What the Event Boom Reveals About Premium Clients [ep. #04]

The Event Boom Isn't What You Think

You don't need me to tell you that there's been a boom in events over the last year. Everyone is hosting retreats, personal experiences, VIP days, multi-day immersions. I'm one of those people. I run events myself. I love them. They are incredibly powerful when done right. But here's what I'm seeing. These events are not the only way to create belonging and intimacy with premium clients.

If you're building your high ticket business model around getting people in the room, you're missing out on other opportunities. The event boom is a marker of something much bigger. A shift in the value model of high ticket that's changing from what people own to what people access and belong to. Events are one way to create that sense of belonging, but they're not the only way.

The Shift from Ownership to Access

In this episode, we're talking about what's actually shifting with this event boom. I'm going deeper into luxury brand positioning, what luxury brands already understand that most businesses don't, and how you can create belonging at scale alongside in-person events. What I've seen in the luxury market is trickling down into premium business models.

For the last couple of years, luxury has moved from ownership. What you own, what you wear, what car you have, what house you have. It's shifted to what you can access and what you belong to. It's about who you know, what you're able to access, whether you belong to the right networks.

I saw this so starkly when I visited Soho Farmhouse recently with a friend. The children's pool had just opened. They have a two-year wait list for unborn children's membership. Just think about that. Parents are putting their unborn children on a wait list for a private member's club.

That's not just about the facilities or the pool being incredibly nice. It's about belonging to a network that cannot be bought. Access comes through invitation or legacy.

We're seeing this across luxury right now. There are more fractional ownership models. There are private clubs with multi-year wait lists. More curated networks where the value is in who else is there. And this shift is happening for one simple reason. It's become much easier to fake status online.

Why Authenticity Became the New Currency

You can mock up with AI standing in front of a private jet, or even on a private jet. You can have very realistic representations of wealth and a lifestyle you don't actually have in reality.

When anyone can imitate wealth or luxury online, what status really moves to is what cannot be replicated. Genuine connection, genuine access, the energy of being in a room, the energy of being in a space with other people who represent your values. The luxury market figured this out. Belonging has become the new status.

What This Means for Your High Ticket Business

What I'm seeing now is that high ticket businesses and premium businesses are following this pattern. The question isn't whether events are booming. It's what that shift represents.

If belonging is the new status, what does that mean for your business?

What most people are doing is seeing the shift towards belonging and community and thinking: I need to host events. So they're building retreats, in-person experiences, more VIP days. And they're selling like hotcakes.

I run events. I run retreats. I run VIP days. I think they're incredibly powerful. But if your business model is dependent on people experiencing you in person, getting everyone in the room, then we're missing something important here.

The Real Shift in How Premium Clients Buy

We're missing what's actually shifted in how people buy. The shift isn't about more people wanting in-person versus online. It's about how they want to have access in a curated way, and they want to feel a sense of belonging.

The real question isn't: how do I create more events? It's: how do I create that intimate feeling of experience without everyone needing to be in the room with me?

Because when you start to ask that, that's when this sense of belonging and access really enables you to scale. When you're scaling a business at the premium level, you need to rethink what premium clients actually want.

Four Ways to Create Belonging at Scale

1. Share Behind-the-Scenes Access

First is sharing behind-the-scenes content that creates inside access. Don't just keep the best stuff for your clients. Share inspiration from conversations. Give people a window into how you think, how you're learning from what you're seeing.

That creates a sense of belonging because they feel like they're inside your world. They're not just consuming your content.

This is so easy to do. It's not about learning how to create better reels. It's simply about showing people what happens inside your programs. Giving them a taster of part of a masterclass that's behind a paywall. Let them get access to one part for free. It's thinking about the sense of belonging differently.

2. Design Client Experiences with Choice and Ownership

The second is designing client experiences that create choice and ownership. I'll use my business as an example.

With my close proximity spaces, my mastermind and my one-to-one, I have a gifting suite for my clients. I've curated different products from brands I love. But then I let them choose.

I'm not sending out a gift that marks the investment and commitment and the level they're now claiming. I'm letting them choose it. I've created that sense of ownership from the start.

They're not just receiving. They're curating their own experience. They're saying that they're responsible for coming into this space. It's about them having agency, even within really fun stuff. That's how you create a premium experience that feels intentional.

3. Curate Access to Networks and Knowledge

The third is curating access to networks and knowledge that they can't get elsewhere. This is what I call tastemaker positioning. You're not just teaching what you know. You're giving access to what you know that's coming next. Or it could be who you know.

This could look like bringing in cross-industry insights, introducing them to people outside the online business space.

Premium clients don't just want your expertise. They want access to what you're exposed to that they're not.

One of the ways I did this with my own event was leveraging the positioning from my in-person event. The bonus I gave to those who bought their tickets early was access to a private masterclass. I shared insights I brought back from an event I attended in Dubai.

I was bringing insight and knowledge from an event I'd spent thousands of pounds to attend. To this private masterclass. And that made that bonus highly desirable.

That's one example of how my in-person event replicated the experience of belonging, of accessing something different, but in a much more scalable way. When you're scaling your business, this is how you extend the impact of your in-person work.

4. Create Private Channels and Curated Content

The fourth is creating private channels and curated content. Many of you probably have broadcast channels, private podcasts, or private Telegram groups. This is an invitation to deepen those or continue to innovate in those spaces.

It could be a members-only newsletter or a curated network where the value is in who else is there, not just what you're teaching.

The key to this is that it cannot be purchased. It has to be invitation-only or earned through some specific action or behaviour. Because belonging isn't about buying access.

That's when it becomes about exclusion, and that kills the feeling. Belonging is about being part of something because it signals what you belong to. It signals that you should be there. Something that is values-led, mirrors back behaviour, and is very clear about who it's for.

The Power of Tastemaker Positioning

Let me go deeper into tastemaker positioning, because this is where a lot of people miss the opportunity.

Premium clients in 2026 aren't just looking for someone who can teach them what to do. They're looking for someone who exposes them to what's next.

We're living in a super fast-paced culture where if we don't get our Amazon delivery same day or next day, we're confused. We expect things to be quick. Our expectations of how other brands work with us are what we're bringing into high ticket business.

But that doesn't mean we're going to create scarcity and cheapen the client experience. It's about what can we take from what works really well for other brands and bring parts of that into our high ticket business in a way that resonates with the standards we hold.

Premium clients want to know: what are you reading? Who are you talking to? What trends are you spotting before they become obvious?

This is the kind of information and insight that creates belonging without needing everyone in a room. If you could take a download, a riff on what trends you're spotting before they become obvious into your private Telegram group, rather than just dropping in and doing a training on a topic that came up five minutes before, that's going to have so much more value. It makes people feel a real sense of belonging.

This is stuff you're doing naturally. You're curious. You're reading a lot. You're having conversations. You're learning from your mentors, peers in your industry, from events and exhibitions you're attending. But you're not bringing it forward.

When I share what I'm seeing in luxury markets before it hits the online business space, I'm not just predicting it. This is super important. It's not about taking what you see is going to happen and just regurgitating it.

I'm translating it. And that is what builds my authority and my positioning. At the same time, people feel like they really belong in my world. They belong, but they also think: I can continue to expand with her.

Tastemaker positioning is one of the most powerful ways to create belonging at scale because you're not just delivering value. You're expanding their world by simply bringing forward what you're already doing, but they don't have access to it.

What's Killing the Shift Towards Belonging

Let's look at it from the flip side. What is it that's killing this shift towards belonging and access?

Trying to scale belonging through events alone.

Now, as I said, I absolutely love events. But I think they need infrastructure to support them. What can happen is you host a retreat. It's incredible. People feel connected. They feel like they belong. They make lifelong friendships. And then they go home.

And the belonging fades because it was tied to that moment, to that environment. So you think: well, I need to host more events. Or you create a membership. But that's not going to enable that transformation from the event to continue.

What we're ultimately trying to do isn't create more events and replicate them. It's bring the magic that people experience at events into more scalable ways. And that's about intentional design.

It's about creating access, choice, insider knowledge, curated networks that make people feel like they're part of something, whether you're in the room or not.

If you're building your high ticket premium business model entirely around in-person experiences, you're limiting your ability to scale your business. But you're also missing the actual shift that's happening right now.

How to Audit Your Current Model

Let's look at how to audit whether you're creating access and belonging, or just delivering content and how people feel connected to you.

Ask yourself three questions:

First: Do your clients have access to things they cannot get elsewhere? Not just your expertise, but insights, networks. Maybe it's cross-industry knowledge. If all you're giving them is content, then you're not creating that sense of belonging.

Second: Do your clients have choice and agency within their experience with you? Or are they just consuming what you deliver? Creating that sense of belonging requires ownership. They need to feel like they're shaping the experience, not just receiving it.

Third: Could someone experience the depth of what you offer without being in the room with you? Could they experience the layers of what you offer without being in the room with you?

If the answer is no. If those layers, if the depth is tied to experiencing you in person, then you're capping the impact and revenue you can have.

That sense of belonging should exist whether you're physically present or not. But you do have to design for that.

The Bottom Line

What I want you to take away from this episode is that the value model in high ticket is shifting. It's shifting from what I own. How many courses I've bought and how much I've invested. To what I have access to and what I belong to.

Luxury has already made the shift. What we're seeing is that belonging is becoming the new status. Events can absolutely create that sense of belonging. But they're not the only way to do it.

The real question is: how do you create that sense of intimacy, that feeling of experiencing you without needing everyone to be in the room with you?

That could be through created access. It could be through tastemaker positioning. It could be through designing experiences where your premium clients have choice or get insider knowledge. You can create a sense of belonging that scales. But you have to intentionally design it. It's not simply about adding more events.