How will I know when I am ready to lead a mastermind? That's a question that somebody asked me today, and I thought, well, if they're thinking it, somebody else might be thinking it as well. So I am going to use the podcast today to talk about that question in particular.
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I'm Jen Argue, I have been leading masterminds for the past five years for six and seven-figure entrepreneurs, and I would love to help you start your own mastermind as well so that you can create a really big impact with those around you. And work a lot less and make a lot more at the same time.
I'm so excited to answer the question today. When is the best time to run a mastermind? And I've talked about before, there are two people who are intrinsically poised to be in a good spot to lead a mastermind, and that is the industry leader. Or somebody who is already really skilled at leading groups like a well-seasoned coach or therapist. So if you happen to fall into one of those two camps, you are ready to lead a mastermind.
Now, you might still be asking, well, am I ready? Like how will I know if I’m ready? And I'm going to speak to the industry expert today. So being an industry expert doesn't mean that you have this huge business. You could be just starting the online part of your business or the consulting phase of your business.
You might already be an industry expert because of all of the years that you've put into something. Or maybe you just came out of a certification program and you are now equipped to be able to take what you've just learned and gotten certified in to the next level and to invite more people into a mastermind experience with this new competency that you have.
And so how you go about it, how you know if you're ready to go about it, is a great question. Like I said, you can be ready for it now even if you're just out of the gate or you have a big business. So let's start with the idea that you are just starting out in your business, whether you're fresh out of a certification program or you have been in an industry for a long time that was not…a mastermind type of industry or consulting industry.
But you're starting the consulting phase of the season of life that you're in. And so right out of the gate, you can start a mastermind if you have that kind of knowledge that you can bring people together who are also in that industry, who are the high caliber, high intent type of people who want that extra community and support and accountability and brainstorming that comes with a Mastermind.
By all means, go for it. Start it up. I think that's a very exciting thing to do because you have the qualifications, you're an expert, you have connections already with people. I would say that probably is something that is important when you're starting a mastermind is that you have some level of connection or you have the ability to have the connection.
At least if you're starting out you can make personal invitations to people to join you in your mastermind. Now, let's say that you've been running your business for a while. You've been doing either one-on-one coaching or consulting, or you've been running a group. You would have another option of what you could do.
You could still have a standalone mastermind. Like that would be the style of what I just talked about is a standalone mastermind where you're just doing it all on its own with nothing that came before it, or now if you already have been doing the consulting and coaching for a while.
You have your own audience developed. You have your own language that you speak with the people who have been in your coaching or consulting groups, and they all can identify with the same types of goals. In this situation, you might be able to start what we call a backend mastermind, and that is something that…the only way you can get in is if somebody has worked with you already through one-on-one or in a group situation.
And so that would qualify that mastermind as a backend mastermind. And those are really special, and the role that that type of mastermind plays is critical to the development and the transformation that you are trying to bring to your community. So let's say you have a group coaching program or a course of some type, and the people in it are getting to know the language that you speak, your methods, your ways, your perspective of looking at the world.
But they want to take it to the next level. So what's exciting about having a backend mastermind is that it gives the people in your course, your group program, or your one-on-one coaching, something that is the next level that they can aspire to, or it's something new they can aspire to that is still within your realm of offers.
It's still consistent with the type of transformation that you help deliver to people, but it's the next step, and that adds to the lifetime value of each customer. It's another thing that they can purchase within your ecosystem. It's another way to reward the people who are doing really well because in my opinion, you would still want them to apply to be in the Mastermind.
So, already know them. You will already know their level of performance that they operate at. But you still wanna have the application process because truly when it comes to a mastermind group or everybody is interacting with each other, not everybody who is a high performer is going to be a good fit for a group.
And you might have a good idea of who would be a good fit, and you can go ahead and invite those people. But I still would do the application process just so you have the ability to say no, but also so the person who's checking it out has the option to learn more and to hear more and to really understand more deeply if that group is for them.
So the backend Mastermind is something that contributes to the long-term value that your customers have within your business. It's something that people can aspire to. Oftentimes, people who are in a mastermind situation are the people that you look up to in this person's ecosystem that you're learning from.
I'm talking from the perspective of somebody who might want to be in your mastermind. Also, the audience that you are marketing your mastermind to is a warm audience. In fact, they're pretty hot [laugh] because they've already bought from you. So it's much easier to sell to somebody who has already sold on you, who's already bought from you than to a cold audience or even just a lukewarm or semi-warm audience that maybe hasn't bought anything from you before. And so to sell to an audience like that takes a lot more effort versus a backend mastermind.
So when are you ready to lead a mastermind? It's truly up to you. You can do it as a standalone at any point, or you can do it as a backend after you have already developed a good number of people that have gone through your services already.
Both are good, I would just ask you to ask yourself, which feels better to you, which excites you more, and to let that be your guide to decide when is the best time for you.
Thank you so much for listening today. I hope that if you found value in this, that you would subscribe to my podcast and share it with a friend and leave a review.
Thank you so much!
