This past Saturday, between sicknesses, I managed to make my way to the Wolf Law building at CU in Boulder and stayed on my feet long enough to lead a workshop on copywriting hosted by DaVinci Institute. DaVinci calls their 3-hour workshops “bootcamps” but I know that bootcamps are usualy 2-3 day long events, but that’s beside the point.

The challenge (for speakers reading this post) was trying to condense a topic (copywriting for the web) that is usually taught over a full weekend…into 3 hours…with two 20-minute breaks!

Well, somehow we pulled it off and I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable workshops I’ve given in a long time.

Of particular interest was the fact that we sold out the room at 51. Tom Frey of DaVinci Institute kicked off the workshop by saying they’ve never had a turnout on a Saturday morning like that for one of their boot camps. How flattering that was! How did we do that you might ask?

With 3 emails to the DaVinci opt-in list and member list.

1. The first email was to introduce the topic and its importance. I also wanted to hopefully inspire people to turn their back on the news of the economy and take charge of their own destiny by enhancing their copywriting skills. The class was half-full a couple of days later.

2. The next email went out just Monday before the Saturday workshop. It’s main purpose was to establish the potential value of the workshop. So, we stared with a question, which was “I have a question for you Ruth, Would you pay $10,000 or more for someone to write sales copy for just a single page of your website?”

3. The last email we sent out just the Friday before. We knew there were only a few spots left, so we used that news to create urgency. “If you were are on the fence about attending tomorrow’s workshop, NOW is the time…”

So, I know the economy sucks and all and a whole slew of people I know in the speaking business are being impacted by the poor economy. But, this does prove that people are willing to spend money to attend workshops still. You just have to prove to them that your topic is important enough, carries a huge monetary value, and add a big slice of “urgency.” That’s how to fill a room these days.