How Liz Stapleton Turned One Summit Into Six Years of Collaborations

In this episode of Hey, Let's Collab, I'm joined by Liz Stapleton, lawyer turned online business systems strategist and founder of Creator Ops Hub. Liz has grown her business primarily through strategic collaborations, not ads or social media, and shares how hosting her Blogger Breakthrough Summit became one of her most successful collaboration strategies. Together, we unpack what makes a summit stand out, how to pitch speakers with confidence, and the systems that make large collaborations repeatable and sustainable.

Tune in to hear more on:

• Why collaborations have been Liz's biggest source of business growth and why they create more sustainable momentum than relying on social media
• How she transformed a failed summit into a six-year collaboration strategy that generated up to $40,000 from a single event
• What makes a summit pitch stand out, including the simple framework she uses to personalise every speaker invitation
• Why successful collaborations begin long before you send the first email and how to plan months in advance for stronger partnerships
• The biggest mistakes summit hosts make and how to create an experience that delivers real value for both your attendees and your speakers
• How building trust through consistent collaborations creates long-term partnerships, repeat opportunities, and a network of creators who are ready to collaborate again

Collaborations become easier every time you do them. Whether you're planning your first summit, pitching your first guest expert, or building relationships that grow your audience over time, this episode is packed with practical strategies to help you create partnerships that last. Tune in now, then grab Liz's collaboration script and the full collection of Collab Scripts at heyletscollab.com to start creating your own profitable collaborations.

Guest Links:

Website: https://elizabethstapleton.com/
creatoropshub.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creatoropshub/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/creatoropshub

15 Minute Content Workflow: https://creatoropshub.com/15-minute-content-workflow-map-opt-in-page/

Links:
Website: https://heyletscollab.com
Instagram: Hey, Let's Collab (@heyletscollab) • Instagram profile
FREE Collab Scripts: Collab Scripts - Hey, Let's Collab
Collab Starter Kit: https://heyletscollab.com/kit
Blog: Blog - Hey, Let's Collab
YouTube: Hey, Let's Collab
Pinterest: Hey Let's Collab

Transcript

Nadalie 0:00

Hey, it's Nadalie and welcome to the Hey Let's Collab Podcast. This is a podcast about how successful creators grow through collaboration. Every episode we unpack one specific partnership from the first pitch to the final result. This gives you the full blueprint on how to collaborate with confidence and grow your business through aligned connections. Ready to get started? You'll love this week's collaboration. So, hey everyone, I'm Natalie Bardo and welcome to the Hey Let's Collab Podcasts. This is a podcast about real collaborations for online creators. Every episode, we unpack one specific partnership from pitch to the results so you can learn how to collaborate with confidence and grow your business through aligned connections. I am so excited to be here with the wonderful Liz Stapleton. Hey Liz. Hi. So excited. Allow me to I'm so excited you're here. We are, I would say, seasoned collaborators. Uh, we've worked together many, many times, which, you know, some of which we'll talk about on today's episode. But first, allow me to introduce you formally to Liz Stapleton, who is a lawyer-turned online business systems strategist and the founder of Creator Ops Hub. Since 2014, she's helped creators streamline their content, email marketing, and digital products using simple, scalable systems. Known for her clarity first approach, Liz builds practical tools that help overwhelm creators, save time, reduce stress, and grow sustainably without hustle culture. Love it, girl. I can say that that is so on point. So thanks for being here.

Liz Stapleton 1:56

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm super excited. I always have a good time collaborating with you.

Nadalie 2:00

So thank you. I love that. So speaking of collaborating, I would love for you to share with us what does collaboration mean to you? And like what has it meant for your business or businesses?

Liz Stapleton 2:15

So I think it's, I mean, it's two part, right? So colla I've actually primarily grown my business through collaborations. I haven't really done much with ads. Um, I've been good with Pinterest in the past. As you know, I've I've fallen off that bandwagon, but you know, I'm learning from you. I do better. Um, but like I've never been like big on like Instagram or social media, really. I mean, like Pinterest is SEO, so I don't really consider it social. Um, you know, so I've primarily grown through collaborations, but I also love collaborating because like our world's so weird, you know, like you're so lucky if you have someone that like in person you can really chat about these things with. And so having those connections and get and getting to know other business owners who like get what you're doing or what you're going through, or if something's a struggle, or just you know, are willing to spitball these ideas that you're not gonna find other places in terms of like, I mean, where else are you seeing like bundles out in the real world besides, you know, like it's an online business thing. Um, and you can just be like, hey, you know, because you and I have collaborated a ton, I could reach out and be like, hey, I'm thinking of trying this as a collaboration. Do you want in? Would you be willing to contribute a little snippet, you know? Um, and you can kind of like just brainstorm and try new things. And when you have collaborators, like you're gonna actually be able to tell if it's gonna get results. Because sometimes if it's just you promoting something, you're not gonna obviously see as big of a reach or impact, um, even if you have a large audience. And so it gives you a better idea of data, um, but just really that personal connection of being able to reach out and be like, hey, you know, how you doing? What's going on? Um, I I think so that is just you know, you can't you can't find that really as an online business owner in your space. Like if you're lucky, you can. But for me, like I live in a tiny town, you know. So um they're the first co-working space just opened up here, and I have yet to meet like someone who does my business, the kind of business there. So yeah.

Nadalie 4:12

I love that. I hundred percent agree that it's totally been also my own experience. I know that through collaborations, I can say that I feel like I've almost like forged real friendships, right? And you know, over the course of the years that I've known you, because it's been years, right? Where, you know, you have a shared language with people who are not only also online creators, but who you've worked with, and I appreciate that. Like off camera, we were, you know, complaining or crying about our own our tech woes. And I feel like sometimes Mercury is retrograding what it shouldn't be, and things just don't wanna work.

Liz Stapleton 4:59

Yes.

Nadalie 5:00

So I love that. So my next question for you is why do you do collaborations? And I know you have, you know, sprinkled in a little bit. It's great for audience growth, it's great for amplification. Uh, like recently I ran a live boot camp, and I would say that my community of affiliates and partners, they doubled my audience size, right? So, is there any additional reasons why you do collaborations and why you would encourage listeners to seriously like start?

Liz Stapleton 5:34

Um, I think part of it for me is like an energy thing too. I'm a little introverted and I love more like doing back-end stuff. And so trying to show up on social like consistently is like I've not managed it, you know, um, in a way that's effective. Whereas with a collaboration, like it's very kind of straightforward where you know what you're doing, you know both are gonna promote and you're gonna see some results, right? Like there's a little more stability to it in terms of outcome. Like you may not always get the conversion rate you want, you may not always see the sales you want, but you know something's gonna happen, right? It's not gonna be like you're posting and it's crickets. So um, I think more of the like stability of it uh helps in terms of business and mindset and energy. And so that's like kind of another reason I I think I always tend to gravitate towards them.

Nadalie 6:24

I love that. Also, like the sustainability of it. I feel like once you do a collaboration, you can easily like copy and paste that to another's collaboration. Yeah, you build a system that's repeatable. And you know, Liz has promoted my masterclass, for example, my Pinterest masterclass uh for my other business, your pin coach, and you it is a system, right? Whether it's the copy, the graphics, the landing page, the class itself, the case.

Liz Stapleton 6:56

I mean, it takes me 30 minutes to set up a JV workshop with someone and have everything to them. Like I've literally automated the I don't know what like would you allow on this podcast, but I've automated it to like the umth degree of like I pick a date and it will go create WordPress pages, it'll go create the tags and kit, it'll go draft the emails. Like it takes me like 30 minutes to set up a JV workshop, and that's uh obviously on my other site. We're not talking about that one today, but um, yeah, it's it becomes a system that you can really just crank out. I love that. Slash I need that system.

Nadalie 7:31

We will talk about that off camera. Okay, I love that. So I want to know what is the specific collaboration we're unpacking today. Uh lay the scene for us, like how did it come about? Like, give us all the backstory.

Liz Stapleton 7:49

So I think we're gonna talk about my blogger breakthrough summit, which uh blogger breakthrough is what I ran I rebranded to Creator Ops Hub in 2025. Um Blogger Breakthrough, the Blogger Breakthrough Summit ran for six years from 2020 to 2025. Um, and it started, so I ran my first ever summit in 2018 and it was a fail. If like I I broke even maybe. Um it was for my personal finance site. It was called Side Gig Summit, and I realized one of the reasons it didn't succeed is the sessions didn't build on each other. They just need to come for like one or two sessions that they wanted and they could bounce. Um and so I was like when I wanted to do a summit again, because I was like, well, it was great, I got like 700 people opted in. I I realized I wanted to make sure it was something that they could come back to and that built, you know, kind of built on each other. And so I came up with the idea of the blogger breakthrough summit. And I'm insane. So I was like, yeah, we're gonna do 50 speakers. And but my idea was that I'd have a topic, so take Pinterest, for example, but I'd have a speaker cover at the beginner level of like, hey, this is what Pinterest is at the intermediate level of like, hey, here's how you like get this workflow going. And at the advanced level of like, hey, if you want to outsource this, this is the things you look for, you know, and so you cover it at different levels and a different speaker for each. And that not only kind of meant it was something that could be useful for people for more than one session, but it also allowed me to pitch my speakers in a way that I was like, hey, what's gonna make this summit stand out from others is that we're really categorizing things by level so we can target the audience you want to approach, right? Because, you know, not every business owner is wanting to target beginner bloggers, right? They're wanting to target more intermediate or advanced. And so it helped kind of make that pitch a little bit better and stand out from other summit pitches, I think. Um, and so I, you know, I did that year over year for six years. Um, at its peak, I will say the last two years it declined a bit. I think there were multiple reasons for that, not least of which was my alignment and what I wanted to be teaching. I don't think like it led to my pivot, right? Um, but like at its peak, it brought in, you know, 40 grand and I had systemized it at that point. So yeah, that's I think kind of where that came from was wanting to build something that was a resource that people could come back to and would want to, and so purchase the the paid pass. Um, but then that also created that unique um targeting approach for my speakers.

Nadalie 10:14

I love that because trust me when I say we get so many summit pitches, and I feel like they also come in like spurts, like for some reason you'll get like five on one day or five in a week, and then you you don't hear from anybody. So, you know, if you can have that unique spin on, you know, this uh collaboration idea, which is summits, which honestly like have I think part of why I believe summits did have a bit of a dip recently is the oversaturation of summits and how it hasn't necessarily led to the improvement of summits, it's almost just led to the dilution of summits. So if you're if you are listening to this and you're like, okay, I want to try and run a summit, think about what is your unique spin, what is your unique offer? And I could even just add, yeah, and also get started early. The amount of invites I get where they're like, I'm hosting a summit this month, and I'm like, girl, my brains are ready in summer. My I'm this this month is done. Next month is done.

Liz Stapleton 11:29

Like, yeah, yeah, I'm doing my sum. So normally the blogger breakthrough was in like January, and I would start pitching in September so that I could try to get everyone promotional materials at the beginning of December before they left for break because promo would start like immediately in January. I'm this summit I'm doing right now is the first week of March. Um, and I know when we're recording this, this will be in the past, but I realized I hate this timing because then it's like trying to zero in on applications in like November, December, and like follow-up of people to submit things in January, like it's been awful. I was like, we're not doing this timing again. Like, did not enjoy that. So you gotta give yourself time. And even though I've run summits for you know years, I've run multiple with thousands of attendees. I forgot to keep in mind that this was a brand new summit and I didn't have templates as much, and it took me so much longer, and I forgot, and I've been like working like a mad woman.

Nadalie 12:21

Yeah, think of timing and give yourself time as and not just yourself, but your collaborators also need time, right? Like, I think like, especially if you're, you know, if you guys listen to the episode where we were talking with Liz Wilcox about reaching out to people who are maybe slightly have bigger audiences than you, they're a little bit of a level above. You need to realize that those people have their schedules planned out. They know already what they're promoting probably for the next six months, if not further. So you need to give them time to find the space, especially um, you know, there's like promotional requirements. And I'll be real, if anyone's like, you gotta send three emails, I'm like, I'm out. Because I already know my audience gets annoyed after two.

Liz Stapleton 13:17

I'm like, I know they're limpets. So just I did for a long time, my my for a long time, my promotional requirement was like, I trust you know your audience best. Promote to the extent that makes sense to your audience. In the coup last couple years, because things have been so diluted and sometimes people just wouldn't promote, which is just not fair. I have required like a solo email, but like one and like two social posts, like nothing crazy, but that they have to do something. Um, and I just real quick kind of want to step back for a second. We talk about, you know, think about when you're pitching, but pitching isn't when the collaboration starts. You have to prep for that pitch. You need to be able to answer their questions quickly. So, like when I said I started pitching speakers in September, I probably started working on like speaker info page and everything in like July and August, you know, because you have other projects going on and it's not as urgent at that point, you know. So really it's like six months ahead of time is when I'm starting to dive in. Okay, well, when are my deadlines gonna be? And like, you know, so you have all that information.

Nadalie 14:48

Yeah, I 100% agree. Like, even like I'm letting you guys in on my brain processing right now. So, right now, the podcast, it's new. We're just launching, we're honestly, we haven't even launched yet. We're just recording right now, and my brain is already like, I got an idea for like a live boot camp or maybe it's a summit with others, and I it's not gonna be for months, but I know I need to start sending emails now. So, like, even if I don't have everything prep prepared, I want to be like, hey, I have this idea. This is the month I'm thinking about. Are you available? Can you just like black like black it out for me? Like, just be available. But granted, I'm coming from a place where I'm not reaching out to strangers. Everyone I'm reaching out, and I'm gonna reach out to you, Liz, about this. I know. And so I think there's also that level of trust.

Liz Stapleton 15:42

Yeah.

Nadalie 15:43

We've talked about on this podcast trust with your community. You also build trust with your collaborators when you deliver for your collaborator, you are building so much trust with them. Like anytime Liz reaches out to me, uh, granted, I have space and I need I know I need to book something. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. Uh, I know it's an easy yes because I trust you. Girl, you can say, Hey, let's collaborate on like pitching people going to Mars, and I'd be like, girl, let's go. Yeah.

Liz Stapleton 16:15

Right?

Nadalie 16:16

I'm not something too, but I'll pitch it.

Liz Stapleton 16:19

When you've done a lot of collaborations, if someone drops out, you have like this like bank of people that you're like, hey, I had someone drop out. Could you squeeze it in? You can use a session you've done before. Like, you know, you have those things. I actually had people dropping out of my panels like left and right, and I was like, what the heck? Um, I clearly should have set the calendar notice sooner, even though I already told you you'd be on this and you should have blacked it out. But um, so I like reached out to my mastermind. I was like, hey guys, my panelists are dropping like flies. Can any of you fill? And done, you know. Um, so those last minute things are really helpful too when would cause stuff happens. And sometimes you just have to go with it and you your panel's a little less full. But other times when you have the like, you know, the years of collaboration, it's like I know it's gonna be good. I had a I had a speaker for this summit who was going through it. Like, I'm not gonna get into details, that's her personal ish. But I just got like sessions were due a month ago, and I just got it two days ago. Um, but I knew it was gonna be solid because I've worked with her before and I know she always produces great stuff. So you know, I was like, I'll be fine.

Nadalie 17:25

I feel like I'm always the one who's like, uh, can I have more time? That's always me. I'm always like, I because I feel like sessions are always due on a Friday, and I'm like, girl, I need the weekend. I I'm just always like, give me like three more days to uh get it through.

Liz Stapleton 17:42

Usually that's fine, you know. Um when it's going a month later, you know, there's there were definitely extenuating circumstances. And I I told her I told them repeatedly, I was like, hey, if you need to drop, I understand, or if you just want to do the live panel so you don't have to record something, that's fine too. I I was like, I gave them all the options. Um, but it helped, you know, that their friend, and I've worked with them for years, uh, you know, so it was much easier to give them that leeway because I knew if when they got to it, it'd be great.

Nadalie 18:08

Yeah, I love you mentioning this because yeah, even uh Eden Fried, who's runs incredible summits, like almost every summit, she reaches out to me and she's like, I need a Pinterest person. Can you just drop a session for me? And I'm like, girl, you got it. Like, I like that's it. It's like a one-sentence exchange. So just know if you're listening and you're just getting started with collaborations, get started, keep going, and it gets easier because you become people's go-to person. Yeah. And you know, you're in their Rolodex and they'll reach out to you. Okay, we'll stop dancing around it and teasing it. Let's get into what this actual collab script is. So, Liz, like, are you down to read it to us? Um, sure. Let's hear. We don't have to read the whole thing. You want to just read like what's a little bit more.

Liz Stapleton 19:04

Let me kind of break, maybe break down the parts of it and how it kind of is set up. So uh I'm gonna focus on the new speaker pitch because I I have a similar for like previous speakers to invite them back, right? But a new speaker pitch. So I always start with a personal message intro, like and I you would see in the what I provided, it's a placeholder. And what I try to do there is I go, you know, and I don't spend a lot of time on it, but I if I'm on their email list, I'd be like, what have they done lately? So I can mention it and be like, hey, I hope that launch went well, or hey, I saw this is going on. Just that personal touch that means like you aren't just cold spamming everybody that this email is really meant for them. Um, the rest is a template, right? But that little bit, and it's it's not hard to do, um, can go a long way to making it stand out. Um, and then so I'm like, hey, first name, personal message, whatever that is. You know, for Natalie, I might be like, I'm super jealous you did puppy yoga. I hope you're having a great day. You're like, you know, like something like that. It doesn't even have to be business related. It just shows that you've paid attention. You know, I'm reaching out today because from these dates, I'll be hosting, in this case, it was the sixth annual blogger breakthrough summit, and I'm looking to feature 50 plus speakers to share their expertise and personal stories. Um, and then I talk about this, the background of the summit of what it's designed to do. There's a little section on like, hey, uh, you know, we're trying to help our attendees do this. But then I flip it back to them. And I'm like, because of your success and expertise with whatever topic, I thought you'd be a great fit to speak. Um, and then I have that section that says, hey, what makes the summit a bit different from other summits is we break out sessions by level bloggers. So some sessions are geared towards beginners, others towards intermediate or advanced bloggers. Because of this, we can work together to figure out which target audience would best benefit you and your business. So you're really focusing on how this helps them. Um, and then if you're interested in speaking, here's how the process works and its bullet points. Um, and I know you're gonna share this on wherever.

Nadalie 21:03

Yeah, so remember so when you hold on, when you guys are listening, you can head to the site, Hey Let's Collab, sign up for the collab scripts. All of the scripts from our podcast episode, speakers, or guests are going to be available to you. So you can remix them for your own purposes. It's great. Yes. Thanks for sharing.

Liz Stapleton 21:23

Yes, and uh and I'll read the bullets because I think clearly spelling out what speakers or potential speakers can expect is hugely important. So, first bullet is if you're in, you can complete the speaker onboarding form here. The form is at the bottom of the page. Like I tell them, like, because it's gonna be on a speaker info page with even more details. Um, and then I say when filling out your speaker form, you'll be letting me know your preference for your presentation, whether you want to do an interview or pre-recorded, if you're targeting beginner bloggers, that sort of thing. And from there, you'll be able to pick a time on my calendar if necessary. You'll get access to emails and swipe poppy uh that you can send to your audience to promote your session and the summit, including graphics featuring you specifically. Um, and then the last bullet point is I'll handle the rest. You get exposure from the audiences of 50 plus speakers at the summit and to pitch your offer to those who watch your session. How does this sound? If you're in, simply submit your speaker information here and we can get the ball rolling. Let me know what you think or if you have any questions. You know, best me, P.S. If you want some more information, here's the speaker info page. And then when you've done this a while, or even if it's your first time but you've already gotten some yeses, you can add the section that says, Hey, some of our previous speakers or some speakers who are already, you know, included are, you know, for this one, I was like, Liz, we'll go. Pucks. Uh, Leanne Scott, Jim Lavarner Carter was a previous speaker, Jeff Coins, who's an author, Sue. Like, I have had some really fantastic speakers over the years for the summit. So being able to do a little name drop is, you know, because it just adds to the legitimacy. But even if it's your first time, maybe don't go after the suit the your reach speakers first. Get some other yeses, and you can say these are speakers that have already agreed, you know. Um, and then, you know, PPS, if you know anyone who might be interested in speaking, I'd love for you to share the speaker info page with them. So yeah.

Nadalie 23:10

I love that. And so everyone who's listening, if you're like, okay, I don't have, you know, like a speaker information page, like, know that that's not always required. Like, if you're just getting like try to think of like, I think we think of like collaborations as being super complex. And yes, there are a lot of steps, whatever, whatever. But if you peel it back, you're just reaching out, you don't need to have a speaker page. That's something you can build. Some it's a big collab to start with, though. Yeah, like starting the baby. Yeah, that's you literally jumping off a cliff, and there's rocks at the bottom, and you're making sure you hit the water and not like belly flop and hurt yourself. Like, that's the collab.

Liz Stapleton 23:55

That's a big collab. Like my JV workshop one, I just created the like JV info page after doing, I don't even know how many last year.

Nadalie 24:03

So like we don't even have one of those. And I I think I've done so many. I just like send the email. I'm like, can I serve your? I hope you're I think I always say like, I feel like your audience would be, you know, this would serve your audience, it would help them to grow their subscribers and their sales.

Liz Stapleton 24:19

I'm curious. Do you survey the people you collaborate with after the fact? Because I do, both for JV and for Summits. And so then I have like their feedback and testimonials. So that's what my JV workshop page has now is like, hey, did you want to provide a testimonial on your experience collaborating with me? So especially for people I haven't connected with before, I think it's helpful.

Nadalie 24:38

I love that. I need to ask that. Okay. I'm I'm I'm taking notes. I hope you all are taking notes as well. You know, I think also when we're talking about like name dropping, something else you could swap in if the collaborator doesn't know you. You could say, like, I've been featured in so-and-so. You could also talk about your audience size. Like maybe you do have a large audience on say one platform, for example, like that's something you can sprinkle in.

Liz Stapleton 25:12

We're expecting a reach of whatever, whatever, you know, like there's I don't always love that because sometimes you have audience overlap, and that's never like a solid number to really like you never know that one. So I don't love using that, but it's definitely certainly a pitch point.

Nadalie 25:30

Yeah, it's just like if they don't have the other, you know, like it's I think sometimes you want to like bulk it up a little. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. That's what you're especially if you're new, you just you pull, you pull out whatever card you got, you know, like it can it can be that this event is unique in this way. It could be that I have these speakers already, or I have this sponsor, or I've been featured here, or you know, you just play the hand you have, and everyone has something, you know. So, like even if it's just your expertise, right? Like I've coached this many clients, or you know, whatever it is to uh make it unique. So yeah, I love this. And once again, remember you guys grab those collab scripts on the site if you want to like look at Liz's emails, um, just to learn from it. Like, even I love um I save the collaboration emails that I think are good, which you know brings me to my next question. Is if someone's reaching out to you, you know, what's a green flag? What's what's an easy yes? You know, like you see either in their email or it's the certain collaboration. Like what makes you want to say yes? There needs to be a link in there.

Liz Stapleton 26:51

No, even if it's not like to a speaker information page, if that's if all you have is the email, but I need to be able to see your website. Um, I've had pitches where I'm like, the the link or the link they provide is a 404. And I was like, okay, you don't have it together. Like that's an easy no. Um, I mean, it's easier for me to identify red black. Yeah. Like, I mean, a lot of times I I'd say I actually don't get pitched that much by people I don't already know. Um, and when I do, a lot of times it's a no just because I'm like, you're not giving me enough information. I have no idea who you are. You've not provided me a link to even your website, or the link you're providing doesn't even work. So a lot of times I'll still take the extra step and I'll go, okay, what's their email, right? Because if their email is domain-based, then I can look it in there. But I was like, You're not even telling me who you are. Like, I don't even know what your website name is. Put it in your signature. It's not hard.

Nadalie 27:42

Um, you know, like so it's funny that you're like, I want a link, and I love a link, but I'm so paranoid about links that I won't even click on the link. I will go, I will open Google. Oh, Google them, yeah. In your name, I don't click on any links because I'm like, I don't know where people are sending me. So that's true. I don't really security lady in me, unless I know you. If I know you, like Liz Stapleton sends me a link, I will click on it. But if a random stranger, I'm like, who are you? I don't know.

Liz Stapleton 28:16

I have a Mac though, so like it's you don't tend to deal with like downloading Oh girl, there are viruses.

Nadalie 28:22

You know, get it.

Liz Stapleton 28:23

I know, I know. I probably should be more careful. But I will Google, right? Like if if even if I have a link, I won't necessarily click on it until I Google. You're right. I I didn't think about, but I do do that. Um, but if I can't f find you in Google or it's not like yeah, you've got to tell me who you are. Like I need to know that. Like, yes, focus on how it's beneficial for me, but I'm I'm not gonna believe it's beneficial for me if I can't figure out who you are, you know, and like what exactly you're expecting in terms of this collaboration. So I actually very mistakenly years ago agreed to be in a summit, and I don't know how I just like glossed over because I was like, of course I'm gonna have an affiliate link and I'll earn commissions. And I had an affiliate link, but there were no commissions associated with it. I was like, oh, so I just promoted your ish and I got literally nothing.

Nadalie 29:09

That just happened to me last year.

Liz Stapleton 29:10

And I just assumed, but I was like, how did I miss that?

Nadalie 29:14

Yeah. Yeah, I ask now because I've been burned. And since we're, you know, like talking about summits, like those are important questions for you to ask if you get invited, and important for you to know that your experienced speakers want to know that their link is an affiliate link. And that means like whether or not your summit has an upsell and an offer at the end, and if it doesn't, then I question why you're having a summit, but that's a whole different conversation. Yep. And because people might buy down the line, like you know, and I think it's just I don't know what the word is, like it was well, it felt a little sketched to me.

Liz Stapleton 30:37

Um yeah, and like after the fact, I was like, wait a second, I sent a lot of people your way. Like this is this feels sketch, and then they had used me the next year they ran it as like, here's our previous speakers, and I was like, Can you take me down? I don't really want to be associated with you.

Nadalie 30:50

Another like issue I had since we're talking about summits was that my presentation did not have a link. So I promoted your summit, I sent people to your event, and with my presentation, there was no link to my freebie. I was not able to provide a freebie, and I was like, the that is something.

Liz Stapleton 31:13

Oh my gosh. So this is, I think, something a lot of summit hosts get wrong. Um, and why they don't have speakers wanting to return is they are not promoting their speaker. Um, you know me, I have that CTA freaking everywhere. It is on your page, it is with your speaker like page info. It is in the swag bag. It is, you know, like I am trying to push people to that because that's that's where the benefit is for you. Um, and a lot of speakers like or a lot of summit hosts just like don't really think of that. Um, but it is like that's something I've actually discussed with some other summit hosts. And we're like, what are you doing? Like, of course, no one wants to come back. They didn't get anything out of it. Um, and when you have people wanting to come back and collaborate with you with you again, it makes your life so much easier. You know, so you have to deliver, not just for your attendees, but for your speakers. And so, like, I spend a lot of time building out the summit portal to make sure everything is showcased as much as I can. And then actually, something I'm doing this year is I'm doing because I every February, again, we're recording this. I know it's coming out in summer. Um, but every February I do Freebee February, where I send a free tool or resource every day. And I've reserved the last week of February, which is the week before my summit, to promote speaker CTAs based on a registration contest, right? And that's just for my speakers, and that's just to get them extra attention to their call to action, you know, because why wouldn't I want to promote that? So yeah, no, a lot of summit hosts forget that they like need to return the favor, like this the speaker's giving you content and you need to then promote them.

Nadalie 32:46

Um, I think a lot of subhosts in terms of energy, yeah, it's it should be, it should be an even exchange, it should feel good for both people.

Liz Stapleton 32:57

But I think a mistake summit hosts make is that they get the session and they're done. But in reality, A, you're promoting their stuff, but then I and I know this is not something everyone does, and I'm extra, but that's just who I am. I think you know that by now is I always send out a little extra too, you know.

Nadalie 33:16

We like to be extra.

Liz Stapleton 33:17

I always send out information after the fact. Yeah, right? So I send out, hey, this is how many views your video got, this is how many like people were on the page, to the extent that I can, right? Obviously, Google Analytics, if they don't accept cookies, like it's not perfect, but it then gives you a better idea of okay, how well did that freebie convert? Because there were this many people, and how many people actually went and signed up for me, right? It just gives you that data and also tells you how much quote exposure you got at the summit, right? So I send stats of like that I can of like, hey, and if I happen to have it, like here's how many times your link was clicked or whatever, which I don't think I set up properly this year, but we're gonna ignore that. But I'll tell you like this how many people viewed it, this is how many like the Vimeo stats from it of like where people dropped off or whatever, the average view time, and along with a survey so that I'm rolling that collaboration into momentum and I can do better next time and I have those testimonials, but then you're also getting more information that's gonna help you make better decisions.

Nadalie 34:15

I love that. So, talking about rolling into the future, what tangible results did you get from you know this specific collaboration we're talking about? So, summits. So, talk to me about like obviously we're in the past when this comes out, but for your last, um, whichever one of your summits you want to talk about, tell a lot less about like average subscriber growth, um, sales, like let's make it tangible because I know the summit is a big undertaking. So, you know, let's let's give people some insight on what could happen for them. Sure.

Liz Stapleton 34:53

Now, obviously, this the event I'm doing is brand new, so I really don't even have like historical data to share with you um for the Creator Workflow summit that's happening in March 2026. But let me pull up um my event data for past summits that I've run, and I can tell you. And I'm actually really bad, so I'll know how many people registered in total, but I'm really bad about knowing how many were new to my list. Like I'm not great at that, I'll be honest. Um, but okay. So in 2020, we had just under 3,000 registrants with and it generated about $13,000 in revenue, like in all SSF sales. Um it was a brand new summit. It had a 7% conversion rate from you know registrants to sales. Um in 2021, I had just under 4,000. It was like 3,980. And we had made 300 sales, so we had an 8% conversion rate and it brought in 20 grand in revenue, approximately. Yeah. 2022, again, we have it's it's crazy because 2021, 2022 almost had the exact same amount of registrants. It was like 3,900. The conversion rate dipped to six, but still brought in about 20 grand, 300 bucks. 2023, like I said, was the peak. Um, if we had just over 5,000 registrants, we had an 8% conversion rate and it brought in $41,000. And and and that's just in like summit revenue. That's not in like later product sales, that's not in, you know, that's just like all access pass, VIP, whatever, you know, the passes I called it that year. So that's kind of the tangible A, it's a revenue driver, it's audience growth, it's connection with other people, like it exponentially like can do so many things for you. But you have to keep in mind the more speakers you have, the more work you have exponentially, because each speaker requires, you know, a hundred different things or whatever, right? So just keeping that in mind in terms of your capacity. For sure. I love that.

Nadalie 36:48

And you don't need to start with a 50 speaker summit, uh, like Liz did and like I did. I think my first one, I was like, I'm gonna have 50 people, and I did, and I was like, wow, maybe we can have a little less.

Liz Stapleton 37:02

Well, I think that's how summits have evolved as well. Because like you said, like the dilution, I think the idea, if you see a summit with 50 speakers, it's like just overwhelming. You're like, I'm not gonna have time for that. So I think almost having fewer now is better if it's more focused. And I think that's just kind of how we've seen summits evolve. So this one actually I still end up with like 35, but um, I've really kind of made it a very cohesive event in terms of what's covered.

Nadalie 37:26

So I love that. Okay, my next question is for yourself, were there any summit mistakes you made or even just collaboration mistakes? I know you mentioned that one. Does anything else, you know, like scream in your mind like, girl, don't do that again?

Liz Stapleton 37:45

Choosing a Google using Google Sheets to try to manage everything. That was, I don't do that now. I have a very built-out systemized air table with a lot of automations. I would also say, oh, one mistake that really sucked is if I didn't get my custom commissions set before sales open, having to go back and manually do it for each person. Now, although now, so I use Thrivecart, which I think you use as well. Um, and I think you know going in and setting custom commissions for that is a pain sucks.

Nadalie 38:16

But and then having to go back and reset them to your standard rate after the live event is over also sucks.

Liz Stapleton 38:24

Um, I actually never do that because it's only ever set for the specific products. Okay, so I never worry about it because the rest of the products are still the standard. So I never do that. But I now have in my Airtable automation, I was able to build a script that does it for me. So it does it sets all the custom commissions. It takes like 10 minutes, and all my speakers have their custom commissions set for all the products because you know there's like six different versions of a product because you have the early brick price and the like regular price and the tripwire price. So it's like seven different products that the custom commission has to be set on. Um, so automating that is like, whoo! But even if you can't automate, get all that set before sales start because it sucks to go back. And then I'd say the other mistake a lot of people make is not reading the contract and noting like when coupon codes need to be good through. You know, like that's something that always drives me crazy.

Nadalie 39:14

Okay, you heard it here. So my other question for you is what types of collaborations are you open to? So if someone's listening to this episode and they're like, ooh, Liz is fun. I want to collaborate, I want to pitch her. What type of collaborations are you open to?

Liz Stapleton 39:32

I'm a talker. So, like, you want me on your podcast, you want me on like YouTube, we can do something, you want me on your summit? Like, I'm down. Um, I have, you know, obviously I host things, so I'm always looking for more people on my other website, ElizabethStapling.com, where I teach on the legal side of running online business. I do JV workshops. I've got a whole JV info page. So like I love collaborating because I struggle to show up regularly on social. So collaborating is my go-to. Um, just reach out. Uh, I'm definitely always open to different, different ideas and trying new things.

Nadalie 40:05

I love that. And what special gift do you have for us that they should go click over to go to the show notes or go to your site?

Liz Stapleton 40:16

Yeah, and it's not necessarily collapse specific. I should come up with something because I think that's totally fine.

Nadalie 40:21

It doesn't have to be.

Liz Stapleton 40:22

But um, I think I just did my like 15-minute content workflow and it just helps you map out a system for that. But if you just go to CreatorOps Hub forward slash everything, that's there along with a lot of other goodies.

Nadalie 40:33

Love it. So thank you so much, Liz. This has been wonderful. I hope that everyone who's listening is like, okay, summits, I am, you know, interested. I would say, like, maybe not your first collaboration. It's once again, like jumping off a cliff. But you could wade into the water by being a speaker at someone else's summit. I think that is the best way to start because you see how it runs, you get a peek on the inside, and yeah, you you have that experience so that maybe you can run your own events. So yeah, that's that's a little bit of advice for y'all when it comes to summits. Great time, great for Lisc growth, great for, you know, um showing up in different places because I'm like you, Liz. I'm not I'm not an Instagram girly. You know, you know I'm a Pinterest girly. I'm a yeah, I'm a collaboration girl through and through. So love it. Thank you so much, Liz. This has been incredible. So remember, you want to head out over to Hayletscollab.com to grab your collab scripts, you'll be able to see Liz Stapleton's emails there as well as our other guests. Check out the show notes, go say hi to Liz Stapleton, she's incredible. I highly recommend. So thanks everyone. Get going with those collaborations. Yay. Thanks for tuning in to Hey Let's Collab. If you're looking to kickstart your collaboration game and land that dream partnership, check out heylet'scollab.com and download the free collab scripts to get started.