The Unstoppable Eventrepreneur™

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone

Thursday Apr 20, 2023

How To Say NO Without Feeling Guilty

Thursday Apr 20, 2023

We are taught from a young age that a lot of our value has to do with how much we help others. And while it is important to be a kind and helpful person, it is also okay to say no from time to time. In today’s episode, host May Yeo Silvers teaches listeners how they can say no without feeling the backlash of guilt.

As entrepreneurs, our time and resources are already very limited. And while we understand the value of help, it doesn’t always make sense for us to overextend ourselves to others. Before you agree to do something for someone else, May suggests walking yourself through a series of questions. That way, you are more intentional about the things you do for yourself and others. First ask yourself whether or not this person has only come to you for help. And if not, then why are other people saying no? Secondly, do you even have the resources and time to offer this help? And by offering your help, are you enabling them to continue to use you for your time and expertise. If you can answer all of these questions easily, you must ask yourself the final and most important question: how is helping going to impact your personal and business lives? If you realize that doing something for someone else is going to cause you hardship or turmoil, then it might be time to say no.

In the end, if we are not in the position to help ourselves, there is no way we can help others and that is why it is okay to say no sometimes. By being more intentional about where we put our time and energy, we not only open opportunities to create an abundant life for ourselves, but others too.

Quotes

• “My ultimate goal is to understand when I say yes to something, I am at peace. And when I say no to something, I am also at peace.” (02:18-02:34 | May)

• “When someone comes to me for help, before I readily say yes or no, I ask myself a few questions. So that when I come to the final decision, regardless whether it's a yes or a no, I have gone through an intentional process to come to that conclusion.” (02:58-03:21 | May)

• “The reason why we have a hard time saying no is because we want people to love us and not label us as being selfish.” (05:12-05:20 | May)

• “When you're running a full cup, you can give a lot more. But if you are not able to even sustain yourself emotionally or financially, how can you sustain another person?” (08:58-09:14 | May)

Links

Connect with me at: may@events4anyone.com

Website: events4anyone.com

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone

Thursday Apr 13, 2023

The Strategy I Use to Tackle a New Challenge

Thursday Apr 13, 2023

Do you want to take on new challenges but don’t know where to start? For many of us, it can be hard to implement new strategies into our lives and businesses that we are not familiar with. In today’s episode, host May Yeo Silvers goes through the six-step process she uses to tackle new challenges with ease.

After you have identified what the task is that you need to take on, you must ask yourself what it will do for your life and your business. You then must understand what resources you have or might need to complete this task. Do you need to hire someone to help you accomplish this task? Or can you do it yourself? Then, identify the obstacles that are preventing you from checking this task off your to-do list. For many entrepreneurs, their habits or belief systems are constantly blocking them from achieving their goals. Once you have addressed the root problem, you will be able to complete tasks more easily. But in the end, you must implement and audit. Ask yourself what is working, what isn’t, and how you can tweak your process to become more efficient and effective.

The easiest way to achieve our goals is to implement thorough processes that help keep us in check. Tune in to learn more about this six-step process and how you can implement it in your life to help you tackle new challenges successfully!

Quotes

• “Step number one is to identify the task that you say you want to tackle. And then, you have to ask yourself, ‘By tackling this task, how is that going to impact or affect my business and my personal life?’ This is where we get really intentional.” (03:08-03:25 | May)

• “What obstacles are preventing you to not just carry out the task, but to complete it?” (04:46-04:56 | May)

• “The problem that most of the people face is they start something, but they never finish.” (05:02-05:06 | May)

• “Step number six is to implement and audit. This is a step that a lot of people miss. They implement, but then they don't audit. They just do, do, do. And then they don't collect data to analyze, ‘How come things are not working?’ Or, ‘How come things are working? What can we pour more gasoline into the things that are working? And what do we need to tweak with the things that aren’t working?’” (09:43-10:06 | May)

Links

Connect with me at: may@events4anyone.com

Website: events4anyone.com

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone

Thursday Apr 06, 2023

How to Get More Done in a Day

Thursday Apr 06, 2023

Do you struggle to check everything off of your to-do list? As a successful veteran entrepreneur and event planner, host May Yeo Silvers has mastered time management. In today’s episode, she shares her secrets on how she created a life that many others aspire to have.

Many entrepreneurs wish there were more hours in a day to get everything done. And while most people rely on their to-do lists, May has spent the last year perfecting her process that ensures she gets everything she needs done in a timely manner. The first place to start is by brain dumping on a piece of paper all of the tasks you need to complete in both your business and personal life. And then organize your to-do list based on the priority these tasks need to get done and see if any of these things are able to be delegated to someone else. To ensure that you hold yourself accountable, May explains that you need to write down the potential consequences of not completing that item.

The reality is that most of the time, we pack our schedules with too many things and expect to get it all completed. But by following May’s five-step process, you can make the most of your day without becoming overwhelmed.

Quotes

• “The common problem is we pack too many things in one day or one week expecting that we can do it all.” (02:03-02:10 | May)

• “For every single task that you have on the piece of paper, you're going to then write down the consequences if this task does not get done.” (04:43-04:51 | May)

• “I also will determine if I can delegate some of these tasks or roll them over into the next week.” (06:35-06:41 | May)

• “In summary, I started with four tasks, but I ended up with only one thing that needs to be done. This is how I avoid becoming overwhelmed.” (08:50-08:59 | May)

Links

Connect with me at: may@events4anyone.com

Website: events4anyone.com

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone

Thursday Mar 30, 2023

How To Recoup On Your Business Investments

Thursday Mar 30, 2023

Are you investing in your business and not seeing it pay off? Whether you’re investing in lead services, an assistant, or a coaching program, you should be able to get a return on all of your business investments. If you feel like the processes aren’t working out, it could be because of you. In today’s episode, host May Yeo Silvers discusses how to ensure that you recoup on all of your business investments now and in the future.

One of the biggest mistakes that new business owners make is not giving their investment enough time to pay off. While it can be frustrating to spend money you don’t necessarily have in the beginning, you have to be patient and give whatever strategy you invested in time to start making you money. Ultimately, if an investment strategy isn’t working in your favor, you need to take a step back and evaluate your process. For example, if you aren’t closing leads, you need to ask yourself if you are following the right steps to qualify your leads? Are you following up? Are you even targeting the right leads for you?

But at the end of the day, recouping the money you spent on your investments comes down to you. You need to be investing in the right things, with the right strategies, and have a good mindset about what you are doing. Join the conversation to hear examples of successful investing strategies and how you can tweak your actions so that you can win back your investments tenfold.

Quotes

• “Every single investment strategy out there, they all work. If it is not working for you, the common denominator is you.” (01:44-01:55 | May)

• “One of the common mistakes that people often make is they don't give the investment enough time to evaluate whether or not it's working.” (06:33-06:46 | May)

• “Your return on investment is not how many leads you get. It's how many leads you close and the dollar amount that you close them for.” (10:00-10:12 | May)

• “Another rule of thumb to remember is the cheaper your service, the more you need to sell in order to recoup your investment.” (15:41-15:48 | May)

• “Every time you do any form of investment, you need to have an idea of how many outreaches and conversations you need to have to make it a conversion.” (20:30-20:44 | May)

Links

Connect with me at: may@events4anyone.com

Website: events4anyone.com

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone

Thursday Mar 23, 2023

What Should You Be Investing in Your Business

Thursday Mar 23, 2023

Have you been wondering what you should be investing in your business? The answer depends on what stage of your business you are in, your strengths and weaknesses, and what you actually want to be doing with your time. Host May Yeo Silvers explains that when you are first starting out, the most important thing to understand is the day to day operations of building and running your business. This means things like bookkeeping, marketing, sales generating activities, and even attending in person networking events and trade shows.

Investing in a business coach is a great way to get started because they can help you decide where to invest your money. Whether you decide to do it alone or get a coach, the majority of your time building your business will be spent on sales generating activities. It is always a good idea to invest in anything that will help to generate leads, such as a photographer for an event portfolio, CRM software for generating sales outreach emails, and a website designer to build a robust website if you do not feel comfortable building one yourself. Once you have leads, you will have to also know how to close them and much of closing leads comes down to mindset. The right coach can help you to develop the business mindset you need to be successful.

In order to build a successful business, you need to be very clear on what is required to keep the business running on the day to day. Think about your skills and what you enjoy doing so that you can figure out where you need to invest your time and money.

Quotes

• “When you're starting your business, you need to understand what goes into the day to day activities.” (3:57-4:03 | May)

• “Building your pipeline, building your leads, building your visibility is your day to day operation.” (5:27-5:33 | May)

• “Buying insurance for your business, that's not an investment. That is what we call the cost of doing business.” (8:11-8:18 | May)

• “Unless you hire a very, very good copywriter who's able to imitate your voice, I strongly suggest you write the content yourself.” (9:37-9:45 | May)

• “When you are able to get leads, that's 50% of the equation. What's the other 50%? You’ve got to know how to close the leads.” (13:04-13:13 | May)

• “Invest in a coach that is able to help you build the mindset that you need to build a business.” (15:24-15:31 | May)

• “When you are at a certain level, your next step is no longer just building the pipeline, because you're still continuously building a pipeline. Now you can actually switch out your focus to building brand visibility, because once you build brand visibility, it will automatically build your pipeline.” (24:00-24:17 | May)

Links

Connect with me at: may@events4anyone.com

Website: events4anyone.com

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone

Thursday Mar 16, 2023

One Stop Shop or Niche Down?

Thursday Mar 16, 2023

Are you at the start of your business and trying to decide whether to niche down or be a one stop shop? Host May Yeo Silvers suggests not making a decision right away, but instead, trying everything first to figure out what your passion is. Unless you already know what you do or do not like doing for event planning, you may want to consider being open to doing different type of events and decorations (for event designer and decorator) to have an idea what your REAL passion is after doing these events.

You may be very passionate and want to do it all, but consider that this may not be a sustainable path. If you are creating everything from flower arrangements to balloon arches and have a lot of hands-on activities, it may be difficult to maintain everything. Even if you enjoy doing it all, it will make your business harder to scale and cause you to risk burnout. You don’t have to do it all to still be a one stop shop. Decide what you will keep your hands on and then hire vendors to provide auxiliary services.

To determine your niche, you may have to experience planning and executing different events at least a few times before you say YES or NEVER AGAIN. If you find yourself enjoying lots of different niches, really consider whether it is a sustainable path for you to be involved in everything.

Quotes

• “When you're first starting the business, I would say don't be so quick to want to niche down until you have tried it all to know what your passion is.” (5:36-5:48 | May)

• “You may not agree that you want to niche down to only doing one thing, because you have interest in every single thing. So I would suggest that if that's the path that you want to take, considering that it may not be sustainable.” (13:07-13:28 | May)

• “If you go through the process of elimination and you still can't eliminate anything, just try it.” (16:40-16:46 | May)

• “You can still be a production house or a one stop shop, but you don't have to do every single part yourself.” (22:58-23:04 | May)

Links

Connect with me at: may@events4anyone.com

Website: events4anyone.com

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone

Thursday Mar 09, 2023

Should I Lower My Fees?

Thursday Mar 09, 2023

Have you been considering lowering your fees? Host May Yeo Silvers suggests that if you want to lower your fees, you can, but it can quickly become a habit that causes you to devalue your worth. The better route would be to slowly raise your fees so that you do not shock your pre-existing clients and can build your self-worth over time.

If you start out charging say $50 and then you try for a huge price increase all at once, you will likely lose some of your current clients who were unprepared for that change. You may also struggle to book at that higher cost initially and that can reinforce limiting beliefs about your self-worth. Instead of hiking your rate up a ton all at once, raise it slowly over time and inform your pre-existing clients of the coming changes. By raising your rates slowly, you will retain more of your clients and be more likely to get more new bookings at the higher rate which will raise your confidence level. This way you won’t need to consider lowering your fees, because you never raised them unsustainably high in the first place.

There will always be someone willing to pay whatever rate you wish to charge. If you want to lower your fees, that is your right. However, if you raise your fees slowly and build your self-worth, you may not ever need to lower your fees in the first place, because you will be booking clients consistently.

Quotes

• “You have to be mindful when you're raising your fees whether it makes sense to do it in a short period of time with such a big chunk.” (2:44-2:53 | May)

• “Stand firm because in a sales conversation. Whoever has the biggest conviction is going to win.” (3:17-3:22 | May)

• “There will always be someone who's going to pay that price at whatever price you charge.” (7:24-7:28 | May)

• “At the end of the day, should you lower your fees? Yes you can. But just know that it will become a habit. And if you're okay with that, that's okay because it's your business. But I would rather that you raise your fees slowly.” (13:11-13:24 | May)

Links

Connect with me at: may@events4anyone.com

Website: events4anyone.com

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone

Thursday Mar 02, 2023

Attract Your Ideal Client By Doing This

Thursday Mar 02, 2023

Have you been attracting the wrong type of clients instead of ones who are aligned with your style of working? Host May Yeo Silvers suggests that the underlying issue may lie in a lack of honesty between yourself and a prospective client.

If you are typically a people-pleaser, it may be more difficult for you to say no to a potential client even if your intuition is telling you upfront that they will not be a good fit. You may hesitate to set expectations and honor your own boundaries in favor of trying to work and communicate in the way the client prefers. Ultimately, this does both yourself and that client a disservice, because neither of you are well-aligned. To attract your ideal client, be upfront and honest about your style of working and communicating, and encourage your clients to be honest with you about their desired working style and expectations.

By qualifying that you and a potential client are a match before ever getting into rates or contracts, you create an environment of authenticity and honesty. This also helps you to honor your own boundaries and not agree to take on a client for the wrong reasons such as people-pleasing or monetary need.

Quotes

• “What went wrong was in that sales conversation nobody was being honest.” (6:07-6:13 | May)

• “You are the leader in the sales consultation and you need to lead the conversation by creating an environment that your potential client can be themself to tell you how they want things done.” (6:28-6:45 | May)

• “I basically set the boundaries and expectations at the very beginning.” (9:35-9:38 | May)

• “Before I drop my fee, I want to know whether I like this person.” (12:53-12:57 | May)

• “A lot of entrepreneurs, not just event planners, who said that they are not attracting the ideal client, it's because they're not being honest. They are not being honest with themself of what they want. They are also not being honest with their clients, and they are also not encouraging their clients to be honest with them.” (15:16-15:39 | May)

Links

Connect with me at: may@events4anyone.com

Website: events4anyone.com

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

FB private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/events4anyone

Thursday Feb 23, 2023

The REAL Reason Why Your Clients Hire You

Thursday Feb 23, 2023

Do you understand why your past and potential clients choose to hire you? According to host May Yeo Silvers, this is a question that every event planner needs to have an answer to because it can help you get more business in the future.

On the surface, it is easy to assume that your clients have hired you for their convenience. And while this may be the case for some people, always trying to sell to the surface level needs of your customers is not a sustainable way to generate business. If you focus just on price, you will always be able to be easily out bid. If you want to form a real business relationship with your clients, you need to focus on identifying the one thing that you can give them that is unique to you and your business.

When you stop trying to sell your services just for their price, and you shift your focus to addressing BEYOND the surface needs of your clients, you will be able to close more sales calls and bring in high-end clients that will appreciate your expertise and work.

Quotes

• “The problem with a lot of event planners that is blocking them from going to the next level is they are selling to the surface needs of their potential client. Which is, ‘I help you save time and money and I have the expertise to do this.’” (02:58-03:20 | May)

• "There are always people who object to the price. Even though the potential client may not have the time nor the expertise to do what they say they want for the events, once they are quoted the price, immediately time becomes an abundance for them.” (03:32-03:54 | May)

• “You will never win when it comes to price bidding because there will always be somebody who's more than willing to charge less than you in order to win the business.” (04:48-05:00 | May)

• “As a consumer, it's easy for us to find comparable items to compare. But what is the one thing that a potential client can’t find anywhere else? You. You are the most precious, rarest commodity. You are selling a unique experience.” (11:11-11:27 | May)

• “I don’t convince anyone to work with me. I show them my value. I show them that they can trust me” (12:10-12:20 | May)

Links

Connect with me at: may@events4anyone.com

Website: events4anyone.com