Should you join a Mastermind?

I know this is a little bit of a spicy take on things in a world right now where Masterminds seem to be popping up everywhere.

I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve known about them for a while, actually, since the Amanda Bucci days. And for any of you who used to tune into Amanda Bucci’s YouTube videos, like that’s how I learned to count macros (nutrition things).

Anyways, Amanda left her fitness business and dove into an entrepreneurial space of helping people. And she joined Masterminds. And I remember being like, “that is so damn Woo Woo.” (But that’s not the topic today).

I want to preface this by saying I’m challenged to record this podcast because I know in my heart, there are good Masterminds out there for the right people – woo woo or not.

I’m not bashing anyone who may be tuning in to this, who has a Mastermind hosts a Mastermind, is in a Mastermind. 

This is not to make you feel bad about what you do or that you’re doing the wrong thing. This is simply my hot take. 

Truth be told: I’ve been in a Mastermind and I’ve almost hosted one. And I’m going to talk about both of those. I’m mainly wanting to speak on this topic because I’m just not thrilled with how I’ve seen the online space monopolize Masterminds over the last year or so. 

And I’m challenged to not justify why I feel this way either. I’m not going to sit here and be like, “You should join a Mastermind or not join a Mastermind, or here are the good things about Masterminds and here to talk about why you shouldn’t join one.” And that’s what’s important to me, it’s my opinion.

Simply put I’m advising my audience. It’s up to you to do the research and ultimately make the decision that’s going to be the best fit for you and your business. 

So real quick, I want to talk about how yes: I tried to launch a Mastermind and I’m really glad it didn’t work out. In fact, it was one of the first things I launched in my business. I started my business officially last September (of 2020) and I think it was October or for black Friday, I launched what I called the Personalized AF Strategy Session.

After that, I decided I wanted to launch a Mastermind. 

Why did I want to launch a Mastermind? 

I wanted to small group coach people in a way where it was very collaborative at the end of the day… my audience wasn’t there yet. And neither was I. 

I wasn’t ready to launch a Mastermind, or host one so I’m really glad it didn’t work out. 

I’m really glad I had no signups. 

I’m like being very transparent and okay with it. 

And I’m also just like, I wasn’t in the right space to teach it. 

Also – my audience was not in the right space to learn from me. 

I had a lot of growing to do as a mentor, so I needed to spend more time, in my opinion, cultivating a strong group of Mastermind worthy individuals!

I did go into a Mastermind though. So while I was launching a Mastermind, I was in one and I did find things valuable out of it. I like to say I’m a different kind of individual, not to say like I’m better than anybody.

I have years and years of business experience. I wanted to be in a collaborative space where more people were at that next level, too, and looking to push to the next level. Truth be told: the one-on-one support is what I found the most valuable in the Mastermind. 

And that is not the point of a Mastermind. 

So I’m not saying that Mastermind wasn’t great. It was amazing – it did a lot for me, but it wasn’t a traditional Mastermind and I felt like I needed more. I felt like I needed more one-on-one support.

Now I want to talk about why you shouldn’t join one. 

 

You still have a lot to learn about business in general and your own. 

We are always constantly learning, evolving, growing, and busy. A lot of us are very busy and I’m leading with this because I do think there’s a time and place for joining one.

You have to be in a space where you are open and willing to gather new information. When you’re in a Mastermind, you have to know what to do with that information and not be confused by it kind of a good indicator of if you’d be a good fit for a Mastermind. 

Translation: if you still consider yourself an early stage entrepreneur, that doesn’t mean you’ve been in business for one year two year three. I mean, it just depends on where you’re at in your business. How long it’s been your full-time, how long it’s been your side hustle, how much experience you have, how confident you are.

But who I am referencing here: those who feel they’re not hitting goals in their business. If you are not necessarily happy with your business progress, as of right now, and what I’m getting at here is Masterminds are great for plateaus when you’re at a plateau – when you’re doing well and thriving and not when you’re not doing well and thriving. A Mastermind’s not the right next step for you if you’re not at that place. 

 

Number two, most Masterminds are improperly formatted. 

90% of them, the ones you see in the online space right now, are not properly formatted.

They are more of like a course or masterclass style. Masterminds should be very much a group effort, a group-focused collaborative led by experienced coaches or professionals, not a place where you show up and get talked to. 

Another thing I want to say about that is there’s not only one way to achieve a result. And then those style Masterminds where people are teaching AT you, and they’re telling you their techniques and the way they did things and saying, this is how you should do it too. 

There’s not only one way to skin a cat, okay? 

Most Masterminds teach a certain way and it’s very “my way or the highway,” and as a result it’s formatted like a course or a masterclass. And for that reason, it does not work in the true style of a Mastermind.

A Mastermind should be very collaborative, which is my next point. 

 

You need to be a certain type of person in a very certain place in your business to do well in a Mastermind, 

You need to be extremely active. You need to be committed, you need to be willing to show up and share. The reason is that Masterminds are collaborative, not meant for one-on-one. It’s meant to master mind with people. There are Masterminds with like a hundred people, there are Masterminds with 50 people. 

This is bigger than the online space they’ve been around for longer than the online space where you see these cute little leaders leading retreats and having the little meetups. Like, I remember the first time I heard of a Mastermind, it was Lewis Howes.’ And I think Amanda Bucci joined his Mastermind, but though were very high, high, high-level thinkers getting all these high-level thinkers in a room.

I think that a true Mastermind should be physically in person. You get a lot out of it that way. The other thing is there’s a massive time requirement with Masterminds, they meet typically once a week for an hour or more. And you need to be able to commit to that commit to showing up to being collaborative, which can be extremely difficult and challenging when you are still building your business. 

Ultimately everyone’s needs are different. Most people join Masterminds as a step down from the one-on-one support they really need. They truly need. 

You’re probably thinking, “Lauren, the one-on-one support. I can’t afford it.” Yes, you can. I’m going to tell you how, you ready?

 

You can save tens of thousands of dollars by going to niche experts instead, in areas where you need help. 

What I do as a mentor, is help you figure out where you need that help. Not to like self promote here, but that’s kind of the point as a mentor: I help guide you into a place where you really need that additional help and support.

How do I do this in my business? Or how have I done this in my business? 

I’ve hired a video marketing strategist and worked with her on a one-off strategy session. A lot of professionals, niche professionals, can also act as consultants and provide you with consulting help or “done for you help” as opposed to going to a space where you think you’re going to think creatively or get all these new ideas. 

But then what do you do with those ideas? And at the end of the day, you’re left with all of these things you have to do on top of your client work on top of building your business. (Which is why niche experts can be so amazing to help steer you, and often even help you implement).

You can work with the sales and innovation coach. My sales & innovation coach helps me think outside of the box; the ideas are in me. She helps guide me there. She reminds me of what I’m good at because we all know that sometimes we can get all stuck in our own head about what we’re actually good at and who we can actually help and what kind of programs we can come up with as professionals. 

(And not to mention, we get inundated with everything else we see on social media, what other people in our field are doing that we forget, forget like what we can do and how good we can be). 

I’m long-term looking to do strategy sessions for long-term marketing planning, course planning, Pinterest strategy. There are people out there who offer, higher ticket services in this, in this space that aren’t a Mastermind. I feel like you go into Masterminds not really knowing what you’re going to get. And while on one hand, that’s really exciting because you know that like growth and change can happen – on the other hand, there are certain things that are going to push the needle forward faster, easier, more efficiently than joining a Mastermind. In my opinion, that is going to niche experts. 

I want to put it to you this way: would you rather feel you wasted $1K on three different experts or $10K on one Mastermind program? Tell me, like, what do you think about that? (Not that I think anyone should be wasting money here).

So to recap the reasons you shouldn’t join a Mastermind:

1. You still have a lot to learn in business about business and in general, as well as your own business.
2. Most Masterminds are improperly formatted. Which as a result, you need to do a lot of research, a lot of vetting.
3. You have to be a certain type of person. And in a very specific place in your business to join a Mastermind. 
4. You could save tens of thousands of dollars by going to niche experts instead. And this is actually what I advise over joining a Mastermind. 

Thanks for reading and tuning in! Every couple of weeks on my Instagram (@brandgoodtime) I’ll be live recording podcasts with Q&A at the end – so be sure to head over there and give me a follow and tune in for the next Live Recording!