Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Mastermind (And How to Build One)

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I've always, in everything that I've done, thought it was the most important thing to make your platform other people's platforms, because I believe that that is true leadership. So if you're listening to this more to figure out how to put on a great program, don't just allow yourself to be a leader. Your program will excel when you not only get other leaders to help lead, but also when you use your platform and offer it to your students so that they can get opportunity to truly get up on that platform and shine in front of everyone. And we're back with another episode of He Said, She Said.

Hey, I know we're going to talk about how to build a good program in case anybody out there like has a program that they want to build to help other people. But before we do that, You've been building what you wish existed lately in the form of these dinners, and you got one tonight. Tell me about it.

I do. Um, this one was actually the brainchild of our friend Natasha, who does the School of Bots. School of Bots. And so, um, I had put on another dinner at my house and she was talking about wanting to get, um, a bunch of really high-level women together. And I was like, I would love to offer you my home. And you can kind of do whatever you want here. So we've just put together an amazing dinner where we're going to pretty much just hang out, but we are gonna facilitate it so that we can all talk about what we're excited about, what we need. Um, and this one is a little more casual than my last one, which I'm also excited about because I wanna try on all of these different ways of doing this. Um, where it's not like a full sit-down dinner, but this one is more like appetizers, mocktails, cocktails, hanging out, a little bit of facilitation. And really just getting to know each other.

That's really cool. You know, it's interesting cuz we went to a dinner the other night, uh, at, well, a billionaire's home and I don't wanna name who that it's like weird or tacky. Uh, and I also don't wanna like share their privacy, you know what I mean? But it was just you and me and them and it was a really neat dinner. And the thing that surprised me, well, two things. One, you host these dinners like this in order to meet more people and network. They invited us over cuz we had met once in a group setting. But didn't get a chance to really connect so that we could kind of get to know each other more and network, if you will. We both live in the same neighborhood roughly, et cetera. They're in the little bit more expensive end down there, but nonetheless, getting together to break bread is the best way, or one of the best ways. I agree to really get to know people. But here's what leads into what we're talking about today. Here's what kind of teed up what we're talking about today. So we're sitting there with this billionaire couple. They are a legit billionaire couple, so no need for extra money, but they love impact. Like he is a storyteller and a mentor if there has ever been. I wish you could have heard the stories on how he like put on these huge programs for like his kids and all the neighborhood kids and all these other things. Anyhow, they started asking us like, hey, we see you do these masterminds. And we see you talk about 'em online. It looks like something we would want to do cuz it looks like the perfect format for kind of giving back and teaching and making a difference and still feeling like you're meeting people and being involved. But we really don't know even how to put one of these on. And they asked us to kind of break down like, how would you put it on? Where do you start? How do you get people to join 'em? What's important in one? And so I thought that'd be a really cool topic that we would share today because whether you're somebody who's looking to start some kind of mastermind in order to just be around better people, or if you're looking to start a mastermind as a revenue source, or if you're looking to start a mastermind because you kind of feel like a gap in giving back and you're like these billionaires and you want to be able to give back or mentor more, we're going to kind of share what we think goes into a really good infrastructure of one by kind of demonstrating our Mentor Collective mastermind that we released about 6 months ago so that you can start to get an idea and ideate on what's important and what's not if you're going to build a program.

And also straight up, we would love for you to join the Mentor Collective Mastermind. So we really want to just talk all about that program. And like Chris said, the best way to learn if you want to do it is to learn by being in it, by being in it. Yep. So that, that's what you and I have done for years and years. And I think that is what sets us apart is that we have been a part of masterminds for so long that when people go, oh, I've been to some bad masterminds, I'm like, Yeah, I actually know some of those people have never been to a mastermind before.

Yep. Yeah.

And so you have to go and be at— Chris, we did this for like 6 years, 8 years. I don't know, we've been a part of a mastermind since I can remember, whether it was a formal mastermind with 20 to 40 people or whether it was something that we put together with 4 to 12 people. You know, we, we've done this so many times, and you and I love feedback. Actually, that's something I really admire about you. Like, you ask for feedback way more than me. And you're like, tell it to me straight. What did you like about this? What didn't you like about this? And I'm always like, okay, brace yourself, but it's the best, it's the best thing ever. And it's only helped us get better.

That's interesting. That's gonna be one of the features I talk about in the Mentor Collective Mastermind, or when you're building a good mastermind. Uh, and that's how we had to like set up a whole nother layer of accountability for this next round.

Mm-hmm.

Um, because we got feedback that at the end of the day, no matter how hard people want to perform, They still don't show up for themselves.

Yeah.

But if they had someone babysitting every week, then the people who wouldn't normally show up maybe would show up a little bit more. Right? So I'll get to that in a moment. So Mentor Collective Mastermind, if you don't know what it is, just so you can get an idea of the context, this is the one that we host online for any businesses that are earning $500,000 or less. This is a revenue of $500,000 or less. And so it's a lot of $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, you know, $400,000 type of businesses, a handful of $50,000 type of, you know, a year type of businesses in all walks of life. Because the format, the way we do it, it really fits almost any kind. We have brick and mortars, we have supplement companies, we have coaches, we have podcasters, you know, you name it. Mm-hmm. Every kind of business is in there. And so the first thing that we thought was important was access. But this is important when you're building out a program, you guys, not so much access that you start to resent the program. So what's that sweet spot when you're building a program? How do you make sure that there's lots of access and that people are getting what they need,, but you're not burning yourself out. Mm-hmm. Now everyone has different schedules and different workloads, but in our case, we knew that we couldn't be the absolute main point of contact. We had to be just half of the program, but we still knew that we wanted other people to be able to fill that other half for us in terms of value on demand. So we went out and we hired coaches. In every single business expertise. I mean, sales, marketing, legal, tech, you name it. And we hired them to be coaches in the mastermind. And then we said, well, what's the best format so that people can get what they need when they need it? And we called it Answers on Demand. And we said, here's, it's very easy. We use the program Circle. It's a software and you go into the appropriate Circle room. So if you have a tech question, you go in the tech room. If you have a health and fitness question, you go in health and fitness room. If you've got a sales question, you go in a sales room and you You put your question there and within 24 business hours, your question gets answered by that coach who's an expert in that area. So here's why I like this feature. And remember, when you're thinking about building something out yourself, this is very important. Business moves fast. Mm-hmm. People don't wanna wait a week to ask their question. They may need to be able to solve that problem by the tomorrow. Mm-hmm. And that's why we thought it was so important to be like, okay, let's organize it by expertise. You know who to ask the question of. Let's have an expert in there so we know that you'll get a good answer. And then let's have it answers on demand where you can count on getting that answer within 24 business hours so you can, you know, that you're gonna get value to move forward. So that was the first thing that we thought was really important in a program and that you might wanna consider in yours. It can look differently. Maybe you're the one in there answering the questions. We just knew that we didn't have the bandwidth and we didn't want people to have to wait for the questions. So that's why we hired all the expertise coaches. That's the first and, and one of the main features, answers on demand. And so every second week, Lori and I spend 90 minutes to 2 hours hanging out with you on Zoom. And one by one by one, you guys ask your question. Now here's the coolest part about it. A lot of these I noticed are, what would you do in this situation type of questions? So you get our perspective and we go into detail on what we would do if we were you in that situation with your business. And the best part is you learn more than you ever expect to learn because you're in there listening to everybody else's questions and you start to realize, oh my God, this is awesome. I encountered the same thing and I didn't know what to do, and I'm glad this other person asked about it. Or 6 months down the road, you encounter something, you say, oh, I remember when somebody asked this question of Chris and Lori. I remember what their answer was. Or you can go back and watch a recording and now you know what to do. So you're always absorbing this knowledge, whether it's your question or somebody else's question. And it's like the fastest education that you can possibly get. And when we hang up, we're bouncing on cloud nine. Like, that's our favorite thing is doing those questions.

That is my favorite part, is getting to talk to everybody and learn their questions, learn their business, and get to know them every other week. You guys, we know people by names now and we know their businesses and we get to work with them for now 6 to 12 months. We literally get to be your business coaches every other week along with all of the coaches in there. And I will say, Chris, when I was building everything, like really in the build— and when I say really in the build, like 8 years of trying to figure out entrepreneurship and having a lot of success and a whole lot of fails in there. Like, you have no idea how many failures. I can't imagine if I could have been talking to someone the whole time to not have so many days where I was honestly sitting on my laptop so frustrated that I would just start crying. Like, I feel like so many afternoons were totally written off because I just didn't know what to do. And I would sit there just feeling like I didn't know what the next steps were, where I should go with it. And I can't imagine being able to just go to the, you know, if it was a social media coach or something I was struggling with, like, oh, I feel so overwhelmed, I have so many things I want to be doing, what's the first step I should be doing? If I would have had some direction throughout all of that, how much time and money that I would have saved. And just feeling like such a failure all of the And I think that's the hardest part of especially solo entrepreneurship is you just feel like you suck so bad a lot of the time.

Mm-hmm.

And that makes your comeback rate slower. Mm-hmm. It just starts to make you start doubting yourself. And what happens in these calls and in these groups and with these coaches is they kick you back in the game and send you on the right direction. It's like, okay, let's go do this. And now with the accountability coaches, it's like, what are you supposed to be accountable to this week? Did you do it? Why not? And I think that is going to change the game.

So that's one of the coolest new features. I know that you're about to go into your favorite one, but I just wanna touch on that quick cuz you brought it up. So one of the feedback, you talked earlier about feedback and you said, you know, it's great that you're always ask— willing to ask for it and listen to it. People are like, I signed up, I use it a lot at first, and then I find myself forgetting to go use it. And so, okay, how do we really hold them accountable? I know, let's have somebody literally assigned to them that checks in with them every week. What are your goals this week? And then did you hit them or not? What are your goals for next week? And they'll even go and tag the right coach like, oh, you didn't get that done. That's because you need to talk to so-and-so coach. And they'll go tag that coach like, hey, this is Carrie. You know, last week she wanted to do this with her social media, didn't do it. Maybe you could help her out kind of a thing. So that now you can't hide because you got somebody emailing you every, every week.

You know, you shouldn't be able to hide in a program that you paid a lot of money for, you guys. You want to have to feel so fricking uncomfortable that you're forced to show up. And I think one of the things that makes Chris and I the most sad is hearing people don't sign up because they are intimidated or they don't know what the program is like. So that's really why we wanted to come on here, is to say you actually should feel intimidated by the programs you're joining so that it forces you to show up. You should feel like you cannot hide because then you're just wasting your money and you're wasting another year of your life. Like, don't do that to yourself. Sign up for the thing that scares you. Let it be okay that you come in scared. Everybody is, because it's not normal to go and join something with a bunch of strangers and feel super vulnerable about your business, especially if you're not in a place that you feel really great yet. Like, that's why you join. We expect you to feel this way. We don't expect you to be crushing it or super successful yet. So that's the game-changing moment, is realizing you need to be in here. You're an action taker. You can do this. And that's exactly how you're going to feel, is a little intimidated, and that's a good thing.

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So my. Favorite part of this program, actually one of my favorite parts for you guys, for your growth, for what I believe kind of catapults you if you decide to take advantage of this piece of the program, is called Teachbacks. What we've started doing is one week per month, we get a few of you to teach back something that is in your zone of genius or a big lesson that you have learned or something.

Who's live?

That has moved the needle forward to all of the students in Mentor Collective Mastermind Live. It is then recorded, it is then sent out. And, you know, of course we vet what you're doing, so we make sure that you're going to do a great job. We make sure that you're totally prepared and you do have to submit it and get it approved so that we know that it is something that would be great for the whole group. But you guys, we've had so many amazing teachbacks where I like really get to discover some of the students in there where I have, um, working with one. I, I've ended up working with one. I've gotten on the phone with other ones to kind of help me with my business. I'm like, you guys are insanely amazing. And so what that does is number one, it's discoverability for you and your business. Number two, it, it not only has you be a peer in the group, but it also has you be a leader in the group. And people start to realize, whoa, this person is awesome. Or you might even get people hiring you in the group, depending on what you do. It's such an opportunity to use our a platform that Chris and I have invested in and grown with all of these incredible people and coaches, and you get to come in front of them and present and show what you're doing. And I've always, in everything that I've done, thought it was the most important thing to make your platform other people's platforms, because I believe that that is true leadership. So if you're listening to this more to figure out how to put on a great program, don't just allow yourself to be a leader. Your program will excel when you not only get other leaders to help lead, but also when you use your platform and offer it to your students so that they can get an opportunity to truly get up on that platform and shine in front of everyone.

Yeah.

I, you know, you've done that all, all the way back to Bliss Project. You said, this isn't my stage, this is our stage. And we also wanna turn the spotlight on you and have you get a chance to speak, have you get a chance to teach, have you get a chance. And it's lifted up so many or sparked so many careers or, help give people exposure because honestly you should be learning from your peers and you should be teaching in front of your peers. It's one of the best places to get customers or collaborations or people say, oh my God, I didn't know you're so good at this. Why don't we do this program together? And like new businesses are born out of it and it's, it's just a really cool feature. That feature is underrated. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Like that is a game-changing feature. Anyways, we could go on and on, but the point is when you build a program, Look at the intentionality that we had put into this one. You have to do the same. You have to say, how do we make sure people feel seen? Right? So it can't just be a giant pool of people with very little attention. How do we make sure people get what they need within the reasonable time of them needing it? Right? So that's why we had to do the answers on demand and hire all the coaches. Um, how do we make sure that the people putting on the program are also highly involved in it? All right? So that's why Lori and I spend, gosh, cumulatively 4 to 5 hours every 2 weeks like that. You know, I spend a couple hours. And then the other thing is how do we connect everybody? A program without connecting you among your peers is only 50% of a program if you ask me. The other 50% is the magic of you connecting with everyone else. But that doesn't happen on accident. We take the responsibility of saying, here's how we're gonna create these very friendly collisions. So that you collide with the people that you were meant to collide with. Now add on top of that the new feature of weekly accountability check-ins. It's a game changer. Some of you remember back when we did Fast Foundations. This is Fast Foundations on steroids with way more accessibility, way more features, and way more timely answers and expertise. And it's just a great example of how programs evolve. Anyhow, we're going to open this up, uh, at the time that you hear this, we have open cart There may or may not be seats left because remember how we hire all these coaches? Well, we only allow a certain number of people in at a time when we open it. So we're always hiring the right number of coaches with the right number of members so that we have that right ratio. So we can't just let everybody in. So if you're interested in checking out either just to do reconnaissance and figure out what your program would be like, or whether it is to literally be in there and learn and network and, and be able to have us answer your questions, go over right now to chrisharter.me. /mentor, and you can check it all out. Matter of fact, hell, just go there to learn how to do a good sales page, because that's also something you can learn from. Go to chrisharter.me— that's.me— chrisharter.me/mentor. Grab a spot, come learn from us, come build community, see if you can get one of those limited seats that are in there. We would love to meet you and work with you.

We're so grateful for you guys, and we like— it's one of our favorite things that we get to do because we get to work with people who are action takers, who want to grow their business, who want to be spreading their message, who want a big life, a big career. And it's one of our— it's like, it's a dream come true for him and I.

So we would love to work with you over the next 6 to 12 months.

And go check it out, and I hope I get to see your face soon. All right, you guys, we will talk to you next week.

Thanks Everybody, take care.