Building Masterminds That Matter with Glen Ledwell

I was reluctant to start one. I had all this fear around it. How can I ask peers for money? Everyone's got a bit of imposter syndrome. I'm like, oh, and Tilman Knudsen, God love him, he was at one of my masterminds anyway. But Tilman, I said, man, look, I've got to be honest with you. Like, I've got the problem with asking peers, friends, money. And he just looked me right in the eye and he said, well, would you pay me money to be in a mastermind? I said, yeah, absolutely. He goes, well, I'd pay you too. He goes, if you don't do it, I'm going to do it.

Welcome to the Speakeasy Podcast, where the real conversations happen behind closed doors with the boldest entrepreneurs, creators, and growth minds in the game. No fluff, no filters, just the raw strategies, personal stories, and mental models that move the needle. I'm Eric Berman. Now let's get into it. In today's episode, I'm so excited to have a conversation with my partner at Speakeasy Mastermind. Mr. Glenn Weddell. And today we're going to cover really how Glenn has built an over-10-year extremely successful mastermind, all the things he learned about masterminds, what's worked, what hasn't worked, what makes his mastermind formula unique for success, and how it's actually woven into what you see at Speakeasy Mastermind today. And we're also going to cover some interesting things you may not know about Glenn, including how he actually had fear of public speaking and it was quite a story and how he got over it. And I'm going to share some of my stories in the same area as well. So excited today and let's get started. All right, Glenn Ledwell, my partner in crime. I'm so pumped to have you on today's podcast. Probably should have had you first, but you know, I didn't want to practice on you, Glenn. I want to, I need to impress you because yeah, I didn't want you to be saying like, what are we doing this podcast for? So I had a little bit of an experience under my belt. So good to see you today, mate.

You too, brother. Wow.

So we have a lot, so many cool things we can get into today. And I think certainly with you and I riffing, we're definitely going to be hitting a lot of stuff around masterminds and networking and building communities. Cause that, you know, you and I are so in it right now between Speakeasy and Flight Club. And for those of you that are listening the first time, yes, Glenn is one of my partners here at Speakeasy and he's been a brother from another, another mother's side of Australia, other side of the world. We've been buddies for probably what now? 20, how many years now, Glenn?

Oh, 15, mate. Yeah, 15.

Traveled the world together, had some fun. And for a long time, now let's just actually do a quick history lesson. And then we're going to get into some good stuff here because Glenn, you know, I met you back in San Diego. You lived in San Diego for a while. You had your company you were running for a while. Mind Movies was headquartered out of San Diego. And when we started our first, before it was a worldwide thing of Speakeasy, and we had just our local San Diego meetups with Asraf and Keenigs and a bunch of others, you were a core part of that group when we had our monthly meetups in pre-Speakeasy.

It was called the San Diego Downtown Mastermind. Remember?

All of us marketers. And that was the best name we could come up with. So, so talk me through, you know, we went there and you were doing first of all, just a little background because people that don't know you, you're one of the top marketers out there. You've been in the world of marketing forever and you built up a really killer business. It's been around for years, Mind Movies before. Just talk a little bit about that, what you're doing there and some of the core things you've been able to learn from that.

Yeah, I think from the beginning of Mind Movies, I mean, that was 18 years ago. I got online 18 years ago and really not knowing anything like complete technophobe. I mean literally I'm still the least technical person in the world. But what I realized very quickly was that it was really, you didn't have to be a technical genius, you needed to know marketing. They were the people making the real money. And I did, but again, I didn't, I couldn't even type. I still can't type. So getting to how we ended up both of us as mastermind junkies, what did I just naturally gravitate to was JVs. So much so, I ended up setting criteria that are still— people still go by in the personal development field because it was the Wild West back then, man. Like, yeah, the good and the bad thing was there was hardly any smart marketers, so I could be king. That was cool. But there was only a handful of real business-savvy marketers in the personal development space. So, but I got very good at joint ventures. I realized, you know, that's kind of my personality. So positioning yourself as the expert You know, being the leader in a group, I naturally gravitated to that. You know, the first product launch and whatnot, I, you know, got a lot of affiliates. I've always understood that relationship, what we get out of relationships. It's all about relationships. We hear it over and over again, but I guess I didn't even realize how much I knew, you know, because I'm like, I'm the new guy. But, you know, fast forward a couple of years when we had massive success. I mean, we, in our first 3 years, I think the third year we did $6 million. In volume, you know, from the get-go. Like, and it was all affiliate. Crazy when you think of those.

For those who don't know about Mind Movies, what are you selling there? Just real quick.

So Mind Movies is a personal development company, very law of attraction based, direct to consumer. Our first product was called Mind Movies. That's why the company's called Mind Movies, which is video creation software, basically a digital vision board. So you drag and drop positive present tense affirmations, music, and you make this little video of your perfect life. From then, of course, we've got dozens and dozens of programs now. We have certification program. We have everything now. Because it's been 18 years. Way back then we had one product that was selling for $100. Oh, by the way, when we're doing that kind of money, that was a $100 program.

Oh my gosh. You're selling some serious volume there. A lot of it was just from the JV land and that was just great. 90% of it. I remember back in that day, I mean, JVs were just kind of like becoming the thing within the personal development. I think even us at Brian Tracy, we were probably one of your earlier partners. And what's interesting again, cuz you and I are so similar in so many ways, like you probably look back and realize that prior to this work and being a professional in the world of marketing and the world we play in, you had natural instincts of being a good, a charismatic, good communicator. You love networking. You love being, you know, you're extroverted, being around people, even back in the days of going all the way back, Glenn, and I'm sort of cheating and sharing. You were running a club out there back in the day in Sydney, I think it was.

Yeah.

So, I mean, you were a people person, right?

Yeah. And you know, it's funny, like when I was in that nightclub for years and I had an events company as well, like, and believe me, the worst business in the world, but I didn't realize how much I was learning about human behavior all that time. And so many things in my first few years in this world, when I actually— I realized I'm actually a pretty good marketer naturally. What does that mean? I think it's because I understand people. I understand human behavior. Where did I get all that? Dealing with all the different personalities in the nightclub, you know, all the egos, and like unbelievable lessons there. You never know what you're learning, how much it's going to benefit you down the track, but it really did.

And that was just natural for you because it became easy because you were good at it and you You look in hindsight and you're all of a sudden realizing, why are we doing all this JV stuff? And it's just, you're good at it. I mean, and you didn't let you look back and say that was a natural skill that was better than a lot of others at the time. And so therefore you took advantage of that and got some success. So now you're doing Mind Movies for a while. And I remember this because you started this incredible high-level marketing mastermind. And I remember you talking to us years ago and invited me to the first one. And, and looking back, I think what's 11 years now, Folly Club Mastermind was birthed. Back in the day, and I remember you started doing that and I've been an OG there forever. So walk me through, you go from Mind Movies and obviously you got this JV skill that's tremendous. So how do you decide to go launch a mastermind?

Well, the thing was, I was a junkie from the beginning. I, Frank Kern, his very first mastermind, might've even be his only mastermind actually he ever did. I joined when I was a dead set newbie and I saw the value in that, you know, being around people, lift, elevating your game. There's a lot of things we can get into to do with that. Jeez, we're paying all this money that we can't afford. We better damn make sure it's, you know, better make sure it's worth it. Yeah. But elevating. So I was all, I was right from the get-go. I was okay, masterminds are the go. Now fast forward, what, 5, 6 years? And you know, I got a lot of reach and a lot of credibility, mainly through joint ventures, right? I really become a mastermind junkie. Like, I mean, I think when I started Flight Club, I was in 4, 4 paid ones. I used to go to another dozen or so a year.

I mean, let's talk about that before I started to cut you off, but that's scary. You're spending, I mean, I remember going through that and I'm sitting there saying, shit, there's like a $25K Mastermind, $50K. So you said, I'm going all in on that. You leaned into it and you had success. How did you, how do you know you had success? Like, how were you measuring the ROI? I've been watching you a little bit. I'm scared to do that.

Yeah. I mean, because every time you'd be, you know, with peers, oh, what are you doing? Oh, doing this amazing thing. The thing I really realized, like, this is kind of leading up to why did I start one? I wasn't. Interested in starting one. I just love going to them. I wish I could go to my own now. It's very different running it. But I saw the need where even though I was going to these masterminds, what I realized, my own peers, who was that? They were my top affiliates, right? Who I was good friends with, a lot of them, right? A lot of them. I'd realize every time we'd get together socially once a year or whatever, we'd just have a conversation and something that might make us a million bucks that next few months. It was just insane. So I realized making myself be in front of my peers is going to really help my business apart from all the other milestones in learning all this other cool stuff, keeping up to date. I thought I need to bring my peers to me or I need to go to them. So that was the first idea. Why did I start one? I was reluctant to start one. I had all this fear around it. How can I ask peers for money? It was crazy. I'd been around a while. I was pretty well known. I had a lot of credibility, but you still don't back yourself, right? Everyone's got a bit of imposter syndrome. I'm like, oh, I'm spending all this money. What if I do that? And how am I going to ask people for money? How am I going to ask people who I think are smarter than me? And Telman Knudsen, God love him, he was at one of my masterminds. I used to do this one a year for like an affiliate prize. And I never forget it, this is just before I started it. And he goes, why don't a few people— Roland Fraser used to say to me, why don't you start one? Mark Anthony Bates, Tillman Knutson, a few of these people are pretty big names anyway. But Tillman, I said, man, look, I've got to be honest with you, like I've got the problem with asking peers, friends, yeah, money. Yeah. And he just looked me right in the eye and he said, well, would you pay me money? To be in a Mastermind? I said, yeah, absolutely. He goes, well, I'd pay you too. He goes, if you don't do it, I'm gonna do it. Oh, we're all standing and everything, right? And I went, all right.

He knew how to get you going. All right. So that, yeah, he did.

He did. And I guess I'll be the first one to join, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I put the wheels in motion. So I had a bit of pressure, to be honest, knowing that it would be good for me, like good for my business. I wasn't doing it to make a lot of money. Out of the actual mastermind. I still don't, but I saw the other benefits of having peers together. So in the beginning, probably 60% of Flight Club was all my top, top affiliates. So I mean, talk about win, win, win, win, win.

Got it.

You know, making a bit of money to bring all my absolute peers to be in front of me 3 or 4 times more a year. I mean, it was a slam dunk, no-brainer now that I look back on it. But at the time, it was frightening, you know, absolutely frightening.

Yeah, I can imagine. And it's funny you say that because one of the lessons I learned when I was, you know, running the agency for a while was I actually, I could totally relate to that pricing thing. I still get scared because part of being that JV biz dev is all relationships, right? So how do you act? Like it's almost that weirdness to ask your friends for money. I sort of combated that because I fired myself out of pricing. Even today, like, I'm like, I don't know, like, no matter what, I'm like, I talk to somebody else, you know, even, you know, Speakeasy Mastermind, it's Glenn's fault. You know, it's pride. I don't, you know, I blame you. You know, when you're not on the call, it's good having a partner. I'm never, I try to get out of all pricing conversation because you're right. It's a weird feeling.

Yeah. It took me a long time, like a long time to get comfortable with it. It really did. It really did. Like I'm talking years and years, you know.

All right. So I want to go back again. I want to take me back to, you know, 11 years ago, you're doing your first one. And, you know, what's the vision like? What do you see as you've been to all these masterminds and you're spending a lot of money a year going, what do you see as other than these benefits for you to bring in these people? But what about the world of, because a lot of what we want to cover today is just the world of masterminds. Like what's out there? What's different? What did you see? What did you want to bring to the table to make Flight Club what it is even today? You know, being a success 11 years later.

Yeah. Well, you know, the idea was I'll do this, I'll do a test. But if I do it, I want it to be what I consider the ultimate mastermind, a real mastermind. I'm going to explain what I mean by that. And what I did, I basically, I was in a few different ones, like I said, and I can say this now because Alex Mendozian, about 6 years ago when he joined Flight Club, I mean, he's the godfather of masterminds, right? Yeah. He said to me, Glenn, you know what you've done here? You've got the tactics and strategies of War Room, the fun and the, you know, all that connection of Mavericks, which I was in both those, and the networking of Genius. Now, I hadn't been in Genius, but I kind of got what he meant. And I went, you're not going to believe when I started Flight Club, this is exactly what I thought, but I didn't tell anyone. The tactics, the strategies, the war room, the fun, all the fun connection stuff we do, Mavericks. But I want it more intimate and I want to focus more on connection. That's exactly what I thought to do. And I thought, okay, so it's so funny when Alex repeated that back to me 5 or 6 years later. But that's again what I thought, okay, so I've gotta bring the right people. And again, this is no judgment to any mastermind, but I think most of the really good ones, not all, but most, I think they're all a little bit big. I think they're more like a little seminar than a mastermind. Again, no judgment. I used to get value, still do get value out of all kinds of masterminds. But I'm just saying, in my opinion, what I thought they were lacking. I think they're all a little bit big. None of them focus on connection. They'll do the social stuff is like, oh, a dinner and drinks, but there's no deliberate, I call it deliberate fun about getting people together. So it's very difficult to meet people. I think that's the biggest thing that most of them miss. And then you might have one that's lots of connection and fun, but then there's no tactics, there's no strategies. So to me, again, what I like, tactics, strategies. Let's connect because the most value in my opinion in being in a mastermind, a real mastermind with high-level people, not some high-level people, some medium-level people, some— no, again, that's the guru model, right? That's not— if it's all peers, and to be completely honest, I wanted it so I didn't have to be killing myself creating content too. I want it to be peers because it's the Mastermind I want. And let's be honest, it'll be easy for me too.

You want to learn from them.

I present maybe once a year, sometimes not even. It's not about that. I never wanted it to be about a guru or about the particular— I'm the facilitator. So I wanted— that's what I saw. There was a room for a group like that, which is obviously what I did my best to create. More intimate. 60 people I've found is the absolute sweet spot. 50 to 70. 80 is too many. 40 is not enough.

Why?

If it's bigger than that, you lose something. I've done 80, 100. You know, I've done 20, 30. You lose something. Small, you lose energy. If it's too small, you lose— it's the same people every time. That 50, 60 amount, it's enough. It's big enough where you've got 20, new people. You can be a member for 10 years, but it's small enough after you come to one event, because the way we curate it, you walk away with 20, 30, 40, 50 new friends.

Yeah, it's hard. I mean, let me just comment in there as somebody who's been there forever. And this is why I love you as a partner, even at Speakeasy, because you and I are so aligned in like kind of what we see as benefits of masterminds, all those things you said. And you can obviously see the threads of that, you know, as we evolved even Speakeasy and talked about it.

Oh, totally.

Yeah. It is the same thing, you know, where, you know, the local meetups being intimate, you know, it's the exact same stuff. And I love the fact, and I always, and people question I've seen you turn people away because you're like, nope. You know, once we hit that peak, it's there for those reasons. You want to keep that quality. And, you know, as a— and I don't know if you know if I've told you this, you know, but a lot of times, you know, I'll go and every time you go, it's like, you know, every time I go to an event, it's like, okay, you know, I got to— I'm so busy. I got to shut down the momentum I have right now.

I got to go.

Is it worth it? In my head, you know, was it worth it? You know, I spent the money, the time, you know, some of it's the money. A lot of it's the time, right? You know, getting out to these groups. And like, sure enough, every time you come back, you're like, fuck, I'm glad I went. Like, you know, if nothing else, having the, you know, the access, right? The access to a community where, you know, you could call on people and the answer is yes. The answer is these are people who normally would not take a call. We'll take a call from people in a community, a good community that you curate. And how do you describe value to that? It's so hard to. And then when you do it, like in Flight Club, when you've done it for, you know, the kind of people you've done over the years. Keeping at that and just knowing I had that group of people is really special and knowing they're the caliber that you're able to curate. So, I mean, you've obviously nailed it. I mean, I'll definitely congrats on that and continue to go in strong, which is amazing. And hopefully we'll see more and more amazing people continue to go into there, into Flight Club. And just, yeah, just the strategies of, as you said that, I mean, again, I'm thinking about, you know, a little bit of the diff of what we've done in Speakeasy Mastermind because we don't have this global, we have those intimates and the locals. We have still the tactics and yeah, some fun. So, you know, same concept, but just done a different way, taking it on some different term, one thing I want to kind of talk about is I try to bring out some vulnerability on some of these calls. And I know, because I've heard you say this, but I want to dig into this for a second, Glenn. You've had— okay, people may not know this, and I've had too— you've had a little bit of a stage fright out there. Like, you're running these events. God, talk to me about that. I mean, I mean, nobody— you're so confident, Glenn. You're out there, you're the man. You're—

I mean, like, 14 years ago, I think it is. Until then, I couldn't do a speech at a wedding. I was— what? Petrified. My own wedding, I remember I was shaking to do a speech to my friends that I knew. Everyone away, I would freeze up. I'd have notes, I couldn't read, couldn't think. It was crazy, this unbelievable fear. So I can even tell the look on someone's face because I know the feeling so well, right? But I told myself all the first 5 years, whatever, I'm in the business, oh, I don't I don't present because I kept getting asked, right? I'm not the face of my movies. I'm behind the scenes. And then I started to realize this is affecting my business. And here we are out there telling people to get out of their own way, take a step, and I'm like, I've got this fear. So anyway, long story short, I said it to a few friends I knew would hold me accountable. If I get asked, I'm going to speak. So then the crusher, crusher happens. I met, I think it was the second ever Awesomeness Fest in Maui. Alex Katoni was running the event. I remember that. And Vishen asked Natalie and I to speak. Natalie, my business partner, Natalie. Mindset and business. So I'm like, oh, all right, it's the two of us. Maybe I'll be able to do that. Anyway, the long story short to this is I knew this stuff inside out. It was joint venture stuff, which I know inside out. Leading up before the presentation, I was frozen. Anyway, again, the long story short, I drunk about half, three-quarters of a bottle of vodka. Like, I kept a bit, come back, a bit, come back. I'd go back and Natalie goes, you just kept going. Like, I'd look, do the slides make sense? No. I'd go back, then I'd come back. Like, this went on for like an hour. Apparently it went all right. So anyway, at that event I met Yannick Silva, and he's like, you know, remember Underground? I mean, Underground was the big event. That was the event of Piers. And he goes, oh man, you should speak at the next Underground. And I don't really speak, even though I said that I won't say no. He goes, well You're speaking here. And I went, oh yeah. Anyway, again, long story short, I was sick in the stomach when they emailed me, told me. I remember where I was sitting. I was sick. Oh my God, how am I going to do it? Again, long story short, I get introduced the week before. I don't know, how am I going to do this? This is a big production, spy themes, like unbelievable, right?

Did you ask for a bottle of vodka and the writer?

Oh, now I can tell you. I can tell you what, actually, that story too. Anyway, I met at a— who's an amazing friend of ours, Michael Burnoff. Obviously he's in Speakeasy Mastermind in Scottsdale. That's how I met him. I got introduced through a friend, flew out to Scottsdale on a Saturday morning. He did this process, an NLP process, boom, and fixed it. Then gave me some tips on presenting. The next week I walk out 500 or 600 peers on this rockstar stage. And it was funny. I said, what am I going to do if I shit the bed? What am I going to do? I said this to Michael and he goes, oh, we'll come up with something funny. You know, would you phone a friend? And I go, oh, I've got this old '80s style phone, but it's a hip flask, right? Yeah, I'll put some tequila in it, right? So anyway, I was gonna tell the story, and oh, I've got this phone a friend, but in this I was going to do this, but I forgot because I was still nervous. Anyway, what happens? The slides just completely shit, like, and I see Natalie running around to out the back. I would have had to just walk off the stage. I would have been— I just would have been devastated, right? And then I remembered, oh, when I was telling you about Michael, when I was doing it, I said, what if this happens? And it's happened. So he said, well, Glenn, you just got to take a second and phone a friend, right? So I had to do it. And I go, I don't know if you notice this '80s-style phone here for the spy theme, but I go, in Australia, we don't phone a friend, we have a drink. And tequila. You reckon anyone remembers anything else about that presentation except that? The funniest part about that was when Janik come on stage, he goes, so what is that? I go, Klasse. He goes, I got a drop. So he goes, oh, okay. It wasn't real. Yeah. So anyway, from then I got over it. I do get a little bit nervous sometimes still, but I mean, it's years and years. I couldn't do anything I've done in the last decade. None of it.

What about that? Was terrible. I mean, I think I shared that we have a similar thread in that, even with Berndhoff. And I told him, I like, you know, because I had a Back in my first company, I had a moment where I froze. I was doing orientation with a group of new trainees at my first company many, many years ago, and out of nowhere I just froze. And ever since then, that's been in the back of my mind that I've been afraid. Like even with Brian Tracy, I was going to go on stage, same, same exact thing, dude. You and I are like mirrored. I'd be like, why don't you come on and present? I literally like got scared, sweaty. I opted out. I'm like, nope, too scared. I literally had somebody else do the presentation. And then I called Burnoff and, you know, Michael, you know, definitely helped me as well. And To some degree, but same thing, like you and I even talk about it. It's like, you know, you guys see Glenn and I on stages in an Orangeville event. It's almost like we know we have each other as wingmen. So one of us freezes.

It makes it easier. You're right.

Let's progress forward a little bit. Cause I also want to talk about just, you know, communities today, where they're at. You know, you and I were, you know, like I said, fast forward a lot of years, you know, you're still running Flag Club. And then, you know, I had this, we had this dinner group that you knew about in San Diego and Speakeasy and what became Speakeasy. You and I came together and said, hey, let's do something, you know, bigger, different, or actually bigger in addition to, let's go broad, you know, walk me through from your perspective a little bit of like, you know, you know, what you saw there and what's got you excited and in the form of just building community like today and what you're looking for.

I think, yeah, I mean, obviously I remember that conversation. I remember just saying to you, so, okay, so we're talking about a worldwide thing. We're talking about a local meetup, like something like a BI, you know, EO, whatever. Style. I remember talking about that and that, that really excited me because, well, you know, I love masterminds. And the thing is, you know, Flight Club, you know, is this very intensive 3-day thing, but what it doesn't have is a local meetup. And it has a cap of 60 people. So I'm limited in that way. We don't have a local meetup. So I'm like, this is the perfect complement for Flight Club or, and, or, and as you know, like Half the captains are Flight Club members. We launched it at Flight Club Speakeasy. So it is a perfect, it really is a perfect complement to anyone that's in Flight Club and vice versa, you know? So I remember thinking that and I like, remember the questions I asked you, like, and this is a bit of a share just generally with Masterminds. I go, okay, so as you know, Eric, like with Flight Club, it's not always paying for people who were there. They're paying for who's not there. People don't get that. Like, I'm sure everyone can relate. All the high end, no matter how high end something is, there's always a couple of those douchey show-off taker people and they're allowed in the group because they're smart and successful, right? And you know, with Flight Club, never. They would never get— I do a video call with every single person before.

It's so funny. We've seen so much of it now. You and I kind of give each other the wink and nod when we sense it.

We look at each other and we're like, I'm feeling it too.

And it's the same thing. We already know.

So that I just call it be a cool person thing. And I kind of, I joke about it, but I remember I go, obviously Speakeasy. Yeah, sure. It's gonna be a bit broader. Doesn't have to be as high in it. I mean, Flight Club's, you know, kind of this level, you know? Yeah. Speakeasy Mastermind, you know, as you know, still gotta be a savvy entrepreneur, a savvy business person. You gotta be able to contribute. You don't have to be doing millions of dollars and being, you know, been around for 5, 10 years. It's not as specific like Flight Club, which I like too. Flight Club's very specific and intimate on the online marketing realm. I like the other part. I like with Speakeasy Mastermind Mastermind, got the local, but it's a bit broader. The criteria is a little easier to bring people in because they don't have to be this level online marketers at that level as long as they're marketing-centric. So I love the broadness, the little bit broad. I shouldn't say it's not broad, but I do like that it's a little bit broader.

And, you know, still ensuring— and one thing, you know, obviously are just beating the drum on as we go out to different leaders is making sure that quality is all about quality. And, you know, we got good feedback at even a recent event about, you know, people showing up and being so excited about the quality remaining high. And, you know, for those of you who don't know, you know, we had a quick start and we kind of did a little bit of a pause recently just because we're like, we got to look at quality control. We got to make sure this thing doesn't get out of hand and we just throw anybody in this thing. We got to really make sure we're finding people. I like the way you position it, Glenn. You always talk about how like, you know, is this something that you're going to want to spend 3 hours having a conversation and learning from, you know, or, and Asraf talks about this a lot, you know, you know, going to events and feeling like you just sat there and got the energy drained out of you because people are just, you know, asking you questions and pelting you versus you being able to like reciprocate and say, well, you know, what can you share with me? You know, that's, you know, high value and quality. And that's something we continue to look for.

That's really the thing too. I mean, it's the kind of, That's the thing that we've really come through from Flight Club into Speakeasy Mastermind. Yeah, okay, it's a little bit different person, but the cool person part is key. And what do people— and I know this from Flight Club all these years— people go, oh, the tactics are amazing. But generally it always comes down to the people. The people, people are amazing. People are amazing. People are amazing. Connection's amazing. Now remember when we started Speakeasy Mastermind, we didn't know for sure we'd achieve that. We didn't know everyone in the group. We're not interviewing every single person for every single chapter. I mean, it's impossible. But I remember our first big event that we did last year. I remember on the first day going that— sure, it was a bigger event and not as intimate, but I remember feeling and thinking that we were able to achieve the cool person part.

Oh yeah.

Because people kept raving, I've never met so many people. I've never met so many. Yeah, sure. That's the curation that obviously we took from all the success in Flight Club. But the bigger part, the people, the people, we've been able to transfer the type of people to our leaders. We were obviously, we knew that last year that we achieved that and this year we saw even better.

It's funny because we can't position that. It's hard to position that as a first, you know, Flight Club, Speakeasy Mastermind, or anybody else out there looking to build a community. It's hard to go out there and say, Hey, we're going to build something that you're going to have new friendships and relationships. But ultimately that's like what ends up happening. And that's one of the stickiest things is, you know, you and I are looking around some of these groups that we have out there and you look at Flight Club and all that and the kind of friendships that are formed. I'm sure you feel the same way I do. That's actually one of the things that I get the most joy from. I mean, yes, the learning and all that, and there's the business side. But when I see, when I get a phone call that like, hey, Eric, and you know, You introduced me to this person. I met them through this and now we're doing this. Thank you for that, making that happen.

Yeah.

That's what we're doing this for at the end of the day, right? That's the best joy.

Let's be honest, right? It's strategic partnerships, which is great.

That's right. Great.

As long as it's cool people, they happen to have similar interests. Being in business. It's amazing. I mean, nearly all my friends, nearly all my friends are in our kind of business, you know?

Yeah.

Right.

As I guess, as we wind up a little bit for anybody out there who's got members, has got an audience, has got a niche, you know, thinking about the worlds of masterminds, building a community, what do you say? What feedback or advice do you have?

Yeah, I think focus on— I'm going to say what not to do, what everyone does. Everyone, and there's again, no judgment. I understand it. Primary business, it's all about the money, all about the money. Now, when it's all about money, it's very difficult to make the same decisions when it's not about the money, right? When I started Fly Club, I didn't even need the money. So whether someone joined for $20,000 or $30,000 or didn't, it didn't change my bottom line that month ever. So it was very easy for me to make those decisions. Other people maybe don't have that luxury, but getting to the point, if you're starting a mastermind, as best you can, think about the people because you let one or two of those people you shouldn't have let in, they can ruin the entire group and then you'll make no money because you're in your work and your group will fall apart. I can't stress this enough. And it's the hardest part of running any group. And if you do let one of them in and you realize you've got to get rid of them immediately, and that's the very hard— I'd never kicked anyone out in 11 years in Flight Club, and I had to kick 2 people out last year within a few minutes of each other. One was brand new, more now. I just found out they weren't in integrity. So I'm like, and people are like, oh my God, I can't believe you kicked them out. See, because most people would— I know, I want the money. They wouldn't think big picture, but this is going to destroy the community.

Yeah. And I remember the feedback and the respect that you got, Glenn, when you did that and announced it. Community came to your rescue. And I think that just bought a lot of credibility from you. I thought that, but I was still scared to do it. Yeah. You know? Yeah. That's amazing. And I agree, like, you know, you and I are obviously bullish on a world of community and masterminds. And I look even today as we all are running scared to some degree and the fear of unknown in the world of AI. And I'm constantly asking myself, what business am I in and how AI-proof is it? And hopefully people are thinking about that question too. And, you know, as we look at building community, I get excited. I actually say not only AI, well, I guess everything could be replaced by the AI bots in the world of, you know, the avatars and robots, but I don't know what kind of community you really want to build. That might be way into the future, but who the hell knows? Maybe that's next year. But I think, you know, us building community and real relationships and masterminding with people is arguably more important today than it's ever been. So, you know, I encourage anybody listening. You know, two things. One is, you know, find your tribe, your community slash communities, you know, it could be more than one. Those that you can learn from, get support from, you know, grow together. It's lonely clearly to, you know, go, especially as entrepreneurs because you can't necessarily go to your staff to ask the right questions. There's a lot of like, you know, am I doing the right thing? And, you know, just having a peer is so important. And if you're ever thinking about, you know, another revenue, you know, part of your own business, then certainly, you know, look towards building community or masterminds within your own niche. There might be something there. You know, Glenn and I'd be happy to, you know, chat with you about that if you ever wanted to get some advice or just run ideas by us. Love to hear on that. But yeah, I know I'm pretty pumped about our future and, you know, it's been great working with you, Glenn, and we're excited where we're going to be headed in this world. And hopefully we get to serve lots more people and pumped after our call prior to this, we were talking to a group in the outside of US and hopefully we'll get that going. Love seeing the international chapters come together. Any sort of final words of wisdom you want to share today?

Yeah, I think just on that, like you hit the nail on the head. If you're not in a mastermind, get in one. Whether it's one of ours, that's great. If not, you've got to surround yourself with like-minded people and you hear it all the time. Well, that's because it's true, right? There's nothing more powerful. We're living proof of this. So if you're not in one, get in one. And as you said, if you are thinking about starting one, just think about, okay, what's the group that I want to be in? That's what I did. What's the group that doesn't exist? What's— just don't do another group the same as someone else. Like I said, I'm gonna stress it again. The people, not just smart, not just at a decent level, but cool, nice people. I can't stress that enough. If you do that, if you put, and even you screw up everything else, you put the right people in a room, you'll be successful. You know, you'll have a good mastermind, you know.

Love it. Love it. Well, thank you so much, Glenn, for your time today. And I know you and I'll be chatting a lot more this week as we always do. And appreciate everybody for listening in today.

Cheers, brother. Good to be here, man.

Cheers. And that's a wrap from the Speakeasy Podcast. If something sparked for you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, review it, and pass it to the one person who needs to hear this right now. Want in on the real mastermind? Tap the link in the show notes to apply. Until next time, keep scaling, stay sharp, and don't be the smartest one in the room.