#66 How Course Creators Can Use Summits to Build an Audience with Katya McEwan

Online summits can do far more than grow your email list. Done well, they can help you build authority, create meaningful collaborations, and give potential clients a firsthand experience of your expertise.

In this episode, Shannon speaks with intuitive business coach and experienced summit host Katya McEwen about what makes a summit valuable for the host, the speakers, and the audience. Katya shares what she has learned from organizing large online events, how speakers can stand out without over promoting themselves, and why the strongest summits focus on connection rather than information overload.

They also discuss how to find speaking opportunities, what hosts are really looking for, and the planning decisions that can make or break the experience.

Listen to learn how online summits can become a powerful part of your audience-building strategy, even if you are not ready to host one yourself.

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Transcript

0:00

This week I am pleased to have Katja McEwen on the show. Katja is an intuitive business coach, a certified hypnotist, and a creative design maven. She has grown her community on Skool to more than six thousand members and more than five thousand dollars in MRR in only nine months. And she's obsessed with helping people align their mindset, identity, and strategy so that they can build thriving, aligned businesses they love. Today we're talking about summits and how to use summits both as a host and as a guest to build both your audience and your authority, because without an audience, you have no one to sell your course to.

Shannon 1:50

Okay, I am so happy to welcome my friend Katya McEwen to the show today. Katya is a very experienced business owner with a wealth of knowledge to share with us, and we're gonna be talking specifically today about summits. She knows what she's talking about. She has led some incredible summits that I've personally participated in, and, uh, there's gonna be so much learning about how you might use a summit to grow your audience and also promote your course. So welcome, Katya. So happy to have you on the show.

Katya McEwen 2:19

Well, thank you so much for having me here. I'm super excited to be here, uh, summits are a fun conversation, and I'm so excited to talk about it

Shannon 2:30

Great. So before we actually get started talking about summits, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, uh, I know you have a lot of experience behind you, and how you got to where you are today

Katya McEwen 2:44

Great question. So I've been in business for about 12-- in online business for about 12 years now, and these days I call myself intuitive business coach. And the reason is because bring a lot of, uh, different tools, experiences, certifications, just like any of you who's listening, probably collected a lot of certifications, but was very, very intentional about those ones. I am a certified mindset coach and done this work for over five years, one-on-one with clients and in group programs as well. some point, I also realized that, um, mindset work is not enough, so I introduced also hypnosis into my tools, uh, as a certified hypnotist as well. So that's a little bit about my background in online business. But I do come from the corporate world, from a sales background. Um, I worked for the largest bank in Canada, um, I led very large teams in leadership positions. I've done a lot of corporate events, and I think it's very related when we'll start talking about the summits. And these days, absolutely blessed and grateful to have of communities that I built and where I help... I actually have a couple, so uh, where I help a lot of diff- uh, I, I have a different kind of areas of expertise, super excited about one of the largest communities right now, where I help soulful entrepreneurs and creatives to really connect with each other. We even do, like, a matchmaking there. So because, uh, part of my background, actually my last corporate gig was dating coach at match.com. I'm a matchmaker inside Oracle Connections. I will match you with your perfect people for your communities or business, I absolutely love doing it and have a lot, a lot of fun doing that.

Shannon 4:50

Awesome. Very cool. So just to clarify, it's professional connections, not dating connections that you do in your community?

Katya McEwen 4:58

Yes, yes, yes. Thank you for clarification.

Shannon 5:00

Yeah. Yeah. I ha-

Katya McEwen 5:03

and it's professional connections and collaborations, yes.

Shannon 5:07

Yeah. I do, uh, something different, but also with, uh, you know, with making connections and helping people network, and I had somebody get confused about that. So I always like to, uh, like to, uh, clarify that, 'cause yeah, he was like, "I'm married. I don't think I can participate in this." Anyway, uh, without getting o- off topic, you and I first met, uh, over the topic of online courses, and you have done a lot of work over the years to teach your community members about what it is that you do. So can you just share with the audience a little bit about your experience with course creation, and maybe one or two things that you've learned over the years, um, from your experience with that?

Katya McEwen 5:50

This is such a great question because over the years I just started, unfortunately, I didn't have somebody like you who is-- with your education, with your experience. And when I just started, people were calling courses what, what are not really courses, right? So-- And it took me some time to actually realize what course is and what course isn't, and if I want to do the course or not.

Shannon 6:21

Mm-hmm.

Katya McEwen 6:22

I love how you talk always about the signature course, and it's a journey. It's a very specific journey with implementation and everything else where people get specific result when they follow through. Of course, we can't guarantee, right? So, so when I started, I would just slop together different things and it's really what it was. But I also want to say to people, don't be afraid to go out there and try and test, because if I wouldn't, be where I am right now, right?

Shannon 6:57

Right

Katya McEwen 6:58

very passionate about building communities, memberships. I've started memberships building way before school existed. Right now, it's one of the-- my main platforms. And what I found about the courses from perspective of creation of the course, it's not easy to create it a go. So you can create cour-- you can create experience on a go, and I do it many, many, and I often do that. However, to create a real robust course, you need to have a proper curriculum. You need to have somebody like Shannon who is teaching you how to do that because you want your course to be successful and not sitting on a digital shelves, right? So it's so important, and you want to make sure your people are getting results. So that takes time. You

Shannon 7:55

Yeah.

Katya McEwen 7:56

together. Slop or just announce, "Here. Here is my course, and we're doing it together." When we're doing it together, and again, nothing wrong with that. Like, I'm doing something starting July first, and it-- we're-- like, I have the whole curriculum, but we're doing it together.

Shannon 8:13

Yeah. Right

Katya McEwen 8:15

turn into course after of it, but it's not a course.

Shannon 8:19

Yeah. I love that. So many great tidbits from what you just said. First of all, about like what is a course and what are we actually talking about. I was thinking, "I need to do a podcast episode on that." And then the second part is, like, because I know a lot of people in my audience are self-proclaimed perfectionists, and I always talk about high quality courses, and that we wanna put our best work out there. But we also can't let that be a barrier or an obstacle for getting started and getting our work out into the world, because it's never gonna be perfect, and we're gonna be continuing to improve on it. So I think that's just so, so important. And then like, yes, exactly what you said. There are a lot of different things that we can do with our audience to help them, um, and we wanna focus on results and, and so just being intentional and strategic about what kind of experiences we're doing and, and offering to them. So on the topic of experience, today we're talking about the experience of a summit, which I just have to say before we get started, I'm gonna, like, I'm gonna actually put it here. I don't think I will ever myself host a summit because the idea of it just is like, seems too insurmountable. It's, it's huge. It seems like a huge project. But you have absolutely mastered, and the process of doing it and, and putting it forward and doing it to a T, and the way you do it, I have to say seems still like a lot of work, but also just seamless. And s- you're so, such an expert at doing it now. So before we get into kind of tapping into your brain, for course creators who have heard of summits but never hosted one, how would you describe what it actually is and the role that it can play in someone's business?

Katya McEwen 10:07

That's a great question. Before I answer it, I also want to say that there is a different ways to deliver summits, right? So just have this big personality Leo in me I love to have a big production,

Shannon 10:21

Hmm.

Katya McEwen 10:22

enjoy it, right? So don't have to do it this way. There is so many different ways that you can do the summit. So to me, my definition of the summit is gathering incredible experts together that will complement your audience. So my last summit was Oracle Cards Magic: Use an Oracle for Soulful Entrepreneurs and Creatives. We had three different tracks, right? So it was about-- It was covering boss, B2B and B2C, which w- which is very unusual, right? So but that's the way that I love my audience. I love boss. we were covering evolving, so how they can evolve themselves. We were looking at connecting, how they can connect into themselves and their audience. And of course, as a business owners, we were looking at thriving and how to turn their gifts into income, into livelihood. So for course creators, what summit can do for you is just from the standpoint of authority I would start there because now people look at you completely different way because you gathered incredible, you know, community of these leaders who are teaching your audience something

Shannon 11:54

Yeah

Katya McEwen 11:54

and complementing it. I love doing that because I cannot teach my audience everything. I don't teach how to do courses, right?

Shannon 12:02

Mm-hmm.

Katya McEwen 12:03

create, you know, great, uh, courses. Excellent, right? So I don't. I love when Shannon comes in and talks about the courses,

Shannon 12:13

Yeah

Katya McEwen 12:14

I don't do some-- a lot of, a lot of things, right? So I want my audience to make sure that they will see that we are collaborating. I think the energy of collaboration is so underestimated, and people think that, "Oh my God, if I invite somebody, it means that they will buy their stuff and not my stuff." When I look at the summits, I look at it, I have forty-five hundred people came to last one, right? So we're right now. And I cannot possibly serve all of these people, and not all people are ready for what I offer.

Shannon 12:55

Right

Katya McEwen 12:56

But they might be ready for something that Shannon offer or some of my other speakers. And when they done with that, they might come back to me or not, and it's okay. For me, I want to serve my audience where they are, and the only way I can do it when I bring different people with different experiences and expertise.

Shannon 13:15

Yeah

Katya McEwen 13:16

summit to me is a gathering of people where we provide something for, In my summits, it's free, and they can also upgrade to buy, you know, all access pass and everything else. Um, again, can do summits so many different ways. And,

Shannon 13:35

Okay. So yeah, that's a great overview of it, and, uh, I, I always think of it kind of like an online conference in a way. Like, it's, it's a way for us to get together and, like, the different tracks and the different ways of learning, and setting aside the time also in our schedule to just concentrate on learning and, uh, benefiting from others' expertise over, you know, a couple of days. So I wanna, I wanna kind of take this, uh, from two different angles. First from somebody who might be considering being a guest on a, in a summit. And then we'll kind of transition and talk about more of the hosting because you have so much expertise in both. Um, I wanna kind of tap into both of those things. So for somebody like myself who is not a big event planner but wants to still benefit from the experience of a summit as I was able to do with yours, um, what... So two questions. First of all, what is a good way for people to find summiting experiences or opportunities? And then what makes a good summit guest?

Katya McEwen 14:45

Okay. I'm going to start with the second one first,

Shannon 14:48

Okay

Katya McEwen 14:48

then we'll talk about how to find good summits,

Shannon 14:50

Yeah

Katya McEwen 14:52

What may... And when you say summit guest, is, uh, you mean summit speaker?

Shannon 14:57

Speaker, yes

Katya McEwen 14:58

Okay. Okay. So not the attendee, speaker. So what makes you a good effective summit speaker is understanding where the summit is and h- the ways that it is produced. And the reason I'm saying because traditional summit online conferences don't normally give you access to pros- participants except when they l- you know, download your gift and they get on your email list, but you don't have interactions with them. What I like about doing summit, some schools specifically, is that you actually have access to all of the participants, you can interact with them.

Shannon 15:43

Hmm

Katya McEwen 15:43

I love to get to know my speakers and their expertise, so this way you can con-- and my speakers stay in my community after summits are done. However, there's people asking questions where I don't necessarily an expert in. love to even post summits or before summits, I would tag my speakers so they can provide their expertise, way they can continue to build that relationship. So for me, is just a beginning of building relationship, and it's much more effective than, uh, and especially on school, when the summit is in community because you can continue this relationship going forward

Shannon 16:28

Mm-hmm.

Katya McEwen 16:28

and invite people in your community, your email lists and so on and so forth. But what would make somebody's really effective summit speaker understanding what this summit is about, what is the cost expectations, making sure that you read, um, application in full. That's... And a lot of times it's very long,

Shannon 16:51

Mm-hmm.

Katya McEwen 16:51

So applications normally very long for summits, but make sure you read in full and block time.

Shannon 17:00

Mm-hmm.

Katya McEwen 17:00

Block time so you can actually actively participate. I would never expect my speakers to participate twenty-four seven. This is absolutely unrealistic. This is why I am there during the summit. But I would block at least two hours a day during the live summit, uh, let's say three days or four days, so you can attend some sessions, people can get to know your... seeing your name, and also participate in comments, engagement and grat- and my summit is very different. We focus on really gratitude and thank you all of the speakers for coming in because to me, it's just incredible, uh, the talent people coming in with and they spending time during the summit. So we big on gratitude in my community.

Shannon 17:50

Yeah. That's one of the things I love about your summits. It's just such a, a warm and welcoming community of people who get together and, and are sharing knowledge. So for someone who wants to be in a summit, I think, or as a speaker, as you say, there's kind of like a few different benefits. There's the benefit of growing your audience through the free gift that you share, and then people will download that, and they will, uh, you know, become, uh, go on your email list as a, as a new person in your audience. Of, of course, building the authority, as you had mentioned, and different people are hearing you speak and potentially wanting to work with you. How... When is it appropriate and how is it appropriate for someone to promote themselves within a summit? Like, have you had an experience, because it's always a value first, but have you had an experience where maybe someone, and I'm not asking you to name names here, but like someone has kind of tipped the scale a little bit, and it's been like too much on the promotion side and not enough on the value side? And like, what are the kind of culture and expectations around the giving of the value versus promoting yourself, and when is it appropriate and when is it not?

Katya McEwen 19:00

It's a really great question. And to me, uh, being an effective summit speaker, again, depending on what way, because you can do interview, or you can do pre-recorded, or you can do live session. And I'll focus on live session right now. When you're actually teaching something and people get the results, and you can invite them. I have no problem with people to actually pitch. I come from the sales background, and I do give people a playground where they can do that,

Shannon 19:29

Yeah.

Katya McEwen 19:30

where it becomes ineffective is where you provide a lot of information and go into the pitch without really creating the bridge from-- of trust. So there is a two things. We need to create, um, trust bridge of trust in you as a speaker. And second one, we also need to create what a lot of people overlook is self-trust the attendees. when attendees who participated in the summit, in your sessions, whatever way, when they can go through experience in sixty minutes or ninety minutes, thirty minutes, and actually get a short win, not just takeaway, but short win, they immediately build in self-trust themself-- in themself if you are presenting it a certain way. And this is where I developed my own method, which called Mini Project Magic Method. And it's not something that I, you know, pulled out of the hat. I've been perfecting it for last three years, right? So I've been testing it on different platforms, and I'm like, when I came to school, I'm like, "Okay, well, let's test it here if it's going to work here." And it does, right? So-- And the reason I'm talking about it, especially during the trust recession right now, it, it is a real thing. There is a lot of infommercial product, knowledge-based product, don't sell anymore.

Shannon 21:04

Mm-hmm.

Katya McEwen 21:04

There is not-- no lack of information, especially with AI right now. Is it a correct or not? It's a different story. We're not going to get there, So, uh, what kind of answers we'll get on, uh, courses people build in an hour. We're not going to go there. Um, but the-- it-it's a true challenge right now. So what do you do in environment when nothing sells? do you sell an

Shannon 21:31

Yeah

Katya McEwen 21:31

when nothing sells? And the only way you can do that is with two things: building-- really creating trust in a short, a short experience and helping your participant to build self-trust. So it's really two ways-- two-way street, right? So yeah.

Shannon 21:51

absolutely. Yeah, that's really great information, and, and I teach the same thing, that you have to, like, get a win. Somebody has to experience something from you so that they know that you can deliver. It's not just about, uh, saying you can deliver. And we could do a whole other episode on that, but, uh, yeah, yeah, such a good advice

Katya McEwen 22:13

also I wanted to say, and this, you as a host of the summit, if you're hosting the summit, need to realize that every session can becomes that self-trust build, right? So, it doesn't matter, even if your speakers are not effective, you as a host can do that.

Shannon 22:32

Right

Katya McEwen 22:33

I do it with all of my live speakers. No matter what they do, promote, not promote, and again, in mine, it's totally okay. I'm totally fine. I will drop your links for your communities and everything else, uh, during or after the session. um, it's important that you ask the audience what is their takeaways, what is their breakthrough, what is it that they learned during this session? Because if people don't reflect immediately and implement even small thing, it's going-- they will forget it in two minutes, right? So right after the session, it's forgot- it's forgot

Shannon 23:09

Yeah. Uh, yeah, absolutely. With anything, but especially with a summit when it's so many different topics and so much information, um, that reflection piece is, uh, is so, so important. Uh, and then, okay, so, and then if somebody wants to find a summit opportunity, I think a lot of people hold back because, well, first of all, they don't know where to look. They find out about a summit, and it's like by that point in time it's usually too late. But also sometimes I think people worry that their audience isn't big enough, that they, that that's all the host is looking for is someone with a huge audience. Um, so where would be a good place for someone to find maybe their first experience as a summit?

Katya McEwen 23:50

This is really good question in regards, and thank you for mentioning that people might think about their audience is not enough. you would want to find somebody who's actually okay with that. Like for me, I new speakers to come in. Because I was new at some point somewhere, and somebody gave me that opportunity, so we do have new speakers all the time. I do ask, uh, size of audience, but I don't pay attention to size of audience. It's not the most important thing for me. It's not,

Shannon 24:21

Okay

Katya McEwen 24:21

So for me Some people when they organize summits, they're looking at their speakers to bring mostly of their audience. But to me, I bring audience to the summit. I run paid traffic to summits. I my community for that. everybody will have different expectations. But where would you find the good summits? will mention couple, so you can think about. Again, it needs to be aligning with your niche and with your expertise. one that we have, and actually me and my business partner, Jen Hill Myers, having one coming up in July. called Soulful Marketing Magic Summit. It's all about marketing. So if that is of interest, please let me know. Um, Shannon will let you know how to connect with me. We'll open an application soon. one of the best summits that I've been part of as a speaker is Elizabeth Goddard. If you have ever been to her Christmas party, Lizzie's Christmas party or anything like that, she has a really cool summit coming up. Um, I think it's called Repeat Repeat, uh, something in July, but it's at the same time as ours, so unfortunately I can't participate. But you can look at it. incredible. I think she's an example of how to organize summit, right? So she does not do them on Skool, so there is no connection with community, so I miss that part.

Shannon 25:54

Mm-hmm.

Katya McEwen 25:55

she's really great, um, somebody that you want to follow and connect with. the last one that I ment- I would mention is Brenda Rigney, she is... We call her Queen of Summits on Skool because she is the first one who started to do summits in a bigger scale, and I actually learned a lot from Brenda of how she runs summit. I still-- I run my slightly different, but I learned a lot of organization part of that. So to that point, also just a few names, I would just literally reach out to your circle and just ask questions, right? So where they would find-- That's the way I do that. That's the way that I find my summits when I want to speak. And I'm at the point where people actually asking me to come and speak at the summits, and I say no to a lot of them, right? So, um, that, um-- But that actually gave me great idea. Thank you for like for... You know, maybe we need to create some kind of really cool list of summits

Shannon 26:57

Mm-hmm.

Katya McEwen 26:58

Yeah, I will look into that. Yeah

Shannon 27:00

Yeah, I think it's a great idea because people usually don't just have one. People who host summits and do it successfully usually do it again and again. So I think there's definitely, like, a matching opportunity there. Um, and also I think I love your suggestion, though, about just going to your network and asking people, because one of the things that I've learned from others who I've spoken with is the quality of the summit can really vary, and so you want to make sure that you're in... I mean, experience is experience, but also you want to be investing your time in somebody who knows what they're doing and is going to highlight their speakers as much as themselves. Um, and so getting recommendations from other people I think is, is really great. Now, on that note, let's switch over to the hosting side of things. You always talk about your approach to summits is a win-win-win situation. So can you talk about what that means and, um, how that plays into, like, the decisions that you make as you're doing your planning?

Katya McEwen 27:59

That's a great question. So for me, it is win, win, win. It needs to be win for my speakers, needs to be win for my participants, it needs to be win for myself, right? So it's-- there's a lot of work goes in from my side, but also from all of the speakers. They prepare, they take their time, right? So they share the summit with their list, with their audiences. So it's important that it's a win, and when I create that experience, then they will come back, right? So they will come back again, and we can continue that relationship. So how I make sure that that happens, I get to know my speakers on a personal level. I mean, not on an intimate personal level, but I get to know them, um, what is their expertise, what is important to them. Uh, we talk about that, right? So all of my speakers, I literally... I was so proud of myself when I was creating bingo for the summit. I knew pictures by faces and name. I did not need to match

Shannon 29:02

Wow

Katya McEwen 29:03

And we had over 60 speakers, right? So, and some of them were brand, brand-new for me, like with no pre-recorded. So I take pride to get to know the speaker. they apply, I check out their information, I make sure that everything aligned. Um, and I do say no to some, but very rarely because again, I do want to give opportunity to the new cur-- newer speakers as well, right? So, um, for participants. For me, it needs to be-- Uh, now win for speakers, another thing what I do make sure is that it is successful for everyone. After each summit, I ask for sur-- I actually send survey, ask people to submit it. I track opt-ins they got. I track if there is any additional sales they made, and it's, uh, too early to really look at some sales because sometimes it takes time, right? So but some people get sales right away. I do track also is it they liked, what they did not like. I ask for feedback. I listen to that feedback as well, and I change things for next time when I run the summit. So it's important to me that speakers are happy. I also do affiliate contest. three prizes with people for the referrals and everything else. I make it fun. And, uh, yeah, so that's was it from the speaker perspective. From participant perspective, want to make sure again, we have the tools for my participants that they can feel seen, they can feel that they belong, they can feel that they're getting value. And I do it many different ways. Uh, first, I always highlight and talk like even when I do-- we do live sessions, right? So webinar style, um, I read their names. Simple thing, uh, by reading their names recognizing them. I do have a lot of fun activities, so I also recognize my people by emojis now, right? So by the end of the summit, you don't need to put your name. If you put the emoji, I know who you are because you already done that. So we do a lot of playful activities, a lot of playfulness, and some people are like, "Oh my God, business is a serious thing." Yes. But if we are all that serious, we talk about serious things.

Shannon 31:28

Yeah

Katya McEwen 31:28

we need levity, and we need-- People are tired of going like a corporate style, serious stuff, right? Or professional, quote-unquote. What is professional? So and when people come to my summits, it's like a breath of fresh air because like, oh my God, I can be myself

Shannon 31:47

Yeah. Yeah

Katya McEwen 31:48

So, so win for the, uh, for the participants, I also include, uh, we do provide a lo- like, not we, uh, speakers provide a lot of gifts very generously, which we give to our participants, but I don't, uh, keep it only open for three days. I, I hate that massive, uh, panic of people, "Oh my God, I need to download gifts so I cannot attend live sessions." I give them like a seven, 10, like seven to eight days, like a really good time for them to do that. And on top of that, I also provide them with a gift tracker where they can see what's, what's in there, they can track what they downloaded, they can track their progress and everything else. And that is something I learned from Lizzie, actually, with the gift tracker. I love that idea. I'm like, "I

Shannon 32:34

It's a great idea.

Katya McEwen 32:35

summits too."

Shannon 32:36

Yeah

Katya McEwen 32:37

So on top of that, we do download parties, and download parties is... it's, it's funny, some of them are, you know, silent parties for a period of time because everyone downloading. whenever somebody comes in, it's actually serves both speakers and the audience, and some of them both, right? So they use both side. when, um, people come to download party, if I have any speakers on, I always will highlight them, and I always will say, "By the way, Shannon has this gift, and this person has th-..." And I put the links again. So it's another opportunity for me to create win for my speakers so there is more downloads are going to be there, right? So... And then we have a quiet time when people just go and download, and then we come back, and I ask my... everyone who's there, "What did you find? Did you find any gems? Share with us." So now it's not only is it speaker highlight, and it's participant is like, "Oh my God, I found this gem. You have to check it out." we're creating this whole, um, you know, experience for our summits. And win for me, uh, speakers, uh, do sponsor. There is a sponsorship spots, and so I definitely, um, you know, win for me is their financial win. But also win for me, I'm growing my audience, but not even audience. I'm growing my connections and collaboration and my network with all of the speakers and getting to know them really, really well, right? So... And I know this will be aired after the Skool Games, and if you don't know what Skool Games is, uh, you can check it out. And you know what? I am claiming that I'm winning Skool Games, and by the time it's airing that I will be going to LA, right? So to that mastermind, we're going to claim that

Shannon 34:23

Yeah. Awesome. And I love that you're focusing not just on, like, the audience building or the financial gain, but on the connections and the networking and, and all of the things that are, like, the planting seeds and the, and the richness that can come when you fully embrace, um, an experience like that for everyone involved. Um, so that's really great. When you think about the first summit that you ever did... Well, first, before I ask this question, let me ask you, how long does it take you to actually plan a summit? Because you've just given us a ton of amazing ideas, and all I'm thinking as you're talking through this is, that's a lot of work. That's a lot of planning. That's a lot of work. So how long does it take you to plan a summit? How far in advance do you start the process?

Katya McEwen 35:10

Um, there is a couple of things I learned. This was my second summit online. As I said, I come from back- a corporate background, so it's not new to me to organize events, and gather people together. But the first summit I did was January, and I was so inspired by Brenda when she was doing hers, and I said, "Oh, okay, six weeks, I'm going to put it together, no problem." It was over Christmas as well. So here is the learning lesson. Don't... If you do it over Christmas, make sure that your everything is done before the Christmas so people can enjoy their holidays and come to your summit already done. Like, you know, just to come to speak, right?

Shannon 35:51

Yeah

Katya McEwen 35:52

January 19th. So that was first lesson that I learned. And then six weeks is really not enough time because there is so many moving pieces. Uh, I start my ads six weeks ahead, right? So my Meta ads, Facebook ads, all advertisement, bringing more people and community starts six weeks ahead. And when I start, and when I just start planning at the same time is I don't even know all of my speakers yet. So it's not, yes, I can promote summit in general, but I also want to put exact sessions, and I do customize ads as well for the speakers. So I would say this time, the second time we did it... I'm just trying to think the dates. March 15th was the deadline for initial application, and summit was on... When did we start? May... we start? What do... May, May 18th. Here, I'm like 10 days ago. I'm like, I'm just post-summit, guys, so I have

Shannon 36:55

It...

Katya McEwen 36:56

have brain fog from summit, right?

Shannon 36:58

That's true

Katya McEwen 36:59

So So March 15th to May 18th. So we had April, so we had March, April, May. So we had solid months after we received the applications.

Shannon 37:12

Mm-hmm.

Katya McEwen 37:12

But we opened application at the beginning of the March. So that is really like three solid months, and really the longer... Like, I would say three to four months is a really, really good timeline. also, I don't do it on my own. My first summit I done mostly on my own, just a little bit was asking, uh, uh, s- my team member, who's just incredible, um, to help me out. But I on purpose did it on my own because I wanted to see what's working, what's not working, so we can discuss how to make it more effective. And from this summit, again, I learned something else, and I'm going to incorporate it in next time. three to four months, I would say, is a good timing,

Shannon 37:57

Yeah

Katya McEwen 37:57

start connecting with people even earlier and kind of planting seeds if you want to do your summit because the quality of speakers that you bring in will determine the quality of your whole summit.

Shannon 38:11

Yeah, absolutely

Katya McEwen 38:13

And I would start if I-- if you would be thinking about starting the summit, the way I would start, and I learned from Brenda, I would start with some of the people you can say, "Okay, if I have this person in my summit, people would want to come." You can look up some bigger names Specifically in your industry. And when I say bigger names, so if we're looking at course creation, I'm not expecting you to reach out to Amy Porterfield. Well, maybe you do know some connections and you can, right? So but bigger name for me in course creation would be Shannon, right? So she's well known. She has a great podcast. So I would love to have her in my s- you know, summit because that brings the right people for me who want to learn about the courses, right? So or any other person who you would think your audience will resonate and know, bring them on. It could be your mentor. could be your coach, and maybe your audience already knows. Like with my case, my audience know my mentor who I've been working for over three years, right, Evelyn Weiss. So anytime I say Evelyn Weiss is going to be in my summit or in my community, it's a big deal, right? So same with Shannon, right? For courses for different reasons. So start there. Start with people that you like, you know, kind of like a highlight, spotlight, who you can spotlight. So you start with three to four people. When they say yes, then that's how I build my first one. Second was easy. I actually didn't promote it much because word of mouth, right? So, then when people said yes, the message to my other speakers were very different. I would connect with them and say, "Hey, Evelyn said yes, she's going to be here. I have Carson Cooper and Evelyn Weiss already in. Uh, would you like to participate? And this is what we do. And if yes, I'll send you application." Right?

Shannon 40:06

Yeah

Katya McEwen 40:07

that's how I build the first one. So spend that time, and then the rest of the applications will come in, right? So because as you're talking about it, you'll have more

Shannon 40:16

Yeah. Awesome. That's such amazing advice for someone who's just starting out, and I think great experience that you've learned. Um, I'm shocked to t- to hear that you've only done two, because I participated in both, and I had no idea that the first one was your first one, because obviously your, uh, expertise with, uh, organizing and hosting events shone, shone through. I had no idea that it was your, was your first. So amazing. Um, thank you so much for all of this wonderful and incredible, um, information. I hope that everyone is inspired by Katya, uh, and not put off by my own lack of event planning. I'll just put it out there, I, I eloped. I didn't even h- have a wedding because I'm so adverse to planning events. So don't follow in my shoes. Be inspired by Katya and everything that she's been able to accomplish. And if people would like to come into your world, Katya, and learn more from you, um, where should they go, what should they do, and, and how can they, um, connect with you?

Katya McEwen 41:18

The best way to connect with me and to actually get to know me is come to my free community and school. Um, it's Oracle Connections. is where you can get to know me, other people, connect with incredible people as well, be among of other soulful, heart-centered entrepreneurs and creatives, where we show up as you are. I always say that you might-- Who is it, who is this place for? It's for somebody who you might feel that kind of like an odd duck, and I believe a lot of our online entrepreneur- as online entrepreneurs we do, especially if we talk to people from, what I call it, real life, right? So... And they ask you what you do, and they, they don't understand it, right? So you want to be in a community where people actually understand who you are. I also want to be, uh, mentioning Oracle Connections. There is a connection to Oracle cards. I teach people how to design, print, sell Oracle cards as well. And a lot of us, what's really, uh, connects all of us is love for Oracle cards, but not only, right? So that is, uh, my community, absolutely free. Come and hang out. We have a lot of different things there. We have a lot of free resources, I will-- I can do matchmaking there. Again, not for relationships, for collaboration and networking. Thank you for pointing that out.

Shannon 42:46

Yeah. Awesome. Uh, Katya's just a wealth of knowledge. She is so generous with her knowledge and her connection abilities. I can attest to that, and she's one of the most supportive people I know. So I would encourage you, uh, if you feel aligned with Katya, to, uh, experience and, uh, connect with her in her community. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. I know you're just off your summit, and, uh, you're here instead of resting, and, and I so appreciate that. And we'll put all the links in the show notes so that people can find the information they're looking for. Um, and yeah, it's just been wonderful to have you here, Katya.

Katya McEwen 43:23

Thank you so much for having me