We have all experienced it! you sign up for a training event, fork over some hard earned cash & put it in the monthly expenses as training, or seminars. The day was fun, action packed with everyone walking away saying what great value it was.
Soon after reality sets in & you are back to the daily grind,no different to the week before the seminar. So why is this the rule rather than the exception?
1. No actionable tasks to act on immediately
Attending a great seminar is a good start, however if you do not walk out the room with a clear step by step process to follow you are likely doomed before you start. Just taking your own notes is not going to be the answer, if this is how the presentation has been structured you are left with your own interpretation of what to do next. Did you miss anything critical over the entire day by needing a quick bathroom break, or stepping out to take that phone call you just could not miss.
Social Media is at best multi faceted, deciding which platforms are best suited to your business, what is the best strategy for each, what to post & when. If you do not have an action plan for these decisions, implementing what you may have learned will be tough.
2. Lack of any long term framework
An immediate action plan will get you off to a good start, but where to from there. In most cases you will need to have a planning phase, then an implementation phase, and at least & review of what has worked, what needs some change in strategy & what to just drop altogether.
Again if you have been left to your own devices to work these steps out, your odds of succeeding take another nose dive. A good event would ideally include at least an option to have these extra steps covered at later dates, even if these were optional events at an additional cost.
3. No follow up support
Almost all events will include plenty of question time on the day, again once the day is done it is guaranteed you will come up with more questions or points at which you will stumble. What do you do if there is no email support, regular webinar or one on one mentoring available.
In most cases you will get frustrated, spend more and more time trying to work it out for yourself. Or the worst case scenario, you give up claiming it is all too hard. At this point what ever you paid to attend the event is wasted, so is the time you have invested to attend and attempting to put what you thought you learned into action.
4. Information is too broad
It is very difficult to organise events that are highly niched to a specific industry or business sector. Let’s not forget the presenter or presenters are not a charity, the event is their way to leverage their knowledge or experience as an income stream.
Often the only viable option is to keep the information broad and appealing to a wide audience. The wider the audience the more generic the information often becomes. The problem then becomes how will there be enough time to break that down into what is going to be the best option for “your” business. The answer is simple, it does not happen. Once again you now need to do your own research to tailor the broad information to be specific to your business or industry, provided you even know how to do that.
If the event you are planning to attend does not have at least the added option to have a one on one session to strategise a tailored option, chances are you will not get what you were hoping for. Of course one on one time will not be free, you should expect to pay for such a valuable service. The key information you should obtain before handing over your cash is, is the additional service going to be available after the event.
5. You don’t know what you don’t know
Potentially the biggest reason these events will eventually disappoint you is, your lack of understanding as to what you should come away with after the great informative day you paid for. No different to most decisions you make to invest in new people, equipment, software or marketing campaigns. Careful due diligence should be completed before deciding if the slick marketing brochure or email campaign is going to deliver what you need.
Ask the hard questions up front, it will be too late once you have paid your fees or are in the middle of the presentation. Price is not always going to be your best guide, and should not be your ultimate deciding factor if this is the event for you. Start with the end in mind and keep looking until for find what you know you need.