Skip to main content

Why Most Educational Seminars Don't Work: What to do Instead

 

Why Most “Educational” Seminars Don’t Work and What to Do About It?

Let’s be honest.

When someone tells you, “We’re running a seminar by a famous doctor on how to have good eyesight,” and then you see it’s sponsored by the doctor’s own clinic, what do you feel?

You feel it’s an advertisement.

And what do people do when they sense a sales pitch?

They switch off.

That’s why this approach doesn’t work anymore.

So how can this doctor still run a seminar, get business, and not sound like an ad?

The answer is simple — change the structure.

Let the doctor not be the main speaker.

Instead, invite another speaker who talks about a topic that connects with people’s life goals, not just their eyesight.

For example, someone could speak about how to improve your income without working harder.

During that talk, the speaker naturally mentions the doctor’s insights about how better vision improves productivity and confidence.

Now the doctor’s clinic appears as the sponsor, not the seller.

The doctor comes on for ten minutes, gives a short expert segment, and that’s enough.

People accept it, trust it, and even appreciate it.

This is what I call a strategic alliance.

I’ve personally formed alliances with over 13 companies.

Every week or so, I run talks — both online and onsite — where one speaker supports another’s business in a natural, win-win way.

If you want to grow your business and reach more people, don’t keep selling directly.

Find a speaker who can talk about something different from what you sell, yet still lead people to you.

That’s smart marketing.  

That’s strategic love in business. It is Talk Profit, not Profit Talk. 

I’m Andy Ng, author of Win Without Fighting with Sun Tzu Art of War, and Love Intelligence (LQ): how to Get Rich with Love.  Contact me at andythecoach@gmail.com to get your talk or books for free.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What an Executive Coach and Business Coach Does

The Secret Under the Mattress: Why would a 79-year Man Bet So Big on 4D?

It was 2007 when we discovered his secret. While moving my father’s mattress, we found them: heaps and heaps of Singapore Pools 4D tickets. They were stacked in layers, a paper trail of lost hopes. What shocked us most wasn’t just the volume, but the stakes. He wasn’t betting a few dollars for fun. He was punting hundreds of dollars per draw—nearly ten times a month. At the time, my siblings and I were furious. Our father was a 79-year-old retiree. We wondered, with a mix of anger and confusion, why a man at his stage of life would need to win such "big money." What was he going to do with the money? We saw it as a reckless habit, a sign of poor judgment in his final years.  Some of us would say, "If I were to give him money to buy 4D, why don't I use the money and buy 4D myself?  At least I have better discipline".  It has taken me two decades, and the experience of raising my own three grown-up children, to finally see the truth that was hidden under that matt...

Head Bleeding when the Chair Falls

The Weight of Silence: What Were We Really Arguing About? My earliest memories are punctuated by the sound of shouting. In 1970, when I was barely 6 years old, I stood as a small witness to the fierce quarrels between my father and my late eldest brother Kah Yang (he passed away in 1971 at the age of 17). As I grew up, these contradictions became the soundtrack of our lives, usually centered around our family's shoe shop and clothing stalls in Chinatown. In the court of family opinion, the verdict was almost always the same: my father was "wrong." He was judged as a man who didn't fulfill his role, who wasn't "burdening" enough for the family’s success. But as I look back from the vantage point of 2026, I have to ask: Was that actually true? Let me finally put to rest what my father did right: the truths that were buried under decades of criticism: Unseen Labor: He worked grueling, long hours. I remember him hauling boxes of goods and equipment to set u...