Lessons from a $100 Million Mastermind

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I'm home from spending several days in a mastermind in Napa Valley with 40 incredible entrepreneurs from 13 countries who will make over $100 million in combined revenue this year.

There were a variety of people there...

A relationship coach.
An SEO agency owner.
An expert on human design.
An LGTBQ focused lawyer.
A transformational life coach.
A person who works with authors.
People who host wellness retreats.
And a variety of different business mentors.

Some had found success by creating personal brands around themselves and their energy while at least one person had built a faceless multi-million dollar business in the coaching space. 

Regardless of their focus, this is what they all had in common...

•  They have immense expertise in their respective areas.
•  They care deeply about their work, the quality of their product/service, and the people they serve.
•  And most were good at getting the word out about them and what they do with an empathetic approach to building relationships.

Here's my 5 biggest takeaways from being immersed in this group of successful high-vibe people.

You Don't Need a Big Follower Count

In a celebrity obsessed world full of flashy online influencers, it's easy to think that you need a big follower count to do well as an entrepreneur. It's also common to believe that any coach with a huge online presence and loads of likes is "succeeding". Nope.

Neither are guaranteed to be true.

I've had folks with 22K, 45K, and 88K followers come to me for guidance because despite the big public numbers, they were struggling to create an actual business behind the scenes. And I now have concrete evidence of the reverse also being true. You can have a small online audience and still do insanely well.

How well?

I met someone with less than 2K followers that did a 90K launch late last year. I spoke with a woman who is considered THE go-to in her niche but has zero focus on building her social media presence. I hung out with another person with just 500 followers on Instagram and 1K on FB who is consistently making more in a month than most bring home in a year.

How are these people doing it?

Some spent years focused on slow community building through word of mouth and referrals. This requires immense patience. Others did it in a rather short period of time thanks to running paid ads and sending people to a private FB group.

There was a common thread though.

Regardless of their approach, all these people with a smaller following had one thing in common: They're all hyper-focused on being insanely significant to a super specific audience.

Successful People Think In Abundance

I watched in awe on several occasions as people who could be easily labelled as "competitors" gave generously, shared their secrets, and offered to help others in the room. They were able to do so because they don't simply say some BS mantra about the world being abundant, they walk the talk with their actions because they actually believe it.

Education Is Changing Forever

If you're reading this, you're likely part of the small percentage of people who have taken an online course or group program. That is not the norm for the average person. Learning in this way is still a relatively new thing and the multi-trillion dollar education sector is being up-ended.

Education is shifting.

Instead of choosing traditional learning institutions to acquire new skills, folks want to learn from people they respect and feel connected with. This trend will only continue and accelerate. And with all these new people creating their own programs, certifications are going to become more important than ever.

Why?

Getting a certification for your program from an impartial third party creates trust in a noisy market, makes it easier for those learning from you to get financing for their enrollments fees, and gives you some protection against the inevitable regulation that will hit the exploding world of online programs.

We're still in the wild west period of decentralized online learning.

Own a Channel to Your Relationships

Social media has given us all the ability to connect with people all over the world. You can share your ideas, your art, and your message without needing someone's permission. You don't even need a laptop. All you need is your phone and willingness to put yourself out there.

But what happens:

• When there's another algorithm change.
• When the channel shifts and what you used to do no longer works.
• When it's harder to standout as more and more people finally get over their fear and start showing up online?

Instagram used to be a picture centric platform, now short videos rule there. When I quit my Director level role and went all-in on coaching in 2019, my "I quit my job" video got over 20K views on LinkedIn even though I had less than 2K connections there at the time partly because LinkedIn was over emphasizing videos back then. Many coaches created highly successful businesses with FB groups as a centre piece to how they developed deeper relationships with their communities, but then FB decided to stop auto-notifying people in FB groups when there was a new post from moderators.

Change is inevitable.

And being solely dependant on other people's platforms to connect and build relationships with the people you serve is a liability.

You need a way to directly communicate with your people that can't be destroyed overnight by the whims of a platform you have no control over. It doesn't matter if it's a newsletter, a podcast, or a blog on your own website, you want to own at least one channel where you can be in direct contact with your community.

What Money Doesn't Solve

The people you look up to that have a picture perfect presence online and tens of thousands of followers on Instagram? They struggle. They have their own doubts, insecurities, and lack of clarity.

Having a bunch of money solves some problems.

If you're having a hard time paying your bills, wondering how you're going to feed your family next week, or feel stuck in your current situation because you absolutely need your current paycheque, it's clear to see how having more money would make things better.

But hitting some random number of financial wealth won't solve all your woes.

The high trust environment created at the event meant that people openly shared the challenges they were facing: self-doubt around money, uncertainty about next steps, overwhelm, and even wanting to blow up their business up because despite its financial success, it was completely draining them.

Money solves money problems.

But financial success is not a magic cure for the reality of being a human being with emotions, fears, and doubts.

 I'll see you next week.