Zoom Anecdote-Tony Robbins

Long-time lurker here.

Yesterday, I joined a Tony Robbins free live seminar, which he is doing on Facebook Live for the next seven days. In the process of joining the free broadcast, they offer you a VIP package for $149, which I passed on. One of the perks of the VIP package is that instead of watching the presentation on a Facebook Live stream, you get to log into a Zoom call to have a two-way communications platform with Tony, he also offers an exclusive Q&A session after the presentation via Zoom. During the presentation, you see him talking to a huge screen of Zoom faces as he gives the presentation. He mentioned that there were around 700 VIP users following the stream in addition to the tens of thousands on Facebook Live. My point is, he found a way to MONETIZE the Zoom platform with his audience. I wonder if we see this trend continue with the wide adoption of Zoom among business and consumers. This could be a way that we see the large portion of free Zoom users still giving Zoom a competitive advantage and a lever for attracting paid users because it gives them a built-in audience should they decide to provide an exclusive broadcast for a fee.

Would be interested to hear the board’s thoughts on this.

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I joined a paid webinar this week that employed the exact same tactic. $50 where the Zoom streams through FB and $150 for the VIP option where it’s direct access to Zoom call. The presenter interacted with the Zoom callers in priority and the FB commenters if there was time.

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I’m convinced that numerous public speakers are realizing that Zoom provides an unparalleled opportunity for them. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am self-employed and spend several months of the year delivering workshops. When the stay-at-home orders began in March I was on a speaking tour in Australia and had to leave suddenly to ensure that I could get back home to Canada. To be honest, I was very concerned that Covid would destroy my business as more than 90% of my revenue comes from delivering workshops in person. I quickly set up a video studio and began to advertise the availability of virtual workshops and my business rather than cratering, took off. This expansion is due to three things. First, Zoom workshops are not physically limited to a geographical area which provides a much larger potential audience. Second, Zoom workshops involve no travel costs on the part of attendees – significantly reducing their costs. Third, the costs associated with the venue, catering and travel are all eliminated. The margins for my business have increased dramatically, while at the same time the number of attendees has increased substantially.

I am providing the above example as I am confident that what my business is experiencing is occurring for thousands of other public speakers who have shifted to delivering training sessions virtually. While there are certainly benefits associated with in-person sessions, I am confident that virtual training will now be principal way in which many public speakers deliver training sessions. This is a form of renewable income that Zoom simply wasn’t tapping into previously.

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