I Hosted 3 Pop-Ups. Here's What I'd Never Do Again | The Sell-Out Bet, Ep. 3

I've hosted three pop-ups for Kids Like Us, the Gen Z brand I'm building in public. This is exactly how I did the last one in Uptown Minneapolis: the 6 things every pop-up needs, the 5 mistakes I made, and the distribution checklist that got our posts 5x more shares. Connect with me on LinkedIn for the weekly updates:   / sydney-meyer11   Kids Like Us: https://thekidslikeus.com The Sell-Out Bet, Ep. 1 (the bet):    • The 5 Decisions Behind Every Cult-Like Bra...   The Sell-Out Bet, Ep. 2:    • The 2 Types of Personal Brands (Which One ...   THE 6 THINGS EVERY POP-UP NEEDS 1. A venue. We found ours on Peerspace and did a cross promo with the space. 2. A free value add. For an 18 to 34 audience, free food gets people out of the house. We cold-emailed restaurants with a media and audience pitch, and that is how Papa Chuy's bakery and MN Ice Cream came in. 3. A collaborator with skin in the game. Ours were an artist and a DJ. 4. An event poster. Collaborator faces, the biggest call to action ("free food"), and every detail. 5. A run of show. Write the timeline and the vibe down before anyone walks in. 6. Media. Assign one person to iPhone photos and one to video. THE 5 MISTAKES I MADE 1. Booked the venue only 10 days out. 2. Didn't invite enough people one-to-one. An RSVP is a maybe. A direct ask is a yes. 3. Didn't ask the collaborators to invite their people. 4. No brand gifts. Order stickers and merch early. 5. Setup always takes longer than you think. THE DISTRIBUTION CHECKLIST (from the video) Before the event Post a teaser two weeks out, even if the details are TBD. Give every collaborator their own post. Their audience is the point. Ask collaborators directly to invite people and share to their stories. Tell people what they get and why, and post the story behind it before the day, not on it. During the event Assign media roles: iPhone photos, video, main camera. Film for your collaborators. We filmed three angles of the DJ's set and he posted it. Put people in the content: a photo backdrop, people wearing the merch, a draw-your-own-face wall. Take the group picture. After the event Post the recap within 24 hours and tag the venue and every collaborator. Send everyone their photos and tag them. That post got 27 shares. Deliver collaborator content fast, so they post while the event is fresh. Ask for the repost. Log your numbers at day 7. What happened: about 30 people came to the Uptown Minneapolis pop-up on October 14. The plain event details post was the most shared post of the campaign (51 shares), and shares across the campaign went up almost 5x. CHAPTERS 0:00 Three pop-ups, one bet 1:36 6 things every pop-up needs 1:42 1. Book the venue 2:49 Give people something to do 4:01 2. A free value add 4:28 How we got the food for free 5:02 3. A collaborator 5:53 4. An event poster 7:19 5. A run of show 8:24 6. Get the media 9:20 The numbers: June vs October 11:46 5 mistakes I made 13:30 Invite more people than you think 16:45 $500 of merch, given away 19:33 The hoodie bet: an update 19:51 I posted the merch story too late 21:20 Know why you're hosting 22:55 What's next SSS Lighthouse Creative is a video agency. Kids Like Us is a community and podcast for ambitious 18 to 26 year olds, and this series documents building it into a Gen Z brand, including the hoodie drop we bet will sell out.