I Didn’t Run the Seminar… But Something Happened

So I’ve had this idea in my head for a bit now about running live seminars. Not online, not another ad, and definitely not another funnel buried in the noise, but actually standing in front of people and breaking down how this whole “making money online” thing works in real life.

I remember where it really clicked for me. We were in Saskatoon, housesitting, out walking the dog, and I asked my wife straight up if I was nuts for even thinking about pitching something like Wealthy Affiliate to a live audience. At the time it felt like a bit of a stretch, but the more I thought about it, the more it actually made sense.

The online space right now is just busy. It feels like the same ads, the same angles, and the same “this is the opportunity” messaging over and over again. I kept coming back to the same thought… how does anyone new actually break through that without just blending into everything else that’s already out there?

That’s where the idea of going the opposite direction came from. Instead of trying to outcompete everything online, I started thinking about taking this offline and seeing what would happen if I just talked to people directly.

I was actually planning on trying something here in Swift Current. It’s a smaller town, I know the area, and it felt like a good place to at least get my feet off the ground and see how it would go. But once I really looked at the timeline and everything else going on, it became pretty obvious that I would have been forcing it. Between helping friends and family and everything else that comes up day to day, I could see it turning into something rushed, and that’s not how I want to start something like this.

So I backed off the idea of running the seminar here for now, but I didn’t want to just drop it completely.

There was a tradeshow happening here, and from what I saw it had over 100 vendors.

So instead of overthinking things, I just went. No booth, no setup, no plan other than to walk around, talk to people, and see what kind of conversations would come out of it.

What stood out pretty quickly is that a lot of these people are already doing the hard part.

They’ve actually built something. Whether it was woodworking, honey products, handmade goods, or different kinds of services, these aren’t people sitting around thinking about starting something. They’ve already taken that step and are putting in the time and effort to make it work.

So I started asking a simple question whenever I had the chance to talk to someone. I’d ask if they were doing anything online with what they were building.

The answers were all over the place. Some had Facebook pages and that was about it. Some had websites they were paying for but didn’t seem to fully understand or use. Others were just kind of winging it and figuring things out as they went.

One conversation in particular stuck with me.

This girl had a website that a “techy friend” had helped her set up, and she was paying for it, but the way she explained it made it pretty clear that she didn’t really understand what she had or how to use it properly. It didn’t even sound like she had much control over it.

That’s where something shifted for me.

I went into this whole idea thinking that the seminar would be about showing people how to build income online from scratch. But after walking through that tradeshow and actually talking to people, it started to feel like that might not be the right angle at all.

A lot of these people don’t need another idea. They already have one. What they’re missing is structure, direction, and a way to actually connect what they’re doing to something that works online.

That’s where I’m a bit split right now. Part of me thinks the right move is to help them build out their foundation properly first, whether that’s branding, a real website, or just understanding what they actually have. The other part of me sees something like Wealthy Affiliate as the system that could help them learn how to do that themselves in a way that actually makes sense long term.

And maybe it’s not one or the other. Maybe it’s both.

I ended up leaving with a stack of business cards and a handful of conversations that felt a lot more real than anything I could have planned out sitting behind a screen. I didn’t pitch anything and I didn’t try to sell anything. I just talked, and that alone gave me a better feel for what people are actually dealing with.

Now I’ve got a couple of people I want to reach out to just to test the waters a bit and see where those conversations go.

As for the seminar idea, it’s definitely not dead. If anything, it feels more grounded now. I just need to give it a bit of time and actually plan it properly instead of trying to rush into it.

So I figured I’d throw this out here and get some input.

If you were in this position and talking to people who already have something going, whether it’s a small business or a side hustle, how would you approach it? Would you lead with helping them build out their online presence first, or bring them into a platform like WA right away? Would you run something like this as a free event to start, or charge for it from day one?

I feel like I’ve got something here that could work, I just want to make sure I’m building it in the right direction before I go all in on it.

KEEP ON KEEPING ON