EPISODE 69 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
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Running a virtual event that people actually engage with from start to finish is something a lot of small business owners dream about, and spend way too long sitting on.
In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on the Retention Games, my first out-of-the-box virtual event that featured 19 speakers, a crowd voting format, and physical contestant cards.
If you’ve been thinking about hosting your own standout event and want a real, honest look at what’s involved, this one’s for you.
Tools I mentioned:
What we cover:
What made the Retention Games format so different from a standard virtual summit
The results, including reach, list growth, podcast impact, and a conversion rate I’m genuinely happy with
The tech stack I used (mostly tools I already owned)
Why and how Airtable basically ran the whole event on autopilot
What attendees and speakers loved and the honest feedback I’m taking on board
The popularity contest misconception the numbers totally debunk (full reveal in the Retention Lab debrief on 19 June!)
Whether I’d do it again (spoiler: absolutely) and what the 2027 edition might look like
Soundbites:
“There’s no need to reinvent the wheel to purchase new ⁓ expensive tech tools. Often I feel you already have the back end ⁓ and the tools to pull it off. You just need to work out how you can connect those tools in a clever way and leverage them to pull off an amazing customer experience.”
“So if you’re sitting on a big idea, on a concept that feels somewhat daunting, hasn’t been done before, you’re a little bit scared off. Absolutely run with it. See what happens, and then learn for next time. Because now that the load has lifted off my shoulders, I’ve run my first virtual event, I loved it, it was a hit, my audience loved it, and I know how I can make it even better next time, that mental hurdle of doing it again has just completely gone. I’m excited. I’ve already put it in my calendar for next year as a major event. And yeah, I’m just genuinely excited by the retention games number two.”
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Episode Transcript:
Nadine (00:00)
Hello, hello, and welcome to this week’s episode. If you have been in my world for a while, you would know that I just wrapped up the most out-of-the-box event I’ve ever run. One that was in the making for far too long. I probably sat on the concept for close to two years, thinking, who am I to run a virtual summit in inverted commas And ⁓ yeah, I really could have pulled it off a lot sooner, but imposter syndrome got in the way. But
In May, I finally pulled it off. The retention games, the first ever out-of-the-box virtual event that I’ve run, It involved 19 speakers, an interactive voting format. There were physical contestant cards, a crowd favorite prize for contestants, and the numbers genuinely surprised me in many ways.
so today I’m pulling back the curtain a little bit and just enough to give you a real taste of what’s possible when you approach a somewhat overdone format in a different way and come at it left or center. So let me tell you about the retention games and what exactly was involved. So
⁓ during the event, which happened from the 12th to the 15th of May, I featured 19 online business owners inside a format where each of them shared one proven strategy. So one retention or customer experience hack that had got them specific results in their business. But rather than having you know slides and slide decks,
I asked the contestants to take people behind the scenes and record their screen. So everything was under 15 minutes. People got a raw and honest look at the setup, at the results, at the thought process without having to look at a Canvas slide deck for far too long. Part of that event was the crowd voting. So attendees got to vote for their favorite strategy each day, and there were prizes on the line for the attendees.
Who went into the daily prize pool and could win amazing prizes from the contestants, but also for the contestants themselves. So that really encouraged them to put forward their best strategy, put extra effort in when it comes to putting things together, but also promoting the event because there was so much on the line. Every element and every aspect of this event was super deliberate.
⁓ the sessions were short, the format was actionable and interactive and got the attendees you know, to be made them a part of the event. And it was competitive by design, meaning there was a competitive edge that came out, particularly in some contestants who got right into the format.
the customer experience thread that ran through all of it made it very on-brand for me. And ultimately I wanted people to come back to the event rather than just watching day one and dropping off. And it definitely did the trick. ⁓ people were engaged, people kept coming back, and people kept following along. And ⁓
As I said before, people seemed really tired of the overdone middle of the road virtual summit format. So the feedback that I got, ⁓ yeah, has definitely reinforced that people want more of this out of the box format and more events like this one. So if you are on the fence about trying something different, definitely take this episode as a nudge to do it and ⁓ go for it.
So I’m going to give you an idea when it comes to the reach and also the results of the event. So I had hundreds of people grab a free ticket, and the majority of them were brand new to my list. I definitely have ideas how I can drastically increase the ⁓ free ticket signups from the hundreds to the thousands, which I’m not going to go into today.
but I’m going to cover that inside the debrief in Retention Lab later this week. the conversion rate from free ticket to paid upgrade ⁓ sat at 9%, which I’m very happy with. ⁓ I’m thinking about slight tweaks that I’m going to make for next year based on the findings and the results and the split between the two upgrade versions. ⁓ one involved joining my membership retention lab.
as part of that upgrade. And one was a standalone ongoing access package. So ⁓ yeah, interesting results there. And I’m definitely sitting on how I’m going to slightly evolve that for next year’s format. but the numbers and of course the you know email signups and the financial benefits in themselves wasn’t the only flow on effect from this from this event. So my podcast during the
Event week charted in four countries, basically off the back of a clever promo strategy that I implemented in the lead up to the event. And ⁓ listener numbers have been up considerably since the retention games wrapped up in general, because again, I was very strategic about not only growing my email list, but also
How I can support them on an ongoing basis. So the podcast definitely fit into this bigger picture strategically. There’s also a really good affiliate lesson in those free ticket signups that genuinely surprised me and made me realize just how powerful affiliates can be for particularly free events and things that need to leverage other audiences to be a smashing success. So ⁓
I’m going into that in the debrief as well, where the free ticket signups came from and ⁓ the biggest lessons that I’ve learned from it. But the bigger point from the results are the immediate wins from the games, but also the flow on effect that’s still happening, particularly around my podcast, people engaging with my content, people talking about my brand, ⁓ is definitely that a well-designed event like this that is.
different for whatever reason and stands out from all the sameness, can take care of your marketing for you and position you as someone people pay attention to. but you need to be intentional right from the start and be yeah, strategic when you map things out rather than adding things in as an afterthought.
When it comes to the tech stack, I really tried to leverage mostly tools that I had already you know, purchased previously as a lifetime plan or that I was already using. So I used Showit to host the ⁓ sales pages, the upgrade page, the speaker page. I used Thrivecart for ⁓ ticketing, so to host the checkout cards for various upgrade options. also for the affiliate ⁓
Details and affiliate program that ran on the back end, and ⁓ it also hosted the contestant strategy. So the entire game’s content lived inside learn. I know Thrivecart’s shifting to Academy, but at the time it ⁓ definitely set right inside the Learn platform in Thrivecart. And I have to call out Airtable here because Airtable basically ran this.
whole event for me on autopilot. And the good thing is I built the back end once, which took a little while, I have to admit. But if you know me, I love working smarter, not harder. So I can totally repurpose the whole back end, the whole setup for my next virtual event, which I’m definitely going to do. So I feel like even though it took a fair bit of time to set up, it is definitely time well spent because it just meant
During the event, things flowed really well. ⁓ everything was automated. A lot of the ⁓ speakers commented on the amazing speaker experience I held their hands every step of the way in an automated format. So a lot of the upgrades, a lot of the next steps, everything happened automatically based on
The contestants taking certain actions. So, what else did Airtable take back take care of? So the voting tallies, as I said, there were votes happening, the speaker communications, the ⁓ surveys, a feedback survey for both attendees and ⁓ speakers, and all the forms that ⁓ are needed to capture details from from contestants along the way.
I also leveraged some tools that made the event experience ⁓ next level. So I used BlockBuilder. So all the tools I’m linking up in the show notes if you want to check them up. But Block Builder basically is a pretty newish tool, and I’m sure as this episode goes ⁓ to air, you can still grab a lifetime deal to it. But basically, you can embed HTML blocks.
onto your website, into your learning portal And you can then rather than having to manually update ⁓ the information every time something changes in your event, you can embed it once and then use your air table base to automatically select what is going to display in those HTML blocks you’ve created inside Block Builder. If you want to see what that looks like, join me for the debrief in the lab. I’m going through
⁓ all the clever ways that I used Block Builder to automate the leaderboard display, the ⁓ love notes that came in through the event. it literally made my life so, so, so much easier during the event. ⁓ as part of this event, I invested in a super fun meeting platform called Go Brunch. as I said, it’s linked up here.
Currently available on App Sumo on a lifetime deal, but ⁓ it allows you to create these branded ⁓ co-working spaces, meeting spaces. So I created ⁓ the commentary box for the retention games, very on brand, and people could drop in and join me for live coverage and live updates as the event unfolded. And then my trusty convert box, so convert box had pop-ups happening, it had bars at the top inviting people to upgrade.
And Hotjar. So I’m not sure whether you’re across Hotjar, but I love Hotjar to help me work out how people are engaging with my website. and in this particular instance with the sign up page. So luckily I had Hotjar installed because Hotjar flagged a major checkout issue with me. early on, luckily, in the sign up process. But without Hotjar, I would have had no idea that something wasn’t
Right and wasn’t working. So ⁓ super grateful. it’s a little plug-in, again, a little bit of code that sits on the back end, but it allows you to see ⁓ recorded session of how people are engaging with your page. takeaway here is you know, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel to purchase new ⁓ expensive tech tools. Often I feel you already have the back end ⁓ and the tools to pull it off. You just need to work out how you can connect.
those tools in a clever way and leverage them to pull off an amazing customer experience. And if you want help doing just that, I would love to brainstorm that inside retention lab with you. It’s my jam, ⁓ and a lot of my incubator members of we vox all the time back and forth to brainstorm clever ways to elevate their offers, their customer experience, the even ⁓ you know, mechanics.
But yeah, next up, what worked and what didn’t. So obviously this is the first time I have run a virtual event ⁓ at this scale. I’ve run challenges before, webinars, et cetera. But pulling off a virtual summit is something that definitely ⁓ comes with a learning curve. And I knew the first time I’d run this event, it wouldn’t be perfect. But sitting on it for two years ⁓ and not doing anything about it, I knew I just had to bring it to life.
And learn from version one. So I can then make version two even better. The good thing is a majority of the feedback was amazing. So the attendees loved the short sessions, ⁓ the voting, the love notes that were part of the event, the contestant cards, ⁓ and all the human touches that just ⁓ showed how much I actually cared about the event. there also were things that
didn’t land too well. I had a photo booth, which I could totally, totally have ⁓ left out because no one really engaged with it. Discord is where I currently host my retention lab community. So I thought I’d host the games community inside Discord as well. But some people commented around how amazing the branding and the design of ⁓ all games components were, and Discord sort of didn’t didn’t really live up to that.
⁓ expectation and didn’t stack up on the same level. ⁓ and also some people felt, being invited to upgrade to the paid ticket was a bit much. I always feel like well I’m a business owner. For me to pull this off takes a lot of time and effort. And ⁓ I think I’m entitled to invite you to upgrade. You can always opt out. There were these options. But again, like these
snippets of feedback are super valuable for me to look at clever ways how I can potentially package those invitations to upgrade in a slightly different way so they don’t feel so intrusive. also one attendee ⁓ erased a a funny misconception that I never considered,
The perception for some people was that the voting really was a popularity contest and people with the biggest audience and the highest profile would ⁓ win automatically because they have most people voting for them, which funnily enough, the numbers tell a very different story. you’ll have to come to the debrief to ⁓ see for yourself this definitely is
Not true and couldn’t be further from the truth.
So if you take anything away from ⁓ the feedback and actually inviting the contestants or speakers and the attendees for their honest feedback is that, you know, while feedback can be confronting at times and can be a little hurtful and sting a little after you’ve put hours and weeks and months potentially into bringing this thing to life, it is the biggest gift because the attendees and the contestants totally all had valid feedback. And you know, if
That’s how they felt. Then ten people felt the same way and just didn’t share it with me. So I am super grateful for both the contestants and the attendees to share their honest feedback because I am totally going to sit on all of it.
I am a huge fan of gathering feedback, ⁓ even if it can hurt a little and learning from it. So will I run the retention games again? Absolutely. I had the best time organizing the event, ⁓ running the event live while I had to definitely recharge after the event. ⁓ I also loved the conversations with the contestants. I got to know them so much better. ⁓
There were so many opportunities that came from it bec beyond the games. when it comes to collaboration with the contestants. And I feel like it gave me a new burst of energy in my business that I definitely needed. So the 2027 edition is definitely coming. and I’m already thinking about what that could look like. definitely I’m going to be inviting more speakers. I’ll be somewhat clearer ⁓ and
bit stricter with promo requirements. more on that in the debrief. And ⁓ also have a play with some of the life components because being in Australia, ⁓ time zones are a real issue. And I felt a lot of people wanted to ⁓ dive deeper into the life components of this event. But ⁓ unfortunately it was just at crazy times during the night. So they just couldn’t participate. So I need to have a look at how I can come up with formats that
Make it life for everyone who signs up to this event, no matter where they are. and yeah, generally, as I said, feedback is so valuable, which means I can only build version two of the retention games, whatever that’s going to look like, because I gave version one a go. And I just got it out there, I pulled it off and I ran with it ⁓ after sitting in on it for so long. so if you’re sitting on a big idea, on a concept that
Feels somewhat daunting, hasn’t been done before, you’re a little bit scared off. Absolutely run with it. see what happens, and then learn for next time. Because I feel now that the load has lifted off my shoulders, I’ve run my first virtual event. ⁓ I loved it. It was a hit. my audience loved it. And I know how I can make it even better next time. that
mental hurdle of doing it again has just completely gone. Like I’m excited. I’ve already put it in my calendar for next year as a major event. And ⁓ yeah, I’m just excited, genuinely excited by ⁓ the retention games number two. And another lesson for you, if you need to hear it, is that you know, you don’t need to stick to the norm.
Just because other people and everyone else runs virtual summits a certain way doesn’t mean you have to. You are allowed to mix things up. You are the creative business owner that knows your audience best and has an intuition around what is going to resonate with your people. If you want to brainstorm with someone who has been there and done that,
I would love to welcome you inside retention lab in the incubator tier so we can pull it off together and ⁓ really create something super special. But even on your own, trust your intuition because it rarely lets you down. So that’s as much as I want to share around the retention games. Hopefully, it’s given you the confidence to start exploring your own out of the box event.
so if I have sparked your curiosity with this surface level look at the retention games, I’m going to go much, much deeper as part of my live debrief that’s happening inside Retention Lab on the 19th of June. So if you’re tuning in live, there’s plenty of time to join. ⁓ if you already know life is a problem for you ⁓ with Australian time zones, the replay of the session.
is going to be added to the private podcast feed and ⁓ the lab portal within 24 hours so you can totally catch up in your own time and space. But yeah, I’m going to explore the numbers, the tech, all the things I touched on, plus more in great detail. And all you have to do to be part of it and join me live is ⁓ joining Retention Lab.
So hopefully I will see you there. either way, you know I like to leave you with one actionable thing from every episode. So whether you decide to join me live or you want to do your own thing, I would love you to write down one thing from this episode, one aha moment or one idea that you want to swipe for your event,
So what idea have you got that is the perfect starting point for your own out of the box event? and then, make it happen. Actually set a date. That was my starting point. Setting a date, making it happen, and sending out that invitation to speakers It literally takes a lot off your shoulder.
as per usual, thank you so much for tuning in. I absolutely ⁓ value your time and your attention. If you know someone in your space, in your orbit, who is in the process of brainstorming their own out-of-the-box major virtual event, absolutely share this episode with them to spark some ideas. if you are in the process of brainstorming and you’re somehow feeling stuck, you have a question, ⁓ a headache.
That is occupying all your brain space. why not submit your listener question via the link in the show notes and I will jump on it in a future episode and answer it for you. ⁓ but for now, have a fabulous rest of your week and see you next week.
