Educational, charity, drop-off, gratitude or fun: build events around something you love and invite people to enjoy it with you.
The idea
Most professional events are interchangeable: wine and cheese, a happy hour, a pie giveaway, a home buyer seminar, a shredding day. The question to ask is "Are you creating value or are you doing generic marketing?" In my coaching we pushed people one level deeper, toward events that create value for you, too. "It is about the reach and not the result. If you do something you love and invite others to enjoy it with you the result is far less important."
How to do it
Pick one of the five types and answer its question about yourself:
Educational. What do you love to learn about?
Charity. Which charity has personal meaning to you?
Drop-off or pick-up. What hobby or food do you love?
Gratitude. What are you grateful for that you'd love to share?
Fun. What do you do for fun that others can join?
Example
Say you're a real estate agent with the typical calendar: wine and cheese, a spring pie giveaway, a home buyer seminar. If you love baking, the pie giveaway could become a drop-off of your own pies. If a local charity means a lot to you, an event for it says far more about you than the seminar does.
Watch out for
Judging the event by its result. The reach is the point.
Sources
From Zvi's coaching program
Related frameworks
Passion Prospecting: Host regular events around something you genuinely love, like wine or golf, to attract clients and prospects who share it.
The "Because I Love ___" Formula: Start from something you love, then plan it by tier: your A's experience it with you, your B's hear about it, your C's see it.
Curate Hard: Who's in the room makes or breaks an event. Curate the guest list carefully and pick a venue with character over the default ballroom.
Manufacture Shared Experiences: A slightly intense shared experience bonds people faster than polite chat, and even an event that goes wrong becomes a story you share.