LIST BUILDING LIVE: Hostess with the Mostest (Event Hosting for Max Leads) with Gabe Cox

LIST BUILDING LIVE: Hostess with the Mostest (Event Hosting for Max Leads) with Gabe Cox

Pat Flynn: Hey, it’s Pat Flynn, and you’re listening to List Building Live, our first ever virtual audio summit right here on the SPI podcast, where each day we release about six mini episodes to help you grow your email list. Why? Because you don’t own social media, but you should own your audience. So each day for three days in a row, we are bringing you people directly from Liz’s and my communities to share what’s working to grow your email list today.

That’s right, no quote unquote experts or eight-figure entrepreneurs talking about what worked for them years ago, just regular creators like you who are working towards making a living online. Enough talking. Let’s get into it.

Liz Wilcox: All right, Gabe, I am so excited. We wanna know what is one way you have been growing your email list in the last six to 12 months.

Gabe Cox: Absolutely. I’m so excited to be here with you, Liz. My name is Gabe Cox. I’m a goal planning and business strategist, and I help faith-fueled entrepreneurs who want less noise, less hustle, and more alignment with real life market beyond the social media grind. One thing about me is I love doing business differently.

I love doing it without social media, life and business, actually. And the biggest way that I’ve been growing my email list is hosting my own virtual events. It was the biggest shift I’ve made in my business. And I went from– Actually, I left social media and tried to figure out how do I grow my business now and how do I grow my visibility and email list.

And I went from 350 people on my email list, and that was like four to five years of grinding on social media, to 12 months later after I hosted my first event, 100% return, 3,500 people on my email list just with that first event and collaborating in different ways along the way.

Liz Wilcox: Holy mackerel. Y’all, did you hear that?

Off social media. So I know a lot of our people are on social media, right? And it’s, it’s so hard to capture those leads. Instagram, Facebook, all of that, they do a really good job of keeping you on the platform, right? So it’s kind of this– It’s not impossible to get people off of social onto a list, but it is a grind or, you know, it can be a really uphill battle even with things like ManyChat and so on.

So I love that you decided, you know what? I’m gonna be the platform. I’m gonna be the source of information, entertainment, et cetera. I’d love to hear, number one, how many events have you done? And what are some of the must haves or must tasks that you’ve got to do in order to have a successful event?

Gabe Cox: Love these questions. I have hosted… So the Grow Your Biz Without Social virtual event happens every spring, and I have run three of them so far, and my goal with it is to have it feel like a live experience, like a, being in a live conference. And actually, I just listened to you and Pat talking about live events today and that is what I wanted to bring, that atmosphere of connection and really getting to just be the facilitator of all things when it comes to marketing without social media.

And so I’ve hosted three events that way, and then I’ve also hosted a couple for other entrepreneurs who didn’t really want to host them themselves, and I was like, “Hey, let me run it for you.” So I have this experience here. I’ve done kind of bigger events, and there’s so many different ways you can do them.

They don’t have to be five-day experiences like mine are. But I would say the biggest thing… And a lot of people are like, “I can’t host my own event. I don’t have an audience. How am I supposed to be able to promote it and all the things?” And I would say that is such a myth. You can host an event with zero audience.

You do not need anybody because what you’re doing is you’re bringing together a bunch of different contributors, a bunch of different speakers who already have an audience, and what you’re providing for them is the space. You’re providing an atmosphere for them. It is easy to be a speaker if you make it easy, and people will say yes to it if it’s catered that way, right?

And so the biggest thing, like a few tips that I have, is one start planning early. I always say give yourself at least 90 days. I start reaching out to speakers five to six months ahead, and the reason I do that is because I wanna get on their promotion calendar. I want the people that I want to say yes, and if I reach out early enough, they’re more likely to say yes because their calendar isn’t quite full.

Once it’s full, they’re going to have to say no, even if they like the event, even if they wanna support you. So the earlier you start planning, the easier, because you’ll have more breathing room when the event is about to go live. 90 days at least, but you can do it faster, but I feel like the organization piece.

And the other tip I have is over-communicate. I think some people are like, “I don’t wanna bug the speakers. I don’t wanna bug the sponsors or the attendees.” But they will not be able to participate as well if you are not letting them know what that next thing is. I try and make it as low of a lift up for speakers.

I make it as easy as possible for them to say yes, to get the information to me. I let them pick presentation or interview. What do you wanna do? Like, if it’s gonna be hard for you to put together a presentation, you just wanna have a conversation. But then also along the way, you have a gap between when they say yes to when the event is, but let them in on the behind-the-scenes.

They don’t have to respond to everything, but just keep it in the back of their mind. Let them see that things are happening, that they’re gonna get the promotion materials early enough to be able to add it, um, to their calendar and to actually schedule things out for their audience. But if you can make it just in front of them all the time and get them to be a part of it, just get them excited about it.

And I think about the same with the attendees. I mean, yes, you’re gonna be emailing a lot in that timeframe when the event is happening, but the more you do it, the more they’re gonna be engaged, the more they’re gonna know where sh- they should go, what they should do, what they should be learning, you know, all the pieces.

Whatever you can do to make it an easy flow. That’s– those are my biggest tips and some of the things that I’ve seen not go as well. Like, I’ve been in a part of some events that I didn’t hear from– I said yes, and I never heard from the person until they sent the promo material, which, like, was, like, a week before the event.

And I’m like, “Now how am I supposed to promote this?” Right? So make it as easy as possible.

Liz Wilcox: Listen, y’all, I have been guilty of that. I have been guilty of hosting my own event and then sporadically, “Oh, yeah, I forgot to give you the promo materials, da, da, da.” So it’s definitely what Gabe is saying. If you want it to actually get you leads, you’ve got to communicate with the speakers.

So when you’re hosting your own virtual event, that’s how you’re getting leads. You’re… Like, let’s say Gabe and I are a part of your event. We’re both speaking. We both agreed to promote, right? And so what Gabe is saying is, you know, she’s trying to get those people like you and me to promote way in advance, and it’s so true.

People like me, I already have things booked for 2028, and it’s August 2026. I am just a person that knows what the plan is, and I will say yes to something if I can, but you’ve got to book me well in advance, right? And Gabe has been one of those people. I’ve been a part of her events or events that she’s co-hosted for people.

And yeah, she asks well in advance. I can look at my calendar. I can say yep, or I can say no. And y’all, you’re not annoying. The emails are so, so important to send out to your speakers to remind them of promotion days, remind them of their commitments, et cetera, because y’all, I do probably, I would say, anywhere from…

And this is a wide range, but I didn’t look it up before, right, anywhere from 25 to 100 virtual events a year, maybe even more. I mean, I do… I think I’m in three just this week alone that aren’t even mine. And so I need those emails to remind me, “Hey, this is the form you filled out. This is the thing you said you would talk about. This is the deadline. This is the deadline for, you know, promoting. This is the links that you need to promote.” All of that, you’re not bothering your speakers. I, I can testify as a speaker in many events, I need your help. So I think that’s the thing, at least for me as a host, that I have to be reminded of, so I love that so, so much.

Thank you, Gabe. This is amazing. I really, really do testify to the power of hosting your own events. I did it as an RV travel blogger. It actually turned into its own business that I ended up selling. I sold the virtual event as a business. It’s actually insane, and it’s definitely a way you can grow your list, too.

So Gabe, if we wanna get on your email list today, how can we do that?

Gabe Cox: Well, one thing I just wanna say too is that it’s not just about leads, it’s about connections. Those speakers or those contributors who are gonna be a part of your event, you can collaborate with them in so many different ways along the way.

So like you’re building your own connections as well. And so if you want to connect with me any further, I do have a resource called Get Event Ready. So if you’re like, “I want to do this, I need some help,” it’ll help you build the real event plan and roadmap, and it’ll save you months of guesswork on that.

You can find it at redhotmindset.com/events, and it might be linked in the show notes here as well. But I would love to just be a part of your journey if that’s something you’re interested in, is doing life and business differently and getting off the social media grind. So thanks for having me, Liz. This was really fun.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah, of course. I can’t wait to see people host their own events.

Pat Flynn: Okay, another great list-building strategy from one of our amazing community members. I just love seeing people find ways to grow that I didn’t even think of. That’s something I’ve always loved about being in communities with other entrepreneurs.

It’s just so inspiring and motivating at the same time. If you need that in your list, a group of business peers to help you take what you’re learning here at this event and turn it into real action, come join us inside the SPI community. Not only will you finally have people keep you accountable, you’ll have all the resources you need to make a living online, not just with email marketing, but content creation and monetization as well.

And right now, we’re offering 50% off and some other fun bonuses just for List Building Live listeners, and that’s you. Just go to SmartPassiveIncome.com/listlive and use code 26LIST, that’s  26LIST, to grab this special rate. SmartPassiveIncome.com/listlive and use code  26LIST.