SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

720: How Wealthy People Put On a Conference


Listen Later

Steve Olsher. He's the chairman and founder of Liquor.com. He's a New York Times best-selling author of What Is Your WHAT?: Discover The One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do. He's also hosted the number 1 radio show, Reinvention Radio, and is a national keynote speaker and creator of the New Media Summit.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The $100 Startup
  • What CEO do you follow? – Giovanni Marsico
  • Favorite online tool? — io
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7-8
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wished I would have trusted myself more"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:10 – Nathan introduces to the show
  • 01:35 – Steve was in Episode 342
  • 02:02 – Steve is still in the process of selling Liquor.com
  • 02:14 – Liquor.com is on ad revenue but is moving into the monetization strategy in Q3 and Q4
  • 02:20 – Monthly impression is currently $3M
  • 02:32 – There's nothing in the bottom line revenue because it just goes back to the business
  • 02:45 – Gross margin varies
  • 03:51 – The company's valuation
  • 04:07 – Average open rate
    • 04:14 – Depending on the promotion, the click rate varies
    • 04:41 – People are more interested with contests than new products
  • 05:26 – Steve has been doing events
  • 06:24 – Liquor.com was like a family business
  • 07:04 – New Media Summit does live events for different types of viewers
    • 08:00 – The idea is to connect with people who have high-visibility platforms
  • 08:34 – New Media Summit is bringing in icons and influencers to events
    • 09:06 – Most people are podcasters
    • 09:25 – The people in New Media Summit are focused on understanding the value of teaching and sharing their knowledge
    • 09:47 – New Media Summit takes care of the podcasters hotel accommodation and meals
    • 09:57 – The event will accommodate only 150 people
    • 10:17 – There will be an influencer and mastermind on the last day of the summit
    • 10:49 – Attendees can pay in full which is $4997—the early bird price
    • 11:10 – The marketing just started and they have sold 2 tickets for the early bird
    • 11:17 – There are some who invested in Steve's products and services and paid a seat deposit to attend the summit
    • 11:30 – Minimum price to attend is $1300 plus the seat deposit
  • 12:28 – Part of Steve's revenue comes from buying stage time
  • 12:44 – Steve can easily pay $10K for a highly-curated event with 100 people
  • 13:19 – An event should have a revenue model or plan of action in order to recoup
  • 14:44 – There are some events that people don't want to go back to because they are just pitch fests
  • 14:49 – Steve doesn't speak at events where 1-10 people are selling
  • 15:22 – Steve's call-to action during his speaking is to sign-up on an order form which has a lot of bonuses
  • 16:34 – An event venue is quite expensive which can average to about $150K for a whole day event
  • 17:00 – Steve is also making money from the events
    • 17:28 – They've got everything covered before the event starts
    • 17:38 – There will be services and products offered during the event
    • 18:03 – Steve will also pitch to future speakers
  • 19:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

  1. An event should be well-planned and have a revenue model where they can recoup expenses.
  2. The main challenges in having an event is ensuring people attend and to have speakers who will NOT just sell during the event.
  3. Ad open rates always vary depending on the promotion.

Resources Mentioned:

  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, FoundersBy Nathan Latka

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

634 ratings


More shows like SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

View all
This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

This Week in Startups

1,291 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

533 Listeners

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

181 Listeners

Startups For the Rest of Us by Rob Walling

Startups For the Rest of Us

712 Listeners

The a16z Show by Andreessen Horowitz

The a16z Show

1,095 Listeners

Built to Sell Radio by John Warrillow

Built to Sell Radio

214 Listeners

Founders by David Senra

Founders

2,186 Listeners

Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

Masters of Scale

3,995 Listeners

Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

225 Listeners

My First Million by Hubspot Media

My First Million

2,659 Listeners

The Startup Ideas Podcast by Greg Isenberg

The Startup Ideas Podcast

209 Listeners

Moneywise by Hampton

Moneywise

651 Listeners

The Koerner Office - Business Ideas and Deep Dives with Chris Koerner by Chris Koerner

The Koerner Office - Business Ideas and Deep Dives with Chris Koerner

256 Listeners

AI + a16z by a16z

AI + a16z

32 Listeners

David Senra by Scicomm Media

David Senra

223 Listeners