In this episode of The High Profit Event Show, host Rudy Rodriguez welcomes special guest Sean Knudsen, founder of Warrior Mindset Strategies. Sean is a 22-year veteran of the United States Army with extensive experience in SWAT teams, special operations, and even training service animals and national champion dogs. With his rich background and a focus on mindset, Sean has seamlessly transitioned into helping entrepreneurs and business owners elevate their business strategies and achieve outstanding results.

During the conversation, Sean shares valuable insights from his journey, emphasizing three key strategies that event leaders can apply to create impactful experiences. First, Sean highlights the importance of designing an engaging booth experience that sparks curiosity and invites attendees to connect. By keeping the booth welcoming and approachable, using elements like kid-friendly treats and interactive activities, Sean demonstrates how to foster genuine engagement without overwhelming attendees.

Next, Sean dives into the art of providing value through tailored interactions. He stresses the power of asking thoughtful questions and offering solutions that resonate with each attendee’s unique challenges. His approach to offering free discovery sessions not only builds rapport but also positions him as a trusted advisor who genuinely cares about helping others succeed.

Finally, Sean discusses the critical role of timely and persistent follow-up for event success. He walks through his structured follow-up process, from collecting attendee information to sending personalized messages and making multiple contact attempts over a few days. This level of attention ensures that no opportunity is lost and leaves attendees feeling valued and appreciated.

Whether you’re an event leader looking to refine your strategy or someone preparing for your first event, Sean’s actionable insights provide a roadmap to creating lasting connections and driving results. Don’t miss this inspiring and informative episode as Sean shares how mindset, service, and strategy come together to make every event a success. Tune in now to learn how to apply these principles to your own events and take your outcomes to the next level!

Want to connect with Sean?

Book Your Discovery Session with Sean: https://calendly.com/warriormindsetstrategies/warrior-mindset-coaching-session

Sean’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sean.knudsen

Sean’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sean.n.knudsen

Warrior Mindset Strategies Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/warriormindsetstrategies/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5jMIGqCDySwxRwdxfgpalg

Want to learn more about Rudy’s work at V.E.S.T. Your Virtual Event Sales Team? Check out his website at https://virtualeventsalesteam.com/.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to today's episode of The High Profit Event Show. Today, we have a special guest, Mr. Sean Knudsen on the line. Welcome, sir.

Thank you, Rudy. So glad to be here.

I appreciate the opportunity to have you here, Sean. You and I have known each other here for a couple of years and most recently, you've really been doubling down on growing your coaching business, working at live events. I think some of the results you've produced recently were very notable, are very notable, and I was really eager and excited to have you on as a guest on our show. For our listeners here, Sean runs a Warrior Mindset Coaching Company. He also is a 22-year veteran of The United States Army, and he's been on SWAT teams, other special operations teams. He's trained, he actually trained my dog as a service animal, and he's trained special dogs. He actually trained a national champion dog as well. So Sean is a man of many seasons, of many skills, and one of which is most definitely mindset. So Sean, I know recently you've gone to events and you've gotten praise from several people about how well you run your booths. I know you speak at events on the topic of mindset and you work with entrepreneurs and business owners to help them grow their mindset and grow their companies. You've been running booths as well, and you've been crushing it. So I'd love for you to talk about step-by-step process on what you do exactly to crush it when you go to an event or an expo, when you speak and you run your booth in a way that helps you sign up clients.

Absolutely. Thank you for this opportunity. This is something I have been sharing with my clients as well. So when I started going to booths, I saw that some of these booths were so fancy and they had these pillars and lights and lasers and all this just incredible stuff. They had uniforms on the teams. They just looked so professional, but I noticed that it seemed like they were almost intimidating. So one of the first things I realized is that your booth needs to be welcoming. So my booth is very simple. I have a sign up that has the Warrior Mindset Strategies logo on it, and it has a sunset, and it's a little bit unclear. So this is one of the things and there's two schools of thought. One is depending on where you're going, be very clear about what you do. So I do business coaching, but I do not have that on my booth. But if I was going to a conference specifically for business people, then I would make it much more clear about what I do. But because I also do some mindset coaching, I really can work with a lot of different types of people. So my booth is not really clear about what I do and that actually brings in a lot of people because they come up and go, okay, what's going on here? I see some of the booths where it's like an army of people in these uniforms that look perfect. They're pretty intimidating and I've seen people veer around those booths because they feel like it's gonna be a high pressure situation. So the first thing I do is I make my booth as welcoming as possible.

So I have treats for kids. I have little gift bags for kids because I know that if the kids come up, I can talk to the parents and even if they don't have kids, they can come up and get a treat. I'll have some sort of activity at the booth that they can do. So one of the events I went to was an energy healing conference. So I had these tarot cards where you find your spirit animal and you just shuffle through the cards and pick one and read what that animal message is for you. People absolutely loved it. If you had a group of people, one person could be doing that and I could be engaging with whoever else is there and as I'm talking to them, I'm not trying to sell them on anything. I'm not asking them to sign up. I'm not pushing anything. I'm asking about them. I'm getting curious. I'm finding out about what they do, what their interests are, what their business is, and what are some of the challenges they're facing. I also have a sign at my booth that says, challenge me, stump me with your business question. The idea that, to see if they have something that I can't answer. I catch people a lot of times, they're walking by and they'll kind of pause and give my booth a side eye, almost like they don't want me to see it, that they're looking at the reading thing. I can just kind of tell and I'll say, oh, it looks like you have a question. What do you got? Give me a chance. I've had some really good experiences with that where I've had people with multimillion dollar companies that thought this guy at this booth, at this event is not gonna be able to help me with my question.

But once I encouraged them, they gave it a shot. Then it's really easy to answer a question if you get the right information. So then I started asking, okay, tell me how you're doing this. Tell me about this and I'm able to come up with something that they're missing, that they're not seeing because I'm looking from an outside perspective. When I have that moment where they're like, oh, this guy really knows what he's talking about. Then I say, hey, I would love to continue this conversation. Or I say, depending on the conversation, I would love to, I do a free session to help you get clear on your vision and purpose. If you wanna sign up, I'd love to continue this conversation and generally they sign up. Now, here's one of the things that I found. I don't ever leave it in their hands. So I'm not a fan of QR codes, sending a text, unless you have a way to verify it right there. So if you have software that lets you know that, yes, they signed up for a session, then you're good. But you need to be able to collect their name, their email, and their phone number. So I've just found, I have a piece of paper. They just actually write it out. Then once I have that, that evening, well, it's still because everyone in this event is trying to get them to connect with them, to sign up for something. So that day, that night, send them a voice message, 20, 30 seconds, with a video message. A video message. Hey, it was great to talk to you, John. I'm looking forward to, or congratulations on choosing to get clear on your vision and purpose.

I look forward to meeting with you. Then I let them know my assistant, Lacey, will reach out to you on the next business day. So if this is a Saturday, it's gonna be Sunday or Monday morning. But if it's any other day, she's gonna reach out with you the next morning and she's going to call them. Then we have a protocol that we use. So we call everybody twice. If they don't answer, Lacey calls them back immediately. The second call is surprising. It gets a lot more results than the first one. Then if they don't answer, they get a text and an email, letting them know who we are, reminding them about the discussion we had at the booth, that we're looking forward to meeting with them to do this free session. Then this happens again at the end of the day. So they get called again that day, two times, email, text message. Then we do that for three days. At the end of three days, by this time, they've had what, 4, 12 phone calls, eight texts and four emails and if they still have not answered, which it happens, then we send them another text and email with a link, with a Calendly link that if they change their minds, they can connect with us. From there, they just get moved into our email marketing campaign. So we still continue to market to them, but we're just not actively calling or texting them.

Surprisingly, I've had one person after that three-day process, when we stopped reaching out to them, they did use the link and get a hold of us to set up an appointment. So you just never know when that might work. But that's kind of the basic process that I have used to really, to do well. I was at an event and there were people around me that had the same ideal clients. It was a person that had a software for like a CRM, a bookkeeper, they were all interested in working with entrepreneurs. The entire time, they sat at the back of their booth, behind their desk and never really engaged with people. So my next step is to stand out front, like don't be behind your desk or whatever you have set up, be out front, talk to people, talk to everybody. The idea is that you're giving, so you're giving value, because so many booths are so pushy, they're trying to sell their product. They're trying to, hey, come sign, come here, they're like waving people over, come sign this, come do this, come. It just creates this energy that anytime you try to pull someone, they're going to pull the other way. So just create this energy that it's fun, engaging, you're building relationships. Even if somebody is not your ideal client, you can still give them value and create that relationship. When you create this energy, people just, like I have people all the time, come to my booth several times.

They'll be in the area again and they'll come over and have a conversation. You do have to kind of gauge that because there've been times when I've been talking with somebody who just wanted to talk and maybe my assistant had gone to the bathroom and someone else came up and I was like, oh, I really want to talk to this person, but that is what it is. If they're meant to work with you, it's going to work out. Once I sign them up, I give them a gift. I don't know if you can, oh, there we go. If I hold them to my face. So it's a challenge coin and I never use it as, I'm not trying to get them to sign up because I'm giving them a gift. They have no idea that they're getting this until after they sign up. Then, because I want them to sign up on the merits of the free offer itself. I do not want to ever bribe anybody. So once they sign up, I say, hey, today, I'm also giving everyone that signs up this challenge coin. I explain the meaning of it. So Rudy knows this because he's the one who shared it with me. It says, Memento Mori, which is, remember, you must die. The idea being that you make the most of this present moment and you're grateful for the life that you had. So what I tell them is if I'm ever nervous about doing something, I keep this coin in my pocket and I hold it in my hand and I ask myself, on my deathbed, am I gonna look back to today and wish that I had done that thing? Or am I gonna be grateful that I did it? Then I give them the coin. It's been a pretty, kind of a little moving experience with them.

It's able to connect with them in an emotional way and they're able to take something. Then that also, the law of reciprocity applies. I feel like because I've shared this moment with them and given them this gift, they're more likely to do the session with me. Then as we're doing the session, once we finish and I ask them, we talk about what it might look like to work together. I feel like there's that more likely to just, we just have this connection. So they're likely to say yes, that they would love to work with me. So that's kind of my basic process. What questions do you have?

Yes, that was a lot there, man. I'm gonna just recap some of the things I heard. One is knowing who you are and who you're serving. Also adapting now, like you mentioned an event that was about healing, you mentioned an event that was about business and just adapting your message and your offering to your audience. I found that you keep your booth per se a little bit on the vague side to allow for curiosity. Then you engage them and communicate with them based on the audience and where they're at. Which the second point that I think you made was around being engaging. Don't hide behind the booth, don't sit behind the booth, don't be intimidating, which is what tends to happen at times, but be in front or aside and talking to people. I like the, stop me with your business question kind of challenge that you put out there and kind of make it fun for people. Then the little treat for kids, like you look for ways to engage people, get their attention, engage them, start a conversation, and then also offering them value in the form of an individual session, one-on-one session. I love how promptly and quickly that you collect their information and follow up with them, which I think was the third point, is follow up in a timely manner. I heard that you'll have them write their information down and you verify that it's captured, first, last name, email, and verify the information is correct. You let them know that you're gonna reach out to them within one business day.

Then you actually do, or your assistant does, actually reaches out. So you let them know, and it actually happens, which oftentimes or most times in my experience, it doesn't actually happen. Then not only does she reach out, but she reaches out consistently, like two calls and that second call gets, there's typically an answer on the second call and attempt in the morning, attempt in the afternoon, and really working the process. Also they don't answer a text with a link so they can book themselves. So really honoring the fact that you said you'd follow up and you do. Then ultimately have them book on your calendar. Also once people agree to a session with you, instead of bribing them, in fact, you reward them with a gift. The Momentum Mori coin. Again, they're signing out on the merits of the value of having that consult with you, but nonetheless giving them surprise value, added value, which elicits a little bit of reciprocity and likely, I'm guessing, will impact a higher engagement show up rate for their event. So that's my recap of what I heard you say.

Perfect. Perfect. On the point of leaving my booth a little bit vague, be very clear about who you are and your offering itself, be very clear, I like to have one clean offer. It's a free offer. It's specific. I've seen booths where they're like, hey, we're doing this and you can do this. There's so many different options. I've seen people that have done booths like we do, like as a mindset coach that we talked about, that he has this huge like poster, it looks incredible. The booth looks amazing. He has that he's a mindset coach and he'll help you with finances, romance, relationships, family, health, fitness, money. There's a list of like, I don't know, 15 things that he'll coach you on. It's so general that it's, I think it's hard to resonate with anyone. So if you can focus on what specific results are you going to be, what would you help with? So what exactly, knowing exactly who you are and what you do, your niche, your branding, your ideal client, being clear on that. I think that's way more important than having that written on your booth. The booth should be designed to welcome people, invite people, have people get curious about what's going on at your booth. But then when they talk to you, you need to be very clear about exactly what you do and then have one specific, clear, free offer.

I hear you. So to clarify, the booth can be a little vague, but you have to be clear on who you help, how you help them and what your offer is and keep it to a single focused offer, a single next step for them.

Yes.

That makes a lot of sense and then as far as the sessions go, to clarify, you have them agree, hey, let's do that next step, let's do that session. So they are agreeing to that. You're not like reaching out to them afterwards to see if they want to do a session. They've already agreed to it, it's just a matter of working.

Absolutely, yes, 100%.

Getting that agreement right there and then when you do the session, how much time do you allow for that session when you meet with them beyond the event, after the event?

So I plan for an hour for that event. I typically tell them it's gonna be a 45 minute session, but then I plan for an hour so that I have a 15 minute buffer like if I'm, let's say we're enrolling them or they're about, they're close to deciding to do it, so I'll tell them like 45 minutes to an hour, but we plan on 45 minutes with that 15 minute buffer. If they have questions, concerns that they, we wanna work through, we have that time. But then I honor the hard stop at 60 minutes.

Perfect, can you give us an example perhaps of how you communicate that session post event?

When I'm talking to them right there?

Yes, like say you have a business audience.

So yes, typically if it's a business audience, we're gonna get into a business question because they're gonna ask me a question and I'm going to start to ask questions about their business so that I can find a way to help them with what they're struggling with, what that pain point is. So typically with them, I'll say, I would love to continue this conversation. I do a free session where I help you get clear on your vision and purpose, where we can talk about where you're at now and where you would like to be. Then typically once we, like if I've added value in a conversation, we've connected, typically they're gonna sign up every time.

Okay, perfect, thank you for giving us that example.

Yes.

Also speaking about signing up for a session, you very generously are offering our audience the opportunity to schedule a session with you so they can experience it firsthand and what I know about you, Sean, is that you are a serial entrepreneur with decades of experience in various industries. You're a voracious learner and a student of personal growth and development as well as business. I think it'd be fun if our audience, you're listening and you wanna try to stump Sean with your business question. I would encourage you to schedule that discovery call with Sean, I'm confident there'll be value there for you and if it makes sense, obviously you guys can discuss working together. Sean is brilliant when it comes to warrior mindset strategies. I do believe and agree that 80, if not 90% of success in life is mindset and only 10 to 20% is mechanics. So if you're listening here, I invite you to scroll down, you can find the link here, below the show notes, schedule some consultant time with Sean. Also Sean, we'll include a link to your socials here as well around the episode. So you can also follow Sean. Sean, any final comments that you'd like to share with our audience as we start to wrap up?

Yes, just anytime you're doing this type of thing, just always have in your mind that you're wanting to build these relationships and be of service, to really genuinely go in with a mindset that I wanna help people. I wanna connect with people, not just to build my business, but just to genuinely be of service to those people that you're gonna meet at that event and that people will feel that and connect with that.

Awesome, thank you, sir. Be of service. One of the quotes that sticks with me from my mentor, Tony Robbins, is life supports that which supports life. Focus on creating value, adding value, and the rest kind of takes care of itself in a way.

Absolutely, I love that.

Thank you so much for being with us today. Really appreciate our time together. We're gonna go ahead and call it a wrap. Have a great day, everyone.

Thank you.