How I Created $3,000 In Ticket Sales When I Was 16 Years Old
Updated: Apr 10, 2025
Written by: Maxwell Nee, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
One day, I was sitting in my room bored out of my mind during the Christmas School Holidays in Australia. I missed my friends - I just wanted to go to an event! But not just any event, a BIG event at a nice place with nice food and a lot of people having a good time. I imagined a big grand room where everyone was dressed up, and there was music in the air. I imagined an event like a shigh school semi-formal/formal. But there was a problem. I was too young to go to a formal, and my high school didn’t host semi-formals. So I created one. I set the date, hired a function center, and called it the ‘Unofficial Semi-Formal.’ There were ~100 students there who all paid $30 each for the evening. It SOLD OUT weeks before the event.
How did this happen? I put it down to 3 key actions:
1 Before I booked the venue (the biggest commitment for this event), I wanted to be sure people were actually interested in what I had in mind. So I surveyed how many students would be interested in attending an ‘Unofficial Semi-Formal.’
Most people mentioned they would be interested but definitely didn’t look ready to ‘buy’ when they first heard about the event.
I asked them what they would pay and what they wouldn’t pay to attend the event. We landed at an average of $30 per person.
2 As a result of the survey, I identified key students who wanted to be involved in the organizing and bring their circle of friends to the event.
I realized that if I partnered with key students who were strategically connected to the right circles of students, I could potentially have the whole grade receive a ‘warm’ invitation to the event from their close friends. So I did.
3 Together, we launched the event on Facebook with zero marketing budget. The only ‘marketing’ we needed was for each of the key students to be a ‘Co-Host’ for the event and for THEM to invite their circles of friends to the event.
We used familiarity to create a know, like, and trust factor for the event that wasn’t cheap for 16-year-old kids who didn’t all necessarily have jobs.
This is how we created $3,000 in sales in a few weeks.
In hindsight, the most pivotal thing we did to make this event a success was right at the beginning when we surveyed everyone and asked them what they would and wouldn’t pay for.
Asking our audience these questions gives them a chance to ‘warm-up’ to the idea of the event before they need to commit to anything. It also gave everyone a chance to start talking about the event and tell their friends, “Yeah, I’m going!” EVEN THOUGH they hadn’t bought a ticket yet - this was the secret sauce.
Let me breakdown the secret sauce for you…
If your group of friends are all telling you they are going to a fun event that will never happen again, EVEN THOUGH they haven’t bought tickets yet. This creates momentum, energy, and excitement.
It then becomes very compelling for you to find the money to purchase your ticket as soon as they become available, regardless of the price.
I hope you found this story useful and have learned strategies you can use in your business.
Please Like, Comment, and Share with me what you are taking away.
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Maxwell Nee, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Maxwell Nee is a Co-founder & Head of Growth at High Performing Coach - a 7-figure business in a saturated industry, which grew 300% during the COVID-19 Lockdown selling out online events. Maxwell started selling tickets for events when I was 16, generating $3,000 with zero marketing budget. To date, with his team, he sold out 8 live events in the 12 months during the crisis, helping thousands of coaches to build their businesses during huge uncertainty. They partnered with influencers such as Marisa Peer, Daniel Priestley, Harville Hendrix & Helen Hunt (17 times Oprah guest speaker). From quitting his corporate job, being hit with bankruptcy after his first investment fell flat, to sleeping on a friend's couch and selling his Bose Bluetooth Speakers to get by - Maxwell a unique and powerful understanding of what it really takes to succeed.
