that this was so. I didn’t get to learn anything that would really advance my business. The type of event was an event that I could get clients from because that’s another reason to attend an event. And let me sidebar and say this, not to attempt to get clients while you’re at the event, because I just think that that’s disrespectful to attend someone else’s event. Let’s say we’re talking about coaching to attend someone else’s event and try to pilfer clients out of there that is so inappropriate and disrespectful, and you will read what you sell that’s not what I’m saying. But I’m just saying, connecting with people that once I get home I can continue to build relationship with that could potentially become a client. I wasn’t able to do that at the event, because the other attendees were not the types of people that I like to work with, and so it just didn’t work as well.
But what I will say is, I didn’t learn a few things not to do at my own live event, so I guess that was the silver lining. We’re gonna take another quick break, and when we come back I’m gonna continue to round up this episode. I have some amazing additional gems I want to share with you. We’ll be right back.
Welcome back to the Move to Millions Podcast. I’m. Your host, Dr. Darnyelle Jervey Harmon. We are talking about the company you keeping specifically live events and conferences, and which ones to attend and how to navigate them, so that you actually get what you came for.
This is really important for me, because many of you who are listening are going to join us at Move to Millions Live this May, and I want you to have a very clear plan. Now. Our event is
amazing, you know. Yeah, I’m probably a little biased. But I’m not the only one who believes that the attendees come back year after year after year because of the amazing environment that we create.
And our event is a progressionary event. You are gonna learn and create your own blueprint for getting your business to the million-dollar mark, so that you know exactly what it’s going to take, so that you can get there sooner rather than later, which is different than a lot of events that exist in the marketplace. Now, when you are attending an event, that is a true learning event, like hours that we put on meaning. You’re gonna learn a framework or methodology.
Your approach shouldn’t be different. If you are attending to learn a system.
and then you’re ultimately gonna decide whether or not you’re gonna continue working with the event host. Those types of events are less focused on the speakers and more focused on the host and their community. Now, regardless of which type of event you decide to go with
You’re going there to connect with people and to learn something that can advance your own business. That’s why I’m going to say it, probably for the fourth time. You want to make sure you set your intention before, and do your research and due diligence to make sure that the event can deliver what you’re looking for?
Are you going for the community?
Are you going for the host?
Are you going for the speakers?
Are you going based on what it is that you’ll learn, or for networking?
You want to be clear about why you’re attending before you grab your ticket. Sometimes you might have to reach out to the event host, and team to get the clarification that you need, and if you do, I highly recommend that you do it. Have so many people in my DM’s asking me, is this event going to be like this. Is it going to be like that, you know who are going to be the speakers? We don’t even make a big deal about our speakers because our speakers are a compliment to the blueprint. We help the participants to create. They’re not the reason that you attend they’re the bonus. You just have to know that going in. I want to take just a few moments and share some of the most important reasons why I think it is important to get in the room, because the company that you keep will determine how fast your business gets to the million-dollar mark, and you want to be around like minded people who are also defying the odds. Right? You’ve heard the statistics around small business 65.22% of small businesses don’t make more than $50,000 a year. If you’re a woman of color, like me, $24,000 is the average business income of a black woman owned business according to American express.
Right? You want to know that, so that if you happen to get in the room like we create and move to millions. Our average attendee’s income is $283,000 to average attendee we have some that are way over the 1 million dollar mark that are coming to learn and prepare to go to the next level.
You need to know that first and foremost, the right rooms will raise your income almost instantly. You’ll make money there or you’ll gain skills that will make you money. At our events, our attendees enter our vortex and we get tons of reports how, during breaks, people get notified that deals that have been stuck in stagnant have suddenly closed, and new clients have enrolled in their programs. That’s the power of being in the right rooms. We call this the power of proximity.
Second reason to get in the room is to put key connections into your Rolodex. I know I just dated it myself by saying Rolodex, but the right people will elevate your Rolodex. It’s so amazing to think about the people whose numbers I have in my phone from organizations and masterminds and groups that I’m in, that I can pick up the phone and call them to get me to help get them to help me with something, or to give me a referral, or as they come across people, that I will be a great fit, for they share them with me. It makes a key difference.
Another thing, especially if you are looking for your next coach or mentor. You can audition that mentor, if they are hosting an event. So I almost always recommend that if you’re trying to determine if you want to work with someone, and they per produce a live event that you should attend that event because you’re gonna learn a lot about what it’s like to be in their community and listen. Social media is great, but you cannot get the feels and feel the energy
the same as if you’re in the same space with them and the people that have also worked with them.
Another key to getting in the room is that you’ll get an opportunity to consistently revive. Refine your message, because every time you need you meet a new person, you’re gonna give them your power statement, your I help X. Do Y. So that z statement. And so you’re gonna get to keep tightening and get feedback every single time. If you don’t get that immediate, do you have a card, or how can we stay connected? And you know your message is not hitting for that particular person. This is another quick sidebar. Whenever you’re introducing yourself, let the other person go first, especially for those of you who, inside of your business you do more than one thing. Let the other person introduce themselves first, so that you can give them the most appropriate power statement, so that you don’t look paranoid and schizophrenic. If you then try to change your mind later. No disrespect for anyone who has that diagnosis. I’m just using that as an example. Another reason why I think it’s great to get in the room is because it allows you to break out of your comfort zone. You may not believe this about me, but I am an introvert.
I am extroverted in the moments when I’m showing up in my gift, and when I don’t have to, I revert back, and I go in the corner, and I’m just quiet and observant, but going to an event with an agenda to meet specific people puts me out of my comfort zone. It makes me have to show up fully and show up fully for myself. You’ll also learn industry, chance, what’s going on in your industry? What do you need to know and be cognizant of? What should you be thinking about right now, based on what’s happening in the marketplace? In the economy you should learn those types of things. If the events that you’re attending doesn’t have a session that tells you about industry related trends or trends related to marketing and sales, and those types of things that are important for your business. You probably shouldn’t attend those types of events.
You’re also going to be in like-minded proximity with other people just like you. Again, something magical happens when you are in proximity to people who think like you think, and we all need that opportunity to be around people to be elevated right. We all have our own limited perspective, you know. I say this all the time. Most of us look at everything from our vantage point, and not our vision point attending live events and conferences, and being around like-minded people, it expands you into your vision point.
And then the last reason why I think it is absolutely essential that you get into rooms is because you are making an investment in yourself, and you have probably heard me share this before that people ask me all the time, Darnyelle, how do I make money move? You know money is one of my favorite loves is to talk about and to help people to understand money is an energy that is always moving. It never stops. It can stop for you. If you are doing things that block the flow. One of the ways to keep money circulating is through investing and being investable, right or releasing and receiving or sewing and reaping. However, you want to couch it. When you are consistently investing in yourself, and you are investable meaning, You have something that other people can invest in. The law of circulation says that abundance, i.e. money, is expanding around you at an ever-increasing rate, and it never stops every time you live into or given to the law of circulation and release money; that money is going to come back to you from a different source, and it is consistent. It is universal. It is the truth that always happens every time you invest you open yourself up to be invested in, and that is how money moves so many important things for you to think about the company you keep.
Remember, I think it’s Jim Rohm who says you become like the 5 people with whom you spend the majority of your time, which is a big part of the reason why I absolutely recommend that at least once a quarter. In addition to attend an event, you evaluate your circle to make sure that you are only spending time with people who are adding value and not subtracting value.
Because who you are, and what you are here to do is absolutely essential. One last thought for you before we call it an episode.
When you attend an event, keep in mind that doing so is only as good as your plan for following up with the people that you met when you get back home or creating opportunities, having lunch with someone different every single day, especially if you’re not a VIP attending depending upon the type of event you’re attending. If you’re VIP typically lunch is included. Some conferences include lunch, but eating with different people, getting to know different people and perspectives, making sure that you either have an electronic business card or a physical business card. I do believe people still carry physical business cards. Making sure that you have everything and you have your plan of attack. I also recommend that when you attend an event for the 2 to 3 days immediately, once you get back home, you should be doing your follow up and checking in with the people that you met, even if it’s just sending them a text message.
Say, it was great meeting. You let me know when you want to jump on the phone or jump on zoom, so we can deepen our connection. But making sure that as soon as you meet a person you establish that you are going to stay connected. If you’re clear that they can add value, and you can add value that there is an equitable exchange between the 2 of you those relationships, some of the people that I’ve met at the attend the events that I’ve attended over the years are still referral sources for me.
There’s still friends that I have mastermind conversations with. We still connect all because
I was intentional when I was attending an event. I don’t know about you. I don’t have any time
to waste. And so if I’m going to give 2 to 3 days to an event or a conference, you better believe that I’m gonna put a plan in place to be able to maximize it so that the company I keep add values to me just like I am company that adds values to other people. It makes a difference who you spend your time with and your network will always determine your network.
I hope hearing me talk about the importance of being in like-minded events, and spending time with people is helpful to you, and, as always, you know, we want to invite you to join us at Move to Millions Live. It is going to be a community of people that I’m absolutely 100%
unequivocally confident that you should know we have attendees coming from all over the world which I’m. So excited. We are expecting 300 people. It is going to be absolutely amazing. The content is going to shift your life and perspective, and you’re gonna learn what you need to be focused on right now in order to take your business to the million-dollar, mark. You’ll actually even get time in the room to work through many of the pieces in the blueprint. It’s going to be life changing and I really do believe that you should be there.
Remember the company you keep will determine how much money you make.
and the impact that you will create in the earth.
I’ll see you guys next time. Take care.
