AP 1260: Where Are They Now? Aaron LeBauer

AP 1260: Where Are They Now? Aaron LeBauer

Pat Flynn:
What's up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to episode 1,260 of AskPat 2.0. You're about to listen to a Where Are They Now? episode with Mr. Aaron LeBauer, who is somebody who was on the show a couple years ago when the pandemic was happening.

As a result of the pandemic, he had to change his business model for a while. He decided to do what was once a live event to become a live virtual event. At the time of the previous call, we talked about strategies to make people still feel special even though it's a virtual event.

We're going to cover some of what was learned last time, what was implemented, and what is happening now because Aaron's doing some really amazing things. Definitely check him out, AaronLeBauer.com, or also on Instagram.

And you could check out PTBIZCON, which is his conference that he puts on for physical therapists and helps them to not rely on insurance to build a business. A really impactful business, and he's doing some really amazing things. I cannot wait to have him share with you what has happened since the last time he was on the show, so here he is.

Pat Flynn:
Aaron, welcome back to AskPat 2.0. It's a pleasure to host you and have you again. Thanks for coming on.

Aaron LeBauer:
Hey, Pat, thanks for having me back. I appreciate it. This is great and you're completely inspirational and I appreciate everything you do.

Pat Flynn:
Well, thank you so much. I'm curious to see how the last time we chatted inspired you. If you could remind people who perhaps did hear that episode a couple of years ago or maybe they hadn't, do you remember where you were at at that point and what the business was like and what we talked about? What were the challenges that you were facing around that time?

Aaron LeBauer:
I think it's been a few years. My name is Dr. Aaron LeBauer. I'm a physical therapist and I help other physical therapists grow/launch businesses and create more income without relying on insurance companies.
We're heavily into marketing and sales and I have a coaching business. Pretty sure, just thinking back to that time, I think one of the difficult things that I was trying to figure out was how do I run a virtual event?
I believe the year before in 2020 I had an in-person event that got moved to virtual and it was just last minute. I didn't do anything about it virtual it was just, we just did Zoom. And the next year I knew, in 2020, was it 2021? I knew I wasn't going to run it in-person because of COVID because it was in the spring.
I was like, how do I put together a really good kick ass virtual event? That was one of my real big struggles. How do we do that? Some of the things that you had helped me with were the marketing and sales. But it was also how do we run it so that it's unique and special?
That was really helpful because I was able to take some of these ideas and you helped me create some concrete decisions around how to bring people in with not just swag, but just make them feel special.
There's one thing about people who are successful is that you make other people feel special. When you came on here, you were like, "Hey, Aaron." I'm like, "Oh, wow, Pat knows my name." But it's doing those little things is what it's all about. It's not just the tech, it's how do we make everyone feel inclusive? And that was really helpful.

Pat Flynn:
I'm glad to hear that. I talk about this all the time. I wrote a book about it. The experience that you create for people is really what people will take with them and share, and that's where word of mouth comes into play.
Tell me, with this event that you ran that was virtual, how did you make people feel special? That's a big question that a lot of people who run these virtual events have because you don't have those touchpoints. You can't literally shake a person's hand when they come in. But how did you manage to incorporate those elements in there?

Aaron LeBauer:
I think there's one big one is making sure that the email follow-up is on point. I think a lot of people know that, but they don't always do it right. And it's always like a, hey, first name. But it's a personal thing.
I write the emails to one person, not as a newsletter to everybody. That makes a difference. But once we got on live, because we did it on Zoom, it's really just in those first few minutes is I would call out everyone by name, or try to, as much as I can.
It's like, "Hey, John. Hey, Jennifer." Et cetera. "Glad to see you here." Other things that we did was I had team members and they could just write in the chat, send messages to people.
And I think it is, as we go along, not just as people ask questions, but using people's names from the audience randomly. Then even if I don't call someone's name, people are sitting there going, "Oh, he's going to call me next." Or, "He sees me because he called on this other person." That, I think, makes a huge difference.

Pat Flynn:
Yeah, that definitely ups the engagement. It's like you're in class and you might be called on next to read something or something. You always are paying a little bit more attention as a result of that.
Obviously, if the content is great and helpful and people are paying attention, that's where value is exchanged and good vibes can come from there, so that's great. That event sounded like it went off really well. Did you do more since then?

Aaron LeBauer:
Let's see. I've done another one, I did. So one this past spring I did it, so I did it again. So the first year, 2020, I planned it in-person and a week ahead of time we switched it to virtual.
In 2021, I just planned pretty much the whole time to do it virtual. Then this last year we planned it in-person, but by the time we got to December I knew that we weren't really going to be able to pull that off. So we just switched over to the virtual version.
Now this year for the spring of 2023, we're definitely going to do it in-person in Charlotte. So that just changes things because I've done it three times online now. I just want to share, one of the other things that I did to keep people engaged was gave away a lot of swag and prizes, but not just little things here and there. I gave out probably $1,200 in Amazon gift cards. Like straight up, who wants to win 100 bucks?

Pat Flynn:
Oh, wow.

Aaron LeBauer:
Because it's a sales event, so I knew I was going to get that money back. I got that money from the entry fees. I was like, "How do I give more back?" The other thing that we did this past spring was we had a charity.
We set up an online store so when you got your ticket to the event, you got a link to go buy a T-shirt. And all the profit from the T-shirts and the mugs and things we sold online would go directly to the charity, which was STAND The Haiti Project, which is a group that created and built a physical therapy clinic in Haiti and it's run and staffed.
Before the pandemic, they would send PTs from America down there but now they're just staffing them, so we raised money for that. Then I matched it and we paid for eight months' worth of a physical therapist's salary down there from the money we raised during the event.
That also, I feel like, gets people going, "Oh, well, if I can buy this or participate, it has some meaning beyond just me making money or getting new patients." That was really helpful, as well.

Pat Flynn:
That's awesome. I love that. Congrats on that because that's huge. You're affecting people around the world and I know you have this goal of helping 100 million people around the world and this is definitely helping you with that.
I'm curious on the Amazon gift cards, because I've seen that done and I've seen it done sort of distastefully before. But I'm curious to know how you incorporated that into the event and rallied people behind that? How did you incorporate the gift cards specifically in the giveaways?

Aaron LeBauer:
What I would do is not just pick a number. It would be like, "Okay, whoever goes into the Facebook group for the event and makes a video on the top three things you've learned today."

Pat Flynn:
Ooh, yeah.

Aaron LeBauer:
"One of those people is going to win $100 Amazon gift card."

Pat Flynn:
That is great.

Aaron LeBauer:
Now they're participating, but by creating the video, they're synthesizing the information that they gathered and sharing it with other people, so helping other people. But, also, leaving a little bit of a testimonial for later, too.
We did that. We had a sponsor passport where each of the sponsors of the event would get a post in the Facebook group. Attendees had to go through and like and comment under each sponsor post. If you did that, you were eligible for a gift card and AirPods. We gave away AirPods and we gave away other things like that.
So I would create audience participation, not just this, but every once in a while I'd say, "Okay, the 100th person to come in the chat is going to win the swag or win the Amazon gift card." Then as soon as we got the winner of the Amazon gift card, my assistant would go to Amazon and just buy it and send it right to their email. And they would have it before the end of the next talk.

Pat Flynn:
Yeah. I forgot you could do that with Amazon. It doesn't have to be a physical card. It's like a digital one that they can just redeem right there. That's awesome. I love how you're using that to incorporate into the engagement factor. On that Facebook page, I'm curious, is that a Facebook page just for attendees or is that for your entire community?

Aaron LeBauer:
That one is just for attendees. I have one for my whole community and then I have a separate Facebook page for each year of the event. So they can have access from 2020, they still have access to the 2020 page, but no one's going to go there. So this year we'll have one for 2023. And just the people that buy the tickets and speakers will be in there.

Pat Flynn:
That's cool. A lot of people seem to be moving away from Facebook groups for things. But for an event like this that has a finite amount of time that it's going to be used, are you finding it still is serving you and doing what you need to do?

Aaron LeBauer:
Yeah. Number one, it's because we're on a call and I can say, "Hey, go to the group. We're going to take a 15-minute break. Go to the group and do a live." Or, "Go to the group and post your number one takeaway." And people will go do that.
And joining the group is part of the thank you page and part of the follow-up emails. Make sure you get into the group because only from there are you eligible to win the prizes and that brings people in. Then it's a really highly active group for that week or so before the event. Then even a week after the event, people are back in there asking questions and follow-ups and everything.

Pat Flynn:
That's really amazing. How long does the event go for?

Aaron LeBauer:
It's two days, so it's Friday and Saturday. It was about eight hours each day, so it was a long day.

Pat Flynn:
Long day, yeah. Then are you bringing in other speakers or is it just you the whole time teaching? What's the format like?

Aaron LeBauer:
I've got, generally, I think, let's see. Day one is mostly teaching and it's me, then two guest speakers and a break. Then a guest speaker or two and then lunch. Then I'll teach after lunch. Then a couple guest, a guest speaker and a break. A guest speaker and then I'll finish the day off.
Then Friday is a guest speaker and then I teach. Then right before, let's see. Sorry, the second day is guest speaker. And then I do an hour-and-a-half. Then during that I pitch my Mastermind and then we go to lunch.
Depending on the year or the time, there was a third person there. But what I realized is online, we cut it an hour shorter in the morning because people are on the West Coast and they have to wake up super early, so we started a little bit later.
Then I pitch before lunch and then we have lunch. Then after lunch I have another guest speaker, another guest speaker, and then a break. Then that last bit I'll do like little hot seat coaching where I do one-on-one coaching, kind of like what you do with AskPat. But I'll do that for everyone there at the end, all the way through the end.
And I'll get people to, I'll keep pitching people. I'll announce the winners. We do an entrepreneur of the year contest. That's in the morning right before the pitch, so that's built in testimonials before the pitch. Hopefully, that makes sense.

Pat Flynn:
Yeah, no, that does make sense. Thank you for that detail. Because virtual events are something that people are doing a lot more of. There's more companies that are creating softwares to help, like HeySummit, that are making it easier to sort of just collaborate and do all these kinds of things together.
I love how, because this is an event with a pitch like you said, to the Mastermind, which is the goal but you're delivering all this value. But the coaching that you do is a preview of what it would be like, I'm assuming, to be in the Mastermind group.
So that's a perfect thing to add value to people there, but give people a preview for what's to come. If you join, you get more of this and you can be in the hot seat, so I love that. Is the event a paid event or a free event?

Aaron LeBauer:
It's a paid event. We've done it, I think, virtually, we were selling it virtually, we started at $97 doing it live in-person. The first year we started it, I think I started at $97, too. But then we're starting with a $197 BOGO ticket, so it's $197 for the ticket but I just want butts in seats.
Because if you fly in and you pay for a flight and hotel, you're a qualified buyer. So we'll do the first, hopefully, first two price deadlines with a buy one, get one or give one. Then the last one will just, that'll go away. That's part of the scarcity, as well, is the BOGO goes away after two.
So I'll start it and it'll go up $100 a ticket and it'll go up again. I think I'm, this year, I might be starting it at $297 because the hotel costs and everything are much more expensive versus three years ago. I think it was $197 three years ago.

Pat Flynn:
Definitely.

Aaron LeBauer:
Yeah.

Pat Flynn:
That's awesome, man.

Aaron LeBauer:
The hotel is going to cost $30,000 for two days versus three years ago it was like $8,000.

Pat Flynn:
Do you have minimum food and beverage costs that you have to meet and all that stuff that can come along with it?

Aaron LeBauer:
Yeah. They changed that around. It was going to be $28,000 minimum food and beverage. But one of the things that they said is that with COVID, if we have to cancel, part of the contingency is that we're responsible for a percentage of the food, 70% of the food and beverage minimum.
So what I did was I negotiated a lower food and beverage minimum to $12,000 or $15,000, so that if we do have to cancel because of something, and it's not an Act of God, I'm only responsible for $10,000 rather than $18,000 or $20,000. But it's, overall, if we do the event it's going to cost an extra $2,000.

Pat Flynn:
Yeah, that's not terrible.

Aaron LeBauer:
So I'd rather take that risk.

Pat Flynn:
Yeah, for sure. Pre-COVID, we were planning on FlynnCon2 and it was harder to negotiate those kinds of things because nobody would expect anything like that to happen and then, of course, it did.
We were close to being out 50K for the hotel that we had because there was no... And then COVID just persisted and then they were like, "Okay, fine. This is an Act of God and we have to give you your money back."
But, yeah, that's fantastic. Thanks for all those details and to do it in-person, I think this is what people are itching for now. I think it's really smart to take it offline and now go online.
People who were maybe at the previous events will now meet their friends and people who they connected with online. And there's just a little bit more experiential stuff that you can do there. What are some of the things that you can only do in-person that you think that you're going to get some good feedback from at this upcoming event in the spring?

Aaron LeBauer:
I think the number one thing is just being able to touch and feel. It's like you get there and you can shake my hand or give me a hug. Or it's that 15, 20 minutes in the break. 15 minutes is too short for a break, but 30 minutes is a little too long.
But that time is what is really valuable and we'll be able to actually throw things out from the audience. Instead of giving away Amazon gift cards, we're going to stuff Easter eggs with money and throw it out. Then people can go buy the swag and they can go buy it and touch the shirt. Maybe they'll buy a couple extra shirts so we can donate more. The goal this year is to raise at least $9,000, which is one-year salary for a PT in Haiti. But I'd love to do two. How do we do $18,000 and raise that? That'd be a great problem to have.

Pat Flynn:
Yeah, that's awesome.

Aaron LeBauer:
But I think it's those little intangibles because the information is the same, but it's the experience of gathering the information, being around other people like you, the energy is much different.

Pat Flynn:
100%, 100%. Even after the event, the dinners and the coffee breaks and all that stuff like that stuff, you just can't get in virtual. Really excited for you and the event. Thank you for all the info. If people are curious about your brand and specifically also the event, where should they go if they're listening to this?

Aaron LeBauer:
Number one place to go is Instagram. You can follow me at @AaronLeBauer. It's LeB, as in boy, a-u-e-r. And it's Aaron LeBauer. Or you can go to AaronLeBauer.com. The event is called PTBIZCON, PTBIZCON.com is the event. It's for physical therapists and healthcare providers who want to launch, grow, and scale a business without relying on insurance.

Pat Flynn:
Love it, man. Well, I love what you're doing. Thank you for all the insight. And congrats and keep going. You're doing awesome. Thank you, again, for the insight.

Aaron LeBauer:
Absolutely. Appreciate it.

Pat Flynn:
All right. I hope you enjoyed that catch up with Aaron. Aaron, thank you so much for coming back on with us now after a couple years. It's been really, really amazing to see how you not only implemented what we talked about with regards to virtual events, but the learnings from that has now come back to live and what you're doing to grow this conference even more on top of the other things you're already doing.
I'm looking at your website now and checking out your Instagram. Man, seems things are going really well, so keep up the great work. If you want to check out Aaron's work, you can find him at @PTBIZCON or @AaronLeBauer, which is over on Instagram. We'll have links in the show notes and all that good stuff, too.
Aaron, thank you so much. I appreciate you. And I appreciate you, the listener, for listening in because we're starting off this year, as you know, with some amazing, Where Are They Now? episodes. Which allows us to catch up with those who have once been on the show before and then here, well, what went well or what sometimes didn't go well? It's not always unicorns and rainbows, although Aaron definitely has done an amazing job.
Keep up the good work, my friend, and you, too. Keep up the good work on the other end and feel free to listen to the next episode that's coming through on the airwaves, or go do the thing that you know need to do. I'm giving you permission right now. Cheers, take care. I look forward to serving you in the next one. Peace.

Thanks for listening to AskPat at AskPat.com. I'm your host, Pat Flynn. Our senior producer is David Grabowski. Our series producer is Paul Grigoras, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. AskPat is a production of SPI Media. We'll catch you in the next session.