27. Inside the Heart-Centered Business Conference: Secrets of Success with Tash Corbin

October 20, 2026

Behind the Heart-Centered Business Conference: Lessons in Community, Speakers, Marketing and Sustainable Events

Sally Porteous hosts Tash Corbin on The Event Show to go behind the scenes of the Heart-Centered Business Conference, which began in 2017 and ran for 10 years with breaks for COVID.

Tash shares why she created a high-quality, connection-focused alternative to hard-sell business events, how she pre-sold 50-plus tickets before booking a venue, and what she learned from a $26,000 first-event loss driven by contract and AV surprises.

They discuss why the host can be the real headliner, why aligned speakers with overlapping audiences outperform big-name outsiders, and how events can generate substantial business without selling from the stage.

Tash covers venue moves, COVID rescheduling and refund ethics, building systems with Asana and an event manager, sponsorship and grant realities, speaker standards, and her shift toward smaller boardrooms, retreats, and a co-hosted International Women’s Day event.

00:00 Welcome and Preview
03:14 Why Start a Conference
08:25 Pre Selling the First Event
11:13 Speakers and Audience Fit
13:44 Owning the Host Spotlight
19:12 Venue Moves and Event Feel
22:18 Motivation and Cashflow Reality
24:14 COVID Ethics and Reschedules
27:56 Team Support and Sustainability
30:25 Business Benefits Without Selling
35:13 Costly Lessons and AV Contracts
37:46 Marketing Systems and Promo Cadence
43:48 Magical Moments and Speaker Prep
49:40 Paying Speakers Properly
50:35 Interactive Event Design
51:05 When Speakers Miss the Mark
54:30 Organizer Feedback Network
57:59 Rewarding Great Speakers
59:58 Grants and Council Funding
01:05:11 Sponsorship Reality Check
01:09:32 Selling Sponsorship Assets
01:16:27 Closing the Conference Era
01:19:49 Buy Tickets to Events
01:24:39 International Womens Day Done Right
01:26:43 Where to Find Tash

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00]

Sally Porteous: Welcome to The Event Show. I'm Sally Porteous, event strategist, producer, and educator, and I love exploring what makes events work from both sides of the lanyard. Today, we're going behind the scenes of the Heart-Centered Business Conference with its founder, Tash Corbin. Tash is a business strategist and mentor who has spent more than a decade building a thriving community of entrepreneurs through her Heart-Centered Business brand.

She launched her first conference in 2017, bringing together a community who were looking for something different. Ten years later, she's created an event known for its genuine connections, exceptional speakers, and memorable experiences. And there are some fascinating lessons in her story, from selling more than 50 tickets before she'd even booked a venue, to discovering the most powerful person on the conference stage might just be the person who created [00:01:00] it.

We also explore how her events have generated significant business opportunities without selling from the stage, why the right speaker is more valuable than the big name speaker, and what she learned about building events people genuinely wanted to attend.

Whether you're producing conferences for clients or considering creating your own, you'll come away with practical insights into audience building, event strategy, and creating experiences with lasting commercial value.

And if you'd like to explore this further, I'm hosting a free webinar called From Both Sides of the Lanyard: What Makes a Conference Triumph or Tank? I'll be sharing what I've learned as both an event producer and an attendee, looking at the decisions and the details that can make or break a conference.

You'll find the registration details in the show notes. But first, let's get into today's conversation. Welcome to The Event Show, Tash.

Thank you for having me. I'm really- I'm stoked to be here

[00:02:00] so pleased to have this chat with you. I think the events that you have created h- from an attendee point of view, as you know, I can't help but look at it from both sides of the... Well, actually, you know, interestingly, I'm, I'm running a free webinar in a week's time about this kind of thing. And it's called Both Sides of the Lanyard.

So I'm owning that.

Tash Corbin: Perfect title. That is amazing.

Sally Porteous: Right? Yeah. So I'm looking at, at everyone's events all the time from both sides of the lanyard. Mm. So, I guess, what are your hero event, your conference, the Heart-Centered Business, Heart, the Heart-Centered, in trying to-

Tash Corbin: Business Conference, yep

Sally Porteous: I'm trying to match the acronym with the name.

So- So let's say that again. Your event, your conference, the Heart-Centered Business Conference, now that's been running, you said, for [00:03:00] 13 years. Is that right? 10

Tash Corbin: years. 10 years. 10 years. So it started in, the first one was 2017, and 2026 was our 10th. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Okay. 10th, yeah. Excellent. That is phenomenal. That is phenomenal.

Mm. Do you want to tell me how did that come about? What made you decide? Like, were you someone who ran regular events before, or was this, like a, a big punch that you kind of went, "Right. That's it. I have to bring my whole community together." 'Cause we know that you have a huge community. I don't know if you had that size community then.

Tash Corbin: Mm.

Sally Porteous: But h- what made you decide a c- a conference rather than... 'Cause I think the interesting part about you starting it is that you started with the conference format as opposed to most of us would do a presentation or a workshop or-

Tash Corbin: Mm ...

Sally Porteous: some kind of other event format. Whereas you've kind of gone whole hog first time.

Let's do this professionally, [00:04:00] you know, this- Mm ... this great event. So tell me what led to that decision.

Tash Corbin: Yeah, so I started my business in 2013, and I work in, like, business mentoring and business coaching. But I came from a corporate consulting background. And so in my job I went to conferences three or four times a year, and I'm an extrovert and I love going to conferences.

I love learning, I love great speakers, and I love entertainment. And so, I ... When I started my business I desperately wanted to go to a lot of conferences. Like, I thought that that would be a really big part of my early growth of my own business. And I just was really frustrated with some of the models of business conference available to people who owned their own business at the time.

So we had the ones that were, like, super low ticket or free tickets advertised on Facebook. And then but when you went, every speaker had [00:05:00] paid to be a speaker and were trying to upsell you into a $10,000 something or a $15,000 something. And I-

Sally Porteous: Yeah, run to the back of the room ... very- Grab the program

Tash Corbin: now.

Yeah. Ooh. And I'm

Sally Porteous: very- And on the way out, get the upsell and the upsell and the upsell.

Tash Corbin: Yes. And I'm very susceptible to that, like, fear-based marketing and that, and get you all excited and the emotion. And so I literally, the second one that I went to I left all my cards at home and I just took cash to pay for the bus into the city and to buy my lunch because I just knew I was, like, so susceptible to this stuff, and I didn't realise how hard sell they were until I went to the first one.

And then I found another conference that was for women in business, and it was lovely and it was, like, none of that, like, pushy selling from the stage kind of thing. They did talk a little bit about their business, but [00:06:00] it was just so much more my kind of- event that I wanted to go to, but the quality of the speakers was very haphazard.

Oh. And so they, they would get one great speaker, but then a lot of the other speakers hadn't made a profit in their business yet. Or there was one where it was someone who was selling jewellery, and all I remember is at the very end she's like, "And we're so grateful to my parents who are letting me live in their shed."

Oh. And she was, she was married with two kids, and she was living in- Wow ... her parents' shed. And, like, good on her for the hustle, but I wanted to learn from people who were at least making 100 grand a year. And so it was the third of that. That event ran every year, and I loved going to it. I became a, like, a speaker at that event.

I, Hmm ... I promoted that event to try and help get ticket sales. And the third one that I went [00:07:00] to, they had 80-something attendees, and over 30 had come on my recommendation. Wow. And so the people that I was sitting at the table with ... A- and I, I must say it was probably the poorest quality. So there was no standout speaker.

They were all fairly, like, early in their business or not yet making money in their business. And again, it was lovely, but I just was craving, like, in between. Like, high quality, high caliber speaker without the run to the back of the room, buy, upsell, upsell, and that really connected kind of experience and, and, you know, the kinds of people that I wanted to hang out with.

And so, I was sitting with some biz friends, and they were all like, "You should run your own co- you should run a conference." And at that time it was early tw- late 2015, and my Facebook group had just hit 10,000 members. Oh, wow. And so, and they had been saying in the community, "Can you organise us a conference?

We want to get together." And [00:08:00] I had kept saying, "Come to this one. I'm going to this one. Come to this one with me. Come to this one with me." Mm. And so then one of the friends that I was sitting at the table with, she was really having a go, like, "Come on, let's..." And she said, "Let's go out to dinner tonight, and we'll map it all out, and you can run the first one in 2017.

So you got two years to get it all sorted, and we'll help you." And yeah, it just got legs really quickly. I pre-sold 50-something tickets in the first two weeks saying, "Here's where I think it will be." Hadn't booked the venue. "Here's when I think it will be." If you buy a ticket super early I'll do it nice and cheap.

So I think the first, like, super early bird ticket's like $695 for a two-day conference. It included dinner on both nights, so-

Sally Porteous: Yeah ...

Tash Corbin: not, not very profitable. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: But I pre-sold those 50 tickets, and that funded the early speakers, the venue deposit, and a bunch of other things. Yeah. And I always tell people, every time I talk about this conference, the first one made a [00:09:00] $26,000 loss.

Sally Porteous: Yeah. We won't go there yet. We will get- But- We will go there shortly. Not quite- Yeah ... yet, though. Yeah. Because I think there is huge success in noticing what is going on around you-

Tash Corbin: Mm ...

Sally Porteous: and doing something about it. Yeah, yeah. So I think, you know, 10 points to you- Mm ... for noticing that, listening to people, and your friends, your biz friends supporting you on that journey as well.

Yeah. And I really love the idea that you marketed it before you essentially created it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I'm a big proponent of that as well. I will pop a caveat on that, though, that my suggestion to people is to ensure that you do that ethically, which I'm sure you did. That you have- Yeah ... enough money in the bank-

Tash Corbin: Yeah

Sally Porteous: to cover it. If- Yeah ... something were to go wrong you can refund tickets. So, Mm-hmm ... because there are people out there who do- Fund their event via ticket sales, but have nothing in the bank or the backup to be able to [00:10:00] refund people, and that is not okay

Tash Corbin: No. No That's

Sally Porteous: not

Tash Corbin: okay. And I did have the, like, the, that $26,000 loss was just the event on its own in isolation in a bubble, like making sure I was keeping track of w- what expenses were going where.

Sally Porteous: Yes, yes, yes.

Tash Corbin: But really I had a multi six-figure business as a baseline underneath that and that was highly profitable, and so I did have that capacity to be able to do something like that. And to be honest, Sally, I think that's why in the end I succumbed to the pressure, was because I looked around at my peers and the people that I wanted to spend time with in the industry, and the people that I would hire as speakers, and I had a very powerful combination of the existing audience asking for it and the connections in the industry to be able to get some great speakers for the first one at a fairly low [00:11:00] price.

And so I just felt like, look, I've got the financial capacity, I've got the time capacity, I've got the audience, I've got the, the, the demand, I've got the speakers. Would be silly of me not

Sally Porteous: the other thing you may not have noticed that I believe is also a success factor, is that your speakers had an audience as well.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: And they, and they're not doing their own events. No. Yes. Yeah. So, so you're not diluting that audience. Like, that audience is looking at them going, "Please, please, please do an event." Yeah. And they're like, "Well, come to see me at Tash's."

Tash Corbin: Yes. Yeah. '

Sally Porteous: Cause I'll be speaking there. So- Yeah ... I think you've chosen your speakers very well strategically obviously through you know, their knowledge and, and what they do is exceptional.

Yeah. But it's also important to look at how can they build the audience? And, and this goes back- Mm ... to think about the school dance concerts, you know, or the, the kids' choir performances, the school fete. The entire audience is made up of [00:12:00] parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties , you know, people that have come to see that kid.

Yeah. So you're ... And, and that's why we have support acts at- Mm. .. at bands- Yeah ... because the support act brings an audience with them too. Yeah. So

Tash Corbin: well done you. Can I say one little lesson on that though, is that, In some of the conferences I brought in sort of like a bigger name speaker from outside of my audience or outside of necessarily like direct alignment with my business, thinking that having that speaker talk about it would bring in some more people.

Mm-hmm. And it was very few and far between. I think there's a difference between people within the community or, you know, sort of complimentary to the community where we had maybe some overlap of audience.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: Far more likely for them sharing for [00:13:00] it to result in an uptick in sales compared to someone who was completely cold to the industry or completely external.

To your audience, yeah ... and so yeah, learned some interesting lessons about that along the way because I kind of put a, a bit of pressure on myself to try and bring in someone, you know, a bit m- more costly but a little bit more, you know, bigger audience or whatever it is. And because there was no existing overlap I just think even when they did share it fairly well, it didn't necessarily result in ticket sales.

So that was a big one. Mm.

Sally Porteous: Well, I think the, I think I know who you're talking about. I... It could be someone different, but I, I

Tash Corbin: know- There are

Sally Porteous: four

Tash Corbin: I'm thinking about.

Sally Porteous: Okay. One I went to had quite a big headliner- Mm ... who was potentially not connected to- Yep ... your audience. And my theory around that is oftentimes organisers feel like they need the headliner to pull the ticket sales- Yeah

when in fact the people are [00:14:00] coming to see you. Yeah. They're coming to see you. You are the headliner.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: And not enough people, Are comfortable owning that

Tash Corbin: Yes

Sally Porteous: You know?

Tash Corbin: Yep

You gave me that talking to, and so did a few other people After I think it was 2023 conference.

Sally Porteous: Yeah, it was. Yeah.

Tash Corbin: And so like it was, it was certainly something that I needed people to tell me that.

I don't think I would have actually made that shift without you saying something to me, and there were a few other people who said it to me in the same year, so clearly I think like, "What? What's

Sally Porteous: going on?" Well, that's good. I wasn't the only person.

Tash Corbin: You weren't the only one. You were probably the, the loudest and most pushy about it-

with great reason. But it's really interesting because I earlier this year went to another conference and the organiser spoke last year, but she didn't speak this year, and that was the first thing I said to her at lunchtime: "Where are you on the agenda?" So we're... I think you are creating this ripple where we're helping each other to remember-

Sally Porteous: Lovely

Tash Corbin: [00:15:00] that our audience, yes, they really appreciate that we're hosting the event, but also they want to hear from us as the host. And I think part of the reason why I might have dwindled away from speaking on my own stage was I f- I made the assumption, well, people get to hear from me whenever they want. I run webinars all the time, they're all in my programs, I yap online all the time.

I'm constantly... I have a podcast with 500 something episodes. Mm. Like, you can hear from me anytime, but like let's all get in the room together and hear from all these other people. But changing that over and actually I then was on stage at least once a day for the two days made a huge difference to being able to pull together the agenda and make some of the...

So on the end of day one, I spoke in 2024, and I was able to make it make sense for my audience. Yeah. Because there were [00:16:00] a couple of speakers that were probably a lit- like, you know, great things for business owners, but needed to be contextualized, so it gave me the space to do that. Mm. And that was one of the workshops that I've run that I got the most overwhelmingly positive s- feedback for, and that conference got a higher rating in the feedback forms around relevance of speakers.

So, yeah, that was a, a really good shift and I'm really grateful for you for nudging me and, and pointing it out because otherwise I just would've just kept

Sally Porteous: putting it off. If I remember rightly, you weren't at the time.

Tash Corbin: I know. I was like, "Oh, they're not here to see me, Sally." I don't

Sally Porteous: want to do that.

Tash Corbin: And then you were the first of about- I know.

That's not what it's for ... five, five or six people who said something before I left. Mm. And then in the feedback forms- Mm ... like, "Who is a speaker you'd like to see on stage?" They told it- Yeah ... they said me, and I was like, "Okay, maybe Sally has a point."

Sally Porteous: So 'cause I think the difference is when, when you're preparing to talk to an audience, we prepare differently.[00:17:00]

Mm-hmm. And we think about the audience far more specifically than the content. Yeah. So when we're talking on our own podcast, putting ourselves on social media, all of that kind of stuff- Yes, the universe tells us we have to talk to a person. We can't talk to everyone, we only talk to one. But we're not talking to a real human.

Unless we super consciously sit there and go, "Right, that's right. That's my favorite client. I'm going to tell this story to them." They're still not standing in front of us. Whereas when you're preparing... I know when I've prepared to speak on a stage to an audience, I've been very careful to think about that audience.

Who are they? What do they want to hear? Yeah. What else is going on around them? Where's all the other noise coming from, and how can I get a specific message to them?

Tash Corbin: Yeah, yeah.

Sally Porteous: Whereas I don't do that online. Online I'm like, "You need to hear this and you need to hear that, and I'm going to tell you this."

Yeah. So I think it's a bit different. It is. That's why it comes across differently.

Tash Corbin: And I also feel like there's a level [00:18:00] of intimacy of being in the room. Mm. But like even though people can film it, like I never lived, I never had a virtual live stream version, like of that live room conference. I do run the v- I did run the virtual conference in the like second half of the year.

But there's that intimacy and so more sort of personal touches kind of come out of my mouth when I'm in that room. And also I just think at a conference people are far more likely to come up and talk to you about it at lunchtime or over dinner. And so it's this sort of longer form of conversation even though the workshop is presented from on stage, it invites this sort of connected debrief in the breaks and in the, over meals.

And I love that level of intimacy around it as well. Mm.

Sally Porteous: Yes, and we have more opportunity to connect it with what we're doing right now, or the lives we're living or the work- [00:19:00] Mm ... that we're doing, or the people we're connected to.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: And we get multiple touch points to do that, either across the day or across the two days or- Mm

functions. So, well done you. Well done you. Thanks. Thank you.

So I, what I'd love to know is how has it evolved over the years? Mm. What has kept you mot- So for 10 years you've produced this conference in the same venue? Has it been in the same place for 10 years?

Tash Corbin: No. So our first venue we had quite a lot of challenges just with the venue people, I'll say.

And some big challenges with dietaries and just attendee care, and it's really important to me that people feel like they are looked after. So for the second one, we moved to another venue. We actually were at Sunshine Coast first year, then we went down to Brisbane. Oh. And that venue was much better compared to the first in attendee care.

But- [00:20:00] It didn't have the same feel of like we're all going away together and it's, you know, there was such beautiful connection in, on the Sunshine Coast, and it's just a little b- it's out of the city and I tend to- It's

Sally Porteous: almost retreat-ish. Yeah It's almost... It's a conference but it's like a retreat that's a conference that's a dinner- Yeah

that's a social gathering.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. And so then we m- the reason why we moved it to Brisbane was there wasn't actually a venue that could hold our numbers in round table form at the time when we had trouble with the first one. It was the only one that really was that big. So then we went to Brisbane, but then when we'd done that, we decided to come back to Sunshine Coast and an another venue had more capacity than we had thought.

So, yeah, so then we landed on that f- I don't know if I'm allowed to say what the venues are, but like Yeah, go

Sally Porteous: for it.

Tash Corbin: Yeah we la- so we landed at [00:21:00] Peppers at Noosa. And then every single one was there ever since until this year where we had our last one. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: So that's, so nine years, or eight years.

Eight years it's been at

Tash Corbin: Peppers now. Yeah. Well, we- w- I ran the conference for 10 years, but I didn't run 10 conferences because- Oh,

Sally Porteous: o- obviously, 'cause of COVID ... COVID. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Sorry. But okay, so if we, if we were to say outside of COVID- Yeah. Five ... it's been there. Other- Mm ... other than two times it's been there.

Tash Corbin: Yeah,

Sally Porteous: yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Tash Corbin: Mm.

Sally Porteous: And so how have you stayed motivated? Like I know-

Tash Corbin: Mm ...

Sally Porteous: I know you've had some people have been to every single one, some like me have been to a few. Yeah. I didn't discover it till later. And, and it's, it's not difficult to, I guess, figure out why people keep coming back to the conference 'cause I've experienced it.

It's- Mm ... it's great energy, it's great content. Everything about it is brilliant. But what has kept you motivated to keep showing up and keep doing [00:22:00] that work? 'Cause we all know it's- Mm ... you know, it's probably four full months out of a year.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: If we look at a, across a 12-month period, you know, you're probably looking at at least three months, if not four months full time-

Tash Corbin: Mm

Sally Porteous: creating, building, marketing and delivering the thing.

Tash Corbin: Yes. So I'm going to be really honest and vulnerable here. The driver to run the second one was I needed to sell tickets to the second one to finalise paying for the first one. So I had to borrow money for, we had a last minute AV quote. So I'd been asking for the AV quote for six months before the conference.

When we booked the venue two years earlier, she had said, "Oh, it'll be two or three grand." And then seven days before the conference we got the AV quote and it was $17,500. Which I negotiated down to [00:23:00] $11,500, otherwise they weren't even going to turn the lights on in the room And so I actually had to l- lend-- I had to borrow that money.

I didn't have enough. And so I, in that last run to delivering the first conference, I set up the sales page, booked the Brisbane venue on a 30-day invoice terms for the deposit for that venue. And so at the first conference, I sold tickets to the second conference, and then from the stage I did a public launch of tickets on socials to the second conference.

And from the first conference, we had 112 people at the first conference, and 81 people within a week booked for the second one.

Sally Porteous: Oh, nice.

Tash Corbin: Congratulations. And a lot of that was p- on a payment plan, 'cause I did do a long payment plan. But that then brought in the cashflow to sort out the remaining payments for the first one, make sure we had all of our expenses covered for the second [00:24:00] one, and then I had about 20 to 30 tickets left to sell, and that would be my profit margin and my speakers.

So there have been a couple of times where the motivation has been, "Well, I need the money.

Sally Porteous: I gotta do it." Okay. Yeah. Great.

Tash Corbin: And then actually, I think I got a little defiant in the COVID years because I had bought tickets and flights to a couple of conferences. One actually in Iceland in Europe, one in the US and one in Australia, and all three were just cancelled, no refunds.

And I... and, and it was the f- like, two of them were cancelled before, like, any lockdowns or anything were happening, but they were fairly close to c- happening. So, you know, it was quite understandable. But also, I had friends who were speaking at them, and they had booked their flights on the promise of reimbursement and were not reimbursed for what they'd spent on flights. And then [00:25:00] also, another friend of mine had dropped out saying, "Look, with all of this COVID stuff, I don't think I'm going to go, so I'll give you back my speaker fee." And then the next day they cancelled, and in her speaker contract, if she had waited that extra day, she would've not had to repay her speaker fee.

So it's just a lot of, like, people doing the dodgy around events during that time. And I just want to say, I totally understand the cashflow pressure, the panic, the, like, the sinking feeling. But I also... Like, I would've remortgaged my house before taking people's money and just going, "No, I'm not running it."

Like, that, I just could not do that. Okay. So I actually I-- my 2020 was supposed to be in June 2020, and I delayed it till September at the time in March thinking, "Oh, this will all be over

So naive. And so I just said to people, "Here's the new dates. If you can keep your tickets, [00:26:00] that would be amazing. If not, I'm, I'll do a refund." And I think at that time tickets had gone up to about 1250, 1300, and I said, I, I offered to do a refund minus $50, which would just cover, like, processing fees and admin.

And then, like most people just kept their ticket, and then we had to reschedule again to, into 2021, and then that was clearly not going to go ahead in March of 2021. And so, again, I said, "Look, we're going to have to reschedule this again." And I actually said, "I don't have new dates, so I'm just going to cancel it and I'll refund everyone."

And more than 50% of people said, "Don't refund me yet. If you do end up running it again, I'll just keep my ticket for that if that's okay with you." And I was like, "Thank you so much. That's great. Brilliant." Yeah. So we end up, I think 44 people end up holding onto their [00:27:00] tickets over three years until we could actually restart it.

And so I do think part of my, like, what kept me going then was just the defiance of it, this thing is going to happen, and we're going to do it. Yeah. But I just, I couldn't ke- 'cause I, the first two reschedules I had, I got financial penalties from the venues 'cause we didn't have all of that COVID cancellation policy stuff in place at that time, and so it was costing me money every time I rescheduled it.

So the, yeah, 20- the early 2021, I just went, "Nah, it's not happening." I was also engaged to be married at the same time, and we'd also lost money on a wedding venue. Oh. So I was like, "Oh." Just so much going on. But definitely felt driven by the, okay, this gives us something to look forward to. We're going to all be in the room together at some point.

We're, you know, it almost felt like it was bringing us back to a little bit of normalcy to think about being at that conference. Mm-hmm. And yeah. Yeah. And then from there, [00:28:00] 2023 was the first year where I had a, a full-time person in my te- not full-time, but like a permanent member of my team step into the role of event manager.

conference manager, and that's Grace. And she made 2023 so much smoother for me, even though it was her first time, and, like, I was just sort of sharing as we went, and, "Here's what we've done previously," and da-da-na. But she is just such a brilliant, like, brain for that kind of thing, that then her organisation in advance for 2024, I was just like...

people were saying to me when they arrived at conference, "You must be so stressed," like, "Oh, I hope you're able to enjoy it." I was like, "I ha- I have no stress right now." Like, I cannot tell you how different this feels. And so really from then, like, that, that just [00:29:00] having such a brilliant event manager just took so much of the parts I didn't like about conference off my plate completely.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: And I could focus on the parts I loved, and that made it so much more sustainable to then, like, every year just ch-ch-ch, it just worked so much more smoothly. Yeah. In fact, I probably-

Sally Porteous: So how have you kept it exciting?

Tash Corbin: I probably- How have you- ... eased off a little too much, actually. But that's okay.

Sally Porteous: Well, I went- Yeah

I, I went '23 and '20... No, it must have been '24 and '25 I went, I think. Oh, yeah. Maybe. Yep. I didn't go this year. Mm. I did go last year.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: And the year before that. Mm. Yeah. So I think I was '24 and '25.

Tash Corbin: Mm.

Sally Porteous: How have you- How have you remained interested in the same audience, the same kind of format? Like-

Tash Corbin: Mm.

Sally Porteous: Because you're in this kind of thing all the time. Like, you've got your membership now, you've, you've had you know, your [00:30:00] various programs. Yeah. So you're always talking about all of this stuff. What is... I guess what I'm interested in is, what has kept it interesting for you as an owner of that event to keep the live event thing going- Mm

amongst everything else? 'Cause you've got your virtual conference as well. You've got- Yeah ... virtual events that you run, smaller in-person boardrooms- Yeah ... all of that kind of stuff.

Tash Corbin: The, the reality is that with my model of online business, conference is the lowest return on my time financially. And so yeah, I do think if I was only looking at the numbers from the money side, I wouldn't have run it this long.

But the experience itself is inherently, like, fulfilling and exciting and valuable to me. As I said, I- Does it add

Sally Porteous: to your business? Does it add value to the other parts of your business? Like, does it feed-

Tash Corbin: Oh, [00:31:00] yeah. There's so many other flow-on benefits, but I mean, even for me, the f- like, it started because I really didn't see an event like that around.

And still to this day, there are some great conferences and events out there, but, like, very few of them actually meet the mark in what I love about, like, a really good quality conference. And so, like, the fact that, like, I knew how much people valued it kept me very excited for it. But also, there's a couple of little cheeky things that come from running a conference that I find very helpful and valuable.

I'm a raging extrovert, but I get very socially awkward around new people, especially if I'm a little bit fangirling. And so- If I, like if I, because I have the conference, it was a great opportunity for me to reach out to people I really admired and say, "Hey, I wonder if you might want to speak at my [00:32:00] conference?"

And so, that actually was a huge benefit to me because it, it, it's an internal shift, and I probably could have made that shift in a lot of different ways. But it was one of the very tangible ways that internally I actually felt like I was stepping into being a leader in the industry, and that like, that that was a peer of mine, not just someone that I've admired from afar and read their book and listened to their podcast.

But actually, like I'm, I have a stage that I could put them on and you know, platform them. And that's- Yes ... very, very cool. So, the... it definitely helped f- for me. I, I constantly saw myself as like this tiny little secret player in the online business space, and a lot of that was self-inflicted. And so conference almost forced me and pushed me to go, "No, no, no, no, like you're, you're at that level.

You're at... You are a, a legitimate peer into those [00:33:00] people." And then also one of my favorite things about conference is it's a very much sells a lot of my mentorship and my programs without me actually having to do it. So I don't... W- we didn't do selling from the stage from conference, but I would be going up to a table to check in to see how everyone's going, and someone would say to me, "Oh, I've just told her she needs to join your mentoring program," and, "That person needs to work with you as a VP."

So because the room- Mm ... had a mix of usually 50% clients and 50% not clients, the clients were very vocal about- Where people who weren't my clients needed to be. And so- Yeah ... there, if I was to try and measure the sales I have made based on, like, of my core business based on conference, I, I don't know that I could accurately measure it, but it would be well into the multi six figures.

[00:34:00] So you know, I've even, like, even from this last conference, that was in September, it's only a month and a half later, I've probably made $20,000 in sales to people who came to conference or wanted to come to conference but couldn't. Yeah. But because of my promos of conference found out about me. Or because someone that they know came to my conference, they checked out my social.

It's like i- there's kind of a big web when you run an in-person event like that, especially now with social media, getting conference attendees to actually share that they're at your conference and tag you and talk about what you're talk- Like, that makes a huge surge in my reach and followers on socials- Yeah

as well. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: And it gives you something to market.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. '

Sally Porteous: Cause oftentimes as, as a business we're like, "Oh, what am I going to talk about? What am I going to market if I don't have a product or-" Mm ... something that's launching right now?"

Tash Corbin: Mm.

Sally Porteous: Having something like that gives you [00:35:00] something to talk about, doesn't it?

Something to share. Yeah.

Tash Corbin: Yeah,

Sally Porteous: for sure. I love it. I love it. Now I know you've got other events and we want to talk about those. We want to get to those, but I've got a couple of quick questions. Yep. Still about conference.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Now you talked about losing $26,000 or $27,000 in that first one, and this may be the answer to this question , but what is your most expensive or painful lesson- Yeah

as a conference organiser?

Tash Corbin: Oh, I've got a lot of them. So I think the most expensive lesson was the AV one, and not getting everything in writing because that same venue, we wanted their biggest space, and the minimum numbers for the biggest space was 300 people. But I didn't think I was going to get 300 people there.

But the event manager from the venue said to me, "Well, let's go to contract at 300 people, but we allow you to reduce your numbers by [00:36:00] 10% per quarter, and you're booking it two years out." So she had done the calculation, said, like, "If we just reduce your numbers by 10% every quarter, you can have the 300-person venue with 150 people in it."

And I was like, "Rock and roll." That wasn't in the contract anywhere, and I had four or five unanswered emails that I had sent her about a year out, and I didn't really think much of it 'cause I'm running the rest of my business, everything else going on. And it was about six months out, I got an email from someone else from the venue saying, "Hey, I've just taken over.

That person has left our organisation." And she was the one who had said two to three grand for AV, and we'll reduce your numbers. And so I had left after signing the contract in person with her saying, "I'll just every three months reduce your attendees by 10%." She hadn't done that once. So six months out, we're contracted for 200 pe- for [00:37:00] 300 people.

We have 99 tickets sold and- Nothing in writing. So that was a very expensive lesson. We ended up, the, the main reason why that conference made such a loss was we ended up paying for 200 attendees, but only had 112. Wow. So I was paying full day food- Yeah ... bar tab yeah, dinners, everything for 200 people for that entire event, plus the AV was more expensive.

So just, like, getting the numbers in writing early was probably the big expensive lesson. But yeah. And then the other things that I've already shared, like a big speaker who's maybe not industry aligned won't necessarily- Mm ... bring in cold audience. And I think the other thing is people underestimate how early you need to start promoting an event, especially a big one, but also how long and how often you need to promote that event.

Yeah. Because if someone- Yeah ... sees a promo of [00:38:00] conference, they're like, "Oh yeah, I should look into that," and then you don't talk about it again for another two months, by then something else has popped into their calendar, or by then they're, "Oh, it's probably a bit too close now." But I also think events are such a funny thing.

Like the promo and the marketing strategy required for events is so different to what else I do online In that there are, there's a big group of people who want to get in, book in early, get it in their calendar, and like get their finances in order da, da. And there's a big chunk of people who are last minute bookers.

I'm one of them, right? I try not to be because I know how much it stresses out event organisers now. But there's like those two pockets, and I see a lot of people who run events and when their initial promo doesn't go as well as expected, they just dwindle down in their promos. And because they haven't kept up talking about it, then when they're all of a sudden talking about last minute ticket sales, they don't get that last surge.

But it's [00:39:00] because you've got to continuously and like extensively just keep talking about it, just keep sharing-

Sally Porteous: Yeah. Yeah ...

Tash Corbin: and reminding people. I, I, I definitely underdid a lot of my promos for conference, but I kind of got away with it because I had that large scale existing audience. But- Mm ... there have been several o- conferences where we sold like 10, 15, 20 tickets in the last four weeks.

And if we hadn't, we wouldn't have hit profit.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: And so, I've been, I've had chronic illness and a lot of other things happening for me in that time and so, you know, a lot of the time it was actually just a capacity issue of from my end. But I do ... Anyone who wants to run any scale of event, I just say like the

I call it the, I got it from Denise Duffield-Thomas the bra tax, right? If someone has to put on a bra and exit the house, they have to hear about it more, they have to hear about it earlier, they have to have the [00:40:00] opportunity to jump in later. And you just need to be so prolific in the promo side.

And I think- Yeah ... also the thing that I do to myself over and over again and I will learn this lesson, is I, I get so excited about the event and I share the event, and then I get a couple of sales and I'm like, "Yay, people are interested in it. Great." And then I'm so either focused on the delivery or focused on the logistics that I forget to keep the promo up or I, I forget the timeframe difference compared to all my other stuff- And I leave the promo too late for my events.

Yeah. And so- Yeah ... like definitely fixing a bunch of things for myself around that side because that's been ... Like, I think the underselling of tickets has been the most expensive problem that I've faced- Yeah ... with conference. Yeah. And it, it's all on me.

Sally Porteous: Well, and- Yeah ... having systems though is, is the [00:41:00] solution to that.

Yeah. Number one, knowing, knowing that is number one. Mm-hmm. But number two is having the systems around it, so batching it, which you do very well.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Making sure ... I think, I think as entrepreneurs the, the challenge that we have as entrepreneurs, and then we double down being a solo entrepreneur, is we jump in headfirst, often without a long range plan.

You know, we haven't done the project management planning side of things where we've looked at something six months before we want to launch it. Yeah. And then you know, we get shiny object syndrome as well. Mm-hmm. Or we've got so much going on that we start to, you know, dabble in other spaces. So- Mm

setting it up as a system, do you use a system? Do you have a project management tool that you use? Do you have any automations or-

Tash Corbin: So,

Sally Porteous: ... Anything like that that you do?

Tash Corbin: Not specifically for me, but we do have Asana in our, in our project t- and task management in the business. And then Grace is brilliant at setting up the Asana tasks and [00:42:00] actually, like, the project management side- Yeah

of it.

Sally Porteous: But that's Grace's only job, right, is conference?

Tash Corbin: No. So she- Oh ... is in the rest of my business she's customer service, she's p- helps me with content distribution and my podcast show notes and stuff. So she's across a lot of different elements of my business as well, and then events is in there as well.

So, yeah. So, Okay,

Sally Porteous: cool ... yeah,

Tash Corbin: we use Asana for the whole of business, and then conference has its own project, and we over the years got better and better at what that project template looked like- Yeah ... so that we could tick things off and, and make sure- Yeah ... things are in train. Yeah. Which

Sally Porteous: frees up so much brain bandwidth, it's incredible.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Absolutely. You know, funnily enough, I have a blog on don't get lost in the log- in the logistics, which absolutely talks about making sure that you keep marketing as- Yeah ... as you're going through. And setting that up as a system, like getting that all designed, scheduled- Mm ... and ready to go, Yeah

is a [00:43:00] godsend because... And the first few times it happens it can be a bit disconcerting. I know myself when I see my own promo pop up that I've scheduled and I'm like, "Oh, hello. Oh, that's right. I scheduled it. Oh, well, it's out there now. I'll just have to deal with it," right? Yeah. Because often we're too...

It's, self-promotion's just horrible. Mm. So, so when you're a solo entrepreneur and you're trying to promote yourself or the thing that you've created, that can-

Tash Corbin: Yeah ...

Sally Porteous: often be a challenge too. So scheduling it- Yeah ... that makes that a bit easier. Yeah. So, last question on the conference. What has been, like, your favorite story about conference?

The favorite win from a delegate or guest, or the best time you've had, or what's the one thing that you talk about often?

Tash Corbin: I think the, the, the one moment where I was like, "Oh my goodness," like, "This is magical," was actually 2025. We had Julie Parker speak, [00:44:00] and it was the first year that we had the first night be the pyjama party and the movie night.

And so when I asked J- and I had been a fan of Julie's from afar for so long. That's one of those people, like, where I reached out to ask her to speak at conference, and I was so starstruck even just asking her to speak because she had been, you know, such an industry leader for all of my time building my business.

And I had been subscribed to her newsletter and followed her on socials for such a long time, and I just loved so much about her. And when I was talking to her on a Zoom call about potentially speaking, and then I said, "Well, actually, this, the first night is going to be a pyjama party." And she was like, "Oh my God, I can speak on stage in my pyjamas."

I was like, "Yes." And so she like jumped. She's like, "Shotgun, I want that spot." Like, "Let me be the one speaking in my pyjamas." And yeah, so I was like, for her presentation, I was sitting on the floor in a [00:45:00] beanbag, in my pyjamas, and Julie did Storytime With Julie Parker, and she was telling us, like, the 25 years of the journey of her business in this really powerful way that was entertaining, and her voice is just so, like, n- nurturing and gorgeous, and but also, like, so many amazing, epic business lessons in it.

And I'm just sitting on that floor going This, I'm- I brought this room together. I agree with that My 2013 self starting a business and seeing Julie Parker's content for the first time, if you had told her that 12 years later she would have Julie on stage at her event sitting in her pyjamas with Julie in her pyjama

It was just like this magical moment. Oh, that's

Sally Porteous: beautiful.

Tash Corbin: And, yeah, yep. I think that one, that one was, is probably one will stay with me forever. I also think one that made me like, "Oh, I have to do this more," was at the first conference I got Mike Michalowicz- Oh, wow ... the [00:46:00] author of Profit First.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: So, I, one of, one of my clients at the time, she was a Profit First professional, and so we made an ar- It was such a big arrangement 'cause he's very expensive, right?

So we had made an arrangement- He's

Sally Porteous: very sensitive, did you

Tash Corbin: say? He's very expensive. Very expensive. Oh,

Sally Porteous: expensive. Yeah, yeah,

Tash Corbin: yeah. He's an expensive speaker.

Sally Porteous: Yes,

Tash Corbin: yes. But we made an arrangement to share his travel costs with Xero, the accounting software.

Sally Porteous: Okay, very good.

Tash Corbin: And they had him speak at their conference that because I'd organised my conference so far in advance, they put their conference on in li- in lineup, so you could go straight from our conference to h- theirs.

And so through all of this magical deal-making, we were able to get what would normally be, I would say, a 30 to $40,000 speaker, it cost me under $10,000.

Sally Porteous: Yeah, wow.

Tash Corbin: And so I was just like so excited by that, and I was so proud that we were able to get him. And [00:47:00] he is such a physical speaker and, like, so he's lying on the floor, then he's getting up and he's like dancing around.

And just hearing everyone cackling at this guy who's there to talk about accounting. And to ... He had a- he'd clearly asked, it was his first time speaking in Australia, I think, he'd clearly asked a lot of people in the lead up to his talk for like Aussie sayings, so he kept dropping- Oh, no ... these Aussie sayings into the mix.

No. He made a big booboo with a naughty word that I won't say so that this- Oh ... this doesn't get too bad. But and it was just, it was the effort that he'd gone to to make it- So it just was the fir- I reckon he was the first business conference speaker that I saw that was like a storyteller and funny and practical and memorable, and that was the one that I was like, "I need to ma- I need to create more of these moments.

I need this caliber of [00:48:00] speaker." I need, yeah, this is going to be something that I want to do over and over again because goodness me, you can tell the difference between someone who speaks for a living and, you know, makes it a very big core component- Mm ... of their work versus someone who doesn't normally go on stage.

And actually, like for someone who doesn't go on stage as often, that level of entertainment factor and practicality and storytelling is actually not only possible, but like a really big value add. And so from that first conference into the subsequent ones, prepping my speakers became a big part of the process.

Yes. And so I would meet with every speaker, and I would like help curate the agenda over the two days and I would say, "Who's coming before them and who's coming after them? What are some of the terms that we use in our community [00:49:00] about-

Sally Porteous: Mm ...

Tash Corbin: this type of marketing and this type of sales?" Using inclusive language you know, all of those pieces.

And so from that conference on, 90% of the speakers on stage I would just, I just felt so proud of them because I saw where the concept of what they were going to say ended up being what they were saying on stage in such a memorable and, and engaging way. And I, I felt like I played a part in a lot of people actually stepping up-

Sally Porteous: Yeah

Tash Corbin: their delivery on stage by asking that of them. And yeah. And can

Sally Porteous: I just add in? Creative business standard.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Yeah, let me add in for the people listening and watching that you pay all of your speakers. Mm. So we're not talking about a stage where you, the return on investment for the speaker is they get coaching by you.

The return on investment is they get paid in cash.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: They have to pitch for it or you choose them, one or the [00:50:00] other obviously. Mm-hmm. But I just want the audience to know because there, we, we know there's lots of people out there who offer in kind return for speaking on stages and- Yeah ... we all agree that you should pay people- Yeah

dollars Yeah ... to speak on stage. So, that's really exciting that, that you had that experience and, and like I, your, What's the, what's that program? Show Up and Speak? Yes. That was excellent. Show Up and Speak was excellent, that I'm in your program for that. Really love that. So, no, I think the ones I've seen, that has certainly come across.

Tash Corbin: Mm-hmm ...

Sally Porteous: and it's, and they've been really practical as well. Yeah. Like you say, the, having like, the workbook and being able to work through things. Gone are the days where people want to sit and listen to a YouTuber in real life.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Like, we don't, we're not there as a live audience in a one-way conversation anymore.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: There's still lots and lots of that going on though, so I'm just- Yeah.

Tash Corbin: Yeah ...

Sally Porteous: I don't know how we tell those people to [00:51:00] stop, and-

Tash Corbin: Yeah ...

Sally Porteous: like, give us something else. Because- and it's- ... as we know, it costs a lot ... it's

Tash Corbin: really, it's really challenging as a conference organiser, Sally, because I think as well, like, there have been some really disappointing speakers.

Not so much with in-person conference, I think because I really drill it into people and we do a lot of prep beforehand and I need their slides 14 days out. Like, I, I, I get that, I get them into preparation mode very early. But there have been a couple on the stage, but then also running the virtual version of the conference where I've had people that I've hired to speak and I have paid them to speak, but they have been in the midst of a book tour, and they have done 20 podcasts about their book.

And so I've had someone, like, show up to the virtual conference stage and I have said, "It's not a free webinar that you've run before. It is not something we could've heard elsewhere. It is something that is specific to this audience and applied to this theme." [00:52:00] We have a theme for it, and they've just rolled out what they're, their book pitch.

Sally Porteous: Mm.

Tash Corbin: And, you know, I, I think that that is a big challenge because there are... or I think it, part of the problem is that there are so many people out there teaching how to be a speaker- And

Sally Porteous: they

Tash Corbin: are charging $5,000 for their graduates to then speak at their conference. And so the way people are being trained to be a speaker is to sell from the stage.

Yeah. The way people are being taught to run webinars is to sell throughout the webinar. And so if y- they get invited to speak at a virtual conference as a paid speaker, they're showing up in the same way that they would speak as a free speaker at a summit or in a bundle-

Sally Porteous: Yeah ...

Tash Corbin: or in a prerecorded something.

And so, you know, I do think as an organiser, I have had to be very explicit in the speaker contracts. I've [00:53:00] even had to make that really clear. But unfortunately, especially with a live event, my virtual conference and my in-person conference are both like, it's nothing's prerecorded. I don't actually have control over whether someone actually honors that or not. And I remember at 2019 conference I had someone who we'd hired to speak. At the time they were a video content expert, but in between hiring them to speak and them actually speaking at the event, they started working with a new coach and that coach convinced them to change what they were doing in their business to be a high ticket sales mindset specialist. And so that person had slides about video completely irrelevant to what they were saying on stage. Workbook, completely irrelevant to what they were saying on stage Showed up in a ballgown with a photographer that had not been pre-approved. And the photographer stood in the [00:54:00] front row, and that person spoke to the photographer the entire time.

Oh. And it was absolutely devastating for me as the event host. I was like- ... this is so bad for my reputation for this conference. Like, I was absolutely livid. But actually, in the speaker feedback, 'cause we do feedback forms at the end, in the speaker feedback form, everyone was angry at them, not me.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: They could see- the difference between every other speaker and that speaker. And I know a lot of conference organisers around now, right? I, I get asked for recommendations for speakers all the time. And I don't even have to say anything because those people have a reputation that precedes them.

And I also think that if people think that conference organisers aren't sharing with each other what their experiences were with different speakers- We

do ...

you're sweet. Right? We do. I'm not someone who will [00:55:00] go out of my way to, like, say, "Don't ever hire this person. They were horrible."

But I, I know what level I can give feedback when another conference organiser goes, "So I'm wondering about this person. I know you've had them as a speaker." And I'm like, "Do you want me to be really honest?" And I'm very honest and blunt and direct. It's not from a gossipy perspective. I'm just talking about from my perspective as the event organiser.

Here is my experience with that person.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: And yeah, I'm, I'm very upfront about it because I do think that if we did that for each other more, we wouldn't see... Like, I remember, I think it was 2025, I saw someone was clearly on a, on a push to speak at everything that they could. Very, very wealthy, famous, sold a business and doing another business.

And I had seen them speak at, like, six different events, and that, [00:56:00] the person reached out to me and said, "I'd like to offer to speak at your conference for free. I know that you pay your speakers, but I'll do it for free. That's fine." And that in- that just made me go, "Hmm, interesting." Hmm. So I had seen who that spoke, who's event they'd spoken at, and I just reached out to everyone and went, "Hey, just wanted to see, how, how was the speaker?

Was it good?" And most people were like, "Yeah, it was okay." Like, there was no gushing excitement. And so I was like, "No, I'm not going to, I'm not going to hire them." Because for me, if there's not, if you're not like, "Oh, yeah, they were like a dream to work with, and da-da-da, and this was really great," then it's not, it's not good.

Sally Porteous: No. It's

Tash Corbin: not good.

Sally Porteous: Yeah. I've had a similar experience with... So I pay people, like if I'm going to run a, if I want someone to run a workshop in my course or in my program, I'll pay people to do that. So I, I don't get people, you know, I don't get people to do that for free. And I've had a similar experience where someone, I paid someone to [00:57:00] come and run a workshop on a topic, and they basically gave me the webinar version.

And so the people actually didn't get any- Hmm ... knowledge. Yeah. It was, it was the- You know, the whole, like the book, the whole problem framing-

Tash Corbin: Yeah ...

Sally Porteous: and we got to the end of the webinar and I was like, "

Tash Corbin: And?" We haven't fixed anything.

Sally Porteous: What's the outcome? What, what do we think about it? We know what the problem is.

Yes.

Tash Corbin: Yep. Yep.

Sally Porteous: Super frustrating.

Tash Corbin: Cool. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: All

Tash Corbin: right, By the way, I offer all of my speakers to get their feedback, and that one person who spoke to the photographer, I emailed and said, "Look, I'll be honest, the feedback isn't great. Do you want me to send it all through? Do you want to meet about it?" And she said, "I don't care."

So that says me- to me like all, all that I need. And I'm unafraid to tell people, "Look, at the end of the day, I asked if she wanted the feedback and she said she didn't care, so that would be my-

Sally Porteous: Yeah ...

Tash Corbin: story." You know? Like, that would be my perspective. Yeah. The other thing that [00:58:00] I do is, where I've had a great speaker, I send them a written testimonial, I send them a short video of me saying, "I hired Sally," for example.

"I had Sally to speak at my conference. Sally was well-prepared. She was a dream to work with. She tailored what she was talking about to my situ-" Like, I talk about what they did really well in a video- Yeah ... testimonial because I do think that hearing from another event organiser makes a big difference to- Yeah

confidence to hire someone. And I do really want to see-- I mostly have women speakers on my stage, and I want to see more women speakers at this event, like at these events. That's also part of the reason why I started my conference, was because I went to so many conferences that had like one token woman speaker, and she was usually asked about work-life balance, nothing else.

So you know, I do want, when I do have speakers on my stage, I want them to know when they've done a good job, and they're a dream to work with, and like what I appreciate [00:59:00] about-

Sally Porteous: Yeah

Tash Corbin: What they've done. And so, you know, I think that that also can help with creating this sense of trust for other event organisers. Like, I stand behind my word. If I've made a video testimonial or a written testimonial about someone who's spoken on my stage, you can trust it because I paid them. Like-

Sally Porteous: Yes,

Tash Corbin: yes, yes

I'm not just like, "Oh, they were great," and I don't have to spend a thing. It's like, they were great, like they were worth the

Sally Porteous: investment. Yeah, they didn't speak for free and I'm giving them this testimonial in return. Yeah.

Tash Corbin: No. Yeah,

Sally Porteous: no. Yeah,

Tash Corbin: they

Sally Porteous: were worth the

Tash Corbin: investment. I agree with you.

Sally Porteous: Yeah. I agree with you.

Well, well done you for investing in other people. I love it. What are your values around your event design, delivery, and funding? Now, I know we've talked about the design and the delivery already, but I'm curious to know, apart from your own capital investment into your events, do you engage in sponsorship?

Do you go after grant funding? Do you have other funding models that you-

Tash Corbin: Yeah. Oh, my

Sally Porteous: god. So- Or have you in

Tash Corbin: the

Sally Porteous: past?

Tash Corbin: I, I [01:00:00] learned a very tough lesson moving conference to Noosa in particular, because Noosa Shire Council is not part of Sunshine Coast. And so- Oh ... Sunshine Coast Regional Council has amazing opportunities to help support events doesn't work if you're not in the, if you're in Noosa.

And so- Right ... i- if I was to we haven't said, but co- I've closed conference. This year's was the last one. I- if I was to keep running it, or in the future I do think I will run a different kind of conference, I will not have it in Noosa Shire. I will be looking for venues in the greater Sunshine Coast region because of the extensive support that's available by Sunshine Coast Council and Visit Sunshine Coast, the tourism-

Sally Porteous: Yeah, so let's just talk about that for a minute- Yeah

because you'd be amazed at how many people do not know that that funding is available- Mm ... across a wide- Yeah ... variety of tourism,

Tash Corbin: Yeah ...

Sally Porteous: tourism and events within those [01:01:00] cities. Yeah. So, just as a quick side note, I would encourage everyone to go and have a look at the local tourism authority in their city of the event, of the location- Yeah

you're planning to put the event on in. Yes. Because there will be a business events XYZ, there'll be a tourism department. It may even be on the local council website, or it'll be in the economic development team. Yep. But just about every city, except Noosa, obviously,

Tash Corbin: Well, see- Has a program ... the tricky part with Noosa was if my business address was in Noosa it would be different, but because I was in Sunshine Coast region and they are sup- they support local businesses running local events, I didn't meet that criteria.

So-

Sally Porteous: Wow. Okay ... it's

Tash Corbin: interesting as well, like ju- like they would help me with like tourist brochures for the gift bags. Like there was just, like just not the same extent. Good to know ... as it [01:02:00] is for Sunny Coast. The other thing I would say as well, for a lot of events if there's a creative component, so mine was very business-oriented, but like if your event has performance or, you know, it's for artists and there's art involved or anything along those lines, do also look for things like arts councils and, and peak bodies like that as well.

There's national bodies, there's state bodies, then there's local bodies, and so even just doing a little bit of hunting out to see if there are- any opportunities there, I think that that makes a big difference. The fact that the large-scale venues on- the Sunshine Coast or even in Brisbane aren't pushing this to people trying to book large scale events to me feels like a huge gap.

But I guess if I'm already trying to book a large scale event, council doesn't need to encourage me to try and bring the event there. Maybe I'm already- Mm ... convinced. But yeah, so there are things that I definitely could have accessed had the [01:03:00] situation been different. Mm-hmm. I did-

Sally Porteous: Have you ever applied for a grant?

Yeah. Have you ever

Tash Corbin: applied

Sally Porteous: for a

Tash Corbin: grant for anything? I, I, well, the only one was the Noosa one, and I got immediately at round one disqualified 'cause I didn't have a Noosa address. So that's the only one. Yeah. I have looked into other ones, but I didn't meet a qualifying criteria. Like the first time you run an event, there's more available than if you've run the event before, and I didn't know that.

Also-

Sally Porteous: Not always. Not always

Tash Corbin: Yeah

Sally Porteous: If you're in Queensland, Tourism and Events Queensland is the opposite. Oh, right. You've gotta have runs on the board-

Tash Corbin: Yeah. Yeah ...

Sally Porteous: before Tourism and Events Queensland will look at you. Yeah.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. And then the other one was that there was a brilliant one for new events in Sunshine Coast for my first year But my business had been around for four years, so it wasn't- Mm

technically classified as new. So in that instance, if I had set up the business [01:04:00] as its own entity, at the conference as its own entity with its own ABN and done it in start- but admin and paperwork on the chance of getting funding when I already could fund through selling ti- I was like, "I'll just sell tickets, it's fine."

Like-

Sally Porteous: Yes, and that's- ... easier to sell tickets ... that's the point I want to make. Yeah. So that's a point I want to make too. I remember, like, people, the- there's a grant program here that's $5,000 for women in business, and people send it to me all the time, all the time, and I'm like, "The acquittal, i.e., the report I would have to do, the work I would have to do, and the reporting I would have to do on that $5,000-

Tash Corbin: Yeah

Sally Porteous: I could work a day and get paid $5,000." Like

Tash Corbin: Yeah. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: It's, there's easier ways to make $5,000. Mm. However, I have successfully applied for funding through Gold Coast City Council- Yeah ... and successfully got $50,000. So,

Tash Corbin: you know. Yeah. The Sunshine Coast one's 50,000 as well. Like there's some- There's big bucks out there

amazing things. And I [01:05:00] find it's more likely at the council level than necessarily some of those larger levels. There are some Queensland ones, but a lot of them didn't apply for me because of size and scale.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Tash Corbin: But i- in relation to sponsors, it's been really interesting actually, 'cause it's probably one of the areas where I was I, I didn't really know what to do.

And then I also just didn't give it the time and energy that it needed. So, it's so funny, when I was in uni in the year 2000, I volunteered for an organisation. We ran large scale events, and one of my jobs on the event organising committee was ringing breweries and asking them to send us free beer for our uni event, right?

Like-

Sally Porteous: I love it. Yeah, yeah.

Tash Corbin: You got, like, 500 uni students all coming to Brisbane, can you give us some beer? And like, we end up getting, like, Beenleigh Rum or something random, and Burger Man chips. But so the sort of the in-kind sponsorship was the only thing that I'd really [01:06:00] done before. And then my first sponsorship, like tiered system, I just got it from seeing someone else do it for their event, and I just halved all the amounts 'cause mine was new.

So I did get sponsors. It was mostly, like, clients and close friends who would chuck me three grand to be able to have some promo and five minutes on stage. This year- Actually, I probably did the best at getting sponsors. And so we had like a, a, a h- a top level sponsor, a mid-level sponsor, and then also we have our exhibition night where people can have stalls and we've s- we sold the exhibition stalls out the last three years running.

And because we made them really cost-effective for people. And yeah, so that was sort of the main ways that we got a little bit of extra income. But like, for context, an exhibitor's stall was a quarter of [01:07:00] the price of a conference ticket. It was an add-on for conference ticket attendees, so it was, it was better for me to focus on selling conference tickets in

Sally Porteous: that- Yeah.

Okay ...

Tash Corbin: case. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: That's so interesting that you, that you don't apply a great deal of attention to the sponsorship program, given you are a prolific sponsor of other... Like, you sponsor the netball and- Yeah ... a variety of other things.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. I sponsor another conference.

Sally Porteous: So you, you know the value- Yeah.

of being a sponsor.

Tash Corbin: Yes. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: But you don't apply that to your own, which is interesting.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. I think, number one, my first experience in sponsoring conferences, the conferences that I sponsored, like that first conference that was lovely but no one was making any money, I sponsored that two... for the s- last two years that I went, and I didn't even get a shout-out on socials.

Like, the return was very low. I got like gushing praise on stage in [01:08:00] the room, but I felt like it wasn't... Like, I, I'm in the room. Like- Yeah. Yeah ... people know how cool I am.

Sally Porteous: I can do that on my own. I don't need you- I can do it by myself ... to do that. Yeah.

Tash Corbin: Right? So, so, like the return wasn't necessarily there.

I ha- actually, I have the same experience with sports team sponsorship, by the way. Like, just the, the mismatch between what they think I want as a sponsor and what they could do with the assets they have is wild. But also for me, it was more... It wasn't that I didn't see the potential in it, but it was...

It's like getting a sponsor that's an appropriate level of return for them- Like I take that very seriously. And so I did actually, two years ago I had someone reach out and they wanted to do the $12,000 top level sponsorship, and I said, "I don't think you're going to make $12,000 out of this room." I'll be really honest.

And there are some things that we can do with my social and with the [01:09:00] community, and we can try and build out some other stuff. But I... Like the scale of your business and the price point of what you're selling, it just doesn't make-

Sally Porteous: Mm ...

Tash Corbin: financial sense. And as, because I'm a business coach as well, I think

Sally Porteous: like- That's up to them though to make the decision.

Tash Corbin: Yeah, I know. I know. I'm getting involved. But like that person ended up coming to conference every year since then, like was very grateful- Yeah ... for the fact that oh, we did something smaller. But I do think it is also just being realistic because like my conference is 100 and something people. And-

Sally Porteous: Well, let me, let me stop you there.

Mm. Because one of the tips that I share with people that is often missed is I may be sponsoring your conference, but that doesn't mean you only have to expose me to just that audience. Yes.

Tash Corbin: Yep. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: So keep in mind, you have an enormous amount of assets-

Tash Corbin: Yes.

Sally Porteous: Yep ... available for sale that are maybe not directly associated with conference- Mm

that you may be able... And that can be as simple as, do [01:10:00] you know what? I know the mayor of the Sunshine Coast. I can organise a lunch for you, me, and the mayor.

Tash Corbin: Mm. Yeah. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Like it's, we d- we get very caught up in you know, lists and ticks. Yeah. Bronze, silver, gold, all of these things that are... Like we, we don't look at our assets specifically enough for- Yep

the audience that we want to serve. So- Yeah. And I- I've got lots of content on that.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. And, and that's what I would say is that I came to, I think it was one of your sponsor webinars and went, "Ah." Right? But by then I was getting ready for like-

Sally Porteous: Yes. Yes, yes ...

Tash Corbin: in the throes of last year's conference, getting ready for n- next, this year's conference and it was like, oh, I can see that there has been a missed opportunity throughout over the years.

But also I just was just so fixated on sell, sell the tickets, sell the tickets. And so yeah, I definitely think that there's a lot, there's a lot more to event sponsorship that [01:11:00] I still to this day am not across. And I, I know that come whatever next conference I decide to run or however I choose to do it in the future- Call

Sally Porteous: me

sponsorship- We'll have a

Tash Corbin: conversation. I'll, I will be, I'll be hiring Sally Porteous- ... for help with my sponsorship stuff. Because I do also think that I, I think that when you're deep in it yourself- And you're a naturally, like, I, I'm so naturally, like, telling r- oh, you, here's Sally. You should... She does da-da-da-da-da, right?

So then to monetize that feels almost, like, weird, and I know- Mm ... that, like, it's such a, a limitation. Having someone like you help with the structure around it I think would make it feel less personal. I, I don't know if you've seen Denise Duffield-Thomas talks about this with the sacred money archetypes, that, like, a connector has just spent their whole [01:12:00] lives making connections and introducing people and platforming people and da-da-da-da.

And so then when you start a business, charging people for a natural... Like, what you do naturally feels- It's

Sally Porteous: hard ...

Tash Corbin: weird, and it's, Yeah ... it's a, it, it nee- But it's not that you shouldn't. It's that you need to have that structure around it and that clarity and boundary around it to feel comfortable in being able to deliver- Yeah

and da-da. Like, it's the same reason why, like, I'm not a paid affiliate for people's programs that I recommend. They'll say, "Oh, you know, we can set you up with your own affiliate link, and you'll get a commission." I was like, "It'll... It's the fastest way to shut me up," because then I feel like I have to explain to people, "Well, I am recommending it, and I do actually...

Like, I love it, and I think they're amazing." Yeah. "But I may make a commission out of this." Yeah. So I want to be really full disclosure, and it's this... Maybe- Yeah ... it's my autistic justice [01:13:00] drive, but it actually is something that I, I know about myself. And so I just say to people, "You don't have to pay me. I'd rather you didn't.

I just want to tell people about it." Yeah. And so, yeah. I do think that for future events, where getting sponsors becomes part of it, I, I, I definitely need more help with understanding that structure of it and also learning how to pitch it- in a, in a confident and- Mm ... clear way that, like, it's a value proposition.

'Cause I think the other thing that I did in early days when I asked for sponsors is I kind of felt like I was begging. Like, "Please can someone sponsor my conference, please. This will be really helpful and I'll love you forever." Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Like,

Tash Corbin: it was- Yeah ... it was, it was not from a this is a good, energetic exchange feeling.

And I think part of that comes from when I've sponsored in the past, it has been a kindness, not a business decision.

Sally Porteous: Ah, I see.

Tash Corbin: And so- I see ... the, the example, the, the, [01:14:00] the exception to that now is sponsoring Emma Veiga-Malta's conference, the Creative Business Summit. That is a strong business decision.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: That is why I've sponsored that. It is- Yeah ... so worthwhile for me, and it's probably the first event sponsorship out of all of the dozens I've done where it has come from that space. That's awesome. Power to Emma, right? But, like, that's probably the first time that I've sponsored because I believed in it and it was a sound financial business decision versus I just really want them to give it a go.

And I just, just go figure. Like,

Sally Porteous: it's- Yeah. And so-

Tash Corbin: Yeah ...

Sally Porteous: you, for you to realise that you have those assets as well.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. You

Sally Porteous: have an enormous ... People want what you've got.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: So very quickly the process is identifying what do I have, who wants it, and how much will they pay for it?

Tash Corbin: Yes.

Sally Porteous: Like-

Tash Corbin: Yeah ...

Sally Porteous: that's your business head around sponsorship.

Mm. And that takes you away from, "Please sir, may I have a dollar? I really need a dollar." I've got a ... There's a whole episode on it. Go find it on the podcast.

Tash Corbin: Yep. Yep.

Sally Porteous: [01:15:00] Oh, yep. I talk about exactly that.

Tash Corbin: And like, I- Awesome ... it's, it's so good that people like you do this stuff, right? Because I think people would see me as 10 years into running a conference and go, "Oh, she's right across the sponsor stuff."

But no, like, it's ... There's so much complexity to events. Mm. And not every event gets every piece the attention that it needs. And you know,

Sally Porteous: that- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it takes years to build it too. I think that's- Yeah ... that's to credit to you that you've ... you have grown it over time. It hasn't just been the same thing, the same thing that's rolled out.

You've-

Tash Corbin: Yeah ...

Sally Porteous: taken lessons, learnt it, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. But I guess the, the lesson in that one is that there is multiple revenue streams- A lot of them are a lot easier or provide a bigger return on investment than the ticket price.

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: And oftentimes you can offer, say, a round of affordable tickets for a particular group because you've got sponsorship.

So- Yeah ... for those of us [01:16:00] that feel like it's a cash grab-

Tash Corbin: Mm ...

Sally Porteous: we can look at it in that kind of lens to go, "Actually, I'm helping 30 people from that underrepresented community- Yeah ... be able to come and hang out with all of us-

Tash Corbin: Mm ...

Sally Porteous: knowing full well that they may not have had the $695 in their back pocket to pay and come.

Tash Corbin: Yeah,

Sally Porteous: yep. But someone else has paid for that. So- Yes.

Tash Corbin: Yep ...

Sally Porteous: lots of different revenue streams. So what's next, Tash? What's, what's... It's not happening anymore, so we've established that. Nope. We've let the cat out of the bag. Yep. Conference- So it- Last one was just passed ...

Tash Corbin: that, that version of that conference, 'cause the conference came from the community, the Facebook group, which has now got 30 something thousand members, but that community has started to dwindle a little with algorithms and Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook ruining everything.

So it just felt like a natural kind of time to close the conference that was attached to the, that specific [01:17:00] community. For the next year or two, I want to focus on smaller events. So I'm doing VIP boardrooms with just, you know, half a dozen people at a time. Do love. Yes. That was great. Sally came to one of those.

So I'm doing those in a few different places around the country. I'm also doing some g- shared events. So I'm running a joint retreat with someone Dr Denise Furness, that's in April next year, and that will be 20 people. So it's a, like, a larger size retreat style. That's four days. And then I'm doing an International Women's Day event, and I'm co-hosting that with five other business owners.

So, that's going to be a really fun one. Testing out the council-owned venue here on the Sunshine Coast. Okay. So I want to check that out. Oh,

Sally Porteous: great.

Tash Corbin: And,

Sally Porteous: Make sure you go look at the funding on council's- Yes ... website for that- Yes ... won't you?

Tash Corbin: Oh, I will. '

Sally Porteous: Cause there's, there's- I'll look that up as well ... good size grants for that kind of stuff.

Tash Corbin: Yeah. And I mean, even the fact that that venue is so deeply subsidised, like, amazing.

Sally Porteous: Mm.

Tash Corbin: Probably shouldn't talk [01:18:00] about it too much publicly to a lot of event organisers just yet. Well- Till I lock in my dates, so it doesn't get

Sally Porteous: too popular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right.

Wait till you've locked in the dates, oh,

Tash Corbin: that's right

I've got lots of, I've got lots of other things that I think would be great there. So we'll use International Women's Day to test out that venue, and then I will- Quite likely run three or four events a year there, I think. And then yeah, I think ultimately I want to build out my CEO circle membership to have a few hundred members, and then we'll have member events in real life as well.

Sally Porteous: Love

Tash Corbin: it. And be member-driven as to where and what we do. But yeah, it's, it's going to be fun to ... I actually, it's ironic because before I announced that this conference would be the last one, I sent out an email to my full mailing list saying like, "Events are coming back. We're seeing so much more demand for them.

We're seeing more of them sell out. It's been so great." And then I think it was like five weeks later I sent an email saying, "And this will be the last time for the business conference." But like, I'm closing [01:19:00] off that one big event per year, and now I'm really looking forward to having, say, 10 to 12 smaller events per year.

And often it's so much easier to get to profitability with those. And it allows me to, you know, just be more deeply connected with people who come to those for the next couple- Yeah ... of years, and then we'll see what happens from there.

Sally Porteous: Congratulations

Tash Corbin: Thank

Sally Porteous: you Well, thank you so much for having a chat with me.

I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you, Steph. It's been so good to see someone so experienced share behind the scenes. The fact that you're not an event company, that you're not a professional event organiser, that you are a business owner who understands the value of in-person virtual events, I think is great for our listening audience.

So thank you so much- Absolutely ... for joining us.

Tash Corbin: And can I leave one parting piece of advice to anyone- Please ... who goes to events, loves events, wants to run events, already runs events, is buy more tickets to more things. Yeah. [01:20:00] I really- Mm ... feel like the experience of going to events and, like, I have picked up so much value for my event by going to events over the years.

But also, there, the... When, when I announced I was closing conference, everyone was like s- There was a lot of upset, there was a lot of sadness and there was a lot of yearning, like, "Oh, but there's no... There's nothing else that we like- Mm ... like this," and da, da, da. And I'm like, "They have been there, and they have struggled to sell 20 tickets."

And sometimes I think that people, especially when you're seasoned at going to events, you run your own events, it can be easy to just have this such a high standard, and nothing's ever going to meet it, so I'm never going to anyone else's thing. Or even people who want to be speakers at events. The amount of people who would pitch me to speak, and I'd say, "Best thing to do is buy a ticket, get a feel for it," and we ask ticket holders every year to pitch to be a speaker, [01:21:00] and the...

I would say more than 50% of people replied and said, "I don't go to events unless I'm speaking." Oh. And for me, that's a black mark against them- Yeah. ... and they'll never be a speaker at my event, right? Because you're talking to the person who's trying to sell tickets to this event, saying, "I don't ever buy tickets to events."

Yeah. So that says to me as a speaker, you have no empathy for the ticket holders. You have not put your money into going to something and expected something from a speaker on stage- Yeah ... for a very long time. Yeah. And I actually think that that is foul I think I, it's just something in me, it just really grinds my gears to hear that response Yeah.

And I know- Agreed ... that there are speaker coaches who talk about that as, like, a good boundary to set. I actually disagree wholeheartedly. Mm. And I also think that going to a, a broad range of events as a speaker and seeing other speakers on stage, when you've paid for your ticket, your experience and your expectation of speakers is different compared [01:22:00] to if you're there for free as a speaker.

Sally Porteous: Mm. Yeah.

Tash Corbin: And I absolutely encourage everyone to just buy more tickets, go to more things, experience more events, go to more variety of events, more styles of events, short events, long events. Yeah. I really do think that it is so valuable. It keeps events going, but also, the number one time when people buy tickets to concerts is in the 24 hours after a concert.

They've been to a concert, right?

Sally Porteous: Mm.

Tash Corbin: So if you're buying tickets to events, you are contributing to this growth of the events industry because by being in a thriving room, a bustling room, that event is going to be rerun again, and that's because it has the people in the room. But also as an attendee, there's so much value.

So please, please, please, please, please, like, go and do some searching and find some more events to go to. Because I also [01:23:00] think- We've seen this splintering of where events are advertised and how they're advertised recently with, like it's not everyone's all in one platform or they're all on one event website or whatever it might be

Sally Porteous: Right

Tash Corbin: And so they're not going to fall in your lap the way they might have in the past.

Yeah. And also, a lot of those early events, they don't have the marketing budget to have it fall in your lap, but they are often such beautiful amazing experiences.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: And you get, you know, you just get a really different style. So yeah, buy tickets to events.

Sally Porteous: And those events are using platforms like Eventbrite, Humanitix.

So sign up to those newsletters.

Tash Corbin: Yes.

Sally Porteous: Yeah. Sign up to those newsletters on those platforms because then you'll get sent the events that are happening that get... As soon as it gets launched, or if you go to an event, sign-- and you love it, sign up to that person's newsletter- Yeah ... because then they'll tell you when the next one is.

So-

Tash Corbin: Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Yeah ... thank you. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Yes, definitely. I

Tash Corbin: I have a post on my socials. I [01:24:00] just schedule it to just go out every month. It's like, "What events are everyone going to in the next few months?" Because I also love going to events with people that I know. And sometimes that just overcomes that little hump as well of like, "Oh, I don't know if I can go.

Oh, well, I'm going to go with Tash." And so I often, if I see an event, I'll buy a table and just say, "Anyone want to come?" But yeah, I just, I just think the more that we can get people going to events, the better those events become. Yes ... but also the better we become as event organisers. Some of the best im- improvements I've made to my conference came from going to someone else's event and going, "Ooh, that is really cool that they do that.

I want to do that too." Yeah.

Sally Porteous: I'm really keen to learn more about your International Women's Day event- Mm-hmm ... when that gets launched because I actually, I normally boycott them because they're full of nothingness. Yeah. Well, because they only, they only ever... It's a, it's a big talk game, isn't it? Nothing- Yeah

nothing changes, nothing happens. And so- Oh, and Sally, Sally ... I know yours won't be like [01:25:00] that I...

Tash Corbin: We're, we're wrapping up, but I got in asked to speak at an International Women's Day event two years ago by a dude, and I was like, "Yep, my speaker fee is eight and a half thousand dollars," which it was at the time.

I'm happy to waive the travel because it was in a town that I wanted to go to, so that's totally fine. He's like, "Oh, actually, we're asking all the speakers to speak for free." I was like, "Oh, okay. No worries." So I contacted the other speakers to say, "Hey, I just wanted to see, are you really speaking at an International Women's Day event for free?"

There were five women speakers and two men speakers. The two men were being paid. International Women's Day

Sally Porteous: That's a joke.

Tash Corbin: Isn't that hilarious? It's crazy.

Sally Porteous: So

Tash Corbin: yes, I also boycott International Women's Day events. I was like, "Well, I'm just going to run my own." See, this is the thing- Very good ... Sally. It's like,

Sally Porteous: oh-

Tash Corbin: Yeah

it doesn't exist

Sally Porteous: You

Tash Corbin: gotta do your own. All right. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Yeah.

Tash Corbin: So, but it's, it's, it's, it's about women in business [01:26:00] and it will be, you know, some conversation about women in business, not just like, "Isn't International Women's Day great? Shouldn't we support women?" It's going to be a room full of women. We know that, like- Yeah

preaching to the converted. So, yeah. But I, I reached out to a few business owner friends of mine and went, "I feel like we should do something together. We'll all be on stage. We'll have different sort of panels and conversations and do something really, like, fun and, yeah, light and low cost for people."

But something that's actually genuine and helpful rather than just

Sally Porteous: a- Yeah, nice ...

Tash Corbin: show pony something. Yeah. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Well, once again, thank you for joining me. I will wrap it up here, let our listeners go off and plan their event. Where can we find you? Where do we go looking for you? What do you want to share, talk about?

Tash Corbin: Yeah, so I'm @tashcorbin on Instagram. It's probably the best place to follow along to get all the latest stuff. And my website is tashcorbin.com, and I have an events page on my website. Great. [01:27:00] So you'll be able to keep up to date with all the upcoming events and see what I've got on offer there. And yeah, that's probably the best place to follow.

Yeah.

Sally Porteous: Awesome, and you're prolific everywhere. So, I would encourage people to go and listen to your podcast because your podcast is fantastic. There is how many episodes now? 500?

Tash Corbin: 541 today.

Sally Porteous: Ooh, 541 episodes. Yours coming out on mine will be episode number 26.

Tash Corbin: Woo-hoo. So You gotta start

Sally Porteous: somewhere-

Tash Corbin: I've a long way-

Sally.

Sally Porteous: Exactly. Gotta start somewhere.

Tash Corbin: Yes. Yeah.

Sally Porteous: I've a long way from 546, but thank you. Thanks once again. And I can't wait to hang out with you once more.

Tash Corbin: Thanks so much, Sally. Bye.

27. Inside the Heart-Centered Business Conference: Secrets of Success with Tash Corbin

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