#47 - How to Add a Cash Injection to Your Free Event with a VIP Level Upgrade

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How would you like to boost your revenue while also helping the attendees of your free, list-building event achieve a bigger transformation? 

It's a no-brainer, as my dad would say. 

It's "Figure It Out Friday" and in this episode, we’re diving into a simple but game-changing strategy: adding a VIP upsell to your free event. 

Whether you’re hosting a free workshop, webinar, or challenge, offering a VIP level is an excellent way to create additional income while delivering more value to your audience.

In this episode, I share:

• creative VIP models to try, like exclusive Q&A sessions, personalized audits, and access to premium content
• a 5-step process for marketing this upsell effectively
• specific examples of when I've had both great success and not-so-great results with this strategy... and why

Grab your notebook for this one because you're going to want to jot down your ideas for you YOU can add a VIP upsell to your next free event! 

Let's dive in. 🎉

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Transcript

 Episode 47, how to add a cash injection to your free event by offering a VIP level. 

Would you love to boost your revenue while also helping your attendees achieve even more value? Me too!  So in this episode, we're diving into a simple but game changing strategy, which is adding a VIP upsell to your free event.

So whether you're hosting a free workshop, a webinar, or a challenge, Offering a VIP level is an excellent way to create additional income while also delivering more value to your audience so that can deepen their trust in you as well.  So we're going to explore creative VIP options like exclusive Q& A sessions, personalized audits, and also access to premium content.

And I'll walk you through a step by step process for how to market this upsell effectively. So let's get into it.  Welcome to the mindset to market podcast, your go to place for practical tools and solutions for the everyday challenges of being a creative and spiritual solopreneur living in a material world.

I'm your host, Deborah Smith. I'm a holistic business coach with 17 years of experience, and I help my clients bust through mindset blocks and build a daily practice that. Prioritizes your business's financial growth, as well as your personal health and wellness.  I'm here to offer you support, creativity, mindset, practical how tos, and getting into imperfect, messy actions so you can find balance while building the dream business.

If you're a purpose driven solopreneur who's working on that dream one day at a time, then you're in the right place. Let's dive in.  Hey guys, welcome back to the show. I'm so grateful to be with you here. It's technically figure it out Friday. Although you might be listening to this at some point in the future and it might not be Friday, but the idea is to provide you with some type of practical step by step how to help you actually achieve a goal, a growth based goal inside your business.

So I love today's topic and strategy., it's how to add little cash injection into a free event or something that might be just like a list building event that you're doing to just grow your audience, make a connection with new people that are in your world, but offer a low hanging fruit way for them to get just a little more value and for you to get to know them a little bit better and for you to make a little bit of money. 

So I have tried this a few different ways and I'll be transparent that sometimes I've had very fantastic success and I was like blown away, and grateful for the extra cash, but also a few times when it didn't really go as well. And so I'm going to share more detail with you about that later on in this podcast episode when we're talking through the actual step by step of how to effectively market it.

Because the key to the success of this strategy is of course in the actual marketing. But first I wanted to just start by giving you a list of some of the best value ads that you could choose from that you could offer to a VIP client tier or ticket level.  So the idea is your attendees are joining your free event or your workshop, Presumably because you are offering them a solution to a problem that they're facing in their business or in their life Depending on what you do.

You know if you work as a health coach, maybe the problem your client faces is that they just don't have time to do meal prep and so you're going to teach them a great kitchen trick or two to get them in the space, inspired and doing their meal prep and then maybe During the free workshop, you're going to give them a done for them meal plan that they can practice with.

So it's a good amount of value for free. People will likely give you their email address, then they've opted in.  And you might want to offer them a way to go a little bit deeper with you in order to get them even more value and also get them into your world a little deeper, right? Because presumably you have a paid program where you coach people, so you want to offer them a way to just get one foot in the door.

Further in that door  and the reason that this VIP upsell Concept or strategy works so well is that those attendees? are seeking deeper insight or  personal support from you. What they really do want is to have their problem solved. And if they can get that even bigger transformation, even quicker, and for a reasonable amount of money, then it's an easy sell.

Of course, this is going to assume that your content is aligned with your target audience, that your free offer is already great, right? It matters that the value you're providing in your free workshop, your free webinar,  or your free challenge is already going to connect, directly with your ideal audience.

It's also going to give them value whether they decide to go VIP or not. You want to make sure that, the content that you're delivering to this audience, regardless of whether or not they buy, that they're already going to get decent value.  But if they do want more and they do want a quicker transformation, then here are a few highly effective VIP models. 

And I've got a list of seven. So number one is early access or an exclusive Q& A. So the idea here would be you could offer a VIP ticket  And in exchange for buying that ticket, your VIPs will get early access to your workshop by, let's say, 15 to 30 minutes for a smaller, more intimate Q& A session that happens before the actual workshop.

This is going to give them a feeling like they are getting it in early, they're getting it in advance, they can ask you their particular questions, so that when you're delivering content during the actual training, they're you can tailor that delivery to their specific questions. This could also be a time for them to just, at the end, get a private Q& A to get tailored feedback after the presentation.

So you could do it before or after, but the idea here is they get  exclusive opportunity to ask their particular question to you.  And usually that would be roughly 30 minutes. It could be an hour depending on how generous you are and then the cost of your VIP ticket. So, VIP model number two is a post workshop debrief.

So in this would be dependent on the topic of your webinar, your workshop, or your challenge. You could host a private 30 to 60 minute session where you could debrief with them, giving them the space to share about what they experienced. This would be immediately following the event. So this would be a chance for VIPs to ask follow up questions similar to the Q& A.

But also to just get additional insights or personalized advice from you. So you could do hot seat coaching during that 60 minute window. This can feel really valuable for attendees who want to apply the workshop content right away. So if you have given  a demonstration, a webinar, a challenge, or whatever it might be, where the content that you gave to them is something they could take immediate action on.

Likely, they're going to have some personalized questions that's going to help them get into action even faster. And that would be a great example of a time when you would want to do this VIP debrief session  that's maybe just a little more thorough than a basic Q& A. Option number three is access to the workshop recordings and some bonus content.

So typically there is a strategy in place with a free event that's a list building event where you might record the webinar, record the workshop or record the challenge and then say to the attendees, you've got X number of days to watch the replay if they didn't make it live. This VIP offer would be to give them those workshop recordings and the bonus content  and that they can have it for life.

They can download the video, they can keep the video and they can access it whenever they want to. So this provides VIPs with access to supplemental materials. This could be slides that go along with your presentation. It could be, a more robust workbook or just to keep the workbook if the one that, if the one you're using during the presentation is not something you're already giving to them.

It could be a template. That they get that is extra they could get an extra checklist that you don't get unless you buy into vip And you could also include a bonus video or a mini bonus training That dives a little bit deeper into a key topic from your workshop. So this is An excellent VIP upgrade.

This is something that I think would work pretty much every time. If you're going to get a special bonus training that no one else is going to get,  most people are going to say yes to that if they feel like it's going to move the needle faster for them. Offer number four, VIP Model number four, I should say, is to give a personalized feedback or audit.

I just did this with my recent event and I can share a little bit more about that in a second. But the example here would be if your workshop covers marketing or let's say a business strategy, you could offer a mini audit of their website, their social media presence or their branding as VIP package.

And This added value would be so powerful for attendees who are seeking a targeted improvement, right? The way that I did this in the recent event that I just hosted, which was Monday, it was called Plan and Envision, and everybody that attended this workshop got a really robust workbook. I think I just mentioned that you can also get a copy if you just message me, I'll happily send it to you.

But if you wanted to, you could upgrade to the VIP tier for 27, 27. And I would give you lifetime access to this training, which honestly is like probably worth hundreds of dollars. It's such a robust training. It's the same training I've used for many years. It is so valuable. You could do it again next year.

You could do it in the spring. You could do it quarterly.  You, for 27, you really never need to hire me again because you can do this on your own. But in addition to that I offer people A VIP audit of their actual marketing calendar once they got it finished. So just to me, that was like a very high value offer for a low amount of low cost.

And that was pretty successful. I'll talk a little bit more about the debrief on the launch of that when we get into the step by step.  So yeah, so option four is a personalized audit of their work. Number five would be a VIP breakout group. So you could, during the workshop, you could set aside a few breakout sessions that are exclusively for VIP members, where they can work in smaller groups with your direct guidance or your coaching.

This would just give them more individualized support during the actual workshop, where they can apply what they're learning as they go. And I would say This particular upsell would really only be effective if it matches up with what you're doing in such a workshop. So if it's more of a webinar where you're just teaching and maybe using it as a  sales vehicle to launch, a new sale or something like that breakout group might not be as effective.

I would think you would, with a webinar that's got like a pitch at the end, I would think you might want to offer more of that, Later on VIP debrief and Q& A.  But if you're hosting something what I did on Monday, which was a two hour workshop, it was a pretty it was an investment to make timing wise for the attendees.

And so in that case we did have a VIP breakout group, but it was after the event. But that was a, it was appropriate because we were doing a lot of work and it would make sense for them to say, I want to know what you think about my idea right now so I can actually do the work now. So in my, in that  example, it did make sense for me to have a VIP breakout group. 

Okay, VIP model number six it would be a one on one follow up call. This is a really great high value offer. You could offer your VIPs a 15 to 30 minute follow up call with you within one week of the workshop to discuss their goals, answer their questions, give them specific feedback on how they implemented what you taught them.

Or how they're managing the content that you shared. If they have, they're going to have specific questions likely. So this added layer of support could be a really powerful incentive for them to connect with you again. And I will say this is a great one that could lead to higher ticket sales later down the road.

pipeline, because they get that individualized feedback with you. If it's a good match, then maybe they're going to be considering you for a higher ticket offer later down the road. So that one on one follow up call is a great VIP offer. And then finally VIP upsell offer or model number seven is lifetime or extended access to content.

So as I was just mentioning VIPs that bought into my VIP tier for the Plan and Envision event, they all got lifetime access to that video.  So this lifetime access could just include, access to the entire workshop materials, it could be recordings, it could be resources,  or any updates that you make to the content in the future.

And that again would depend on the structure of your free event to begin with. You'll know if this makes sense based on what you're teaching but in this offer, VIP attendees will know that they have ongoing access, that they can refer back to the video, the training, and any key insights or strategies.

And again, I think that would make sense.  In the example of a more robust training or workshop where they're doing the work with you, they may feel like, they get to the end of the workshop and they still have work to do and they want to go back to and refer to it.  Again, you might say to free people, free attendees, Hey, listen, you've got to get the work done during our hour and a half together because then once it's done, it goes away.

And that would be. Okay, so the other thing I want to just say is you could and maybe should consider blending a couple of those ideas together. We're just experimenting to find out which aligns best with your workshops, content and the needs of your audience. So your VIP upsell is going to be based on as everything should be, what your client, your ideal client needs in order to get the biggest transformation with the least amount of effort.

So that's the goal with this strategy is to make it very easy for them to say, Oh, cool. I can get extra face time with my coach. I can get an individualized audit. Oh, I get lifetime access to that training video. I'm going to need that because I'm not going to finish it on Monday. I'm going to want to go back to that before this is done.

So if that's the case, then you could blend together, a combination of things. Like maybe they get a VIP Q and a. That happens right after the training, where they get to have, ask their specific questions, and then they have, X number of weeks to cash in their audit and or lifetime access to the video.

So that's what I packaged up for my 27 VIP offer. I said, you will get a VIP Q and A for 30 minutes right after the workshop. You're also going to get  three months time. That's a pretty generous amount of time where you can cash in this personalized audit. And what they get to do is send me their done promotional and marketing calendar for 2025.

Having followed the guidelines that I set up for them. And then I'm going to go over it, and I'm going to send them back my suggestions for how to space things out, some creative ideas on how they can implement their ideas and their strategies, some specific detailed strategies that they could try within what they created.

Any fixes that I see, like any way I can support them in making that strategy airtight and achievable is what they're gonna get from that feedback audit. And then they also get lifetime access to the workshop materials. So I had a three pronged VIP ticket.  Okay that's just a cute list of some ideas.

You could definitely brainstorm your own VIP ideas. Maybe it's a spotlight on your YouTube channel or your in, guest spotlight. on your podcast. Maybe it's a ticket to an in person event for a VIP upsell. Maybe it's a, if they buy into VIP for your free thing, that unlocks a discount on your larger ticket item.

Something like that could also work. So you just want to think carefully about who are the people that you're selling this to, what is it that you're teaching, and what makes the most sense based on the transformation that they're seeking. Always. Let your audience lead you to the right marketing approach. 

Okay. So now let's talk about the step by step process for designing and marketing that VIP upsell.  What I'm going to do is just share with you one step at a time, exactly how I set up.  This VIP upsell and like what you need to think about in order to make this a part of your strategy.  Okay, so I broke this down into five steps and they're pretty obvious, but if you're anything like me, you'd love to have somebody tell you step one.

Step two, do this. So you may find this to all be intuitive, but hopefully my breakdown will give you some structured steps to take. So here we go. Step one is obvious. It's to design your VIP offer. So we just talked about seven different options for how you could cobble together a VIP upsell. So design your offer.

You're going to choose your VIP model, right? So you're going to decide on one or more, of the options that we just discussed based on your audience needs. So just to re re touch those, it's early access or Q& A sessions, it's post workshop debrief access to recordings and bonus materials, personalized feedback or audits, a breakout during your group with personalized coaching, one on one follow up calls and or lifetime or extended access to the teaching materials. 

So first you're going to choose which of those things or which combination of those things you want to offer, what makes the most sense for your content, for your audience, and for the value that you want to  ask for, right? So you don't want to give like tons and tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of value and then say, it's only 7.

So you want to obviously be thinking strategically about how much you charge as well.  The second part of that is just bundling for value, right? So combining those options, maybe like I said, we're combining replays of the videos, extended lifetime with a Q and A and an audit, or, just putting together a combo that feels irresistible, but also makes sense for the price you're charging.

Which brings me to the third part of designing your offer, which is to set your price. So you want to keep this accessible, but valuable.  Typically, Anywhere between 27 and 97 works really well for a first time VIP offer. If this is new for you and it feels a little overwhelming to ask for money, keep it low, keep it at 27, but just make sure that the value is aligned.

So somebody feels like they're getting an irresistible amount of value for 27  and it's a no brainer for them to say yes. And think about it. Think through what is in your offer. If you're doing one on one calls and FaceTime with people and really deep personalized audits and stuff, then yes, you can charge a little bit more for that.

Up the price to make it commensurate with the value that you're offering.  So once you've got your model chosen and the exact bundle of your package and the price is set, Step two of your process is going to be to build your VIP assets.  So you want to create premium feeling content. So what you're going to do in this step is develop the additional materials that your VIP attendees will receive from you.

That could be a special VIP bonus training, that could be An additional page or two that goes with the workbook, a special template, something that only the VIPs are going to get. So you want to design that content, call it VIP, make it special,  and also prepare the experience with which you will deliver that content.

So that could look like setting up the breakout rooms beforehand. Organizing the Q& A, how is that going to go, like how are they going to ask questions?  Do they need to raise their hand? Is there a special way for them to participate? Just getting really clear on the process. And it could also mean scheduling those follow up calls  by creating space in your calendar and then sharing with them the steps they have to take in order to schedule their follow ups.

So you want to get clear on the preparation for the experience that you're going to deliver.  And then,  The third part of this step to build out your VIP assets, it's going to be to automate access for these VIPs. So you're going to want to automate the experience for them so it's less work for you.

So you're going to use tools like email automations or membership platforms in order to ensure that your VIPs can access their perks seamlessly and immediately and really feel like they're getting a VIP experience. So you want to take care of all of that.  Obviously, in advance, so it just rolls out seamlessly and it doesn't have to be super time consuming.

You can take whatever, creative assets that you've already designed for your event anyways, and just add the VIP  logo to it or add the words VIP experience. You can maybe change the color scheme so it looks a little bit different. You want to make sure that you add that into your timeline for prepping for your event.

Thanks.  Okay, great. So step number three is to market this VIP upsell. And this is where I've seen things go in two different directions. Obviously it all comes down to how much you show up and sell your offers. I talk about this a lot with my clients. Like you can have the greatest VIP upsell, or you can have the greatest offer in the whole wide world, but if nobody knows about it, then you're not going to sell it.

And. You can't hide this behind, you can't hide out and not, and keep it a secret. You want to really tell people about this incredible opportunity to get additional value from your experience. And remember, if somebody's bought into your pre event already, they've already made a decision. 

They've made the decision to allocate time. They've trusted your marketing enough already that they said yes to your event. So you can take that little piece of confidence boosting and use that to, to promote your upsell pre  event. You want to mention the VIP option in your event registration process as a way to upgrade their experience.

You want to use email sequences to highlight the VIP benefits. You want to add it to your PS and your PSS when you're sending out emails. And you may want to offer like an early bird pricing for the VIP. So maybe if you're promoting your event, a month before it happens, you might want to say in the first week, you might want to say early bird for the VIP is only 20 and it goes up to 30 by, X date.

So it gives people an incentive to buy in before that number goes up. So you would want to do that.  On the timeline of pre selling your event, you want to do that kind of in the first week or two.  During the event, you can continue to tease your VIP upsell. So even while the event is happening, you can talk about the VIP tier, make sure people know that it's still available, and put the link to buy into it.

In the chat of your zoom window or in the wherever you're hosting your event, you can add that VIP link for them to buy in and let them know they still can get access to all of those bonus features.  So you can tease the features throughout the workshop by saying things like VIP attendees are going to get access to this, whatever bonus feature right after this session, or, as they're learning from you and as they're experiencing you as a coach or a teacher, Or as a presenter, they may realize in the moment, gosh, I wish I had the VIP ticket.

, use the live coaching segments in your workshop and the engagement with them to prompt them and remind them about that upgrade option.  And then post event, you can still sell the VIP ticket, right? So you can send a followup email and let them know that they can still upgrade to VIP if they wish they had access to those bonus different offers, like if they wish they had the recording or if now they really want that audit and the feed personalized feedback because they realized after the fact that they would love to get that extra support from you.

It's still available. Here's the link. So you can send a follow up email just inviting them to click the link, grab that VIP access and let them know that it's not going to live be there forever, but they have a couple of days to grab it. You can also include testimonials at that point or any success stories from previous VIP attendees to encourage Their conversion. 

Okay, so that's all the marketing stuff. And I promised you experiential data about this. So I hosted several events like in 2021 2022. I did a bunch of virtual experiences for  clients of mine who I'd been coaching for a long time in the wellness category of my business. So a lot of it was around nutrition coaching and particularly I used to host these challenges Where people could come for free and do a three day  clean eat.

I called it a clean eating challenge, highly successful events. I would get hundreds of people signed up and for 25 people could upgrade to VIP and they would get, not only would they get all the coaching and the daily trainings and all the stuff, I would do post challenge  VIP Q and A's with them so they could ask specific questions about nutrient stuff.

And then all of them would get these done for you meal plans that would save them so much time. And I would send them this really handy link that they could just click on. It was like this interactive PDF that I'd created so they could change things and add different recipes in. It was a pretty amazing offer and that thing sold like gangbusters.

I think people felt like they were just getting so much from the three day challenge already that they just were so excited to be able to just get a little extra support for only 25. But here's the other thing that did.  Those VIPs who got into my 25 tier,  That was an incredibly high conversion rate for people that then bought my  497 plant powered kitchen course that I'd created.

So I just want to point that out because once people do buy into your VIP experience, they're much more likely to feel like they've already bought into your world and want to go even further with you. And that was a very high converting experience.  like baby step for them to then wind up buying my course from me  a few weeks down the road, or maybe even like a month down the road. 

So it was really nice to get that nice little cash injection from the VIP upsell, but it translated into a lot bigger sales for me a couple of months down the road when those people who had bought into my, Teaching universe were ready to take the next step and do the full course with me. And that was great success, but the most recent version of this strategy that I tried was just this week on Monday.

As I mentioned, I hosted the plan and envision event. I do this every year. This was a great year, great people, but I did not get a ton of VIP upsell ticket. And here's why,  as I've alluded to on this podcast in the recent past,  year I have a high stakes kind of health situation unfolding in my personal family regarding my mom and her health.

And she was actually in the hospital during the week of Thanksgiving with some kind of complications that were happening. And that was my, that was basically my, the week before the event when I would have been on top of going live and doing all kinds of teasers on Facebook and on Instagram and in my other socials.

And I didn't do any of that. So I did have a PS upsell in my emails, and I did have conversations with a handful of people who did do the upsell the VIP ticket, but it was just, I just didn't have the bandwidth to to do the upsells.  And that's why I didn't, it didn't, it wasn't so highly successful.

And I just think it's worth mentioning because all of these strategies require you to show up fully and be present for them. And they really only work if you are prepared to put it out there and then reinforce that with your audience, that this opportunity exists. So if you're going to do this VIP upsell strategy, make sure you have it in your marketing strategy.

In your plans, make sure you're planning to go live, make sure you have a dedicated email about the VIP experience. That's gonna get those upsells  for you and it will work. It's worked really well for me. It just didn't do it this time. So that's that.  Okay, so we've talked about marketing. We have two more steps to go.

Step number four is to create urgency and scarcity around your upsell. So this is important. I just touched upon this, but you want to offer a limited time pricing for the VIP package. So you want to say things like VIP access closes 24 hours after the event. So you can only get it, for a limited time, or maybe there's limited availability for your one on one calls or for those personalized audits to maintain the exclusivity.

So you can try to add that into your marketing just to make sure people know if they want this, they have to take action and get it. And then, the cool thing about that is that once you start getting a few VIP upsells, then you can talk about that in your marketing too. So if you start to get a few people that buy into that VIP tier, you can go online and go live and say, VIP tickets are selling, let's get yours now.

And create that feeling of urgency, exclusivity and scarcity, because that does  You know, without being really icky and getting into super FOMO marketing, that does  help buyers make a decision and get off the fence. So you just want to be ethical about how you do it. Everybody, nobody likes to feel like they're being scared into something, but you can create the sense of urgency without being, tacky.

So just be ethical. Be intentional about your wording and, be honest. Say that you're only offering this upsell for a limited amount of time and just stick to that. And if you're being, transparent and honest, then it's not icky or weird, it's just great. to do. Okay. And then step five.

Step five is really important and I don't think you should skip this step even if you've never done it before. And that's to track and refine your strategy. So with any marketing strategy that you ever try, there's going to be a first time and then the next time, right? You're going to try something. It may or may not go well.

And you want to try it again. You want to track your efforts and you want to refine your efforts. You don't want to just give up after you try something once in it and it flops.  I think with anything you're going to do in this solopreneur journey that you're on, you're going to find out that once you try it once, that's going to get you over the hump of knowing what to do, it'll condition your nervous system to, feel more confident the next time you try it.

It'll show you where you've made some mistakes and you might want to try to do things differently. It'll help. You to practice, right? You're just practicing things that could work better the next time you do it. So you want to be able to track certain metrics and then refine your strategy. So when you do it the next time you have a tighter presentation and you just do a better job. 

So after the event you're going to review what worked and then And you're going to also gather feedback from your VIP attendees to improve your next offer. So this is a very simple, maybe one or two question, follow up email that you send to your VIPs. Say, thank you so much for participating in the VIP experience for this year's blah, blah, blah event. 

Would you be willing to take 60 seconds to give me You know, feedback so that I can improve the way that I serve you and keep it really simple and then maybe just ask them either one question or if you give them a pre done survey that has two or three questions but their drop down menu, like something that just is so easy for them.

To fill out and let them know this is like them helping you help them, right? Because you'll make it even better for them next time.  So you want to track how many people converted from free To paid how many upsells did you get? What do you think? You know was the  key ingredient to getting them to upsell.

Let's say Most of the people that do your VIP write to you and tell you that they opted in for it because they wanted the audit. And that's what they were considering to be the great value in your upsell. Then you know for next time a personalized audit is the selling mechanism, is a selling vehicle.

That's the thing that they wanted. Or maybe they say they wanted lifetime access to the training video.  Now you can try to refine that and say for the next time around maybe you don't even have a lifetime access. Limited time replay for the people that couldn't make the event. Maybe you say  it's either show up live and it's a one time thing But only the VIP people are gonna get the replay like you can see how you can refine that So now you know that if everyone that was VIP says I did it for the replay video so I could watch it over and Over again, then maybe the next time you refine that and you put some emphasis on that replay video,  or you make it unavailable to anyone that doesn't do VIP. 

So that would be one example of how to refine that. And then also you just want to, that VIP feedback can be also used as testimonial. And so obviously you're getting consent and permission to use a testimonial, but that could be another way that you utilize that tracking and refining process. 

Okay. So quick recap on the five steps. Number one, define your offer. Number two, build your VIP assets. Number three, market your VIP upsell and get it out there and make sure everybody knows about it so you get that sweet cash injection. Number four use urgency and scarcity ethically, of course, to let people know that they don't have a ton of time to make this decision and get them off the fence.

And then five, once the event is done and over, you want to track the conversions and get feedback from your VIPs. And you could, depending on your relationship with your audience, you might not be at a place with your audience where you feel comfortable doing this, but you could ask your non converting And  I can just already tell you right now what they're going to say.

They're going to say they felt like the workshop, the webinar and or whatever content you were giving away for free was already either enough or even maybe too much. And they weren't sure they needed VIP because of where they're at in their process. So typically when people don't buy the extra support, it's because they don't know yet what they don't know.

And they don't know if they need it.  A way that you could work with that information is to  help educate them before the event  a little bit more. And that's a little bit of a deeper dive that would obviously depend on what you're teaching and who you're teaching it to, but it's something to keep in mind and something to chew on for your overall copywriting and marketing. 

Okay.  In closing I love this strategy.  I will continue to use this strategy and refine it. I felt like. The times that it was successful, it was not only did it just give me a little bit of extra boost of cash and grow my list, but it really got me into closer connection with the people who opted in.

And then it was so much easier for me to sell those people my full course because they were already saying yes And they were already getting a little bit deeper into my world and we were vibing, right? So it was like so easy to just say hey, I do this as well If you want to come over here and check out this  Because it was the obvious next step for people that were on that trajectory So you know, you want to make sure your free offer is the best It's a nice bite sized invitation to learn more about you, work with you.

Your VIP upsell is a little extra added value that feels irresistible because the price is just right? It's just low enough and you're getting just enough of a value that they're like it's a no brainer. Of course, I'm going to give you 27 to get that extra workbook or that extra, module, whatever it is. 

And then  theoretically, it's a nice, it's teeing them up perfectly for taking next steps with you as a coach or a consultant, or. Your bigger ticket thing that you sell. That's the idea. This process can add  a lot to your free event. So it also strengthens your connection with your audience.

So yeah, try implementing these steps. The next time you do a freebie, that is an in person.  like a workshop, a webinar or a challenge and watch your audience engagement and really watch your business grow when you do this because it really does work. It's a great strategy. If you found this helpful,  please be sure to follow the mindset to market podcast and I would love for you to share your thoughts on Instagram.

You can tag me at the  Debra underscore Smith underscore coaching or at mindset to market podcast  And I will see you here next week. I'm going to be coming in hot at the start of the week We are in my birthday week right now So if you're listening to this in the time machine, you can still say happy birthday to me  I have a great open cart right now.

I've got an incredible birthday bonanza bonus deal happening You probably heard a commercial about this, but in case you're listening to this live when it's fresh, please go to my website, check out the incredible deep discount plus high value bonus offers that I've got going for new enrollees of mindset to market.

So if you feel like having a coach for the first half of 2025 to align your programming and align your offers and get your marketing in place and really kick it up a level and start making a lot more money, I've got an incredible offer. In my for my mindset to market  coaching program, six month coaching program and very robust step by step course.

Would love to have you join us. And that my friends is all for this week. I really look forward to seeing you again next week. I hope you're having great holiday vibes and that you are well. And until we meet again, as always, may you be vibrant.