171 – Create Your Own Mastermind Magic with Natalie Eckdahl of Biz Chix

You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 171,

my whole life.

I've tried doing new things and I do them even though

I'm scared Attention.

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Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there.

It's Sue And thank you so much for spending part of

your day with us today.

This is actually a little bit of a longer podcast than

we normally do,

but Natalie brings such great information and I'm so excited for

you to hear about masterminds that I just let the recording

keep going,

because I didn't want you to miss a single point.

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And it's a way that we can support each other as

we're building our businesses.

That falls right in line with the topic today,

it's all about masterminds.

Let's get right to it.

I am so excited to introduce you to Natalie doll with

biz chicks.

Natalie is a business strategist and high performance coach who helps

women entrepreneurs across industries and time zones build,

grow, and scale their business while avoiding overwhelm.

She's the founder of the biz chicks,

community podcast programs and events,

and has been recognized as one of the top women in

business to listen to.

She's also been featured in Inc fast company,

Huffington post and entrepreneur.

When she's not enjoying precious moments with her husband,

Mark and her three children,

you can find Natalie drinking a steaming cup of coffee on

her way to spin class or sneaking in a power nap.

Oh my gosh,

Natalie, I think we can all relate to that last one.

Welcome to the gift biz unwrapped.

Yeah. As you were reading that,

I'm like,

Oh wow.

That gal sounds pretty cool and actually feel really good to

hear her,

hear my bio read.

And that's you,

how about that?

And I am sipping a steaming cup of coffee right now

as we speak,

but also ready for a power nap already.

Cause it's early morning for you.

Yeah. I just started doing Pilates again.

And so my body is like,

what are you thinking?

Yeah, seriously.

But you know what,

if you did that at the top of the day,

then you're set because that's already off the list.

Right? I know I went already.

Yes. I feel very proud of myself right now.

Good for you.

I'm thrilled.

And now we're getting into business,

so that's perfect.

Yes, I'm ready.

Yes. But before we get into too much business,

I want to do another kind of fun creative thing,

which is I have all my guests introduce themselves and share

a little bit about them in a different way.

And that is by having you describe who you are through

a motivational candle.

So if you were to have us envision what your perfect

candle would look like,

what color is it?

And what would be a quote or a motto that you

would put on your candle?

So I have to tell you that some of your questions

are a challenge for me,

I'm a very analytical person,

but I do have so As well,

this is called out of the comfort zone.

I know I was like,

I'm very uncomfortable with some of students questions,

but I'm here For you and I'm going to answer anything

you ask.

So let's see here.

So thinking about a candle,

I like a lot of different colors and I think there's

a lot of different aspects to my personality and even to

my business.

And so I was thinking about,

you know,

those confetti cakes that are like,

they're white on the outside,

but you cut into them.

And inside is like different colored sprinkles that are melted.

So I'm thinking that my candle,

of course,

I'm not going to pick one color.

Right? It's all the colors.

So I'm thinking my candle is like a white with kind

of a lot of different colors,

sprinkled around like little dots of different colors and three colors

that make me very happy,

are yellow,

teal and hot pink.

So there would definitely be those colors in there.

And then other colors that went well with those.

But those are colors that I really love Now.

Weren't you just telling me you're not creative,

Strange way of being creative.

It's not normal.

No, but this was a challenge for me to think about.

Like I had to spend a lot of brain power on

this too.

It didn't just come from,

Oh, I'm sorry.

And after Pilates of all things,

Then a motivational quote or inspirational quote,

that would be on it.

Is that the next part?

Yep. So it would be do it scared because my whole

life I've tried doing new things and I do them even

though I'm scared.

And I just find that there's something really amazing on the

other side of the fear.

And so do it scared.

I don't think people get the fact that a lot of

people who have been successful did it,

even though they were nervous,

just like you're saying,

because you don't know what's going to be on the other

side, you just kind of take the jump in good faith.

That things are going to be okay.

Yes. I agree.

It's really hard to do things scared.

I think we don't see other people's fear we're in our

own heads and we know all the fears,

all the negative thoughts going on in our heads,

but we don't,

we just see other people's like highlight reel on social media

and it looks so easy and it looks so nice and

it looks perfectly packaged.

And so I think especially today with all the visual,

we, of other people's lives,

it can be worse.

I think then 10 years ago,

15 years ago.

And I'm constantly scared in my business.

I constantly do things that scare me.

I'm so glad you say that.

Yeah. And I'm constantly scared.

Like I have fear this week.

I had things going on.

I had to work on my mindset this week because I

was getting nervous about some big ideas I have.

So I haven't even done them yet.

And I'm scared of them,

But it's exciting too.

And then you actually do it and it works right then

it's onto the next one,

I guess.

But I'm so glad you say it because I think a

lot of people think they're alone in their fear and it's

more common than we all think It is.

It really is just so you know,

everybody's messy and everybody's scared.

We just deal with it in different ways.

Right. And we never admit to it most of the time,

but we just did.

We talked about a whole little conversation about it right here,

so that's perfect.

Did we did we're outing the fear.

There you go.

All right.

So let's dive back a little bit and give us a

little story of how you've gotten to where you are today.

Sure. And this is something I haven't really shared publicly before

I actually started as an entrepreneur in high school and college,

I had my own swimming lesson business.

I taught private swimming lessons.

And for the longest time I said that was the best

work I ever did because it was so impactful and so

satisfying to take a child that had never swam before.

And then within two weeks they could swim.

So that was very satisfying work and an amazing business that

I learned so much from,

in terms of literally things I did in that business.

I use now in business chicks,

but in between that entrepreneurial venture in this one,

I worked in corporate and I worked in public relations.

I worked in market research and I worked for a general

contractor at one point.

So I learned about all about the construction industry.

I did marketing for that company.

And then I got my MBA,

my master's of business administration.

And I went into the field of management consulting,

which is where you literally fly to a client site and

work on a project and you're flying back and forth every

week. And then I had my daughter who is now 16

and just started driving last week,

which I am still mentally wrapping my mind around.

Oh yeah.

And I didn't want to continue to do that work that

caused me to travel every week.

So I scaled down what I was doing.

I took some time off and then people that I had

worked for in the past would give me projects and they

would say,

Hey, this is something you could do from home.

Will you do it?

And so I was able to kind of keep my skills

up and stay abreast of everything going on in the market.

And then my husband Mark,

and I decided to create a software company and we start

launched a software company and we've since closed that company,

but so many learnings from that company.

I see a lot of similarities between a software business and

a product based business because we were creating a software as

a service,

which is a product that had to be created and marketed

and sold.

And in the middle of doing that company,

I was looking for education.

I needed to understand social and how to connect with customers.

And it was so different from the work I had been

doing in corporate.

And even the world of marketing had completely changed with marketing

for, with social media and connecting with people online.

And I started listening to podcasts and I loved them.

I've always been a huge fan of talk radio.

I love learning via audio.

I love learning while I'm multitasking.

And so kind of once I exhausted audio books,

I was like,

what else is there?

And I found podcasts and I loved them.

But what I felt was missing were women's voices.

And even the male entrepreneurs I would listen to would interview

women. I will say at the time it was about like

10% of their interviews would be women,

90% men.

And they just would ask different questions than I would want

them to ask.

Like, I was like,

how is she managing her family in her home?

How is she doing these things?

And a 30 year old single guy is not going to

ask those questions.

They don't even know to ask them.

And so I got this crazy idea that I could launch

a podcast and I could have my own radio show broadcasting

from my master bedroom closet.

And the technology was such that I could.

And so I did,

and I will say,

Sue, I had no idea at the time that the business

I have now is what I was creating.

And that was four and a half years ago at this

point. So now I have,

which is you shared what it is,

is a,

at the core,

a community of women entrepreneurs.

And then we provide services to support them.

So you had the podcast,

You start talking with people and sharing all of these different

things and the challenges that women would have.

And then at what point did you decide,

okay, I'm going to start bringing this group together.

So it was all your listeners in a more formal way,

which is now biz chicks overall,

Right? Correct.

Yeah. I thought that the business was sponsorship.

So I thought I was creating this brand and drawing listeners

in, and that the monetization strategy,

so to speak would be through sponsorship.

And I also thought if I build it,

they will come and Sue,

that did not happen.

I built it in a few people,

came, a few people came,

but not thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands

that you need to have a business based on sponsorship.

Right. And at first for the first gosh hundred and 50

episodes, and remember this first year,

I was actually doing five episodes a week for about the

first three or four months.

That was crazy.

I do one episode a week now.

Yeah. But at that time,

I didn't know people wanted to hear from me.

So I was only interviewing other women and they were wonderful

interviews. I learned so much from them,

but my audience and my peer group started saying,

Natalie, we want to hear your thoughts.

You have this amazing business background.

Like we hear bits of it,

but we want to hear your point of view,

teach us things.

And that took a lot for me to realize that that

that was something people actually would want to hear.

I really didn't understand or know that I had a point

view and a voice,

and I have this deep business background.

And I thought everybody has that.

Everybody knows what I know.

And of course they don't.

And that's one of the things that I help my clients

with now is the things that are easiest for you are

most likely,

really difficult for someone else.

And you could help them.

You can fast track them based on your knowledge and your

trainings, which is what you do,

Sue as well.

Yeah, it's crazy because all of our audience,

so gift biz listeners,

this is really an important point for you too,

is we don't put value on the things that come easy

to us.

And so we undercharged for it,

or we think that there isn't value to it,

right? So yours,

Natalie is more intellectual.

It's all your business knowledge and what,

you know,

as a woman and a mother and a wife in business,

those types of challenges and that there was nothing available to

help work through all of those things.

So that's one point is we don't understand the value of

what we bring and it could be tangible.

It could be in the jewelry or the cupcakes you make.

It could be in the knowledge and the experience that you've

had. That's part of it.

And then also the other thing I really like about your

story is you didn't know,

right? From the beginning exactly where you were ending,

you were picking up on things along the way that were

happening, that your audience was saying,

we want to know more from you.

You were receptive and open to not just going on a

path that you started with,

which was straight to sponsorship.

You were listening and adjusting based on what you were learning

as you were moving forward.

Exactly. I think that's probably one of my gifts or talents

is I'm able to pivot.

And I really have learned to listen to the people that

I'm attracting and to,

I love to say,

do more of what's working.

So I've done more of what's working on the podcast.

We have statistics we can look at,

I can see what are the most popular episodes.

And it was one of the best pieces of advice I

got from someone that actually owns a very large podcast network.

I was like,

how can I grow my show?

And he's like,

well, tell me about your most popular episodes.

And I did.

And he's like do more of that.

It's like,

okay, that's simple.

But I think in terms of like a product based business,

what are your best-selling products?

Like you have to look at that just because you want

to create something for your own enjoyment does not mean that

that's what is working.

And that's what the people that you're attracting your customer base

want and to really understand what is doing well and to

do more of that.

Totally agree.

And now you're sitting with a group of followers who you

have naturally attracted because it's what you present.

Right. And the quality of people.

I mean,

I feel fortunate that I'm part of your group,

Right? Yes.

But the quality Of people that are attracted to you,

there's a certain feel to it.

Everyone is very generous,

supportive of each other,

knowledgeable. Everyone is going towards a similar goal.

Although all the goals are different,

but everyone is doing something with their business progressing in one

way or another.

So now it's moved from,

although the podcast is still there,

it's moved into this community where each individual person is growing

under the whole,

under the umbrella of biz checks.

Yes. What are you seen as if there were some common

challenges that people are having and concerns that keep popping up?

I'm curious to know if some of them would be similar

to what my audience sees us.

I bet they are,

because I think a few of the things I see are

very universal among all entrepreneurs.

The first is one I kind of alluded to in myself

is that imposter syndrome.

That's kind of like the feeling that you're not qualified to

do what you should be doing or that people will find

out that you don't really know all that you think they

think, you know.

Right. And so I experienced that.

That's how I felt about even just starting the podcast.

I felt like an imposter.

I'm not trained in communications.

I'm not trained as a broadcaster.

And so who am I to think that I can have

a podcast?

And that's the words you hear in your head,

like, who are you to think you can do this?

Like, who are you to think?

You can launch a business?

Who are you to think that people are going to want

to buy what you're selling?

Who are you?

And it's such a ridiculous thing that goes on in our

heads. What helps me is to know that literally every single

person is dealing with this.

And I deal with this.

Every time I do something new,

I hosted a live event for women entrepreneurs last year.

And it was so amazing to me to experience my community

and in person that it's something that I can't imagine,

not doing every year going forward,

but in advance of that,

I had to deal with a lot of those words in

my head.

Like, who are you to think that you can get on

stage and host this conference?

Like, who are you?

And I'll just be honest.

There was a few weekends beforehand when I should've been doing

things for the event.

I was like laying in my bedroom,

just paralyzed in fear.

Yeah. It's like,

what did I get myself into?

I was like,

I literally went and looked at it.

Is there a way I can cancel it?

Is there a way,

like, what would it cost me to shut this down?

Because I am so scared to do this.

So how'd you change it?

Well, I knew I couldn't,

first of all,

I was just going to be really too expensive.

But more than that,

it really wasn't about the money because the money had already

been spent.

It was that my community was counting on me.

They were flying here.

I had one client coming from England and I didn't realize

it until she got here.

She had never traveled to the United States before.

This was her first trip to the United States.

And when she had signed up,

when she had signed up for the conference,

she's like,

Natalie, I'm coming,

I'm coming from England.

This better be worth it.

And I was like,

game on,

there's a stake in the sand.

There was pressure.

Like people had spent A lot of money to travel.

Every single person that came had bought new outfits and had

coordinated childcare had gone above and beyond set their business up

to so they could leave it for a few days.

People had left their homes and their families and their countries,

some of them to come here.

And so it felt very weighty,

but I just needed to do that.

I needed to have a few days of being scared of

procrastinating of watching Netflix and my husband.

I couldn't do anything cause I needed to be in my

room, dealing with my mind and I moved out of it.

But I needed to give myself a little grace to sit

there in that.

And so I just want to share that because you could

look, if anyone's ever seen pictures or if you go look

at my website or my social media,

you'll see pictures from that event.

And it looks amazing.

Right? They're professional pictures.

They're beautiful,

but you don't see inside my head.

And just knowing that every single person is dealing with imposter

syndrome. It really helps me Great example based on what we

were talking about in the beginning,

you know,

there's a demonstration right there.

Yeah. And I also think,

and this is exactly what you said you did to get

yourself out of.

It is you looked forward,

you look to the people that you were serving instead of

looking inside,

when you finally got out of bed,

you knew I have to do it because I've made a

commitment to them.

Yes. And I also Think based on intent when your intent

is pure,

you weren't doing this event just to make a ton of

Money, right?

No, I did not make a ton of money.

Sue. Well,

Most people think event make a ton of money and they

don't that I know they A lot of revenue,

but they have immense costs,

right? Like the costs of putting on an event is so

incredible. I learned so much right.

From putting on an event.

Now I know when I look at other events,

I'm like,

Oh my gosh,

this is costing.

Like I now know the costs,

but there were tangible benefits.

And there were intangible benefits from hosting the event.

And this year,

just so last year we lost money.

We actually lost money on the event.

We knew that we would,

and this year we will break even,

and maybe have a small profit and then going forward.

And this is very common in events.

Like the third year you do something or the third time

you do something is generally where you start to generate the

profit. But that event is more about connecting the community and

training the community than it is about making money.

Right. Well,

and since we've been talking about the event,

let's just slip in here a little bit.

You can do a short,

real quick promo about it since I don't want to wait

until the end,

because we're talking about it right here.

So you're going to be there.

I am.

Yes. It's in November and it's called.

And if you go to my website,

which is biz chicks,

and I spell chicks with an X,

so it's B I Z C H I x.com.

There's an events tab.

And you can see more about it.

We actually have like six or eight tickets left.

We're capping it at 120 women this year,

but we will sell tickets for the next year,

right after this year's event.

So if you're not able to come this year,

we'll have a waiting list and you could get on it.

If you're interested in coming,

it's in Southern California.

And it's a really great time.

It's just really amazing to bring women together that love business

and love collaborating and our kind,

that's kind of the things people say about the women in

my community.

And it's great.

I can't wait for you to experience it to Sue and

thank you for letting me share about it.

I know So excited cause you and I connected like less

than a week before this chick's lives last year.

So there was no way I could go then.

All right.

So we're talking about common challenges.

So let's get to a couple more real.

Yeah. Another one is I see people trying to go too

broad and serve everyone.

Like just because you do something or just because you can

create something for someone doesn't mean that you should,

there is a huge value in specializing and niching down.

That's like kind of the term we use,

but it's really about specializing or being known for something.

So if you're a creator,

you could probably create a lot of different things.

But what is the thing that you want to be known

for? Because then it's easy for you to be top of

mind when someone says,

Oh, I'm looking for this kind of a gift.

Or I'm looking for someone who does this thing.

The people that are specialists are the ones that come to

the top of mind for me and make it really easy

for me to send someone to them.

And the thing is,

it feels scary,

right? Because you're narrowing down who you could possibly serve.

And it's literally like counterintuitive.

The women I see being the most successful in my community

are those that are niching down.

I think you're a great example of that.

Sue, you have the capacity to help any kind of entrepreneur

and you have narrowed down who you are serving in my

community. I started a number of years ago when there were

less people doing what I do now,

if I was to start today,

I would really narrow down my focus of who I was

trying to attract.

I have chosen not to train people how to start a

business. So I work with people who already have a business

and I help them grow it and help them get more

profit from it.

And that is my niche.

And it's hard because I know how to help people start

a business.

I can do that.

But what I've seen is that there are fewer people that

help people scale it.

And fewer coaches working with entrepreneurs at a higher level of

business. And so I love serving women and helping them scale

what they're doing,

helping them take it to the next level and really focusing

on having profit,

like putting money back into their family,

not just keeping it all in the business and creating offerings

that are more profitable.

So specializing,

niching down is another challenge.

A third one is I see people being shy about their

personal network and letting people know what they're doing.

But the truth is,

is that the most opportunities for us are usually in our

personal network,

especially when you're starting out,

when you're starting out,

we're trying to get people to know like,

and trust us,

the people that already know they can trust you are most

likely to help you to buy from you to make that

connection. And so I encourage our community to post on their

personal Facebook page,

what they're up to,

or if they are looking for a resource or a connection

to ask their personal community,

we don't want to be selling on our Facebook page.

And I know a lot of us have experienced that.

It gets really annoying to have people constantly selling on their

Facebook page.

And I'm not recommending that at all,

but make sure the people that are in your personal network,

understand what you're doing and who you do it for so

they can help you.

Because I think at our core,

we all really want to help each other.

I think that You're right,

that people don't look at that community.

I think that people will say,

Oh, I'm embarrassed.

I don't want to tell anybody what doing until I'm already

successful until I've kind of proven It.

Exactly. I don't know if it's The fear that they're thinking

well, that people so close to me,

aren't going to believe that I can do this.

We don't want to fail also,

right? Like the few people that know what we're doing,

the fewer people will have to find out that if things

don't work out,

but I think it's a mistake to not take advantage of

your personal network,

because I can't tell you how many people have taken my

advice and shared something.

Even what I especially find with women will be at non-work

events and we will actually share what we do.

We like,

keep it really quiet.

Why don't we do that?

I think it's a lot of reasons.

I think when you are running a business as an entrepreneur,

you don't quite fit into the stay-at-home mom role or the

working mom role.

You're somewhere in between.

And it's really hard to find other women like you.

And so you don't really quite fit in with anybody.

So I think we just feel like no,

one's going to really understand me.

So I'm just going to keep quiet and just talk about

the kids or talk about other things.

I'm still trying to understand that maybe,

you know,

what do you think,

Sue, do you have any thoughts on that?

I think We are nervous that we won't get the support

from the people closest to us.

So we'll be hurt,

which will then squash our dream.

I think there's an overlain imposter syndrome thing going on,

that the people who know us the best know our secrets

probably too True.

I agree with you completely.

I see it.

Even when we're meeting new people though,

I see women out and I felt this way too,

before I felt like,

well, especially with what I do,

it's an online business.

It's hard for people to understand the scope of what I

have to say.

I have a podcast two years ago.

Not very many people even knew what a podcast was.

So then I had to explain what is a podcast.

And when I say I'm a business coach,

there's so many business coaches around people just roll their eyes.

So sometimes I just know that people aren't going to understand

what I do and it's just easier not to really get

all into it.

So I think that people feel that way too.

But a lot of it is just keeping our worlds separate.

And I think we should not.

We need to bring our worlds altogether because there's opportunity right

there in your personal network.

And it's incredible when people reach out because the benefits of

those connections are incredible.

I agree.

And There's also the extension of,

well, who else do they know?

Oh yeah.

You're tapping into that.

Person's entire network.

Now, once they know that you need something or need help,

or want to collaborate or need a resource,

Your point about not sharing with other people that you made.

I think there's a lot also to be said,

and this takes practice to figure out how to present what

you do with confidence and excitement and enthusiasm for what you're

doing. Not just,

Oh wow.

I agree.

Because it's the Attitude that you bring forward to.

Like, if you were just to say,

Oh, I'm a high-level business coach,

that kind of thing versus,

Oh, I'm a high level business coach.

I have attracted such a dynamite group of women.

It's always so energizing when We're together.

It's the whole presentation of what you're bringing forward,

which is also how the reaction is going to come back

and ultimately what people believe,

what their impression is of what you're doing in your business.

It's true.

And I love,

we've been talking about recently,

how you can change your kind of elevator pitch is kind

of what we're talking about,

right? That short script,

you kind of share quickly about your business in like 30

to 60 seconds that can change based on who you're talking

to when I'm in a brand new group of people and

no one knows who I am.

I usually start off with that.

I host a podcast for women entrepreneurs because at this point,

most people know what a podcast is and it creates a

lot of curiosity.

So I'm wanting them to say,

so what do you do?

Like how does that work?

And who's listening and how do you make money with that?

Usually that gets to them asking me how I make money

as a podcaster.

And then that moves into the conversation.

So creating curiosity is really important as well,

right? Which is really the goal of your elevator speech.

Anyway, is people wanting to talk with you more taking it

from stand-up 32nd thing to more interaction,

just like you were saying.

The other thing I was going to talk about Sue is

we're talking about feeling kind of isolated and alone and in

our heads is the importance of finding community and whether that's

local or online or both,

it's really important to find other people that understand you and

understand what you're going through.

And so in my business that happens in a few ways.

It happens in my Facebook group for women entrepreneurs.

It's a free Facebook group and we talk a lot.

There's a big connection between that group and my podcast.

So I always say I podcast for those women.

And if I didn't have that group,

I wouldn't still be podcasting because just knowing that they're there

and watching them connect with each other,

having the opportunity to connect with them personally,

it has become a really special place for me to spend

time and for them to spend time as well.

I believe many of them have been in there since we

launched it,

which was almost a year after I launched the podcast.

And then from seeing what the needs were in the community.

I, it created a service in my business,

which is professionally facilitated masterminds.

So I host masterminds for women entrepreneurs,

and that is another way to create community in a smaller

format. So the Facebook group is a larger format.

Many people may be going to networking groups or trade groups

in their area.

And a mastermind brings it smaller and more intimate.

I'm so glad you brought that up because this is exactly

where I wanted to go,

Natalie. And one of the things that I wanted to get

you on the show to talk about was specifically masterminds.

And we're going to do just that right after a word

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share a little bit about What a mastermind is for people

who might not know.

And then let's talk about opportunities of how they Could possibly

play into that right in their local area.

So let's first start with what is a master.

So I had never heard of masterminds either until I started

listening to podcasts and they originate from Napoleon Hill who wrote

the book think and grow rich.

And what Napoleon Hill did was back a hundred years ago,

basically interviewed the most successful business people at the time.

And he found that what they had in common was they

were all part of a mastermind.

And that could be many different sizes of people.

For some people was just two people for some,

it was a small group or a medium sized group.

And here's how he defined it in his book.

He has all these principles.

So one is the mastermind principle and he says,

the mastermind principle consists of an Alliance of two or more

minds working in perfect harmony for the attainment of a common

objective. So one of the key things about a mastermind is

that you bring a group of people together,

a small group of people together,

and they have a common objective.

So for the purposes of masterminds in my business,

we are bringing together women entrepreneurs in a small group with

a goal of growing their businesses and creating community and creating

accountability. So if someone was to say,

Natalie, I'm interested in a mastermind,

but I'm going through a really busy time in my life.

I'm just trying to maintain the business and not make any

changes I would say that's great,

but that's not what a mastermind in my business is for.

We are trying to grow and we can talk about the

format and how things work.

And, and you're actually part of one of my masterminds,

which is super fun.

So we can talk about that too.

But at the core,

it's a small group of people and you're working on things

together and you're supporting each other,

right. But they're not all in the same business either.

So I'm just want to clarify that They can be in

my business.

I bring people together from different locations,

different businesses,

different educational backgrounds,

as many differences as we can create.

I'm trying to provide that in our masterminds because my background

is on studying teams and my MBA that I mentioned earlier,

one of the things that I studied was teams and how

to create a high performing team.

And I've come to think of a mastermind as creating a

high performing team,

like a dream team for your business.

And so when we study teams,

we see that the teams that come up with the most

creative ideas are those that are the most diverse.

So in my masterminds,

I'm trying to create as much diversity of thought and personality

and education and past experience as possible because it's amazing the

brainstorming and ideas that come when you bring diversity of thought

together in a room,

whether it's virtual or in person,

but there are people that are in the same industry that

come together for masterminds.

If someone chooses to do that,

I recommend that they not be in a competitive space,

that they be in different locations.

So for example,

there are a lot of therapists like marriage and family therapists

in my community.

I wouldn't recommend that a group of marriage and family therapists,

the same city get together and help each other grow their

businesses. But marriage and family therapists from a bunch of different

locations or a bunch of different cities could do that.

And the same for a product business.

So like say you have a cupcake store,

you could be in a mastermind with like four or five,

six other women or other business owners.

It doesn't have to just be women,

of course,

that are in different locations.

That wouldn't feel competitive to you because you're wanting to be

able to be very open and vulnerable about what's going on

in your business so that you can get the highest level

of advice possible.

Right. A lot of give and take within the masterminds too.

I mean,

I feel like I know my mastermind partners.

I know their business,

not totally as well as I know mine,

but I know a lot of things about their business.

So the goal is not to,

Just to be taking,

but to give to so,

Oh, you're helping each other.

It's like having a board of directors for your business in

a way.

And what's really important is to have the same level of

commitment and preferably a similar level of momentum.

So if someone is working during nap time on their business,

they're probably not a match to be in a mastermind with

someone that is working full-time on their business because they're going

to be moving at a different pace.

And it's going to feel a disconnect in the mastermind.

I find that when people put their own masterminds together themselves,

which you can completely do,

and we're going to share some more ideas on how to

do that.

I think it's really important to figure out a time commitment.

Like how often are you going to meet,

how is the group going to be facilitated?

What is the length of the mastermind?

Like, are you going to meet for three months,

six months,

a year longer indefinitely?

What is the commitment?

And I think,

especially in a peer led mastermind,

which is what I'm talking about right now,

where you don't have a professional facilitator,

or it's not a specific program that someone is running,

that you really create some rules.

When would someone need to leave the group?

If you're not showing up after three meetings in a row,

maybe this is usually the mastermind.

So having some ground rules can be really helpful.

Yeah. And ground rules up front.

I think it's a really good point,

Natalie. So before anyone is guilty of something to have the

ground rules,

if there's someone listening,

that's thinking about a mastermind,

how do you go about finding members initially?

And what do you look for?

We've already talked about that they can maybe if they're in

the same industry,

they should be in a different area,

maybe different areas of the country for that.

Yes, exactly.

I would utilize Facebook groups personally or my own personal network.

So I do see people just randomly post in a Facebook

group. Hey,

I want to start a mastermind,

direct message me DME,

if you're interested.

And I kind of cringe when I see that,

because a mastermind is so intimate that you don't just want

random strangers in it.

If I were a listener right now,

and one of your listeners,

I would be in your Facebook group,

Sue, and I would be watching for people that I connect

with in the group,

or that offer advice that I'm like,

wow, that woman is powerful.

Like she has some advice.

She's very insightful.

And I would hand select people.

I created a mastermind for myself to help me grow my

business. And we started off with three of us and we

grew it to five of us.

And we over time added people.

And every time we added someone,

we'd invite them into a session to one of our meetings

and they could at the end,

let us know if they wanted to join or not.

And then we needed to have unanimous decisions.

Like everybody needed to agree on that new person.

So that's how we manage that group.

It doesn't have to be huge.

I think some people think,

well, I need like six or eight or 10 people,

a mastermind with three people that are very committed,

can be amazing.

Yeah. A mastermind with four people,

five people,

my ideal size for a mastermind is anywhere from six to

10 people.

And it kind of depends on the format and how long

you're going to be together.

But that seems to be a nice,

especially that six to eight,

that seems to be a great number because if a few

people can't make it,

you can still have a great discussion.

Right. And if someone needs to leave the mastermind,

like the mastermind wouldn't folder and because you still have enough

people and perspectives to continue In my first mastermind,

gosh, I'm going to say it was probably 12,

13 years ago.

We started with six people.

And the thing that was so cool about it is everyone

came with the business that they currently had,

but everybody also had experienced from a prior business.

So it was not just the one person with that one

skill level.

There were added things on top like HR and like,

you know,

just a whole bunch of things.

And then as time went on,

things changed and some people left and we really struggled to

bring somebody else in.

We tried to do exactly what you were doing.

And we had just gotten so deep on some of our

businesses. It just,

we couldn't find other people.

And we ended up being just got down to three of

us, but we were together for 10 years.

Wow. Sue,

we just broke up recently,

which is when I was starting to decide,

okay, now I'm thinking I want to do a more organized

mastermind, which is how I end up coming to you.

But the value of somebody knowing your struggles in your business

over time,

people that you can call on within seconds and they can

be there and you can dive right directly into a problem

is so valuable.

And I bring that whole story up in addition to what

Natalie is talking about,

because the strength behind developing a solid mastermind,

not just finding five people,

because you want to be quote unquote,

part of a mastermind,

but people you feel comfortable that you can be vulnerable with

and open up with and all going towards the same goals

of building each other's businesses up.

I don't think there's anything better in terms of support for

your business,

besides having a supportive spouse.

Probably true.

I think it can be difficult to find people.

Here's one thing I wanted to say.

There's a huge benefit to being in a mastermind with people

who are not emotionally connected you.

So while you could be in a mastermind with friends and

family, I would recommend looking for people that you connect with,

but that are not your best friends,

that are not your current support system,

because there's such huge value in getting advice from people that

are not emotionally connected to you.

It's a different kind of advice.

And I feel like people are more direct with the advice.

So not that they're rude or hurtful and what they're saying,

but there isn't that personal relationship.

Initially over time,

your mastermind will become some of the people that you're closest

with because you're actually sharing more with them than you probably

would with some of your friends and family.

But initially to start the relationship off in such a direct

way, it allows that directness to continue while having a friendship

create as part of that.

Right. Very good point.

So let's say that we found our people,

we have a mastermind.

What do you do then?

How do you get started?

Yeah, so there's a lot of different ways to,

to run a mastermind.

And when I was started creating this for my community and

for myself,

I really studied anything I could find on masterminds and teams

and listen to how other people structure them.

I have friends that are in other paid masterminds and I

asked what's going on in there and how are they formatting

it? What are they doing?

And over time through trial and error and some pivoting,

as I mentioned earlier,

I've come up with a format that works best for my

community and I'm happy to share it.

What we do is every meeting,

a couple businesses are in what we call the hot seat.

And that is not a scary thing.

It is actually a wonderful thing.

Your business is in the spotlight and you get to ask

the group for help and advice.

So we create a schedule of when people are in the

hot seat,

usually it's best.

If you have say a 60 minute timeframe to have saved

one or two people in the hot seat,

if it's a 90 minute timeframe,

you can do two or three people in the hot seat,

but we'd start off every call on a positive with everybody

sharing a win.

Like what is your win for the week?

And that's so valuable because even when we have weeks where

things seem to not be going so great,

there usually is actually some huge,

amazing thing that happened.

And so we love to start off with a win.

And then we check in with each member on the goal,

they said they were going to accomplish and at the end

of the last meeting.

So that's how we end all meetings is what is your

goal that you're going to accomplish before the next meeting?

So at the beginning,

what is your win for the week?

Did you hit your goal?

Yes or no?

We don't allow for long explanations about why you may not

have, but they're asking for the goal and creating that accountability

creates a natural pressure for us to actually complete a goal.

And that's one of the things that's really hard as an

entrepreneur is to actually hit those goals.

It's a struggle,

especially if you've come from a corporate or very structured background

and no one's checking on you and it's not in your

natural personality to actually hit these major goals.

So one of the hugest values of our masterminds and many

others is it keeps you accountable and you're setting and hitting

goals between each meeting.

So that can be really amazing.

And then we do our hot seats and then we close

with the goals.

Got it.

I have to admit that there have been times when I

have maybe not gotten close to my goal,

but pushed and driven to it just because I was going

to have to say something about it in our meeting.

Yes. It's a powerful,

I'm pretty good at finishing goals,

but I'm noticing,

well, maybe I'm not as good as I think because I've

had to do that.

So that's awesome.

The other thing I really like about the way the masterminds

are handled is again,

as women,

we're not really that good at voicing our wins overall.

Yes. This gives them a format where you're part of the

deal. That's what you're supposed to do is say what has

happened. That's been positive.

So you get a chance to say a win,

and let's say,

you've had a week where there hasn't been so much progress.

You can still find something to Pat yourself on the back

about. So you can always move forward in a positive manner.

Yes, for sure.

It's really an incredible format for helping you not feel alone

in your business,

helping you feel a deeper connection with other business owners and

just also creating some structure in your life too.

Right. So you have this ongoing meeting.

Sure. Yeah.

So I have a quick start guide.

I'd love to share with your audience.

So wow.

Yes, because It basically walks people over.

Many of the things that we've just shared and it's all

in a PDF ready for people.

We can have that for you guys on our website@bizchicks.com

slash gift biz.

Oh, that's perfect.

We can remember that.

Yes. physics.com/gift

Biz. So I would love for people to try to start

their own mastermind.

It has been a game changer in my business,

and I've been able to see it as a game changer

in many other businesses.

And I just think it's such an incredible type of thing

to have in your life.

That probably for some people they've never heard of it before.

And they're like,

wow, that'd be really amazing to have this group of women.

And then I will say,

what has been a huge learning for me in the last

year is the power of meeting in person.

So at BizChix live,

we had several women who had been in masterminds together over

the years,

come together and get to meet in person.

And it was so special.

And then in the group,

you're in,

in my high level mastermind,

it's called CEO chicks.

It's women that have multi six-figure and seven-figure businesses.

We actually have retreats as part of that program and to

get to watch your group bond,

but from one retreat to another.

And then to get to go see you guys again at

biz chicks live,

it's been so amazing to watch the intimacy level of the

group, like quadruple,

like move at quadruple speed after spending time together in person.

So I just want to encourage,

if you do create a mastermind and even if you guys

are in different locations,

if you can find a way to come together in for

a weekend or find a conference,

you all want to go to our trade show and to

spend time getting to know each other and even doing an

in-person mastermind,

it is an incredible experience.

Absolutely. I completely agree with you.

I almost wish that there was a way to see like

what your business would have looked like in a year without

a mastermind and what it was looks like with one I

would love to be,

so I know it would be amazing.

I know it would be,

I almost kind of feel like after we're done this year,

it'll be interesting to try and do that exercise and see

like, if we could reflect back and think honestly,

what would have happened different.

You never know for sure,

but anyway,

gave you some good ideas there.

So, all right then.

Good. So gift biz listeners.

I think the idea of a mastermind is so powerful and

now you've heard what they're all about how to put one

together locally for yourself,

how you would run through a meeting,

the right types of people to put together in a mastermind.

And Natalie,

I didn't ask this question and I'd like to just get

a feel from you on that is,

should people be at the same level of their business?

Like all people who are starting or all people in that

very initial growth stage,

or what do you think,

should they be at the same level Personally,

feel like they should.

I think that you should be,

this is how I define it at plus or minus two

levels of business.

And for me,

I define that more by revenue.

So, and then plus,

or minus one level of momentum and that's kind of subjective,

right? But someone just starting out and someone with a six-figure

business, you have completely different issues.

And I also really believe if you were just starting out

that you should be part of some type of coaching or

course program that has a lot of the things that you

would need to start your business.

And I know Sue,

you have an incredible membership site.

Like that would be like a wonderful thing I would recommend.

And having a mastermind in tandem with that kind of a

support system would be fantastic.

And even like,

if you're in that membership group,

you could create a mastermind from that,

right? From some of the other women you're seeing in there

that you'd like to connect with,

but then you're getting the same kind of training and getting

to connect on that level.

And then for women that have more established businesses,

so say you're a six-figure business or a multi six-figure business.

You're starting to bring on a team and hire.

I think if you have a brick and mortar business,

it can be valuable to be in a mastermind with other

people that have a brick and mortar business,

same with online.

Not that you all have to be the same,

but that there are people in the group that will understand

some of your unique struggles in that situation.

And then one of the things I wanted to highlight that

you said,

Sue is what I call magical mastermind moments.

And that's when people share things from their past,

like maybe their past corporate experience or another job or some

education they have that they bring into the moment.

Like you may not even have known.

They had that background and they are able to make a

connection, share a learning,

give advice,

fast track you because they have this past experience.

And that's really the value of a mastermind.

And you can't even anticipate all of the connections that will

possibly happen in advance.

And that's,

what's so fun about me getting to do what I do

is I call them.

I get excited when those happened,

because I know the background of everybody when we start,

but I don't know,

everybody's a hundred percent background.

So those magical mastermind moments happen every time.

And they will happen in whatever group you create.

It is exciting because you don't even know within yourself,

the knowledge that you have until a topic presents itself.

And you're like,

Oh, I have an idea.

I'd like,

you pull things out that you don't even know you knew.

And I think that That's the other value of the mastermind

is you get to be of service to other people we

can get so caught up in our own business and even

start to feel defeated and to realize,

wow, like I really helped someone else today.

Like I have a lot to offer the world.

It gives you some confidence that can help you.

When you go back to your business on your own.

That's a really good point.

Really good.

You have provided so much great information all around from the

very beginning.

And now I want us as listeners to give back to

you, Natalie,

I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable

Heights that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What's inside your box.

Okay, let me open it.

And we will see what's in here.

I think there's going to be some little sprinkle,

eat things to you and this confetti just popped out.

Right? I wish you guys could see it.

Thank you So much.

This is such a powerful question to ask because it really

got me thinking and dreaming more.

At the end of the day.

What I love most about the work I do is I'm

impacting women's lives.

And I know that when I help someone grow their business,

it's not just helping them with that specific business.

It's helping them bring more money into their family,

maybe creating opportunities for their children or allowing their spouse to

do something that they wanted to do.

And also as people scale their businesses,

they're hiring and creating jobs.

And so the impact that is happening,

the ripple effect from the work I do is so amazing

to me and really fuels me.

And the community that I have created is very tight and

connected. And it feels like a smaller community right now.

So my dream is to scale everything I'm doing to impact

more women,

to grow the community and kind of the big dream beyond

that is that it still feels small.

So that in the future,

as this business grows and scales,

that the community still feels somewhere that everybody wants to go

and participate in because the culture has maintained has stayed intact

and that as people are working with other members of my

team and we're training other people to facilitate masterminds,

that no matter who you are working with,

whoever your professional mastermind facilitator is,

or your coaches that you still get the same customer experience

and mastermind experience or coaching experience,

regardless of who,

whether it's me or someone else on my,

so I think that wraps it up.

I want everything to grow and scale.

And I have like numbers attached with that in my head.

But at the end of the day,

I want to impact more women.

And I want the culture of our community to stay the

same. Right.

Grow it bigger,

but keep it the same intimate and all the qualities and

everything you already have.

Yeah. Which is a challenge.

That's a challenge to do as you grow an organization,

but that's my dream.

Something tells me you're going to figure it out.

I just know it's going to happen that way.

So, and you've already started the ripple effect because just by

coming on and talking to my audience,

I think there are a lot of people who don't know

you, but now they do.

They know more about what biz chicks is about.

I think we have incentivized people to try and do a

mastermind themselves and they might follow the path that I have

in the past.

You did my own.

And then maybe go to a more structured one as business

grows. Yeah.

I think there's so many options and opportunities with masterminds and

local virtual combination,

peer led paid small,

large. There's so many ways to go about it.

And I just hope that people will take that,

that step forward and try one.

Absolutely. Thank you for letting me share about them.

I'm so passionate about them.

So here are your next steps gift biz listeners.

You're going to go grab that mastermind quick start guide.

And even if you're not thinking about masterminds right now,

go grab it because you don't know if next month or

two months from now or six months from now or somebody

else, you know,

wants to do a mastermind,

just grab the guide.

So you've got it.

Ready to go.

You don't have to go looking for it later.

And that's at biz chicks.com

forward slash gift biz,

right, Natalie?

Correct. All right.

Wonderful. So do that.

And then I also encourage any and all of you to

look at biz chicks in total,

look at the community.

My guess is that biz chicks live is going to be

booked by the time you're hearing this,

but there's always the next year.

And there's a whole community of really fabulous people over there

that I would love for each and every one of you

to meet.

So I encourage you to go check that out as well,

Natalie, thank you so much.

I appreciate you taking the time with all you have going

to come and share with us today.

Thank you so much,

Sue. It was really fun and your questions are very unique

and fun to answer.

Thanks. Have a good rest of your day.

Bye Sue,

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