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Introduction 0:01
Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns 0:18
And welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™. It's beautiful day for a beautiful day. And we have another pirate in the house. Liz, welcome. Welcome to the community.

Liz Scully 0:28
Thank you very much for having me.

Russ Johns 0:30
You know, it's a pleasure to have somebody that actually understands and appreciates masterminds. I've been in masterminds for years. And I really, I think it was really a good time to talk about it. 2021's coming up. You know, there's a lot of people wondering, okay, what do I do? How do I do it? Where do I go? Who do I go there with? And I think for someone that is looking for some feedback, and some positive energy, and maybe some peer review, or accountability, I think masterminds are a great way to process that information. And I wanted to get your take on it and kind of see where you started masterminds and where you see them going. So tell us the story. How did you end up getting in masterminds?

Liz Scully 1:22
Well, I guess we should probably start with what is a mastermind just in case, somebody doesn't know what they are. But they are small groups that come together and meet regularly there. So I like best meet every two weeks for long periods. So they're a little group, I like four to six people. And they're with you along the way with somebody leading them, someone that will help coach you will facilitate the group, will keep us all moving. And for me, well, obviously or like yourself. Exactly. Wonderful people who are great coaches. And for me, I came out of the film industry, which is hugely collaborative, filled full of, well, frankly, people who are convinced they are the best in the world, and many of them are but many of them are simply certain that their voices should be heard. So we work together in little groups. And I left that world and became an entrepreneur. And suddenly I was T rex typing away in my own living room. And there was no one around me. And at the time, I was in India, because I'd been working at DreamWorks over there. And I've heard about the concept of masterminds. And being a type A personality, I founded a company, introduced them to India, and started running them, started charging them before I had any idea what I was doing. But that very first group, it absolutely changed my business. People could see me. They were helping me and even just seeing other people struggling with the same things I was struggling with. It was so helpful to look across the group and think, yeah, actually, this is quite hard. And it's really nice to have a group together. And it just absolutely lit a fire under my business. And I was so much further along because of it. And now I run them for other people. But as you can tell I'm an evangelist about them. I think everybody would benefit from being in a mastermind.

Russ Johns 3:18
Well, until you've actually seen the process, and thank you for explaining that. Because you know, when you're inside the bubble, sometimes you forget that other people don't realize what it is, it's like, thank you so much, I appreciate that. It's like just a small group of individuals or friends, or individuals that become friends typically. And it's one of those things that you rely on and you appreciate and you think, okay, I have a safe group of individuals that I can actually vent to, I can say what I feel. I can bring something to the table without any judgment or any kind of measurement. And it's very encouraging and it's very uplifting. And I can't recommend it highly enough that somebody, if you haven't had any experience with that, you'll reach out to Liz or reach out to myself. I mean, I have started, I've been in mastermind groups. I'm an advocate for mastermind groups, and I've been in mastermind groups for years. And so when you create a mastermind group, Liz, do you start with the intent that it will be in length and duration or in a single purpose? Or how do you typically go about the thought process of structuring your mastermind groups.

Liz Scully 4:45
So I think they work best when you join for a specific purpose. I want to achieve business growth or I want to grow my list or I want to redo my website. Quite often people come to do that rebranding thing which will be seen, like a small task and always takes way longer than you expect. So people come in with a specific plan, my masterminds tend to be a year long. So you know, you're going to be supported as you do all of that. We do goal setting at the beginning, if you want three times growth in five years, where you're going to be in three years, where do you need to be at the end of this year? What are the steps we need to put in place to get that to happen? And I think part of why masterminds are so powerful, is coaching, often isn't that long, it's three months or six weeks, or even a long program. There isn't necessarily that real support all the way through with masterminds, people are there with you. And people in my groups, they re up, they reassess their goals each year, and they re up and rehab for normally people are with me four or five years. And that's because they work, they get results.

Russ Johns 5:50
Yeah. Well, and they get results because you're seeing multiple perspectives. And and I think also, like you said, If you set your goals, and then work backwards, and say, Okay, what does today need to look like in order for me to accomplish the goal in a year? Because, you know, the decisions we make now are what influence our future, right?

Liz Scully 6:14
Completely.

Russ Johns 6:15
So how do you pick a subject? Or how do you pick a topic that you want to as a moderator? Does the subject come first? Or do you look at okay, I'm gonna start a mastermind on a specific subject, and then you decide what people are interested in? Or how's your process for that?

Liz Scully 6:36
Well, as with all messaging and positioning in a business, it comes from what's your superpower? What do your avatar, where do they feel pain? How can you help them? So for me, I've run masterminds, my avatar needs business growth, they're not making enough sales calls. They're not making enough sales. But all of those things come from the messaging and positioning, maybe they're not doing enough outreach, there's a lot of reasons. So in my case, I have a pretty broad umbrella, you want business growth, you want to go from 100 K to 300K, or you're stuck at a particular level. So it's pretty wide. And people come in for a lot of reasons. But it is specific. I've also run them for things like copywriting, or brands redoing, so for me, it's where my sweet spot is, and where I know the pain of my ideal client is and how I can help them. So if you're a copywriter, it will be about copywriting. It could be about starting a podcast, it could be growing the podcast, it's where you know, people are stuck, and how you can help them. And when you know that, then you can build it exactly that your clients are going to need and thus they're going to be appealed to.

Russ Johns 7:51
That's brilliant. I like that. Because even if you're in business, and you're very good at what you do, and who you serve, there's always an area where you get stuck, you know, it's that lens, it's like, I can't see around this corner. I don't know what to do next. And so, like you said, a coach, you know, you'll get a little bit of information for a number of months. And then it kind of evolves because you're very single focused. And what I love about masterminds is the idea that even if you come together for a single topic, there's this ancillary conversation that goes along that allows you to say, okay, I didn't think about that association with this subject. You know, like copywriting and messaging and having, it's like, I just put up a website, why aren't people calling me?

Liz Scully 8:45
Exactly

Russ Johns 8:45
Come on call me, I'm looking at my phone, it should be ringing. And so it gives you a perspective of reality and saying, hey, I'm not alone. I know that there are other people struggling and having these same challenges in their business.

Liz Scully 9:03
Because you just can't read the the label inside the jar, and having other people there that really helps.

Russ Johns 9:08
Don't be a pickle. Find a mastermind. I'm so excited. Check this out. Tracie, the producer. We were talking about Tracie earlier before the show started and how wonderful her process and follow up and her communication is for the group. So all the appreciation in the world, I love you. Thank you for being here and helping me do this show. You know, because the #PirateBroadcast™ is, in a lot of ways, almost a giant mastermind where we're talking about these subjects every single day. I have a broad umbrella and there's a lot of different guests that come on. And for those that listen to the podcast long enough or watch the live stream live enough, they understand that we can actually answer some questions that are really important for business owners to understand, you know, understand and appreciate. So, we have a few people in the room today. Darlene, silverfox talks, morning pirate community. So yeah, she's got the pirate flags out there. Howard Kaufman, who's a CEO of ORL. Amazing product. I use it every day and I love it. And he's here actually in Arizona as well. Morning pirates and welcome Liz. Thank you so much. Lori. Lori Knudsen. Thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a minute or two so Lori's she's actually a coach and amazing individual that is also a pirate. So Melissa is here. Good morning, Russ and Liz. Happy Holidays. Thank you so much for being here. And then Angie, love you. Thank you so much for being here. Angie's from Wisconsin. She's doing some great work. And Sonia. Wow, catching your show now. Masterminds ready for that new year. Sonia is in from Houston. I haven't seen you join the show before, but thank you for being here. I hope you're well we should catch up. It's a new year. The thirst Baker mine was six weeks to Paul Rogers on branding. I find that a good length. Six weeks. So let's so let's talk about length. Is it? Is the length dependent on or subject to the content that is being provided? Or the group? Or how do you think through that process?

Liz Scully 11:40
Well, a mastermind is really good. If you're running a course, if you have a six week course a mastermind that goes with it either alongside or afterwards is brilliant. One of the things that is wonderful about masterminding and courses together is I'm sure. Maybe it's happened to one of your clients, but you create a course. And then people just don't finish it. It's heartbreaking. But with a mastermind alongside it, people do do it though the completion rate goes up. And this is anecdotal. But it goes up to sort of 80%, maybe 85%. Because there's a group of people and they go back and they finish things. So you can run it with a program. And that works really well. Or you can just run it around a topic. You can also run them as a sort of salon, like a 19th century literary salon where you have....so you say you're there for a year or for six months for three months. And each time you meet, you have a topic that you discuss that works really well because then you can create, basically a course or a course worth of content without actually having to create the course, I'm a huge believer in piggybacking things wherever possible. There's much value with doing it.

Russ Johns 12:45
Fascinating. That is so fascinating. I actually, I'm a partner of a platform called Dubb, which is a visual tool that allows you to put calls to action in email, and you can actually drop it in into LinkedIn comments and things like that. And I actually did a, we started out with a, and I need to put more structure around this because you just triggered an idea that so we did a webinar with. And I was teaching people about how to use Dubb to build relationships on LinkedIn. So then I went through and I taught people how to use Dubb, make connections on LinkedIn, grow a community, and then build business from this. And I actually do this for my clients, as well, you know, because I produce shows for them. And then I help them. I introduce them to their target market audience, you know, community that they need to talk to, in order to grow their business. And then what we did after the webinar is I created a three week intensive workshop, to get everybody set up, why they needed to set up certain things and how they could set up everything. And then I followed up with a mastermind after that. Excellent. So it's really, so what I should probably do is is take your wisdom and your expertise and say, okay, let's structure this in a way because I can run multiple masterminds around that subject, and then have like six weeks like we're talking with, who was it suggested that we do the six weeks, so a duration, whatever that duration happens to be. So I could do the webinar, the mastermind or the three week intensive and then the mastermind to follow up make sure everybody has the support they need.

Liz Scully 14:50
Absolutely. The other thing you could do in that structure is you could bring people together for the training and then split people out into smaller groups. So they have really close support in their mastermind. So you might have three or four masterminds of four to six people, but bring everyone together in groups of 20 or so for the main training so that they're not just in a little silo, they're meeting the rest of the team. That's really effective.

Russ Johns 15:19
And yeah, so everyone, this is this the way in everything is structured that allows business to continue to grow and evolve. And it's about teamwork. It's about collaboration. It's about working with others that have a similar interest. And this is why, Liz, thank you so much for bringing this to the conversation. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for being here. And so I want to make sure that people really appreciate where this can take you because you're in the film industry. And you were pretty successful doing your thing over there. And so how has life changed now that you're doing masterminds? I know you're in London, UK and in working away doing these things, and it's something that can be done virtually. It doesn't have to be in person. And so it really fits where we are right now with the pandemic. So what's the transition been like for you in terms of swapping complete industries?

Liz Scully 16:30
Well, I appreciate it sounds like from visual effects in the film industry to strategy, a mastermind sounds totally different. But there is actually a huge thru point which is groups, people coming together to produce wonderful things together. And also the film industry is about story. It's about finance. It's about hitting your deadlines and keeping your clients happy, which is any business. So there is a big thru line now. But also, I'm normally nomadic when there isn't a, frankly a plague on, then I am normally moving around. And for six years, I haven't had a home at all, I am always moving. As far as my clients are concerned, as long as I live in a little square box on their computer, they don't really care where I am. So it's perfect for nomads. All I end up doing is asking about the Wi Fi speed wherever I go. I have made people run tests for me from Colombia to Budapest,

Russ Johns 17:26
Before I rent from your location, I have to get an internet test speed.

Liz Scully 17:32
Upload speed is the most important not just download, I need to upload as well. So you can run them from anywhere. And also, I think one of the huge benefits of them is that my business has grown fast. Because I spend my time in masterminds, listening to people talk about their business, just as you must, you know, I hear ideas all the time. I hear what's working, I hear what isn't. I'm also hearing my avatar talk about where they're feeling pain. So I have this great little test area. Any point I can try a little bit of copy, I can try and you know, I'm thinking of launching this. And if I see six people go, Oh, my God, that's amazing. Brilliant. It's worth testing. If I see six people just stony faced and like, okay, that maybe that's not....

Russ Johns 18:18
Ok....you know, it didn't hit the mark. Right?

Liz Scully 18:24
Exactly, exactly. But so I hear it from other people. But the other thing, I really wanted this, it's so important. So forgive me for hijacking this bit of the conversation. But some of the best coaching I have ever seen in my life is from non professional coaches in masterminds, giving beautiful, nuanced feedback to other people. And more times than I can count, they stop about halfway through and say, oh, maybe I should do that in my business. Because that thing about not being able to see what's going on. You can see it for other people. It's the way you can look at someone else's romantic life and think, oh, they should not be together. They're dating the wrong person? Well, it's the same with marketing. It's the same with your business plan. Other people can see it as my coaching works. And masterminds is that you have a say you have six people looking at you all the time. It really helped hugely helps.

Russ Johns 19:17
Yeah, it is, I cannot stress the amount of value that is delivered through having a mastermind. And I thoroughly enjoy running a mastermind. Because it just, it just allows, like you said and you I think you nailed it is I get to listen to other people and what and help solve problems and help navigate through the conversation and saying okay, Liz, what's your perspective on that? How do you manage that in your business, and then you get a whole new perspective and a new conversation could take place,

Liz Scully 19:58
Completely. And if you're running the mastermind, you don't have to be an expert because you've got all the other people there. And because you speak last, if you genuinely have nothing to add, you can still make everyone feel good by saying, well, I think you know, x had a great idea and y had wonderful thing and what a wonderful group we are. And you don't have to have all the answers, no prep, unlike doing a course you don't have to record everything in events. You roll up, as long as you're dressed from the waist up and facing forwards. You are good to go.

Russ Johns 20:28
Yes, yes. So I want to say Hiett Ives is here. Hi fellow pirates. Howard Kaufman says, learned that the most effective process is when you set your goals for the desired outcome, not the desired result. So I think I think Howard needs to be in a mastermind.

Liz Scully 20:52
Absolutely. I think he probably needs to be running one as well.

Russ Johns 20:55
Yes. Good morning, Russ and Liz. Sheri Lally, she's an amazing individual that I thoroughly enjoy. And I love what she does. And she helps so many people. She's always there. And Angie says, Yes, Tracie is awesome. So Angie introduced me to Tracie, by the way. So I mean, that's the whole point of this conversation in the community that we're having is, how can we help you get to where you're going? How can we find the resources and the tools and the individuals that can support your goal and your mission? So Gabriel is here in the house, Sheri Lally, Good morning, friend, loving silverfox. Darlene says, loving the show today. Refreshing topic to hear. I know it's so awesome. It's, you know, Liz, traveled all the way from London to be here today. She's in studio (laughs). So it's so funny that we're doing this, but Laurie Scott says, Good morning. We have a wonderful community that is so supportive. Howard Kaufman, thank you, Howard still working on self improvement with my approach. I do appreciate the support, means a lot. Gabriel does a show in the evening. So we book it, I do the mornings he does the evenings. But he's an amazing individual has the made from scratch broadcast, and he's doing production and, and supporting a lot of people out there. some amazing show if you have an opportunity to watch that, or the replays. So Liz, what I know, some, some people charge a lot of money for masterminds. Is there any rule of thumb or is it topic based? Or is it subject based? Or is it just supply and demand? How do you go about engaging in that because my masterminds have just been a common goal, or like my Dubb masterminds? It's because they were involved in a project that I support and endorse and appreciate? How do you go about that thought process for your business?

Liz Scully 23:05
Well, obviously, it depends on your market and your visibility in that market. That's really the key. And masterminds, yes, they can go up to $100,000 a year, $200,000 a year. But what I tell my students is that a good rule of thumb is to consider your first mastermind is three months long, and just to try it, see if you like it, and to charge $500 a month for your first mastermind. So that's 1500 for the first month, and to give people a discount if they buy early. And that's so that brings it just under a grand. So 997-999. And that's a good bet you can, if you get six people, that's a very handy amount of money. If you get three or four people, also useful. And it's just enough to get your feet wet, see if you like it. And also make sure that you've got the right people in the group, because most of us takes a little while to get dialed into who's a good fit for us. He's a good fit for the program. And if you're at that level, about 500 a month, as long as you know you're helping people get results as obviously, networking and building up LinkedIn and the Dubb side of things, quite obviously, it's going to work. If you do the work, you will get the result. $500 a month is perfectly acceptable. Most people in business can see that as a justifiable expense pretty easily. And obviously you can charge whatever you like if you know that you can get people, as long as you can justify in mission, in the messaging and the mission of what you're achieving, then that's all that's required as long as it is clear. So my masterminds are about $1000 a month, but it's absolutely where you are in your program and that's the important thing.

Russ Johns 24:46
Well, I think it's like Howard suggested, the outcome is the critical piece of the puzzle that allows you to define what the value is. If the outcome is going to be massive for your business, then you should be... the value that you're investing in this, this program is probably equally important to understand. And so it's one of those things and I, the reason I bring it up is not necessarily because I want to peel back the the entire structure. However, I think it's really important to plant the seed because there are a lot of people that are extremely talented out there that can help other people. And they're thinking, Well, what do I do with my time? How do I do it because they're used to being in a different environment, or they're, you know, disruption in the pandemic. And there's always alternative challenges bring opportunities, every single time, every time there's a challenge, there's an opportunity. And so this is a huge opportunity for a lot of people to bring a lot of value to the table, organize something that is going to be delivering a massive amount of outcome to a group of individuals. So absolutely. That's the pirate community. It's like, okay, go out and create a mastermind.

Liz Scully 26:09
Absolutely. And also, I mean, the one thing we have learned from COVID, is that millions of new people are now online. And many of those people are working from home, they're feeling isolated, and a group and a community that will support them as they grow, is going to be even more essential than it is right now. I mean, it's a perfect time.

Russ Johns 26:32
Absolutely. I love this conversation, and I get excited about it, because it's like, okay, you know, I'm a little bit of a squirrel hunter from way back, you know, it's like, Okay, I got to focus and I need to make sure that I stay focused on my outcomes. Because that's my roadmap and putting this show together every day is part of that process. You know, if I get up and I've got over 300 episodes here and then it's like, okay, that's a huge body of work that people can appreciate. And, you know, like and subscribe and follow me on YouTube and the podcast and the post that everything else I put in a lot of content out there. So is that necessary in most mastermind businesses to content creation? Or is it just finding the individuals that need the help at that moment?

Liz Scully 27:22
Well, I think content creation is super important in any business because it draws the right people to you without a shadow of a doubt that....

Russ Johns 27:28
Self qualification.

Liz Scully 27:30
Yeah, exactly. So the people I speak to, normally the right people that are going to be a good fit for my business. You don't have to produce it to make a mastermind, because one of the delights of it is even if you have a tiny list, even if you aren't, you know, you're not really super visible, as long as you have the ability to put 10 or 20 people that are strong leads on a list, you can simply do direct outreach, you don't have to do a big launch to do anything. You can simply mail people and say, I've got a new thing. Let's get on a call and sell them from there. It doesn't have to be a big hoopla, a big thing.

Russ Johns 28:05
Yeah. I love that. And that's even more accessible. So now in my masterminds, there's, I have a structure, you know, wins of the week. You know, what are you struggling with? And then we typically have a hot seat, somebody that needs some extra help in a subject. And it's usually on rotation. Are there other alternatives to that or other ways of managing a mastermind...you do every other week, right? Every 2 weeks?

Liz Scully 28:33
Yes. I do every other week. And I try and have at least half the group having hot seats every time we meet. So if the six people, three people get hot seat, three people just do a quick catch up.

Russ Johns 28:45
But you do it for a longer duration.

Liz Scully 28:47
Yeah, the two hours long, which feels like a long time, but it really means that you can...

Russ Johns 28:54
Not for 3 hot seats.

Liz Scully 28:55
Well, exactly. How long are your hot seats?

Russ Johns 29:00
Well, I typically have historically have structured it as an hour.

Liz Scully 29:05
Wow.

Russ Johns 29:07
We take 30 minutes for wins of the week and challenges and then we'll take about 20 minutes for a hot seat and then a wrap up for 10.

Liz Scully 29:16
Okay, that makes sense. So if if you get a chance, I would experiment with taking your hot seats to 30 minutes. Because there is a psychological difference between a 20 minute hot seat and a 30 minute hot seat. And partly that's down to us extroverts. We tend to blurt the first foolish thing that comes to mind even when we think it is carefully modulated, when you come back and can add a little bit more detail. It makes all the difference. And that's the same for most humans. That first Top of Mind thought is good, but it can definitely get a lot better.

Russ Johns 29:54
Yeah. Well every time you do one it gets better. Right?

Liz Scully 29:58
Exactly.

Russ Johns 30:01
Well, Liz, I really appreciate you being here. And thank you so much for taking the time and joining us in the pirate community, sharing some nuggets of knowledge and some tips on masterminds and how do you like to be approached? Or how do you like people to connect with you? I know a lot of pirates probably want to reach out and introduce themselves and say, Hey, Liz, I'm a pirate, love to connect. Are you on LinkedIn, Facebook, social media?

Liz Scully 30:29
I am on all of those things, you can definitely find me on LinkedIn, or you can email me at hello@rethinkcentral.com.

Russ Johns 30:38
Fantastic, fantastic. I love that. And so going forward, how would you like to leave a legacy in this journey of yours?

Liz Scully 30:49
That's an interesting thought. You know, I already know that a lot of my clients have gone on to start their own masterminds and to produce stuff. So I know that the things I teach trickle down to many people, many more than I can personally speak to or touch myself, like your program. And that is really beautiful. To know, there's people out there helped indirectly by what I do. It's lovely.

Russ Johns 31:13
It's fantastic. I love it. Well, thank you so much, everyone. Liz, another pirate in the community, reach out, make those connections, tell her that you're a pirate, and you want to start a conversation. Because it's all about the conversation. It's all about the community, it's all about being able to reach out and build those relationships out in the world. So and also, you know, a plug, there is a website, RussJohns.com, you can actually go to listen to all the episodes. I'll have the broadcast in the morning and the podcast in the afternoon. Tracie takes this content, Liz and she creates a podcast, she does the transcription. It's up on a post on there. And then the YouTube channel and the podcast I would love and appreciate you going out and subscribing, liking that, make a few comments. Maybe a five star review would be awesome. Just saying because in 2021 we want to grow the community, we want to reach out to more people and and provide value like Liz has done today. So thank you so much for being here, Liz, I appreciate you.

Liz Scully 32:26
Thank you so much for inviting me. It's been a delight.

Russ Johns 32:29
All right. And as always, everyone, #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree and you #enjoyyourday. Till next time. See you later.

Exit 32:42
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