Val Selby [00:00:06]:
Hey, this is Val Selby and after over 20 years online, I can track where my mindset has blocked me. If procrastination, impostor syndrome and a lack of focus have been blocking your biz, then Val Full Volume is here to help you see choices you are making. Get ready to use your expertise to collaborate like a pro as you create the business of your dreams. Now is the time to make changes and live your best life. Let's get to it!   

Val Selby [00:00:36]:
Hello. Hello. Hello. Welcome to another week in Val Full Volume. I am Val Selby from Bundle Bash, and we're talking bundles today. We're gonna talk bundles today. Let me just leave it at that. So if you're on my list, let's see, it'd be a few weeks ago now, I sent out an email to the main list talking about bundles and talking about my part in the monster that bundles have become. I own my part in it. I own the growth that's happened.

Val Selby [00:01:07]:
That's not a bragging moment either. It's just I have been a part of the events being bigger and bigger and bigger, and the mentality to be bigger and bigger. And even for me, I have had to do some big time mental change this week because I had been so wrapped up in bigger, bigger, bigger, the more numbers, the more reach. And as a host, the more numbers, yes, that does make a big difference in your sales. As participant, the big numbers don't necessarily mean a damn thing for you on making sales. And so that's what we're gonna talk about today. Big time what we're gonna talk about today. So as you may or may not know, I have been running online events, bundles, giveaways, summits since sometime in 2018. I have given up how many I have run.

Val Selby [00:02:09]:
I was running during 2018 and 2023 was the last client I had. I ran lots and lots of events and hosted my own. 2022 is when Bundle Bash was created. And since April of 2022, I believe I didn't write these numbers down or these dates. I don't even know how I'm pulling them up. It was March or April of 2022 when Bundle Bash was created. We have done an event on Bundle Bash almost every single month since. So on top of what I was running for other people, I was posting for myself.

Val Selby [00:02:49]:
So there's a ton of events, hence why I stopped counting. I know my events, and I've known a big thing about events. I've known that this moment was going to happen. I wasn't waiting for it. I wasn't looking for it. I wasn't like sitting here going, oh God, what am I going to do when this hits? But I knew there was going to be a point where bundles had to change, just because it all that's how things always go. Like, we have this amazing thing and then everybody starts doing it, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, shit. This ain't working anymore.

Val Selby [00:03:22]:
That's the direction bundles are going. I don't think they could even if we kept our pace up, I don't think it could ever get to the point where they're not fully working. They're not working like they used to. So I say that, and then my disclaimer of my part in that is obviously how my goal for so many years has been to create bigger events for everybody. Get that reach. I mean, I was so excited when I had, a couple of years ago, the big giveaway that I used to help manage. I got the list reach with I think we usually had 8 to 40 people in there. And I got that reach to over 800,000 email reach.

Val Selby [00:04:07]:
That's not even counting social media or anything. That's just straight email. And I was so proud and so excited. And I was like, oh, my God. This is awesome. I think talking about that is like a whole another episode I need to write down right now talking about that, but it has a lot to do with what I wanna talk about right now. I'm gonna use an example of an event summit that I was in a couple of months ago, because I've got numbers from that, and I just pulled them all up. I even have a post it note.

Val Selby [00:04:35]:
I even wrote numbers down, you guys. You're welcome. I prepped for today. How excited are you for that? I prepped for today. I don't usually do that. But I wanted to have some cold hard numbers, and it just is reiterating exactly what I've been feeling. So this week, I've been sitting in a bunch of, like, personal thoughts, and there's stuff going on. Okay? There's stuff going on.

Val Selby [00:05:00]:
So I've been really drawn to doing a really good pity party most days. And I have an event. I have a giveaway coming up, and we didn't get that many people. So when I say we didn't get that many people, my brain tells me we need 20, 30, 40, a hundred people to make this event viable. That's what my brain has been telling me for a really long time because those were the facts of what I was pushing for. And so I've canceled some events. I've moved some events because we didn't have the reach. And this week, I had a flip in my brain.

Val Selby [00:05:38]:
I talked about it in the email about how I'm getting feedback from people, from participants, and from buyers, from customers out there that these big events, they just don't want them anymore. They don't want to either participate and be, like, totally lost in hundreds of other participants, and you don't know what page you're gonna be on. Or as a buyer, they just look at it and they're like, I am a hell no. I have so much shit going on in my to do list right now. So much crap on my computer. So many courses that I haven't taken already. I am not even gonna go in and access that even though there's great stuff on there. Yeah.

Val Selby [00:06:20]:
I want that. I really want that. I could really use that right now, but I know what's gonna happen. I'm gonna get overloaded, overwhelmed. Okay. I think I'm speaking right out of my own brain right here. This is what I was going through today. It's like, okay, let me look at it as an outsider looking in.

Val Selby [00:06:36]:
What's good for everyone else? I know it's great for us hosts. I know. What? Host what? Big, big, big. Of course, we do. Of course, we do. It benefits us immensely. I'll just let you truth. It benefits hosts immensely to have more and more and more and more.

Val Selby [00:06:55]:
So I had to sit in it for a few minutes. It might have been longer than a few minutes. Who knows? It's been a pity party wait, and I make no bones about that. I was sitting in it, and I was like, oh god. You know what? Screw it. We only have a few people that put in. I'm just gonna cancel it because god damn it. They obviously don't want it.

Val Selby [00:07:17]:
And so then I got that out of my system. I had my bitty party or 2 or 3. I got that out of my system and then I sat there and I was like, wait a minute. You just sent an email out about big lists. And here, right in front of you, is the universe saying, hi. I heard you. You don't have a big list. What are you gonna do with this? And the easy answer was all of a sudden I looked at it and went, oh my god.

Val Selby [00:07:43]:
I'm gonna highlight the hell out of the 6 of us that are in this giveaway. And everybody that's in it is, like, wants to be in it. They want to collaborate. It's like the 6 of us would potentially bring each other the best clients ever because there's not gonna be any noise. There's going to be 6 of us in there. And even as I'm saying it, I'm like, oh my god. I'm launching an event with 6 because I have to get that professional host consulted. But like I said, I have some stats from an event that I was in a couple of months ago, and I had a really great summit thing that I put in.

Val Selby [00:08:25]:
Everything was nicely targeted. I mean, anytime you're putting something in, you don't know who's going to be attending the event. So I know it was nicely targeted for getting the people that I would like on my list. I didn't see the final numbers. I don't know if I just missed that email. I didn't see the final numbers, but it somewhere around a thousand. I don't think we ever hit over a thousand. So for the free part, for sign up, we had somewhere close to a thousand.

Val Selby [00:08:51]:
The last one I saw was, like, 780, and I'm sure because I know I had some more sign ups after that. I'm sure that we had probably close to a half thousand. That's just how it works. Anyways, there were 60 speakers in this summit. I was on the last day. As somebody who, if you go to summits, if you sign up for summits, how are you by Day 5 of a summit when there's then 7, 8, 10 speakers every day? Yeah. Me too. I was basically on a day that nobody checks in because I know I would have already checked out by then.

Val Selby [00:09:28]:
I've been like, oh my god. There's so many people in here. See? Gotta listen to me as a user. I have to listen to my own brain. How I have to trust my intuition when I'm looking at stuff going, oh, damn. Oh, I wouldn't click on that. Why would I expect anybody else to click on that? So there was 60 speakers. Let's just go super duper small with the list.

Val Selby [00:09:54]:
If we assume that the 60 speakers only have 3,000 on their email list, and I say only because I know some of them have 10, 15, 20,000 on their list. That's why that's why I'm saying only. I love my list of 3,000 because they are engaged. So that's not a dig on email size. It's just 3,000 for 60 speakers is a low ball. So that would put us at a 180k or the reach for emails. So if we assume that we had a reach of 180k and the list was maybe a thousand of people that signed up, we didn't even reach the 10% or 1%. Math. That's a very, very low opt in rate.

Val Selby [00:10:40]:
And that is really showing some data that people are tired. So we had almost a thousand. I had my summit. I am not sure. I wonder if I can find out how many people watched my summit. I will have to follow-up. I will have to go follow-up with the host and see if she has that information. But I had my freebie offer in the freebie section, of course, and I have 74 sign ups.

Val Selby [00:11:08]:
Now, am I happy about my 74 sign ups? Absolutely. Did I expect a lot more sign ups? Absolutely. So as a percentage, it's pretty low for the sign ups. But the great thing is that that means that those are probably 74 people that really do want to hear what I have to say. So score. Yay. Yay on that. Okay.

Val Selby [00:11:34]:
So on the upgrade, there was a course paid upgrade, VIP, get access to everything plus more expensive products. So you gotta figure there was at least 60 of us in that freebie one, at least 60 of us in that freebie one. And then now how many of us also did the VIP? So you've got all of those freebies for people to dig through, then you've got the upgrade and everybody's digging through those and anywhere your play status when people get tired of doing the opt ins. So from the upgrade VIP, I have had 7 people sign up. And again, that was highly targeted for my audience. So those 7 people signing up, but I am excited that they in all of that noise, those people sign up. Excited. I actually should go double check and see how many of them are still on there or what they've done.

Val Selby [00:12:29]:
Because it is only 7. I should be reaching out to those. I should, don't use should. It would be a good idea for me to go and look up more numbers on that magnificent 7 and go see how I could possibly reach out more. And ironically, I personally sold 7 of the VIP upgrades. So I think that's pretty funny that I sold 7 of the upgrades and I got 7 people that signed up for my upgrade offer. As a whole, looking at the whole grand scheme of a big project like this 2 years ago, these numbers would be absolutely different. They would be so different.

Val Selby [00:13:07]:
I would definitely be looking at opt ins in the hundreds, the list, the main list would have had subscribers of well over a thousand, would have been a couple of thousand people signing up for a bit that is that big, but people are tired. They're tired of all the noise. They're tired of all of the stuff. Oh my god. We're collecting so much digital stuff right now. And if I'm tired of it, if you're tired of all of the digital stuff, then we know that our customers are as well. And how can we ease up on that? So that's why I'm hosting still my little giveaway. It'll already be over by the time you hear this, but I'm now gonna be keeping my events boutique bundles, period.

Val Selby [00:13:53]:
They will be small. I will have a cutoff. It's got to happen to cut through the noise. It's got to happen because I want to highlight the participants even more. It's got to happen because I want the right people joining in our event as participants and also as buyers or freebie opt ins depending if it's a giveaway or paid bundle. I want us to be reaching through the noise even more. And that means I'm no longer gonna be part of the noise. And that creeps me out, but I know it's the right direction.

Val Selby [00:14:32]:
Every time I talk to people now, they are so tired of huge events, and it's both sides. It's customers. Like I said, when I started this bundle, when I started this podcast, it's the customers, which are usually entrepreneurs as well. So they're like, I have so much stuff on my list already that I've wanted to tackle. I just can't add more and I'm not gonna sift through. I am not gonna take the time to sift through hundreds or even 60. They don't find it a good use of their time anymore. And I hear that because I know it's not a good use of my time anymore.

Val Selby [00:15:10]:
Bundle Bash events are always niche. They're just gonna be, I guess, I don't know if it's even more particular. The idea is not gonna be how big can I make this event? It's going to be how can I make sure I have even more of the best people in my events? That they're highly targeted. That we are here in the event because we really want to collaborate. We're not putting out emails. And I say we as in all of the participants. I'm always putting out the emails because I love it. I dig it. But that the participants are not just joining because they're like, okay.

Val Selby [00:15:54]:
Yeah. I'm just gonna throw this shit out there and here's my product and okay. You say I have to send out 2 emails. Alright. Well, I'll just copy swipe shit. Here you go. I did my duty. I don't want anybody just doing their duty.

Val Selby [00:16:07]:
I'm looking for bundle participants that are excited to help grow everybody's business, not just theirs, pay it forward mentality. The more that they talk about the other things in the event, the more that the promotion goes. I want people that are connecting in the event, connecting with the event. I'm just looking for more connection, more collaboration in its truest sense where we actually get to know each other. So that's why events will be smaller. We're not gonna be part of the noise at Bundle Bash anymore. And we are going to be boutique bundles. I'd love to hear your ideas, what's going on in events that you have been in.

Val Selby [00:16:52]:
Hit me up in the contact form or social media or just send me an email, Val@bundlebash.com anytime, and let's talk results. Let's talk about what you are witnessing, what you are seeing. Alrighty. Talk to you next week. Thanks for being here. And if you are in any certain niche in entrepreneur world, join us. You can always find our events at BundleBash.com/Home. That's where our latest and greatest that we're looking for participants.

Val Selby [00:17:23]:
It's always on that page. So chat ya' later.