Proven Strategies for Industry-Specific Mastermind Groups with Clay Lamb
In this episode of the Mastermind Mastery podcast, host Tina Corner Stolz interviews industry veteran Clay Lamb about his long‑standing Management Information Exchange (MIX) mastermind groups, which focus on blue‑collar trades such as chimney, fireplace, masonry, and related contracting businesses. Clay explains how he built his groups over 26 years, starting with a list of 100 contacts and growing to multiple ongoing cohorts. He details the 90‑minute online session format: a welcome round, a hot‑seat presentation, a question‑only segment, a 20‑minute brainstorming period, and a closing where each participant commits to three actionable goals. The groups run on the video platform Whereby, allowing eight participants to see each other, record sessions, and maintain engagement through consistent follow‑ups and referrals. Clay discusses his YouTube channel “Ask the Chimney Sweep,” created to educate employees and customers, and how repurposing video content (shorts, long‑form, AI‑enhanced editing) drives authority, local SEO, and new member acquisition. He addresses recording policies, emphasizing selective sharing for paying members and confidentiality concerns, especially when personal topics like family or marriage arise. The conversation highlights the importance of integrating personal life issues into business discussions, as they affect entrepreneurs’ performance. Finally, Clay advises listeners to plan monetization strategies for mastermind groups and content platforms, treat profit as essential for sustainability, and to document and adhere to a clear revenue model.
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Welcome everyone to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. This is the podcast for you if you are wanting to create or already running peer groups. It's what we call PACs, Peer Advisory Councils. They might be known as mastermind groups, CEO peer groups, all the same. But this is the podcast if you want to run better PACs, that you want to be better at being a moderator, you want to up your game, learn advanced techniques, hear from myself as well as guests, what works, new concepts, trends, techniques. Also learn content, things you could take back to your meetings, different ways to do different things to solve problems that we all have when we're running groups. It will increase your retention, reduce your attrition, get you more members, make you more money. This is the podcast for you. I'm Tina Corner Stolz. The host. I've been doing this since 2005. I built a territory of 10+ groups, sold for a multiple, started Ellis Council, Leader Exchange Council, in 2012. We are a licensing model. We are the leading educator in the peer advisory council space. We have the podcast. I have a licensing program with certification. I've written 2 books. So today, when you hear this episode, each and every week it's a new podcast where we dive deep into a topic for 15-20 minutes. One week it's me doing a deep dive on all the experience and insights from not only today with our entire licensed partner community, or the past, um, what I've learned along the way. But we also have guests that are out there doing groups today that share their insights and new concepts. So let's get started with today's episode.
Welcome everyone to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. I'm your host, Tina Corner Stolz, and today we have a guest. That guest is going to enable you to have a couple of takeaways. One, I expect for you to get some ideas if you're thinking about doing a very industry-specific group. Our guest today is going to share one that you might not have ever heard of and then also share a little bit about the format and you'll learn some things of just a few different nuances that might up your game with the current groups that you might be doing. So with that, I want to welcome Clay Lamb to the show today. Welcome, Clay.
Greetings. How are you today?
You know, great. And thanks for joining us. And Clay, could you tell our listeners today just a little bit? Number one, where are you?
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Okay, excellent. And a little bit about kind of how you started and got into what you call your MIX groups. And I'll let you explain what that, that stands for because it stands for something. And just— but how did— how was your journey on how you got to running these kinds of groups?
Well, it's not a difficult question, so it's pretty easy for me. I started about— I started my business 43 years ago and it migrated that I always want to learn more information from other people. And Tina, it seems like I always learned in the hallways, the conferences. I learned in the lobbies talking to people, and I learned also just by just taking somebody out for breakfast. And what I learned was amazing about the— just the blue-collar goal that we're sitting in. I am in blue-collar business. I was in chimney, fireplace, and masonry business for a number of years, but I realized our industry was missing something. So I sat down, I made a list of 100 names And I called all of them and 49 agreed to join a MIX group, which was Management Information Exchange or MIX Mastermind Exchange. They've migrated differently over the 26 years.
Yes.
And that's amazing. I want everybody to kind of take that in. You have been doing groups that long.
Yeah.
Yes.
Excellent. Well, I have to ask this question before we get into your format. Sure, because you've been doing them that long. What has been, you think, your biggest learning after doing all of that, all of them?
Probably that there's a need out there for people to have associates with other people in our industry. They're looking for someone to talk to, some to bounce ideas around, to reflect ideas instead of asking their employees. They want to have other peers to talk to. And it's so important just to assemble put the dots together. That's what I call it. That's what it is. People are learning from each other. And I just did one yesterday, mixed group, and it was just really interesting. The new people are coming in the way they could ask for help, and they really enjoy it. So that way.
Yes.
And just also, I do YouTube videos. I don't know if you know that or not.
Yes. So I want to get to that, by the way. And so we're going to circle back to that with the groups that you do. So first of all, tell the audience like how, how many groups are you doing, and then a little bit about the format.
Well, there's the first original ones I start with, 3 years or 3 groups. They're still in existence now. I transferred over to a very competent other, uh, facilitator moderator, and it's really— she does a wonderful job for them. And I just started recently this last year, I picked up the idea I'm going to go ahead and move this over into an online platform. It's worked really well. I found the key ingredient for me was when you do an online platform is that everybody knows a time frame that we're going to be talking about what you're welcome, what you're greeting, what's the best things happen to you. Then we have what we call hot seat person. Someone's on a hot seat and then they explain what's going on in their business. Then we move over into what I'm going to call is questions. No answers, but just questions. You know, what is this? You know, how long you been doing this? How many employees do you have? Things like that. But then we move into a segment of about 20 minutes where we're just trying to offer suggestions that would help them grow their business. And it really ends up with, uh, 3 goals for themselves, or what I want to call— you want to just make sure, you know, what are 3 things that you want to do, accomplish? What are commitments you're going to make, things like that.
Right.
And so you do all of this in 90 minutes?
Yes, ma'am.
Online. And when you say an online platform, just help— what does that mean for our audience when you say you have an online platform?
Good, good point. There's a number you could use them or anything else. I use Whereby. It works out really well for me. I do it on two of the things on a Saturday morning, another group, and that works out well whereby I can get 8 people on the screen at one time. I can see them, we're talking, we're engaging back and forth. I can record it. It works out really well for me, and it just opens up ideas for me. Now, I'm the moderator. I act in that position, and it really helps me to— that I'm— if they want questions, or if it goes stall and slows down, I can trigger another question to get more stimulation going on in the conversation. But normally you don't have to do that. Normally there's enough fire going on, you want to keep the thing rolling like that. But I always precede that we're going to wind this up in the last group. What's your best takeaway? And it's amazing because somebody's, oh, I forgot about that one. I forgot about that one. They're writing it down. Yes. Good.
Yes. Well, I love that you end on takeaways because I think that's very important. Yeah, absolutely. And so let's kind of go back for a second with the audience because it's very specific who you're putting together in groups. Because of your background. And so that's chimney sweeps. And there's another profession.
Well, they started with chimney sweeps, then masonry contractors, and there's people that also own stores, fireplace stores. So they're all talking the same thing, the same products, manufacturers, and use of the customer. And I think the residential contracting market— I don't care if it's plumbers, electricians, handymen, enormous growing field for just mixed groups or concepts or just what you're doing. Exactly. Just huge opportunities.
Absolutely. And so then these, they're together, same people together, obviously month over month. And how do you determine who is a right fit in each group when it's industry kind of specific like that?
Well, I reach out to people that I like. That I feel would be an asset into the group. I want them to be able to bring something. I don't want them just to be harvesting for themselves, but they have experience. They've had good experience, bad experiences, and they're willing to communicate that. A lot of them are husband and wives, a lot of them are two partners together. They just mix it up like that. I like 7 or 8 people in a group because it seems like there's always somebody that's got a problem or an issue they can't do that week. And that works out fine. But the other key is when you're doing it— me and my groups are 90 minutes long. The other thing is I stay in a real consistent contact with them all month. I don't want to just let it go dry and all of a sudden, ta-da, here we are. I want to make sure I'm seeing something on Facebook. I might call them about— somebody asked me about estimating scaffolding prices today, which I had a good conversation with them this morning. So I keep that door pretty open. I like to keep that because they bring fresh ideas all the time, and I play tag with somebody else. Can I help this other guy with that idea? Because there's nothing new under the sun. It's like we just have to repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. But there's a lot of people just in some verbal engagement. We do a lot of referrals, Tina. I mean, it's amazing how many people refer somebody else to get into a Mastermind Mix group, or just that really helps out a lot.
No, when you do a good job, referrals should come. So that's a good testimonial to you that they, they do that for you.
Well, I've been in the industry, and I think also when you have a chance to speak— like, I have two speaking engagements coming up, uh, one was in New York and one will be here in Cincinnati for national conventions. And, uh, I would think that if somebody's starting a mastermind group or mix group, they should take some public speaking it makes you much more comfortable to talk to other people. And you may get some heebie-jeebie nerves, but you get over it because these are your buddies, these are your friends. They have the same problems that I had for 43 years.
Yes. Yes.
Well, it's a good segue into your videos because.
Right.
And, and I would love the audience to hear a little bit about your videos and kind of why you do them. And then a little bit about how does that help you with your groups?
Okay, as well, let me do this. First off, my, my YouTube channel right now is Ask the Chimney Sweep, and I started that about 13 years ago, and it was just to educate my employees about different products and things like that, but it migrated over to our customers. And Tina Corner Stolzl, when we web, web connected that to my website, it was unbelievable the algorithm that Google liked that they saw my videos on there and they get— because Google is based locally, you know, that's the important thing. I, I'm in a regional area in Cincinnati. Other home contractors build it for your group in Cincinnati, worked out fine. And I'd highly recommend, if you don't feel comfortable making YouTube videos, there's editors on Fiverr, there's other people could do it. The trick that I did on building videos was I took my other monitor— you can't see over here— but I put probably about 25 to 30 folders on here. If I saw a picture of a chimney fire, if I saw a picture of a firebox, they had a problem, or if I saw a chimney cap, or I saw a truck logo, I'd keep putting those in there. And I kept building inventory, inventory. That way, when I wanted them, I just reach in. I had 50 subjects to talk about and create. And I can keep doing it over and over, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And, uh, as, as I'm doing things now, I'm adopting a lot of AI. There's a lot of great products in AI, but they still want a personal touch. I want to take a lot of my older videos and repurpose them. I can break those into shorts, and I also can mend those together to make longs. YouTube likes 8 to 10 minutes. They can get 2 ads in there by the time, so it works out really good. So it's a whole new venture for me. I'm getting it really done. Let's go again, rinse and repeat. Here we go.
Yes.
Have you seen where it has helped drive new members for you?
I think people know me in my industry because of that. That was what they would call me and ask me. And our first group really started about 8 weeks ago. We just jumped into this online platform because I had to figure out some bugs. How would it work? How would we make sure we have the communication lines and how to record it for if somebody wasn't there, the value of it. But to answer your question, are there people in my industry? Yes. But more and more likely they've heard me speak someplace or something and seen my YouTube video and they'll ask me about it. It's an engagement. Absolutely. Yeah, it works out really well. I like YouTube.
Yes.
And yes. And YouTube is a great avenue for you showcasing your expertise.
Right.
And that goes hand in hand with the type of group that you're doing. And that, you know, what I'm hoping the listeners are hearing today is with the groups that you're doing, whether they're the traditional, like, CEO leader groups or very industry-specific like you, that somehow showcasing your expertise, um, is kind of essential so that people feel comfortable that you have what it's going to take to be right doing groups the right way, but also how your expertise showcases that you do know what you're doing. You do understand the industry. So they're being part of your industry group. They'll want to be because that you can be trusted in your thoughts and your advice and your insights and that sort of thing. That in today's kind of environment, it seems like people are really looking for that and being associated with individuals who know what they're doing. And somehow videos coincide with that.
Sure does.
True or not, they just do because they figure if you're making a video, you must know what you're talking about.
That's right.
Yes. Yes.
People need help. They just want help. And they're looking all over YouTube. And remember, it's the second largest search engine, YouTube. And the other one's her brother Google. So they work hand in hand, but it's also good for the vendor being me. It raises my algorithm up. I always rank on top. So now I'm just playing the game. I'm just going another route and I'm going to stitch a whole bunch of them together and make a lot of shorts out of them too. Shorts bring you subscribers. They don't bring you cash, but longs bring you the income. Learn. And anybody can do it with today's AI. There's faceless YouTube videos now, so if anybody's looking, they can, they can do the whole thing without their voice or without a face and just with pictures. I always like the Ken Burns effect. I don't know if you remember Ken Burns. It's take a picture and just move back forth. There's a lot of motion involved in the still picture if you really play it right. That's what I'm playing with, right?
Right.
I'm not a rock star either like that. I'm just not.
Well, I want to ask you something that you said earlier before we kind of start to close out. And that is, it sounded like you record your meetings.
Is that accurate?
Okay.
Yes.
Okay. So tell the audience a little bit about that, like why you record. Do you do anything with it? That sort of thing.
The only thing I do with it would give it to someone who is non associated that day, they couldn't be it. Maybe they had a problem with their health or something with their family or something like that. That's who gets it. It's not just something we throw out there for everybody to play with, because that would kind of water down my marketing, what I do. Because I want to help people who are investing into a mixed group concept and what they're doing. They bought it, they like it, you know, they paid for it, and I want to help them. So that way, if somebody doesn't show, they still make their monthly payment It works out fine because it's fair, and everyone knows, Tina, I'm willing to help them. You know, I had a guy call this morning, he had a question. It was an extension from yesterday's meeting. Commitment, you know, right? And commitment is like important.
Do you worry at all about confidentiality when you record?
I definitely do. I definitely do, because I— matter of fact, we switched into a very private conversation. I'd say we shut the recorder off, you know. I didn't want to— I didn't want that because it was about marriages in small businesses and what's good, what's bad and ugly about them, and how they can be beneficial or they can be detrimental to the relationships. There was a lot of good conversation about that. And when you ask 8, 7, 8 people what, how that works in their life, you get some really good questions. But it's not for the world to know.
It really isn't. Oh no, no, no. And that also brings up a really quick, um, thought of mine that I would love your comment on for our audience, which is how much does personal play into the group? And what I mean by that is, you know, everybody is kind of originally front and center. I want to improve my business, I want to grow it, I want to learn best practices, etc. But there's this personal aspect, like you just talked about marriage and how that impacts, right, the leader running the business, etc. So how much do you find that personal is brought into the meetings and not just 100% business?
That's a great question because yesterday I had that exact scenario because we were moving through the 90 minutes, but I felt we were getting some personal issues. I said, let's stay after, and it was ending at 4:30. I said, let's stay after 4:30. Whoever wants to join in can join in. Everybody stayed, Tina. It was that important to them. So yeah, yeah, but we got our business done, our goals set, our best values, what were things like that. It was very important we stayed to the agenda, but not, um, just step over like, that's just, who cares about your family? No, it's what makes your business. You're not gonna have a business if you don't have a family like that. You're gonna have a problem.
So to answer your point, it's intertwined.
Oh, very much so.
Right. You can't just like put something down the center and we're only going to talk about this half of you, which is business, and ignore this half, which is personal, which impacts an entrepreneur's life.
Right.
And exactly how they're going to get to work. Who's going to get the kids? If you have some, say, some disability issues with children or something, how do you deal with that? Those are real important issues. And it's, yeah. And, you know, if I don't have their heart, I'll never have their mind. And I really mean that.
So, well, that is a quote that you should coin right there. What you just said, like, I feel like we should just end it now.
There you go.
That's the quote.
Well, yeah, I am. There you go.
So how we do end every episode is with what piece of advice would you give our audience, whether they're thinking about running groups, creating and running them, or they're thinking maybe about how to just be better at what they're currently doing. So this could be anything. What would you share with our audience with your numerous years of running?
Well, everything I say, you've got to figure out how you're going to monetize it because you'll never sustain life. And that's in a mixed group, that'd be a YouTube, that's anything you do. You have to monetize and not feel guilty about that because that's your job. And it's also, if you make profit, I guarantee you'll make losses as well. So what are you going to do? But whatever you're going to start, there's a monetization to it for membership, for, for something in a video or something like that. But you think that pattern out, write it down and adhere to it, and take the giant step and get busy. Excellent.
Great advice. So, Clay, the one last thing is, is how can someone reach you if they would love to talk to you more?
Okay, let's do this. My assistant just gave me— it's clay@mixgroupsonline.com. clay@mixgroupsonline.com.
And that's for everybody. M-I-X and then G-R-O-U-P-S. Online.com.
Excellent.
Okay, excellent. Well, Clay, as always, thank you so much for being here, sharing some of your insights today. And with the audience, hope you got some good takeaways in regards to just everything from here's a very specific group, but also maybe how you drive your authority via videos and what that can be. And also just a different format of a 90-minute online of a very industry specific group. And also, you know, with some of the words of wisdom that Clay talked about with, you know, if you do a recording, when not to record, the personal and the business are just some of the highlights. So thanks again, Clay, and thanks everyone again for listening to another week's episode. And until next week, go make it happen.
Hello listeners, and this is a quick promo because we have our national conference Live Exchange 2024 coming up in October in St. Petersburg, Florida. One day you can attend for a mere $500 and interact with your peers, others that are running groups, network with them, find out best practices, all those challenges that you're having, get insights that can help you personally in addition to hearing a phenomenal list of speakers. I will open up that day with some insights in regards to moderating, and it will turn it over to Vern Harnish, who, if you do not know him, you know, he's the one who founded Entrepreneur Organization. He understands peer groups extremely well, and he runs Scaling Up. You will take away phenomenal information that will help you run your groups, not only to scale your own practice practice, but to help your business owners in those groups with the content Vern is going to share. You will also hear on two other subjects, one about the importance of preparing your members for exiting the business, whatever that transition may be, and how do you do that. You will also hear about making change. How do you manage change? How do you facilitate change? Which is required in today's environment. Again, content you're going to be able to take back to your groups and use yourself. And last, we're going to end it with Horse Soldier and 12 Strong. So if you don't know that story, that is the 12 soldiers that went into Afghanistan on horseback prior to us invading Afghanistan. You will hear their story about leadership, and how they have transitioned that into a phenomenally successful bourbon brand called Horse Soldier. And you will hear how they have scaled that business, and we will end the conference with bourbon tasting. Again, a very packed day. I encourage all of you, if you are serious about your own personal development, I will see you And I will love to meet you personally October 18th in St. Petersburg, Florida. Go to our website and you can get all the details, see the details of the agenda and register. Thank you everyone for listening to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. And to get access to today's episodes, not only the show notes, but any tools and resources, encourage you to— not only will you find them in the episode show notes, but also you can go to the website www.lxcounsel.com, so LXCouncil.com, and you will find a plethora of articles and content and tools and resources and worksheets and things like that that can be helpful to you in creating and running successful Packs. I want to leave you with one thing that we end and teach to do in every single meeting, and that is the very last thing is to ask, what is your takeaway from today's episode? I encourage you to give that thought. Take advantage of the time you just invested in listening to the episode, and what can you do to move one step closer to the vision that you have and the goal goals that you're trying to achieve with your groups. So again, take a step back. What's your key takeaways? What can you actually act on? And I leave this with one note. And those of you that have read my book, Your Seat at the Table, you know that I ended the book with a story about my mentor. He always, when he met people, had a pebble in his pocket that he passed to them when there was knowledge shared. And so I ask you today to think about that Pebble concept and to pass what you learned today on to someone else, which could be your members, or take it internally to yourself and act on it. So now go do something with those takeaways.
