This is the Death to Marketing episode. Zach, Eric and Gab take stock of what it has actually cost to build a conference from nothing: the $200 sponsorship offer that set the whole thing in motion, the $90,000 in sponsors they have since closed, the 48 people who have bought tickets, and the friend who texted to say he wasn't coming.
What it does to you when the success of your business becomes the measure of you as a person, why selling tickets turned out to be harder than selling sponsors, and the lesson none of them expected to learn about asking for help.
Death to Marketing is October 11 in Holland, Michigan. *Recorded August 10, 2026.
Show Notes
- (00:00) Why the branding scared people off — on purpose
- (00:39) "It's not an event for everybody"
- (01:46) Neither of them had ever run an event
- (02:58) The $200 offer that started all of this
- (03:23) From a $200 reimbursement to $90,000 in sponsors
- (04:30) The math that made no sense
- (05:04) The two events that set the bar
- (06:46) Are conferences a crutch for the PMM community?
- (10:28) Enough about PMA
- (11:02) The real number, said out loud
- (11:05) "48 people we have to pay to have a good time"
- (12:24) Someone bought a ticket from Scotland
- (12:55) What turned out to be easier than expected
- (13:11) The moment it stopped being a bit and became a real event
- (14:12) "This is the rollercoaster we're going to be taking"
- (15:22) Hiring a partner who pushes back on you
- (16:37) What Eric took on personally
- (20:05) Why planning it made it easier to say no to sponsors
- (20:36) Running an event like a product launch
- (22:05) How this compares to every sales kickoff they've sat through
- (23:05) The one thing no other event is doing
- (25:21) The hard stuff starts here
- (25:49) When your business becomes your identity
- (26:54) The text from a friend who wasn't coming
- (27:37) "An event run by these three losers"
- (29:00) "I want this to be the only event we ever throw"
- (29:59) Turtle pace: the grind of selling tickets
- (30:55) The discipline of narrowing the audience mid-sale
- (34:38) The delegation problem
- (36:09) "One of the heaviest things you'll ever do"
- (37:59) Keep, stop, do over
- (38:47) Keep: the partner
- (41:42) Do over: the waitlist
- (43:36) Do over: invite-only?
- (43:58) The coin flip nobody can call
- (45:23) If they do it again, it might be a stage play
- (48:31) The ask, without the false urgency
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