💪 The impact of intentional gathering

Hope many of you got to enjoy a long weekend last weekend!

In the jam-packed three parts of this intentional gathering series, we’ve covered:

👉 The “why” of intentional gathering…

👉 How to plan for one…

👉 …And how to host one like a champ.

To conclude this newsletter series, I want to focus on impact: what happens as a result of an intentional gathering.

Of course, anyone hosting an event for business purposes hopes to see a return on investment, such as new clients, leads or new emails for a mailing list. While those gains can be important or fruitful, but there is so much more that can come of an intentional gathering.

I host private events like the one we’ve dissected over the last three newsletters – a private breakfast for executives – every few months, and I never plan them with the expectation of securing a new client. What I do expect, though, is to strengthen my existing relationships or solidify new ones.

Let me explain: when I planned this private breakfast, only two out of the 12 total people who attended fit the profile of my clients ­– and even then, I didn’t host the event with the intention of signing either of them as a client. The breakfast, however, would indeed help demonstrate the quality of my network and my ability to create connections across industries to those target clients.

As I’ve stressed before, there has to be more to planning an intentional gathering than what you personally stand to gain. Here’s what went into my decision to host this breakfast:

• First, it was Art Basel week in Miami. I knew two influential people that would be in town that week who would attend something I hosted.

• There were two other people I had met recently and had good initial conversations with, and I wanted to deepen our relationships.

• The rest of the guest list were all superconnectors and visionaries in their own right: they’re successful, well-connected, and interesting. I wanted to show them a good time because these people attend interesting events and have dynamic networks spanning across industries. I wanted to make myself stand out in their mind with a well-executed intentional gathering of my own.

During the breakfast, two attendees specifically called me out during their introductions, noting both how intentional the gathering was and how they had never met a more prepared or engaging host. On the way out of the event, multiple guests said things like, “we have to do this together, let’s talk.” After the breakfast, I had two of guests tell me it was the best event they had attended.

☝️ But here’s the thing: I didn’t follow up with any of them and say, “Hey, you mentioned ____, let’s work together.”

Why not follow up on the warm lead? Because I want to show them that I’m in it for the long run. That this is a relationship, a friendship, so I want us to keep our communication going, plan to see each other often, and think of each other for events. And hey, when you have a specific need that I might be the right person to fill, then yes, absolutely, let’s work together!

Here’s what I did after the event instead: I connected everyone via email (I knew it was ok to do so because all attendees were dying to get each other’s contact info), thanked them, mentioned a few resources discussed at the event – and that’s it. I didn’t even say, “Here’s how you can work with me.”

By this stage, however, I had already gotten personal texts from almost all of the guests. I shared the same in my responses: I thanked them for coming, told them I was excited/intrigued/supportive/etc. about something they shared during the event, and that I looked forward to seeing them again.

Here’s what happened next 🪄✨:

• One attendee had coffee with another attendee regarding a $25M project he’s working on. Afterwards, he sent me a detailed update on what they discussed – which made me think of someone else I should introduce him to. He is now working with that person to fundraise and has sent me a note saying that once the funds close, I will be the first person he shows his appreciation to; he would love to return the favor by introducing me to some of the big wigs involved in the project.

• I was invited to be on the board of an international luxury magazine.

• One attendee was so grateful that I had expressed interest in supporting her new agency and asked me to review her new website and provide feedback. In return, she asked that we get on a call specifically to hear about my target client profile so that she could go through her rolodex and/or think of ways to partner together on events.

• I was invited to a private C-suite dinner in Miami hosted by an attendee, who then invited me to another in NYC a few weeks later.

• Another attendee invited me to a private fireside chat event with one of the top leaders in government, and then another private event a few weeks later with a best-selling author.

• One attendee invited me to dinner with his spouse. Since then, we’ve become good friends, and I have visited their home and met their children.

• Another attendee sent me a “thank you” gift basket that was overflowing with chocolate (my kryptonite!) and other treats that were so decadent it cost even more than what I paid per person for the event!

NOTE: I list this not as a “humble brag,” but as a means of demonstrating how different the resulting “ROI” was for each person who attended the breakfast. I use the term ROI because I believe that I strengthened my relationship with every single attendee because of the way I went about this intentional gathering.

And as for the two target clients that were there? One of them was one of the people listed above, and the other was one of the people who told me it was the best event they’d ever been to. Two weeks later, that potential client emailed me saying, “I don’t know how you do what you do, but I want to learn. I also want to teach my team. Can we have a call to learn more?”

Spoiler alert: I signed the client 🥳 – but I am dead serious when I say that was a bonus. The event would have been a spectacular success solely based on the direct, genuine feedback I received from those who attended.

All of the unexpected ROI that I listed above served as confirmation that a combination of authentic relationship-building and intentional gathering is what I believe to be the right way to engage with people – and to continually grow your business.

Imagine the Activation flywheel I have set in motion by engaging with people this way for my entire career, and hosting these intentional gatherings every few months. That is the whole picture I wanted to show with this four-part series.

As for what’s next… after giving away all the goodies on intentional gatherings, my upcoming newsletter series is all about teaching Activation to your team. If you have employees, teammates, friends, a spouse, a grandma, or anyone else who you think can benefit from this Activation flywheel, send them to the subscribe page and let them know what’s coming!

Looking forward to it -
Nicole

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