I recently attended Kajabi’s first conference in Los Angeles at Hotel Irvine. It was packed with all-star business gurus and speakers … really ALL the people I follow and admire in ONE SINGLE location. Heck yeah! I was excited to fangirl, learn from the best and be motivated by my successful Kajabi peers.
As a work from home mom of 4 and military spouse, I travel very little for work, so when I do make a great, humungous effort to find the time, spend the money AND get childcare help – traveling for work HAS TO BE worth it. I committed to going to one conference a year that will encourage me and help me grow my business and network. This year it was the Kajabi Impact Summit … and it was so worth it!
Since we all can’t be there, I want to sum up what I learned from the speakers and what I will apply to my clients’ businesses as a digital marketing consultant. If you’re a VA, these six things will give you confidence in working with your clients and help you cut to the chase in your learning. After all, that’s my job, to give you the shortcuts! I’ll probably go over each of the speakers’ messages in depth later, because there were so many golden nuggets, but for now let’s look at my takeaways and what I’d tell my clients.
First, I want to preface that almost every speaker at this event has achieved ENORMOUS success using Kajabi to teach their students their craft. Of course, they were biased to the all-in-one platform as their tech solution but overall outcome and need is the same to bring business online. I was already convinced that Kajabi was the right tool for me to offer and deliver my Digital Media VA Crash Course. If you are considering purchasing for yourself or a client, or just want to learn more about Kajabi, please please use my affiliate link: https://app.kajabi.com/r/fg7R3Y8i/t/dghq3tu2. THANK YOU!
Ok, enough of that! On to the good stuff!!!
What I learned from the Kajabi event speakers:
1. Do the Work.
This isn’t a sexy answer, but it’s one you can take home to your clients and provide value for each one. EVERY.SINGLE. speaker stressed and over-stressed and re-stressed the need to produce weekly, valuable content. Every online business owner needs to be in it for the “LONG GAME” and MUST BE DOING THIS. Weekly content is in the form of blogs, podcasts, videos, social media posts, etc. And that’s where we step in as digital media virtual assistants!!! At the beginning and early stages and later stages of business, IT IS SO TIME CONSUMING. But all business owners need help with this so they can focus on the bigger vision of their business. There is a huge opportunity for you to find and secure work… and a reminder for you to demonstrate your value as a VA.
We can help with this incredibly important part of their business. We already know that producing content regularly builds their reputation and credibility, forms good habits, grows email lists and is KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH. It all starts with regular content. They need our help and our services. We are valuable!!!!
When I talked to Sean Cannell, he told me every one of my clients should start Youtube with the plan to produce weekly content NO MATTER WHAT. And use it as an opportunity to grow, learn, get better and have ZERO expectations. It’s a long game. A client is not going to get tens of thousands of followers over night. So we do need to manage those expectations and pre-qualify potential clients who realize this.
2. Always be Gathering Email Leads
Almost every speaker had an opt-in offer to gather emails and convert their conference audience into customer leads. They didn’t pitch their course or do death by sales or powerpoint. But they all casually mentioned their digital offer – afterall that was the reason we were there – Kajabi! To learn how they did digital courses. Roger Love had a text opt-in to get a speaker’s voice lesson. Chalene Johnson invited the audience to attend her free podcast event (must pre-register), etc. Other speakers offered their presentation slides as an opt-in. Genius!!!!
And guess who is building all those opt-ins and building those marketing funnels to all of those emails? US, the digital marketing VAs!!! More opportunity for work and to help your client.
3. Just Have Fun
I am not a conference junkie or motivational speaker groupie. I haven’t attended very many conferences. In fact 15 years ago, I worked for the Army to produce conferences with audio-visual support. I went to a ton of conferences to do the work… (So yeah, running PowerPoints and setting up speakers and mics… all super fun stuff.) Except our conferences and 4-star generals’ topics were quite BORING. At Kajabi, it was so different. Every single speaker had a song they handpicked and came on stage to. And so many of the best speakers went a little crazy with the dancing. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Even from the back of the room, it brought up the energy and strangely the relatability and likability of the speaker.
The reason I am telling YOU this is to let your clients know that if they are trying to be an expert, and speaking at events 3 to 4 times a year (like they should), they need to turn on their energy for the stage. It may not be appropriate to dance at the Army’s briefing about recruitment issues. But there are ways to standout, get the crowd engaged and be interactive. I immediately reminded my client who is having her first live event next month to find ways to be fun … and maybe dance.
4. Video Introductions
I’m going to piggy back from the all the dancing here. The top speakers had an introduction video that set the stage for their presentation. I was not familiar with all the speakers. Some of them, Chalene Johnson, I knew had huge, multi-faceted businesses. But when I saw her intro video I realized she’s the PiYo lady! I hadn’t put two and two together. I’d listened to her business podcast and scrutinized her Facebook ad strategy all along, but I was completely unfamiliar with her “start” in the Beach Body fitness world!! Her intro video immediately warmed up an unfamiliar audience, established credibility and presented her so well. It got me excited to learn from her.
This highlight reel made so much sense to me. I immediately told the client above that she needed an intro video to explain her complex business because she started in the painting world and is now in the business coaching world also. At her event, it will help connect the audience with speakers. Not just “reading a bio.” I want her to have one for all of her future speaking gigs.
Note: Timing is everything. Have the intro video be less than 60 seconds. If it’s too long the client looks super vain, and the audience just doesn’t have an attention span for more than 90 seconds of fast cutting videos!
5. Power Point Slides
I know my clients’ business inside and out so often times I help out with presentations for their speaking gigs. I am not a PowerPoint whiz or anything. But I do have an eye for what looks good, what’s helpful and captivating to the audience, how to present information thoughtfully …and what is “tweetable.”
My big takeaway from the Kajabi speakers was keep the slides original. There is no right or wrong way to design. It doesn’t have to be all matchy-matchy. Don’t do death by PowerPoint. It can complement what you are saying, help you introduce topics, keep the audience engaged or really nail home a point.
Look at all the different styles here:
Brendon Burchard’s simple slides 
Sean Cannell’s “Instagramable” slides
Jasmine Star’s styled flat lays slides 
Chalene Johnson’s colorful on brand slides
This just gave me a lot of confidence in what I had done in the past. For my clients, I actually prefer to design my Power Point slides in Canva, but I have never actually attended their speaking events and seen my designs in action! During the conference, the business sidekick in me was already thinking how I can improve this for my clients, their audiences and fit their style. I like to pay attention to the behind-the-scene, overlooked details. It was just so encouraging.
((I will have to write a blog post in the future with some of my slide tips for this type of VA work.))
6. Be You.
It’s impossible to compare Amy Porterfield to James Wedmore to Chalene Johnson to Jasmine Star. Every single speaker was amazing. Everyone was DIFFERENT. They had their own style. Their own jokes. Their own slides. Their own music. Their own points. Their own ways to engage the crowd. There is no one and only way. There is no right way. The biggest thing of all is that I will encourage all of my clients to just be themselves. Don’t copy what other speakers are doing. Be authentic and own it. Have that confidence.
BONUS: Meet and Greet
If your client is speaking, make sure they schedule the time to meet and connect with fans afterward. Then later that night, make the time to personally respond (not using a BOT) to the IG tags. It will create diehard fans and just grow your business organically by wanting to connect PERSONALLY…..
And if for some reason Neil Patel reads this blog and saw my stalking on my Instagram Stories (now it’s own highlight button) @emilyreaganpr … I just want to tell you something.
Neil, I felt really bad that all those people were coming up to you and taking fly-by selfies. I know you were in a hurry to get to lunch and trying to be patient. I didn’t have the guts to do that because I know you are a real person, and I didn’t want to milk a 20-second relationship on Instagram. And poor Vanessa was trying her best to be your bodyguard, I couldn’t disrespect her. But you said you’d come back, and I never saw you again. Booo!!! I really just wanted to say HI and say that you have made a big impact on my virtual assistant business. THANK YOU!!!! So let’s get a photo next time!!!! – Emily
I really hope you found my insights from the Kajabi conference helpful. So many times in this online business, especially when witnessing the millionaire success stories, I can feel unsure. But seeing BIGWIG speakers in action, gosh it was just encouraging!!!
-Emily, Digital Media Consultant (and Virtual Assistant …)
If you’re interested in learning more about what I do as a social media manager, digital marker and virtual assistant helping small business owners remotely, please fill out this form here and I’ll tell you more.
Where to Get Started Online
I have a list of 10 virtual job tasks for you here…. this will help you get started in the online space and let you in on exactly what clients coming to me are asking for help with and willing to pay a VA for… take a look!
I’d also love to have you in our private FB community of VAs here: Emily’s Digital Media Specialist and Virtual Assistant Lab. Feel free to ask in the group about the “HOT” courses and where you should be focusing your online learning as a VA. I know things are always changing in the social media realm, so if you found this blog helpful, just go to my FB community for the latest and greatest =)
