The Mastermind Formula: Unlocking the Power of Deep Connections with Jay Fairbrother

Hey everyone, and welcome back to kickstart the conversation. I'm your host, Catharine O'Leary and I am here with the mastermind guy. Not not a mastermind guy, not one of mastermind, guys, but the mastermind guy. And I can say this, because I work with the mastermind guy with a mastermind. So everyone I'm happy to have Jay Fairbrother on with us today, Jay and I met through lead through jVi. C. So J joint ventures insider circle. And we have travelled a few times we've been at JB X and other places. But the latest place we were at was actually mastermind, a million's where we decided that we would capitalize on some of the conversations and on Jays extraordinary talents around creating masterminds. And while everyone runs around and says that it is super easy to do, and all of a sudden, you're going to have $300,000 into your business, you know that I'm going to call BS on that, because nothing is necessarily that easy. I'm not saying that it's hard. I'm saying that it does require some strategy and some background and some fitness facilitation, as well. So Jay is on today to help us kind of go through that. So Jay, welcome to the show.

Hi, Catherine. Thrilled to be here thrilled to be working on a mastermind with you.

Yeah, well, let's talk about how that kind of came about, because that was an interesting way that, that we kind of came to this, this realization that a mastermind was needed. And this is it was very organic, I think, if you agree, yeah.

what we're creating is what's called a peer mastermind. And the difference is that we're not creating this necessarily as a, you know, six figure income generator for each of us in our businesses, we're creating this for our own benefit. And for the benefit of the peers that we're inviting into this group on a very hand selected basis. To create a mastermind, where as a group we grow, support each other collaborate, have each other's back, develop really deep, strong relationships, and, you know, get all that mastermind magic that, that it can be difficult to achieve. It you know, a lot of people think you can just kind of throw to, as you mentioned, you can just kind of throw together a mastermind. And it's not rocket science, how hard can it be? But, you know, trust me in my 25 years of being in them and running them, I've seen a lot of masterminds fall apart.

Yeah, and I think so there are different types of masterminds. And there are, you know, what Jay and I are creating, which is a peer mastermind, which is, was really about how do we collect like minded and like, in the journey in the business journey, people that were in the same situation that are looking to get to that next level, and there's nothing really around in terms of, you know, we didn't want another course we didn't want another you know, another coach necessarily, it was about implementation and execution, and holding each other accountable to that and helping each other go through that. So we're creating it, but we're creating it in a way that is very strategic, like, you know, each seat at the mastermind is for, you know, we have a podcast expert, we have a marketing website expert, we have, you know, lead generation expert, we have the mastermind guy, you know, a Facebook, you know, Guru So, we put these these people in the place so that we could elevate each other not to say that you can have a mastermind that is directly you know, six, seven figures for your for your business that's just a different, a different type of mastermind.

And that's my main focus is working with coaches, speakers, experts, course creators, healers, to create a mastermind as a high ticket, recurring revenue, High Impact Program for your most raving fans. So it's taking your tribe and leveraging the people who are your most loyal supporters, giving them an opportunity to go to another level with you, as the guru lead as an inner guru lead mastermind. And so the difference between what we were just talking about as a pure mastermind, which isn't designed as an as an income generator, although there is a cost to participate in the one we're creating, and I can circle back to why that is in a second. But when the guru land mastermind, the idea is, so here's, here's how I talk about it often. If you are coach Schiller expert, and you have a $1,500 course, or you have a $1,500 coaching package of one on one, sessions, you need 67 clients to reach six figures. The amount of work effort costs that goes into getting 67 clients, you often you end up with very little profit from that six figures, after you, you know, pay JV partners and affiliates. And, you know, or pay use Facebook ads or that kind of thing to get that many people right over the course of a year. Whereas if you find nine people who know love and trust, you may not know like and trust you, but know, love and trust you. And they are willing to pay you $1,000 A month as their mentor guru leader, to be in a mastermind, you've just created six figures in revenue for your business, that is mostly profit. Because compared to how difficult it is to find nine people versus six fnpf It's a big difference. And it doesn't take a huge amount of time to run an implement. Right? So there's back to the leverage. You know, the reason many of us get stuck in our businesses, because we run out of time, because we're working one on one clients, or small groups or that kind of thing, or lower end group programs. So this really is one of the best ways to leverage your expertise.

There's so many that so many nuggets that you just imparted there. But I mean, think about that folks, like like nine people versus 67. But the trick is, is that I'm not trick but it it's the people that are your ideal clients times like 100, like they are, they're people that you want to hang out with, you know, for, you know, a year, they are the people that are the cream of the crop of your ideal clients, right. So this is coming from your list, people who have gone through maybe the $1,500 program have gone through a few of your programs or, you know, are looking for, you know, the special sauce that you are delivering that, you know, they can't get anywhere else. So, but that you know, that that gurus type of conversation, as far as I know, is that it's not necessarily course creation, correct?

Yeah, so it's a good question. So I don't believe that there's any one way only one way to create and run a mastermind. And I think, you know, what I try to teach in my programs is that you need to find the unique formula that works best for you. And what I mean by that is that a high end mastermind in the true mastermind concept as the Napoleon Hill, sort of concept, a mastermind that, in today's world looks like eight to 14 people and sort of the magic numbers. So that you can have meetings that are 90 minutes to three hours long. But everybody gets a voice at each meeting. So it's not like a group coaching program, where, you know, pretty much people just show up and pray to your altar as the guru and there's some q&a. And yeah, and a lot of people will call that a mastermind, but it's a true mastermind is that sort of smaller, core group that stays together grows together. I mean, I was at a mastermind like that for 17 years. And so the, in that smaller group mastermind, the key is creating that group brain, that collaboration, brain trust, where you're taking advantage of all the expertise. So that requires a lot less content. But that doesn't mean require, you know, you're not still providing content or doing some training or teaching as part of that Guru lead mastermind. But it one of the reasons I love masterminds is that it takes the pressure off of you as the guru content provider. Like if somebody said to me, like Jay create a high end 12 month program. My first thought would be oh my god, I can't come up with 12 months of content, and content creation is not my superpower. So it takes a lot of the pressure off of you to be brilliant, every single meeting and have brand new, brilliant content every time people get together because you're taking advantage of the group expertise, the group shared experience, the group collaboration and accountability.

So that Napoleon Hill style mastermind is that kind of group think that, you know that that container for everyone to say, Okay, here's where I'm at, um, here's where I need help, you know, any other ideas or brainstorming sessions, there is a, you know, a hybrid of some coaching and then some masterminding. So maybe it's coaching for, you know, half the time and you know, more of a mastermind slash Hot Seat idea for the other half. And then the one that I've seen also is more of a, like a retreat, almost like like everyone gets to go and you know, hang out at the beach or something like that. And you get to, maybe it's more of a networking mastermind. Is that fair?

Yeah. So first of all, you you described it well, in the sense that there's kind of the the original true concept of the mastermind with a true group and and hybrid is exactly the term I use for what ends up being most guru led mastermind programs. It's a combination of kind of group coaching and masterminding. And one of the things I try to teach my clients is that if you if you learn the truth, you may not want to create that true mastermind of only, you know, eight or 14 people that might not fit your model. But if you take if you learn the strategies, and the protocols and the techniques in creating that type of mastermind, which is really about building relationships, and you trickle those down into your group programs, thereby making it a hybrid, you're going to get so much more better implementation and transformation with your clients and you create stickiness. What I mean by that is imagine, you know, question I often ask is, have you ever participated in some kind of a group coaching program, and at the end of the program, you still never met all of the other participants going through the program with you. So if you think about the key to masterminding and why they're there work and create such magic, it's the relationship building, it's where you get to know people at really much deeper personal levels than just kind of the surface, I was in a breakout room with them and that kind of thing, right. So if you intentionally you have a group program, so you want 20 People 40 People in it, if you do things to intentionally create relationships, within the participants going to the program, you can do that with accountability pods, you can do that with breakout rooms, you can do that with, you know, there's lots of different ways. But if you intentionally kind of create those relationships, then instead of a three month group program, now you can have a six month or a 12 month group program. Because one of the things I always say is, you know, you've created a great mastermind, when at some point, it might take four months, six months into it, that people want to stay in the mastermind equally as much, because of the relationships they formed with everyone in the group as as much as their relationship to you as the guru they're paying to be in the group.

Right? Right. Because then you've got the, the you've got to you're building your tribe, right? Like you've got, you got to another, if you join a mastermind you get another tribe that you can be, you know, connecting with? Absolutely, yeah. Great. And so how does how does like when, when in the business journey, like do I need to be making, you know, 250,000 a year right now, before I can even think of doing a mastermind, like do what like what status? Do I need to be a guru? Like what, like, when in the business? Does it make sense to, to have a mastermind? And does it need to sorry, second question, does it need to be as an addition to a current business? Or could it stand alone?

It can totally stand alone. So it's a great question. And I can give you examples of people who started mastermind with zero experience they created they found a bunch of other people in a similar situation where they were just starting out as a coach and they were hanging out in these networking groups with other people who weren't getting any traction because all they were doing is buying other people's courses and not getting any implementation. And they put together a little mastermind say hey, let's get together and help each other launch. And they created you know, income from themselves as a brand new coach, knowing nothing right out of the gate. I also can give you examples of there's a there's a woman I use an example often that has a seven figure coaching business, and she has no entry level products other than her 14 $1,000 a year mastermind, she doesn't have the $1,500 course. And then the, you know, $2,000 group program and then the, you know, she gets her beginning offer is the $14,000 mastermind, and she's built a seven figure coaching business. But to two, so those are examples, right? That's not necessarily the norm. So to answer your question, most people need to be at least at a point where you figure it out what your expertise and secret sauce is, and you know how to deliver it to get results, which means you've got one on one clients that you've helped successfully, you maybe have a course, maybe that maybe you have developed that 1500 hour course, and you're delivering that and selling it. So certainly, it's best for people who aren't just coming out of the gate trying to sort of figure out what their coaching business is going to be and that kind of thing. However, like, I run a three day event, my next one is in mid July, July 14 through 16th. And part of what we do at that event, is we invite people in who might just be in the beginning stages are thinking about this, and we walk you through, okay, what kind of program might you create, and who might be their ideal clients for it? So, you know, it's a three day program. So it's obviously a lot more in depth than that. But one of the things I say is, so many coaches, I see out there struggle, because they're just kind of going from one thing to another there, you know, this program that program, oh, you know, I think I'll try a challenge. I think I'll try this, I think I'll try this strategy. And never with sort of an end goal in sight. And so to me, the end goal in sight that you want to have in mind is a high ticket program, a mastermind or hybrid version of it. And if you talk to like I, every seven and eight figure coach I've ever spoken to tells me that 80% of their income comes from these high end programs, these high end masterminds, right, it doesn't appear that way to the public, because we think they're selling, you know, there's 1000s of people buying their course, or their group coaching program. But really, it comes from these, you know, the serious income comes from these high end programs. So even if you're beginning, or in the relative beginning state, if you sort of get this vision of the program that you can create down the road, that's high end, you're gonna have so much more clarity on how you get from point A to point B, than if you just sort of keep, you know, without a strategy, keep rolling into this, this type of program, this type of strategy, that kind of thing.

Yeah, I love that. Because I mean, one of the things that I hear all the time, from, especially from people that are getting their business going and trying to get that, you know, that consistent income into their, their businesses, they just kind of popcorn around from one strategy to the next, like, I'll try Facebook challenges, and now I'll try, you know, the, whatever the next shiny object syndrome is, and without the strategy behind it without the why, like, why would like, you know, why? Like, where are they going to go like after the challenge or after the, you know, the the assessment or the quiz or whatever, where, where are you sending them and what's, what are the next steps, it's really hard to build anything, because you're just kind of popcorn and everybody around, including yourself, and it's not, it's not going to be helpful. So if you have that end in mind, if you have that, you know, at the end of the day, if I can get to a place where I can be delivering my zone of genius, in a, you know, 25,000 or 10,000, or, I mean, heck, it's not some of these masterminds are $100,000 It's, it's really the sky's the limit on them. So in that, that just really kind of solidifies and gets you excited, and gets you you know, motivated to kind of connect the dots, I think, if you will,

one of one of my core things that I teach in my programs, and we work on this in that three day event, is the journey to know love and trust. And so it's actually to kind of figure out and map out the strategy of how you're going to move someone from know like and trust, which is when they get on your email list or they might, you know, follow you on social media or maybe they read your book or something like that. And move them on that spectrum to the no love and trust where, you know, the where they're irrationally loyal to you. The the example I give is that you know, I want the people in my mastermind, who if I came out one day and said, Okay, gang spoke to speaking to my tribe, I'm going to start teaching yoga at 730 on Friday morning, and who's in. And I want those people that are raising their hands, even though they know I know nothing about yoga and don't, you know, want to get up at 730 in the morning be like a if Jay is doing it, I'm in like, because I want to be a bigger part of his tribe. And I want any opportunity I can to get, you know, to work more closely together. And so again, sort of back to that earlier point is if you, if you set your intention for that kind of irrational loyalty for what you want to create, it's so much easier then to figure out okay, well, how can I take somebody on that journey to that point where they want to hang out with me at that level?

Yeah, I mean, I think that the term I use is raving fans, you want those raving fans, and not all of your ideal clients are going to be raving fans. And that's okay. You know, like, your, your mastermind is not going to be everyone that takes your $1,500 course. Like that. That's not the point at all. So it's, it's really those people that are ready to take their journey further with you. And and kind of, it's all about just diving deeper, I think.

Yeah, absolutely. And any, and that's the beauty. That's to me, the beautiful thing about masterminds is that it's all about connection. When you think about the, you know, the term digital disconnection resonates with everyone that that was that was starting, I don't know how long that's, you know, last, what, 15 years, 10 years, I don't know. But then we had COVID. Right, which really drove home to people, no matter what their situation was during COVID, that it's can be really lonely, and the world, there's a lot of isolation in the world. People are striving that human connection more than ever, I think. And I also think it's one of the solutions to making this a better planet for all of us, is to get back to those levels of those deeper human connections. And that's what you want to try to create in a mastermind. And as I said, the more you move along that spectrum towards that, even if it's like a group coaching program, the better implementation and results for your clients that that you're gonna have.

Yeah, love all of that. And I have been at your three day event, and it is definitely worth the time because folks, you get you get, you get more than than you could possibly imagine. So. So Jay, thank you for for being with us. I think that you have a gift for my folks.

I do and it's right up your alley.

I was gonna say you guys all know I love me. So my assessments.

Yeah, so I have an assessment, mastermind ready scorecard.com. And basically, what it does is it helps you identify where you are, have strengths already in your business and with what you're doing and are creating, that would apply to creating this high high ticket type of program mastermind or hybrid program and where you have holes or gaps that you might want to fill in. So takes few minutes to take the assessment, get a score result and feedback in terms of you know, how well positioned you are? To answer your earlier question of, you know, am I ready to start a program like this?