This is why I started a Mastermind

Find Your Superpower newsletter 083

Read time: 5 minutes

Topics covered: branding, personal development, mastermind

I have been teaching for a very long time.

When I was 18 years old, I was a Biology Relief Teacher running four (!) biology labs at my junior college after I had completed my ‘A’ level examinations.

This was followed by a stint as a Teaching Assistant at MIT, where I assisted world-famous biology professors on teaching cell biology to undergraduate students.

I would spend five years as an Assistant Professor teaching anatomy & physiology to undergraduate students, and more recently, I am now an Adjunct Associate Professor sharing the practical application of communication in the real world.

Given my academic background, I’ve always been interested in classroom pedagogy and new formats of teaching, such as the flipped classroom approach where any formal learning happens before the class and students enter the classroom mostly for engagement and active learning.

The COVID pandemic provided me with the opportunity to innovate in my delivery of virtual learning, and I had first-hand experience when the schools were closed during the lockdowns and also when my two young kids were placed in quarantine (more than once, actually) after having contact with other children who had COVID.

My company also went 100% remote, and this gave me a front-row seat into testing my ideas around running asynchronous, distributed teams. Interestingly, while I haven’t formally discussed some of the experiments I have conducted on my team, I believe that the intellectual property (IP) I have created around managing a remote, asynchronous, distributed team is likely to be worth more than the IP behind my agency’s original works. Even the mistakes I made are surely worth something, given that it will save another general manager or founder somewhere a lot of grief.

I think it is safe to say I am a lifelong learner.

I am the sort of person who will re-read a good book at least 3-5 times (and often more), especially if the ideas I implemented from the book had worked previously and I am now back to hunt for more ideas.

Today, I would like to share with you the logical thought process behind why I created my 12-month, virtual Brand Builder Mastermind launching in January 2025.

First of all, what is a Mastermind?

The concept of a Mastermind was coined by Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich.

Hill introduced the idea in his 1928 book, The Law of Success, and he defines a Mastermind group as “a coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.” 

Imagine a bunch of like-minded people all committed to professional growth in a specific area. 

With the support of a strong facilitator, it is a safe space for peer-to-peer mentoring where members get to solve their problems with the input of others.

While there is a strong aspect of professional networking, it is the ideas that are being traded where the pot of gold can be found.

Mind coach Jim Kwik describes the benefit of a Mastermind as “having a personal board of advisors pushing you to excel” in your work and life.

Let’s talk about cost 

I have always been interested in communities, and have joined some and run some over the years.

This led me to investigate some of the virtual Masterminds available right now that are run by thought leaders. To get any live contact with the Mastermind founder, many of these Mastermind groups start at $3-5K USD per annum, and some even start at $999 USD per month, while others can go up to $20-30K USD per annum... and more.

While I appreciate the wisdom and knowledge imparted, I am not willing to pay that much right now as I would have to justify a much larger ROI for that investment.

On top of that, many of the sessions would be conducted in Western time zones, which are not conducive for my time zone.

To use the analogy of gym training, at the gym I work out at you can engage a physical trainer for a 1:1 session at $160 SGD per hour, or join a small group session at $35 SGD per hour.

I would really love to get 1:1 attention, but I don’t require that level of optimization and customization to want to pay 4.5x more for the same instructor.

In fact, I enjoy working out with 3-5 other people whom I get to pace and banter with.

Let’s talk about the time commitment

Like the thousands of you subscribed to my newsletter, there are probably many challenging constraints on your time and energy. 

In my case, given that I am a remote worker who owns her own calendar, the biggest constraint on my time remains my children’s schedule.

If you are a friend of mine, there is a 60-80% chance that if we meet there would at least be one kid tagging along with me. I’m hyper-involved in my kids’ life and I would like to keep it this way for the next 5-10 years.

One thing I’ve learnt about running six-week bootcamps is that while it is truly effective and the results are often felt quickly (their friends tell them, “Something has changed about the way you post on LinkedIn. There’s so much more depth to your posts.”), it is not suitable for everyone.

For every recruitment intake that gives me a cohort of 40 pax, I will receive at least 20-30 emails and DMs from potential clients, saying, “Hey, I really, really wanted to join your bootcamp, but now is not a good time for me to commit six weeks to something.”

I realized that I had been neglecting a group of high-performing individuals who were seeking regular professional growth—perhaps at the frequency of 1-2 hours per week—but not in such an intensive and grueling format of a six-week sprint.

Let’s talk about location, location, location

99% of two-year MBA programs and two-week executive education modules are completely out of reach for me. 

I once signed up for a five-day executive education module at a local university. I truly enjoyed the lectures and in fact, I ended up befriending some of the speakers. But after day three of smacking on my makeup, rushing my emails at the break of dawn, hastily putting on my work outfit, wolfing down my breakfast, and fighting rush-hour traffic to report in person for class at 8:30 AM, I texted my team saying:

“Hey y’all, if something really strange happens like me asking you to return to an office, please immediately book a Grab to my home and give me a good thump on the head, OK?”

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no amount of money in the world that would get me to report to an office again, five days a week.

In fact, as I type this, I am supposed to be at the NAS Summit 2024 in Singapore. I really wanted to pop by to say hi to Nuseir Yassin, who has been very supportive to small creators like me over the years. But when I saw the summit location, I realized that my commute time would be one hour each way.

I simply can’t spend three hours getting ready and commuting somewhere.

I would have liked to attend virtually in my pajamas, comfortably positioned on my sofa. 

So therefore, I wanted to find a virtual format that would be sustainable and conducive to folks like me, over an extended 12-month period.

Let’s talk about suitability

To benefit from a Mastermind experience, we need to be in the right frame of mind and in the right stage of our career and professional journey. 

People may incorrectly assume that I have only one goal of recruiting more people to join my Mastermind—wrong. More is NOT always merrier.

Many of you reading this would vouch for me that I have gently recommended that you not join the Mastermind.

- Like the person who wanted more sales-focused training. While my Mastermind does have sales workshops, I generally attract all the clients and collaborators I need through personal branding and developing a blue-ocean niche (for the record, I almost never do live sales calls these days, instead relying heavily on my content and former clients to find me new leads). While I am a surprisingly competent sales and business development trainer (I personally trained my agency BD team and we do 1-2M ARR... only 4% of companies reach this milestone), I have over the years transitioned to a low-sales, high-attraction format of generating new leads.

- Like the parent whose kid is starting school in January. I suggested they wait until their kid is settled before they consider a new endeavor.

- Like the former client whom I felt needed 1:1 attention over group training. I suggested they find a coach who could give them 1:1 time, as my Mastermind does not give individualized attention.

I could go on and on.

I’ve written many of such emails and DMs.

I have been as honest and transparent as possible with people enquiring about the Mastermind, turning away tens of thousands of dollars in the past 2-3 weeks alone, since we opened enrolment for the Mastermind.

In summary, here are the five reasons why I have started a Mastermind and consider it an excellent learning format, given all of the constraints described above:

• A facilitator who provides structure: A strong facilitator with experience building curriculum, in addition to enforcing clear rules, community guidelines and a well-structured agenda, will maximize our learning outcomes week after week.
• Networking: My programs bring together high-value individuals from academia, government, MNCs, small business and non-profit. Everyone helps everyone, and our growth and transformation becomes exponential.
• Accountability: By holding each other accountable, we are more likely to stay true to the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of 2025. By providing our peers with raw and useful feedback, we accelerate our learning.
• Emotional support: Our professional journey can be daunting and full of hurdles along the way. Beyond learning outcomes, a Mastermind also provides emotional and mental support to its members. Sometimes, all we need is a friend.
• Diversity and new perspectives: While a Mastermind requires a clear alignment of goals, it is best built with a diverse group of people. We do not want it to be an echo chamber consisting of people who think the same way. Reviewing the list of 140 cadets signed up so far, I am confident that we have assembled a diverse bunch of growth-minded individuals. 

In a nutshell, this is why I created my virtual VIP Brand Builder Mastermind launching in January 2025.

If the above outcomes and goals interest you, consider joining us as a Founding Member.

I have decided to close enrollment in seven days.

Once our doors shut, our rocketship will take off! 

Thanks for reading issue 083 of my weekly Find Your Superpower newsletter.

For those of you who are new to my newsletter, Find Your Superpower is subscribed to by 46,000+ people, and discusses the following three goals: (1) Making a career transition, (2) Professional branding and (3) Reinventing ourselves for the future of work.

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PPS: The Mastermind is closing enrollment in less than 7 days. Join now!