For the last 3 years, I’ve been a member of a private Mastermind group called Quantum. It’s a 100-person group led by a guy called Sam Ovens and it costs $36,000 per year.
For anyone who’s wondering what a Mastermind is, it’s a peer-to-peer mentoring group used to help members solve their problems with input and advice from the other group members. And it usually has a central person (in this case Sam) who’s both the most successful person in the group and the person who started it.
For my $36,000 per year here’s what I get:
Access to a private forum where I can post questions and chat with other members
3-day Live events 4 times per year with Sam and the community. 2 are in-person in LA and 2 are online
Access to weekly group calls with Sam which one can drop in and out of if needed.
The group itself focusses on scaling online courses or online coaching programs from 7 figures (millions of dollars) to 8 figures (10s of millions of dollars), so everyone who joins is at least making about 100k per month in sales. If you didn’t already know this: I run a course company called Workshopper.
Ok, you get the basic idea of what this Mastermind is. Now why do I spend so much money every year on this one? Am I stupid? Maybe! But has it paid itself off multiple times over? Yes!
Here’s why:
Oh and P.S. everything you’re about to read applies to the general concept of Masterminds, not just Quantum… I know this is not how P.S. works but liiiike this is my blog?
And hey, P.P.S. I don’t have any incentive to write about this Mastermind, i’m not getting commission, I won’t even provide a link here - google it if you want. I just personally felt like writing about it**
Ok, we’re back. Here’s why:
1. Being around people more successful than me all the time makes me more successful
During my first 3 day Quantum event I went from thinking I was the “Hot Shit” in the course selling game (I mean I won a goddamn Clickfunnels marketing award!) to realising my course business was kind of a mess. Seeing other people with teams half our size making more than 10X the revenue we were making was eye opening. It made it painfully obvious that I actually had a long way to go to “catch up” with people like Sam (I still haven’t) and others in the Mastermind. I’d been the “top dog” in my small community here in Europe for so long I didn’t think there was much further to go. I was very wrong.
Just interacting with people in the community, listening in on their challenges and accomplishments started to push me to make my business better and better. And to be honest, I also didn’t want to look like a loser in front of the others!
Being around people more successful than you ‘rubs off’ on you without you having to do anything but be there. They say ‘proximity is power’, just being close to success can make you more successful. And after 3 years in Quantum I can attest to that.
2. Getting answers from those who’ve already done what I’m trying to do is a game-changer
Who’s going to be able to give me advice on how to increase my course sales by another million dollars per year? A mentor who’s never made millions with courses? A friend who reads lots of books?
Or how about someone who’s already done it?
Well… errrr… that last one obviously.
They’ve been there, they’ve climbed the mountain, learned all the hard lessons and now they can give me the map on exactly how I can do it with less mistakes!
If I’ve learned one important lesson over my years of paying for mentors and coaches: advice from someone who’s already done what you’re trying to do is always better than someone who can theorise about how to do it.
Wanna get your consultancy to over a million in profit and step out of the day-to-day running of the business? Talk to someone who’s done THAT vs talking to someone who’s read a book on how to do that!
A Mastermind like Quantum allows me to get quick, high quality answers to questions that nobody else can really answer.
3. Paying $36k per year makes me take it seriously
Some of you might know that I pretty much only work under pressure, and that there are 3 types of pressure that work to get me moving:
Time Pressure
People Pressure
Money Pressure
Well a mastermind like this ticks all 3 boxes. We meet each quarter and share our results, so there’s Time Pressure. The people I meet are all high-level and I don’t want to look like a fool in front of them so there’s People Pressure. Finally, it’s flipping expensive - I definitely want to get my money’s worth so there’s Money Pressure!
If this exact same Mastermind cost $10,000 per year i’d take it a lot less seriously (and so would everyone else), so the price alone keeps people accountability without building in bullshit “accountability buddies” or anything cringey like that.
In conclusion, that’s why I pay $36k per year to be in this Mastermind and why I just renewed for another year!
What’s the most you’ve ever spent on your career growth?
Bye!
Jonathan
P.S. Hello.
I have spent a lot on coaching, courses and therapy over the years. I constantly seek out more and more. Lately, I have started reflecting more on the spend, ROI piece and trying to use it to make better choices as I believe in doing it all but need to be mindful of the pressures and what’s really going to move the dial.
Most expensive course - your course: Workshopper Master, I don’t regret the spend at all. Huge value which continues to keep giving as I am part of the group and have access to the content which I revisit every month.
I just signed up for a rather pricy writing course (4/28, write everyday for 28 days) and an expensive business coach for 6 months who has done exactly what I want to do so I feel this will be the next best step. This now taps into the time, people and money pressure I thrive on.
Thanks for the post, love to see you spend a sh*t ton of money on stuff like this, too 🤓
I've invested about €40k this year in myself with courses on business, coaching, facilitation and training. I am becoming much more critical to the ROI (sometimes fun is also a ROI, but becoming more focused on financial ROIs). The most expensive was 16,5k and so far it has been a bad investment, totally no click with the people, program is outdated, etc. etc. But I consider it an investment in my entrepreneurial journey. Some lower cost programs have been more valuable. In the bigger picture it will work out and balance each other out.
One advice from present self to past self: be wary of investing a lot in programs, if it's higher tier make sure you invest in having contact with people doing what you want to do and close access to them (basically your point #1). The social aspect is so important next to having the 'strategy' only.