The Magic of the 95:5 Rule

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Do you have a friend who seems to be able to eat whatever they want when you go out to dinner with them, and they maintain a great physical body? 

I do too…and his name is Garrett, my husband (sorry honey). 

After 15 years being together, I realized his trick is 95% of the time he eats healthy (smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch), but then 5% of the time, he eats whatever he wants, and he doesn’t hold back, as long as it’s something he really wants and high quality (donut right out of the fryer, mone-made pasta, really stinky french cheese or a perfect woodfired pizza).


And so, he never feels deprived, his health doesn’t suffer, and he enjoys life. That’s what I call the win-win-win, my favorite strategy in life, and especially when planning events for my clients!

So how do you apply the 95:5 rule to events? 

There are plenty of ways, but a few of my gems below to whet your palate (see how I carried the food theme all the way there?!)

Gem #1:

  • For those clients / brands who are afraid to take the moonshot, consider ONE bold idea that you want to try that only takes up 5% of the budget and 5% of the total resources that go into planning the event, and test it out while keeping the rest of the event plans similar to how they were previously.

  • Why this works: First of all, I love science and this is a great way to tease out if a new concept is moving the needle.

    If you throw too many new ideas at a tried-and-true method, how will you know which one worked?

    Or perhaps too many ideas together will overwhelm your attendees, but just one great idea has the power to capture their attention?

    And if it doesn’t work, you’ve only sunk 5% of the cost/budget into this.

    I once had an idea to spice up the team-building breakouts in the afternoon by building some nostalgia into the afternoon with “yurts” that served as “breakout rooms”.

    We sent the C-level attendees into the yurts with trail mix and the assignment to brainstorm in teams and they loved the intimate camp-like environment so much we had rave reviews about the breakouts, a session that was usually the lowest-rated AND some pretty incredible ideas pitched as a result (probably because people are more creative when you put them in an outside-the-box setting)!

Gem #2:

  • If you’re planning an event and wondering where to invest in a paid speaker, consider the two most important parts of an event: The “peak” moment, and the close and if you are paying a speaker, consider these two moments for placement.

  • Why this works: If you maintain your speaker budget for 95% of the content by leveraging your internal experts, friends of your Exec team (ask me about how to do this graciously and effectively), and customers, but splurge on a special keynote speaker for the very end, the audience is more likely to remember it as their last impression of you, leave inspired, and in the right emotional state to take action, accept a request for a meetings, etc. (so long as the speaker was good!).

    Not only will the audience be more likely to remember the paid speaker by using them to close the event, but it will also motivate people to stick around until the end of the event rather than leave early.

    I once attended Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Health Event and she left the closing keynote in the agenda as “surprise celebrity guests”. I was a new mom and thought I had initially considered leaving the event early, I couldn’t resist the pull of who she might have on stage!

    She didn’t disappoint: It was not one but 3 A-List celebrity friends of hers and it was a peak moment AND the closing! The entire keynote was packed and I ended up sticking around for the afterparty as well because it had me so energized!


    Gem #3:

  • Let’s close with budget. If you maintain a tight budget for 95% of your experience, you can use the last 5% on something truly magical.

    That one truly magical thing will probably make a much bigger impact than spending average budget on a lot of mediocre things.

    Example: For a big birthday celebration (let’s just say 40), you keep the food menu pretty standard, but splurge on having a very special vintage bottle of 1983 champagne served. It is an expensive, memorable treat that people wouldn’t usually expect but feels celebratory, and unique plus reminds people of why they are celebrating.

  • Why this works: It’s ok to splurge occasionally as long as you run a tight ship most of the time. This is true for so many things in life - it just takes restraint, focus, and prioritization.

    I like to build some “surprise/delight” budget into my budgets with 5% of the budget held for this so when we get that big idea, we can actually make it happen. By actively cutting back on other costs so you can add surprise and delight, your guests win, and you are still in control. Win-win for the win!