Masterminds: Are They Really Worth the Money?

By Emma Rainville

Masterminds are Our Most Important Investment at Shockwave

I am convinced that one of the most valuable assets I bring to my company and business partnership is my commitment to education. I invest heavily in my continued learning and growth as a professional. Investing in the right personal and professional development makes an astronomical difference, impacting your confidence, focus, quality of work, and most importantly, overall success. 

There are a plethora of programs to choose from out there on business building, wealth building, personal development, and the other hundred categories. Each of these can bring value in its own right. However, one of my most significant investments and what I’ve found to be key to my stellar success hasn’t been learning just the hard skills, such as marketing, how to grow your client list, or even what best practices to use for websites or social media. True, these are very useful, but I found it’s the soft skills that have been most helpful. Skills such as critical thinking, empathy, collaboration, and how to fully bring all of me – including my gifts, talents, values, vision, personal leadership skills, and experience to my expanding business – are the ones that help me grow and help build Shockwave. 

Now, where can you learn these skills? Where can you go to master your mind, gain hard and soft skills, improve your leadership, and accomplish goals? A mastermind.

What is a Mastermind?

Masterminds literally help you master your mind and incorporate hard and soft skills with practices that help you fully emerge as a professional who excels. Masterminds vary greatly in length, cost, commitment, and quality; there is one for you. 

I believe the mastermind groups worth their weight in gold have spent enormous amounts of time collecting members that add value to the mastermind. They wouldn’t just take a check from anyone willing to write their name on it. Masterminds generally have their members give presentations and lead round tables; therefore, they need to be packed with high quality, high-level members at the top of their field. 

Earlier this year, Shockwave Solutions LLC joined Flight Club Mastermind. Hopefully, you heard our PodCast with Glen and Alex yesterday. I was more than happy to pay them the membership price because of the sheer amount of knowledge I gained from them and their members over three short days. 

In fact, I was ready to give them the check by the end of day one. It wasn’t only that I saw our company’s potential to bring new clients. While I did see some synergy there, it was far from the most important point. In truth, I wouldn’t have had the same vulnerability with the group if it was stacked with clients that expect me to know everything – it would become far less productive. 

What I saw was a massive potential to make myself more valuable to my clients and help them become more profitable. Also, I picked up skills to share with my team, so they learn how to handle more projects and clients in the future. The potential for learning and growing with my peers is monumental. I found my tribe.

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Finding the Right Mastermind for You

Now, as you are looking to find your tribe, your place that inspires a sense of belonging, where you will find resources and room to grow exponentially, consider these five things:

1: What kind of mastermind is right for you? Mastermind seminars used to be only available to the mega-rich, the elite. They were extremely expensive, starting at $50,000, originally designed for high profile multi-million dollar executives who needed a confidential place to talk business, swap contacts, discuss business solutions, and network. Today, many mastermind groups have been considerably watered down for the open market and entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, that is why you’re more likely to get duped and sign up for the wrong mastermind – one that doesn’t suit your specific needs.

First, you need to identify your needs and goals for the year. Ask yourself: What am I missing? What do I need to improve? What do I want to have accomplished at the end of a mastermind commitment? Answering these questions will help you determine what program will suit you best. Does the program’s shiny advertising feel like it will help you achieve your goals? If not, then keep looking!

2: Not all masterminds are created equal. Some masterminds are offered in-person, online, or even a hybrid of both. Some have as few as ten people, and some are held in stadiums with thousands. Some offer special sessions with a high-profile facilitator or coach, but you might end up working with someone on their team for most of the program.

Before you commit, make sure to do your research! Look up the group or program, read the fine print, read the testimonials. If you don’t resonate with their message or participant’s program, move on! You’ll want to find a program that will help you shine!

3: Don’t join a mastermind with a long commitment if you have not attended. If it’s a year-long commitment, the coordinators should allow you to go to one event for free or at a low cost. You should have the ability to speak to other members who will try and talk you into joining their group if the mastermind is actually right for you.

Before committing, make sure that you take time to ask yourself what’s important in a group setting for you. Remember, the topics you may cover may be personal but seldom remain private. It’ll all be shared among the members of your cohort. If your cohort is too big, that’s not the best option for confidentiality nor comfort in being vulnerable. Important: Being vulnerable is vital in making progress and growing through change. You must want to share and be okay with feedback and suggestions on how to grow and hold others accountable.

4: The reality of business owners and professionals talking about real-world business problems often touches on personal and possibly deeply intimate stuff. You’ll discuss why you react as you do in certain circumstances and how you think and feel about yourself. We can’t get away from that. Acknowledging you will need to be vulnerable is very important when exploring your commitment to join a mastermind group.

The point of a mastermind is to get behind the walls of limited thinking and encourage serious growth. Transparency is key to creative problem-solving. Are you willing to jump in and help others grow by starting with you? Think about sharing your most drastic mistakes, the biggest bottlenecks in your business, and the failures that lay in the path behind you. To solve your issues you have to be comfortable with sharing all the information so that high-level executives and business owners can give you useful feedback.

5: No investment is more important than an investment in your personal and professional growth. You should expect that if you pay $10,000 at a mastermind, you leave with a nugget of knowledge that will make you $10,000 or more at each event.

Choose the right mastermind, one that has the right structure for you, run by the right people, attended by the right people, and you can truly take your personal growth and business growth to the next level far quicker than if you tried to do it on your own.

Ask to see results upfront. Contact the mastermind facilitator or coach you’re researching and ask if you can talk to a participant or two who’s gone through their program. Hearing someone’s success story goes way further than any website advert. If they say no or won’t introduce you to at least one happy client – then move on! Find a mastermind leader who will.

INTERESTED IN EXPLORING THE RIGHT MASTERMIND FOR YOU? 

If you are in direct response, I highly recommend checking out FlightClub. There is no affiliate link here, I’m not saying it because I get anything out of it.  It was a great fit for me, and if you are a high-level entrepreneur, I think it’s worth the look. 

See Travis’ testimonial here. 

Visit Flight Club Mastermind here.

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