In Episode 9 of Kickstart the Conversation, host Catharine O’Leary wraps up the Manifestation Squad month by talking about the power of building a mastermind group and shares her personal experience with her own manifestation squad.

Catharine first defines what a mastermind group is and highlights the benefits of having one. She then shares her story of how she met the manifestation squad members, all of whom have been features on the podcast the last three weeks, during a retreat in Mexico, and how they supported each other in both business and personal growth.

She also talks about the importance of being open to new relationships and opportunities and how finding an inner circle can help entrepreneurs to celebrate their successes and overcome challenges together.

Catharine encourages her listeners to go out and find their own mastermind groups and to be open to building new relationships. She also reminds her listeners that they are not alone and that she is always available to help answer any questions related to leads, lists, and leveraging relationships.

Overall, this episode is a great reminder of the power of community and the importance of building relationships in business and in life.

About the Guest:

The previous 3 Kickstart the Conversation episodes have included members of the Manifestation Squad and have offered gift to the listeners: 

Episode 6: Jackie Cote

Episode 7: Shiraz Baboo

Episode 8: Monique McDonald – Free Gift

What is the Best Quiz for Your Biz?

Take this FREE 60-second Quiz to Find Out: quizformybiz.com.

About the Host:

Catharine O'Leary is a dynamic speaker, author, and entrepreneur with a wealth of experience in market research, consumer insights, and innovative marketing strategies. She's known as the "quiz queen" and is an expert at asking the right questions to connect with ideal clients and boost business growth. With over three decades of corporate experience, Catharine is passionate about helping entrepreneurs have better conversations with their ideal clients and grow their business with cutting-edge marketing strategies.

https://catharineoleary.com/

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Hey everyone, and welcome back to kickstart the conversation. I'm your host, Catharine O'Leary. And we are here talking about again, all things leads, lists and leveraging your relationships. I actually wanted to take this episode to talk a little bit more about my previous three guests. So my previous three guests were part of what we're calling the manifestation squad, there was Shiraz Babu, there was Jackie cote, and there was Monique McDonald. And we all met through a speaker program almost a year ago, where we, we were all on a journey to add speak, to sell into our repertoire of marketing strategies, it's a great way to talk to one to many, and so on. And when we met in New Orleans, and you know, we kind of kind of started going to these different events in these different retreats. And it actually became quite a close friendship, where we share rooms with each other as we as we're traveling around, we've been to Phoenix together twice. We've been to Mexico, and I'll tell you a little bit more about Mexico, been to California, Newport Beach, we've been to Las Vegas. And, and it's interesting, we've we naturally fell into this group. There, there are the four of us, you know, as you as you would have heard from from the previous podcasts, Jackie is a business coach and a freedom coach and she helps women kind of empower, empower them to find their freedom course in in life, whether that's, you know, leaving a current position and starting a business or, you know, figuring out how to create a business that you know, gives you the freedom and lifestyle that you want. Shiraz is a is an energy worker, and it goes so much more beyond that, but he really works on helping you release those limiting beliefs that are keeping you, you know, kind of stuck the stories that you tell yourself like, you know, even sayings like the struggle is real, that's that's just a story that you're buying into. So how do you how do you step out of that story? And how do you, you know, move beyond it. And there's a lot of those kinds of stories that we have, that we've been telling ourselves for, for myself for a long, long time. And then there's Monique lovely Monique, who is a vocal coach, as well as a speaker coach, and she really, she has the magnetic voice and she helps people really empower themselves with their voices to you know, really connect with the audience, really make sure that you know, they are you know, reaching the whole room and, and you know, going in with purpose and with vision and, and with the confidence needed to, to close a room. So, four of us have different businesses, similar business models, you know, slightly different. Jackie has a mastermind I know Monique is working on one as it as our Shiraz and I but, you know, Jackie Monique and I have you know, more courses and so on Shiraz has more actual live events and virtual zoom events where he does a lot of energy shifting with people. All that to say, I wanted to talk about leveraging your relationships. And you know, we fell into this kind of cohort of people that travel around to these events, learning to speak to sell, practicing with each other rooming with each other to save on costs. And you know, as we're all building businesses, and then becoming a real soundboard for each other and a real source of a resource for each other when we run into tough times when we have a new product that we want to run by somebody that you know we need some copy you know real light or you know somebody to read it over or even you know, I've had you know where I'm doing a webinar and I need a you know, a co host I need somebody to be watching the chat. I can reach out to to these people and others of course, but these are my my inner circle if you will, my my ride or die And it is so important to really connect with people and surround yourself with people that are either on the same journey that you're on or maybe are a little ahead of you or a lot ahead of you and already done what you want to do. So it's not necessarily going to be that you are only going to have one coach or that you're only going to have one mastermind that you are a part of. There may be times when you are part of several in several different coaches realms, or in a couple of different masterminds, depending on what you're you're doing. The mastermind, this, you know, this manifestation squad, which, you know, legitimately is a mastermind, is the four of us, like it's very tight knit is inner circle, we meet about once a month that came around very organically, you know, we were just talking a lot individually, and it was a case of let's do a group call, and then it became more scheduled and so on. But again, very organically, it doesn't always work that way. And it doesn't all, it's not always true that you find your two or three people in that same room with you, that I was lucky enough to find the the value, to having this inner circle the value to having these conversations, and having, you know, those three people on the end of the phone, when, like, regardless, you know, like I've, you know, I lost a client or you know, somebody didn't sign up or something's gone wrong, or a summit is going south, or, you know, I just got off a sales webinar where I didn't convert very well, you know, or I did great. And, you know, I want to celebrate, I mean, having those people on the other end of the phone is invaluable. I still have my friends, I still have my family, of course 100%. But when you are in this entrepreneurial world, it is different is different than corporate, it is a mindset shift, and it is a place where you really are going to want to have those connections, and you're really going to want to make sure that you you build out that network. And, you know, again, this might come from you actually joining a mastermind and I have, you know, join several and have had great success, whether it's, you know, a mastermind that I wanted to join because it was great networking or a mastermind that I wanted to join because, you know, they were all kinds of seven, eight figure entrepreneurs and I really wanted to make sure that I was connecting with people that had been in my situation and already you know, kind of built themselves through the, the ups and downs and wanted to learn from them. The manifestation squad, again, came around naturally came around organically and I'm grateful to it every day. And just keep, I guess, I guess my, my, my message here is keep those doors and those opportunities open. Because you're gonna want to have you know, that that posse behind you that you know, that hit squad that that, you know that that ride or die, folks that are that are in your corner that know your business, that you can, that you can, you know, share all the good, the bad and the ugly with

and we'll help you you know, go through it and lift you up. And as you as you go as you are building your businesses together. So, you know, I'm a proponent, I guess, of both having a peer based mastermind, are a peer based group of you know, a closer circle where you're all around the same level and you're you're moving forward together and you're supporting together and then there are the masterminds that are you know, you're basically going in to learn from the people that you know, are ahead of you a little bit in business, have already done what you want to do you want to learn from them and and really connect with them. And then there are masterminds that are just about fun. There are masterminds that are just about you know, we want to go to cool places and we want to hang out on the beach and we want to you know, we want to talk maybe a little bit of business, but like the majority of it is going to be ziplining and you know going on the catamaran and is going on, you know, this excursion or that excursion. So just, you know, just to say all this to say that, you know, your inner circle is, is critically important and you want to be building that your masterminds where you're learning business or your networking, those are also important and those might be something that you are paying for. And then there are these ones that are just fun that are just, you know, like, let's let's head over to Ireland and stay in a castle, which are in you know, do a little bit of business which are, which are also fun. So, I'm not, not all masterminds are made a light or, or need to be. So I just want to kind of put it in your minds and to really make sure that you're understanding and make sure that you know, I'm supporting the fact that masterminds are hugely important just as coaching is and and you're gonna get support that you didn't expect. And, and some of the like, some of the fun stories that we get to tell as a manifestation squad are things and this is actually where the name the manifestation squad came from is we were all four of us were going down to Mexico for and a retreat and for a speaker training. And we ended up at the hotel, I was there first. And the hotel, there was a mixup with the rooms. And we realized that like we were all sharing rooms, but the rooms only had one queen bed and one, quote unquote, sofa bed wasn't really a sofa bed, so was not going to be comfortable. Either it wasn't going to be comfortable, or we were going to get very, very close a lot closer than, you know, we we were or wanted to necessarily be. And I went to the front desk and I just you know, like I was not attached to the, to the responses or anything. But I just said, you know, I think I've made a mistake, you know, meant to, to get a room with two beds. Can Can we switch rooms in which at which time? They said, Oh, this this hotel doesn't have that, like all the rooms only have the the queen size rooms? And I was like, Oh, well that, you know, we were there for 10 days. It wasn't it wasn't just an overnighter. So I said well, that's going to be a little bit challenging. What are the other options. So went on a little bit of a field trip with the with the front desk staff and they showed me suite, which was lovely it had it had two double beds actually or two queens and, and a separate room that had another bed. And a little lounge area. Great. Perfect, solves a lot of problems. And I said great. Like well, we'll do this and found out how much the cost of the upgrade was going to be. And I wrote to the the retreat, I'm sorry, the retreat organizer and just said, Hey, you know what, like, this isn't gonna work for us this, you know, the single bed, there is a sweet option, it costs this much more a night. You know, what, what would you like us to do? And she graciously very graciously said, You know what, go ahead and get the sweet and we'll cover the difference, because I didn't realize that the rooms only had the one bed. So that's my fault. So you know, I'll cover that difference. I was like, great. Now, they actually showed me two suites. So there's one you know, there's one suite for this cost and one suite that actually had a Jacuzzi on the on the terrace. And, and it was funny because she she goes, Oh, go for it, you know, go go for the jacuzzi on the terrace. And you know, for the extra 10 or $25 it was for for night. And I laughed and I was like, this is perfect. This is great. We all get like you know, to have a bed and we're going to hang out together and we're gonna we're going to be in this suite and we're going to have this Jacuzzi tub and and it's just going to be fun because we're manifestation squad and we're in Mexico. And so I went out and I told everyone that I changed all the rooms and everyone was coming in the like later that night or the next day, everyone was happy. And then I went for a little bit of a walkabout. I came back to the hotel, and my little guide from the front desk that showed me the suites came over and he said you know there's a problem with the the jacuzzi Room The Room that actually the suite that had the jacuzzi and I was like oh, okay, well, you know what, what's the problem? He's like, Well, you can't have it for tonight because they're doing some, some repairs. They're doing The painting, and it won't be ready for you to settle into tonight. And I was like, Okay, well, that's not a big deal what whatever, you know, what are the the options? So he went through and he said, Well, you can go to the Sweet without the jacuzzi and you know, like, ah port for Catherine Right? Like no Jacuzzi. I'm like, yeah, no, that's, that's fine. And then he got this smirk on his face. And I was like, what? And he was he was kind of giggling to himself. And I thought, Oh, dear, I don't know what's coming, but it's gonna be big. And he said, Well, I just checked the reservations. And we just had a cancellation on the presidential suite. I didn't, I didn't show it to you before because it actually wasn't available for all 10 days that you're here, because you're here for quite a while. But they've canceled and now it's available. Would you like to see that? And I kind of thought to myself, Well, okay, sure, why not? And then I and I kind of looked him nice. I said why? Like, what's the smile for? He's like, Well, it has a private pool. And I just laughed, I started laughing and I just thought to myself, Okay, this, this will be interesting. We went up and saw it. It was massive, this great big, huge one room with two queen beds. And then a separate room that had a full kitchen, a full living room, dining room, or Yeah, dining room, a king bed, an ensuite to die for. And I just started kind of giggling, thinking this is too good to be true. And I looked at him, I said, Well, where did these stairs go? Because there were some stairs that just kind of went upstairs and it wasn't obvious where it went. He said, Oh, that's the pool. And so, you know, he said, Do you want to see it? And I started shaking my head. No, because I was thinking oh my gosh, I don't even want to to get close to this and and realize that it's gonna be you know, a bazillion dollars extra. And but I did say yes. And so we went up to the, to the pool. And the way that the hotel pool was it was on the roof. And it was kind of a U shaped where it went, you know, up one side of the hotel across the front and down the other. And part of the you know, across the front was actually the private pool. It was sectioned off. So this private pool had a lounge area it had a bar area it had an eating area for like 10 people, it had its own door to the to the main pool and to the bar area there and the restaurant upstairs so you didn't have to go back down through the room. And I remember just laughing and thinking, and I said this out loud to him. I said, Oh my god, this is stupid. This is so luxurious. And it was it was just silly. And I said well, how much is this more, you know, a night and he told me and I almost fell into the pool because it was so affordable. It was I think it was $60 Each for for three of us to share. Six it was gonna be $60 Each so for you know $600 We ended up with the private pool and everything. And, and so right on the spot. I said, Okay, you know what, we're gonna do this. I texted my I texted Jackie and you know, said like, I'm going to do this kind of regardless of whether or not you guys want to pay for it or not, because I'll pay for it because this is like so silly.