Episode 019 – High-Ticket Business Models for Coaches & Consultants Part 6: Mastermind Group

High Ticket Sales Secrets | Coaching & Consulting Business / Personal Branding / Sales Training / Marketing / Get Clients

This is Day 6 of High-Ticket Business Model. This is Dan Lok. In the previous episodes I have talked about the 5 High-Ticket Business Models that you can implement for your coaching-consulting business. Today we’re going to talk about Model 6 – that is, Mastermind Group.

My Two Favorite Business Models

What I’m going to share with you today and tomorrow are two business models that are currently making me the most amount of money and also producing the most amount of joy and satisfaction in my life. I’ve done all these business models but I found these two models are the ones I like the most. These two business models are a little bit more advanced. They may not be for beginners but if you’ve in the business for a number of years and worked with a number of clients and you have some track record, I think you’ll find these two business models very profitable, very lucrative but also they deliver tremendous value to your clients as well.

So let’s talk about Mastermind Group. At first, learn about the concept of mastermind from Napoleon Hill’s book. If you’ve read Think and Grow Rich, you would know what I’m talking about. In the book, Napoleon Hill talks about the power of Mastermind Group. I remember there’s a quote, I’m trying to paraphrase it. It’s something like, “No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third invisible intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.” Napoleon Hill was referring to this as a Mastermind.

My First Mastermind Group and How It Inspired Me to Play Bigger

At a very young age, in my early twenties, I joined a mastermind group that was founded by my first mentor, Allan. I just tagged along and I was the youngest guy in the group. At that time, every single person in the group was older than me, they’re all millionaires. At that time I was kind of getting started, I was making my six-figure income. Quite frankly, I felt uncomfortable in that kind of environment.

Through the Mastermind, when you are hanging out with the people that you look up to, you learn from them. You cannot help but be pulled up. They will lift you up. They will inspire you to play a bigger game. Slowly and gradually, I thought, “This is cool.” My income just kept going up and up and up because I belong to the Mastermind group.
Over the years I belonged to different mastermind groups. Some were okay, some were great, some were just, quite frankly, horrible. So when I started my own mastermind group, Dan Lok Inner Circle, I took a lot of those lessons and put together and said, “You know what? What group do I want to belong to? Me, Dan Lok, what do I want to belong to? What group would make me want to stay for a very long time?”

So when I structured my mastermind group, I didn’t do a lot of things that a lot of the typical mastermind organizers do. I do things quite differently. As far as I know, a lot of the things I do within my mastermind group is very, very unique, that I do and nobody else does.

First of all, let me talk about basically two types of mastermind groups, then I’ll share with you exactly how you would structure some of these things.

The Two Types of Mastermind Groups: Industry Specific and Peer-Based Groups

The first type of mastermind group is Industry Specific. Industry specific means, probably let’s say, a mastermind group for mortgage brokers. A mastermind group for real estate agents. A mastermind group for CEOs. A mastermind group for marketing directors. A mastermind group for Amazon sellers. So every single person in that room, in the mastermind group, they kind of do the same thing and they share with each other, “Hey, what’s working in this industry? What are you trying?” They kind of share the intelligence and the knowledge and insights with each other. That’s cool. That’s very, very powerful.

The other type is what I call peer-based. The people in the mastermind group, they may or may not be in the same industry but the people involved are of the same professional level. So they could be, for example, they are executives from diverse non-competing industries such as CEOs of insurance companies or CEOs of financial companies. There are a lot of these mastermind groups in the world as well. It’s very, very powerful. And the format of the mastermind group is only limited by the leader’s imagination.

The Dan Lok Inner Circle: A Combination of Both Mastermind Groups

So in my case, my Mastermind group, Dan Lok Inner Circle is like a combination of both. Every single person in that mastermind group are either coaches and consultants and thought leaders. We do very similar things. We either sell high-ticket programs or sell to high-end clients but at the same time we are all from different industries. We have people selling luxury real estate, we have people selling financial services, private equity, we have people selling coaching services, leadership programs. We have people selling relationship. We have people selling digital marketing services. So it’s a very, very diversified group.

Personally, I myself like that format because part of why I like doing a mastermind group is I like to learn. It pushes me to grow. I’m always fascinated with what’s working in different industries. So it keeps the group very, very interesting. As a mastermind group you can charge very good money. I’ve seen mastermind groups anywhere from $10000, $15000. Currently my group is $24000 a year, 12-month commitment. And I’ve seen groups as much as $30000, $40000, $50000. It all depends on the value that you provide.

What determines the price is this. Usually, the higher quality of the group, the more money that you can charge. When you’re selling a mastermind group, when you’re trying to fill your mastermind group, knowing that people are not just buying you – the leader, and that’s nice. They want to learn from you. But chances are, because they also want to network, brainstorm and hang out with other successful people in the same industry or at the same professional level – people that understand them, it’s almost like a family outside of their family, if that makes sense.

It’s Like a Family Outside Their Families

Sometimes when they do business stuff, when they have successes, it’s difficult to share with their family because sometimes they may not get it. Just imagine, you talk to your friends, “Hey, I just launched this landing page. It’s got a 25% conversion and I got 10% closing ratio on my webinar.” They’re like, “What?” They don’t quite understand what you’re talking about. But in a mastermind group, “Oh, that’s awesome! That’s wonderful!” That’s great.

I think deep down, that’s part of the human psychology, the human psyche. We all want to belong to something. So running a mastermind group is also a way you can leverage your time. Now you can serve one to a group of people.

How a Mastermind Group Works

Usually, how a mastermind group works depends on where you are and how you want to structure this. I’ve seen coaches and consultants, they structure it in a way that they might meet two times a year, three times a year or four times a year. Sometimes they do it in the same location, sometimes people like to do it in exotic locations – get some sun, near the beach or Florida and so it becomes almost a getaway as well as a learning thing. You could easily do it that way.

I personally like to keep it local. People come see me, they fly in for the mastermind group meetings. That’s just the way I like to do it. Feel free to do it in different areas. Or it depends. You want to build your business or run your lifestyle. “Hey you know what, I’d like to go to these places anyway so I might was well do my mastermind there.” What’s better than that? You get to hang out with your best students, you learn, grow together, you have some fun together and you can travel together. Isn’t that nice?

Staying in Touch, Listening and Getting More Ideas

So that’s one way to do it. In between, usually there is some kind of mechanism where it could be a closed Facebook group, you guys can stay in touch within the members. Also maybe a monthly teleconference or a webinar among members.

Usually how the mastermind meeting goes is usually a series of hot seats. Basically you have each member – depends on how many members you have, they would take turns and present anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. I like 20 minutes. Sometimes 20 to 25 minutes and they would basically present what they are working on and they would get feedback from the group.

They would just simply listen, take in ideas and filter them out. The benefit of this is they get a fresh perspective. Chances are, if the group is well-run that whatever problem they have, changes are, some of the members of the group, they have already experienced those problems before or made the same mistake in the past and they can give them some very, very powerful insights.

Why People Join and Stay

And also in terms of retention – here’s one thing I’ve learned that I have my students been with me in the mastermind group in 3 years, so my retention is more than 80%. One of my secrets to that is I truly believe that when people first come to me to join the group, they join because of Dan – because of me. They stayed because of the group. So by me focusing on member selection, by bringing in new people, new members, new energy and new blood to the group, it adds a different dynamic. It keeps it very, very interesting.

That’s why also within the group, we do business with each other. We buy from each other, we hire each other, we help each other, refer business to each other. We kind of keep it very much like a inner circle closed door family. And just that alone, just the networking and the deal-making within the group, that alone is worth millions of dollars.

So for them, whatever $24000 or $2000 they pay a month, it’s really nothing. From the opportunity, the people that they meet, they couldn’t have met these people outside of the group. And even if you meet them outside of the group, the bond is not just the same. It’s just not just the same than if you meet them in a conference or through Facebook or even in person.

It’s not the same versus the bonding that happens in the mastermind group. If you feel like a family, we trust each other, they trust my judgment in filtering the people out, that anyone in the group. If they’ve been with me for a period of time – a number of months or years, they know new members who join are good people.

The Mastermind Group is Where We Can Share the Same Philosophy and Values With People Who Understand

We think alike because all share the same philosophy, similar values. That makes it very interesting. It makes the whole business journey less lonely. Part of the reasons people join mastermind groups, this is kind of the big secret – because of loneliness. As an entrepreneur, our path is lonely. We want a place where we can talk to people. We want a place where we feel understood. Mastermind provides that. So if you are in a point that you can launch something like this, a mastermind group, I highly recommend it. It’s a powerful business model.

Today, I went a little bit overtime, but I hope you get value from that. I’m certain that if you actually implement some of the ideas that if you have a mastermind group already, that you see the power of some of these strategies.

So until next time. Always be closing.