Napoleon Hill writes about the mastermind group principle as the “coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.”
He goes on to say “no two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”
Basically, that means that two heads are better than one.
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For awhile now, I have wanted to be part of a mastermind of some sort.
I have been searching for a group of people to hold me accountable and to push me further.
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I’ve gone to several networking events, met some cool people, and all that good stuff, but it still is not the same as meeting a set group with some sort of frequency to discuss challenges and learnings.
I know that there are several online gurus and coaches who have masterminds of their own.
Typically, they seem to be in super niche areas such as Facebook ad or sales funnel agencies. They do zoom video calls weekly or monthly and then meet in person less frequently, perhaps once a quarter.
With technology these days, it’s very easy to jump on a video call with several people and get a lot out of the meeting. However, I think that being face-to-face is still so valuable. After all, if it wasn’t such a big deal, there wouldn’t be thousands of people going to various conferences and events every year.
I’ve heard of people paying $5000 to be part of groups and even more in a year. This is totally worth it if your mentor and the one leading the mastermind has visible success in the areas you want to succeed in.
However, for some of you starting off, $5000 is a lot of money to drop. While I would urge you to think of it as an investment where it can absolutely be worth it, for others that aren’t at the level to drop that kind of money, why not start your own or join one locally?
There’s a cool working/start up space in Houston called Station Houston. At one of the demo days where start up companies pitch to an audience, I met a guy name Safir who actually went to my university.
We probably have a ton of mutual friends, but I did not meet him until that event here in town.
We kept in touch and I noticed that he loves a lot of the same stuff that I do. He listens to Grant Cardone, Andy Frisella, Ed Mylett, and more. He successfully started and sold a food delivery business while in college and now has grown a laundry delivery service in the Houston area.
He reached out to me asking if I would be interested in starting a mastermind group, to which I replied, absolutely!
He invited a friend he recently made named Dom, who then invited two of his friends, Lilo and Mario, and the five of us met up for the first time last week.
We are not charging $5000 to be part of this group quite yet, but we are a group of like-minded individuals in the same geographical area that want to push each other to become the best version of ourselves. The first meeting was a get to know each other meeting and lasted three uninterrupted hours.
It was so amazing to hear everybody’s stories, when they learned they were entrepreneurial as kids, and where they are right now.
Dom shared that he had a CD selling side hustle at the age of 14. He made $4000 in a month or two! Incredible. His mom had no idea how he was coming up with all this cash.
Lilo and Mario own an AV company in town and have actually grown into two other cities over the past few years. I seriously had goosebumps listening to their stories of how they struggled at first, tried several business ideas out, and how far they’ve come.
They have been friends and business partners for years, and even their wives are best friends. What an amazing story.
Now we’ve only met once, but I got so much out of that meeting. Our plan is to meet every two weeks on the same day of the week, for two hours.
We also want this to be a tight knit group with 8-10 members, max.
We will have an agenda that we set in the previous meeting with a little bit of homework assigned to bring to the next meeting.
So for our next meeting, we all need to bring a couple slides or notes about tools and software that we use to make our lives easier.
This will be a way for us to share how we use tools it in our various businesses, because we are all in different markets, and see if we can take any of those things and apply them to our own businesses or lives.
I plan on sharing various tools such as Trello, Zapier, Clickfunnels, ManyChat, and more. Sure, it’s cool to watch YouTube videos, listen to podcasts, and all that good stuff to learn.
But this will be a way to get instant feedback from other people who might have faced the same challenges or similar ones that I’m facing.
We can all have goals that we hold each other accountable to (and this could be as simple as sharing the goals that I have already set for myself that my accountability partner holds me to on our weekly calls).
For those who are new to the podcast, I’ve mentioned before that I have an accountability partner that I met at a networking event.
However, he lives in Dallas, about four hours from me, so we just do a weekly, one hour phone call. This mastermind group will give me the opportunity to meet with people in my city in person.
One thing that Dom mentioned in the first meeting was that we all need to be committed to this and really try our best to show up to every meeting. He didn’t want for this to be a “show up when you feel like it thing,” or else we are not serious.
I love that. You’re telling me that this guy I just met for the first time is already holding me accountable? Did we just become best friends? Lol
The energy in the room seriously sent shivers down my spine. We were all so excited to be surrounded by like-minded individuals, that listen to the same content, that are on the same journey to create the life of our dreams.
We agreed that it’s so hard to have these types of conversations with other people in our lives such as old friends or even family.
Many people don’t care about the things that we are interested in, and interests and friends change over time.
For example, I’m in a group text with friends that I used to jam with all the time. I’ve played the drums for years but I have not played as much lately at all.
They were excited about a new album or tour that’s coming up, and I was busy doing other things and never even replied in the group text. They’re still my friends and I still love them, but I’m just not as into the going to concerts and jumping into mosh pits anymore.
So if you are not part of a mastermind or group that hold each other accountable, I highly recommend that you look for one in your area or online. I still feel like a local is better because you could meet up for drinks or food and get to know each other better as opposed to just doing a zoom call.
However, I did tell people in the room that I expect us to outgrow the room. If someone grows faster than the rest, they should absolutely find another group where they can continue to be pushed and grow.
Eventually, they may join other masterminds where the entry fee is $5000 or $10,000 or even more. I am definitely in pursuit of getting in rooms where I am the smallest person in the room.
For example, Safir and I are going to the Arete Syndicate Live event that Andy Frisella and Ed Mylett are putting on in St. Louis on April 6th.
I got an email from Andy and Ed and I bought tickets on day one (it actually sold out in 2 or 3 days).
I have a previous blog post that talks about investments versus expenses mindset. I wonder how many friends of mine would think I’m crazy to spend $600 for a ONE day event. And yes, that’s just the entry fee. That does not include flights and hotel. I’m sure my parents would not understand. But I look at it as an investment.
The event sold out. Clearly people find tons of value, or maybe we are all equally insane. Andy and Ed are both millionaires, and I will get to be in the same room as them, ask them questions, and maybe even eat dinner at their table or near them.
$600 for that opportunity is actually pretty affordable when you look at it that way. People don’t bat an eye when they pay $40 bucks for a movie ticket and popcorn, yet they think $600 is insane to get mentorship and feedback from millionaires. Funny, right?
So, I challenge you to examine the room you are in and decide if it’s the right room. Are your friends and peers pushing you to grow, continue to set and achieve larger goals? Or are they excited for 5 o’clock to hit so they can run home and turn the TV on?
Seriously folks, surround yourself with people who are proud of their accomplishments but are never satisfied. Get around people who continue to raise the bar.
Key takeaways
Look at where you are in life now, you were hanging out with, and who is holding you accountable.
If you are surrounded by average people that don’t push you to be better, entrepreneurship can be a lonely and difficult road. You can only motivate yourself so much.
However, when you find other high-performing individuals that are equally driven and hungry to succeed, the energy in the room is insane and helps hold your feet to the fire.
When the person to your right or left is making 10X what you are making, your perspective on what’s possible changes.
Check this out. Let’s say you are in the corporate environment. Everyone around you makes $50K a year. You make $60K a year, which makes you think you’re doing pretty good.
When you go out to these conferences or you join groups of people who are making six figures IN A MONTH, $60K in a year ain’t so great, is it?
So evaluate your room. If you are the biggest person in the room, it’s time to level up and change rooms.
Daily motivation
“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room!” – I heard Grant Cardone say this in an audiobook so I’ll give him credit, but I’m sure it’s been said by many others as well.
Actionable steps
Go to meetup.com or Google masterminds in your city. Try to find some like-minded people and maybe even just go to a few networking events to meet a few potential candidates.
If there is not one in your area, consider joining one online where are you do you zoom calls and then meet in a physical location with some frequency. Note that the higher level players in the group, the higher the entry fee will likely be. But of course, think of it as an investment instead of just an expense.
You could also consider starting your own. I can definitely see the value of joining others that are established instead of trying to figure out how to optimally hold each other accountable and all that stuff.
I think it is fun and I’m looking forward to growing together with the group, but as I continue to level up it increase my income, I may seek out bigger players to learn from to continue the growth.
One guy in our mastermind said that as soon as anyone is not getting value out of the group, it may be time to end the group. I totally agree with that.
The mentors that I have right now in real estate wholesaling pay to be part of a local mastermind type of group.
Their group has all sorts of business owners, from those who are building out year long projects and have no profit yet, to others who are currently doing millions of dollars of annual revenue.
How cool is that for the people who are just starting off? Hopefully, those at the top still have something to learn from the others, but they should be changing rooms too if they find it they are not being pushed enough.
If you are already in a mastermind, I’d love to hear your feedback and comments on it. Drop me a comment or DM on Instagram and let me know what you think! My IG handle is chrisbello09.
Go out there and crush this week! I’ll talk to you on the next episode.
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