I Ran My First Masterclass (5 Lessons for Anyone Thinking About It)

Join the next masterclass here: https://talktochrismiller.kit.com/profile 

This week I ran my first-ever live masterclass — 35 people showed up, 86% stayed the full 90 minutes, and one comment in the Q&A stopped me cold. In this episode, I walk through what actually happened, what I got wrong, and five lessons I'd give anyone thinking about building a masterclass or turning their expertise into something people pay for.

Whether you're weighing your first live event or just trying to figure out how to package what you know, this one's for you.

Transcript

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0:00

The world is changing and it's changing fast, but something that's not changing fast is human nature.

In this episode, I'm going to talk to you about a certain component of human nature that I analyzed quite heavily with my first ever live master class.

0:16

If you are someone who has some type of expertise that you've considered monetizing, potentially you're an expert in your field or you're a leader of some type of business and you thought about putting digital content online to be able to make money or build trust, this episode is for you.

0:33

I'm going to talk about what I did to put on my first ever master class, attract more people than I would have ever expected, keep them longer than I would have expected, and have some opportunities and results that I wasn't expecting.

I'm also going to tell you what I did to get there, what I wish I would have done better and what I wouldn't do the next time.

0:54

And I am going to do it again, but what I won't do the next time I run it back.

Welcome to the Talk to People podcast.

This is your host, Chris Miller.

The whole entire podcast is life is better when you talk to people.

So you may as well do it great.

You may as well be someone who can articulate your message well.

1:10

Connect to the people around you.

Often times I'm speaking to business owners.

I want them to be great at communicating their message to their customers or their clientele, to their stakeholders or investors who are passionate about their mission.

So I built a podcast doing exactly that.

1:27

Every episode will help you communicate.

Every episode will help you appreciate the people around you more.

Connect to those people that matter.

This episode, we're going deep.

We're going deep into the concept of persuasion and sales online, so let's get started.

1:45

I'm going to take you back to the sham.

Wow.

The highly absorbent towel that could theoretically or on TV, they said it could hold up to 20 times its weight in the liquid.

I remember the colours.

I remember Billy Mays talking about it.

2:02

If you order before the commercial ends, you will get 2 of them.

But wait, there's more.

I remember that.

I also remember seeing that and thinking to myself, I don't think it's that good.

I felt that way about most infomercials.

If there was an infomercial for a product, in my head, I discounted that product.

2:22

Maybe I thought to myself, if you're spending this much time and money on the infomercial, then you're relying on sales more than actually quality of product.

I'm not sure because I've never bought anything off the TV, but I will say I look down on infomercials.

2:38

I thought that it felt weird, I thought it felt manipulative, I thought it felt like they were trying too hard.

But I've had to re examine that thought because what I realized was I also applied it to most virtual live events.

2:57

Whenever I saw someone virtually trying to sell something, immediately my guard went up.

It could be attributed to a lot of different things.

I grew up not having a lot of resources, so I had to be extra critical on what those resources went to.

3:15

I also grew up potentially doubting people who claimed themselves as experts.

I was taught to work really hard and get things on my own, and I heard this thing about snake oil salesman people who claim to sell something while they actually didn't sell those things.

3:34

So I'm naturally very skeptical whenever I see things like this, but in this past year I've had to re examine that belief because I have bought in, I've purchased different trainings online or been a part of virtual courses online and they've been really good for me.

3:51

I'd go as far as saying they've changed my life for the better.

I've learned things, I've met people online, I've been able to take things that I've learned for the price of what I paid for those things and then make several times more that just taking a fraction of what I've learned.

4:09

And it opened my eyes to the fact that no, these virtual things may be good.

Maybe those infomercials were super good.

Maybe the product behind them was great.

And I even had to come to terms with it even more whenever I decided, Chris, you should try to put on your first ever master class yourself.

4:28

You should try to have your own master or infomercials.

You should try to go to throughout the community and talk about a free thing you are putting on to get people to show up.

You should try to build a 90 minute sequence, a presentation of information to get people to the point of purchasing something for you.

4:48

That sounds like a good challenge, doesn't it?

That sounds like a perfect example of persuasion in sales and using everything you learned about communication to share a message that can improve people's lives.

So I did exactly that a month ago.

5:04

I was a part of a master class, and in this master class, what I saw this person do was they did five days, two hours each day of a challenge.

And each day there was a different subject this person talked about.

And on day four, they made a pitch to everybody involved to if you enjoyed this challenge, then you can invest in a coaching program.

5:30

And in this coaching program, it's called the inner circle.

And you're going to pay thousands of dollars to be a part of the inner circle.

And I watched people buy into the inner circle and it really opened my eyes to this business model of 1 to many of rather than me going and meeting with people one-on-one, coaching them or advising them, I could put on a big master class and just myself, I'd speak, a whole bunch of people could listen.

5:55

And then I could give them another offer of, hey, if you'd like to invest in yourself and improve, you could spend a few $100 here and be a part of this group.

And then I'd be able to do that with several people all at once.

So the economics of scale, that seems appealing, right?

6:12

But then I also heard another argument of whenever you get group coaching, whenever you get these group programs, not only do you have to learn from me, not only do you get to learn from me, but you get to learn from everybody else who's also walking through it.

Often times they're in the same position as you.

And I saw that first hand, 'cause I was in programs where I learned from other people and I connected with them and that was worth my money in itself.

6:35

So I saw it and I thought, Chris, I'm going to do it.

So let me tell you about exactly what I did to market this class 1st, I had to come up with a good title.

I think packaging and branding is one of the most important things in the field of business.

If you can brand your offer really well, there are scientists and experts who literally study brand positioning and how exactly you can make yourself look a certain way.

7:00

It's just like photos.

If you have a different angle, you could look a lot better.

Same idea with packaging, an offer or a service.

You can change the words, it'll look a lot better.

So I thought to myself, how can I brand something?

Very well in a little back story, right around the same time, someone who reached out to me who was a podcast producer, who was looking for work, and I said to myself, Chris, you've produced podcasts before.

7:29

It deals with communication on digital platforms.

It's still in the communication bin.

How about you create a master class about podcasting for business owners?

And if people who attend that master class are interested, then you could offer them some type of advising or production and you could get the person that reached out to you, you could get them to work with you and they could do fulfilment.

7:52

So I wouldn't need to do as much work, but I'd be generating the opportunity, doing all the comms with the clients.

So in my head it seemed like a pretty good idea.

So I knew I wanted this master class to be about podcasting for business owners, for the branding and the positioning of it.

8:10

I decided to make it about here's the business case to grow your business, or here's how to grow your business with a podcast.

Get more trust, more leads, more revenue.

Those three things are outcomes.

I believe a lot of business owners are marketing too.

8:28

So I made sure to put those in the description.

But that one line of how to grow your business with a podcast felt simple enough for me.

So I put that out there, How to Grow your Business with a Podcast master class.

I put the short description, I created a Google form, grabbed the link, put the link on AQR code, created a quick flyer, and then I went to town.

8:52

The next day I went and presented at a few different networking groups with business owners in my local area.

By the end of that day, I think I had 15 people who had already signed up.

No more like 1212 people who are already signed up.

What a crazy day.

9:08

It felt pretty wild.

I had already gotten 12 people, the 12 disciples to sign up for my master class.

And then I started posting.

I posted about it on Facebook.

I shot short videos.

I put together a podcast which two weeks ago I talked about how to get discovered using a podcast and how it changed my life.

9:32

I put together, I put that podcast on YouTube in the YouTube description, I put a link for the master class, I put up Instagram stories, I put up Facebook posts, I put up LinkedIn posts.

I believe in the past three weeks I've gotten close to 50,000 impressions on all of my social media content, which is great.

9:56

From 50,000 impressions overall, I got 50 registrants from all of my in person work, from my social media work, from texting people on my phone, from emailing people, from messaging people on LinkedIn. 50 registrants.

10:15

That doesn't seem like a good conversion rate, does it?

50,000 impressions, but 50 registrants.

One impression, 1 registrant for every thousand impressions.

I think it's a great conversion rate if you can.

10:31

I've had YouTube videos get almost 1,000,000 views.

That would be 1000 registrants, which is incredible because I'll share with you the numbers a little later on and how something like that makes sense.

But I marketed and I marketed.

10:49

This experience showed me if you want something to work, you have to market it and you need to be relentless in marketing it.

You cannot care about someone thinking to themselves, oh, here we go.

11:04

Chris is asking me for another thing.

Chris is putting on another thing.

You have to push that in the back of your head.

If you want to grow something, if you want to make it work, you got to go for it.

I'm not telling you to not be insightful or to not think about the other people around you.

11:22

Make sure you are giving, giving, giving as much as you can so that whenever you need to draw from a well, you've already dug it.

You dig the dig the wells before you need them, right?

Marketing for this master class taught me you have to be relentless.

11:37

If you want something to work, if you want a business to work, if you want an organization to grow, you have to have impressions.

You have to have people to know about it.

So you got to take that message out there.

You have to post more than you want to post.

Talk about it more than you want to talk about it.

11:53

Send more messages than you want to send.

That's what it's going to take.

If you do that and you keep doing it and you keep doing it and you keep iterating and going, getting even better, nine times out of 10, the thing you're working on is going to work because you're either going to adapt it enough for it to work or you're going to get some good feedback and move on in a different direction.

12:15

And ultimately that'll work, right?

This master class taught me how important it is to market.

And it also taught me that whenever you reach out to somebody about something and whenever you post about something and whenever you get dozens of posts and you talk about it so much, you will still have people reach out to you after the fact and say, remind me when that thing is.

12:42

Or oh, I didn't see it at all.

Many people close to me did not see a single post about my master class.

I posted about it dozens of times.

It's not their fault, it's mine.

If we want to be good at marketing what we do, we have to figure out how to do it so that other people can see it.

13:01

Downside of social media, we don't get to control the exposure or the discoverability.

All we can control is how much we post and what we post.

Researching the platforms we post on, researching the platforms you use to advertise is going to help you get your message out there.

13:18

Open my eyes.

It taught me that especially on LinkedIn, I should use LinkedIn a lot.

I researched LinkedIn, I've been reading a book about LinkedIn.

It's been opening my eyes how to use LinkedIn better.

Lesson #1 If you want to do a master class, if you want to put something online, you have to market it.

13:37

Lesson #2 Actually getting the word out there.

I started out with a Google Form.

I would have people register on a Google Form.

Then I had everybody's emails at some point I needed to figure out how to host the master class.

13:53

Is it going to be on Zoom on Teams on Riverside?

What's it going to be on?

And then I had to figure out how to do a e-mail sequence, how to get people excited, how to say click this link to add it to your calendar.

Click this link to save your Zoom in advance.

14:10

And then two days before, make sure you're not alone, make sure you're here and make sure you're there.

The day off 24 hours tell one hour before, one hour before the live master class.

Click this link to get ready.

That was so much work.

14:28

Now I know how to do it, praise the Lord.

But back then I really had to figure out.

I used Zoom for the master class.

I purchased the pro version.

I used kit.com.

I'll put the links in the description below.

You can create a kit.com account.

One of the best, currently one of the best providers for putting together e-mail marketing and putting together some type of e-mail sequence.

14:53

Now I have 50 subscribers on kit.com that I'll be able to push the podcast out to.

More than likely, if you're listening to this, you may have gotten an e-mail from me on that subscription list.

No, you can always, you can always unsubscribe.

15:10

I don't feel, I wonder why.

I feel like I need to hedge with that.

We get a lot of emails but I read the ones I care about so hopefully you care about this one and if not feel free to unsubscribe.

Right?

Life's too short for us to read things we don't care about.

15:26

I use kit.com.

It was really good for me but it was a big learning curve what to write, what to include.

I went to Claude and Claude gave me some ideas for what to write.

I don't.

I don't copy paste from Claude whenever I'm pushing things out.

I can copy some structure.

15:44

But if you go back and read my emails, it's me.

It's Chris.

It's written by Chris.

Once I use Zoom and once I use kit.com for my emails.

I had to figure out a countdown video and I wanted someone to introduce me because I've been on a lot of different master classes and I've seen an introduction, and I believe it's a very simple trick.

16:09

It gives you credibility immediately whenever you have someone else introduce you.

It seems weird whenever you start and you say I've done this, I've done that, I've done this, but when you have someone introduce you, this is for in person events as well.

It builds up a credibility.

It establishes a platform and it's very warm to the audience because it feels in the audience perspective like you are boosting or you are gassing someone up.

16:34

It gives positive energy to both the introducer and the person they're introducing.

Also to the audience.

I love introductions and being introduced whenever I'm speaking.

I knew I wanted this master class to be similar.

Both master classes I've been on in the past few months.

16:53

I paid for these collectively several $100.

They both used an introducer.

It gets things hyped.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Chris Miller, Communication expert podcast host, to share with you exactly how you can double the value of your business with a podcast.

17:11

Chris, take the floor.

I worked with Saul on that introduction.

We wrote different introductions.

He practiced.

I had a countdown video that countdown because I also wanted that to be exciting.

I had an introduction that brought in the master class, yet I had to figure out how to put the master class on the technicality.

17:34

The zoom, the e-mail sequencing, the introduction, the countdown video.

I had a whiteboard.

I had a teleprompter set up on the camera.

It was a lot of thought that went into it.

Hopefully next time around I'm going to have a different set up where I can stand.

I believe that would really help me.

17:52

Even right now, I'm sitting down.

I enjoy standing up.

It feels more active and it helps me be a better teacher.

That was important to me.

So lesson #2 that I learned was if you're going to do something like this, you really need to think ahead about the actual technicalities.

18:10

I would invest time in figuring out the technicalities, putting together the e-mail sequences, figuring out the set, the workflow, The in my head, I'm thinking of a set list, but I know there's a different word for it.

18:27

Maybe your production flow, how things are going to go because we haven't even touched the actual master class yet.

I knew what I had branded it and I knew that I could talk about what I branded it because I produced podcasts professionally for multiple years.

18:44

I've ran my own podcast.

I've met with over 100 business owners.

I know what running a business is like and what it takes to grow one.

I have all the ingredients for a great master class when it comes to building a business with a podcast, right?

But one thing that I didn't have was the structure.

19:04

You may have all the ingredients, but if you don't have the recipe, you don't have a good meal.

And if I were to go back and make one thing better, I would go back and tweak my recipe.

I posted about this on LinkedIn today.

19:20

Many people focus on the content of a speech, of a presentation, of a master class, but what they overlook is the sequence of the information they're presenting.

If we were to take the 10 best movies in the world, we were to cut them up each movie.

19:38

We we take one movie, say the Titanic, we cut it up.

We put the ending at the beginning and the beginning and Part 3 and Part 3 and Part 1.

It's no longer one of the best movies in the world because the order of everything happened.

It's not the fact that everything happened, but it's the order in which it happened.

19:59

Same thing for a persuasive or an impressive presentation order and sequence of information.

It's imperative.

It's unbelievable the experience you can create if you do it well.

20:15

Looking back, I would say this would be the one area of most improvement and an area I'm most excited about for the future.

I'm looking forward to my next master class 'cause I know that I can do it and the first draft's always the hardest draft and it's also the worst draft typically.

20:36

I recorded it.

I haven't watched it back yet, but I recorded it.

So I have the structure.

But if I were to do it again, I would focus on the sequence of information.

If you are ever going to put together something like this, think to yourself, what Rd. am I going to talk them through?

20:55

How am I going to carry them through all of this content?

You need to be mindful about that.

Start with what's most interesting, end with what's most empowering.

Put really good things throughout.

If you have some type of offer, which I did an offer for an investment or to purchase something, make sure it doesn't feel like a bait and switch.

21:18

Make sure you talk about it upfront in the middle.

You are selling them throughout the whole entire master class.

I even got feedback and part of the feedback was work on the structure, which I totally agree, the structure could have been better.

21:35

Now, mind you, I'm pretty critical when it comes to this stuff, so nobody wasted their time.

It was really valuable, but I know it could have been better.

Structure lesson #3 Whenever you're actually putting this together, think not only of what you're going to say, but think of how you're going to say it.

21:54

Now, I'm going to be upfront and transparent with you.

I had 35 people on this call.

At the end of 90 minutes, I had about 29, which means I had 80% retention rate for the whole entire master class on a Friday afternoon.

22:13

What I learned, if you can keep people for the 1st 10 or 15 minutes you got them for a live event, on average, the retention rate for a live master class is going to start high, going to drop fast and then going to level out.

22:34

I had 35 people that I pitched to.

By the end of the call there was 28.

Nobody bought my pitch.

Not a single person bought my offer.

I remember going back and looking and feeling a little down.

22:52

Now there's layers to this.

One layer is Chris, you failed.

You put on this master class.

You had an offer.

Not a single person bought it.

OK, I'll take that out.

The second layer is Chris, why didn't people buy?

23:11

I'll tell you right now what was the one area I need to improve order and structure.

If you are wanting to put together a master class that ultimately leads to sell, leads to sales, you have to create an experience to buy.

23:30

You want your audience to feel like they want to buy.

You're not trying to get them to buy.

You're trying to create the experience or the feeling of them wanting to buy.

It's a little 2nd order, not the first order, but a little beyond it to 2nd order.

23:47

So that means throughout the whole entire class you are looking at, you are thinking about what are the things, what are the main objections?

Well, one, it's expensive. 2, they may not have the knowledge.

Three, they may not have the time. 4, they may not feel like podcasting is the best thing.

24:07

Five, they may not feel like they have room on their team.

That's only 5 S walking through the master class.

You have to be able to address all of these objections before you even get to the point to where you're really selling because you want them to feel like everything's taken care of and they feel like ready for it.

24:26

So when I think back to no one bought, yes, Dang, bummer, but also no, not a bummer.

So much room for improvement.

I'm going to be doing it again and again and again.

And three, I'm not mad that no one bought.

24:46

I don't know how much I really want to produce a podcast.

I have someone producing podcasts for me.

Awesome.

Maybe I need to open up my business mind, but my passion is communication.

I want to help people become better communicators because I know how much that will change their life.

25:04

And yes, communicating on digital platforms, which could be a podcast that checks the box.

Of course I want to help you with your podcast.

But do I want to be the person lugging around the camera editing your audio at 2:00 AM, making sure I put on a special jazz intro song for you?

25:23

A title outro, a name at the third bottom of the screen that transitions into a special shout out you want me to put in?

Do I want to be doing that?

I'm not quite sure my offer was podcast strategy.

25:42

It's still on table.

If anybody wants strategy sessions on how to set up a podcast for their business, it's still on the table.

But I intentionally did that to make sure I didn't offer myself to lug around the camera and film people and put microphones in front of their face.

25:58

That's different work than the time I feel like I want to put forward helping people become a better communicator.

So my next master class is going to be about just that.

It's going to be about how to harness the power of communication to change your life.

And if you want to be on that link in the description below to sign up for my e-mail because I'm going to send it to you.

26:20

You're going to be the first one to hear about it.

And it will be a incredible master class because guess what?

The last one was incredible.

And I can improve it a lot.

And I'm going to, I'm going to improve it a lot.

And I promise you, no joke, I promise you it will change your life in 10 ways.

26:41

It'll make you a better communicator at work, at home, in eight different places.

You can fill in the blanks.

But I promise you it'll make you a better communicator at work and at home.

And just that alone will change your life for the better.

So go to the link in the description or the link in this QR code.

26:59

You can scan it on the TV wherever you're watching. 64% of YouTube viewers watch on the TV now.

Crazy.

But you can scan that, put your e-mail in the wait list and you'll be the first to hear about my new master class Boom.

So yes, nobody bought my offer and no, I'm not feeling sad about it.

27:20

One of my mentors put on a huge master class and nobody bought.

Why?

Because he didn't do it good enough.

That's OK, I'm going to get better.

We are going to get better.

So if I was you and you are wanting to put on a master class to sell something, you need to be Diolt.

27:44

You need to make sure your information is in order.

I can help you do it.

That's my communication coach side.

I help people communicate their expertise in a way that builds trust and creates opportunity for them.

I'm waving my hand.

28:00

Give me a shout out, but if you are hoping to put on a master class to put something on to create opportunity and generate revenue, you need to be dialled.

No days off, thinking through the day before my master class, I attended a master class Really good for me.

28:19

So helpful.

I'm going to do that more.

I'm going to keep attending master classes because if you get really good at presentations, you can change your life with five presentations.

You could sell them, sure, but you can change your life just by adding value to people's lives.

28:37

Showing up, giving incredible presentations, moving on, going to the next crowd, doing it again, running it back every single time.

It's better than the last.

You can do it.

I believe in you.

So that was 4 lessons from my master class.

28:53

Lesson #1 In order for you to make something work, you have to market it and you have to market it relentlessly.

People will still not know about it no matter how relentlessly you market.

29:09

Lesson #2 Think in advance how you are going to run said thing.

Are you going to be doing it on Zoom?

How are you going to communicate about it?

Lesson #3 Don't think just about your content.

29:27

Think about the sequencing of your content lesson #4 if you're going to put on a master class to try and make money, you need to be dialed.

You need to be very particular.

You need to make sure you have invested your time and your energy.

29:47

There are so many lessons that I've learned, but above all, the biggest lesson that I learned this whole entire experience.

You have to have a first draft.

You have to go out there.

You have to run the play.

Once you run the play, you'll figure out if it works.

30:03

You'll figure out what about it worked, and then you can either run the play again or you can choose to run a different play.

But I encourage you, I charge you, I beg of you, if there's something you've been wanting to do that's a bit scary for you, run the play and don't look at the score.

30:26

Play the game.

Don't look at the scoreboard.

It's OK if you take it out.

I just want you to shoot up and play suit up and play the game.

OK, Run the play in the description.

I'll put the sign up for emails if you want emails about podcast episodes, but for this new master class, so check that out.

30:49

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast, like it.

I think you can rate it on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts, rate it wherever you're listening.

It helps the podcast because it gives it credibility.

People who see high ratings typically go towards that.

31:08

And I'd rather work with human nature.

No need for me to work against human nature, right?

Anything else I want to share with you, my friends?

It's been really fun.

I'm really grateful I put it on.

31:25

One unexpected benefit I imagine is going to be increased trust.

People are going to trust me more because they saw me put it out there for 90 minutes.

They saw all the marketing I did.

They saw the debrief I'm doing.

They see how transparent I'm being.

31:45

I think there's value in that.

If you were there, thank you for being there.

If you weren't, can't wait for you to be at my next one.

Remember folks, life is better when you talk to people and I'll see you next time.