EPISODE 26 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
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In this episode, I welcome Dolly DeLong, Systems and Workflow Wizard, and experienced virtual summit host, to demystify virtual summits and reveal the special touches that create outstanding attendee experiences.
Dolly shares her strategic approach for the upcoming Black Friday Insider Summit (affiliate link), from early speaker pitching to thoughtful automations, ensuring smooth execution and attendee engagement.
Swipe Dolly’s approach to clear communication, meticulous planning, and intentional nurturing of attendees and speakers alike for your first or next summit.
What we cover:
Intentional Pre-Summit Strategies: How early pitching and clear communication with speakers and attendees set summits up for success.
Special Touchpoints for Attendee Delight: Leveraging personalized videos and strategic email nurturing to build trust and excitement.
Automations and Tech Tools: Utilizing clever tech to streamline and automate summit logistics.
Maximizing Engagement and Attendance: Keeping attendees engaged through strategic email communication.
Feedback and Continuous Improvement: Collecting valuable feedback from both attendees and speakers to refine and improve future summits.
Mentioned Resources (affiliate links):
The Black Friday Insider Summit 2025 (26 – 28 August 2025)
Soundbites:
Dolly DeLong: “I decided to have a really hefty prelaunch runway leading up to the summit. So then that way my audience can start getting ready and amped and excited about Black Friday strategies for 2025. We have been trying to be very intentional in our promotional strategy, not just talk about it in August, but we started in June because there’s so much happening and a lot of our audience may be on vacation. So we need to factor that in.”
Dolly DeLong: “We will get them in the inbox to remind them about the value. And we’ll also remind them: “Hey, if you can’t watch it live, grab the all access pass.” We want them to genuinely take action. We want people to show up who are going to want to plan out a Black Friday strategy for 2025, and who will actually do the work. So hopefully, we will have action takers who will show up on day two and on day three.”
Connect with my guest, Dolly DeLong:
Website: https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dollydelongeducation/
Dolly’s Podcast: https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/podcast
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Episode Transcript:
Nadine Nethery (00:01)
Hello, hello and welcome back to the show. This week we are diving deep into all things virtual summits. There’s this stigma around virtual summits. They’re overdone, they’re dead. No one’s interested anymore. We’re totally busting that myth today because virtual summits done right can absolutely be amazing for everyone involved.
attendees the speakers, the hosts, we’re going to go all in. So today’s question is what special touches can you incorporate into virtual summits to delight attendees? And to answer this question today, I’m joined by Dolly DeLong, Systems and Workflow Wizard, who is the host of the upcoming Black Friday Insider Summit happening from the 26th to the 28th of August. Welcome to the show, Dolly.
Dolly (00:50)
Thank you so much for having me, Nadine.
Nadine Nethery (00:53)
So good to have you. I, as a bit of background here, have spoken as a speaker at various summits Dolly has organized over the years and she absolutely knows her staff. It’s such an amazing experience from both the speaker perspective but also the attendee perspective. So I’m super excited to share Dolly’s approach to summits with you today. Before we dive in,
Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do and how you can support my listeners outside of the upcoming summit.
Dolly (01:23)
Yeah, definitely. Okay. So hi everyone. My name is Dolly. I am based in Nashville, Tennessee, which is in North America. And I wear two hats within my business. So the first hat is I am a service provider as in my family photographer in Nashville, Tennessee. And then the second hat I wear kind of came out of necessity in 2020 when I like, you know, we all heard about it, COVID and we, I came out.
I could not photograph families in person. And so I had to pivot a little in my business. And what I was really good at was the backend operation systems running a family photography business. So that’s where systems and workflow education came in. So now that’s merged five years later, I’m still a family photographer, but now I have systems of workflow education where I serve as a launch strategist for small business owners. And then I also
educate other family photographers about systems, workflows, and SOPs. I feel like I do so much, but then those are my main two core offerings I offer.
Nadine Nethery (02:32)
You absolutely wear a whole bunch of hats. But the good thing is they’re all complimentary, right? And one evolved from your original passion, the photography business. And as much as COVID still gives me a nervous twitch, thinking back to homeschooling and all the things, sometimes those things lead to, you know, good things. Yeah. So I feel like a lot of us have
Nadine Nethery (02:56)
grown from it personally in business as well. It’s created new perspectives on things and it makes you appreciate things a lot more. You know, that normality, my God, normality. Before we talk about all things, your upcoming summit in line with this podcast, I would love to get your take on customer experiences and customer delight in your individual.
Dolly (03:06)
Yeah. Very true.
Nadine Nethery (03:19)
business, is there any one core principle that you follow to ensure that your clients are looked after, and they’re supported on every step of your customer journey?
Dolly (03:30)
Yeah, so this is something I apply to both the family photography side of my business and the systems and work for education side of my business. It’s incorporating video along the way that I know that Nadine, I forget what you what video program you use, but you are really good. Bonjoro I love that you incorporate that. I use a system called Loom.
Nadine Nethery (03:48)
Bonjoro. Yeah, yeah.
Dolly (03:56)
And literally alongside the client journey, I make sure to send personalized videos to my clients. Now keep in mind they’re like two to three minutes long, but I mostly do that so that communication can stay top of mind to them. They know what their next step is. They feel like that I’m holding their hand along the way. Because like from a perspective of a family photographer, I’m working a lot with moms who are very
They’re wearing speed moms wearing so many hats. Moms wear 2000 hats, as you know, ⁓ as I know, like we know this cause we’re moms. so getting prepared for a family photography session, it’s, it’s a, there is preparation to go in, in order to have a good outcome. And so I want to prepare my moms along the way and let them know like, Hey, this is what to expect. So I don’t give it to them in a fire hose way, like in one email, I slowly drip it out in very
Dolly (04:53)
like in a system systemized way that works for me and works for them that I’ve found over through the years. And that’s been really good. And that leaves a really good taste in their mouth. So I decided to do that for the education side of my business. So I work one to one with small business owners as our launch strategist. And I do that for them as well. And that like gives them more comfort and peace of mind, like, okay, this is where she is in the process. And it’s not
It doesn’t leave them wondering like, is what is my next step? Like they know exactly what we’re working on at the moment. Hopefully that helps. like sending videos to people and letting them know where they are in their client like project.
Nadine Nethery (05:30)
Yay!
Yeah, so good. And as a fellow video lover here, I absolutely believe in the power of video. Video adds so much trust to the process, particularly if you’ve handed over a lot of money, like in both perspectives here. So as a family who’s just booked a photographer, which is a high trust situation, right? So to have the photographer
Nadine Nethery (05:59)
actually take the time to talk you through the process rather than sending you this lengthy booklet is amazing. And coming at it from the other perspective here as, your client in a launch, again, that peace of mind that, your launch manager is across things and it’s across every step of the process. It’s just invaluable. And having worked with you as one of your summit speakers, I can say that, it’s also part of Dolly’s onboarding process.
for speakers in her summits. it is just so reassuring because, emails are great. It’s easy to miss things. A quick two minute video to talk you through next steps, what’s required, where she’s at. I love the behind the scenes stuff as well. It’s just priceless. So yeah, love it. Now let’s pivot to the upcoming summit, which I’m honored to be a speaker at. Super excited for what’s coming up. The lineup looks amazing.
Do you want to tell us a little bit more about the summit in itself, the concept behind it, what people can expect?
Dolly (06:56)
Yeah, definitely. So I will say this, I am co-leading or co-hosting the summit with two of my really good biz friends, Becca Reed and Mark Cusaric. And this came, this idea came out earlier this year. So we do a in-person, the three of us are really good friends online. And so we just decided, Hey, why not meet?
each other in February during a slower period of season for us. And we’re all moms. So we had to arrange this very meticulously with our husbands and with our grandparents and childcare and all of that. And we met and we just like brainstormed how, what is it, how can we serve our own audience as well? And how can this overlap? we’re all like collaborating together in one way and cause we really genuinely enjoy it.
Dolly (07:45)
each other’s companies, working with each other and something that Mara also does, she’s a launch strategist as well and she helps business owners create really good courses. And so we’re like, let’s teach other online business owners about the power of a strategic Black Friday launch because really successful Black Friday planning starts in the summer, not in October, in November. And
Dolly (08:12)
And so we’re like, okay, well, let’s do a virtual summit and let how can the three of us put, um, like our, not our best foot forward, but our strengths are best strengths to you. So for me, that’s like organizing and planning out the summit for Becca. That is strategizing how the branding and the design is going to look. then for Mara, she’s been behind 100 over 100 different.
Black Friday sales herself. So she knows like all the ins and outs of a Black Friday launch. And so we just put our brains together and we’re like, let’s do a summit. Let’s invite other experts who have launched or have different strategies for how they launch. And let’s see how this can serve the online community well. And it’s a free summit. And so yeah, that’s this is where the idea, it just really stemmed from our mastermind together in February of 2025.
Nadine Nethery (08:41)
So cool. And again, you can leverage each other’s strengths and divvy up all the tasks, the many tasks involved in hosting a summit. the concept is just so needed because as you said, Black Friday often pops up early October, people go, ⁓ what do I do? It’s a bit late. You need to, yeah. And you need to prime your audience. Ideally you want to…
Dolly (09:15)
Yes.
Yeah. wait, I need to do something. Yeah.
Nadine Nethery (09:32)
Re-engage your email list if you haven’t been emailing regularly. So there’s all these things to keep in mind. So perfect timing to have the summit in August to give people that head start and get organized. My God, where’s the year gone? I can’t believe we’re in August. So quick reminder here, it’s happening, it’s coming. You need to get on track.
Nadine Nethery (09:53)
How many summits have you hosted? I know this is a co-hosted one, individually.
Dolly (09:56)
I have done before this, did two other previous summits and three other bundles, which, but I will say this, I have learned everything about running a virtual summit from our mutual friend, Krista of Summit in a Box. Like without her guidance, I’m like,
Nadine Nethery (10:12)
Mmm, genius, yeah. Yeah.
Dolly (10:17)
I don’t even know. I know I’m very organized, but Krista takes it to whole other level, and I am so thankful for her Summit in a Box series.
Nadine Nethery (10:26)
Yeah,
I’ll link her up in the show notes because yeah, Krista knows her stuff. Anyone trying to host the summit, absolutely check out Krista. She’s got a whole bunch of free resources and an amazing podcast as well. If you’re just curious about summits, definitely check it out. I’ll link everything up in the show notes below. But yeah, so two individual summits, a whole bunch of bundles. So that’s a whole bunch of experience that’s come into the picture for this one.
Nadine Nethery (10:50)
What did you learn along the way and what special touch points have you created intentionally to set the tone as soon as someone registers? Because let’s face it, a lot of people register, in the lead up, there’s a little bit of a lag between that excitement, yes, I want the ticket and the event actually kicking off. So what do you facilitate in between?
Dolly (11:12)
Yeah. Okay. Well, can I just add one thing to this, especially for any listeners who are, who might decide, Hey, I really think I want to do a summit or a bundle. I would say if you want a lot of high quality contributors and speakers like Nadine, for example, you need to, you need to figure out your pitching process early on, not like a month before your event, not even two or three months. Like you need to.
Nadine Nethery (11:15)
Yeah, cool.
Dolly (11:40)
communicate early in advance, because your amazing contributors who you want to be a part of this, like they also have a marketing calendar, they also have their own goals. And so they need to see how this can fit in their own marketing calendar. And if it’s in alignment with like who they serve and who they’re talking to. So that’s like one thing that Mara Beck and I did very well, I will say is we pitched
early on to people because we really wanted to get high quality summit speakers. And again, I’m not trying to make, I feel like I’m always making your brain really big, your head really big, but you should feel big headed from this Nadine. Like you’re amazing. We wanted an amazing lineup because like that, that’s part of a touch point, like serving our audience really well, making sure they have a high quality free education.
Dolly (12:35)
Because free education is everywhere. We’re inundated, oversaturated with free education. So we really want to set ourselves apart. And part of that is making sure we’re planning ahead. We’re promoting ahead with the right qualified summit speakers who have actually done the work of Black Friday. And then also, so that’s one thing I was thinking, just making sure there’s like,
Dolly (13:01)
highly qualified speakers early on that can serve our audience really well. And our audience will walk away like, wow, like I’m excited about learning this. So that’s one thing, like early promotions with the speakers. Another thing, touch point that we’ve been trying to do is communication with not only the summit speakers, but also with our audience. So I’m a, since like I’m a prelaunch strategist for my own business,
I decided to have a really hefty prelaunch runway leading up to the summit. So then that way my audience can start getting ready and amped and excited about Black Friday strategies for 2025. And so we have been trying to be very intentional in our promotional strategy, not just talk about it in August, but we started in June because there’s so much happening and like it’s…
Dolly (13:58)
like depending upon where you are listening in the world, like a lot of our audience is based in the United States. So the summer break we had to figure, okay, a lot of our audience may be on vacation. So we need to factor that in. We also need to factor in like our, like our summit contributors might be on vacation, on holiday as well. So we had to like make a longer runway and give ourselves like more time to.
Dolly (14:24)
prime our audience to like have those touch points. And then when they actually registered for the summit, we wanted to give them like ample excitement for it. like opportunities to when they sign up, get to know all the summit contributors. So I really wanted to, and Mara did this too, everyone did this really well. Like we made sure to offer
all the, I don’t know what to call them, the subscribers of the summit, like they got the virtual ticket. And so they’re not just going to wait until August 26th. Like in between we have specific communication touch points, but then also we’re allowing, like we are giving them opportunity to get to know each of the speakers. Like here’s a free resource from each of the speakers. Get to know them, follow them.
Dolly (15:15)
get to know why they’re qualified for this summit presentation. And so we want to get them really excited about listening in to the summit. Hopefully this all makes sense.
Nadine Nethery (15:25)
yeah. And it’s perfect. It’s building that trust, not only in you as the organizers that you have your ducks in a row, but also the speakers because people, while it’s a free event, it still is a commitment in time, energy, effort, headspace for people to tune in, right? They need to fit it into their busy lives as business owners, as often mums. So there’s a lot going on. And while people sign up for the free event,
Nadine Nethery (15:49)
they still need to make that conscious choice to actually tune in and engage with the session. Showing up early before the event in boxes, building that trust, building up your speakers is a great strategy there. Cool, so we’re nurturing people before the actual show kicks off. So once day one comes around, how are you as a system strategist here and automation expert, how are you?
automating things on the back end because I’m sure you don’t want to sit there, live switching things over. So yeah, what are you bringing into this summer to make it flow like clockwork?
Dolly (16:19)
Yeah, so I will say this. There are live summits and then there are pre-recorded summits. This is entirely a pre-recorded summit because again, we were looking at the time of year, we’re like, okay, August, it’s kind of hit and miss. A lot of people are going back to school. A lot of people might be still on holiday. So it’s kind of like, well, they may not show up live and or speakers may not be able to show up live, but all of our speakers were able to do a pre-recorded talk, which was
Dolly (16:55)
Like I’m just so thankful for everybody. And these are amazing talks. Like I’ve been listening to all of them cause we haven’t had the summit yet cause it hasn’t posted yet. And I’ve just been learning so much. And so it’s been fun listening into all these prerecorded talks. So that’s one thing. And then as far as automations and systems go, we are setting up like the tech tools of
Deadline funnel making sure everything on the back end of all the certain web pages are working doing lots of testing with that before the actual summit begins because the last thing because Becca Mara and myself were all moms of very young kids and so we unfortunately have Very limited work time every single day. And so even though we’re dividing and conquering we still want to make this very smooth
Dolly (17:45)
a smooth process for our viewers. And so we’re just making sure everything is as automated as possible. There’s like the right countdown timers. And I will say this deadline funnel is an investment, but it’s worth an investment for summits. Like it just makes everything feel smooth as better, like seriously. And so I will say, like we’ve been working a lot with like deadline funnel automations.
Dolly (18:12)
and we are hosting the summit itself on Showit. So we’re utilizing our web platform Showit and so we’re making sure everything’s working there. And again, it takes just a lot of testing and intentionality. I’ve been a part of summits or I’ve been a subscriber to a summit where nothing was tested before or like, and it felt.
Dolly (18:40)
clunky and very confusing. And so we’re making, we just want to make sure like the client, it’s very obvious to clients what to do or viewers what to do. I’m also going to be recording videos on each page to let them know, okay, this is what to expect from day one, from day two, from day three and how to navigate everything. And we’re going to send out emails about this and it’s going to be so
is going to be in video recording and through an email so that way we’re serving different learning types as well.
Nadine Nethery (19:11)
Yeah, it’s so good. And the testing, as time consuming as it is. you don’t want to break that limited time window you have, it’s like 24 hours to view your presentation. And then if for half the time, the links don’t work, it’s not showing the right sessions, frustrating from an attendee perspective. So yeah, testing the right tech deadline funnel. I’m a fan, makes life so easy and it’s so easy to set up, right? So.
Nadine Nethery (19:38)
Why not use tech
tools that are at your disposal, even if they add a little bit to the bottom line. That peace of mind knowing that the tech’s just going to do what it’s meant to do is priceless. And yeah, anticipating what people might need to hear when it comes to different formats as well as the video, the emails, there’s something there for everyone to make sure they know what
Dolly (19:48)
Yes, exactly.
Nadine Nethery (20:00)
needs to happen. They know where to go and it hopefully also limits your customer service requests where people just are confused. They’ve got no idea where to go. They don’t know what’s happening. yeah, smart move. Let’s talk about community or networking, for the summit. What have you in stall for this summit?
Dolly (20:19)
yeah, I will say this in past summits I’ve led, I had more time and capacity to do a community Facebook group of all the attendees that way they could get to know each other. This time around, we’re not having a Facebook group, but we are opening up like we’re giving our attendees more opportunity to get to know all the summit speakers early on. like again,
Dolly (20:45)
offering them free resources from each summit speaker, giving them like time to get to know each summit speaker and how we’ve been doing that is like setting up those emails early on and batching those out and making sure to send them at certain increments and not just all at once when they get their free tickets. And it’s also very nice co-hosting this and not doing this all alone. In the past, I’ve done it all by myself. like, how did I?
do this all alone before Becca and Mara. But we are literally dividing and conquering. And because of that, the three of us really like to stay on top of it with communications with all the summit contributors and also anybody who’s signed this. We already have over 50 people who’ve signed up for the summit and it’s not even like barely the beginning of August. And so we’re trying to stay.
Dolly (21:38)
communicative towards that client journey versus communicative towards people who haven’t signed up. So we made sure to have a plan of action on how to serve the different phases of the client journey in February. it all was a part of our planning session.
Nadine Nethery (21:56)
Yeah, I love how intentional you are as well to look after your speakers, because it can feel like, you’re a tick in the box. You’re there to get the signups for the summit. So I feel your summits definitely keep the speakers in mind and also make it worth the speakers’ while because, we’re promoting, we’re telling our list about the event. So there needs to be something.
Nadine Nethery (22:17)
on other end and with your summits, it feels like you’re actually a vital component of the summit. Just quick feedback here to tell you you’re doing it doesn’t go unnoticed.
Nadine Nethery (22:26)
When it comes to summits, like there’s all the shiny things and all the shiny objects. And as we said, know, Facebook communities, they’re great, but they also take a lot of time and energy when it comes to facilitating the conversations. So sometimes there need to be trade-offs where, things might seem nice to have, but they don’t really add value or they’re just not manageable in your existing schedule as a mum, as a business owner, as someone who wears all the hats. So was there a moment
Nadine Nethery (22:53)
in the concept phase for this summit where you went, oh my God, imagine if we did this, but it just didn’t make the cut. I’m always curious to go behind the scenes of those thought processes.
Dolly (23:06)
Well, I it’s funny because we were Supposed to also have like listeners. We were also supposed to have Becca and Mara here interviewing But again, there’s all three of us are moms like we we all and Mara is also is also pregnant and so we and it has a little little toddler too, so we’re like, okay, I will be doing this talk with Nadine but
Dolly (23:32)
I bring that up, I preface this by saying it’s funny that you’re asking me this question because Nadine, I am the one of the three of us where I’m like, guys, we need to use all of these fancy apps and resources and tools for, and Becca and Mara are like trying to like rein me in like, Dolly, like, let’s look at the budget, let’s look. And I like fought hard for a deadline funnel. And I also fought,
Dolly (24:00)
fought hard for Hello Audio, because we’re going to have the private podcast version of this for our All Access Pathbuyers so that they can listen to the summit talks. And it was like, didn’t like when I say fought hard, like I just had to, I didn’t have to fight them. Like, obviously we did not have a fight, like, but I was like, guys, like, this will be so good. will like make everything smooth and automated.
Dolly (24:25)
so I wish you had like Mara and Becca’s perspective because they were like, we can, there was like some go, some things we could have done without, but it’s me. Like I am the problem. I just like want everything to be easy. Yes. It’s a real thing guys. It’s a thing. Yes.
Nadine Nethery (24:36)
Yeah. And this, as I said, shiny object syndrome, isn’t it? And it is. And sometimes, especially your custom experience, across
your business, you can do all the things. And there are all these opportunities where, there’s a tool for this and a tool for that, which costs extra on the side. So huge fan of actually stacking up, the benefits against the investment in time and energy on the other end. And then also
Nadine Nethery (25:05)
is it actually going to move the needle for you? So is it going to have the desired impact on your project, on your business? So you don’t have to do everything and working smarter on the vital things is always preferable rather than just going, all in a little bit and pulling off nothing but I can imagine it would have been interesting conversations where…
you have all the ideas and they go, come on Dolly, let’s step it back. Let’s talk about this. Yeah.
Dolly (25:29)
Yeah, I’m like, okay, guys, hear me out.
there were those were the two main things like Deadline Funnel and Hello Audio were the two things that I definitely fought for everything else. Like we had some ideas. We did want to create a chat bot specifically for Black Friday, but because of time and because yeah, mostly because of time constraints, we weren’t able to.
Dolly (25:57)
So that was something I was like, okay, next year, we do the summit again, we’re planning on doing the summit again for 2026 Black Friday Strategies. But we’re like, okay, this will be a definite for next year because again, we don’t have the time. And okay, Dolly, you don’t have to hire it out just for to create a chat. You guys can figure this out. So I did have to rein myself in a little bit for that.
Nadine Nethery (26:04)
the good thing though is you can pay attention to all the customer service questions and the issues in inverted commas that come up this year, take note of them. And then, it’s all a bit easier. It’s all about being strategic. So yeah, taking notes, banking that for next year and then making it happen. So cool. I’m with you. Like I said, I’ve got lots of ideas, but I need to refrain from.
Nadine Nethery (26:46)
jumping at everything. So I’ve got a long list of things for various projects in my business and I’ll just chip away at them so I can totally relate. Talking about summit attendance and I know it can be so hard, particularly longer summits. I mean, this is a three day event, so it’s totally manageable, but those longer summits where people think it’s a great idea to run it for seven days or even five days.
Usually the attention span and people’s emotional investment in the event starts to dwindle pretty much at the end of day one. they’ve watched a few sessions, they got what they were after hopefully, and then it gets harder and harder to actually get them to show up again. Is there anything that you have in place to remotivate people who might lose interest and momentum?
Dolly (27:15)
Yes.
Yeah. So our biggest thing is email, like reminding them again and again through email, not like sending the same emails over and over, but sending different featured emails of, okay, this is what you need to expect and what you will walk away with not only in day one, but here’s day two, here’s day three. Like we have it all mapped out already and it’s, and it just like hooks them.
Dolly (27:57)
And again, like, I do actually, should like watch day two, even though I got a lot of value out of day one, but yeah, like I really want to learn how to, I’m like trying to remember specifically day two, cause like we were just dividing up the talks and like, there’s one day that talks about how to utilize AI with Black Friday. And there are two really juicy talks on that. And so we want to make sure that
Dolly (28:25)
We’re communicating that through email and then secondary. We’re also communicating that via Instagram, but like that has like a low rate of being seen as we all know, but that’s our secondary plan. But our first plan is like, okay, email. This is like, we will get them in the inbox to remind them about the value. And we’ll also remind them, Hey, like if you can’t watch it live, grab the all access pass.
Dolly (28:54)
because it’s a very low price for all the worth that we are giving to the viewer. so, and we want them to take action, like genuinely, we want people to show up who are going to want to plan out a Black Friday strategy for 2025, and who will actually do the work. And so this is who the summit is for. And so hopefully, we will have action takers who will show up on day two and on day
Dolly (29:23)
three.
Nadine Nethery (29:25)
And as organizers, you’re across your agenda, you know exactly what’s happening on day two on day three, but we forget that someone might’ve signed up two weeks ago. They probably skim read the sales page and went, I know that speaker that sounds juicy. You know, let’s grab the ticket. They have no idea who’s talking by the time the event rolls around. again, here listener, listener tip.
Nadine Nethery (29:48)
you can’t overdo email during an event that someone put their hand up for. So remind them of what’s coming up. Remind them of the cost of not attending. You know, what’s on the other side of that click on XYZ session. It’s super important because they didn’t organize the event. They didn’t set the agenda. It’s just courtesy to make sure they’re actually taking action and seeing results from the…
event, whether they’re getting the free ticket or the upgrade. So this is tricky here because as a summit host, if you’re hosting an individual summit, you know, in your past two summits, you basically had people sign up for the summit and they go straight onto your list because it’s you, right? So I’m curious how you are handling things this time because obviously there’s
Nadine Nethery (30:33)
three of you, there’s people signing up to the summit. How do you handle the transition into your individual offers and businesses after the summit?
Dolly (30:42)
Yeah, okay. So full disclosure, since it’s me, Mara and Becca, who are who are co hosting this together, we knew that we needed to make some sort of disclosure on like the sign up and be like, hey, when you sign up, you’re joining the three, like three of our email lists, like you’re going to be segmented in three ways. Full heads up, like there’s a checkbox and everything. And so we’re communicating that early on.
Dolly (31:12)
And then we each have plans, and we’ve openly talked about this, we each have plans of after the summit, then we’re gonna revisit those segments and talk about, remind them again, who we are individually and how they got on our list and what we do. And so we each have some sort of nurturing plan planned ahead starting for.
August the 30th on after the summit. And then also the three of us, meaning me, Mara and Becca, the three of us sell a digital product, not individually, but together, we sell another additional Black Friday, like prep kit. That’s the best way I can describe it. That is an extra
Nadine Nethery (31:55)
That’s cool. Yeah.
Dolly (31:59)
bonus addition to the summit. It’s like the next step, if that makes sense. So these are strategies, this is a free summit filled with strategies of what’s good for 2025 and the All Access Pass. It comes with certain resources and bonuses that go alongside the Talks Really Well. But the kit that we offer,
Dolly (32:26)
None of it is being offered in the free summit talks. None of it is, none of these resources and from the kit are being offered in the bonuses. So we were like, let’s pitch that together and talk about this to our lists. And we sold it last year together. Again, we brought our three minds together, like me, launch strategist, Mara, Black Friday strategist, and Becca designer. And we’re like, okay, let’s, how can we…
Dolly (32:53)
bring our brains together for a cohesive collaboration project. And it was a very successful launch for the three of us, like for the first time. So we’re like, let’s do that on the back end of the summit and see what happens. This is all fun for us. Like, it’s not like a certain number is on the line for us because we each have our own individual businesses. so we’re like, this is just all fun for us.
Dolly (33:18)
I don’t even know if that helps answer, but that’s our plan after the summit. Yeah.
Nadine Nethery (33:19)
Yeah. No, no, that’s great.
Yeah. And it’s, it’s such an organic next step for people to take while they join your individual email list, which I love that you’re totally transparent about it because too often you end up on lists and go, who’s this? Like what happened here? I had no idea. So I love that you’re transparent. And then yeah, total fan of you three actually then just presenting that, that next invite to the next logical step.
Dolly (33:27)
Yes.
You’re like, how, who is this? Yes.
Yeah. And it helps that. Yeah. Well, it helps a lot that I completely trust Becca and Mara and I love working with them and collaborating with them. So it’s fun for me to like do this promotion and we, we split it three ways. And so we’re like, and that’s again, that’s, we are all fine with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Nadine Nethery (33:48)
So clever, but you as a pre-launch strategist, you know, it doesn’t surprise me.
Yeah, divide and conquer. It’s great. Multiply the impact. So
good. Last question before we wrap up. Collecting feedback and learning from every summit because every summit opens up new challenges, little things I got wrong. I’m curious how you approach collecting feedback from both attendees and also speakers that you then incorporate in whatever comes next.
Dolly (34:18)
Yeah. So my thing I’ve done in the past is send out a survey. I have not been good about sending out a survey to the speakers, but I’ve been very good and consistent about sending surveys to the summit attendees. And so this year we are going to send it out to both parties, to the speakers and then also to the summit attendees, because I know we’re going to get different viewpoints of feedback. And so I’m really excited about
Dolly (35:05)
incorporating that especially because I again I everyone listening in I’m human and sometimes it’s so hard for me to receive feedback because I’m like I want I just want to do everything perfectly I want everybody to like me I want everybody like and I know I always have to remind myself Dolly you’re not a taco not everybody’s gonna like like you know there’s that phrase
Dolly (35:30)
You’re not
taco. You’re not going to please everyone. And so I have to remind myself, Dolly, you’re not a taco. Nobody’s not everybody’s going to love you. Yeah, you can’t you can’t do that to you can’t be everything to everyone. And so it also helps that I’m doing this with Becca and Marla co hosting. So it kind of like takes that pressure off like they’re people are going to give feedback to the three of us, not just to me. So
Dolly (35:55)
if it’s something negative, which I doubt it’s gonna be negative, but if there is a negative comment, like the three of us can process it together and not just like me taking it in. Yes, yes.
Nadine Nethery (36:06)
different perspectives it helps yeah yes
speaker feedback i think super important because um so often as hosts we’re trying to do the right thing but then we’ve got our blind spots and you know take everything with a grain of salt sometimes you just go come on but valid feedback is so so valuable for future events and i’m a huge fan of just
Nadine Nethery (36:30)
asking the question. And the good thing is you might get amazing feedback from speakers who go, you know, this was an awesome experience. So next time around you’re pitching speakers, can repurpose it in your pitch and tell people they loved the process. Just fills your future speakers with more confidence as well.
Dolly (36:33)
That’s true.
Thank you. I’m gonna re listen to this episode and remind, pump myself up about
Nadine Nethery (36:53)
I’ll remind you after the summit if I don’t get that survey. Hello Dolly, remember?
Dolly (36:53)
yeah. Yeah, seriously. You’re like, where’s my survey Dolly? Yeah.
Nadine Nethery (37:00)
I’ve sent you the timestamp of the episode. Cool. Last but not least, if you have one tip for listeners who are curious about hosting virtual summits, haven’t gone there yet for various reasons, what is one practical tip that you can give to people to keep in mind?
Dolly (37:02)
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
man, I think I’m gonna repeat what I said at the beginning, but if you are wanting to lead a summit, make sure that all your summit participants, like meaning the speakers and the contributors, make sure that you give them plenty and ample amount of time to promote. Because you also have to figure out when there are…
just like recognize that they also have a marketing calendar and a planner that they have to accommodate for their own audience. so start pitching early on. not again, not a month before, not two months before. I’m extreme. I do four months before. And sometimes you guys, if you want to go for the, the like in your mind, quote unquote, the bigger speakers, sometimes you’ll have to get them eight to 10 months in advance. So that’s just,
Dolly (38:10)
the honest truth and so be intentional with your like pre-launch promotional plan because when you are intentional about that I am a firm believer that that’s considerate of other people’s schedules and it’s also it gives people ample time to like prep and get ready instead of being thrown into the deep end with like in one to two weeks.
Nadine Nethery (38:34)
Yeah. And it probably gets you better results and more valuable content from the speakers because they’ve got more time to sit on the topic, prepare their talk, customize it to your event rather than repurpose a talk they’ve given 10 times previously. yeah, it works in everyone’s favor. All right, Dolly, if you’ve listened to the show, you’d know that I ask all my guests what burning
Nadine Nethery (38:56)
custom experience question you have either for myself or a guest that I’ll try to get onto the show for you.
Dolly (39:03)
Yeah. Okay. Well, I’m going to put on my hat of being a service provider as a family photographer. And I’m always wondering how can I amplify my family photography customer journey even more? I am, I just feel like I’m always feel like there’s something missing, but I’m like, have really great clients. Like I love my clients, but I’m like,
Dolly (39:29)
I feel like I could be doing more for them, but I just don’t know what. And yeah, I’m like always open to knowing how to better that customer journey.
Nadine Nethery (39:31)
Love it. Let me put my thinking cap on and I’ll answer your question in a future episode. I’ll let you know when the answer is airing. ⁓ Awesome. Cool. So I obviously will link up the Black Friday Insider Summit.
Dolly (39:50)
I’m so excited. I’ll be listening to that for sure.
Nadine Nethery (39:59)
in the show notes. So you can grab your free ticket or if you want the private podcast and all the bells and whistles with it, you can upgrade to the paid pass. But if listeners want to track you down Dolly where can they find you?
Dolly (40:14)
Yeah, so education is at Dolly DeLong Education on Instagram. I do have a podcast called the Systems and Workflow Magic podcast. It comes out every Monday and I talk about something systems workflow marketing related for family photographers and for online business owners. So again, those are the two groups I serve and I’m also on YouTube. And again, those episodes come out every.
Friday and I try to really educate about marketing systems and tips for family photographers there. So you can find me on most of the platforms and yeah.
Nadine Nethery (40:53)
Yeah, cool. I’ll link up.
all the places, all the resources as well that we mentioned to help you organize a super smooth summit. So listeners, if you want to have your Burning Customer Experience question answered on the podcast, you can submit your question via the link in the show notes. And if you enjoyed this episode, if you know anyone who could totally benefit from some Black Friday strategies, planning, organization, then please share the episode with them.
Thanks for tuning in and I will see you next week.
