Episode #16: The Power of a Mastermind to Fast-Track Your Business with Terra Bohlmann

Intro (00:02): Welcome to The Fast-Track Entrepreneur Podcast with your host Terra Bohlmann. You are about to get filled with business strategies, advice, and motivation to get you prepared to fast track your five year plan in less than one year. So buckle up and let's create your first class business with clarity and confidence.

Terra (00:27): Hello, hello Terra here with The Fast-Track Entrepreneur Podcast episode that is all dedicated to masterminds. So I get a question a lot around what is a mastermind do I need to be in one? What's it like? It feels really mysterious and what I know for sure is I had the same questions right before I had joined a mastermind. So I'm in a mastermind with my peers, but I also lead a year long mastermind for my own clients with usually about 20 women, what I would consider both intellectually curious and high achieving. So masterminds are amazing. They range anywhere from, there are free ones out there and then there's ones that go up to $50,000 plus a year. So a mastermind really is this whole concept of doing peer to peer mentoring and helping each other have a, with a common goal to achieve together.

Terra (01:34): So the best masterminds have likeminded individuals that have a very similar goal. In my case, for my mastermind that I run, it's to fast track your business success in a year, right? Through connections and learning and having a sense of community and collaborating and doing partnerships and helping introduce each other to your other contacts and stuff like that. So it's really cool. And then I am actually the business coach for the women that are in my mastermind too. So I just, I love my group. I've been doing my own mastermind for almost three years now and it's just been amazing and you know, and I love to lead it, but even more importantly I found out when I was leading it secretly had a little bit of jealousy to be honest because I saw all the connections and friendships and knowledge transfer and really cool things happening and I was so happy for all the people in my mastermind because that is exactly what it's meant for.

Terra (02:42): And it means I'm doing my job well. Right? But when I looked back and I was at one of our mastermind retreats and I just remember watching and seeing all the women who didn't know each other before, they really walked in to the room before that weekend and how they were connecting and collaborating and talking and coming up with ideas and serving each other. And I just sat there and watched and thought, man, I would love to have that too. So I tend to always create something that I needed myself. Right? So that's where my own mastermind that I lead came about about three years ago. But then I got to a point in this past year that I said, you know what, I need to join a mastermind. And so I went on the hunt for the right mastermind for me and you know, looked at some different ones and really found the one that really resonates with me and, and then it's perfect.

Terra (03:37): And you know, it's for six to seven figure, you know, high achieving. It's not necessarily open to only women. My niche is women, but you know, it's open to, you know, male and female. And it's just been amazing. So I myself wanted to join one because it's really cool to be able to level up your own business, right? And be able to understand new concepts that I can also take back down to my own group and serve them as well. So I wanted to make that investment. And for me it was a very sizable investment, probably about double what I charged for mine. So I now completely understand it was the biggest investment I've made in my business up to this point in the last 10 years. And, but now I completely understand how people feel when they're coming into my own mastermind, even though I think it's the world's greatest deal for them, it could feel like a big investment too.

Terra (04:31): And so going through that has now taught me what I need to know more about when people come into my own. So it's been really great. I've made some amazing friendships already and business acquaintances and all that kind of stuff in the mastermind that I joined. But in my own it's a different role. I'm a leader versus an a facilitator versus a participant. And I think the difference between free and paid masterminds are astronomical. I mean I think from a paid mastermind perspective, what you're paying for is the person facilitating, in my case, my team that also helps with the mastermind retreats and putting the right people in the room and doing the vetting because you really want likeminded people. Cause if you don't, I have like minded people in your mastermind group, you know, things just start to run wild. So, and then as well, like you're also paying for, you know, the connections with not just the mastermind later, but also the coaching that comes along with it and all kinds of amazing stuff.

Terra (05:37): So masterminds to me are something that I feel every woman entrepreneur needs to be a part of. And you have to meet yourself where you are. Right? And there's masterminds for startup groups, for people who are just starting up. There's masterminds for people who are in what I call growth mode. So that means there going to the six figures and then there's people who there's masterminds specifically for people who are in what would be like scale, right? Where money is not necessarily the issue. I mean we always want to make more money, but it's also about time and how do you save time and build team and stuff like that. So you can kind of see based on those three types of phases in your business that you want to be in a mastermind group that is like minded and not too far away from where you are.

Terra (06:27): So if you're in startup, it's awesome to be in a mastermind with other startups working to get to a hundred thousand if you're above that six figure Mark working to get to half a million or even a million, it's good to be in a group of other likeminded people that are also in that phase. If you're wanting to be in a mastermind with people who are scaling and going beyond the 1 million, it's good to be in a group with them. And why do I say that? Well, if you're in startup, you're talking about you need to know different things. You need to know really what it's, what's it like to get your first 50 customers, right? What's that clarity you need on your business model? You know, there's others, a lot of different things that come into play versus the person who is looking to get to, you know, is currently at say $300,000 and looking to get to 2 million, right?

Terra (07:20): It's a different conversation. And so you don't want to be bored if you're at that level with talking about things that you've done maybe a few years ago. And on the other side you don't want it. People who are in startup, it shouldn't be worrying about, you know, team dynamics and leadership and you know, certain and systematizing all these different processes and maximizing revenue and figuring out how to get investors. And because you're not there yet. So I want you to think in terms of when you go to find your mastermind, it's really about being in alignment with the phase that you're in right now in your business. And going to, and here's something that I found was kind of amazing because I work with a lot of high achievers. I'm also a high achiever, overachiever, whatever you want to call us. And I was tending to, in my mind, I was in scale, right?

Terra (08:11): And, but you know, in my mind that's where I was. But in reality, you know, I was in growth and you know, so I was looking for masterminds that were in like scale versus where I was. And I now know that I'm in the exact mastermind I'm supposed to be in because I'm with like minded people who are also looking to grow. Not to say we don't talk, we talk about some scaling things as well. But I, you know, I'm not making multi-millions yet, but if I was in a mastermind with people making multi-millions, yeah, you would think that, Oh, that really motivate you. But no, you're going to, I would feel like I would feel behind. I would, I wouldn't feel worthy to be in the room. I wouldn't, you know, all these like things and self doubts and whatnot come into play that it just wouldn't be as effective and it wouldn't be an effective use of my time and money actually.

Terra (09:05): So you want to be in a group of where you are and people who are just a couple of steps ahead of you and let alone the leader of the mastermind is even further. So, but really let's talk about what is a mastermind. So it's a peer group. The name itself is thrown around a lot and I think some people call masterminds. Like it could be like a one day event. You know, I feel like a mastermind is something that is more consistent longer. So my masterminds are a year long and you know, and if people want to stay in, they're not, you know, required to. But a lot of the women I work with want to stay on. So that's an option. But that's okay. And I always say, you know what? And if you don't want to, that's totally fine too. So you want to make it so that it's, you're committing to a group for a year.

Terra (09:53): And so sometimes I see mastermind days, there's some masterminding you could do in a day, but for me to be part of a true mastermind is something that meets consistently. So for the mastermind that I lead, we meet twice a month virtually. And then we have three in-person mastermind retreats that are all in really cool cities. So we haven't went international yet. It may may be coming soon, but for say to 2020, we're doing Miami beach into February and then we go to the mountains in the summer we're going to Denver and then in the fall we're going to Dallas, Texas. So, and then 2021 because my women are planners and they want to know where we're going. In February of 2021, we're going to go to Las Vegas and that's as far out as I have right now. But it's about getting away from your current day to day.

Terra (10:44): My ladies, I work with love to travel and so it's a great way to get together, talk business, talk strategies, learn, connect, but also have some fun, which really bonds you and a good mastermind facilitator knows how to make all that happen. Right? So masterminds to me are a year long that, you know, they could be six months, but you know, I like a good year long. It takes that long for people to really get to know each other and to be able to help and serve. So, you know, how do you find a mastermind? A lot of it is word of mouth. You can check out my mastermind on my website. It tends to be for women who are at least approaching, but making over the six figures. That's the niche that I work in. But there are other masterminds for people that are more starting out, right?

Terra (11:28): You have to have the time and money to invest in your mastermind as well. So since mine is a travel mastermind, you know, you'll have to, I get the meeting room, you know, and do some of the activities and I feed you while you're there, but you have to get your own flight and hotel accommodations and expenses and stuff like that. So there's an additional cost usually to a mastermind. I have seen some, where do you know they, they just tell everyone, say if there's 10 people in the mastermind, the mastermind is going to cost, you know, that trip is going to cost 30,000 and they may just take the expenses and divide it across with each other so everything's included. But then there's also still the mastermind fee that anywhere runs from on the low end, $15,000 to join a good mastermind. And then sometimes up to 30,000 and I've seen 50 as well.

Terra (12:20): So you know, mine's on the lower price point at this point it's going to go more mid tier later in 2020 but for now it's just, I wanted it to be, you know, a high value. And I've been, I've had about 142 live events that I produced. So I've been able to really be able to watch my costs and so that I can pass that savings down to those who are in my mastermind. So the concept of mastermind really came about from a book that if you haven't read it, it was in publishing like some, I think 1937 it was a book called think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill. And we'll put a link on the show notes on the podcast on terrible men.com/podcast with the book as well. But yeah, if you hadn't read it, I highly recommend it. It's called think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill.

Terra (13:11): This is one of those books that was written a long time ago. So it's, for me, I had to honestly read the book multiple times before it clicked. Right. So I would start the book and then you know, once you're getting started with it you're like, what is this? You know, for me personally, cause my favorite type of books to read are very conversational based. And I love reading romance novels and then I'll read some nonfiction business books and whatnot. But, so for me, I always struggled reading older books that were penned with, you know, different language and whatnot. I mean it's an English, but you know, so I had to read it and I remember reading it a few times and just being like, I couldn't quite get there. But then I read it, I did it again and I'm like, I've got to finish this book.

Terra (13:57): Everyone said this book's amazing and you get to a certain point in the poor, you cannot put it down. And so I had never gotten to that chapter where it was like, where everything came together and you're like, Oh, like I totally get it. Why this book is so amazing. I hadn't gotten to that chapter yet. And then I literally like finished it and just, you know, a couple of nights because it was like, it was groundbreaking for me. So I won't ruin the book for you. I just highly recommend reading it or doing an audible or you can even, there's plenty of cliff notes and whatnot on it. But it's really this whole concept of when likeminded people come together, and this was the days of, you know, the Rockefellers and the Ford and the Carnegie's and all that kind of stuff. So you know, they had gotten together and just talked about business and things and leverage their connections and really helped industry in a hole.

Terra (14:52): So I'm going to give you just a couple of reasons why I think you should join a mastermind. The first thing is the friendships and the connections. They are a little life life, life lasting. You will meet incredible people that you will have a continued friendship with. I can speak in terms of seeing it because I facilitate a mastermind, but also being part of one, I've made friends that I'm going to have forever, right? And I've had the women that I've met come and serve my clients and I've went into their groups and serve their clients. I've gotten to meet some amazing people and stuff like that. So the opportunities are endless because it's all about creating and cultivating these amazing relationships with people who are where you are in business. Right? That's kind of the really cool thing and you kind of grow up together, which is awesome.

Terra (15:40): It also is a great place to get peer feedback. So a lot of things is you know, very, you know, you feel sometimes like you're alone in a bubble when you're working in business and you just want to know what someone else did to fix a problem, right? And sometimes the problems are really life based and sometimes they're business on mine. So it's really a great place to get feedback whether it's from, you know, obviously from your peers, but maybe your peers are also your perfect customer profiles, but maybe they're not. But I can pretty much guarantee that someone in your mastermind has going to have been there done that because everybody comes in to business with their own set of skills. And so you won't say stuck. So feedback is amazing. You also have people who hold you accountable. In my mastermind I also assign an accountability partner that is part of my team.

Terra (16:37): It's not like people aren't being each other's accountability partner even though that's happened in the past. But you know, it's accountability is huge to say you're going to do something and declare it and then have people cheering you on. That is absolutely huge. It also really increases your competence in business because you'll see that other people at your level aren't, are dealing with the same things honestly. So you think we always think when you're operating solo that you know, you start questioning yourself and whatnot and you know, to me I'm all about confidence. So you know, having a peer group that can let you know, you know what, I struggled with that too or I've struggled with that and this is how I got out of it, or let me connect you with this person who really helped me. So confidence is huge. The clarity piece of everything as well.

Terra (17:29): Whether it's you want to change up how you do one of your offers or change your pricing or getting really clear on what you sell or if you want to host live events or if you want to do online marketing or if you want to just do traditional marketing and whatnot, you really get clarity on what's working now. And because people in masterminds tend to really have their pulse on the industry. For me, I joined a mastermind so that I can play a bigger game as well. Right? So it goes to the confidence side, but also I think so much bigger now because I see women and you know, even in my group that are making substantially more than me, but they were where I was and I can see what they're doing and how they're doing it. So I'm like, yeah, I need to be thinking bigger myself.

Terra (18:17): Right. So, and then you know, the big thing is you also get to not just collaborate, right. And take, but there's also some real joy that comes in. Also being able to contribute back and help everyone else in the mastermind too. It's really a great thing when it's done right. You really feel like you get just as much joy out of contributing as you do receiving. And then I do what's called, I call them love seats. So that just means every, you know, we do introductions on the virtual calls and then you know, people get hot seats, well they call them hot seats, I call them loves dates. But that means that you get to bring your problem to the group and I time it and facilitate and people will share how to fix that problem, which is really cool. And then you'll walk away with like your answers, which is amazing.

Terra (19:03): So, and what's really cool about all of this is, you know, I really go out of my way to make sure that everything feels completely confidential. Like people in masterminds, this is your group, this is your core, this is your ride or die group or whatever you want to consider it. And everything within there stays confidential and really good masterminds have a confidentiality agreement or a contract in place that really makes sure that everyone understands that. So this is what I like about having a, you know, even the year long is everybody signs the same agreement. We're all under the same guidelines. So you can feel free to share anything you want because it's not going to go outside of that room and everyone understands that. So those are just a couple of the things that I think make masterminds absolutely amazing. And if you haven't considered joining one, I highly recommend you do, it really moves the needle for you.

Terra (19:55): If you want more information on mine, just go to my website, Terra bohlmann.com and then you can go look under work with me and you'll see some information. I an open it and for enrollment just a certain couple times per year. But if it's not open you can always join the wait list and get more information. So I hope you found this valuable. I wish I would have known all of that. These masterminds existed many, many years ago. I feel like I could have been a lot further in my own business, but I'm so glad I took the leap and joined one and there is no greater joy. I get then leading my own mastermind and seeing the transformations that happen with every single woman entrepreneur in there. So take care.

Outro (20:36): There you have it. Another episode packed full of strategies and motivation that you can use every day to put your business on the fast track. For a podcast recap and more resources, visit TerraBohlmann.com. Don't forget, subscribe to the podcast and get what you need to help fast track your five year business plan.