Creating Events that Grow Your Business

One of the most effective ways to promote your business is to offer events: workshops, classes, and networking opportunities to name a few.

But not all events are created equal. 

To learn more about what goes into creating memorable, transformative events, I spoke with Heather Black, a speaking strategist and event expert.

Heather has spent years learning what it takes to create successful, profitable events. In our conversation, she shares her success strategies many of which you can put into practice for your own events.

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My mission is to change the way small business owners market themselves and it’s very important to me that I reach as many people as possible.

Transcript

Marketing Root Work Podcast with Heather Black

00:00:00] Judy Murdoch: Hi, I am Judy Murdoch and welcome to the Marketing Rootwork Pod Pat podcast. 

Today I am so happy to be speaking with Heather Black. Heather is a speaking strategist and event expert, Heather. Introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself.  

[00:00:18] Heather Black: Sure. So happy to be here. Thank you for having me today, Judy. My name is Heather Black. I live in Las Vegas, Nevada now, but I am originally from South Carolina. 

I call myself a Spicy Carolina girl living in a Las Vegas world. And, um, I have owned my own business for almost three years and I help my clients implement a repeatable system so that they can scale their business with speaking and events. I'm very passionate about the power of one to many and the transformation that can happen and the ripple effect that can happen when you have those transformative events and speaking engagements. 

And, I've been in this space for almost 26 years. It'll be 26 years in January and i've stayed here because it is such a powerful tool, um, to really educate, network, grow, scale, all of those things. It's just such a tremendous place and I've seen it transform so many lives. I've just never left. 

I've just stayed. I've loved it.  

[00:01:14] Judy Murdoch: I love that you call yourself a Spicy Carolina girl.  

Yeah. What's, what's up with the spiciness? Where does that come from?  

[00:01:22] Heather Black: So I'm very sassy and I also speak fluent sailor, so sometimes you gotta watch. I have to be careful about my language, but I'm very spicy. 

I just call it like I see it, not everybody likes that. And I have very, small filter, right? So usually what comes into my head comes out of my mouth without going through any sort of filter. And so it's just one of those things like, I will just, I'll just drop some truth bombs on you. And so people are like, woo, okay. 

My fiance's constantly like, wow. Did not expect that.  

[00:01:53] Judy Murdoch: I like that. I like that man. And I like that you are right to the point. I actually, I really appreciate that quality in people. So you've been in the event space, you said for like over 20 years. So how did you get in it and, and yeah.  

[00:02:08] Heather Black: Uh, I always say it was kind of dumb luck, but looking back, I suppose it was just all part of God's plan for my life. 

I graduated from, university of South Carolina, with a degree in public relations and my big plan for my life was to become like a, senior VP of PR with some major Fortune 500 company. And, that was not God's plan apparently. And I ended up in a little small nonprofit up in Clemson. I know. 

Terrible. 'cause if you're a Gamecock fan, you don't go to Clemson. And, but I was dating someone that was in Clemson and so that's where I ended up. And, such a fun company. And I shared an office with a meeting planner and I was like a meeting planner. What is that? I had never heard of this job. I did not know this existed. 

And she ultimately left the company. And because I had shared an office, they thought that I just knew how to do her job, assmosis, I suppose. And so they asked me to like kind of fill in while they hired somebody. And I was like, sure, yeah, I can do that, you know. Just outta college. You've only been working somewhere two years. 

You just wanna make the boss happy, right? And so I started filling in and learning some things and I was like, wow, this is kind of interesting. And then ultimately I married the gentleman that I had been dating and, we moved back to, we were both originally from the same area, from the Columbia area, so we moved back to be closer to our families. 

And so I was looking for a job and I was like. Wanted to stay in the PR world, but I had a little interest in this meeting stuff. And so I found a job that was some marketing and some meeting planning. It was kind of a little bit of all of that. And so I was like, maybe I have just enough to get my foot in the door. 

And I did and I ended up being a lot more meeting planning and event planning than I thought originally, but it ended up being, that was my favorite part of the job. And so I worked in the medical field with them for, I stayed there for almost 13 years until I moved, um, to Las Vegas and, uh, managed events for about eight up to 11 grapes at a time. 

I was managing events. I just absolutely loved it. I loved the events that I planned, I loved the details and the organization. It was like really, that was like, this is my gift, this is my thing. And so I've just stayed in it for that long and that's how I ended up being a speaking strategist and event expert. 

[00:04:14] Judy Murdoch: And Vegas like that feels to me like that is like event central in the universe, you know?  

[00:04:22] Heather Black: Yeah, it probably is. It's definitely, um, I mean, we have some of the biggest ones in the world here. Um, there's always something going on here. There's always conferences and conventions and all of those things, and so it's a great place to be if you're in the, um, event space, for sure. 

[00:04:36] Judy Murdoch: Yeah. Yeah, I imagine so. So. What? What kinds of issues do people come to you? Uh, they're planning of, they're, they're thinking about doing an event. Maybe they have done an event, hasn't gone so well. What kind of issues do pre people bring to you and how do you help them?  

[00:04:56] Heather Black: So, a lot of times when they come to me, what's happening is they've had one or two events. 

They didn't make any money. Um, they didn't have enough butts in the seats. Um, there was just something off and they can't figure out what, why. Right. And a lot of that is just because there's a lot of information out there about, you know, have events make 10 k, you know, and that's just not a realistic. 

Right out of the door goal. Right. And so a lot of times what happens is we have to go back and implement a strategy. They don't have the proper timeline in place. They're trying to do, you know, I've talked to clients that come to me, it's July and they wanna do a retreat in November. And I was like, that is not going to be successful. 

We don't have the runway that we need to do that. Mm-hmm. And a lot of it really just comes down to that, just don't have the knowledge and understanding of what it really takes. Because when you go to an event, you just see the pretty. Yeah, right. You just see the success. You just see, you don't really understand all that it takes and how could you, right? 

Because you're not doing that behind the scenes work and what it really takes to put those butts in those seats, to get those tables on that floor, to get those meals at the right time. There is a ton of work that goes into that for months. You know, most of my events, we would leave, we would go home, we take a day off, and you start planning the next one, the very next, right? 

Like it is a continuous cycle. Most people just don't understand because they don't have the experience to build the proper runway. To have the proper budget to understand what I need to really be charging. A lot of times they're undercharging because they haven't budgeted properly, and so I help them. 

Really, my process, we start with your strategy and understanding why you're having the event. Who this is for, what do they really need? What is the purpose? Why are they going to come to this event? Right? What's the transformation that they're going to leave with? If you don't have that, you're not gonna be able to market it and sell it and put beds in seats because you have to be able to tell them, you come, you get this, this, this, and this, and when you go home you can do this, this, this, and this, and that doesn't matter. 

In person. Virtual, same thing. And then I help them set proper timelines so that we're not trying to do an event that they don't have time to plan. In six months, we run that runway out. Okay, give yourself a year. It doesn't matter if it takes you a year to do it, if you do it properly.  

It matters if you do it in six months and you didn't do it properly. 

And then we make sure that they've budgeted for profit, right? And make sure that they actually are, and they, they understand where profit is going to come from. 'cause for a lot of people, particularly small business owners, your profit doesn't necessarily come from registration fees. You might even be hosting a free event, which you need to understand where's the revenue going to come from. 

[00:07:34] Judy Murdoch: Heather, what I'm hearing from you. Like when people do events, I think they, they can get pretty caught up in the tactics. Yes. And the logistics. And what I, I hear from you, I hear a lot of strategic thinking. That's what I hear from you in terms of you look at things a lot more systematically.  

[00:07:55] Heather Black: 100% Yes. 
 

Because you can drown in details. Absolutely. If you don't have the proper systems in place, you will drown in the details and events if you don't have the proper systems in place.  

[00:08:05] Judy Murdoch: Yeah. It makes me think too, a little bit like the image that comes to mind for me is an iceberg where, you know, the people who attend the event, they're kind of on the tip of the iceberg, but there's this like humongous. 

This giant mass of ice beneath the surface that is supporting what they see  

[00:08:27] Heather Black: 100%. I love that imagery. I've never even thought about it that way, but that is absolutely one what a, an event is. And you see that top part, right? And you're like, Ooh, this is so pretty and it's so cool and it's so gorgeous. 

But underneath is all of this work that went to build that tip. And if you don't have that underneath. You don't have anything to hold the tip up. You gotta have the underneath. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I'm gonna steal that, just so you know.  

[00:08:52] Judy Murdoch: Oh, hey. Take it. It's yours. Uh, another metaphor that comes to mind for me is scaffolding. 

You know, kind of having all of that infrastructure beneath that, that again, is kind of supporting what people are actually seeing.  

Yes.  

You can run with that one too, if you wanna.  

[00:09:09] Heather Black: It really is about the proper, the proper foundations and understanding, um. There's absolutely nothing wrong. And I encourage my clients to have long-term goals, to think about where do you want to be in three years and five years with your events for your business so that we can build the foundation to get you there. 

Right. 'Cause most people, a lot of business owners have that retreat or that conference that they want to host. Right. I have a client I'm working with right now, she wants to have a 500 person gratitude conference, and when she first came to me, yeah. When she first came to me, she wanted to do it next year. 

I was like, Hmm. We started working together early this year and I was like, do you have the audience for that? Tell me about what you've been doing. Right. Yeah. As she started telling me and I was like, okay, I don't think that 2026 is going to work. I don't think you're going to be successful. And so now it's probably gonna be fall of 2027, but we are doing some very specific things. 

This, we did some very specific things this year and next year to help build her audience and to get her there. But we will start planning that conference probably, um, if she stays on track with where she needs to be, probably early, like March, April of 2026. We'll start putting in the foundation for that because it's going to take. 

18 months or so based on the time that she has to get this event done. Because that's a huge, there's sponsors, there's exhibitors, there's speakers, there's all of these pieces that go into that. Yeah. And so she needs at least a year, but I told her we should probably start 18 months out to start build that foundation, start building that timeline so we can start putting the things in. 

'cause she's also running a very successful business.  

[00:10:45] Judy Murdoch: Interesting. Interesting. So one of the pieces that really. Is of interest to me is what you had talked about with, speaking to the purpose. You know, why are you even doing this and the transformation. That, that sounds cool. Can you maybe give me an example? 

Because maybe two, because um, you know, like I don't hear a lot of that typically from people who do events, but it sounds really potent to me.  

[00:11:24] Heather Black: Yeah. And a lot of times, and it really is potent and it's one of the first things I work on, uh, with my clients is their why. Yeah. Why are we doing this? And the reason why is, and, and it can come from any number of things, but it has to be deeper than, well, I wanna make 10 k. 

Right. Like, I mean, that might be one of the goals that we're setting, and that's totally fine because you're not doing this for charity, right? I mean, let's be real. We're running businesses. We wanna be successful, but we also have a much deeper why of why we're doing this. And it's not just about making money. 

We're here to make some sort of impact, some sort of change for our clients, some sort of transformation that they're going to have from working with us. Whether that's, they're more confident, they're comfortable on camera, they're more organized. They have systems in place. So when you start talking about why you're having an event, and for example, my client with a gratitude conference, she fully believes in the power of gratitude, right? 

It makes such a difference in your life. If you sit down every day and you write down three things, you're grateful for every day. I've been trying to implement it every day, and it really makes a difference in your attitude and in what the universe will send to you, right? 'cause now you're open to that. 

And so she really wants to bring people together and teach them about that gratitude. She wants to make that powerful change for them. So when you start thinking about your why, you have to understand what is the difference going to be when they leave for you. For them, for your business, for your community, and for them and their family, and their business and their community. 

What is going to happen? Because the beautiful thing about events is when people leave, right? You and I have talked about this, is that ripple effect that happens and they go home with that transformation. Right. They become a better employee or a better business owner, a better spouse, a better parent, a better partner, a better person in their community, and that ripple effect goes out and continues to go out way beyond anything you can see The impact continues long past the event being done. 

And packed up and everybody's gone home. Right. When you have the a truly powerful why you can translate that into a truly powerful experience that people will remember for years to come.  

[00:13:38] Judy Murdoch: Yeah. You know, like you're making me think about a couple things. So the first thing is having, I came out of corporate America and probably I think spent maybe the first 15 years of my career. 

In corporate America and I went to a lot of corporate events. And, um. You know, I would usually learn something useful, you know, something. Um, I mean, clearly the company was paying for these events because they had the expectation that their employees would come out with, with, with skills or a new framework or whatever that had to be. 

But thinking back on it, other than maybe learning something kind of helpful. And, um, getting to know, you know, it's always nice to get to know the people you work with. That's, that is always helpful. Um, being in a different location and that type of thing. But I wouldn't call any of them transformational. 

But when I started to study, when I began getting my education for coaching, um, I went to some events that were done by Coach Bill, that that's where I got my coach training. And, um, those events really did affect me deeply. And I don't know if it's, you know, that's something specific to coaching or it was more about the people who were leading Coach Bill at the time. 

I thought Thomas J. Leonard, who was the founder, um, was a fascinating human being and somebody who, um. You know, people's energy can make a really, really big difference in events. And those are things where I still, you know, 20 years later, I'm still feeling sort of the, the effects of, uh, being in those events. 

Yeah. That's powerful. And those are the kind of events that I love. And corporations, they get caught up in a lot of other things. 'cause I've, I come from the corporate world, worked in nonprofit for 20 plus years. And there are a lot of other things that are going on behind the scenes with, with those types of events. 

And they're not necessarily just about, they are money makers. I've worked where it was the revenue generator for the year, right. You know, multimillion dollar budgets, those kind of things. And it's just a different level. But at the end of the day, and a lot of times corporations really forget that basic why. 

Why are we really doing this?  

They do, I think. It's, I, I used to go to a lot of product launch events that were held largely for the Salesforce and, uh, yeah, you know, they were, um, uh, again, like kind of from a logistic, uh, perspective, they all, they weren't just fine. Um. Having thi thought about it a little bit and you know, it's supposed to get the sales force kind of like rubbed up, right? 

Insight about these new products or brand extensions or wherever, because they were going to have to go out to Walmart and target these, you know, these, these large, um, large retailers and, um, you know, kind of make a case for like why, like why do you wanna, why, why do you wanna buy these displays of. Our new antiperspirant or whatever it happened to be. 

Right. And, uh, yeah, I, I, I can't think too many con, I mean, in general, the sales guys were, were, um, uh. They, they were enthusiastic because by nature that's just kind of how they, a lot of them are. Um, so, you know, they could probably sell regardless. But, um, I didn't, never got the sense people came out of there feeling a little bit like, wow, this, this new styling line. 

It's coming now. It's gonna be a game changer, man. It's gonna be,  

yeah. And it's hard when you're doing like product launches and you're doing those things and it's really just about educating about the new anti Yes. Hard to make anti purse sprint sexy. Yeah. I mean about it, right? How to make that transformative. 

People gonna buy your anti purse sprint or they're not.  

Yeah. You know?  

But there are things that when you get people like that in a room. It can be more about than just the product. It can be about agreed, become better salespeople and helping them understand the connection between the salesperson and their audience. 

Because when you understand why this person should buy this new anti sprint, right? They're all the others. Yeah. You're talking to human beings and it's all about connection. That's the beautiful thing about it. It's all about the connection and whether you make that deep personal connection with the sales team or you don't, it's going to determine whether they feel transformed when they leave. 

And they remember that sales product launch conference forever. Like I went there and yeah, we were just talking about this new product, this new amount of per sprint, but they gave me such great tips that that changed how I do my. My sales process. Right. Yeah. You  

know, like another thought that came to me too was that if, if you can, um, if you can pull it back to, we're launching this product. 

It's a, it's a brand new technology and it is a huge opportunity for our company. To move into a different, like a, a different line or, or to expand, um, our presence in a particular product category. Yeah. So it gives them a little bit more sense of not just for them, but also to help them understand like, you know, this is how we get our, our share prices up. 

You know, we're gonna, we'll be a more valuable company. Um, it sets us up for more opportunities in the future.  

Yep. Understanding your audience's motivations, what's gonna motivate them so that you can transform them in that space.  

Yeah. 'cause most of these guys, they were very smart people and, um, they, they were very, very business savvy and, um, they, they, I think a lot of them could understand, you know, looking at it more from a corporate, the corporate development, um, level as well as more of the, you know, what is your fall gonna look like? 

Yeah. Yeah.  

So I have a question. Um, did what, how did COVID affect your business in the industry? Because it sounds like you bounced back, but that must have been kind of a difficult time.  

[00:20:05] Heather Black: It was a difficult time and I was very, I was very blessed at the time. I was still working in corporate, kept my job. 

Um, they. Found some other things for us to do. Obviously we moved into virtual events, way more virtual events. And at the time, it was interesting, I worked for a company that did a ton of hands-on training for physicians and veterinarians. You cannot do hands-on training virtually. You cannot. Um, so I was very blessed, but it really changed how people think about events, how people do events. 

It opened up a whole new world because before that, the virtual hybrid world, that was just not really, we, we weren't doing that right. There were some virtual meetings, obviously, but it was all brand new to event planners. You know, at least for me, for me, I shouldn't say all, um, but for me it was a brand new world, but it changed how accessible information became. 

Now you don't have to, and it, it made it more, virtual events are much more affordable. Right. People that don't have those big budgets to get into those big hotels down on the Las Vegas strip or even the off strip ones, right. Or even your. Hotel in your own town, right? They're still gonna be, you're gonna have a meeting room for you. 

You're gonna have a food and beverage minimum. There are just these things that you have to pay that, and the AV costs are just different than hopping on a free, you know, you have your Zoom account, you hop on your Zoom. So it really opened up the door for so many more people to be able to have a access to the event because those that couldn't travel or didn't travel, or couldn't get away from their family, their jobs, whatever. 

And B, for people who before could not do the events. Now suddenly, yes you can and you can make it transformational. It doesn't have, just 'cause it's a zoom room doesn't mean that it can't be engaging and it informational and an experience. You can create all of those things even in the virtual space. So for me, I love, I love the fact that, um. 

That we learned that during COVID, COVID was definitely a very difficult time. It was very trying, particularly for those in the event space because suddenly we had no jobs. In most cases, most people. I was very, very blessed. Um, 'cause most people just got lay lost their job. There was nothing to do.  

[00:22:14] Judy Murdoch: Yeah. 
 

[00:22:14] Heather Black: And um, it was very trying. So you either learned to pivot and do something a little different. Um, but now looking back, it's just opened up such an opportunity, particularly for small business owners.  

[00:22:27] Judy Murdoch: That's great. So what, what came up for me, a question that came up for me was, because of virtual event, you're not gonna get that, that in-person energy. 

Right? Right. So what are some ideas or advice you have for people who are going to do or, or thinking about doing a virtual event to really make it special and transformative? Because. It's harder. It's just harder to get there.  

[00:23:01] Heather Black: It is much harder. It's much harder, you know, it's much easier for people to turn their cameras off. 

It's much easier for them to be distracted by all the other things going on. Um, and so it's really about getting them engaged from the very truly, before they even show up in the Zoom room, right? You want to have, and you wanna plan this out as part of what you're doing in your strategy, is how am I gonna keep them engaged? 

It's not like wait till the day before and be like, okay, what am I gonna do to get 'em engaged? Oh, I'm ask. I'm gonna drop this in the chat and that matters. But there's a lot of that. I just attended, uh, a virtual event earlier this week, and every three minutes she was like, drop such and such in the chat. 

I'm like, this is getting really, I don't want to just drop every other word you're saying in the chat. Right. You. That's not meaningful to me. Yeah. She's doing it to make sure that we're still there and paying attention. But I ended up zoning out and I ended up leaving early because I'm like, no, this is. 

This is not it. So you really want to make sure that you're engaging them in the right way. Get people to raise their hands. Play music during the breaks. You know, as they come in the room. Think, understand who your audience is 'cause I can throw out a lot of ideas, but if you're, if that doesn't fit for your audience, that's not gonna work for you. 

But really understand who your audience is and what gets them jazzed up and gets them excited. Get and get them engaged. Yeah, ask questions. Get them involved in the conversations. Do breakout rooms. If you have a big group, you know, more than 10, 15 people, pop them into breakout rooms and help them get to know each other and make that personal connection because really why we come to events, isn't it? 

Right? It's not just about coming and learning. We really wanna meet people and make that personal connection 'cause that's the power of events.  

[00:24:36] Judy Murdoch: Agreed.  
 

[00:24:37] Heather Black: Ton of ways that you can do it. Um, you know, I like to tell my clients, you know, make sure that you're offering something. If everybody stays till the end, do something special at the end. 

Have a drawing, have a giveaway. Encourage them to stay. It doesn't have to be anything expensive. Um, you know, I have an event coming up on the 13th and I'm probably gonna raffle off a free. You know, 30 minute call with me, right? Everybody says, yeah, we're gonna do a drawing for 30 minutes with me. Why not, right? 

Yeah. No, no, no. It's great. That's great. Yeah. Wow. So  

[00:25:08] Judy Murdoch: I, I have a client, she's an organizer, and so at the end of her events, a lot of times she'll do a drawing for a giveaway for one of her favorite under $50 office organizer. Products that she has. Yeah. Yeah. So think about your audience. What works for them. 

Um, if they get motivated, I'm motivated by coffee, so a $25 Starbucks gift card. I will stay to the very, very end. Don't worry about it. I'm there. Right. So just think about your audience and what's gonna get them excited. And again, just keep them engaged throughout. Make sure you're not just talking into the box. 

Yeah. Wow. This is, you're, you, you're really getting me thinking a lot. Um. Like. I, you made me remember, I took, um, I, I took a certification course last year, about a year ago now to become a certified zentangle uh, trainer. I don't, do you know about? Yeah. Okay, cool. Very cool. So, for, for anybody who's not familiar with Zentangle, zentangle is a, a drawing method. 

Usually what you are creating looks very much like doodles, but it, it's a lot more, um, intentional. Than that. And one of the nice things about tangle is that it gets you out of your thinking mind, and it really gets you more into that sort of spatial, creative part of your brain. And, um, yeah, and I love it. 

Um, I love it. I don't train, but I do really enjoy the, the practice personally. And what you made me think about how there was just, um, I really, it was a three day, um, event and. Man, I was, I was there like every, every minute of it. And by far my favorite parts were when they were leading us through different ways to create a untangled drawing. 

So we would actually see people drawing and see them shading and things like that. Oh man, it was so much fun. And it was, there was a live portion of the event as well, but I loved that they opened it up. And they had like a virtual, you know, like there was a virtual option and there were people there from all over the world. 

Yeah, it was cool. That's amazing. 

[00:27:20] Heather Black: Yeah. It's super cool. Yeah. And you know, particularly if you're, um, doing something where you're educating people to make some sort of change, allow for implementation time, do it right there. Yeah. You know, like, yeah. For my client organizer, she does that. She'll be like, okay, you're gonna take 15 minutes and you're going to clean off your desk, get rid of everything. 

That's not necessary. You have 15 minutes. And so then they walk away and they go, wow, I didn't just learn. I did. And this is something I can continue to do. And so those are the things that are memorable when you allow for that time for them to actually implement what you're teaching them to do.  

[00:27:58] Judy Murdoch: That's great. 

Okay. Like my, my brain is so full of questions and ideas now. Um, so anything else you would like people to know that you and I have not yet covered?  

[00:28:12] Heather Black: You know, I just, I encourage people, whether you're an, you're an author, you're a small business owner, you're, you're a speaker, whoever you are, think about the power of events and start, if you have any sort of, oh, I really wanna do this. 

I really wanna create something for my audience. Start. Mm-hmm. Just start being honest, because a lot of times we say one day, right? One day I am gonna do this. Well. News for you. One day is here. This is it. Go do the thing. Right? Get started today because otherwise it just stays. And here's the, the thing is, when you have that, when you have that little uh, uh, nudge, do I speak English? 

Sometimes I do. It's Friday, y'all.  

[00:28:54] Judy Murdoch: Right,  
 

[00:28:55] Heather Black: right. When you have that little nudge inside of you, it's because you have a message that people need. You have an impact that people want in their lives, and if you say, keep saying one day, they don't get that impact, and they don't get that change. And so you become the bottleneck to some the change something needs. 

So don't be the bottleneck. Just start. And if you need help, hey, I'm happy to hop on a 30 minute call and talk through some of the things with you and get you started in the right direction so you can be successful.  

[00:29:24] Judy Murdoch: Yeah. One thing I wanna add too, to what you said, because this was one of the reasons I really wanted to speak with you is because. 

There's a lot of anxiety among many people, um, business, corporate, whatever, that we will somehow be replaced by virtual, you know, um, artificial intelligence, right? Yeah. Um, however, however, there is one thing that artificial intelligence cannot do, um, at least not well to, at least to my understanding, and that is to, we can't replicate. 

That experience of being with real human beings who are unpredictable and creative and, um, you know, who, where we create chemistry with one another. Um, however much AI might seem like a real human being. AI is not a real human being. AI is a, an average. It's somebody once called AI a box of words that is being brilliantly. 

Parsed to answer questions, but AI is not a human being. And so I, that's the thing I like about events is you can never, ever replace human beings in an event.  

[00:30:37] Heather Black: No, you cannot, you cannot replace the connection that happens. Yeah. And ai, you know, I, I know a lot of people name their AI and they have this whole relationship with it. 

And, you know, I love, I love my chat too, and. But the emotion piece that connected there. The information that comes out is only as good as what you put in. Correct. And it's never going to transform your life. And you're never going to find somebody that you so deeply connect with that you're like, oh my God, I have to know you more about you. 

Um, and that's what happens at events.  

[00:31:12] Judy Murdoch: Yeah. And to be clear too, AI is very much a representation of averages. It is. Yes, they are. It is the average of all the communication that is happening on the web. Yep. Generally speaking, the average is now transformational.  

[00:31:29] Heather Black: Absolutely. Uh, it's really, I mean, it's a giant. 

Research engine, if you will. I mean, honestly, that's really all it is, and it's not ever going to provide that deep soul connection that as humans we are designed to, to need not just want but need, we need that. And that is why AI will never place events. Even though there's a lot of companies I keep, I, I read about companies are, are, you know, eliminating their entire event team and trying to use AI to plan events, which I just laugh. 

Oh my lord. Oh my, I just laugh because, oh my gosh. Uh, they don't do critical thinking. AI doesn't do critical thinking, right? And so AI's gonna help you, you know, when the, the bus doesn't show up or the whatever doesn't happen that's supposed to happen. So to me, that's just, ha that's funny. But what happens if when you start relying on AI to plan your events and to do the things is it lose that personal connection and they're not going to be engaged and it's not going to be an experience because what you bring to the table. 

Is what people are coming for.  

Correct? That's right. So a a just a little while ago you had talked about, you know, people can give me a call, they can get in touch with me, free conversation, we can, you know, do some troubleshooting. So what are the best ways for people to get in touch with you, Heather? 

Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. Um, Heather D. Black. Um, I spend a good bit of time on LinkedIn. I am on Facebook, on Instagram, but I'm spending way less time over there. So a lot of. Not good stuff happening over there, so I am there, but not as all of my current tips, tricks, posts, upcoming events. All of that's on LinkedIn. 

Also have a website, phoenix collaborations.com, so you can come and pop over there and there's a little link to book a call. Um, so those are the best places. LinkedIn, I'm a website are the build best places to find me.  

[00:33:16] Judy Murdoch: Yeah. And I will say your website's a really good, um, it's, it's a good resource. You've got some good stuff on it. 

[00:33:22] Heather Black: Oh, thank you. Yeah. It's in the process of, um, I've just updated all of my packages and I've updated some other things and I have a new, um, lead magnet, magnet and new mini course that's launching next week. And so all of that's not there yet. Yeah. So, but in the process of being updated to the most current stuff, but it's still got some great tips, still got some great information on the blog. 

Um, it's still a great way to get in touch with me. So hop over there and, uh, it'll be updated here in the next couple of weeks anyway, so maybe by the time this goes live.  

[00:33:54] Judy Murdoch: Heather, thank you so much and thank you for bringing your Sassy Carolina girl to our call today.  

[00:34:02] Heather Black: Thank you for having me, Jeanie. It was a pleasure.