The Power of the Master Mind (with Jeremy Shapiro)

Angela Frank: 00:00:00

Welcome to the growth pod.

Today on the podcast, we have Jeremy Shapiro, who has been helping entrepreneurs discover the core strengths in themselves and their businesses and realize their true potential, combining passion and expertise to grow their businesses and attain the freedom they deserve. Jeremy, welcome to the podcast.

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:00:18

Thanks so much for inviting me on. This is great.

Angela Frank: 00:00:20

I'm very excited. Today we're going to chat about one of my favorite topics, which is masterminds.

And you're going to be sharing the power of masterminds for business growth. But before we start, can you share a little bit about how masterminds play into a growth strategy?

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:00:36

Yeah. So I've found there's typically three big categories of knowledge.

And folks coming into a mastermind room, whether for the first time as a guest or as a long standing member, bring in two of those. The first is the stuff you know, you know, right? I call this your superpower.

The stuff you're really good at, that you find easy and others find challenging. So this might be your best sales strategies, your best marketing strategies, whatever, right? There's stuff you're really good at.

Those are the things that you know.

You know, the second thing people usually bring into the room, especially when they're finding a mastermind group, is the big question, the thing they know, they don't know.

But when you know you don't know something and you have a question, you can find books, take courses, seek out experts, coaches, mentors, and all those things, right? So people usually come into the room with that.

But the real value, all the big pivots, all the big new business launches, new sales channels, the growth, all the big ahas are really in the biggest category. And that's the third one. That's the category of knowledge of the things you didn't know, you didn't know.

Angela Frank: 00:01:33

I think that's so important. And I love your story about the things that you didn't know, you didn't know.

I'll bring in a story of my own, which is I just invested in a LinkedIn course that has this group coaching element. And while it's not a mastermind, those group sessions are structured sort of like one.

And it's so crazy because I like to tout myself as a little bit of a LinkedIn, like power user. That's where all of my business comes from.

And sitting in that group, there's all these other people who have used LinkedIn in different ways to grow their business. And I'm like, I know nothing about LinkedIn. And so just, just exactly what you said, like you don't know what you don't know.

And so that's why I'm so excited for our conversation today. I want to take it back one step though. Where did the concept of the Mastermind come from? And how do you see it being used or misused today?

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:02:28

Oh my goodness, I love that latter part of your question. But for the former, in terms of like the history on this, the idea of masterminding or a mastermind group really dates back to the 30s.

Napoleon Hill put out his most famous book, Think and Grow Rich in that. There's a chapter called the Power of the Mastermind.

And that's where this sort of idea is introduced in a nutshell in modern day terms, you know, almost a century later now, right? The idea is that when you get two or more minds or people together in the room at the same time, you get the creation of this third mastermind.

And for those of us, our listeners who've not been in a group like that before, think about when you've been brainstorming an idea or trying to solve a problem. The difference between doing that on your own versus working with someone else is dramatically different.

Because when you're, you know, improving or rapping with someone else and working and developing an idea, right, it's not just the summation of your idea plus their ideas equals a better idea.

It's actually that conversation that's going on in the interplay that happens as you riff on each other and you develop the new better solution or idea in a mastermind setting.

The idea is you have like minded folks working together in harmony towards some common goal and they're able to help and support each other, unblock each other and really be there as that community of people who get it. So fast forward to, you know, modern day here and how we use this.

We run mastermind groups that meet for a full day where you really dedicate that time to working on your business.

Each person has a dedicated hot seat and they're sharing what's going on in their business in terms of what's working well, what's not working well and where they need help. And what I find interesting, going back to those areas of knowledge we talked about before, we're business owners, right? We're entrepreneurs.

We've had to forge our own way and find our own way. So we know a lot.

But when everyone's sharing what they know, that's where you realize the knowledge gaps in your business and in your life and you get exposure to what other folks are doing in their business. And this is not just like a one way presentation. Right. This is an interactive conversation.

So as people are sharing strategies that are working or not working, you get to ask the question about like what vendor did you use for that? Or you know, how did you know that was the company to go with or the solution that was not going to work? And so on.

And so you get those answers from all these other folks, almost like running virtual experiments in their business and you get the benefit of all their hard work, investment time and money and you get to see sort of those shortcuts and those, those best practices and best tactics.

Angela Frank: 00:04:54

I think that's really key. Right.

You, you maybe could look at a mastermind having not participated in one and think, you know, if everybody's kind of around the same stage that I am in my business, I don't really see how that's going to benefit me. I want somebody who's taken that next step.

But like you said, there's different problems that everybody is facing and some you've already solved and some they' solved. And so you can come together and that wealth of knowledge of everybody's experimentation and trial and error is coming together in one place.

With that in mind, I want to focus on the types of masterminds that are available. I think that when you think of a typical mastermind, everybody's vision of that might look a little bit different.

So tell us a little bit more about the different types of masterminds and maybe some of the pros and cons of each.

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:05:45

Sure. So I've been a participant mastermind groups for decades and you know, there's a ton of different formats that I've seen over the years. Right.

On one end of the spectrum we have what I call like your destination mastermind groups. These usually meet two, maybe three times a year. You're usually writing a five to six figure check every year just to participate in these groups.

And you're typically meeting for, you know, two ish days at a time. Right. Add on travel time and other activities and such, you're out of office for about a week. The value in those can be huge.

I know for myself, when I've been in those kinds of groups, I've not always gotten what I was looking for when I first joined the group.

But the value I got was what I didn't know I was looking for lifelong connections, people whose phone calls I take when I see them come, you know, come in on the phone. New multimillion dollar businesses that were launched just from conversations in the room and so forth. Those can be tremendously valuable.

The downsides are, you know, one obviously is budget, secondly is time. But really I find one of the biggest draws to that, that kind of group is the meeting frequency. Right.

When you're meeting two to three times a year, if you're missing one of those meetings, my goodness, that's an expensive meeting to miss.

And in a six to nine month time period, you could have sold a business, launched the new one, launch entirely new products, change your sales channels. You can have an entirely different business when you come on back, right? So that, that meeting frequency is just a little too infrequent.

On the flip side, we have what I call like your, you know, coffee shop accountability groups.

You might meet up with some other folks at the coffee shop once a week or hop on a zoom call for like, you know, 30, 60 minutes and you don't really get a chance to dive deep into what's going on in everyone's business. These groups can be like free to maybe like, you know, 100 bucks a month. There's not a whole lot of skin in the game.

And the result of that is a few things.

One, oftentimes folks just don't show up because many things can be more important than that recurring scheduled meeting that you can just get to next week. Right.

Two is the caliber of who is in that sort of like the country club model is if anyone can be in the group, then you know, you're sort of connecting with anyone. Right?

But really one of the bigger draws I see is that again, that meeting frequency of meeting once a week, there's not always time to implement the big things you want to commit to getting done in your business in that short a period of time. So that meeting frequency can almost be a little too much. And like I mentioned, you can't really dive deep.

That's where I found really the sweet spot. And that what I love the most is the once a month cadence. Taking one day to focus and work on the business.

That gives you enough time to really deep dive into each member's business, what's really going on. It allows for that interactivity between members and like what you were, what you were touching on earlier.

When you're around folks who are on the same journey as you are, but they're going about it a different way, there's so much you can learn from that. And over that one month period, everyone's made real progress in their entrepreneurial journey.

And so this is where folks are sharing, for example, the success they're seeing in their sales Channels that might not be sales channels you're using at all.

And this might be where you're seeing someone who's seeing, you know, growth or challenges on the HR side of things that you might not have encountered yet, because that's not how you're growing your business. And so I love that.

Angela Frank: 00:08:48

I think that you mentioned something really key, which is that you can join a mastermind and you mentioned it for the high ticket mastermind. But I'm sure that this happens in any type of mastermind, which is you join and you're not getting what you thought you would get out of it.

Instead you're getting this other super beneficial thing out of it. But sometimes you maybe won't realize that until later on. So I have two follow up questions.

We'll start with the first one, which is, if you join a mastermind and you're not getting what you thought you'd get out of it, how can you make the most of that situation? I truly believe that, you know, if you are trying and seeking out information and trying to implement that in your business, you're only winning.

But I'm curious what strategies you recommend for people who are trying to get the most out of a situation that's maybe not quite what they thought it'd be.

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:09:42

You know, there's a, there's a strategy that I use, you know, when I go to conferences, when I read a book, when I take a course. Right. And when I attend Mastermind.

And this is something, when I facilitate groups, I make really present for our members and guests at the start of each meeting. And I've got a slide with a nice big gold nugget on it. And the idea is to be, you know, to activate your reticular activation activating system.

This is the part of your brain that when you tell it what to look out for, it does a better job at finding. So for each member's hot seat, I'm asking everyone to look out for the golden nugget in their presentation. What is the one thing you can take away?

And if you only learn one thing from each other person's hot seat, you're walking out with a ton of new ideas, new lessons learned and new inspiration. Right? And even if you struggle and can't find a gold nugget from that one other person, you're still left with a handful of gold nuggets.

The reality is you usually have a bunch of gold nuggets you take away. We've all been to conferences before where some of the speakers, you're just not getting a whole lot from.

But you don't need to get value from every word of every page of every book, right? So long as you're getting something from it, there's value. I don't know if you've had this experience. I know it happens to me a lot.

You read a book, you get some value from it, and like, years later, you come back and read it again, and then you're wondering, like, hey, who slipped that new chapter in? Like, where did this come from? That wasn't there the last time I read the book. And, like, it was there. It's just not what you needed at that time.

So the value is there. If we go looking for it, we will find the value from each person's presentation and each person over the course of time. So be looking for that value.

It is there.

Angela Frank: 00:11:17

I think that's so important. And I love just how you're taking that experience that probably a lot of people who are listening to this have.

Have had in their life where they find a new piece of information in a book, but it wasn't the right information at that time. And so I think that applying that same concept to a mastermind is key.

And also, I love what you said about focusing on trying to find that golden nug that can be the thing that takes you to their next step.

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:11:44

We've got to be mindful, too, like, in terms of checking the ego at the door and bring some humility in. Right? At the point you're getting into the room, you're looking to improve, Right.

If you're looking to justify how much you know, and if you're looking for opportunities to say, I know that, I know that, I know that, then you might not be in that right mindset to receive constructive criticism, to be open to new ideas, and to be seeking what you don't yet now. So it's important we check those egos at the door when we step into the room, because we're there for growth.

Angela Frank: 00:12:14

I think that's so important. And I'll add a bit of my own personal experience.

I had joined a mastermind where I felt that a few of the participants were pretty early on in their business journey.

And so I felt like I knew maybe more than some of their participants, and they were working on, you know, income goals that were significantly lower than mine. And I was kind of like, man, I. I think I made a wrong decision. I think this is my group.

But like you said, as soon as I checked my ego at the door, I realized that even though they're not at the income level that maybe I am at or the stage of business I am at.

Like, they're still out trying to have sales conversations every day, which, as a consultant, that's not something that I necessarily need to do, but it's something that in order to get better at sales, which it was a sales mastermind, I need to put the reps in. And so I was like, even though they're not, they're working on the exact thing that I'm trying to get better at.

And so I think that is such an important mindset to have when you're joining a mastermind, and it creates an opportunity where you're able to then learn instead of thinking that you know more or that you're above the other participants in the group.

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:13:24

And to your point, you know, I love it. You said, you know, getting the reps in. Right.

You know, you think back to Karate Kid, you know, and he's there doing the wax on, wax off, and painting the fence and these things where he's like, come on, this is ridiculous. I know how to do this. Why am I wasting my time? But what do you know? There's benefit that comes with that.

So when you get your reps in and you put yourself in that situation where you're open to learn. Right. You'd be surprised what happens over that time.

I've learned so much from people with much earlier stage businesses, and I've learned a lot from people with much more advanced stage businesses, as well as from those around. So there's something to be learned from every stage of growth, because people are on their own journey and they're getting there in their own way.

Angela Frank: 00:14:04

Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, there's a golden nugget to be had if you just check your ego at the door. I think that's so important.

Now, let's say that you're somebody who is looking for a new mastermind, and you're not really sure what direction you should go. What are some things that you recommend people consider when either vetting a mastermind or looking for a mastermind to join?

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:14:27

So, you know, you want to make sure there's a few things to look for, but, you know, first and foremost, you want to make sure there is, you know, a criteria for what the ideal member is. If the criteria is you can fog a mirror and have a credit card, like, that might not be the group for you. Right. There's also, you know, sort of two.

Two styles of leadership in a Mastermind. You know, one I found is what I call like guru led. This is where you have like an expert author, speaker, right?

Where you've bought their book and so that gets you to take the course and then you go to the live event and then the next thing you buy from there is the coaching and then the thing after that is like the high end mastermind. They have an ascension ladder of things that you can buy.

Oftentimes the highest being, you know, coaching and mastermind or mastermind and coaching depending. So in that kind of group, most folks are joining to be around that expert who's leading the group. And if that's what you're looking for then great.

There's, there can be value in those. I personally have seen far more value in, you know, what I call like the peer groups. These can be expertly facilitated.

So you still have structure and you still have someone who manages all of it. But a lot of the knowledge and value is coming from the peers in the room.

So be mindful when you're looking at the group of, if you're joining to be around like minded individuals or if you're just trying to rub shoulders and get FaceTime with sort of the leader of that group, those are two very different styles. Secondly, you want to know like why do you qualify and what are the, what are the commonalities and differences amongst the members?

Sometimes I see, I see folks try and get super niche, like they'll ask like is this group of businesses in my industry of my size with the same challenges and the same demographic and da da da da.

And like look, if you want to find more, more people exactly like you, you've got trade shows, you can go to an industry conferences, like you can meet people just like you there. I find far more value when there's a diverse range of businesses and business models.

The commonality, at least for the groups that I run, are that these are growth focused lifelong learners who have an established business that they're growing and scaling, right? That commonality is really valuable for the group.

And the diversity on the other metrics is where people see, you know, what I call the cross pollination of ideas between those businesses.

The last point to leave you with sort of the highlights you want to be looking for, like is this something that you are blindly paying a large amount of money to that you have no firsthand experience with or do you have an opportunity to take a peek behind the scenes and actually get involved? I've always been a fan of, you know what we pioneered, we called it the test drive process, right?

And this is where you can actually try out, try out a full Mastermind day and meet the other folks and get your hot seat and get a chance to learn everything. Then you can really see, not only is this a group for me, but the group gets a chance to see are you a good fit for the group.

Angela Frank: 00:17:12

We've teased a couple of times throughout this episode based on what you said about facilitating and setting up people for success in mass masterminds. And I think that brings up a great segue into what you're working on and what's next for you.

I didn't get to talk about it much in your intro, so maybe you also want to preface that with the work that you do and then what's next for you.

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:17:35

Sure. So like I mentioned, I've been a participant in mastermind groups for, you know, well over two decades.

And for almost two decades now I've actually been facilitating Mastermind group groups. And so what that means is, you know, it's one thing to just to show up to a group and have a valuable day working on your business.

It's an entire other beast to be screening prospective members, getting folks, you know, into the community and setting them up for success at an actual mastermind group.

So at the Bay Area Mastermind Group, you know, we organize business owners in such a way where they can show up for a Mastermind day and make those connections with like minded individuals, get a hot seat of their own, learn from other members and, you know, really get unstuck in their business and start to grow.

Angela Frank: 00:18:17

I love that. And what are you working on? Are you working on new masterminds or any new personal projects? What's next?

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:18:23

Yeah, so I'm actually working on a book all around Mastermind breakthroughs, which is pretty cool. So that's in the works.

We've also had sort of this exciting sort of next step of, you know, training the next generation of facilitators of helping other folks.

You know, a lot of what we talk about are, you know, processes and people and all and doing a lot of that work ourselves in terms of having other folks facilitate groups using our best practices. And that's been a really fun project to be working on too.

Angela Frank: 00:18:48

Well, both of those sound so exciting and I can't wait to see where they take you.

If someone's listening and they are interested in joining one of your masterminds or just keeping up with you online, where's the best place for them to do that?

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:19:00

Yeah, so you can find all about me, the groups best practices, all that, that's all over at bayareamastermind.com b a y a r e a mastermind.com amazing.

Angela Frank: 00:19:11

And that will also be linked in the description. So if that sounds good to you, it's right there for you. Jeremy, thank you so much for joining us today.

I really enjoyed your energy and our conversation.

Jeremy Shapiro: 00:19:21

Likewise. Thanks for inviting me on. This was a ton of fun. Great questions.

Angela Frank: 00:19:24

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Growth Pod. I look forward to seeing you in the next one.