Are You Thinking Too Small in Your Business

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Personal Brand Journey with Jamie M Swanson

Business


Mastermind Promo Show Notes Links:  Apply to join the Brighter Together Mastermind and get all the details by clicking here.  >>> http://wearebrightertogether.com Have questions about it? Contact Jamie directly on Instagram @JamieBrightAdventures Sign up for podcast  email reminders here  >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/email Transcript:   A few weeks ago, I had an incredible conversation with my friend, Jay Wong. Now I've known Jay for years. I think it's years now. Wow. And we don't connect super often, but when we do connect, we go deep and he's always somebody whose advice I value immensely. And over the last few years I have watched Jay go from struggling to sell a course on how to start a podcast to running this incredible multi, multi figure agency, helping people deliver podcasts. And he's grown this massive team and he's just crushing. It he's even made some big pivots. And he said something to me in our conversation that I've heard before, but he said it at just the right time to really shape how I'm thinking about 20, 21 and subtly shift the direction I'm going in this year. And I cannot wait to share it with you in today's episode ? So Jay and I connected again because we ran into each other on clubhouse and we had this really phenomenal conversation about how we were using it and how we were planning to use it this year. And so we did this whole little clubhouse room on it, and afterwards we hung out together and talked for at least another two hours and. Caught up because I don't know. I think we hadn't talked in about a year and a half since we were at tribe live together in Toronto a year and a half ago back when people could still meet with each other. Oh, I miss in-person events so bad. Don't you? Anyways, we were catching up and he was telling me about the incredible. Progress that he had made in his business and how he had shifted into this agency model and had to grow as a leader and really build this incredible team because he was so beyond the point of being able to do it all himself. And in order to scale his agency, he knew that he had to bring other people on to help him do the work. I was just so impressed by his progress, but even more so by the personal transformation. But he had to make in order to become the kind of person who can let go of control and really allow other people to do the work for his clients, for him on his behalf, which is, it's just a big shift. Anytime you have a team, you know that they're never going to do it exactly like you would. And even if their quality is good, it's really hard to find people who can consistently meet the quality that you meet and hard to find people who care as much as you do. And all the things, it just requires a massive leadership shift, and you really need to change your mindset and learn to let go of a lot of control. And honestly, a lot of fear of being judged because that's kind of where this all stems that comes from building a team and hiring other people to help you do the work. And it was just a beautiful thing to see how he had done this. And so I told him that and he said something really profound that helped shape the, the entirety of my thoughts over the next few weeks. He said, you know, I've really. Built a business for where I want to go and not for where I am now or something along those lines. I'm terrible about remembering verbatim. And he talked about Wayne Gretzky, who was asked why he was such a good hockey player. And he said, well, I skate to where the puck is going. Not to where the puck is right now. And I started thinking about my own business. I've been growing this mastermind, which I love so much. And my original goal with all of this is to get back to a seven figure business, which I could totally do on my own. With just running, you know, several small groups of no more than 12 people and getting to that point. And that's been my goal. I'm like, okay, I'll start these groups. I just need eight of them to hit seven figures. But I realized that to grow beyond that, I'm going to have to hire facilitators. I'm going to have to hire other people to come in and help lead the masterminds as well. So as I've been leading my mastermind, I've also been developing a handbook, Something that I can use with the facilitators and give it to them so that they can follow the same process and they can use the same frameworks that I'm creating and give people an experience. That's basically the same as if they were in a mastermind with me personally, and then they will have access to me, in the larger group. But I want to really be able to equip these facilitators. To run a mastermind in the exact same way I would and help people get the exact same results that I'm getting with the groups that I'm running. That's always kind of been the plan. It's always been in the back of my mind that I would run the first several. I would figure out this process and then I would scale it by bringing other people on to help. Well, what Jay's comment made me realize is that I'm skating to where the puck is right now that if I. Spend all of my time and fill it with running eight different groups, which I know I can do sustainably. Like I know how much time it's going to take me. I know that I can totally sustain eight groups, but I can't sustain running eight groups. And. Have the time that I really need to invest and it growing and empowering the facilitators to be true leaders in the mastermind. And it hit me really hard that once I get to that seven figure point, it's going to be really hard to scale because my time will be the bottleneck again. And so I was skating to where I thought the puck was going to be in a year, but really I need to skate to where the puck is going to be in two years or where I want to be beyond that. And it shifted a lot for me because. Instead of me. Doing eight masterminds all myself, eight groups within the mastermind. It's one mastermind, but with lots of small groups, because I really believe that you need to have that connection with a set of peers. And it gives me the freedom to make sure that people are in a group that's perfect for them. But. If I do eight of them, I'm going to get to that point. And I won't have the capacity that I need without either handing off one of the groups to one of the facilitators or something else. And it just getting out of that point and scaling seems so messy. And so instead, what I've decided to do is I'm going to start bringing on facilitators earlier. Now, I don't know how many groups I'm personally going to run, but I'm probably going to start either the second or third one. With a facilitator and be co-running it at first with the full intention of handing that mastermind off to the facilitator. and then I would just still be in the main group with everybody, but they would be running that specific smaller group within the mastermind. And if I start that now, Not only is it going to help me avoid having a bottleneck later on, but I'm going to have a better sense of what I really need to do in order to bring on multiple facilitators in order to have a bigger team. And what really excites me is. Well, honestly, what really excites me is empowering people to empower others. So I love helping people become leaders who can empower their audiences. And so instead of me running masterminds, I'm even more excited about me. Helping develop leaders who can empower people within my mastermind and go out and take those same skills and use them in their own businesses. So it, it seems subtle. It seems small, but it really is a massive shift in my mind. And it changes some of the strategy that I'm going to be using this year as I move forward, because I'm going to Bri bringing in facilitators sooner than later, which is exciting for me because. Really my role as the leader and the visionary is going to be. To develop the leaders who can then develop the members of the mastermind because masterminds, generally, it's not me teaching it's me facilitating and everyone in the group who is very carefully curated to be in there supporting each other and growing together. And you know, you get to see behind the scenes of everybody's businesses over a long period of time. You don't just see the Instagram highlights. You actually see what works, what doesn't, you can't get that kind of knowledge and experience. Anywhere else outside of a mastermind, it's really a beautiful, valuable thing that you get. And so it's not about me coming in and teaching this big curriculum. I don't do a ton of teaching. It's me helping facilitate these masterminds and curate the right people in them so that you can learn from each other and support each other. There's a lot more to it. You can go back and listen to some of the episodes I did in October of 2020 to hear more about why masterminds are so valuable, but I am really excited about this because my heart is in leadership development and yes, that happens in a mastermind, but. I really get excited about bringing on people to help lead within the context of my business. I really spent a lot of time learning how to do leadership, how to manage a team, how to it's kind of like a mentorship almost. And it just, it excites me in a big way. It also raises a bunch of new questions for me that I don't really necessarily have answers to yet. Like. Where do I find these people? are they already people in my mastermind? Are they other entrepreneurs? What are the qualifications they need to have? Because obviously if you're facilitating a group Of entrepreneurs. You need to understand what they're doing and be able to point them to the right resources and all of those things. And yet, if they're running their own businesses, how much time did they have to do this? How many should a person be running? all sorts of different things that. I haven't got answers to yet. how do I pay them? How much do I pay them? All of these things, lots of it. And I'm really excited about that. But those questions weren't even on the radar before this conversation that I had with Jay and that one little comment he made has really helped me shift my thoughts to, how could I create a business that supports a thousand entrepreneurs in my masterminds, And what would I need to do differently. In order to go there now. Like how could I start that now? Why should I wait? And if I wait, how am I going to pivot? And that was, that was huge. So I'm really excited about where I'm going this year with this still love masterminds. I think they're incredible. I, haven't done a public opening of my mastermind since October, but I am going to be opening it again soon. And like I said, I'm not sure exactly how many. Mastermind groups I'm personally going to be running. I've got one that I've committed to running for sure. And I might run a second one, or just start a second one in hand that went off. So if you have been around here for a while and been thinking about joining my mastermind, when it opens up again, Highly recommend reaching out to me on Instagram @JamieBrightAdventures. You'll notice it's a new Instagram handle. There's all sorts of details about my name, change on Instagram. I'll share more about that in the future, but for now you can go there. It's also linked in the show notes and drop me a DM. I don't have a big fancy. Mastermind details page going. It's not open right now. but if you really want to be in the mastermind that I am leading, for sure, I have a very small handful of spots left in the current group. And I would love to chat about potentially having you inside there. If you feel like that would be a good fit. And honestly, I truly believe that even with other people facilitating masterminds, that it's going to be amazing because they're going to use my foundation we are all going to have one big group. So all of the different mastermind groups that I'm going to be creating will have access to each other and me, but the groups that I lead obviously get more intimate access to me. So you can always reach out to me if you're interested in that. Or if you want to hear more about it, I'm happy to give you all the details on how often we meet and how much involvement I have, because I will absolutely be involved in this. I love doing these masterminds are on my heart. You've known that since the very beginning of the podcast, if you've been listening from the beginning, but just wanted to throw this out there for my loyalist of podcast listeners, if that's you. And you've been thinking about this now now's the time to reach out because, like I said, I only have a couple of spots left in the current mastermind that I'm leading before I start a second group. And I would love to consider you for it. If you would really like to be in that group with me. All right, my friend. So my question to you then is. Where are you going? Where is the puck going in your business? Are you building a business for what you're doing today and only focused on what you're doing right now? Or have you taken the time to think about where you're going and what needs to shift in order for you to go where you really. Truly want to go for me? The shift from thinking about having a hundred people in my masterminds to a thousand is a pretty significant one. And I believe that by thinking about a thousand people, as opposed to a hundred, that I'm going to be able to create a structure that'll grow more easily and help me avoid future bottlenecks. If I was just thinking about a hundred. So while you're thinking about where your puck is going. Think about if I was to 10 X, that number would there be bottlenecks? Where would I run into problems shifting from what I'm doing now to really truly scaling. And that is your assignment for this week, would love to hear how this might help you in your business and give you more clarity on where you're going and hear about any shifts you're making. Reach out to me personally, Instagram @JamieBrightAdventures. I would be happy to have a little conversation with you, super fun. And would that my friend just remember that we are together and that the world needs us. So let's go out and make it brighter.