SPEAKER INFORMATION & RESOURCES

A 4-day virtual event.

September 30th - October 3rd

Hi! 👋🏻 I’m Janelle Hardy, the host and producer of this Dirty Messy Alive: Embodied Memoir-Writing Workshop Series.

I’m excited to collaborate with you to create a kind, valuable and unique event for folks who love writing and are seeking support on their memoir-writing and healing journeys.

Dirty, Messy, Alive is a 4-day virtual event that will help aspiring and current participants explore how to write their memoir with a variety of styles, techniques and topics.

It’s designed to show them what's possible in the exploration of their life stories through writing and different styles of writing and revising memoir.

On this page, you’ll find resources to make your life as a speaker easy and answer questions you may have.

If you run into a question I didn’t answer, reach out to me at jaha @ janellehardy.com. Or for quicker access to me message me on Instagram @janellemackinnonhardy or WhatsApp (+12504664316) anytime.

I know online summits and festivals aren’t always seamless or beneficial, but that’s not how I operate. Your experience matters deeply to me.

I can't host this event without you and I’m dedicated to ensuring every one of you enjoys the process and benefits from participating 😀.

I’m no stranger to gathering people and hosting conversations and workshops.

This is my fifth online summit. I launched the Healing Through Writing Festival in 2023 with 2,700+ registrants, and have run summits twice a year ever since. By my fourth round, I began investing in advertising—and that expanded our reach dramatically: over 6,000 registrants and an estimated 100,000+ eyes on the registration page and marketing materials. (That’s your name and work getting a whole lot of visibility!)

I’ve also worked and volunteered for in-person storytelling, music and film festivals, hosted artist residencies and retreats, and co-hosted ProWritingAid’s 2023 Creative Nonfiction online conference.

In addition, I’ve hosted over 100 podcast conversations—deep, creative interviews with writers, healers and artists.

“Our conversation was a uniquely grounding gift to me, and it’s come back to me with a lot of tenderness in the months since we spoke.

Thank you for your beautiful questions and for holding space for everything that tumbled out of our exchange.

You’re offering something really singular and life-giving.”

~ Rebekah Taussig ~ Memoirist, Sitting Pretty + Guest on the Memoir Body, Healing Story Podcast

Prefer to watch or listen to the overview, rather than read?

TBA - Here's a video overview of the information found on this page.

As a speaker at the Dirty, Messy, Alive: embodied memoir-writing workshop series, you'll receive:

Extra Marketing Oomph & Visibility for Your Business

  • I love creating events in which I get to showcase, brag about and share your amazing work in the world!

  • While I don’t believe in doing things ‘for the exposure’ I do believe in loving, wholehearted marketing, the power of networks, relationships and enthusiasm and I know this will benefit your business as much as mine

  • For marketing your good work in the world, I have found that a well-produced summit is one of the best list-building and visibility engine out there.

  • My summits (boosted by my advertising efforts) regularly bring in 6,000+ registrants. This means that, as a conservative estimate, during the launch timeframe, over 100,000 (all-combined) people are seeing the marketing material and registration page, including your name and work!

Income

  • 50% affiliate commission on the festival’s All Access Pass (60% when you add a bonus to the Pass!)

  • $300 USD affiliate commission on my transformational memoir-writing course, The Art of Personal Mythmaking, which I’ll be launching right after the festival

Newsletter List Growth

  • Gain email subscribers through sharing a freebie during your presentation. I’ll also put together a guide containing all speaker freebies, which I’ll promote outside of presentations.

  • Gain email subscribers by contributing a bonus to the Dirty, Messy, Alive All Access Pass.

Business List-Building Support

  • Access to The Ultimate Summit Speaker Handbook: I pay for and provide each presenter with my summit mentor’s guidance for summit speakers, because I want you to get as much out of this experience as possible.

  • This includes training modules, workbooks and a quickstart guide so you can boost the likelihood that summit attendees will click through to your website and offerings! This includes guidance on how to show up for my summit,. Things like:

    • Crafting a High-Impact Presentation

    • Maximizing Lead Generation

    • Promoting to Drive Results

    • Getting Visible & Cultivating Relationships

    • Measuring & Maximizing ROI (return on investment)

    The handbook also includes guidance for future summit opportunities, including:

    • Strategically Selecting Summit Opportunities

    • Creating a Streamlined Speaking System

    • Generating Revenue through Unpaid Speaking Gigs (such as summits, podcasts, conferences, gatherings, etcetera)

Access to a semi-regular alumni connection call for presenters at my events

  • Because, if you’ve been a creative entrepreneur for any length of time, you know that the most important thing for thriving is peer relationships. And if I’ve invited you to be a speaker, you’re in stellar company. Let’s continue to connect and lift each other’s work up!

Extra Goodies

  • Free access to the All Access Pass (because we all have so much goodness to offer, we may as well participate as well!)

  • A few fun surprises along the way 🤫

How it’ll all work

Let’s get into details. Here’s how the Dirty, Messy, Alive: embodied memoir-writing workshop series will work:

The event will run from September 30th - October 3rd. Unless we discuss otherwise, presentations will be pre-recorded, 20-30 minutes in length, and can include promotion of your related freebie.

I know you're busy, so there won't be a scheduled live component for this event unless it works for you. However, I love doing things live, it’s amazing, so let me know if you’d prefer that.

  • We'll have an attendee online community. This is where participants go to share, ask questions and let you know how much they loved your talk! If possible, check in a time or two during the event timeframe. It’s a great chance to engage with the attendees, answer simple questions, and point them to additional resources you have, and make an impression.

  • Leading up to the summit, we’ll have about two weeks of promotion.

  • I’ll provide swipe copy and graphics to make it all easy. Each speaker is asked to promote at least once via email and once on social media to ensure everyone benefits, but anything above and beyond that is totally up to you, your goals with affiliate commissions, and how much you'd like to support this beautiful event.

Let’s be a rising tide, lifting each other up!

During the promotion phase (starting September 15th) and as the festival is running (September 30-October 03), we’ll promote the festival’s All Access Pass. This includes the replays, notes and action steps for each presentation, extra live sessions, and any additional bonuses we’ll all throw in.

This will provide wonderful value and additional healing and writing support to our attendees, while making the work of promoting and creating a presentation worthwhile by helping you to bring in affiliate commissions and additional newsletter subscribers. Win win :-)

After the festival, I’ll offer my transformational memoir-writing course, The Art of Personal Mythmaking, to attendees who have shown interest. You’ll earn a $300 USD commission on any sales from attendees you’ve referred to the Festival that sign up. (I’m also happy to donate commissions to a charity/cause of your choice, if you’d prefer that).

What I’ll ask of you

This all sounds great, but what do I need from you? Let’s chat about it!

My goal is to make everything easy so we can all enjoy the event while providing wonderful value and support to the Healing Through Writing Festival participants, and also growing our businesses.

1. BASIC INFORMATION

First, I’ll gather some basic information from you so I can finalize the Registration page and show you off on our Speakers page.

Once you let me know you’re in, I’ll send a form where you can upload this information easily.

2. PRESENTATION

Next is your presentation! This is a 20 to 30-minute pre-recorded (or up to 1 hour live) presentation where attendees can learn something valuable, feel encouraged, and have fun in the process.

Please structure your content in a way that allows attendees to walk away having really learned something, rather than a webinar format where they feel like they're missing something important.

You have your choice of the following presentation formats, based on what works best for you and your topic:

  • Slides

  • You talking to the camera

  • A conversation with myself (Janelle)

  • A mixture of the three

You’re free to use the recording of your presentation however you’d like once the festival has concluded.

Your presentation should include great, actionable content. Here’s the suggested format:

  • A good hook to make attendees want to continue watching

  • A quick introduction to you

  • Teaching section

  • 1-3 specific action steps attendees can take

  • Up to a 2-minute freebie pitch (see my freebie suggestions in the opt-in and sales guide)

Pre-recorded presentations are due by September 9th.

3. DIRTY, MESSY, ALIVE: MEMOIR-WRITING WORKSHOP SERIES ALL ACCESS PASS CONTRIBUTION

The All Access Pass will be a value-packed addition to the presentations. To make it even more valuable and to give you an additional way to invite people to sign up for your work (ie: collect attendee email addresses), I encourage you to provide a resource to add.

This includes things like:

  • Trainings and workshops

  • Workbooks

  • Courses (big or small)

  • 1-month memberships

  • eBooks

(Note: I do not recommend any type of 1:1 session contribution)

While this isn’t required, it’s highly encouraged that you participate. It’s a great way to connect with participants (as participants will respond to people they interact with) and it makes it easier to promote since your audience will want what you’ve included.

I’d love information about your bonus as soon as you’re able to provide it, but it is not due until September 9th. You'll receive a questionnaire to fill out to make it easy.

Please note that attendees will be able to begin claiming resources as soon as promotion opens on September 15th.

4. PROMOTION

The power of a virtual event comes from a group of experts coming together for a single cause. The joint promotion that happens because of that is a huge benefit to everyone involved. I can’t get any of our speakers results above what I'd do on our own if no one shares. I also amplify these effects by paying for advertising!

To ensure this event is beneficial to all, speakers are asked to send at least one email about the event and post at least once on social media during the promotion period, starting on September 15th.

You’ll want to share using your affiliate link so you’re credited the 50% commission that will come from any sale of the festival upgrades (the All Access Passes) and the additional commissions that come from purchase of my transformational memoir-writing course, The Art of Personal Mythmaking, after the festival.

You’ll find swipe copy and graphics in the Resource Vault below to make it easy.

  • IMPORTANT: Do NOT edit the affiliate link ThriveCart gives you or update to the prettier version of the link you get by pasting it into your browser and hitting enter. Anything other than the link given will not track your referrals. However, you can create a pretty link that leads to the original link given by ThriveCart with something like the Pretty Links plugin or bit.ly.

I’m happy to collaborate to help you promote. For example, I can take over your Instagram stories, come on your podcast, write a guest newsletter, or do a live in your online group (all with your affiliate link) to help you get some extra conversions!

It’s my pleasure to uplift all of us together :-)

5. LOW-KEY PARTICIPATION

And last comes participation during the week of the event. Since we’ll already have done the work of creating the presentations and extra resources, we’ll be able to sit back and relax!

All I ask is that you pop in to check on the thread in the online group related to your presentation during the time that it’s live, if you're available. Easy!

Affiliate Details

While online events are great for overall visibility and making new connections, a little extra income never hurts either, right?

That’s why I’ve set up an affiliate program where you’ll receive a commission from all sales you refer to the event.

The commission structure is as follows:

  • 50% for all speakers

  • 60% for all speakers who include a bonus for the All Access Pass

The pricing structure will be:

All-Access Pass (in USD)

  • $85 for three hours after initial opt-in

  • $145 from September 15th - 30th

  • $195 from October 1st - 3rd

To make it as easy as possible for you to generate extra income, the Resource Vault includes things like email swipe copy, social media copy, and social share graphics. However, you’re more than welcome to write your own copy and even run your own ads. On average, the kind of online event/summit process I’m following has offers that convert at between 10-20% (well above the industry average of 3%).

And don’t forget to use your Summit Speaker Handbook!!

I’m also willing to take over your Instagram stories, do a podcast interview, write a guest newsletter, or do a live in your online group (all with your affiliate link) to help you get some extra signups!

Just remember to use your affiliate link, which you can create or look up here. (Again, do not use anything other than the link ThriveCart gives you.)

Payouts for sales referred will be made on October 30th.

As with all affiliate promotions, be sure to disclose that you’re an affiliate when sharing with your audience. This can be as simple as writing “I receive a commission on any All Access Pass sales (but the festival is free!) and I only promote the work I believe in.”

Resource Vault

Now for those resources I promised to make your life as easy as possible.

In this folder you’ll find the following resources:

Click here for a quick video walking you through these resources.

Action Steps

Thanks for sticking with this. It’s a lot to cover!

For the sake of clarity, here are your current action steps:

  1. Let me know you’re in.

  2. Provide your basic information once the link comes through.

  3. Sign up for your affiliate account.

  4. Let me know if you have any questions up to this point.

Remember to use your Speaker Checklist and get things added to your calendar. Because if you’re like me, if it’s not in your calendar (Asana for me) it doesn’t exist 🤷🏻😬

Important Dates

Here’s a roundup of our key dates:

  • Basic information: ASAP!

  • Presentation: September 9th

  • All Access Pass contribution information: September 9th

  • Promotion period: September 15th - 30th

  • Dirty, Messy, Alive: workshop series dates: September 30th - October 3rd

  • Affiliate payouts: by October 30th

    Something I missed?

Email me at jaha @ janellehardy.com or IG @janellemackinnonhardy or text/imessage/WhatsApp +12504664316