In this episode of the One Small Change podcast, Yvonne McCoy is joined by the mastermind expert, Jay Fairbrother. Jay shares his insights on the power and importance of creating high end mastermind programs for coaches, healers, speakers, and thought leaders. He discusses strategies to scale businesses sustainably, emphasizing the significance of forming intimate, high-quality groups rather than focusing on larger audiences. Jay and Yvonne delve into the nuances of establishing trust, the role of human connection, and practical steps for developing impactful mastermind programs. Jay also reflects on his personal experiences of massive successes and failures, offering listeners valuable lessons in entrepreneurship.

Guest Bio:

Jay Fairbrother is known as "the mastermind guy" and an experienced serial entrepreneur with over thirty years in the business. He has founded, bought, and sold numerous companies and participated extensively in masterminds. His passion for peer learning led him to help others create high end mastermind programs that allow for deep human connections and sustained business growth. Jay offers a wealth of experience and insights into scaling businesses through these programs and provides strategic advice for coaches, healers, speakers, and thought leaders.

Key Points Discussed:

1. Importance of Masterminds [00:00:49]: Jay introduces the concept of high end mastermind programs and explains how they can help create sustainable businesses for specific groups like coaches and thought leaders.
2. Timing for Creating a Mastermind [00:02:19]: Discussion on when an entrepreneur should consider creating a mastermind and why it does not require a large following to start.
3. Building Trust and Connection [00:06:51]: Key insights on developing strong relationships with clients by fostering a know, love, and trust dynamic rather than know, like, and trust.
4. The Personal Impact of Masterminds [00:13:29]: Jay shares a personal story about the crucial support he received from a long-term mastermind group during challenging times.
5. Practical Tips for Starting a Mastermind [00:20:43]: Jay provides actionable steps, including focusing on niche markets and targeting the right clients for building successful mastermind programs.

Main Quote:

"You never know who you're speaking to. So that person that you're willing to help out when they're starting out, they could, you know, very quickly surpass you on the mountain top, and you don't know who you can't predict which are the ones that will do that and which aren't." - Jay Fairbrother

Links:

Free Bootcamp Ticket:

https://6figuremasterminds.com/mmbootcamp/?coupon=YVONNE

Free Ebook:

https://yvonnebmccoy--theprofitarchitects.thrivecart.com/mastermind-bootcamp/65e493469f71a/

Welcome to the One Small Change podcast. I am

thrilled that you are on this entrepreneurial journey with

me, a journey of exploration and transformation.

I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I've been an entrepreneur

for almost thirty years. And so I have a passion for

sharing experience and passing on, you know,

the small changes that have they seem small

at the time, but they can have a huge impact. So thank you for

joining me. And this week, we are gonna be

talking to the amazing Jay Brother.

Jay, I already said to you that you have made a

huge impact on my entrepreneurial career. So

please tell everybody who you are and what you do.

Thanks, Yvonne. I'm so happy to be here, with your audience

today. My name is Jay Fairbrother, and I'm known as the

mastermind guy. And the reason that I'm,

known for that is that I help coaches,

healers, speakers, and thought leaders to create

their own high end mastermind programs so they

can scale their business to a real sustainable

business that actually pays your bills and,

accelerates your your revenue beyond 6 figures.

My, the reason that I do what I

do is that I've been a serial entrepreneur for

thirty years, and I founded, bought, and sold,

companies and had some massive success and some

massive failure along the way. But the

most consistent thing I've done, at least for twenty five

of those thirty years, has been my participation

in facilitation of and creation of masterminds.

So I am a huge believer in the concept of peer learning,

and I think it's especially important for

coaches, healers, speakers, and thought leaders to be able to

create programs that go beyond

training, group coaching courses,

etcetera. And we can talk more about that part.

Well, you know, there are a couple of things.

I I think I created my business really backwards. I mean, it

it's like if I it's one of those things. If I knew what I had

known. You know? And so I think

part of what you're saying that I think people need to know much

earlier, I think, in their career is, one, is that

you need to have a community to help grow your business, whether you're

creating the community or you're part of a community. And

so in terms of making masterminding,

creating a community, what place in a

somebody's entrepreneurial business does that happen at the right time? I

the the model that I kind of use is is called best. It's

like building your basic, expanding your essentials, scaling

your success, and then becoming a thought leader. Do you

have to have a lot of people on your list or a large following to

do a mastermind? You actually don't. And

that's one of the reasons that I love, you know, teaching this

concept to people is because, you

know, you don't need that big, huge, fancy sales funnel with all

the branches and automations and that kind of thing. You, you

know, are trying to create a group of ten, twenty,

maybe 30 people in your Mastermind program.

And so you don't need 7,000 people,

you know, on an email list or or that kind of thing. You you need

a couple hundred people, maybe even a hundred or 50 that

you can talk to. And that, you

know, move that will want to follow you in terms of your thought

leadership, and and you can put them into

that more intimate higher end program to

scale your business. So one of the statistics

that I love to throw out is that if you have a

$1,500 course or a $1,500 coaching package,

you need 67 clients just to reach 6

figures in revenue. And to get 67 clients, you're

gonna need a big email list, a fancy sales funnel.

You can create 6 figures of revenue with eight,

ten, 12 people in a high end mastermind

where you get to work with them for longer

periods of time. So instead of a six or eight week course

or a three month group coaching program, you put people into a six

or twelve month, mastermind program, and

that's just their initial, commitment. If

you design the programs correctly, you actually can keep

people for years. So one of my

signature talks that I do is how to attract and keep clients for

three years, not three months. And that's all

around how you create the mastermind and the container and the

program so that you allow for that to happen.

Okay. So, you know, I think a lot of

you know, just the title mastermind. Right?

A lot of people think I mean, a lot of the clients that I work

with are you know, part of what I'm doing with them to

attract their best client is helping them be more visible. And

so, you know, there's a gap between where I

am and where I think I'm gonna be a master, you know, to have a

mastermind. How much of a how much of

a deterrent is that?

That's a great question. So you

people have to have a reason to love you and a

reason to think that you can help them in whatever

part of the journey, whatever the next part of their journey

is. But that doesn't mean that you have to

be, you know, this huge authority figure, and

you need to be a little further ahead than the people you're helping.

But, really, it's about communicating

how you can change someone's life, how you can

help their business. And as long as

you can articulate that and get people to trust you,

and I what I I always talk about the difference between

know, like, and trust and know, love, and trust. People

aren't gonna spend $5.10, $20,000 a year

in your program if they don't know, love, and trust you.

So they're not gonna do you know, they're not gonna typically jump into a mastermind

for six, twelve months at 10 or $20,000 after a

single, you know, one on one, conversation. Right?

You've gotta create some experience for them. You've gotta create something where

they feel like they've gotten value and that they

spend enough time with you to be able to trust you enough

and think that you can really help them move forward.

So I think a lot of the misconception out there is that,

you know, like, you can only create a mastermind once you

already have, like, a low a low end offer and a course and

then a group coaching program. And then one day, you can graduate and have

a mastermind. And it doesn't you don't have to follow that

ascension, model that's so common in the

thought leader industry. I have to tell you,

you have dropped so many nuggets in that. So I wanna try to unpack a

little bit of it. So the first one is

that, in order

to be an authority, you only have to

be further ahead than the people that you're the authority

for. And, you know, I found this so interesting because,

for myself, probably the way that cleared this up the most was

someone said there's what they call, like, the ultimate expert. The

ultimate expert is you're one of five living presidents. And

not you know, most of us are never gonna be in that elite

or the majority that elite elite. You

know? So don't make that the the bar that you're

shooting for because it's so unrealistic. But

you just have to be ahead of the people

that, you know, that you're helping. Right?

And I think one of the things one of the ways that causes

them to love you is that you're imperfect, that you're not so

shiny that they can see that they could actually do what you're

doing kind of thing or use your solution. So that's one nugget

that you talked about. Do you agree with me?

Yeah. A %. You know, that's one of the

reasons I love running a mastermind is because

I don't need to pretend to be anything that I'm not.

I show up with all my flaws and weaknesses.

And when people are in a mastermind with me, they get

to see all the mistakes I make. They get to see the times

that, you know, I do something and it fails, but

they also get to experience the successes and and under and get to

learn the strategies and tactics that create the successes as well.

So that's one of the most important things

about, you know, being a thought leader in general. But especially

with mastermind programs, it's like you get to just show

up as you are and help people, you know,

get further along in their journeys. And I

think that that that, you know, kind of blends in what I tell people

is, you know, your flaws and

and the weirdness about you, your unique power is what makes

you stand out to other people that they can relate to you

and say, I did this too. I mean, one of the things that I

tell people all the time is, you know, the our whole

education process, from my perspective,

was built on an industrial model, you know,

so that you could be a follower and you could follow instructions. We don't want

you to be an outlier. We want you to be in line.

And that's you have to do the exact opposite of that.

Right? So that people can go, oh, you're not so polished

and stuff. And the last thing that I wanna say before I forget it is

that you mentioned it earlier is people

people don't need more information, you

know, because you can get information anywhere. What they need is,

how do I how do I implement this information? And a

mastermind is a great place to go to bounce

your ideas off of people and get feedback. I mean,

if you're in a situation where and this

happens all the time to me where I get excited about something and I go

I say to my kids, oh. They go, please, mom. No business.

Do you know? I mean, you need to you know, you need that community

for people who can appreciate you and

appreciate what your genius is and what you're doing, where your family

typically, your genius is the thing that your family thinks makes you

odd. Do you know? So I

think that that's that's you know, a mastermind is a great you know, when

you are in the right mastermind, this is what I

found, that you feel comfortable. You can say you can

blurt out anything, and nobody's not gonna take your head off for

it. Yeah. Well and that's

that's one of the nuances of creating a mastermind

that will last for three years and and possibly even longer. I mean,

I I was in one mastermind for seventeen years

because every month for seventeen years, I got value,

from participating in that group. And

I'll I'll take the information piece a step further even

because you're absolutely right. Like, in this age of AI, and

and we're just getting started with that. I mean, you AI

can teach you or train you on anything in the world for free already.

And so every single day, the value of

content and training and information goes down.

But what AI can never replace is human connection.

Yes. And that is the world is

starving for human connection right now. Right?

Like, the World Health Organization recently created an

entire commission to address the global crisis

of social isolation and loneliness. And

when you create a mastermind, what you're doing is creating

a safe container where people can show up, ask

the stupid questions without judgment. You're creating

a family of choice where the

person organizing the mastermind hand selects

the people that they allow into it. So it's not just

whoever can write a check. And when you

create that safety in the container, that's where you get

deep human real relationships develop.

So it goes beyond the transactional. Like, okay. You

know, here's here's how I handle your situation or that

kind of thing. Masterminds usually get very personal. Even if it's

organized around business, a mastermind can get very

personal very quickly if you create the container and

allow for that vulnerability and trust to develop.

And I I think that you don't get that, you know,

in group coaching so much.

At least not in the group coaching that I've been in and particularly not in

big programs. Even in a small group coaching,

you you tend not to you're you're you're kinda there and it's like, what

can I get? What do I need? You know? Yeah. I would you told a

story a while ago, about

this has to do with the personal connection, about the long term connection you

had. But something happened to a member, or I don't know if it

happened to the member. It happened to you, and people from the mastermind,

came to help, reached out. Well,

yeah, that's part of my story. So, I'll

give you the short version. So I my first

company, I had built up to $10,000,000 in

annual revenue, and I sold it back in 02/2004.

And then 02/2008 came around and the world financial crisis

began. And over the next several years, I lost everything.

So within a few year period, I literally went from being a

multimillionaire living in a mansion to living in my

friend's basement, broke, bankrupt, divorced,

alone, and ashamed because I had,

for fifteen years, built this identity as this really successful serial

entrepreneur, and there I was sitting in that basement, didn't even own a car.

The the support that I got from the I I

was in a a couple of different masterminds over the course of

that whole period. But the one in particular, the one I stayed in for

seventeen years, the support that those people gave me, like, I can't even

really articulate. It went way beyond financial support, you know,

emotional support. I I mean, they literally

carried me through the most difficult time in my life, and the

people in that mastermind are lifelong friends, as a

result. So it the the mastermind can have

that much power, but it's also a great vehicle

just to, you know, fuel your business, grow your business, or

work with clients for longer periods of time. So you

can have masterminds of there are many different types of masterminds.

There's different ways to structure masterminds for

all different purposes. A lot of people think

it's just for entrepreneurs, but a mastermind is a great

vehicle for people who do personal development or healers

because, again, you get to work with people in an intimate

container where you create the safety, but you get

to work with them for six months, twelve months, or three years, not these

short periods of time that people, you know, go through your

program or or hire you. I

I one of the things that you said I that I

wanna highlight, I guess, is and you've

said it in a couple of different ways. You've talked about, not

being transactional. You've talked about relationships.

You've talked about community. And I just have to

say that,

I just wanna acknowledge you that at the beginning of my kind of

affiliate marketing and as I was changing the direction of my

business, I met Jay. And I have to say that

he actually walks the walk, and he does

what he says. He is probably one of the most generous people

that I have ever met. You know, he's very

successful what he does. He has a great program.

He's got a great gift for you. But he took the

time to help me when I really needed it the most. I mean, he

didn't know how badly I needed it. And so I think that's the

other piece that sometimes we're missing as we

try to become an authority or an expert or stand out in the

crowd, is you don't have to give up your humanity or

the thing that makes you generous and helpful

in order to build your business. Because in a sense, I think as an

entrepreneur, you're also building your life. You know? You

don't have to be, you know, I win, you lose.

You know? Because that's I don't think that's sustainable. I

mean, at least not anymore when people are looking

for are looking for real connection. So I'm not gonna

I'm not gonna keep gushing, because

this is really No. Keep going. It's okay. No. This is this is

just really personal to me. And just

a very small thing is, when I was looking at at

being an affiliate and I was concerned about how people knew which client, you

know, who is the who the client belonged to. Jay said this to

me. First of all, I felt like I had said something really embarrassing, and

he was really quiet. So I was like, I stuck my foot in my mouth.

And he said, the choice is always the

client. Who they go with when you're doing group things or affiliation

is strictly the client's decision. It's not ours.

And when you deal with better quality people who are not dealing with

scarcity, you know, you don't have problems

like this. And so I wanna impart that wisdom as

well because it it totally changed

the the direction I was going in, and it changed the way that I

felt about myself too. So alright.

So Yeah. And and that touches on, you know, something that you talked

about at the beginning, which is just sort of the imposter

syndrome piece of it that that, you know, you don't have to be

this, you know, like, sitting on a mountain top as this, you

know, elite, person that is untouchable.

The you know, I've learned this in in business in many different

ways over the last thirty years, but you never know

who you're speaking to. So that person that you're willing

to help out when they're starting out, they could, you know, very

quickly surpass you on the mountain top, and you

don't know who you can't predict which are the ones that will do that

and which aren't. And you never know how somebody can help

reciprocate, for you in the

future. So, you know, thank you for having me on the podcast.

That's one of the ways you're reciprocating, for

me, you know, trying to help earlier. You know? And one of the things

I say is if you put yourself on a pedestal, you get a better chance

of getting knocked off. Do you know? I mean, that's the way

it is. Alright. So give us a couple of, actionable

steps that people should think about and, you know, things that they can

do. So the first thing,

that most coaches get wrong is, the whole

concept of niche and avatar. And while those are

important concepts, anytime you're putting yourself

out into the marketplace, they're even more important

with a high end program. So,

you know, example would be if I wanna go out and create a

mastermind for entrepreneurs. Well,

that's what I call fishing in the ocean. What kind of entrepreneurs? What

size entrepreneurs? How long have they been in business? What industries are they in? You

know? And when you try to first of all, it's very hard to stand out

in the marketplace because you're marketing to all entrepreneurs or just

about any entrepreneur, anyone who's willing to write a check.

By niching down and figuring out

a a narrower net, what I call fishing in a pond or stocking your own

pond, that's where you start to stand out. And

then even within that, figuring out who your avatar

is in my parlance. That's your purple

fish. I was gonna say figuring out who your purple fish

are that are the clients that

you love working with. So, for instance, if you're

listening right now and you've had past clients, you have some current

clients, you have your past career that whatever you did to build

your expertise in, think about the people

that just lit you up when you got to work with them, collaborate

with them, you And these can be they don't have to be clients. They can

be former employees, former bosses, vendors.

And you look at creating a group and targeting

the people that you are thrilled to wake up

every day and help and work with. And if

if if we start there, then everything else gets easier.

And that's kind of what I say to people is is what is

it that you you know, in in

your program, you know, when you have a clients, what

they what they got is what you promised. But what was

it that they got that they didn't expect? That's your

unique power. Do you know? And that's the thing that makes

them walk away trusting and loving you.

Yeah. So alright. So we know we know who who

and and when you put I think the other thing is entrepreneurs don't

feel like they can say, no. You're not my right client. Because

particularly in the beginning, you're looking to get, you know Any client.

Right. And it and it will drain you. It will take energy out of

you. You will work much harder, and you will not get the results.

They're never happy. Alright. So that's one thing. Well, I

wanna add one clarification because it's important based on what you just said is

that that's why people are so resistant to getting

a narrow niche and and really figuring out who that purple fish

is because they think, well, I don't wanna, you

know, that I don't wanna only work with those people. And

and what they sort of misconstrue is

that you will still attract others

outside of that avatar or that pond that you're

fishing in. You'll still get other people, and it's fine to sell

them, you know, a course or a lower end program or even work with

them one on one. But for targeting

it, creating like a higher ticket program, which is

really the only way to sustainably build a

business is by having a high end program. We could circle back to that

one as the second point. That, you know, that's where

it's really important that you get as narrow as you

can in terms of who your right fit client is, who your

purple fish are. Okay. So I I

can't believe this. We only have a couple of minutes left. So I'm gonna

ask you to quickly give us a couple other tips and then tell us about

the you know, maybe the this is the thing. Here's the tip.

Go go go to the workshop. So talk about that. Talk

about the the the event, to make sure that people that's

an action that people definitely can take. Yeah.

So I do a three day virtual event called six figure

masterminds boot camp. We do it, three times

a year. And, any everyone listening

because you're a fan of Yvonne is

gonna get a free ticket to come to the next event.

In these three days, we help people understand

what masterminds are and what they aren't. We help

everyone conceive of a mastermind that they can create for

themselves that's unique to them because no one should create my

mastermind or your mastermind or Napoleon Hill's mastermind. You have to

figure out what are the pieces of the puzzle to put together, take advantage

of your superpowers, but more importantly, deliver the most results for

the clients. Then we start working on who are your purple

fish, who are those ideal right fit clients for you to

attract and invite into the mastermind program.

Then this is all still in the three day event. We help you create a

simple funnel for how you move people from know, like, and

trust to know, love, and trust so that you don't have to have that big,

huge email list or the fancy sales funnel with all the branches.

And then we help you start to be able to

talk about the program you're creating so that you could walk out of the

event and actually have a conversation with some people about the program

you're gonna be creating. And we give you a plan to what you're

going to do over the next ninety days to implement. So all of that happens

in the three days. It's my favorite thing that I do

is running this three day event. And I've

had more than a dozen people,

tell me, and and even put it in writing in video that

it's the best three day event they've ever attended. So if you

just take everything he said, those are all things that you need

to be looking at your pro whatever you're doing, what you need to be looking

at to see if you've got those pieces in your programs.

Okay? So alright. I can't believe it. We're out

of time, and I still have stuff to talk to you about.

So here's your question. When was the last time you did something new for the

first time?

So this is embarrassing. So

it's we we are recording this around the holidays. And

just the other night, I watched the movie Love Actually

for the first time. And I and,

I I kept so I started to watch it. I'm like, I can't believe I've

never seen this movie before because I know people talk about it all the time.

It's one of those movies people watch, like, six, eight, 12 times.

Mhmm. And the embarrassing part is that they

should issue, like, a warning or something. Like, do not

watch this movie if you're not in a relationship and

feeling alone at any point because I was, like, a bucket of

tears for most of the movie just watching it. But it's a great

movie. So I'm I'm glad I finally, stumbled upon

it. Oh, I am so glad you did too. Alright, guys.

This has been incredible, and we we've gotta call it to an end.

I'm so sorry. But there are a couple of things that I need you to

do. I need you to subscribe and engage on

social media and other podcasts. And, you know,

the reason that I do this is to help you to supercharge your

business through connection. And it's my way of trying to give back to

the community and help it be vibrant and to help you fuel

your quest for growth and for change. And

when you join me for the one small change, you're gonna get some tidbits that's

gonna help give you some kind of monumental transformation.

It's the little things that you know, it starts as a little shake and

it ends up as an earthquake. And so I hope that you will,

share this with other people. And if you haven't done it, you can go back

and see not only the first episode, but, all the other

episodes that are there that'll help you grow your business. So,

Jay, if you would want us to leave with a quote, what would it be

that we can remember you by or

a a nugget? Yeah. So,

I have so many. So

I think that the main thing to keep in

mind or or or let me put it this way. So many of

us, when we're trying to start a business as a thought leader or

grow a business or establish ourselves, we think

about, I've got twenty five or thirty years of experience doing

x. So what program can I

create? What package can I create that people will buy?

And what I challenge people to do is shift your perspective

and think about what is the program you would create that you

would be passionate about delivering, and more importantly,

who are the people that you wanna wake up every day and that you're gonna

be passionate about working with them and helping? Because

when you surround yourself with those people, everything

becomes easier. So true. So

true. Alright, guys. That's it. So I want you to

remember, we're talking about change, and change is simple,

but it's not always easy. It requires courage, resilience,

and a willingness to step out of your comfort zone. And sometimes for some

people, that can look kind of silly, but it's worth

it. So I hope you will join me on the one small change again

every week as we embark on a journey so that you can have a bold

vision and come up with innovative possibilities. And if you

haven't seen any of the other podcasts, you may wanna go do that.

But until you join me the next time, stay curious. Thank

you, Jay. Thank you.