Have you invested in professional or business education to grow more in knowledge, skills, or personal development? Today, I’m sharing all about my investment with The Laylee Emadi Mastermind!
Listen in as I highlight what I loved, what I’d do different, and how I think hearing perspectives of others can impact your entire business plan for the better!
Clocking In with Haylee Gaffin is produced and brought to you by Gaffin Creative, a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs. Learn more about our services at Gaffincreative.com, plus you’ll also find resources, show notes, and more for the Clocking In Podcast.
How I Connected with Laylee (1:36)
About the Mastermind (3:04)
My Focus in the Mastermind (4:02)
What I’d Do Differently in The Mastermind Experience (4:39)
1. Set clearer expectations and goals for myself. (4:44)
2. Treat my mastermind like a client and set aside time for it. (5:47)
What I Got Out of the Mastermind (6:24)
1. The Community (6:31)
2. A Mindset Shift (7:13)
The Plans I Created During the Mastermind (8:19)
1. Podcast Resources Content Strategy
2. Revenue Paths I Want to Explore
— Online Podcast Shop
— Educational Offerings
Final Thoughts (9:29)
Who I’m Cheering for this Week:
Amanda Warfield
Emma Christine
Jennifer Ryals
Julie Painter
Kelli White
Sarah Erickson
Laylee Emadi
Review the Transcript:
Invest in yourself. Invest in your education. Invest in your skillset. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a corporate professional, you’ve heard these statements before. So what exactly does it mean and why is it important? I was always the person to learn from free tutorials or educational offerings—until I decided to officially take my business seriously and pay for the help to get advice, grow in community, and make sure I’m on the right track. In today’s episode, I’m sharing all about my experience with investing in a Mastermind.
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As I’m recording this episode, I’ve just finished up my 6 month Mastermind with Laylee Emadi. Whew—6 months flew by, but I also feel like I grew more in my business over the last 6 months than I had in the last 3 years.
Deciding to invest in a mastermind is something you really have be dedicated to—it’s not a cheap investment and you really need to pick the right mastermind for you.
So let’s talk about why I chose my Mastermind & what I wanted out of it.
So Laylee Emadi and I met back in 2018 at Showit United—our mutual friend Natalie Franke introduced us and we didn’t immediately hit it off or anything, we just followed each other on Instagram. I saw her photography business transitioning to an education based business with a focus on teaching others how to be better educators. She was coaching and showing up on more podcasts. One day I podcast a behind the scenes on editing a podcast and she reached out asking if I could help.
After chatting, we realized we’d be at a conference together, so we decided to meet up and after an amazing conference experience and getting to hang out together, i was faced with a crazy travel experience, my flights got cancelled and I ended up crashing in her hotel room, so we became fast friends.
A couple of months later, we launched So, Here’s the Thing with Laylee Emadi, which I’ve been producing for two years now. As her podcast grew, so did her business. She opened up more coaching opportunities, then launched The Creative Educator Academy, and finally in the fall of 2020, I hired her for one-on-one coaching to help navigate where my brand should be and if full-time entrepreneurship is where I really want to be.
A couple of weeks later, she announced her mastermind—for me, it was just what I needed to kick start this full-time entrepreneurship experience and help me navigate where my business would go over the next few years.
Now before I tell you too much about the mastermind, this isn’t a sponsored episode, or even a sales pitch designed specifically for Laylee’s mastermind. Whatever education you decide to pursue needs to serve you well—and even Laylee will tell you that. If you’re not ready, she won’t let you make the investment, as she really wants her students to be ready for the investment in both their business, but also financially.
The Laylee Emadi Mastermind is a 6 month group coaching program for creative entrepreneurs. It’s really designed to get you out of your head and out of your own way.
So what was included in the mastermind:
- Bi weekly calls for 6 months with hot seats
- Two one-on-one calls
- Unlimited email and marco polo access with office hours
- A facebook community
- An in person retreat
Essentially, you’re connected with a group of like-minded individuals who are also essential to your success in the program—as they commit to helping you grow as well!
When I entered this mastermind, I wanted to focus solely on my podcast production branch of the business. For those who don’t know, Gaffin Creative has three branches of services: podcast production, photography, and studio rentals. While the photography and studio rental branches have pretty much become self-serve in their own respects, I wanted to make sure I was building something that could last a long-standing career with podcasting (as long as podcasting was around)..
Now, that the mastermind is completed and I’ve had time to process the last 6 months, I want to share a few things I wish I’d done a little differently, because with all successes, there are set backs.
- The first thing is that I almost wish I’d set a clearer goal on what I meant by passive income. The fact that I didn’t caused me to jump around a little more on ideas than I wanted, but it also allowed me to explore more—so it’s not all terrible in that I didn’t set that clearer goal, but if I were to enter a mastermind for a second time, I would definitely know more of what I want so the coach could guide me instead of having to basically console me and coach me through options. Now that is all on me. I jumped around from course creation to vip days to launch programs to membership offerings, officially setting on hav ing the goal to launch a podcast shop by the end of the program while build concept around each of the other revenue options so I could decide what served me, my business, and my clients best.
- The second thing I would have done a little different was treat my mastermind like a client and set aside dedicated hours to work on the things I said I would work on. I think as business owners and professionals, we get so caught up in our work, that we aren’t taking our own business seriously. With a big investment, like a mastermind, it’s really important to ensure that you’re making time for it and not just showing up for the calls.
Now despite those two things I would change, I want to share what came out of the mastermind that I loved:
- The community — now if you’re in the circle of people who were in this mastermind, you know that we talk about how Laylee hand-picked the perfect people. That’s why there is an application. It’s important for members to be on similar business levels, have attainable goals, but also just be good people. That’s who these ladies were. I’ve found people to refer to, to grow with, and to retreat with year after year. Not only that, but I’m so looking forward to investing in each of their businesses. I’ll make sure to link to every one of their businesses in the show notes at gaffincreative.com/018 so you can check them out and support their small businesses.
- Now the next thing I got out of this mastermind was a mindset shift. Now this may feel a little out there for the non-mindset people, I get it. But hear me out. I had to get out of what I would call “small business ideas” and shift into “big impact ideas” And what I mean by this is I had to look at my business, review the reality of if I kept going in the same path that I was, I wouldn’t be able to grow. I wouldn’t be able to travel, and I wouldn’t be able to increase my overall revenue without adding more time to my plate. This meant that I needed to take a bigger look at not only what I wanted, but what all was out there. Through listening to others hot seat calls, I was able to envision their plans in my business and if it would fit. I think that was such an important part of what I got out of the mastermind, because it led to so many bigger plans this year.
- Now, speaking of plans, let’s talk about what those now look like. Throughout the mastermind, I worked with my intern at the time, now part time employee, to build out tons of resources on the website for podcasting. We created a content plan, focused on developing what we could for the potential clients out there, and even booked a few clients off of the free resources. By the end of the mastermind, I had 3 paths of new revenue that I wanted to explore. The first path launched at the end of the mastermind, which was my online podcast shop, where I sell resources and templates for podcasters and plan to continue to add new products to on a quarterly basis. The other two paths include educational offerings—which prior to joining this mastermind, I never imagined that I would be someone who pivoted into education.. But the reality is that I’m educating my clients everyday on podcast work. I’m teaching them how to launch, how to grow, and how to strategically plan their content. I can’t give away too much about these two offerings, but just know they’re coming hopefully in the fall and I’ll share all about that here..
And that’s my review. I think the mastermind was totally worth the investment and there are only a few things I would go back and change, but even those added to my experience and allowed me to learn and grow better over the last 6 months.
I’m really excited for what the future looks like with Gaffin Creative and I can’t wait to bring you along on this journey.
If you want to check out the shop, head to gaffincreative.com/shop or I’ll link it in my show notes! And don’t forget to support the women from my mastermind in all that they’re doing!
One day when I finally bring interviews to this show, you best believe that Laylee will be someone I bring on the show. Until next time, I hope you consider investing in your education, and really be thoughtful in your decision!
