How I sold out my mastermind programs

What does my audience really want? This is the first question you should ask yourself when launching any program. When I was launching my first mastermind program, I wasn’t aware of many small things that would have helped improve my launch. 

Ask Your Audience Questions

After offering a free 5-day challenge, I advertised my three-month mastermind program on Facebook. I didn’t get any sales. I didn’t even get any clicks! 
It wasn’t because of the quality of my program, but due to the fact that I hadn’t sent out any emails. I didn’t follow up with other posts, I didn’t check who had been most active in the challenge. And most of all, I hadn’t asked what it was my audience really wanted. 
If you are launching your mastermind program, this is the first step you should consider: Ask your audience questions. You can do a survey via email or do polls in your Facebook group if you have one. 
The first group program I launched properly and sold out was called “Launch with Passion”. I asked the people in my Facebook group if they were interested in a group program on launching and what they would like help with. I also asked them about the name. Two or three polls over a few days were enough to see that there was interest, and that the name I picked was a good one. I added a bonus of a free one-hour session with me as an incentive. Within nine days of launching the program, it was sold out. 
Because it’s easier to sell a program with an evident benefit, I set the length to eight weeks, and I priced it  at $1500, which included the one-hour session with me. Even though I didn’t specifically use the word “mastermind” in the name of the program, I ran it like a mastermind and it was a success.

Making Yourself Known

After this successful launch, I launched another program and expected it to sell out as easily as the first one did, but it didn’t. 
This time I called the program a mastermind, and it turned out that it wasn’t clear enough to people what it was about, since I hadn’t included the concept of masterminds in my business yet. I wasn’t known for it.
So to fill up the group and move forward with the program, I contacted previous clients and offered them to join. Previous clients are always a good base to fill up your group rather than giving up on the program because of lack of participants. 
After two years and 20 masterminds, I became known for mastermind groups, and it has become a lot easier to get people to sign up. I no longer have to explain what a mastermind is, and I don’t have to incentivize people to sign up early like I did for my first mastermind groups. 
After a while, I figured out that people like to be in bigger groups, too. Not a super big group of 30 people, but 8, 12 or 18 people – these group sizes ended up working wonderfully. 

What is a Mastermind About?

When you want to sell a mastermind, you need to explain how it all works, especially to someone who has never been in a mastermind before.
A mastermind is like a business family. When you’re in a mastermind, you’re surrounded by a group of people who support and believe in you. It means solving problems together and getting honest advice, receiving feedback and having accountability. 
Many people don’t have that in their lives, and that’s why masterminds are so valuable. But the most important thing a mastermind can help you with is having the right mindset. 

The Mindset Issue

After earning $55,000 over 90 days, a negative voice popped into my head. Thoughts like “Who are you to earn so much money?” and “Rich people are not good people”. I realized what was happening – thoughts from my past were creeping in and trying to sabotage my success. I wasn’t able to turn around my mindset for an entire month and as a consequence, made only $1700 that month. 
Having a positive mindset is important, especially for women. Not that long ago, women didn’t have any access to money, couldn’t get a loan, and had no income of their own. The results of this can still be seen today. Most investors and wealthy people are men. There are very few female role models, and it can happen quickly that we doubt our ability to earn money. 
And that’s exactly where a mastermind group can help. A mindset shift doesn’t just happen, it takes time. Because participants are similar and want similar things, it is easier to achieve a shift. 

Creating Trust

Once you’ve made it clear what a mastermind is all about, establishing trust is essential to get  people to sign up. The best way to gain trust is with Q&A calls. When selling my masterminds , I offered free mastermind calls over several weeks. 
Potential participants also have to have trust in themselves. There are people who doubt themselves and need one-on-one attention. 
You can identify them by looking at who opened your emails and who repeatedly clicked on your sales links. If these people are not reaching out to you, if they’re not asking questions, if they’re not buying yet, contact them. 
A few years back I noticed that someone was visiting the sales page multiple times but she wasn’t reaching out to ask questions. We were friends on Facebook, so I decided to message her directly. I told her that I noticed her interest in the program, and asked if  she had any questions. We went back and forth, and in the end, she signed up. It didn’t feel like a sales conversation at all, it was simply about building a relationship with someone who was interested in my program. And it worked. 

Go All In

Selling mastermind programs isn’t something you start and then you’re sold out after a week. You have to run activities, webinars, Q&A calls and free mastermind calls to find your participants. And in the last few days, personally reach out to people who showed interest. 
I never would have thought that I would sell so many spots for my mastermind programs by contacting people directly on Facebook. But then, mastermind programs are higher priced programs, and are not sold through having a fancy sales page and doing a single webinar. 
Be willing to go all in. Follow up. This is how you will sell out your program. 

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