In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Julie Migliacci discuss:
- How COVID shifted the landscape for speakers.
- Mistakes people make with virtual events.
- Content flow even beyond the event.
- Livestreaming your events to your social pages.
Key Takeaways:
- The #1 reason people attend a speaking event is to network.
- Not every event should be in person. Not every event should be virtual. Not every event should be hybrid. Understand what you want from your speaking engagement and look at how it works best for you and your audience.
- Every 30 minutes, do something different to avoid the audience hitting their burnout points.
- Choose the right technology for your event. There are different levels of platforms, such as Zoom, that will fit the needs of your audience and your event.
“Nobody wants to sit through an hour-long lecture anymore. Attendees want more, and they mostly want to connect with people. The number one reason people attend a hybrid or virtual event is to network. And it’s also the number one thing that gets cut when you’re in the planning process.” — Julie Migliacci
Get a free copy of Steve’s book “Sales-Free Selling” here: http://www.fretzin.com/sales-free-selling
Thank you to our Sponsors!
Get Staffed Up: https://getstaffedup.com/bethatlawyer/
Overture: https://overture.law/
Get Visible:https://www.getvisible.com/
Episode References:
- Sign up for the next BE THAT LAWYER: Marketing Mavericks – September 28th, 2023 – https://www.fretzin.com/blog/category/events/
- ProVisors: https://www.provisors.com/
- Never Lose a Customer Again by Joey Coleman
About Julie Migliacci: Julie Migliacci has over 17 years of high-touch customer service and event planning under her belt. There isn’t an event type she hasn’t planned before, from large celebrity fundraisers, virtual conferences, and premier cooking shows. She is always up for a new challenge and creating unique experiences for clients and their guests. Hailing from France, Julie has lived in 4 countries and considers herself a global citizen. She currently resides in Boston, MA, and is always looking for an opportunity to jump on a plane to do something new. If left on a deserted island, Julie would bring her sourdough starter (named Steve) and her cats.
Connect with Julie Migliacci:
Website: https://revent.consulting/
Email: julie@revent.consulting
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-migliacci-revent/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/revent-consulting-llc/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reventconsulting2020/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reventconsulting2020/
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Instagram: @fretzinsteve
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: Steve@Fretzin.com
Book: Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science and more!
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Julie Migliacci: Nobody wants to sit through an hour long lecture anymore. Like, I think attendees want more. And they mostly want to connect with people.
[00:00:15] Julie Migliacci: You’re listening to Be That Lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode, your host, author and lawyer coach, Steve Fretzin, will take a deeper dive helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now here’s your host, Steve Fretzin.
[00:00:37] Steve Fretzin: Well, hi everybody. How you doing? Steve Fretzinhere with… Be that lawyer. I hope you were having a lovely day today. Uh, I just got back from a fishing trip again with my kid up in green Bay, Wisconsin, beautiful green Bay, Wisconsin, Julie. I think they just rated green Bay. Wisconsin is like the nicest place to live in the country, the U S news and world report.
[00:00:55] Steve Fretzin: And I think that’s a load of crap. Like there’s no way that’s possible. And if you’re listening from green Bay. By the way, great fishing, love fishing up there. Caught a lot of walleye, missed a muskie. I want to kill myself with that, but, um, just had a great time, but I don’t know, best place to live. Eh, not so sure.
[00:01:12] Steve Fretzin: Anyway, how you doing? Birdwine.
[00:01:14] Julie Migliacci: Good. They do have their cheese. So I’ve heard.
[00:01:17] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, the cheese and the meat that’s, uh, they do a lot of cheese and meat production up there. And in fact, one of the guides we had up there was, uh, runs a, uh. Like a dairy production thing in Rockford, Illinois that lives up there in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
[00:01:31] Steve Fretzin: And we must be making that commute every day. I’m not sure how that works, but anyway, that’s not what we’re here to talk about. Meat cheese. We’re here to talk about helping you be that lawyer. Someone who’s confident, organized and a skilled rainmaker. And listen, I try my best every single week, twice a week to bring you guys amazing guests.
[00:01:48] Steve Fretzin: Uh, and today is not going to be any different. I’ve got a doozy with you and, uh, and Julie. And we’re going to, you know, we talk about business development, marketing, all this stuff. But one thing we don’t talk about a ton on the show is, is presenting, speaking, and in this case, virtual events. So Julie and I are going to take a deeper dive in that, but as we do, we start with the quote of the show.
[00:02:08] Steve Fretzin: I just got back, by the way, I’m talking a lot about me today, in case you didn’t notice, I just got back from Amsterdam as well, a few weeks ago, and I saw the Vincent van Gogh museum and that was pretty cool. And so this is a Vincent van Gogh quote, and it’s what would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything.
[00:02:24] Steve Fretzin: And so welcome to the show, Julie, and happy to have you. And also talk about that, uh, that quote.
[00:02:30] Julie Migliacci: Uh, thanks for having me. Well, I’m originally from Europe, so that, you know, thing does. Niren to my heart because of that. And he does beautiful art, but I think the quote is, you know, sometimes the leap of faith to do something different, if you don’t try it, I’m going to get anywhere and failure is success.
[00:02:50] Julie Migliacci: So it just, it’s one of those quotes when you, you know, you asked me what a quote for me. And I felt like a task. I was like, I don’t know, do Dr. Seuss, like, where should we go with this? Yeah. Uh, that one just stood out to me and really speaks to my experience and
[00:03:06] Steve Fretzin: my journey. Well, they see people can learn a lot from green, green eggs with ham.
[00:03:10] Steve Fretzin: So there you go. Uh, but, um, yeah, I mean, Van Gogh, I mean, he was absolutely brilliant. And I just, that was one of my favorite museums and one of my, even in Paris, we went to Paris and saw a lot of his art and heard a lot of the history of him and his brother and just everything that he went through. Holy mackerel.
[00:03:24] Steve Fretzin: What a life, what a short life, but what a life. Very short life,
[00:03:27] Julie Migliacci: but very
[00:03:28] Steve Fretzin: impactful. Yeah. And Julie, I am going to mess up your last name. So just be prepared. You just gave it to me again and I’m still going to mess it up. It’s Julie. Migliacci. Great job.
[00:03:40] Julie Migliacci: Oh, okay. It took me six months of dating my husband to get that name correct.
[00:03:44] Julie Migliacci: Okay.
[00:03:44] Steve Fretzin: All right. Well, there we go. It’s a hard name. And you’re the co owner of Revent Consulting. And I’ve just so, when we met, I was just so intrigued by your business and what you do and how impactful it can be in a time where a lot of stuff is happening virtually. And a lot of people are making pivots and shifts from live events and conferences to virtual.
[00:04:05] Steve Fretzin: And, and so I really wanted to pick your brain on that, but do, before we get into the weeds on, on it a bit, give us, give us your background. And of course that be that loving, uh, be that lawyer tipping point that I love to hear.
[00:04:15] Julie Migliacci: So I, as I mentioned, I’m from Paris, France. I am a corporate brat. So I moved all around the world.
[00:04:21] Julie Migliacci: My, that’s how my mom did clean the house. We would just move countries, uh, through my childhood. And then started working after college, started working in hospitality, started doing events, was doing big in person events in New York City. And then the last crisis happened. So 2000, 2009, and I started working in virtual and hybrid events.
[00:04:44] Julie Migliacci: And saw sort of the future of the event industry was working for a big streaming provider, working with the who’s who at the time was mostly fortune 100 companies during hybrid and virtual event and really just fully fell in love with it. And then four years ago with my two partners, we broke away to create rebad because we.
[00:05:06] Julie Migliacci: That was our tipping point. We saw a big change in the event industry where people wanted to do more virtual. They wanted to do more hybrid. And as the technology to be able to do that settled and became stable, they didn’t know how to do it. Do I need one camera, two cameras, three cameras? How do I engage my web audience?
[00:05:27] Julie Migliacci: What platform should I use? How should I use it differently? How do I stand out? So we really launched with the idea of helping people take that lead. And then COVID happened and things got really, really nutty as the whole world discovered what
[00:05:43] Steve Fretzin: we do. Yeah. And so what was the, then the tipping point, was that going out on your own and kind of building a business around that?
[00:05:51] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, that was,
[00:05:52] Julie Migliacci: that was big and scary. I grew up. It’s a big leap, you know, I grew up with a father that worked in a huge corporation. I thought that that was the path forward was to keep trucking within a company and just moving your way up and realizing that that wasn’t my path, uh, nor was it for my partners.
[00:06:12] Julie Migliacci: And, you know, entering a partnership is a big deal, finding people that you can work with and disagree with and get along with and do all the things that come with a partnership is a huge leap. I thankfully have a husband that has a stable job that allowed me to make that jump and I’m so thankful for it because it’s been the greatest four years of my life.
[00:06:35] Julie Migliacci: Like
[00:06:35] Steve Fretzin: I love it. Yeah. I mean, I was a little bit on a different spectrum. I mean, I, my father always said, if you’re, if you, you know, the best thing you can do in your life is to work for yourself and that’s not for everybody, but I knew that it was for me. And the beauty is having like a sales background.
[00:06:49] Steve Fretzin: Like I knew that whatever I did, as long as I could sell the service or sell the product in this case, I I’m actually teaching sales, but our, or sales free selling, I should say that it’s, you know, it, it, it hasn’t been easy, but it hasn’t been like, if I was, uh, an engineer that decided to go into, you know, some, you know, random business, like buying a business and then having to figure it all out.
[00:07:11] Steve Fretzin: Um, and you had all that experience of being in the field well before you start on your own. So I think that while still scary, still gives you, you know, quite a leg up. It does, but
[00:07:21] Julie Migliacci: unlike you, we had no sales experience. We were ops people. We made it happen. Somebody else sold it. We made
[00:07:28] Steve Fretzin: it happen. So how did you, how did you, how did you pick up on that?
[00:07:31] Steve Fretzin: I mean, was that, did you hire a coach? Did you just figure it out through trial and error? While there
[00:07:37] Julie Migliacci: at first, word of mouth, COVID was obviously very helpful because so many people just needed the help. So word of mouth was huge for us. Networking is huge. And I work with a coach now and just trying to learn every day.
[00:07:51] Julie Migliacci: I’m the most extroverted of the three of us. So I naturally more stepped into that role and I’m finding that I really enjoy the sales process. You know, like it seems so daunting and scary, but four years in. I enjoy it, it’s fun, like you get to meet different people and help people in a different
[00:08:09] Steve Fretzin: way.
[00:08:09] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. And the way that I teach it, it’s, it’s not about selling, convincing, pitching or running in circles to do RFPs and do proposals. It’s really walking the buyer through a buying decision and not wasting time on the wrong people. It’s all about qualifying and listening and learning and understanding.
[00:08:25] Steve Fretzin: And I just, when it’s done properly, there’s, it’s just very, very easy, fun. Chill. Like it’s okay if somebody is a no. Because I know why, and it’s not a mystery and I didn’t waste the hours or days or weeks chasing after somebody. So I think, you know, that’s really important. And, and one of the best ways to develop, I think leads.
[00:08:47] Steve Fretzin: As a lawyer is to be seen as an expert, number one, and number two, to be put in a room where your audiences, the general counsels, the CEOs, the other lawyers that can refer you and being in a position that only presents your expertise, but I think it has to be done in a way that’s going to be productive for everybody.
[00:09:05] Steve Fretzin: So I know that speaking was huge and legal for years and people were traveling all over the country to speak. And then that got knocked away with COVID and now people are moving into virtual. Are things still slow for lawyers or people in general that are, that are looking to, that have been speakers and maybe haven’t got back into the flow of it?
[00:09:25] Julie Migliacci: It definitely has shifted. So we, during COVID, we saw a huge spike in attendance rates, huge spikes where previously for pre event, both virtually and in person, 30 to 40% turnout was the And then all of a sudden we’re seeing like 80% turnout. Now, post COVID, what we’re seeing is more like 20 to 30% being a win for both virtually and in person for free events.
[00:09:52] Julie Migliacci: So I’m not talking about game ticket ones. So there’s definitely been, I think, an oversaturation of events and speaking and, you know, lecture type format events during the last three years. And now there’s a little bit of a whiplash as nobody wants to sit through an hour long lecture anymore. Like, I think attendees want more and they mostly want to connect with people.
[00:10:20] Julie Migliacci: So if you’re out there on a speaking circuit, really thinking about that. The, I recently read a stat that really resonated with me. The number one reason people attend a hybrid or virtual event is to network. And it’s also the number one thing that gets cut when you’re in the planning process. So if you’re out on a speaking circuit, like really think about that.
[00:10:42] Julie Migliacci: Networking is a driver for an attendee to show up. How can you bring that into your speaker pitch and then actually bring it into your experience, whether you’re in
[00:10:53] Steve Fretzin: person or virtual? Yeah. I also think like there’s a larger potential for an audience that’s willing to not have to drive or fly to sit in front of their computer, take an hour during launch or take an hour and.
[00:11:09] Steve Fretzin: Sit through or participate in something versus, you know, Hey, I’ve got to get out of my office in the middle of my day. I’ve got to now walk across, you know, the loop of Chicago, or I’ve got to drive an hour to get whatever and, and, and, and go there that I got to sit there for two hours, cause there’s a networking section, a part of it, as well as the presentation.
[00:11:27] Steve Fretzin: And then, so now we got half a day invested in something where now it’s, it’s an hour and it’s legit an hour, it starts, it ends. I mean, there’s pros and cons to that a hundred percent. It’s just a matter of, of maybe looking at, looking at it from, from both sides.
[00:11:43] Julie Migliacci: 100%. And not every event should be virtual.
[00:11:46] Julie Migliacci: Not every event should be in person and not every event should be hybrid. I think what’s interesting now post COVID is that as an event planner or as a speaker, you now can look at what you’re trying to do and find the right. system for you. Are you in, if you’re doing a quick talk, virtual is the way to go.
[00:12:05] Julie Migliacci: Because again, you don’t want to suck all that time for your attendees. If you really want to do something hyper interactive, really engaging, that’s more of an experience, it should be in person. If you’re doing something somewhat quick that can really work in the hybrid space, and you have an audience that’s more dispersed, like Diverse and dispersed.
[00:12:24] Julie Migliacci: There we go. I can find the word off hybrid is the right format for you. So really thinking about what’s the right spot. I recently went to an in person lecture and I was a little annoyed. It took me an hour to get there. The whole thing lasted 45 minutes and an hour to get home. That
[00:12:41] Steve Fretzin: should have been a very cool.
[00:12:43] Steve Fretzin: Right, right. Okay. So that’s a good lead into there are. People either looking to set up virtual events or be a part of a virtual event or they’ve done it. What kind of mistakes are people making when they set up and execute on a virtual event, either on their own or with, you know, some hosts, someone that’s hosting them?
[00:13:04] Steve Fretzin: I think the number one
[00:13:05] Julie Migliacci: mistake people do with virtual is that they tend to make them too long. So the quantum growth, Zoom burnout, Zoom’s getting blamed for it, but it’s really virtual burnout. It’s in about 37 minutes. So a lot of events go past that point. So if you can keep it short, there’s a reason why network television shows are under 25 minutes.
[00:13:30] Julie Migliacci: So they can get two episodes in before burnout kicks in.
[00:13:34] Steve Fretzin: Are you sure? Are you trying to say that we have short attention spans?
[00:13:38] Julie Migliacci: 100% we do, as we’re typically virtually or at home, like your cell phone starts distracting you, your email, all those notifications really impact you. So that’s the number one mistake.
[00:13:49] Julie Migliacci: And we really try to push our clients to be like every 30 minutes, you either need to give them a break, end your event, give them a full question, do a breakout room, allow networking, do something different to recapture their attention. But that’s when you start losing them. You don’t want to get to that burnout point without trying to reach.
[00:14:13] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. The other thing that I was thinking about too, is like this, like the way that I see events, whether they’re virtual or in person may not matter that much as I sort of see it like a story. Like there’s some planning elements to promote it and make sure that you get the best audience you can get.
[00:14:28] Steve Fretzin: There’s the actual execution where you’re talking about like, Hey, are you doing breakouts? Are you doing an interactive? How are you keeping people’s attention? Then there’s a follow through piece. And I find that a lot of people just kind of show up, do their thing, leave. And it’s almost like if a tree fell in the woods and no one was around to hear it, did it fall?
[00:14:45] Steve Fretzin: Like, it’s like, it’s like almost like it never happened. And so that’s my biggest thing when I think about what events I’m running or the events that, that I’m attending is how is the person really building the And then following through to like, is there a next step? Is there some takeaway giveaway? How are they getting feedback?
[00:15:05] Steve Fretzin: That type of thing.
[00:15:07] Julie Migliacci: And, and that’s huge. I was actually in my call right before this, I was talking to somebody, uh, the number of events, whether in person or virtual that don’t think, uh, send a thank you email afterwards with the recording or sorry, we missed you with the recording, I would say unofficially 70% of events don’t even bother.
[00:15:29] Julie Migliacci: That’s huge. You want to continue to re it’s simple. It’s an email. Like, thank you for coming. Here’s the recording or slicing up the recording into little bite sized 30 second snippets for social media, for LinkedIn, keep that content flowing. Just because the event is technically over doesn’t mean that that information can’t live on forever.
[00:15:52] Julie Migliacci: Yeah. And that’s a mistake we see a lot of people make.
[00:15:56] Steve Fretzin: And then just to add, I mean, that your comment about. Taking the information that was given and breaking it up into clips or utilize repurposing. I think that’s, you know, how, you know, how hard is it to write an article? How hard is it to, you know, get content that’s valuable.
[00:16:14] Steve Fretzin: You have it literally produced and recorded, and then you’re not doing anything with it, you know, for shame, you’re not using the transcripts, you know, for SEO, you’re not using the clips for maybe promotions for future events, uh, you’re not using it to kind of social media and get branding. I mean, that’s.
[00:16:31] Steve Fretzin: That’s most people, but that’s unfortunate. Yeah.
[00:16:34] Julie Migliacci: And I, you know, if you’re looking to plan a virtual event, that should be part of the planning process is what are we doing with the post? What are you doing with, you know, depending on what platform you’re using, you could get detailed analytics of what your attendees did, like what they clicked on, how long they stayed on it.
[00:16:51] Julie Migliacci: Did they ask the question? What question did they interact with other attendees? They set up meetings. You could get all this content and all this data. And then you just sit on. Yeah.
[00:17:04] Steve Fretzin: Hey, everybody. Check this out. You’ve just had a call with a client where they need help with something you don’t do.
[00:17:09] Steve Fretzin: You’ve reached out to colleagues, you’ve searched the lawyer directories and you simply tell them, you don’t know anyone that can help. Overture changes all of that. Overture is the first private attorney network designed for the country’s best independent attorneys to refer matters to one another and ethically share in referral fees.
[00:17:26] Steve Fretzin: It’s a great way to keep your clients happy and build your practice with referred clients. It’s by the founders of LegalZoom. Membership is free if you’re accepted, but act now to get priority access to referrals for your state and practice area. Apply for membership at Overture. law. Overture dot L A W.
[00:17:47] Steve Fretzin: Okay, let’s take a quick break to talk about how money penny is changing the game for lawyers who are losing business every day and may not even realize it. It’s impossible to provide amazing client service when you have phone trees, voicemail, jail, or untrained staff handling your phones. Every inbound call could be a new client to intake properly.
[00:18:06] Steve Fretzin: Or an opportunity lost with Moneypenny. It’s all been insured. The call will be handled exactly the way you want it every time to take immediate action on this. Write down this email and start your free trial. It’s SVJ at Moneypenny. com and just mentioned my name in the subject line.
[00:18:26] Julie Migliacci: Boost your law practice partner with Get Visible, the digital marketing agency that makes you stand out. Meet Sarah, an awesome lawyer, but a terrible marketer. Get Visible helped her build a powerful website and boost her online visibility. Now she ranks high on Google, gains clients through ads and engaging content.
[00:18:46] Julie Migliacci: Tired of feeling insignificant? Make it rain. Visit getvisible. com and stand
[00:18:50] Steve Fretzin: out. Something that I did recently, and it got so much traction on LinkedIn, I was so happy I did it. So I run a number of peer advisory round tables and I bring in guest speakers to, you know, talk with them about, you know, leadership or talk to them about time management or whatever the topic of the day is.
[00:19:08] Steve Fretzin: And at the end of it, I said, Hey, everybody, would you mind just taking a quick, let me do a quick screenshot, everybody smile, thumbs up, whatever. And everybody was so happy. It wasn’t like I had to pull their pull teeth to get them to do. Something simple. And then I posted that on LinkedIn, you know, thank the speaker mentioned and named the people in that were in the room and they then commented and shared and talked about how great the speaker was and it was like everybody won and of course it was great, you know, branding for me on the round tables and the fact that I have amazing speakers come in.
[00:19:39] Steve Fretzin: So it’s something as simple as just remembering to do a screenshot of the audience or the people that are attended is huge and it’s so
[00:19:48] Julie Migliacci: simple. Yeah, that’s the thing. Like, we’re not talking about spending thousands of dollars here. These are very simple things that you can do to just continue that engagement.
[00:19:58] Julie Migliacci: And you can use that same picture to the next time you do a round table, be like, throwback for our last one, can’t wait for this one and tag your upcoming speaker. And. You know, that content over and over and over again.
[00:20:12] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, I took that picture and I actually sent it to my, to, uh, get visible. My website folks who, by the way, are amazing and a sponsor of the show.
[00:20:20] Steve Fretzin: Uh, and I had them updated on my, on my website as for the, for the peer advisory round tables that I’m running. Cause it was just such a great snapshot of happy, you know, entertained, educated people that, you know, that I just, I couldn’t keep it a secret. You know, I had to post it. So let’s talk about some additional tips for planning a virtual event.
[00:20:43] Steve Fretzin: So let’s say there’s a lawyer, the lawyer is an expert at, let’s say, um, employment law. All right. There’s new laws coming up all the time from the state of Illinois. For example, they’re on the forefront of knowing what those are. They think, Hey, I can get ahead of this. By the way, that’s just a good idea in itself.
[00:20:59] Steve Fretzin: Like what’s going on. That’s relevant. Get ahead of it. Get out there with that presentation. And then what are they doing to set up and, and then get that audience, like how do you get an audience and get, you know, 25 to 50 people in a room, a zoom room or whatever to do a presentation on a topical subject like that?
[00:21:18] Julie Migliacci: Uh, definitely I would get a great marketing partner. So we work with a ton of marketing agencies with that. That’s what they do. They help drive traffic to whatever you want it to be. So in this case, we would want it to get to a registration page. You always want to do a red page because again, you get that data, uh, and then think about what you want that session to be.
[00:21:41] Julie Migliacci: So not every virtual event is a zoom meeting. You could also, what can we consider a zoom event is a live 10 minute stream to your LinkedIn page, your Facebook page, your X page is what we’re calling now, uh, all your social media. What
[00:21:57] Steve Fretzin: is that? I’m sorry. What is that X page? Is that what you’re calling?
[00:22:00] Steve Fretzin: Twitter. Oh, Twitter. Oh man, I’m not sure about that.
[00:22:05] Julie Migliacci: Well, see, I’m trying to use
[00:22:06] Steve Fretzin: it, but it’s not working. I got to mention the name of the page and she just inserted X. No, it’s Twitter. It’s called X. Boy, am I, I’m a little slow on this. Twitter,
[00:22:16] Julie Migliacci: you know, live streaming to your social pages. If you’re using a platform such as StreamYard or Restream, it actually pulls on the live comments from your attendees into that reporting so that you can live address it and be like, Oh, we have a question from Steve on LinkedIn.
[00:22:33] Julie Migliacci: Steve, I see your question. So you can have that interaction and then that lives on on your social pages forever until you decide to take them down. So that’s one way to do a virtual event. That’s just a really quick hit. So you can be like, Hey, this is a new lot is coming out. This is impacts you. If you need more information, this is how you contact me.
[00:22:53] Julie Migliacci: You could do a full conference. So you can use, uh, zoom meetings, do webinars, zoom events. You can also use platforms such as webinar net, cell events. That allow you, those platforms will allow you to do more of a full branded, high end experience television style show. So you want to make sure you’re using the right technology for what you’re trying to do.
[00:23:16] Julie Migliacci: And so that’s the question, is it a quick lecture? Is it a long form lecture? Is it more of a brainstorming, like, Workshop type of feel and then find the right technology that will allow you to do that.
[00:23:32] Steve Fretzin: So let me ask you, because there’s zoom meeting, there’s zoom webinar, and then you said there’s zoom events, and I want to break that down.
[00:23:37] Steve Fretzin: So right now, like for example, I have the zoom webinars, and so we do a, be that lawyer live. Tech talk, you know, which is coming up soon, uh, or may have already happened. I’m not sure, uh, based on when this is going to air, but that’s where I have like three panelists and I’m the moderator. And so I set it up as a webinar because that allows me to really highlight them on the screen and everything.
[00:23:58] Steve Fretzin: And I wasn’t getting that from just the zoom meetings. So what are the, like you talk, let’s just, let’s not go anywhere, but those may be three levels or layers of. Events. So what’s zoom? What do you get with like zoom event, zoom, not events, zoom meeting, the basic
[00:24:14] Julie Migliacci: zoom meeting. So we’ve all been on a zoom meeting.
[00:24:16] Julie Migliacci: So it’s the, the many platform. So you can, depending on your license, you can have up to even a thousand people on, but it’s meant to be hyper interactive. So anyone at any point can unmute themselves and speak and be heard, you have breakout rooms, you have all those features, but it’s meant to be really, really interactive.
[00:24:36] Julie Migliacci: So we advise that for workshops or what you really need, hyper interactive Q& A. And it’s really not meant to be a full lecture. It’s the equivalent of sitting around a conference room. Zoom webinar is the one to many. So you have a stage which is where you have your panelists. And then your attendees, which are behind a virtual wall, so equivalent of an auditorium that you have speakers on a stage and everybody in the audience is watching, and maybe you allow them to have a mic, which is your Q& A box, or you can even promote them to speak to break that wall a little bit, but it’s a lot more controlled, so you want to use that for more lecture formats where you might do Q& A, but it’s a little bit looser, Uh, Zoom webinar also allows for branding now and custom backgrounds and all that jazz.
[00:25:28] Julie Migliacci: So you make it look a little bit different. And then Zoom events is more like their conference center. So it’s walking in, there’s a registration, you have your speaker bio, you can highlight some sponsors. And all your events for that day and all your meetings and webinars are listed there. So it becomes sort of a hub where attendees can go and interact with each other and get more of a full event experience.
[00:25:56] Steve Fretzin: And that’s really cool. And, uh, I mean, a lot of people are moving these, these actual conferences to these virtual conferences. And what I keep hearing is. Not necessarily that they’re so much better, although I’ve heard that, that they’re just, it’s just so, so efficient and easy and you didn’t have to fly in.
[00:26:13] Steve Fretzin: I mean, you miss out on the networking. Like if that’s the reason that you’re going is to network, then you may miss a lot of that. But if you’re going for the content, I mean, then it’s kind of a no brainer.
[00:26:23] Julie Migliacci: Remember if networking is still a big part of your event and you can’t afford to do it in person because it’s very expensive to put on and it’s also expensive to go.
[00:26:32] Julie Migliacci: There are platforms such as Excel event. where there’s actually an algorithm that will recommend other attendees to you. So it’d be like, Oh, Steve’s a lawyer coach and you’re a lawyer. You guys should speak. And in the platform, it allows you to launch many meetings on video, allows you to change business cards information.
[00:26:55] Julie Migliacci: If you’re want to replicate that networking, it will never be the same as walking through a conference call. Like it is what it is, but. It does give you more opportunities than a standard zoom webinar, for example.
[00:27:08] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. And Julie, you’re in the business. So what, like, what do you, what is your business? How are you helping?
[00:27:14] Steve Fretzin: Let’s say that I, I mean, I’m doing all the events myself and I’m working with my, uh, marketing assistant, Sergio, who’s amazing, and I’m putting on these things and I’m doing just that all myself and I may be making mistakes. I may not be doing things that, you know, the total power, like what would you help me with, or a law firm or a lawyer with and, and helping them build out.
[00:27:33] Steve Fretzin: A speaker series or helping them just like get this thing really to the next level. Cause I think doing it, there’s a level that you can get to on your own. There’s a level you can get to when you work with an expert.
[00:27:42] Julie Migliacci: Totally. Yeah. Similar to learning sales, you can dabble on your own and eventually you just need the next step up.
[00:27:49] Julie Migliacci: We love working with that person that’s been doing it for a while or even novices, but they know they need to elevate what they’re doing. So often it’s a brain pack. We’ll have a big working session where, what have you done? What have you gone to in life? What have you gone to and not like what, you know, just going through that often will help them elevate their technology.
[00:28:10] Julie Migliacci: So many people use zoom because we’re familiar with it. It’s comfortable. We’d like it, but that might not be the right choice. Sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not. So we’ll dive into that. Then we’ll dive into the agenda and the content and how can we help make it more interactive? We’re always looking to make things more interactive.
[00:28:28] Julie Migliacci: Specifically when you’re virtual, the 30 minute lecture feels like three hours. So how can we help? Just make it more interesting. How can we bring in attendees a lot more? How can we make, do we need an MC to break up the room and make it a lot funner? We work with some amazing MCs that just keep the, then change the voice.
[00:28:51] Julie Migliacci: So right around that 30 minute mark, when you’re going to see the MC pop up, again, we’re changing the environment, changing the voice and then making it feel more like a television style show, lower thirds, graphic, music. Uh, there’s always a backup. So if you’re, for example, Steve, you would be speaking, you have a slide deck.
[00:29:12] Julie Migliacci: We’re going to make sure we have that slide deck. So if you have technology issues, we could pop right in and it’s a 30 second blip instead of a five minute. Ordeal with like, can you see the big green button and the bottom of your screen?
[00:29:24] Steve Fretzin: It doesn’t make you feel it. This is the worst when, oh man, technology, when it fails you, there’s nothing more painful than that.
[00:29:31] Julie Migliacci: Oh, but nothing more, and it fails. That’s what technology does. It’s not.
[00:29:35] Steve Fretzin: Verified it. It’s very good at failing. You know, everything might be great. I had, um, I did a presentation in front of, live presentation in front of about 60 lawyers at a large law firm in the city. And, um, that they had these huge screens that would come down, you know, with the projector and the screens wouldn’t come down.
[00:29:51] Steve Fretzin: So now I need to do my entire presentation without any visuals. And I was like, it still went fine. Cause I know my subject, but. Well, I mean, I was a little perturbed to say the least. So you’re percent
[00:30:02] Julie Migliacci: it’s very off putting for the speaker because it, it is a front rod that allows you to move forward. So when you lose that, you’re a little wobbly and you need a little extra help.
[00:30:14] Steve Fretzin: Well, very cool. So if, um, if people want to get in touch with you and they want to hear more about your services, they want to engage you just, you know, they want to, you know, continue to, to figure this out, what’s the best way for them to reach you?
[00:30:26] Julie Migliacci: So, uh, you can always email me. My email is Julie, J U L L J U L I E at revent.
[00:30:32] Julie Migliacci: consulting, not. com, not consulting. Uh, you can go to our website at, uh, revent. consulting. I will speak to anybody. You are planning a virtual event or hybrid event and you just need a brain pick, please come pick my brain. Uh, I think anybody that does better virtual and hybrid events will help us solve.
[00:30:51] Julie Migliacci: So if you have any questions, never hesitate
[00:30:54] Steve Fretzin: and shout out to provisors, right? Oh, 100%. Yeah, Chris is, that’s how we met. That’s how we met. There we go. Love the provisors and real quick, um, as we wrap up game changing book, uh, no podcast today, uh, but game changing book, never lose a customer again. And can you just take 30 seconds and tell us a little bit about that book?
[00:31:14] Steve Fretzin: This
[00:31:14] Julie Migliacci: is the best book. As I said, I am not a salesperson. I’m learning. This book is really focused on retaining your clients and turning your clients into your sales force. So incentivizing them to refer you, cause that’s the best lead, the warm intro. And it’s really focused around that. So if anybody out there is looking at how to retain your clients and keep them happy so that they refer you, this is just a wonderful read.
[00:31:42] Steve Fretzin: Really good stuff. Really good stuff. And as we wrap up, I want to of course thank our sponsors, MoneyPenny, Overture and GetVisible, all terrific partners to the show. And Julie, just want to thank you for being on the show and sharing your wisdom. And I think your, your, uh, business is unique. I think it’s in, in great need in the legal community as lawyers continue to try to figure out how to market themselves and how to brand themselves.
[00:32:04] Steve Fretzin: And speaking, you know, it used to be, you know, 80% of the way that they got their name out and now that’s gone down to 20 and they haven’t really figured out how to bring it back and that’s where you come in. So just really great stuff. Thank you for having me Steve. Yeah. And thank you everybody for spending time with, uh, Julie and myself today.
[00:32:22] Steve Fretzin: Uh, as usual, helping you to be that lawyer, someone who’s confident, organized and a skilled rainmaker. Take care, everybody. Be safe. Be well. We will talk again very soon.
[00:32:34] Julie Migliacci: Thanks for listening to Be That Lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website Fretzin. com for additional information and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today’s episode, check out today’s show notes.
[00:32:57] Julie Migliacci: Um,