The six weeks before, hour by hour

Ask a founder how they promoted their last event and you'll usually hear about one announcement post. Six weeks of quiet, one burst, then a scramble in the final days when the numbers don't look right.

The room fills on rhythm rather than on volume. Here is a schedule that works for a small, curated event.

Six weeks out: tell ten people privately

Before anything is public, message ten people individually and ask them to come. Not a broadcast, ten separate messages naming why you want them there.

This does two things. It gives you a floor, so the public announcement isn't going out to an empty room. And it tells you fast whether the idea holds: if six of your ten best-fit guests say no, the problem is the event, and you have six weeks to change it rather than one.

Four weeks out: announce it once, properly

One post, one email. Say who it's for, what happens, when, and how to get a seat. Do not say "excited to announce", lead with the thing itself.

Expect this to underperform. A single announcement converts the people who were already going to come. The rest hear about it another way.

Three weeks to one week out: say something adjacent each week

Not "tickets still available." Publish something that stands on its own and mentions the event at the end: the argument you'll be having at the table, a question you want answered, a thing you got wrong last time. Anyone who finds the piece useful has a reason to come, and anyone who doesn't hasn't been nagged.

Two or three of these is enough. More and you become an event people are tired of before they arrive.

The last five days: the personal pass

This converts better than anything else you will do, and most founders never try it. Go back through everyone who engaged with any of the above and message them individually. "Saw you liked the post about X, there are two seats left, would you like one?"

A dozen of these will outperform every broadcast you sent. It is also the least scalable thing here, and that is why it works.

The day before: make it easy to show up

Send the practical note. Address, nearest station, what time to actually arrive, what to expect, whether there's food. Add one line on who else is coming.

Attendance is mostly an admin problem by this point. Anyone who has to look up the address is a coin flip.

What this adds up to

One private round, one announcement, two or three useful pieces, a personal pass, and a logistics note. Six touches over six weeks, only one of which is a plain "come to my event."

The failure mode is not too little promotion. It is six weeks of nothing and then four increasingly anxious posts in the final week, which tells everyone reading that the event isn't filling.