The $1 Million Mastermind ROI: Are CEO Groups Actually Worth It?

I have been a member of or attended a lot of mastermind groups over the last 30 years, and I'm going to walk you through what my top takeaways are and explain why I've spent the money that I've spent. I've invested almost a million dollars over the last 30 years of being a part of masterminds so that you don't have to. So let me walk you through the value that I received from each of these mastermind communities, the value that I think you could receive from each of these masterminds, and also explain why I did some of them in the order that I did them because they layer onto each other. So you can see the list below. I joined the Entrepreneurs Organization, which used to be called the YEO. I joined back in 1995. I was a member for 5 years. It was about $4,000, maybe $5,000 a year. So maybe this is $25,000 total that I spent joining EO. Then I was in Strategic Coach while I was the COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. I was a member of Strategic Coach. I did their 3-year signature program. Which is about $10,000 per year. That also— I also had to add up some travel and I put the travel down below here that I also had to travel to events because I went to Strategic Coach events down in Santa Monica every 3 months for 3 years. And then I did a program in Vancouver for my 4th year in Strategic Coach, which was in 2007. I joined Mastermind Talks and I attended the first 5 years of MMT. I did 2 of those events in Toronto, one in Napa Valley, one in Ojai. And one in Carmel. So in addition to spending the $10,000 per year, I also had to travel with flights and hotels to those events. I went to the main TED event, the 5-day TED conference, which was $10,000 per year to attend. Sometimes they were in Vancouver, so I didn't have to travel, but sometimes they were up in Whistler and sometimes they were down in Long Beach, California. That was the main 5-day TED conference that I attended 10 times over a 13-year period. I was a member of the Genius Network for 8 years. And that was $25,000 per year. I attended 8 events per year because I was living in Arizona. I'll walk you through. And then I also went to the main annual event, which they charge $10,000 to attend. I was going to that a bunch of years too. So I was a member of the Genius Network for 8 years. I went to 4 Baby Bathwater events, actually 5. I went to one back in October in Hilton Head, South Carolina. So I've now been to 4 or 5 Baby Bathwater events. 3 of them were in Eden, Utah. Again, that I had to travel for. One was in Croatia that I traveled for, and I also brought my wife to a few of those too. Then I did 4 years of Dan Sullivan's 10X program and Strategic Coach. That was $20,000 per year for 4 years, so that was $80,000. Then I did Abundance 360. I attended that twice, brought my wife to one of those, so I didn't even include paying for her to come. I went to 4 Wayfinders events, one in Uganda, one in Bhutan, one in Papua New Guinea, one in Laos and Vietnam. So again, travel on top of my membership fees. I went to one Intelligent Change event in Ibiza. So again, the international travel of going to that event. I attended Dave Asprey's biohacking event in Dallas, Texas. Again, travel on top of these fees. And then I attended the Health Optimization Summit in London. So I figured that on top of the fees, because my fees for all these were, were adding up, I think I spent about $280,000 in travel. Strategic Coach was 28 trips alone. But in total, I invested $900,000 on. And then on top of that, since doing this event about a year ago or doing this list about a year ago, I went to Harvest in Turkey, which was about $30,000. I went to Antarctica, which cost me about $40,000. I went to Wow It's Now up in Norway for 10 days. And then I just attended the Baldface Catskiing trip with Dan Martell and 48 other CEOs. And now I'm off to an event in Austria leaving on Saturday. And so I've got a trip to Austria that's happening with about 40 CEOs there. So let me walk you through the takeaways that I got from each of these groups. The Entrepreneurs Organization, or EO, it used to be called YEO. I learned about vulnerability. I learned about all these different thought leaders. I started to build a connection and a network of local entrepreneurs to where I was in Vancouver. And all of a sudden I had a feeling of community. I didn't feel as alone. And I think that was probably the biggest value that I got from being an EO member was I didn't feel alone. I got to know and like about another 60 or 70 or 80 other entrepreneurs in the Vancouver market, some that I'm still friends with today. And I learned the power of vulnerability and showing up and sharing where I was struggling, where I was weak, and getting the wisdom of those crowds. And also when I was in EO, I met Brian Scudamore, who was the founder of what was called the Rubbish Boys. and I joined Brian as he was building up 1-800-GOT-JUNK. So had I not been in EO, I never would've met Brian. I never would've become the COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, which really leapfrogged my entire career. So what can the value be of being in EO? Well, my entire career, because that's where I learned about 1-800-GOT-JUNK. Then while I was a COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, I joined Strategic Coach and I did Dan Sullivan's signature program for 3 years in Santa Monica, and then I did 1 year of their master's program. The year after I left 1-800-GOT-JUNK. That gave me different frameworks. It gave me different mindsets. It allowed me to sit as not the smartest person in the room and to sit in the room and learn from somebody like Dan Sullivan, who had created these really, really strong concepts, some that we still use today. I was just working with Meredith, who works with me in sales at the CEO Alliance and running operations, and we were talking about some frameworks that I learned at Strategic Coach that help us to grow our CEO Alliance today. And then I joined Mastermind Talk. This is Jason Gaynor's program. This is where I really got to meet a lot of big thought leaders. I got to meet a lot of big influencers. And then I met Tucker Max and Zach Obrot, who were starting Book in a Box. And because I was in MMT, I then decided to write a lot of my other books. So it was MMT is where I started to write Vivid Vision, Meeting Suck, Free PR, The Second in Command. That all happens because I met the founders of Book in a Box, which is now called Scribe, and built a good relationship with them. Then I went to TED, and holy moly, did my doors ever get blown apart there. I don't know if I generated a lot of business leads from TED, but it certainly expanded my thinking. It gave me more ideas, and it showed me that thought leaders in the business world and entrepreneurs have other interests. It gave me other things to care about, other things to think about, and it kind of showed me the world. Through a very different lens. So I definitely can't quantify business value out of here, but I think it made me a better leader, a better business person, and a better human because it showed me all of these different TED Talks. You know, we were getting jammed with 120 different mainstage TED Talks every year. That just expanded me as a business leader and a person. The Genius Network is where I would say would be my big dominoes. This is where Joe Polish introduced me to so many different thought leaders, right? I got to spend time with Peter Diamandis and with Dan Sullivan and with Verne Harnish and with, uh, J.J. Virgin and with Dave Asprey. And I, I landed at least $1 million of business out of this event. I was put on stages because of people in this event, countless number of thought leaders and clients. I met Jen Hude, who became my partner in all things Vivid Vision. And I also got exposed to the world of biohacking, which made me healthier. So that was big. Bringing my wife to the Genius Network annual events exposed her to biohacking and gave us a better relationship too. So that's been huge for us. And then going to Baby Bathwater. I've now been to 5 Baby Bathwater events. As I mentioned again, more thought leaders, more business connections. And while I was in Genius Network and Baby Bathwater, I got the idea for starting the COO Alliance and creating the network that I have for second in command. So it's because of these communities That's where I kind of got the idea for starting what I now run. Baby Bathwater has been huge for me again with connections with strategic partners. Attending Strategic Coach 10X, I would say this was probably the least value that I got for me, only because I wasn't at a stage of life where I was caring about my legacy and cared about expanding my thinking. So if I was to do Strategic Coach again, I probably would not have done the 4 years of 10X and I would have gone back and repeated the 3-year signature program, because I think those stronger frameworks, repeating those maybe 10 years apart, would have given me more value. But I didn't. Again, I liked spending time with the people in the room. The business owners that attend 10X and attend Abundance 360, frankly, are very strong businesses, and I liked spending time with those people and building connections with those people. But I definitely didn't draw clients from it as much as I did from some of the other events. Going to the Wayfinders events, this allowed me to just travel globally and do some really crazy out-of-the-box experiences with other CEOs. So again, going to Bhutan and living in a monastery, going to Uganda and hiking with gorillas, going to Laos and Vietnam and floating down the rivers and spending time with hill tribes in Papua New Guinea. These are small boutique kind of experiences with other entrepreneurs. There's about 24 CEOs go on each of those events. So I'd say that gave me richer experiences in life, but maybe did not. And I also got value from each of them. I actually landed clients from every one of those events. So I've landed multiple six figures in business from attending these four events. So if I spent $40,000, I generated multiple six figures in income. Good return there. But I also think I just enjoyed my experiences of being out in the jungles and doing these crazy adventures. For, you know, 10-day trips with other CEOs were really valuable. Intelligent Change, that was a great event because it showed me the value of bringing community together that weren't just business owners. They were thought leaders, there were influencers, there were creatives. It was held at a beautiful venue, and it wasn't just about business events all day long. We had stuff around sexuality, stuff around our childhood traumas, workshops around psychedelics. There were great dance parties, there was beautiful beautiful venue, and it really up-leveled my thoughts around how to run events, which is why I'm running the event I'm running in Dubai, was ideas that I pulled from Intelligent Change. And then we have these two big biohacking conferences. My favorite is the Health Optimization Summit run by Tim Gray. He runs events both in London, in the UK, and also in Austin, Texas. And then Dave Asprey's biohacking conference in Dallas. I think Dave's is really good if you are in the space. Space and you are, you know, a doctor or a clinician or somebody who's more technically minded, his content is world-class for sure. I think Tim actually takes it and brings it down more for the common person, but this allowed me to think about my health differently. It's why I do my annual full-body MRI checks. It is running blood panels, using continuous glucose monitors, tracking sleep. Being at these events has helped me be a healthier mind and a healthier human, which again is making me a better entrepreneur. But attending events with global entrepreneurs and seeing the world from a different lens, they don't just care about business, business, business. They're very rich in terms of humans. Oh, I just realized I missed another couple. I've missed two of the Mindvalley events. I attended Mindvalley University in Estonia and then the Mindvalley Future Human event in Dubai. Those again, you push into things like spirituality, sexuality, building better humans. Visualization, presence, and manifestation. There's lots of stuff that come out of the Mindvalley events. And then lastly, Antarctica trip that I did with, uh, Janik Silver and his Maverick Group, um, was just mind-blowing, right? To be able to go to Antarctica and be in that environment and spend again 10 days with incredible entrepreneurs from around the world. I generated business from it. I had friends that came to our wedding from it. I built some lifelong relationships from from it. And from all of these events, I have a very, very strong global network now of entrepreneurs that no matter where I go in the world, I can spend time with these really great elite humans. And then lastly, the one that I just finished off was the Baldface Cat Skiing trip with Dan Martell. 48 CEOs doing some extreme snowboarding and skiing together, some of the most extreme skiing I've ever done in the world. And I raced until I was 21 or 22. This shit kicked my ass. But amazing to be able to do some really fun activities where there was no structured talking about business, but you end up talking about business with people. And I built some really good relationships with some very, very big thought leaders that I know I will generate business from. Some of the CEOs have already said that they want to join me on the first CEO event that I put on in Dubai. So there you go. That's some of the value that I got from investing around $1 million in myself, in being involved in these mastermind communities. And hopefully that helps you, helps you decide where to invest. Genius Network is actually now a partner of the Cielo Alliance. They're our formal gold partner. It's where I'm telling every CEO, you have to join the Genius Network. I think it's irresponsible not to. But this is the value of all the different groups I've been involved in. And I think you should be in at least two groups, one for your industry and one that is outside. And there's lots of people that I've talked to that are in EO and YPO that think that's amazing. Yes, continue, but also join some of these other groups too. If you're in EO, you should join the Genius Network. If you go to Baby Bathwater, you should join the Genius Network, etc. There you go. Hope that adds value, and I'd love to see your comments below.