It can be quite overwhelming to come home after a conference or workshop. Overwhelming to the point that you shelve your materials thinking you’ll get to them once things settle in and you get caught up. Unfortunately, that time never comes and your leads get cold, the awesome ideas go stale and you or your business just keep on keeping in with little or no change. You’ve just wasted several hundred to several thousand dollars, not to mention the hours and hours or days and days of your time.
I want to make sure you don’t waste any of that precious learning, time or money by having a great action plan to follow any conference or workshop you attend. Therefore, I’ve compiled a great list here.
Here’s the quick version via video but be sure to read to the end for the complete action plan!
What to Do After a Conference
Schedule Down Time
This will be the hardest thing for you to do because you will want to jump right in and start getting caught up after a conference. However, it is also THE most important thing for you and your business that you can do to get the most out of a conference. Ideally, when you add the conference to your calendar, you will also add one to two days of down time immediately following the conference depending on how long you were away. The more time away, the longer your down time should be.There are a few very important things you MUST do with your down time. Lets talk about them individually.
1. Rest No matter how tempting it may be to jump right in to the pile of work waiting for you, plan at least a few hours to unpack and just relax doing something that will truly nourish you.
2. Review The next thing you want to do with your down time is to review. If you want to be REALLY efficient with your time, you could start this process on the flight home. Schedule at least an hour or two to review and organize all of your notes. You will retain more and be better prepared for what comes next.
3. Create a Plan You can’t (and shouldn’t) take action on EVERYTHING you took notes on so its important to know exactly what to take action on. Taking action sounds like a great idea but can be overwhelming of you don’t have a plan. Here’s were your review comes in.
Create a working plan.
When you create a plan, you will know exactly what to take action on and when. Essentially you will decide what you want to focus on and when. I’ve created a template for you here but feel free to add or modify.
48 hours
By______ I will:
Contact:
Who are the top three people that are the most important for you to contact?
1.
2.
3.
Prioritize and Schedule:
What are your top three tips or ideas you want to implement?
Within 48 hours, add an appointment within the next two weeks for each on your calendar. Be sure to list the ideas AND the date they are scheduled to be worked on.
1.
2.
3.
One week
By______ I will:Contact:
Follow up with three more contacts
1.
2.
3.
Enter or delegate the data entry of any remaining contacts.
Week two
By______ I will:
Contact:
Follow up with three to five more contacts (don’t worry is it feels like you should have reached out by now. They probably haven’t either and will welcome the connection.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
By now you should have completed the first steps of your top three priorities. Add an appointment with yourself to review your notes next week.
Week three
By______ I will:
Review your notes and determine your next three priorities. These may be the next steps in your original priorities of they may be new ones as you’ve completed the first set. Don’t start new ones until you’ve completed the original. You should never be focused on more than three at a time.
1.
2.
3.
Week four
By______ I will:
Celebrate that you are making the most out of the connections, tips and ideas you spent precious time and money on.
Reach out to Connect with some of those who attended to see how they are doing on their goals.
Keep reviewing and prioritizing until you’ve implemented all that you had hoped to and which is still relevant as you grow.
Have you recently returned after a conference? What is one of your top three priorities?
