I Struggled to Join My First Mastermind…So Glad I Did
I was listening to the guy on the stage when he says, “We are experts on the platform. Do you have time to learn it on your own? Join us and others in the mastermind.”
He got me. I understood his offer perfectly. He clearly knew the platform I needed to learn. He was a well-known top marketer in the Infusionsoft (now Keap) space.
This wasn’t me buying on a whim. I’m a tightwad. I admit it, but this is something I needed.
But I was stuck. “How could I pay $795 a month for the program? Sure I needed guidance, but…?” I repeated this over and over.
Getting to the conference with this presenter took so much effort. I had airline miles and used them to pay the airfare. I was staying in a low-end hotel near Phoenix airport. I was driving a rental car my wife found at a really, really, really good price.
That make my trip possible.
I sat there at KFC (Yes, I’m a finger lickin’ good fried chicken fan), nearby going over my options.
“How can I make this happen?”
Let me backtrack. Back in December 2010, I got a call from a business owner. He needed help with this Infusionsoft thing. I’d never heard of it, but I’m a programmer. My mantra has always been, “How hard could it be, right?”
During the day, I’m Mr. Director of Technology. Read that as having huge responsibilities with so-so pay. My wife and I have three daughters. Great kids, but all three have learning challenges. That meant expensive private tutoring on top of the private school we were paying. I was running my side business to bring in extra cash to cover expenses.
I never did business with that business owner, but his call introduced me to Infusionsoft. It wasn’t just an emailing tool. It had these automation features.
- It could automate all the email marketing I was currently doing manually.
- It could tell me what people were doing with my messages. Were they opening them. Were they clicking on them.
- It had ways to make it easy for them to reach me.
- It could drastically reduce my workload
I had found something big.
I got myself an account. It was something else I couldn’t afford, but I couldn’t NOT afford it. It freed up so much of my time and it allowed me to do things I couldn’t do manually even if I had the time.
Infusionsoft sent me an email message promoting their upcoming user conference. I could use that to learn Infusionsoft. I could meet with others using the tool. Heck, maybe I could pick up a few customers.
The guy on the stage had explained what he could offer to me. He was there with another who was an experts at email marketing and one that was founder of a membership and online course site building platform aimed at Infusionsoft users. (Guess who’s the guy that taught me membership and online course site building.)
I called my wife from the chicken place rambling. “I need to join this thing. I can tap into all these guys know. It was $795. W can barely pay for it, but with the balance on our credit card, we can do it.
My wife just listened. She knows how I count every penny. I dumped out everything that was running through my head. She didn’t say much back, just “You know what you’re doing, honey. Go ahead.”
I headed back to the conference to find others had already joined the mastermind. I went right up the the lady at the desk and plunked down my credit card.
That indecision turned decision was a turning point for me. It got me the learning I needed to start building membership and online course sites. It connected me to the Infusionsoft community that needed those services.
Fear has been something I’ve needed to overcome. Playing it super safe with my business investments is something I no longer do. I’m never going to be someone that spends without thinking, but I dropped that fear and learned to take calculated risks. It’s been a good for me as a business owner.
Share with me an investment you hesitated to make and how making it make a big difference for you.