0:00

Entrepreneurship can be very lonely and

0:03

isolating. And if you don't find

0:05

your people, it's easy to

0:07

get in your head in not a good way and

0:10

start comparing yourself to everybody else, thinking

0:12

you're not measuring up, thinking you're doing

0:14

it wrong. And I think one of

0:16

the beautiful things about getting into a peer group is

0:19

you realize, oh my gosh, I am just like

0:21

everyone else. I'm

0:24

Amy Porterfield, ex-corporate girl turned CEO

0:26

of a multi-seven-figure business. But it

0:28

wasn't all that long ago that

0:30

I lacked the confidence, the

0:33

budget, and the time to focus

0:35

on growing my small but mighty

0:37

business. Fast forward past

0:39

many failed attempts and lessons learned, and you'll see

0:41

the business I have today. One

0:44

that changes lives and gives

0:46

me more freedom than I

0:48

ever thought possible. One

0:51

that used to only exist as

0:53

a daydream. I created

0:55

the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to

0:57

give you simple, actionable, step-by-step strategies to

1:00

help you do the same. If you're

1:02

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1:04

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1:07

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1:09

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1:11

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1:27

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2:19

back to the show. Hey

2:22

there, friend. Welcome back to online marketing

2:24

made easy. I'm so glad you're here

2:26

today. I'm excited to give you

2:29

a behind the scenes look into

2:31

a mastermind weekend with some

2:33

of the most brilliant female entrepreneurs that I

2:35

know. I'm going to talk about what we

2:37

did, what I took away and how

2:40

we structured it. And I'm also going to

2:42

share how to go about creating your own

2:44

mastermind and a few things to keep in

2:47

mind if you want to be as productive

2:49

as possible. So if you

2:52

haven't done one before, just be sure to hang

2:54

out until the end because I'm going to share

2:56

some of my very best tips. Now

2:58

I want to be clear. I'm not talking about

3:01

a mastermind that you create and then people pay

3:03

you money to sign up for and you're

3:05

the leader. It's not that kind of mastermind.

3:07

I'm also not talking about a mastermind

3:09

where you pay somebody else to be

3:11

a part of their mastermind. That's a

3:13

whole other strategy. I love that strategy.

3:15

I've paid for many masterminds over the

3:17

years, but this is more of a

3:20

peer ran mastermind.

3:23

And that means that a bunch of us

3:25

got together and said, we should get together

3:27

one weekend and do a mastermind. So everyone

3:29

paid for their own flights, their own hotel,

3:32

and we just came together for a weekend.

3:34

So that's what I'm talking about. And I

3:36

think they're really powerful. So I'm hoping at

3:38

the end of this shorty episode, you want

3:40

to create one on your own. Now

3:43

I did an episode a while back about

3:45

female friendship. And one of the things I

3:47

said in that episode is that you

3:50

need to show up as the friend

3:52

that you want. You need to initiate. Don't

3:54

wait for friends to come to you and

3:56

invite you to different opportunities. So if you

3:58

take that episode in this episode, The

4:00

one major takeaway I want you

4:02

to get is if you're interested

4:05

in a pure Rand mastermind, then

4:07

start it yourself. Initiate

4:09

it yourself. Get the ball rolling. Group

4:12

text a few of your friends and say, hey, do

4:14

you want to do this? So

4:16

take the lead because if we sit around

4:18

and wait for things to happen, they're never

4:20

going to happen. So just wanted to put

4:23

that out there. So I'm sensitive

4:25

about name dropping. And

4:27

at the same time, I want to give credit

4:29

to the powerhouse women that were in the room.

4:31

So I decided that I am going to say

4:33

who is there. We also posted online. It wasn't

4:35

a secret. We posted pictures

4:37

from the weekend, but it

4:40

was Laurie harder, Lindsay Schwartz,

4:42

Jen Gottlieb, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon,

4:44

Jasmine star, Jamie Kern Lima,

4:46

and me. And

4:48

we actually did this last year as

4:50

well. Most of the same women

4:52

were there. So our goal

4:54

is just to do it once a year. And

4:57

then we try to invite one new woman

4:59

to the group every time we do it.

5:02

So that's essentially what it looks like.

5:05

And we are all friends, but we

5:07

are strictly business on these trips. It's

5:10

not a girls weekend just to have

5:12

fun, although there's nothing wrong with that.

5:14

And I probably could use a few

5:16

of those. We want

5:18

to take advantage of the minds in

5:20

the room. And I

5:22

hate to make comparison to men and women, but

5:25

I'm going to go out on a limb here.

5:27

This is not always true. But

5:29

what I have found in my experience of being

5:31

a female entrepreneur for 15 years is that

5:34

I've been in many rooms where I'm the only

5:36

female and men talk

5:39

about business differently. And

5:41

we actually could take a little bit

5:43

from a page of how they do

5:45

this. I have noticed that

5:48

when I'm in a room with a lot of men talking

5:50

about business, They talk all about

5:52

business. So They're getting into statistics

5:54

and conversions and funnels. And What

5:56

kind of business insurance do you

5:59

use? The big contractor and

6:01

this is how I did this

6:03

campaign. This is what I would

6:05

change and they're just business business

6:07

business. And a lot times when

6:10

I get with female entrepreneurs there's

6:12

like twenty five percent business and

6:14

seventy five percent. A. Lotta

6:16

talk about personal stuff. Now

6:19

I'm kind of very hesitant to

6:21

say this because some women are

6:23

listening and they're like, yeah, That's

6:25

what makes us unique and we.

6:27

Care more than. Just about the

6:29

business and our lives are more rounded out.

6:31

I mean, you could make an argument one

6:34

way or another. But. My

6:36

argument today is. I want

6:38

women to talk about business more. I.

6:41

Wanna in the room? Same. Here's where

6:43

my conversion.this is what my numbers look

6:45

like. You want to dissect my final

6:47

let's go and I want us to

6:49

be just as powerful as the men

6:52

talking about business and I do believe

6:54

that there should be a time and

6:56

place for some of the more personal

6:58

stuff. I do believe that, but I

7:00

also want to increase. The.

7:03

Amount of women who feel

7:05

comfortable, incompetent, To.

7:07

Say. What they're doing made. To talk

7:09

about what's working for them to get

7:12

into the details of the business to

7:14

up level. I. Want those conversations

7:16

to be among women even more. And

7:18

my own experience years might be very

7:20

different is that it doesn't happen as

7:22

often as when the guy gets gather

7:24

in. I know about alone in this.

7:27

I talked to many female entrepreneurs and

7:29

they agreed, but not all of them

7:31

of course. So why am I kind

7:33

of harping on this to say? And

7:35

I'm I want to be sensitive about

7:37

it because I know I'm not the

7:39

end all be all in my opinion.

7:42

but work had a bad asses. As

7:44

female entrepreneurs, where do. A big

7:46

thing and I want us

7:48

to have a bigger voice

7:50

in entrepreneurship, Online business, Online

7:52

Marketing. So. This. Was a

7:54

very strictly business kind of weekend.

7:57

Now don't get me wrong, there's

7:59

always. Revision on the side

8:01

that person all or during lines

8:03

or after hours. That always happens.

8:05

But we got down to business

8:07

and I loved it. So we

8:09

arrived at the hotel on a

8:12

Friday evening like early evening and

8:14

we met for a few hours

8:16

and then we had dinner. And.

8:18

Then of course Saturday morning we

8:21

and masterminded all day even during

8:23

lunch we were doing hot seat

8:25

and then we went to dinner

8:28

in the conversation that dinner were

8:30

so freaking good because they're kind

8:32

of all over the place but

8:34

so awesome about business in about

8:37

different people that are doing cool

8:39

things and I loved the expansiveness

8:41

of the conversation. Now here's what's

8:43

interesting. We. Did not have

8:46

a meeting room, we didn't get a

8:48

conference room or we didn't go into

8:50

someone's room and like use that as

8:52

our office or whatever. We literally sat

8:54

in the lobby. we knew that the

8:57

hotel we're going to which is the

8:59

Montage and laguna beach super fancy. We

9:01

knew that they had a really big

9:03

couches and tables and little know so

9:05

we were just find a know and

9:08

we met we you sat on big

9:10

couches and was kind of a little

9:12

loud at times. little weird when the

9:14

piano. Player started but we just. Work.

9:17

Through it. It wasn't

9:19

like extra structured were

9:21

official it anyway which.

9:23

I thought was really cool. Know.

9:25

What we did is hot seat if

9:27

you're not familiar, hot seats or were

9:29

you take turns and everyone gets a

9:32

chance to be in the spotlight and

9:34

the group spend time discussing you in

9:36

your business. so whatever it is you

9:38

want to bring to the table. so

9:40

everyone.at least thirty minutes and we had

9:42

a timer and. You.

9:44

Basically would spend the first that they ten

9:47

minutes or less explaining what your situation isn't

9:49

where you need help and then everyone would

9:51

pour into you. Now. truth be

9:53

told everyone probably went over there thirty

9:56

minutes and that is fine when we

9:58

are deep into the conversations and It

10:00

was flowing. We just let it go, which I

10:02

love. But everyone got at least

10:04

30 minutes. And then we

10:07

had side conversations that based on maybe

10:09

someone's hot seat, we went down a

10:11

rabbit hole of something really important that

10:13

it wasn't a hot seat. We just

10:15

wanted to discuss this topic. And

10:18

I thought that was really cool as well. So

10:20

we did that all day Saturday.

10:23

And then we went to dinner Saturday night. And

10:26

then Sunday, we got together just for

10:28

the morning for a few hours. We

10:30

debriefed about what our biggest takeaways were

10:32

from the weekend. And then everyone went

10:34

their separate ways. And I

10:36

think the Sunday morning debrief is important because we

10:39

all slept on it. Some people were

10:41

like, wait, I have a question about this. Or one

10:43

thing I haven't reconciled is this. And then we kind

10:45

of got to go into it because we had a

10:47

few hours before everyone had to get on a plane

10:49

and leave. We are online

10:51

marketers, which means we have unique

10:53

needs. And there are so many options

10:56

out there for paid media. Sometimes

10:58

it's hard to figure out where should you go

11:00

to reach your ideal audience. But here's

11:02

the thing. Have. You thought

11:04

about Linked In adds. Linked In

11:07

Adds empowers marketers with solutions for

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you and your customers, and it

11:11

allows you to build the right

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relationships and dr results and reach

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your customers with meaningful content you

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do not want to sleep on

11:20

Linked It adds. And here's the

11:22

thing. Seventy nine percent of content

11:25

marketers said Linked In produces the

11:27

best results for paid media. I

11:29

hear it from so many of

11:31

my peers and I know you're.

11:33

Doing important work, And.

11:36

With that, you want to make sure that

11:38

the work you're doing is getting in front

11:40

of the right people, and that's what linked

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11:45

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linkedin.com/amy. Terms. And conditions. Apply.

12:04

know you're focused on marketing and

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selling your digital products, but I

12:08

know many of you also have

12:11

physical products and I want to

12:13

talk about Shopify. Shopify is a

12:15

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12:18

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converting checkout experience. In fact,

12:42

it converts 36% better

12:44

compared to other leading e-commerce

12:46

platforms. Yeah, loving that. And

12:49

I don't know about you, but as

12:52

an online entrepreneur, my customers experience, especially

12:54

when it comes to checking out is

12:56

so important. Plus, not only do they

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support your customers, they support you as

13:00

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13:05

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13:07

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13:30

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13:33

shopify.com/ Made Easy. Now

13:37

it was a really great experience.

13:41

And one of the things I particularly love about this

13:43

group is that every year, as I mentioned,

13:46

we invite a special guest. So our

13:48

special guest happened to be Jamie Kern

13:50

Lima, and what was really cool about

13:52

that is her book was coming out

13:54

literally that Tuesday. So we met on

13:56

Friday or Saturday Sunday. Her book came

13:59

out Tuesday. So we were able to

14:01

pour into her and take fun pictures with her

14:03

book because we were all promoting her book. We

14:05

got to talk about some of the stuff she

14:07

was planning for the book launch. So

14:09

I love the idea of

14:12

a special guest so that

14:14

we are including other women and so

14:16

I think that was really fun as

14:19

well. One of my

14:21

biggest takeaways from the weekend was

14:24

something that Jamie had mentioned

14:26

and she'd mentioned how incredibly

14:28

supportive we all are of

14:30

each other even though we're

14:32

in the same niche. Some

14:34

of us could be considered direct competitors in

14:37

that group, but we never act like it.

14:39

Like let me give you an example. So

14:42

one of the gals in the group does a lot

14:44

of live events and she does them very successfully. There

14:46

was another woman in the group that was

14:49

doing a live event coming up and

14:51

she wanted to increase her ticket sales. So

14:54

the woman who's done a lot of

14:56

live events literally gave her her entire

14:58

blueprint of how she gets more people

15:00

to come to this event. Told

15:03

her exactly what she did step by

15:05

step by step in

15:07

detail and Jamie pointed

15:09

out like wow, that is so

15:11

cool that she literally broke

15:14

down every step and that was proprietary to

15:16

how she does events and it works for

15:18

her really well. And you could

15:20

say maybe sharing it could dilute it doesn't

15:22

work as well when everyone starts to do

15:24

it or you could say those

15:26

two kind of have the same audience so

15:29

she didn't want to share her secrets, but

15:31

she didn't. And I

15:33

do believe that an abundance

15:36

mentality gets you far. So

15:39

recently one of my friends promoted something that

15:41

was a little bit similar to what I

15:43

promote. It wasn't exact. It was just similar

15:46

and at first I felt a certain way

15:48

like oh, is that going to affect my

15:50

sales? Is it going to be weird because

15:52

we're really close friends and I had

15:54

to take a beat to navigate it in my

15:56

head like I had a lot of thoughts and

15:59

feelings of lack and

16:01

of insecurity, but it didn't last long

16:03

because I thought, wait a second. I

16:06

really do want to be the kind of

16:08

entrepreneur that comes from a place of abundance

16:10

and believe that there's enough room for all

16:12

of us. And

16:15

90% of the time I operate that way, but I'm

16:17

human and I can get in my head. So

16:19

I had to like jump back to wait a

16:22

second. I know what I believe to my core.

16:24

There's enough room for all of us and I'm

16:26

going to support all my friends, even if we're

16:28

doing similar things. And so I was

16:30

able to let it go and I feel like I was 100% in

16:32

her court when she launched. And

16:37

so I do believe that abundance mentality

16:39

has served me well. And

16:42

when it shows up in masterminds I'm in, I

16:44

know that I am in definitely the right kind of

16:46

group. So also

16:48

what's interesting or important, I should say

16:51

about these mastermind groups is that everything

16:53

is extremely confidential and we really trust

16:55

each other. So there's some things that

16:57

were said in the group that I

17:00

would never repeat anywhere else. On

17:02

the flip side, I shared some things that

17:04

I'd really rather people not like just tell

17:07

everyone like stuff I'm planning or stuff I'm

17:09

frustrated with. You got to have a group

17:11

to go to. I said it

17:13

a million times that entrepreneurship can

17:15

be very lonely and isolating. And

17:18

if you don't find your people, it's easy to

17:20

get in your head and not a good way

17:22

and start comparing yourself

17:24

to everybody else, thinking you're not measuring

17:26

up, thinking you're doing it wrong. And

17:29

I think one of the beautiful things about getting

17:31

into a peer group is you realize, oh my

17:33

gosh, I am just like everyone else. They have

17:35

the same struggles. They are working

17:38

through the same kind of things. And some of

17:40

them have overcome things that I really need to

17:42

overcome. And I'm hoping that they'll give me the

17:44

secret sauce to do so. When you're

17:46

in the right peer group, they will. So

17:50

I think that these weekends are important and

17:52

I want to encourage you to plan one and just

17:56

get together a group of people that

17:58

you feel comfortable with. And

18:01

I like the idea of

18:03

including one new person every

18:05

time, whether that person stays for the next

18:07

one or not, I don't know. But I

18:10

do think including more women is important. I

18:12

wish I could have 20 women, but I

18:14

will say the bigger the group gets, the

18:16

dynamic changes. And I think people

18:19

are less free to share all the things the

18:21

bigger the group gets. So we all prefer a

18:23

small group, but we also want to be inclusive.

18:26

And so that's just something that

18:28

we're kind of thinking about. And ways to

18:30

kind of navigate it. But I do like

18:32

this idea of including someone new every single

18:34

time we do it. Okay, so one thing

18:36

I promised you is some tips to make

18:39

this a great experience. And the reason I

18:41

think this is important is because unfortunately,

18:43

I've been in many masterminds where I

18:45

walked away feeling disappointed, or

18:47

that I didn't get a lot of value or worse

18:50

yet, I just wasn't included at the level I was

18:52

hoping to be. And I felt uncomfortable

18:54

the whole time. I have definitely been there.

18:56

Plus, I'm an extra sensitive kind of girl.

18:58

So not hard for me to

19:01

feel that way. I know it's my fault

19:03

most of the time. But still, I've walked

19:05

away from masterminds not feeling great. And I've

19:07

walked away from others feeling on fire. So

19:09

how do you create a mastermind with your

19:11

peers where everyone walks away feeling really

19:13

supported, taken care of, and with new

19:15

ideas and strategies to pour into their

19:17

business? Number one, be

19:20

mindful of the people that you're inviting. I

19:22

alluded to this already, but one

19:24

wrong fit can throw off the entire

19:26

group. Believe me, I've been there. And

19:29

that's why we include that special guest

19:32

every year. But we have this core

19:34

group that really clicks like we know

19:36

the core group works. And that

19:39

part is important. Now, I want

19:41

to be careful to not make

19:44

people not feel included or leave people

19:46

out. I'm so sensitive about that. But unfortunately,

19:49

there's only so many people you want to

19:52

invite to keep it small. So that's something

19:54

that like I want everyone to get a

19:56

trophy. I'm that girl, but my

19:58

husband is very much against that. But I

20:00

know that that doesn't always serve so

20:03

anyway be mindful of who you invite

20:05

The one wrong person could throw off

20:07

the whole group Speaking of

20:09

like making sure you've got the right vibes You

20:11

want to think about the sort of vibe that

20:14

you want to create up front and invite people

20:16

who will fit into that? So remember

20:18

where I kind of struggled a little in the

20:20

beginning of this episode safe This is how I

20:22

feel, but I feel like I might be attacked

20:24

for this I think women should talk about business

20:27

more and feel comfortable and confident to do so

20:29

Well, we kind of made

20:32

a joke early on like are you girls good

20:34

with strictly business now? All of these women are

20:36

like hell. Yeah, bring it on This is where

20:38

I want to be but I've also been in

20:40

groups where the women didn't want to talk about

20:43

business and they wanted To connect with each other

20:45

and I know the importance of that and I

20:47

know I need to actually do that more So

20:50

setting the right vibe and making sure

20:52

everyone is bought into that We literally

20:54

had a group text about we cool that we're

20:57

going here to talk business And everyone

20:59

was on the same page if someone didn't like that

21:01

then that's when they could speak up We

21:03

were just fortunate that everyone was on the same page Number

21:06

to make sure everybody is cool with

21:08

the structure. So in our case,

21:10

we knew we wanted to do hot seats

21:13

So in the group text before we all

21:15

met is everyone cool with doing hot seats

21:17

We'll do 30 minutes and then we can

21:19

have some side conversations if we want everyone

21:22

was great So make sure everyone is cool

21:24

with the structure before you actually get there

21:27

and then number three Let everyone know

21:29

that it's a safe place and have

21:31

everybody agree We agree that we do

21:33

not talk about personal Situations

21:36

that come out of this meeting and

21:38

we don't share anything that people don't want

21:40

you to share and so I

21:43

think that part is really important and

21:46

I want to be someone that my

21:48

friends can trust so I wouldn't

21:50

ever talk about anything that's sensitive or

21:52

personal that came up in Those conversations

21:54

but make sure that everyone agrees with

21:56

that and feels the same way and

21:58

I think that one's pretty easy when you have

22:00

the right type of people in the group. So

22:03

there you have it. That's behind the

22:05

scenes of one of my entrepreneurial mastermind

22:07

weekends and some of the tips

22:09

to make it great. I really did this episode

22:11

to one, encourage the women out there to feel

22:13

more confident and

22:16

free to talk about the business more. It

22:18

doesn't have to be your whole identity. It

22:20

doesn't have to be your whole life, but

22:22

I have noticed that I think

22:24

we need to give ourselves permission to lean

22:27

into that a little bit more in the right

22:29

settings, of course. And then

22:31

number two, this goes beyond just the female

22:33

entrepreneurs, anybody listening to this, I wanna encourage

22:35

you to put together a peer mastermind. And

22:38

if you do so, will you let me

22:40

know in a DM on Instagram? That's where

22:42

I usually can see most of my

22:45

DMs. And so I

22:47

want you to come over to Amy Porterfield. I'm

22:49

just at Amy Porterfield on Instagram. Send me a

22:51

DM and let me know if you're gonna plan

22:53

one of these and any

22:56

thoughts that come up related to this episode

22:58

I would love to hear. It's

23:00

time, my friend, it's time to get into a peer mastermind

23:02

and make sure you get the support that you need and

23:06

give yourself the opportunity to add value to those

23:08

that need it as well. I

23:10

hope you found this episode valuable and I can't

23:12

wait to see you on Thursday for more

23:14

entrepreneurial goodness. Same time, same place.

23:17

Bye for now. I

23:36

wanted to tell you about a podcast

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