Mastermind Groups is the concept all billionaires reference when they credit one thing to their success.
One of the hard parts of being an entrepreneur is the psychological weight of being the key decision-maker.
Every decision and metric depends on you.
“The more people you help, the faster you’ll get to where you want to go”
The benefits of SEO Masterminds are endless and I can easily put these meet-ups down to being the main reason for my success and growth.
Table of Content
Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Mastermind
Check out the feedback I received from some of the biggest influencers in the SEO Communities about the importance of masterminds:
Grant Smith
Over many years I have participated in a large number of seminars, workshops, closed training sessions, university masters course, business group meetups etc.
None have been as impactful as the masterminds I have attended.
The thing that makes the mastermind concept unique in my opinion is firstly the filter to attract competent, successful people within a common niche to come together and then apply Chatham house rules which allow those participants to share openly not just the positive processes and strategies they employ but also the negatives.
What doesn’t work is often just as important as what does.
Current, relevant knowledge from smart people at the coal face of their businesses is very valuable.
Particularly in the digital marketing space, where change is constant.
Formal education options like University and industry bodies are light years behind as they simply cannot create the circumstance, setting or attract these people.
Personally I think the hours spent in masterminds have paid huge dividends for me and many other people I know and I am in business with.
Jack Vivian
Private mastermind groups have helped me in so many ways, the biggest aspect is that in all my time an internet marketer, I’ve worked remotely which can come along with a lot of loneliness.
Your friends can’t really relate to the fact that your income one month might just completely disappear the fact that Google is forever changing the landscape that you’re competing in. So sometimes you don’t really have anyone to talk to that can really empathise. So the main benefit for me has been the friendships that have come out of it, I have a group of friends that I travel the world with doing cool stuff with. I can ring them any time any day and they’re there to help me and I am there to do the same for them.
Honestly, it blows my mind the level at which people are willing to share, I remember last year I was stuck with a certain aspect of a site and one of the mastermind guys rang me and went through the issue in its entirety. Bear in mind this is them essentially teaching me their entire business, with nothing expected in return.
Going to masterminds has let me connect with people that are going through the same issues, so we are able to put our heads together and try figure out what is going on whenever algos update or a site isn’t going as expected.
We all help each other out where we can, the market is big enough for all of us to make fantastic money and you might as well have an awesome group of friends with you for the ride.
The biggest benefit was one that I never expected – my mental health is so much better as I have a group of friends who completely understand the ups and downs in this line of work. Which is a big deal, in my opinion, I know so many people who have suffered from depression, anxiety, loneliness even though they are monetarily the most successful people I know.
But money without joy isn’t really success to me.
Jason Karpouzis
Masterminds give you the opportunity to meet and interact with like-minded high achievers. If you are serious about your business then there is no excuse to not go to them.
You get the chance to hear what other people have to say about your business from a different perspective but you also get the opportunity to understand and learn how others run their businesses, what marketing ideas they have and what approaches they take when things get tough.
Conferences, seminars and workshops are good but masterminds are by far the most important events you should attend.
Go to masterminds and try to provide as much value as you can. Do not hold anything back and in return, you will get x10 value back.
Matt Diggity
At a certain point in your growth, the value you’re going to get from the public domain (blogs, etc) is going to start to taper off.
Sure, you’ll always be able to stay up on latest breaking news through the web, but business-changing critical nuggets are going to be rare.
Masterminds get you back to those nuggets.
Most well-formatted masterminds will be set up to reward those groups that are set up such as “if you give more, you get more”.
This creates a private environment where members will share their best secrets, as they’ve likely already received even more value themselves.
Because of this, I try to attend as many masterminds as I physically can.
James Dooley
The benefits of Masterminds are endless and I can easily put these meet-ups down to being the main reason for my success and growth.
It has massively expanded my network in the community and opened doors with so many potential new clients, suppliers and mentors to help me achieve my goals.
One last reason to leave you with is creating friends in the community with like-minded people is really key. They say you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.
Family members or even your best friends might not have the same entrepreneurial mindset as you and can become lonely at times if you don’t network and create connections with others with the same level of drive and ambition as you have.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships
There is something about the invite-only masterminds that gets everyone opening up fully to share their biggest and best knowledge bombs. There is no surprise why nearly all billionaires put their number reason for success as being part of a strong mastermind group.
Tim Soulo
I actually see three areas how masterminds are helping me grow personally as well as bring more value to Ahrefs (the company where I’m in charge of marketing).
First of all, and most obviously, it’s the knowledge that you get from high-profile people in your industry. In a closed circle of a mastermind, people are willing to share exclusive things that they would never release publicly.
But other than that, an option to have 6-10 super-smart folks discuss the challenges that you’re facing in your position and offer their unique advice and perspective is priceless in itself.
Secondly, as the famous proverb goes, you’re the average of the people you spend your time with. I bet in your everyday life you don’t get to hang out with a dozen of super smart and highly successful people very often.
So other than getting their direct help and learning from them there’s also this subconscious thing that changes how you think, boosts your confidence and energy levels, and essentially makes you a better version of yourself.
In other words, by hanging out with super-achievers you’re becoming a super-achiever yourself, whether you’re making notes of your conversations with them or not.
And finally, travelling to a mastermind is a great way to break your daily routine and reset your mind.
Other than sitting in a room and brainstorming for 6-8 hours till your brain fries, people plan all sorts of relaxing activities for the mastermind.
This can range anywhere from drinking beers and watching football together and up to sailing on a fancy yacht.
In other words, a mastermind is also a great way to create good memories.
Steve Toth
I highly recommend joining a mastermind because it’s a place where you’re able to openly discuss issues affecting your business. Especially sensitive issues that you might not even talk about with your highest-level employees.
If you have partners, sure you can discuss issues with them, but they are going to bring their biases and probably not offer a perspective you haven’t heard before.
That’s another thing that makes masterminds so valuable: you get a variety of perspectives. They often come from people who are completely outside your industry.
An additional benefit to masterminds are, that (if well run) comprise of people who are “on your level.” Maybe not on every respect, but some and that’s important because you want people to be relatable and offer insight because they face the same pressures you do as a business owner.
Masterminds are an incredibly effective meetup because we are forced to bring value to the table and in turn, we all receive value from the group.
If you’re on the fence about it, there’s no harm in trying it. At the very least you will make new connections and get perspectives you otherwise wouldn’t. I say go for it!
Tom De Spiegelaere
Most masterminds I’ve been to pretty much have the same format. You talk about your business, how it works, you chat about a few problems you’re facing, and then you go around the group with each participant giving their take on your problem & how they solved it.
While this is something you could technically organise at a pub, most masterminds I’ve attended were invite-only, came with a decent cost, and had income/knowledge requirements you had to meet before you got in.
This does mean that once the event starts, you KNOW you’re talking to people that are walking the walk, the tips they say aren’t rehashed from a blog post, they’ve done these things and have gotten results.
In my case, single nuggets have added thousands to my monthly rev. Most of these weren’t easy to implement, but some of them were tips I didn’t even know existed or had no idea how to execute them.
Masterminds are all about the ROI, the event itself could cost 3k (and then add plane tickets, maybe accommodation, etc), and you might have already heard, or are doing 99% of the things you hear… but then there’s always this one nugget of wisdom, this one tiny twist on a common strategy, that suddenly adds 5k/mo to your income.
In the case of the CMSEO2019 Mastermind, for example, it was a link-building strategy my mastermind team was discussing that I completely overlooked because I thought I could never pull it off… in the weeks following the mastermind, it got me multiple DR80+ root links straight to my money pages… for free!
And then there’s, of course, the new connections you make, the priceless value of expanding your network with the high-level people that attend these masterminds.
Expect the unexpected, that’s my state-of-mind when I attend one of these events.
Craig Campbell
As someone who has been in the industry for 18 years and a regular speaker at conferences, I too have to keep my knowledge up to date and make sure I’m implementing the right techniques and strategies that work, very often at generic SEO conferences the target audience for the speakers is sometimes aimed at beginners and that leaves it difficult for me to gauge whether I’m missing out on something new.
Masterminds are the place where I personally find the most value when I’m looking to learn new skills and bounce ideas off other skilled people. In recent years I’ve been fortunate enough to attend a number of masterminds all of which have been amazing in terms of learning and connecting with new people. I am hungry to learn and develop my skills and a mastermind is one of the only ways where I get that kind of value.
I like the idea of a mastermind as you are required to give back in order to receive good information and this allows everyone in the mastermind to learn and develop, there is no room to sit there and suck up information and not give something back, you will soon find the door closed on you.
Masterminds also require an element of travel and cost to you personally and this weeds out the timewasters who are not prepared to invest in themselves. So if you get the chance to attend a mastermind with some top people in your industry, grab it with both hands as you never know where it might take you.
Kasra Dash
I’ve now been to a handful of masterminds and i can truly say that the amount that some of the knowledge shared in the private masterminds groups are priceless. Every time i have came out of a mastermind i have had loads of ideas and helped massively with learning new tricks. It is such an amazing experience being surrounded by people that have the same interest as you and that also want to help.
One of the main things i’ve learnt from masterminds is never shy away from telling others what you are struggling with, At the end of the day you guys have all went to the mastermind to help each other out. Theres no point in attending a mastermind and being the guy in the corner not sharing your difficulties with others as you wont gain anything from it.
A problem shared is a problem solved
Tom Livingstone
People won’t give away secrets for free in the groups or on blogs etc.
Even at conferences, people won’t share the good stuff, it just doesn’t happen.
The good thing about attending masterminds is the opportunity to share information knowing you’re getting just as much back.
Not just this, but you get a chance to talk specifically about bottlenecks and issues in YOUR business.
Masterminds are personal, private, and exclusive. The perfect mix for growth which is why I attend them whenever possible.
Gareth Daine
Being an entrepreneur and business owner can be a lonely existence, mentally and intellectually, particularly when you’re first starting out.
Masterminding and networking with like-minded individuals is so important. I genuinely can’t overstate how important it actually is.
I’m not talking about the usual networking events you’re used to either, like BNI or events mainly full of pitching stands, where people are waiting for the right moment to jump in and hand you their business card.
I’m talking about close-knit events where people actually get together to help each other overcome hurdles and push each other toward growth.
Since being involved in genuine, face-to-face business networking events and meeting truly exceptional individuals, my mindset has completely changed and matured as an entrepreneur and, in turn, my business has exploded.
I’ve made some truly genuine friendships and business connections by networking with the RIGHT people.
Over time, these relationships build and grow and enable you to attend more intimate, private mastermind events that can truly help you grow.
One thing I’ve learned is that it’s all about helping each other. As a friend of mine often says, a rising tide raises all ships.
Surrounding yourself with exceptional individuals will help you excel in business and in life.
Gary Wilson
The only way to improve yourself is to mastermind with high-level other people around you.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from masterminds over the last few years is that giving out 10x to others gets you TRUE results back.
If you go to masterminds with the aim of helping others, you’ll get the required help needed to grow yourself and your business to the next natural stage.
A strong community where people genuinely care about each others business allows everyone to succeed in their own ways.
I try to attend as many masterminds as I can as it allows me this opportunity to be around like-minded people that give me the path to take things forward to new heights.
Olesia Korobka
I strongly believe that the only way for break-through growth is within a group of like-minded individuals dedicated to what they do. Like one soldier doesn’t make a battle, the same way it’s not possible to over-achieve totally alone. Success should be shared and accessible to others.
I’m only somewhere in the middle of my own path and if it wasn’t for the people around me, I wouldn’t be able to even start.
Have so far found 3 good ways that help me grow:
- Self-education, testing, then passing the knowledge in the groups, especially by answering the questions.
- Personal coaching.
- Mastermind groups are the strongest and in my country, this form of growth stimulation has only evolved recently.
In mastermind groups, most of the members are equally strong, just each one knows or does something that others don’t know of yet, or can help you look at the problem from another angle. When I was a beginner, I tried to group with people of my level. But it was really cool when some big-time experts could join and guide us, even a bit. People who are new to this kind of activity usually ask, why would someone really skilful and successful in what they are doing, share their tips to other people when they can just earn money and not give a shit about anything else.
Well, sure, they would not give away their golden mines to competitors or googlers. That’s why normally you won’t see them talking at conferences or meetups. But believe it or not, educating your environment helps your own growth as well. By helping others, you become even more successful and enrich your life in so many ways, not only professionally. And masterminds are a great way to go no matter where you are on your path. I’m very grateful to people who helped me learn SEO and wouldn’t be anywhere in my career without them and their masterminds I’ve been invited to.
Kurt Philip
I love the quote:
Using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress
When it comes to masterminds. It’s as simple as this: Find people who have complimentary mastery in a subject, provide massive value to them and it will come back to you in groves.
All of your business problems have always been solved by other people and you have solved other peoples problems that they haven’t even had yet.
Go to as many masterminds as you can and then pick 2-3 that you get massive value from.
That is the secret to success.
Summary
Are you utilising the power of Masterminds?
Are you understanding your network is your net worth?
Go out of your way to try and attend as many masterminds as you physically can.