# Why Coaches, Therapists and Experts Should Host a Virtual Summit

> A virtual summit lends you trust, grows your list through speakers and opens referrals. Here's the case for hosting one, and who should wait.

URL: https://virtualsummits.com/why-you-should-host-a-virtual-summit
Author: Steve Eriksen (https://eventraptor.com/about-steve)
Publisher: EventRaptor (https://eventraptor.com)
Published: 2026-05-20
Updated: 2026-11-01
Section: Product News

You're a coach, therapist or expert, and you're good at your work. But new clients still show up in bursts. A virtual summit is one of the most direct ways to change that. Hosting one lets you borrow trust from respected speakers and [grow your email list](/the-most-powerful-strategy-to-build-a-list-make-money-online) through their promotion. It also starts relationships that keep paying off long after the event ends.

If you're new to the format, a summit is a free online event where you host a group of experts teaching one topic. There's a fuller explanation in [what a virtual summit is and how coaches and experts use one](/what-is-a-virtual-summit).

I'll admit I'm biased. Jennie and I built EventRaptor because summits changed my business. That's also why I'll tell you who shouldn't run one yet. At the wrong moment, a summit is a lot of effort for very little back.

## Key Takeaways

- Host a summit when you have a clear offer, because the event builds trust and the offer is what turns that trust into clients.
- [Pick speakers who already have the attention of your ideal clients](/summit-planning/summit-speaker-recruitment), and give each one a promoter link so their audience finds you.
- Plan your VIP pass and your follow-up before you invite a single speaker, since that's where the revenue comes from.
- Agree up front how session recordings can be reused, so one event gives you months of content.
- Wait if you don't have an offer yet, or if you're not willing to follow up with the people who register.

## Five Reasons a Summit Earns Its Place in Your Calendar

### People Trust You Because of the Company You Keep

When your name sits next to respected people in your field, prospects give you some of the trust they already give those people. You're the one asking the questions, introducing each expert and pulling the ideas together. By the end of the event, attendees see you as the person who brought it all together. I go into this in more depth in [why virtual summits can build authority and qualified leads faster than random content](/growth-strategy/virtual-summits-for-lead-generation).

### Your Speakers Bring the Audience

Each speaker shares the event with their own list and followers, so [people who've never heard of you](/growth-strategy/coach-invisible-to-in-demand-no-ads) register because someone they trust told them to. You don't need a big audience to start. More than 5,000 people on our own EventRaptor list came from other speakers promoting our summits.

If you're worried that nobody knows your name yet, read [hosting your first virtual summit](/summit-planning/host-first-virtual-summit-small-list-no-credibility) before anyone knows your name. Respected speakers say yes to unknown hosts more often than you'd expect.

### The Relationships Outlast the Event

A summit gives you a reason to have a real conversation with people you admire. Those conversations turn into podcast invitations, joint workshops and referrals. Many people call summits a collaborative marketing strategy for exactly this reason. For [therapists and healing practitioners](/summit-planning/virtual-summits-for-therapists-explained), sharing a stage with respected peers is a professional, low-key way to build referral relationships.

### One Event Gives You Months of Content

Every session you record can become a podcast episode, a YouTube video, a blog post and a run of short social clips. One summit can feed your content calendar for a long time, and you won't be starting from a blank page every week. Just make sure your speaker agreement says how the recordings can be used.

### Revenue Comes From the VIP Pass and the Follow-Up

Most summits are free to attend, so the money comes from two places. The first is a paid VIP upgrade. At Own Your Stage, the first summit Jennie and I ran on EventRaptor, we sold 109 VIP tickets at $47. The second is what you offer attendees afterward, and that's usually the bigger opportunity.

I learned that the hard way. At one summit I was too exhausted to put a proper offer together. People loved it, and it added 476 new people to our list, but it made only about $1,800 during the event. Those people will keep buying for years, so I still count it a success. It's also a reminder that the offer can't be an afterthought.

## What Happened When I Hosted My First Two Summits

On July 6, 2020, I left my job as a Chief Technology Officer to start a coaching business. I had no list to speak of, no credibility in the new field and no connections. All I had was a six-week course priced at $497. I'm also an extreme introvert, and speaking for four minutes at a company meeting used to terrify me.

On August 31, 2020, eight weeks after I started the business, I launched the Solopreneur Accelerator Summit, with 27 speakers over four days. I built it in two weeks, which I don't recommend. For the first two days I barely introduced myself. Even so, my list grew from about 100 people to 750. I sold four places on the course and $3,500 in VIP tickets, about $5,500 in total.

My second summit, in January 2021, had 37 speakers, and more than half of them approached me. It added 863 people to my list, and the three-day event it promoted took more than $30,000 in orders for my group coaching. Seven months in, those two summits had added about 1,500 people to my list and generated more than $40,000 in sales.

These are my own results, and they don't predict what another host will get.

Lucy Bedewi, a personality-driven copywriter at My Write Hand Woman, hosted the Out-Earn Your Man summit in September 2021. We produced it for her on EventRaptor. Her email list grew from 25 people to 825. She booked 4 discovery calls right after she presented, and all 4 became clients. Her talk alone brought in $10K in sales. This is one person's result. It doesn't predict results for another host.

## How Much of the Work You Actually Carry

A summit has a lot of moving parts. We built EventRaptor so you don't have to carry most of them yourself. Here's how the main jobs get handled:

| Job | How it's handled on EventRaptor |
|---|---|
| Speaker applications and agreements | Speakers apply, sign agreements and upload their materials through the platform, so you're not juggling email threads |
| Schedule, speaker pages and attendee dashboard | Built from the speaker and session records, so nothing gets rebuilt by hand for each speaker |
| Knowing who's promoting | Each speaker gets a unique promoter link, and there's a leaderboard they can all see |
| Reminders and follow-up emails | Sent automatically on the event's timing |
| Your CRM | Registrants sync to GHL/CRMRaptor with tags, so follow-up can start straight away |
| Live sessions | Run on Zoom, with join links in the attendee dashboard |

If you'd rather not touch any of it, our [done-for-you team can run the whole summit](/lets-build-your-summit). Then your job is to teach, host and sell. Jennie and I have hosted 13 summits of our own and over 40 summits for clients. And we take no ticket fees on your VIP sales.

## Who Shouldn't Host a Summit Yet

A summit makes the most of trust you can convert. Give it a few more months if any of these sound like you:

- [ ] You haven't settled on a clear offer, and you're still deciding who you serve.
- [ ] You don't plan to follow up with registrants or take sales calls afterward.
- [ ] You expect the event to produce clients without you showing up as the host.
- [ ] You need the summit to fix next month's cash flow.
- [ ] You're a licensed practitioner and you haven't checked your board's advertising rules.

If you ticked one of these, start there. A smaller event, like the ones in [how to run a micro event that builds authority without becoming a full summit](/authority-building/micro-event-authority), can be a good first step while you shape the offer.

## A Note for Therapists and Healing Practitioners

A summit suits practitioners because it lets you teach instead of sell. Keep the content educational, and be clear with attendees that sessions aren't therapy. Don't use stories or testimonials from therapy clients, and don't promise mental health outcomes. Check your licensing board's advertising rules before you write your registration page.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Do I Need a Big Email List to Host a Virtual Summit?

No. Your speakers do most of the promotion, so your list grows through their audiences. My list was about 100 people before my first summit, and Lucy Bedewi started with 25. Those were individual results, but they show you don't need a big audience to begin.

### How Do Virtual Summits Make Money If They're Free?

Most revenue comes from a paid VIP upgrade and from the offer you make attendees after the event. In my experience, a good follow-up process might turn 10 to 15% of registrants and attendees into clients, though that's my experience and not a promise. Without a clear offer, even a well-loved summit can earn very little during the event itself.

### How Many Speakers Should a Summit Have?

There's no fixed number. My first summit had 27 speakers and my second had 37. One of our group coaching clients ran a summit with twelve speakers on EventRaptor without help from anyone else. Choose enough speakers to cover your topic well and bring in new audiences, and no more than you can host with care.

### Can a Therapist Host a Virtual Summit?

Yes, as long as the event is educational and you follow your licensing board's advertising rules. A summit gives the public a low-pressure way to hear how you think, and it puts you alongside respected peers. Just make clear that sessions aren't therapy, and don't feature therapy clients.

### How Much Time Does Running a Summit Take?

It depends on how much you do yourself. Own Your Stage took Jennie and me about 20 hours of admin on EventRaptor, and it brought in about 600 registrations. With the done-for-you service, our team handles the setup and production, and you focus on interviews, hosting and your offer.

## Your Next Step

Before you choose a date, write down the one offer you'd want attendees to hear about after the event. Then list the speakers whose audiences are already full of the people you help. If both lists come easily, you're probably ready.

Want help turning those notes into a plan? [Book your Client Attraction Planning Call](/planning-call). We'll look at your offer and audience together, then work out whether a full summit, a smaller event or better follow-up makes the most sense for you right now.