Jay Fiset

I am, in fact, in more ways than one.

Jay Fiset

I think that’s a brilliant first question because many things that are called mastermind marketing and groups are not.

Jay Fiset

Let’s go to what Napoleon Hill said. He was the one who framed this, which is a mastermind group is whenever two or more people come together to serve and support themselves, their community, perhaps the world by solving an issue or obtaining a goal, and is where we work together collaboratively.

The beauty of masterminds is that they call upon, and structured correctly throughout the wisdom, the network, the resources, and the experience of all members. The critical thing for a mastermind, it is when everyone gets to share, participate, those four aspects I just said; Wisdom, experience, network, and resources.

Jay Fiset

A mastermind is not a one-way diatribe from the coach or the guru or the leader at the front. Those things are called group coaching, sessions, or live training, or some version they’re up, but that’s not a mastermind, and honest to goodness sometimes, I get a little frustrated by people that are marketing masterminds, and there are 150 people there, and there’s just a one-way dialog. It doesn’t work.

That’s what a mastermind is. It is a small group of people, sharing what they know, and what they’ve got for the good of everyone in the group.

Jay Fiset

That question is significant and essential. I ran a program that teaches people how to do mastermind marketing and get their groups up and running. And the first step of that is something that we call ‘perfect positioning.’

If the group is appropriately positioned, and what that means is, positioning ‘this is the ideal member, this is the profile of the ideal member,’ and positioning the outcome, the result or the experience that my ideal member will create through participating. And then, position why I’m the ideal leader of this tribe and this community.

When that positioning is done well, it makes mastermind marketing about a million times easier because people are either instantly attracted.

Jay Fiset

By the way, I help people come up with the “This is for you if” and like three statements that I can self-identify. “Yeah, I’m an entrepreneur who is at seven figures wanting to go to eight,” or “I’m an entrepreneur who is just quitting my job and trying to make my first 10,000 bucks.” It helps us identify.

We also use, “This is not for you if” so that we can filter out the people that are not a part of our tribe or our mastermind marketing community.

That’s the first step. You need to get that positioning well done, and it’s not just about throwing people in a group.

Jay Fiset

Here’s a little hint for anyone listening thinking about either running and being in a mastermind group or doing a mastermind marketing.

If the mastermind is more interested in your check than in vetting, qualifying, and making sure you’re the right match, just run like hell. Because I can guarantee you, something is awry.

Jay Fiset

There is a multitude of benefits at every level in somebody’s business regarding community, network, significance, and all of these pieces.

Jay Fiset

But to me, without a doubt, the single most powerful aspect of running a mastermind is that it is the fastest, simplest, and most joyful way for the average coach to make the leap from one-to-one to one-to-many.

Jay Fiset

Honest to God truth is the one-to-one model is hard. It is way harder than it needs to be, and the mastermind group fundamentally lets us scale up our income, scale up our contribution, and scale down our time involved in the business, both in client acquisition and in delivery.

A mastermind group lets us scale up our income and contribution, and scale down our time involved in the business.

Jay Fiset

If you put those things together, everyone should be running a mastermind marketing group. That is a belief I have that all of us should be participating in masterminds and leading masterminds at the same time.

Particularly if you’re a coach, an author, a subject matter expert, an entrepreneur, that is just a standard of being on our leading, learning edge in my humble opinion.

Jay Fiset

I do love that question.

Jay Fiset

If somebody is experienced at the vetting process and they have been paying attention to whom they are targeting, and the reason for targeting them as members that I can usually tell inside of a half hour.

I ran a mastermind called the Banff JV Summit, and I go through an entire vetting process. You know what the primary test is off if they’re a fit for the Banff JV Summit?

Jay Fiset

Do I like them? Would they be somebody that I’d have in my house for wine and look forward to them coming over? I can tell that in a half hour.

Now, that particular mastermind is very social-oriented. It is about long-term relationships. We’re joint venture partners. It is about getting to know who somebody is, less about what it is they’re pitching and selling.

Jay Fiset

If I like them, and I would have them to my house for wine, I know that they are going to fit into the Banff JV summit, and I’ve got about 65 people in that community. We do the event twice a year. Mastermind is limited to 30, which is big for a mastermind, but we’ve designed a structure where we get to do precisely the collaboration I’m talking about.

I hear this from every single one of my members. They’re like “Why is this one different? We walk through the door, and it’s like coming home for Christmas. How did this happen?”

Jay Fiset

Here’s my answer. It’s because every single one of you, I genuinely like, and I’ve had you to my house, and number one, I invited you very strategically and specifically. I vet you very strategically and individually. You’ve got a sense of humor, you don’t take yourself seriously, and you do real work in the world. If you can bring those things together, I can tell quickly. But that’s a very social-oriented mastermind.

I’ve done masterminds for lead entrepreneurs. That would take me a longer span of time to get to know if they’re a match or if they’re not.

Jay Fiset

When I was vetting people for that, there was an application. I would often go for lunch two or three times. I would ask to be able to see what they were creating. I wanted financials, all the rest of it because you’re not going to show up in a room where the common network is three to 50 million bucks, and the truth is, you’re still futzing around at a quarter million dollars. That’s not going to cut it.

Depending on what the positioning of the mastermind marketing is and the outcome, the vetting process is different.

Jay Fiset

Great question.

First and foremost is I would firmly say to anyone listening if you’re doing masterminds, is that you never pitch a mastermind ever. You just don’t.

Never pitch a mastermind. Instead, vet people.

Jay Fiset

What I do is this.

I keep my eyes, ears, and heart open for people who I think might be a fit. That’s my first piece.

Jay Fiset

I have my radar attuned to “Here’s somebody that’d be a great fit for the JV summit, here’s somebody that would be a great fit for the online business breakthrough.” And I know that through the positioning work I’ve done. That part is already done, then my own heart, mind, and soul, and my organization is clear about who those people are.

Jay Fiset

Then the next piece is I go to places where I am most likely to meet that type of person.

I just got back from Palm Springs for example and I was participating in a mastermind ran by a dear friend of mine Justin Livingston, and we were doing a bunch of work together, and all of that is cool.

Now, in that process, I invited four people. There were about 60 of us there, and in conversation, there were four people that I asked. Here’s how the invitation sounds. It’s a little bit like this.

Jay Fiset

“You know what? I run this exclusive JV event in Banff twice a year. It is stunning and amazing, and by the way, about seven of the people there are part of my members. I think you’d be an interesting fit for it. I’m sold out in January. I’ve got about five spots left in July, and if you’re interested, we could chat about it.”

And I had people say, “Well, here’s my credit card.” I say, “No, no, no. You can’t buy it, but we can talk about it in see if it’s a fit.”

Jay Fiset

I think I glossed over this in one of your earlier questions. I just want to bring it back to this. With mastermind marketing, we’re not pitching. We are the gatekeepers of an intimate, exclusive, and powerful community. When we genuinely get ourselves as the gatekeeper of this intimate, exclusive, and powerful community, which is our role, then what transpires is that we are in the process of qualifying and vetting the right fit, which is dramatically different than pitching the mastermind.

When we embody that space, it just shifts everything because instead of chasing clients, now, we’re in the process of ‘Who’s a good fit?’ and ‘What’s an appropriate invitation?’ And if there is a match, then what are our next steps?

But I’m just in this spot of, “I don’t know if it’s a match yet. I kind of like it. I think there’s a fit. Maybe we should talk about it.”

Does that answer your question? It’s because I feel like I’m babbling a little bit, but mastermind marketing is this thing you don’t sell. You don’t. You would vet people.

Jay Fiset

I love it, and I’m going to make a blatant statement which is this, for goodness sakes, do not do mastermind marketing on your own.

Jay Fiset

It looks easy from the outside. “We get some people together, and we’re going to drink some wine!” Doing mastermind marketing is about a thousand times more complicated than group coaching or leading or teaching from the stage. The reason it is way more complicated is that it has a higher degree of intimacy, which if you’re one of those people wired for that, great. If you’re not, it can cost a few difficulties and challenges.

If you’re going to run a mastermind:

Jay Fiset

1. You have got to get clear about your positioning, and you’ve got to be able to communicate that positioning in a matter of a couple of sentences.

Why does this mastermind exist? What will people get out of it regarding results, experiences, connections, and network? That’s the top of the list. You got to be able to say it in a nutshell.

2. Why are you leading it?

You were talking about the New York Times best-selling author that was approaching. There are masterminds everywhere. Some are great, some are not, but the question is about a fit. So why are you leading this mastermind marketing and group?

There are a lot of entrepreneurial masterminds. It’s like, “Oh, I lead an entrepreneur mastermind.” That’s all well and fine. We’re a bunch of entrepreneurs, but what do you bring to the table that I want to be in your group as opposed to mine, Justin Livingston, a bunch of my clients?

Jay Fiset

There’s got to be that unique edge to it that is meaningful and significant. That to me is the most significant piece under the sun. Once that’s done, then there’s a whole bunch of other elements that are necessary.

Does the person have any facilitating experience? Because being a subject matter expert means nothing when it comes to facilitating.
I’ll give you a great example.

I had a brilliant woman who is leading mastermind marketing and group. She was a consultant, and as a consultant, she did stunningly well. But she, by her description, was pretty adept at telling people what to do because she was a consultant. “Go do this. It will work.”

Jay Fiset

Now, her mastermind, she collected a brilliant group of people; a couple of leading-edge lawyers, a best-selling author, some cool people. And her mastermind fell apart inside of five months. Guess why.

Jay Fiset

You hit the nail on the head, and I’m going to say in a much harsher way.

It’s because she couldn’t shut up long enough to let them contribute their message. It wasn’t [lalicious]. It was just she wasn’t wired that way.

Jay Fiset

So some facilitator training and some facilitator skills about group management, community, creation, and collaboration are necessary. And we have an entire module of that in our program as well just because it is one of the weakest links.

You can get the most brilliant person in the room, but if they can’t create the connection and the community, it doesn’t make any sense. Those are two of the biggest that if you’re going to do it, you got to figure out what that’s going to look like. There are about 30 of them. Do we have time for one more?

Jay Fiset

Okay.

Jay Fiset

The next is do not ask.

I do live training where I support people with this, and I do Q&A’s and all the rest of it for those people in the process.

Guess what one of the single most consistent early questions is for their mastermind marketing.

Jay Fiset

First question when they’re thinking about starting one and trying to figure out that they ask me.

Jay Fiset

That’s the second question. You’re right on track. But the first problem I get is ‘What should I charge?’

What I see happening in our industry, and what I see happening in lots of different places is that it’s like, “Oh hey, Sally has a $20,000 mastermind. I could do $20,000 mastermind.” And so, they’d start asking me these questions about what they can charge. “I could charge 500 bucks a month, or I could charge 15,000 bucks a month.” and that is such a ‘bass-ackwards’ approach.

Jay Fiset

From my perspective and this is what I keep driving people to, figure out what the value proposition is.

What am I going to get out of this? What are the keys that are powerful and fantastic that people want to get through the gatekeeper to get into that mastermind?

Figure out what the value proposition is. Make sure that whatever your price is, you’re delivering 10x the value than what you’re charging, and that will be your price.

Jay Fiset

That’s the second question. You’re right on track. But the first problem I get is ‘What should I charge?’

What I see happening in our industry, and what I see happening in lots of different places is that it’s like, “Oh hey, Sally has a $20,000 mastermind. I could do $20,000 mastermind.” And so, they’d start asking me these questions about what they can charge. “I could charge 500 bucks a month, or I could charge 15,000 bucks a month.” and that is such a ‘bass-ackwards’ approach.

Jay Fiset

You’ll be able to do it once, but getting somebody into a mastermind and keeping them around as a client for the next two decades, of which I have many 20-year clients, those are two radically different things.

If you do a premium-priced mastermind that has marginal delivery, that’ll be the end of that forever.

Figure out what the value is first.

Jay Fiset

That’s a great question. Again, this goes back to positioning.

It could be just as simple, and I’m just going to give you a range because there is no right way. I guess this is the beautiful thing about masterminds. You can structure them in any way, shape, or form that you like; that serves or supports you and your community, and that delivers what you say the value of your mastermind is.

I’ll give you a couple of ranges.

I supported a woman who did a self-care for moms mastermind, and that was a super simple mastermind. It is composed of 12 meetings, once a month, four hours, all aimed at the community of moms who wanted to take better care of themselves with a tendency to put their families, their kids, their children, all of those things ahead of themselves at the expense of taking care of themselves. That’s just a simple thing. There was nothing else.

It was low-end. The price point was only $97 a month, but she worked two nights a month, ran two groups, and made $24,000 a year doing and sharing what she loved with the people she cared about. That’s on the one end of the spectrum.

Now, I’m going to kick the spectrum to another end.

Jay Fiset

When we were doing a lead entrepreneur masterminds, is we made four quarterly retreats all over the world. We went to for example South Africa, had dinner with F. W. de Klerk right after he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

We combined travel. We connected fascinating people and guest speakers, as well as powerful a community of entrepreneurs. And then in between those four masterminds is that each member would usually get about two hours of coaching, consulting, support per month.

You can combine the mastermind with your coaching to keep some continuity working. Does that make sense?

Jay Fiset

Without a doubt.

Jay Fiset

And by the way, that group was incredible. They did some fantastic things.

But here is one of my favorites. I’m going to back to this JV Summit of ours.

Jay Fiset

The JV summit, I just do it two times a year. We get together for two and half days. I bring us some [molleja] with a truckload of wine. We do a little adventure thing like skiing in the winter and boating in the summer. Then each person who’s there gets three presentations that they share what’s going on in their life and their world regarding JV opportunities and some masterminding time, and some top secret things I can’t tell you about that are super cool.

I do it two and a half days a time, twice a year. And that is one of my favorite mastermind communities. That by the way, we back up with some monthly calls that are more of a continuity models.

Jay Fiset

You can combine coaching, a continuity model, a travel model, or an adventure model. There is no limit to how you can do this, but there are some fundamental that you must follow.

The fundamental idea is if you figure what the value proposition is, now, what’s my best way of filling that in a way that is 10x more valuable to my community than what I’m charging. That’s the heart of it.

When we go through the program, the Launch Your Mastermind 90-Day Boot Camp, we help people get clear about getting into this position where you know what your client and your world wants, what is the most powerful, efficient, and meaningful way to deliver that? And it can be almost anything.

Jay Fiset

Great question and the answer is yes.

Jay Fiset

Almost.

I’m going to share with you the thing that I love the most, and I believe you guys are going to share a link that’s going to get a whole bunch of complement to your resources for your community.

One of those resources is called Fill Your Masterminds with Ease. I’m going to give you the brief rundown of it, and this is the most fun, the simplest, and the most profitable way I have ever found to build mastermind groups.

Jay Fiset

It used to be called ‘Wine, Conversations, and Cash,’ and it was called ‘wine, conversations, and cash’ because that’s precisely what it is, and what it boils down to is this.

When the mastermind is positioned, what I would do is I would then go through my network based on what I knew about people. Then, I would say, “I think this person might be a fit,” or “I don’t know about this person, but I’d like to find out more.” And I would invite a small group of people, usually about 12 to 14 people. I would ask them to my home for a brief masterminding, networking, have a glass of wine, all of those pieces.

Now, I’ve already told you the very first gate that I’m trying to get people to pass through. What’s the very first gate? It’s if I like them or not. Are they going to be fun? Are they somebody that has a sense of humor or do they take themselves too seriously?

Jay Fiset

So, what occurs is this. I literally will do these little events. People come to my house, and they bring me a bottle of wine. Then, they fill out a short prep form ahead of time regarding what they’re working on and all of those pieces. I’m clear with them saying, “Hey, there’s going to be a bunch of other movers and shakers here, and we’re going to spend some time to get to know one another and see if there’s an opportunity for any of us to serve and support one another.”

Please understand this. This is the part that people get confused about.

Jay Fiset

I have no agenda about selling them. I just think that they might fit the positioning, but they might fit the positioning and us not connect personally. Or, we might connect personally, and they don’t fit the positioning once I get to know more of what they’re working on.

We come together, drink wine, and everybody has a chance to share “This is what I’m working on. This is what I’m challenged by. This is what I’m most excited about. This is where I think I need support in my life.” Everyone just has this conversation.

At the end of that, I do my very best to support people wherever they’re at because, for 25 years, I got a bunch of resources and network so I give as much of myself as I can.

The people that I resonate with and fit the positioning, I’ll just say, “Hey, we should have coffee. I’d like to talk to you about this intimate, powerful, fantastic group I’m creating that you might be a fit for.

Jay Fiset

What happens is that we create community and we create value, and we get to know one another long before any conversion process occurs. Make no mistake about it. It is a crucial part of the qualifying process before we can get to conversion.

That Fill Your Mastermind with Ease is a 22-page manual that tells you everything. It gives you the prep form, the structure, the conversation, and the questions I use in that process. The least amount of income I have ever made from doing one of those is $60,000 in the next 90 days. Just from having people bring me wine to my house. That’s a fun way to do it.

Jay Fiset

Can I add to that?

Jay Fiset

I have a client who’s a brilliant shaman and fantastic man, and he adapted the entire model, and he called it ‘chocolate and dreams’ because he makes these fantastic organic chocolate that is like earth-shattering.

Jay Fiset

You can orient it around anything. I just am a little bit of a smart ass because I like a nice bold Cab Sauv. That’s the wine piece but honest to goodness, tea, kombucha, and chocolate, you can have anything that fits the positioning of your group, right?

Jay Fiset

Anything. It’s about sharing and community.

Jay Fiset

I’m open to bribery. Just to be clear. I’m not above bribery whatsoever.

Jay Fiset

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate being included.