I received an email this past week from someone I highly respect who has training that is unique, super creative, and actionable.
This results leader asked me one question:
“I was wondering if you could give me a sense of what to charge for a new mastermind.”
How would you answer this question?
Here’s how I did:
There are so many dimensions regarding how to charge for a “mastermind”…because the term encompasses various models, deliverables and formats.
The “range” is $2,000 to $100,000…how’s that for a non-answer? 🙂
Let me try to narrow down a price point…by not focusing on price.
Your flagship training is more like a “Master Class” or a “Bootcamp”…with a beginning, middle and an end that creates a concrete result (i.e. “training” on your book and your methodology).
Expanding it into a “mastermind” (longer term relationship, ongoing meetings, coaching, interaction, engagement) is possible…but I think it needs a strategy.
If you had a group of students who wanted to implement what you teach, how long would you need to get them started?
What are the deliverables you could (over) deliver to them?
And since I assume it wouldn’t take a year to get them “executing,” what do they need from you once they are on the battlefield implementing your genius?
This feels like a perfect ascension program…teach them a skill, have them make money using it…and then create an environment where they never want (or can’t) leave you.
Kind of like a lifetime subscription (i.e. membership) with an ongoing service charge for services that can’t live without.
In my mind, that is the prescription for creating a perfect mastermind.
At least given what I know about your genius.
I could see a model whereby you enroll folks into a 90-day or 6-month “training”…weekly calls with assignments…for something like $1,000-$2,000.
More if you like (in terms of length and money)…but I would recommend you have your eyes on a bigger prize.
Start narrow…and then focus on wide.
Also: Don’t get caught up in thinking that your landmark training is “worth more” or your “best stuff” that you need to charge a ridiculously high price for.
Try this philosophy on:
Let them have your “best stuff” at a discount (because it’s only the best to you)…and the “best stuff” that you will create in the future based on their particular needs will be even “better stuff.”
After they come for the “information” they will stay for the “inspiration” (assuming you deliver on promises made) …whereby you sell them into a mastermind for $10,000 to $25,000 a year…with ancillary training, skills, guest speakers, hot seats…directly and indirectly related to the initial program.
And there’s the built-in ingredient of inspiration (if you orchestrate it deftly) created by the “community” …being in the room where it happens with fellow game changers…with you as the leader/conductor/maestro/commander-in-chief.
Creating a high integrity community, where everyone is helping everyone else, and there is mutual respect among members, might be the “stickiest” way to have a mastermind that stands the test of time.
Your personality needs to shine and you must be intentional every step of the way.
I use a version of this model for my Titans Xcelerator Mastermind (albeit at lower price points):
I host a “Breakthrough Advertising Bootcamp”, over three weeks (at $197 or $297), six 90-minute calls, going deep on Gene Schwartz’s masterpiece…followed by an attractive offer to join Titans Xcelerator, a one year membership, at $2,000, less what they paid for Bootcamp (i.e. $1,800).
Note that the Bootcamp “mirrors” the mastermind…similar format but the mastermind explores wider ranging topics (but still 100% congruent and relevant).
I know your question was how much to charge exactly for a mastermind.
And I’m guessing that you are looking for something higher priced than $2,000.
But at least I am narrowing it down a bit. And giving you a possible model to follow.
Getting to higher prices:
The next step after delivering the initial training is to explore more deeply the initial audience you attract…by finding out what they want from you and your big brain.
This is most critical:
Gather as much information about what they are coming to you for, what their expectations might be for a future, long-term relationship with you…and every pain point within their businesses which you think you can solve for them.
[Read the P.S. for a simple way to do this]
What do you offer that they can’t find anywhere else?
Then create the offer from your research:
- What are the benefits of “membership” over a longer period (i.e. what do they need from you once they are cooking with gas with your signature training)?
- What would be the additional add-ons to make them customers for life?
- What do they “get” (e.g. hot seats, guest speakers, accountability calls etc.)?
If you incorporate live events–say three a year–you can charge more because people crave “live and in person” and will pay more for that feature over a Zoom mastermind.
Of course, your research into what they want will include whetherthey crave this.
And even with live events included, I would recommend calls and coaching (over Zoom) in between the live events.
And/or “accountability PODS” with members meeting weekly or monthly among themselves.
(PODS are a feature I recently added to Titans Xcelerator with spectacular results.)
NOTE: If your initial training is done “live and in person” over a few days rather than virtually over a few weeks or months, your price point will be higher for that alone…with a corresponding bump in price for a live and in person mastermind.
Not knowing the agenda you will create for the long term, it’s hard for me to comment on everything you can, and will, offer inside an ongoing program.
That will be determined from the wisdom—and desire—of your crowd.
Not to mention your wisdom and desire.
You need to fulfill with something you like to do that is also desirable.
Sounds obvious…because it is.
In short, your offering feels like training rather than a mastermind in and of itself.
That doesn’t mean that a mastermind is impossible…but it needs to be thought through some more.
YOU need to be the attraction for a long-term mastermind…while your signature training is the lure…and then have your leadership and being a demand for deep connection take over.
Using Perry Marshall’s metaphor:
The training is your crack cocaine (“information”/ short term); everything else is philosophy (creating “inspiration”/lifetime customers…and friends).
I ended this response to my genius friend letting him know he gave me a good idea for a blog post.
Hopefully you thought it was a good idea.
At least you read it to this point. 🙂
I’d love your thoughts, opinions, counter arguments…especially what you would have said had you been asked the same question.
And while I am no expert in “how to form a mastermind,” I have done it multiple times with much success.
I also hoped I didn’t insult my friend when I told him that he asked the wrong question (“what should I charge for a mastermind?”).
But it was anything but an insult.
Because what I wanted to get across to him—and you—is that everyone has superpowers…both with information and philosophy.
And the world can be your oyster…you can charge for the “pearl “inside that oyster accordingly…in due time…by weaving everything you know and have learned into an offer your audience can’t refuse.
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. While I didn’t write the post above to show off my mastermind creating prowess—far from it—it is an expression of my experience…and not a “do as I say, not as I do.”
It’s not bragging if you did it.
And I’ve done it multiple times…beginning with Titans Mastermind in 2015…after orchestrating 26 hot seats over ten and a half hours during a VIP Day at the Titans of Direct Response in 2014 (with my good friend and world class copywriter, David Deutsch).
At the end of that day, I thought I had (over) delivered…but I didn’t have an offer…and thank goodness my buddy Joe Polish was in the room and saved me from my “Director of Sales Prevention” tendencies. 🙂
He suggested that I ask everyone in the room (close to 50 of the most prolific direct response marketers in the world) one question:
“Would you like to pursue an ongoing relationship with me in the future based on attending this landmark event and today’s VIP session?”
We went old school and passed out 3 X 5 index cards and had them put their contact information on the cards if they would be interested…with one tangible thing they took away from the event (solution to a challenge or an opportunity)… and no black marks for anyone who was not interested.
I guess this was my version of a “stampede to the back of the room” for sign ups. 🙂
At least all of them gave me a card.
And the gold on each card from each attendee gave me proof that I had solved at least one pain point in each of their businesses (or possibly I had given them an actionable idea)…with an eye towards a longer term relationship.
After leaving Boardroom in early 2015, those cards made up a list (an “offline family”) of people I would enthusiastically want to hang with in a mastermind.
I made an offer to that family for $20,000 per person, $25,000 for two people from the same company, and in September of 2015, I launched Titans Mastermind with 23 companies and over 30 members.
The result was a $500,000 mastermind of my dreams…and the launch of Titans Marketing as a multiple 7-figure business that was built on “crack cocaine” (hot seats) and continued with philosophy (based on direct response principles that will never die).
And the money, while significant, was more of a strategic by-product.
The real value came from an 80% renewal rate year over year for 8 years (they liked it!), I maxed the membership at 30 companies and 45 members…with everyone hugging each other on the way into the meetings and hugging each other on the way out.
Which was one of my “missions” I set for the mastermind.
The mission had nothing to do with price and total revenue…although it was nice to be paid nicely for the effort. 🙂
It had much more to do with contribution (mine and everyone else’s)…and then deep connection.
Fast forward to December of 2019:
Feeling like 30 of the best-of-the-best direct response marketing companies was only one way to create influence, I wanted something priced at 10% of Titans Mastermind, with more people, virtual (i.e. not “in person”), and equally impactful.
Titans Xcelerator was born with an initial enrollment of 150 members.
Note the date of the launch—3 months before the pandemic.
I guess I knew it was time for a virtual mastermind. 🙂
Again, I tell you all of this not to brag…hey, I did it and it happened…but giving you the origin story is one way to entice you to consider joining.
Hopefully my earnestness comes through…that is, to show that I am in it for the contribution to folks like you…and it’s not all about the money.
Is there a better way to spend my time with great minds on live calls—with hot seats, speakers, in-depth discussions about work…and life?
The answer to that would be a resounding “NO.”
It’s a prime example of making my work my play.
There is nothing better for me to do in my “retirement” (while working full time with Titans Xcelerator).
Just the access to the network I’ve built over 40 years is worth the price…and that is only the tip of the iceberg.
Would you like to spend quality time with me and 250 of the most dynamic marketing entrepreneurs over the next year?
I’m inviting you today to become my next VIP’s.
Click here to read all about it.