If you’ve listened to this show for any length of time, you know that in 2015 I joined a $30,000 a year mastermind. 

The idea to join had been planted in my mind the previous year when I went to a one-day retreat with Amy Porterfield and about 100 other people. Amy talked about how important it was for her business growth to be in a mastermind because it got her access to people and opportunities that weren’t available elsewhere. 

At the time, I didn’t fully understand what she was saying and I was under the impression that masterminds were the path to exponential business growth. 

I spent the next 10 or so months searching high and low for a great mastermind to join and ended up joining one led by Suzanne Evans called Hell Raisers. (Since then, this program was retired and she now markets under the name Driven.) 

When I bought in 2017, the hype and marketing for this mastermind was unreal and it looked like my ticket to success. 

So I tightened my belt and joined. I had to make a $5,000 down payment and then 12 more payments of $2,083. 

I thought okay, this is how the game is played so I’m jumping in and paying to play. 

But here’s the deal. The program was about getting more and more and more money from me. 

First, there was an extra $5,000 for a sales training program because my private coaches determined I wasn’t good at sales. 

Then it was an extra $18,000 to be a sponsor/presenter/have a booth for an upcoming program. Then it was another $5,000 to join a speaker training program. 

And on and on it went.

The Ugly Truth

The cold, hard truth is that none of these programs, trainings or masterminds had an effect on the profitability of my business. NONE.

All it did was make me feel worse and worse about myself because I wasn’t Suzanne and my business model didn’t run like that. 

After the speaker training program, I had to take a step back and really look hard at why I kept falling for buying more and more — even though I had worse results than when I started the mastermind! 

And it came down to this: 

I thought buying into the mastermind was my ticket to success. I thought paying to play was my ticket into the ‘in’ group where I’d get connections and exposure that wasn’t available to anyone else. 

You see, Suzanne at that time was making BIG promises. At her events she was making promises like “Go from $0 – $500,000 in six to twelve months time!”. She was touting client examples that showed clients going from $100,000 to well over $1,000,000 businesses. She was talking about her own meteoric rise to fame and success so I thought she had the connections and success secrets I needed. 

What I found instead was a whole bunch of people like me who wanted to uplevel their business game… but if we wanted to be part of the real club we had to upgrade to the next level (which I think was around $70,000, but I’m not 100% sure). That’s where the real deal business owners were — or at least that’s the story that I heard through the mastermind. 

Partway through the year I realized that by trying to buy my way into success I was ignoring everything I knew about myself. I was ignoring my own talents and skills. I had been trying to fit into the Hell Raiser mold, and that’s why I broke my business.

There Are No Shortcuts to Success 

There’s no shortcut to making your business successful. Yes, you can buy your way onto stages and into select groups as I did, but that’s not a business. That’s an expensive group of connections. 

I did meet some amazing fellow Hell Raisers during my time and I’m still friends with them today. But I quit that mastermind partway through because I decided to believe that I was good enough as is. That I had value to offer my clients as is. I didn’t have to play on people’s emotions of not feeling good enough. I could instead be more true to who I am and become my clients’ trusted advisor. 

It was hard to turn my back on the idea that I could buy my way into success, but once I did, I’ve been creating my business my way and not only is it way more profitable, it’s a lot more fun too. 

Ultimately what I found was a bunch of really amazing people who wanted to be successful. 

Unfortunately, I strongly believe our insecurities, dreams and desires were used against us to milk all the money possible. I take responsibility for my part in that because I know I wanted to BELIEVE the stories I was hearing. 

What I found is that I couldn’t buy my way to success if I wanted a sustainable business that felt really good. 

There’s no magic club I can buy into and there’s no magic club you can buy into either. 

Instead, we’ve got to roll up our sleeves and do the work to find our own way to success. 

Create Profit Without Worry – one system at a time. I’ll show you how to attract a steady flow of buyers without all the hustle with this free download →  5 Steps To Profit Without Worry.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Article: The Real Reason Proven Marketing Formulas Have Stopped Working
• Connect on Facebook
• Connect on LinkedIn
• Connect on Instagram
• Create Profit Without Worry – one system at a time with this free download →  5 Steps To Profit Without Worry.