MBA1211 My Paid Mastermind Experiment. Is It Worth It?

Let me tell you about Intuit QuickBooks. When I was starting out my business, I remember sitting at my desk late at night, not working on my business but cleaning up numbers, tracking and reconciling payments and wondering how this became my life. But once I automated the admin side of things, of my finances, those nights had disappeared and I felt a whole lot better. Outdo it with intuit QuickBooks QuickBooks is the trusted end to end solution that businesses rely on for getting paid, managing finances, paying employees, finding new customers and more. QuickBooks provides a team of AI agents and trusted experts, so doing it yourself no longer means doing it alone. Their payment agent gets you paid faster, their customer agent finds leads, follows up and secures more sales, and the accounting agent automates and categorizes transactions. Get your critical business jobs done with QuickBooks on the Intuit platform. Ready to save on new tech? It's time for Dell Tech Day's annual sales event celebrating our customers with fantastic deals and benefits bring. Perks include Dell rewards, free shipping, premium Support and more. PCs like the Dell 14 with Intel Core Ultra processors will help you do more faster and with a premium suite of monitors and accessories, you can upgrade your whole setup with amazing savings. Visit Dell.com deals. Hey O welcome to the Hunter, the business podcast that knows that you need to be at your top form so your business can be at its best Every day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online and in today's lesson you will learn my paid Mastermind experience. Is it worth it? Is it worth paying for a mastermind or being part of a group? I went on this experiment personally to find out and because our previous episode on Masterminding and the different options got a lot of buzz, got a lot of listens and a lot of people are wondering will I get more value if I pay for my mastermind? Opposed to just creating it myself with people that I know well. I recently joined a paid coaching program that has a mastermind or a community that you pay for to be part of that community. And there's certain criteria so you can qualify to be a part of that community and it's not exactly cheap either. So it has to be worth it or it's just not worth paying. Every month I'll be sharing what I learned, what you get out of it, what the difference is when you have a paid mastermind how people in that group act differently than those groups that you don't pay for. And of course, the bottom line, is it worth it? Should you invest in paying to be a part of a group so you can get answers about how to improve your business? We get into all that in today's lesson. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Like I mentioned at the top of the episode, Nicole and I have joined a coaching program that also includes being part of a mastermind group, a group on Facebook, a group where you can chat. We do video calls as well, where you can ask people for advice to get questions, be held accountable. And this was really the first time I've paid to be a part of a group like this. And full disclosure, this is a $2,000 a month group. It's not cheap, but it's a good example to see. Is it really worth it? How is it different than being part of a mastermind that you don't pay for one, that you form on your own with the people that you know? And I've done this several times, and in fact, I am part of a mastermind group that is not paid currently still, so it's easy for me to compare. So let's talk about some differentiators. The first thing you notice when you enter a paid group like that is that the group is a whole lot more active. People are asking questions, people are commenting, people are giving advice, people are sharing wins and celebrating. When there's live calls, people are there, people don't miss them. There's just a lot more activity, and people are just taking it a lot more seriously. Why? Because they invested in it, they paid money, and they want to get out of it as much as possible. And as we know, we get out of something as much as we put in. So this is the number one benefit, I would say. And this is why I'm starting with this. Because a lot of times when you start a mastermind group on your own, you have a group of four or five people you meet regularly, let's say once a month. You might have a Slack channel or Facebook group that you form so you can chat back and forth. But it becomes less of a priority after a couple of months or maybe even half a year. Why? Things get busy and you start to realize, oh, you know, I don't have time for this. And when one person doesn't participate as much as the other, it starts to snowball. But when you have a group like this, everybody's paying. People are really trying Their best to get the most out of it. And because they do that, they get a lot out of it. So, so you're gonna get a lot more activity, a lot more participation, a lot more feedback from your questions and the things that you share with the group. Number two, when you're paying, you're not afraid to ask for help, you're not afraid to get more out of it. You expect more. Hey, I'm paying money. I need to get better, I need my questions answered, I need feedback. If I'm launching a new product and a new idea, I wanna get feedback and I expect it. Cause hey, I'm paying money. So you're not going to go dormant when you're doing that. When you're paying money, you're not going to go dormant. You're expecting, you have high expectations and therefore you're really going to be active. The next thing is that when you're paying for a program, it kind of becomes a barrier to entry. It allows it to kind of filter itself to people that are serious, that are willing to invest in themselves, that are making enough money, where this is a reasonable investment for them right now in this stage of their business. Sometimes we'll curate a group of people that we know and they're at different levels in their business. They may not be as serious. Maybe it's just a side hustle for them and for you it's a full time thing. It's, you know, everything is on the line here. You need to make sure that you succeed in business because that's how you pay your bills. If you're in a group with people that are not in that same position, it could be demotivating for you. It could be not as supportive for you. But if you have some sort of criteria like paying a monthly fee, then everybody kind of is on the same level. There's other criteria for this group as well, like you have to be making at least 10k or something like that in sales. You get the point. The paying is a sort of filter and a way to kind of get people to be a little serious and be at a certain level in their business. Number four, this is a big thing that I really appreciate in a paid group is that it's highly organized. Whoever is chairing or organizing this group has the obligation, since they're charging, to make sure it's organized, that there are regular meetups and events and there's regular calls and that the discussions are moderated and maybe even curated. So you're getting a more efficient and more I would say enjoyable experience because it's organized. I would compare this to, you know, playing pickup basketball and joining a league where you pay every month and you get uniforms and you get refs and you are in a nice, you know, indoor court and there's a digital scoreboard and all that stuff. It just is a better experience for you. And you get that experience because you're paying. And sometimes a better experience is all you need to really get into a groove and to really get the most out of it. A paid mastermind also allows you to network and meet people that you normally wouldn't. People that are doing some pretty interesting things, some significant things, people that are building great businesses. When you cure a mastermind yourself, or even if you join one, it's usually people you know, and it really doesn't evolve past that group. But in a paid system, in a paid group, there's new members coming all the time. There's formal introductions. There's a way to kind of network. There might be, you know, meetups in the real world, you know, in real life. So it's a great way for you to build your professional network as well, especially if your product or service can serve their needs. And a lot of times in those groups, their products and services, other people in the group serve your needs too, so you can support them as well. So I just highlighted a whole bunch of advantages to paid memberships. What about disadvantages? Well, obviously, you know, you gotta pay. That's one disadvantage, right? It's not free. What about anything else? Any other disadvantages I noticed so far? Not really, actually. Now I have to say disclaimer. I've only been part of this group for a month. I might do an update, you know, six months or a year from now. But so far, in summary, it has been worth it. It's hard to drop a large chunk of change on a regular basis, but it's a great way for you to get the training you need, to get the guidance you need to be a part of a good group of people that are going to motivate you and to inspire you to keep moving forward and get better in your business. You got to invest in yourself, especially as the leader of your company. At some point in your business, you're just not going to be able to do the same things and expect, you know, growth. You have to start doing different things. You have to start learning from other companies, you have to learn from other experts. And that's just not going to come by itself. You're going to have to, have to Seek it out and sometimes pay for it. And that's totally fine. People pay, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars for medical school to become a doctor. Paying a couple thousand dollars a month to learn business and become a better business, forge relationships, and to really evolve as an entrepreneur is a pretty good investment.

Want to sell your car your way? Who wouldn't? That's why CarMax offers a car selling experience designed just for you with online and in store options. Want to know what your car is worth quickly? Get an online offer in under two minutes. Want to think it over? Use OfferWatch to keep tabs on your car's value over time. Plus, CarMax offers flexible selling options with express drop off in store or pickup at home. Selling your car is in your control with CarMax. Want to drive CarMax pickup not available everywhere. Restrictions and fee may apply. See carmax.com for details.

Ugh. Could this vintage store be any cuter? Right? And the best part? They accept Discover. Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so. Jennifer. Oh yeah, huh? Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby, get with the times. Right? So we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback, I think. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide, based on the February 2025 Nielsen report. My final takeaway that I want to share with you when it comes to paid mastermind groups is that you need to take a close look at who is organizing this group, who's curating these members. I highly recommend you vet this person on your own. Have they done things that you would like to do in the future? Are they inspiring? What are their accomplishments? What can you learn from them? I say this because I did this myself and I was able to get some positive answers. And it's important to do this because unfortunately there are charlatans out there in this space who claim to be able to change your business and help you out and be a part of this group. And everybody kind of just pays the money because they feel like they have to and they're desperate for change and desperate for growth. You want to find someone who has built a group or built an environment that can take you where you want to go and has done it before. If they can't prove that to you, then I would keep on looking for a different group. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 MBA show. You know, I love doing these little experiments because I learn a lot through the experiment. I love sharing with you what I learn because I know that you're going to go through this or you have gone through this or are going through it right now, where you're making decisions on how to improve yourself, how to improve your business. I hope to do more of these in the future and share with you my results in future episodes. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I've never paid money for a conference, for a course, for a coaching program, for a book that I regret. Investing in yourself is one of the best investments you can make. You're going to learn something, you're going to get something, you're going to evolve, you're going to change as a person, as an entrepreneur. It's going to get added to your artillery of tools that you have as a thinker, as a builder, as a creator. And that's priceless because you can call upon those tools for the rest of your life. You can call upon the skills that you just built and the experiences that you went through. Yes, you know, masterminds, coaching programs, these are great options. But even books. I mentioned books. Books are one of the most valuable resources out there. A great biography, a great business book that I mentioned on a must read episode. It's going to cost you 10 bucks and it's going to give you at least 10 times as much value, if not thousands as much value. So invest in yourself and you'll never regret it. Alright, I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care. Of. If you, your parent or spouse served in the military, you could join our family. Our members saved an average of $70 a month on auto insurance when they switched. Tap the banner or visit usaa.com join today to check your eligibility restrictions apply.