An Introverts Guide to Masterminds

[00:00:00] Hello. Hello and welcome to this week’s solo episode off the ambitious introvert podcast with me, Emma Louise. And before I dive into today’s topic, I’m just going to share that I just went downstairs to fill up my water pre-recording and I found myself really excited about recording this. And I’m batch recording a couple of solo episodes today.

And I found myself really excited about doing that. And you may think so, but if you’ve been listening for a while, you may know that I used to hate recording solo podcast episodes. I used to feel like an idiot talking to myself. I used to feel like I was rambling or rushing or going too slow or all of the things.

And it was something that was very uncomfortable for me for a long time, interviewing a guest in my element. Sat here on my own, talking to a microphone, felt like a fool. So the very fact that I got over that and have learned [00:01:00] to accept it. And not only that, but I am now enjoying it. That is a small lesson to take away from today.

The things that you hate. The things that you really dislike, the things that feel very uncomfortable, things that you think you’re not very good at when you do them again and again, and the gain and the gain, actually, they just become neutral and then they can even become fun. So just thought I would share that they’ll take away with you anyway, back to the episode, which I’m also excited about because we are talking about one of my favorite things today, which is masterminds the new.

Improved revamped. Ambitious introvert mastermind is coming soon. The doors are open at the end of May and so I wanted to dedicate this episode to masterminds and going to talk a little bit about what they are and what they, aren’t, why they are such a powerful container, my own experience in [00:02:00] masterminds.

And then. Give you a sneak peek behind the scenes and see what is going to be available in the new ambitious introvert mastermind later this month. So what are they? We have all heard this term over and over again, really, really popular in the online space. I’m going to start with what masterminds are not.

Masterminds are not group coaching programs. They are two very different distinct containers. But for some reason, what has happened is a lot of people are calling group coaching programs masterminds. Now, I don’t know if it’s because it sounds better or maybe they’ve got some alliteration going on, or if there’s a higher kind of perceived value in a mastermind.

Let’s just be straight. A group coaching program is curriculum based. There are modules, people follow the same structure that might be calls where you get [00:03:00] coached each week and you follow through on a journey. This is what startup scale-up does, right? Um, modules are released every week or two, depending on the length of them and the people inside the container work through it.

We have a Q and a call every week. Then the next module drops. They work through it. And at the end they have a tangible results that they walk away with. That is a group coaching program. A mastermind is not curriculum based. People are not entering a mastermind with exactly the same problem at the same level, wanting to get the same result at the end.

I have. Going to Wikipedia and also to Google to see what I could come up with to explain this well, and this is what I got. So this is a quote from Wikipedia. I Mastermind group is a peer to peer mentoring group that used to help members solve their problems with input and advice from other members. And it says, the reason that you would join a mastermind group is [00:04:00] quotes to help you stay ahead of your competition.

When you group members share their experiences, it’s an opportunity for you to get insights into what is working, what isn’t working and why you can then leverage this information to make wiser decisions for your own company led by a facilitator rather than someone who is teaching.

So therefore, if someone is teaching you on a call it’s not a mastermind, it’s a group program. And that is okay. But if you are interested in the containers, just make sure that you’re super, super clear about what you’re getting into. So why are masterminds so powerful? Well, power in number. So instead of, you know, one head you’ve got many heads and generally people are all working towards a similar goal.

So for the ambitious introvert mastermind, everyone is working towards scaling their business. That’s not to say everyone’s working towards, you know, and [00:05:00] metric like 10 K months or to be fully booked or to launch a group program. It it’s scaling in general, it’s growth of your business. But what it enables you to do is gain insights and have access into multiple points of view and expertise.

So for instance, someone in the mastermind could be. Very well-versed in Facebook ads and you’re looking to run ads like you, you can ask that person the question, it may be that you are looking to use a particular piece of software and someone else already uses it. So then you have the access to that information really quickly and it gets shared around.

So why do I love masterminds so much? And I do, I. adore Running masterminds. So I’ve done four rounds of the mastermind so far. The first one I did was a peer to peer version. So I facilitated the mastermind for six months for four of my entrepreneur friends. This is when I was just re-nishing down into the [00:06:00] ambitious introvert and it was the start of lockdown.

So I hosted that for six months. Then I have done another three rounds of it under the name of the quiet power mastermind. We now have no rebrands to the ambitious introvert, but even way back before that, back in. And 2010 or 11, I think it was when I was an air traffic controller. I did a week of facilitator training with human resources, and I used to facilitate workshops between pilots and controllers.

And this would be like a full day where they got together in the same room, which, you know, almost never happened despite the fact that they’re talking to each other on the radio day in, day out. And they have the opportunity to have a conversation face to face and ask each other questions about situations that they were both in, but they had a completely different perspective on, so without.

to boring into aviation, [00:07:00] something like avoiding weather pilots perspective as he sit in, in a flight deck. And there’s like a huge thunderstorm ahead of him is like, I want to turn away and avoid that at any cost, the air traffic controllers perspective, who’s got a radar screen with 15 other aircraft around him.

And if he turns he’s going to be pointing at another one of them is you can’t turn that way or you can’t turn just yet. They have different priorities. Right? So. It’s really important to be able to get them into a room, to discuss those kinds of things. Look at different perspectives, understand why we do things the way we do and learn from each other.

And that is essentially what a mastermind is. I wasn’t teaching those people anything. I was simply facilitating the conversation for the data that it flowed between the two groups. So the masterminds in the past, I have just adored. I’m going to give you some examples of some of the results. Um, it’s important to note that not all of my clients are on social media.

Not all of my clients are [00:08:00] happy for their results to be shared. This is an option that they get when we work together. So, um, I only have a share from people that say they are okay with that. So one of my clients, a couple of masterminds ago was actually thinking about leaving her business and getting a job because things hadn’t been working out for her.

She had about $500 left and in the three months of the mastermind, she made $45,000. She is now with just under a year later at consistent $20,000 months. And she has grown to a team of nine. And literally the week before the mastermind, she was thinking about getting a job. Another client launched her course platform.

And not only that, but she secured funding. She had meetings with investors and angel investors. She got invited onto a very well-known TV show, and she also had discussions about potential collaborations with national industry [00:09:00] bodies in her field, which was really, really exciting. Another member got her lead magnet set up.

She got her email list set up. She hired her first team member. She had a baby that was not due to the mastermind. Can I just say that was already planned and even started a wait list for people waiting to work with her? Once her maternity was complete and another client stripped back to do less, they came thinking that they needed more and more strategy, but they actually didn’t.

They would do an, all of the things. Possibly too many things. So they strip back, they refine their messaging and then went on to secure three sales calls, almost straight away. This mastermind by the way, previously was three months. So these results were in three months and we actually run in for seven months in the next round.

There are also been tons of non tangible results. So people have been able to lean into mindset or lean into energetics in maybe a way that they didn’t before if they came from very [00:10:00] strategy focused backgrounds and quite a lot of my testimonials. If you look at them, Oh, I thought I needed X, but I actually needed Y so there’ll be like, I got, I need more strategy, but actually the mindset was a game changer or, you know, either I needed more mindset, but actually it was the energetics.

So it’s not always what you think you need is the thing that propels you forward. And another great stat that I looked up over 65% of mastermind members hired another mastermind member either during the time together or afterwards, they also made great friendships. They were perfect for ideal client research for each other.

And the overall feedback is that they loved being surrounded by other empathic sensitive introverts in business who just got them. They didn’t have to explain themselves. And one of my favorite things on the calls is when someone’s like describing a situation, that’s, you know, something [00:11:00] very extroverted in LA space and everyone’s just nodding along world, just like, yeah, I totally feel you.

So, as I said, those masterminds were three months, but the next round is going to be seven months. We kick off late may and there’s going to be support all the way through till the end of the year with a break in August for summer, because. our nervous systems need a break. We can not work 24 7, 365 so the changes that I have made since the last round, there are three calls per month, and two of those are hot seat group sessions.

So within that someone can come and ask me a question. If they want to ask my opinion or expertise on something, they can absolutely do that. Or they can direct the question to someone else in the mastermind, who they know is an expert. In that particular field, or they can ask it as an open question and then people can pop their feedback [00:12:00] in the comments can offer to connect with them outside of the call.

So basically you can bring it to a group of people and be like, this is what I need help with. Then third call per month is actually an energy clearance session. So during this, I’m going to be holding group energy clearing sessions, using the expansion codes. You probably heard me talk about them, absolutely adore this methodology and this modality.

My clients have had great results with it and being able to. Select the codes that are so valuable when we are growing and scaling our business, like the abundance code and the expert code and the self-worth code, all of these things that really help to bolster our energetics and our mindset to help us succeed.

You also get a one-on-one session with me each month. So this mastermind is a hybrid, I would say of mastermind and one-on-one coaching because you get 30 minute one-on-one session with me for six [00:13:00] months, six months off the seven. And you. foxer access. So I will be there on the other end Foxer to celebrate wins, to answer quick questions, anything like that.

So you really are very, very well supported in this container, as well as getting access to all of my resources and frameworks. So everything that I use to run my business, whether it’s for marketing, whether it’s for messaging, whether it’s for SLPs, whether it’s for. My financials, anything like that, um, that can be useful to you.

You have access to, and I’ve also added in guest experts and they have been very, very carefully chosen for their skillset because the mastermind is all about scaling your business. They’ve been chosen with that intention and they are all very direct and they’re all, very no fluff people. So don’t think that they’re going to turn up, put and do like a slide deck presentation.

And you’re going to be like, I know all of this, [00:14:00] they are huge value givers and they are going to be given some game changing information and these are paid experts. I’ve added in summer break as I told you, I think that taking time off from our business is so important. And even if you asked a work at, I just think sometimes having a break and time away from a group or from set calls a certain time each week to.

You know, refresh ourselves and integrate all of the information that we’ve absorbed is so, so useful. So we would be taking August off. There would still be, you know, the group channel would still be active, but there would be no calls during the month of August to give us all a summer break. And as I said, it is high touch.

It is high touch support, and it’s capped at just five people per call. So there would never be more than five people and me facilitating that because it is all about quality over quantity. I know of masterminds where there are 40 odd [00:15:00] people on the calls, which again, to me would just be exhausting to facilitate.

But I also think they are called masterminds and they verge into that group code. Oh group program territory. So for it to be a true mastermind where everyone can input with each other is capped at five. So if you’re listening to any of this and you’re thinking, this is me, I am an ambitious introvert. I want to scale my business.

I want support. I want one-on-one support. I want to be in a mastermind. I want all of them Louise’s resources. I want all of these things. Is it right for you? It’s right for you. If you want to grow and scale your business in an aligned and introvert friendly way. And what I mean by aligned is there’s no formulas, there’s no cookie cutter.

There’s nothing that says, like you have to do this to be able to scale. You still get to build your business in a completely bespoke manner, as well as having the support of the other people in the mastermind. It’s for you. [00:16:00] If you love the idea of hybrid of one-on-one and a group. So benefit is you get the mastermind

you know, you get that resource to tap into with all of those people’s input and expertise, and you get a mindset coach and a business strategist. Those are me in one container. So this is really quite rare. And having that high-touch access as well with the one-on-one calls and the Voxer just means that you are supported and a real 360 degree manner.

It’s right for you. If you appreciate being surrounded by other introverted, sensitive entrepreneurs who get you. And as I said earlier, when someone’s saying something everyone’s nodding along and yeah, I feel the same. Yeah. I know that feeling there is just something so permission given and really beautiful about that.

When people understand you and who you are. Also, it’s only right for you. If you’re excited to give input and use your zone of genius to help [00:17:00] others in the container grows that that is the whole point. People are selected to ensure that they have a skill set that is going to be beneficial to everyone else there.

So you have to be happy to give input. You need to be happy to share. It is a very collaborative process. You also need to be open to working on your mindset, your energy, your nervous system, and your strategy, because all of those are vital for our success. And to be able to scale our business and stay energized, we really need to focus on all of them.

And lastly, it’s only right for you. If you’re willing to put in the work and take action. I wish it was a magic bullet. I wish we could just sign up and pay and not really do anything and then get all of the results cascading in. But the last, it does not work like this. So if you are willing to turn up, put the effort in, take action, implement and work on all of the things, [00:18:00] then this is absolutely for you.

So, if you are interested, then feel free to apply. I would love to hear from you I’ve popped the link in the show notes, or you can always message me on Instagram at ambitious introvert with any questions, but I hope that has given you more of an overview of what a mastermind actually is, and to help you decide whether this could be a good container for you.

To support you in scaling your business to the next level. And for now, I’ll see you next week.