A curious thing happened in my mastermind group this week.
For context:
My mastermind is a group of 8 education entrepreneurs.
(plus me, so 9 in total)
We meet in-person 4 times throughout the year…
- dinner the night before
- hotel stay
- full day of masterminding
this Wednesday we had our third meeting of the year…
(Only one member of the group didn’t make it this time. He was too busy getting up to “something” in South America… he swears it’s “working hard”, but we all know better.)
From the pictures, you’d think we do nothing but sit around, eating and drinking.
And while it’s true there’s a fair amount of that…
We spend much more time deep in business chat…
And in every meeting I also give a talk revealing all the stuff I’ve been learning in my own busness, that I tend not to talk about publicly.
This time, for example, I broke down my new paid ads funnel that is running at 200% ROAS… showing the complete funnel and how it’s working
(If you’re wondering what the “review” thing is, I’ll be talking about this soon. It’s quite important.)
Anyway…
On Tuesday, over dinner, I asked everyone:
“Where’s your business at compared to the start of the year?”
And one piece of progress was widely reported:
2X growth in profit.
In fact almost 50% of the entrepreneurs in the group replied:
“My profit is 2X up since the start of the year.”
Nice…
That’s what we like to hear…
Right on a par with “the test came back negative” or “no cavities, see you next year.”
But, since I’ve had a front-row seat to these entrepreneurs’ progress during the year, I know that it’s not all sunshine and roses.
2X profit might be the destination, but getting there hasn’t been easy:
- One guy built 20 courses and didn’t sleep for 6 months.
- Another turned his live product evergreen – a step he was terrified of doing.
- One decided to dismantle his business and rebuild from scratch.
- Another fired all his agency partners and brought work back in-house.
And this is the reality of growing a business.
It’s never linear.
So, here are some reflections on what I’ve observed from watching this group grow over the course of the year, which might be helpful to you.
1.You REALLY need to be in the right rooms
Trying to do it all yourself is like chopping off your own legs right before a marathon.
Like… what are you trying to prove by doing it all alone?
Everything you need to know is already inside someone else’s head, so put yourself in a room with those people.
2. It’s NEVER obvious from the inside
The business problems you’re trying to solve always seem so difficult and complex.
But when you put your question to the group… especially a group who gets to know and understand you, the answers are clear as day.
The difference is perspective.
When you’re analysing your own business, you have no perspective – you’re trying to read the label from the inside the bottle.
People on the outside can immediately see things you can’t, because of perspective.
It often goes something like this:
“You’re talking about A. But you’re totally ignoring B – that makes no sense!”
It takes outside perspective to point this out.
3. It often gets HARDER before it gets EASIER
The biggest progress often lies on the other side of a very difficult decision.
- firing a team member
- splitting with your business partner
- pivoting into a different niche
- ditching a dying channel you’ve been nurturing for years
It’s normal to avoid these difficult decisions because they’re painful.
“There must be another way!”
Yet another reason to get outside perspective – they’ll tell you straight what needs doing.
4. REAL growth takes time
Social media convinces you that you’re just one marketing hack away from 10X’ing your business.
But sustainable growth (the kind that lasts for years) usually comes from going slow, putting pieces in place, and being patient.
5. Outsiders RARELY know more than you about your business
It’s so easy to believe that the flashy agency or smooth-talking A-player can parachute in and solve all your sales problems:
- increase conversion on your funnel
- fix your sales process
- run the entire business
But the best, long-term solutions usually come from figuring out the process patiently yourself, then hiring from within your community to fully resource it as a business function…
So that you can then step out, satisfied that the thing is being done properly.
Namaste,
Olly
