Five lessons I learned from my webinar

Last week Thursday, I hosted a webinar on personal growth. My ambition is to do more online, so this was an intentional experiment.

Without experiments, life would be boring.

The only way to find out whether something works is by doing it. You can’t make a difference and change the world on paper.

And I’m a trial and error kind of person anyway. I learn by doing, not by figuring it out in my head.

My primary goal was to figure out whether doing a webinar is something for me and helps me serve my clients.

I emailed my list of subscribers to my weekly insights, YOU, and sixteen of you decided to sign-up. Nine of you did make it to the webinar.

I only did a little bit of marketing, primarily to see how the mechanics worked and whether people would respond to the messages.

I scheduled one hour to discuss the topic I’m passionate about. I planned to stick to one hour, and I did.

I’ve seen too many webinars going over because of presenters who love to hear themselves talking a little too much.

When the webinar was over, I was glad that I did it.

It gave me a tremendous amount of learning that will be beneficial going forward.

That’s what experiments are for in the end.

I knew not everything would be as I had anticipated, which showed.

Here are my five biggest lessons:

• Preparation is key.
  
  It’s a cliché, but it proved itself once again. Clarity of the target group, the core idea, key message, and offer are critical.
  
  You simply can’t be everything for everybody. I know I have to make choices here, and I’m still testing the waters a little. Time to make decisions.
  
• I created too much content.
  
  I kept the information on the slides to a minimum, and I still had too much content. I’ve decided to continue to do more masterclass-style webinars where I focus on one core idea and one only. Simplification is the key here.
  
• I missed the interaction.
  
  This is a tough one. I love the interaction with my audience. I know I’m better with it. That also means I need to limit my content even more and potentially extend the webinar duration.
  
  Next time, I will test a 90-minute webinar, limit my text, and engage more with my audience. I know by experience how to support those participants who contribute to the conversation and how to ‘handle’ those that don’t.
  
• Webinarjam is a great tool.
  
  I loved working with Webinarjam. I signed up for a two-week trial and decided to extend it. They understand the principles and have the entire interface figured out. Not just running the webinar, but also the marketing and communication aspect.
  
• I worked too hard.
  
  The result of having a good intention to stick to sixty minutes, too much content, and a lack of interaction with my audience, was that I was working hard.
  
  That’s literally the feedback I got from one participant: “you worked too hard.”
  
  When you’re on top of your content and engaged with your audience, words flow. They didn’t flow for me. I heard too many ‘ehm’s’ while listening back to the webinar.

As a consequence, I decided not to promote the replay heavily. It’s just not good enough to my standard, even when realizing it was an experiment.

I will look for a few good short edits that I will use, and that’s it for this first trial. But it was definitely worth the effort.

In the next weeks, I go back to the drawing board and make a few decisions. I’ll keep you posted.

For now, I continue with my free growth conversations.

Many people are deliberating some type of change in their (work) lives and are looking for ways to be more fulfilled. I can help with that conversation.

Click the button below to schedule.

Your turn: what’s an experiment you’re considering?

Do more of what makes you happy!

Erikjan