Tara Newman: Hey, hey, bold leaders. Welcome to another episode of The Bold Leadership Revolution Podcast. I’m really excited today because I am here with my sidekick, The Stacey Harris, the podcast producer. She is also a client who is in my Bold Leadership Mastermind Program and that is actually what we’re talking about today. We’re taking you behind the scenes to The Bold Leadership Mastermind. We’re going to give you some information around what masterminds are, why we run masterminds, how we run masterminds.
Really the purpose of this episode is twofold. One is to educate you to be the best consumer that you could be in a world that is selling you things left and right that you may or may not need. I want you to be really clear on what a mastermind is and whether or not it’s for you. The second thing is if you are interested in a mastermind and you like the way we talk and run a mastermind, we want to invite you to come and apply for The Bold Leadership Mastermind in 2020 because open enrollment is happening now. We hope that this will answer a lot of your questions if you are on the fence or you are possibly considering working with us in 2020. Hey, Stace.
Stacey Harris: Hey. I’m super excited about the education of the consumer part of this because I was somebody who joined the mastermind before I needed to. Then I was terrified of joining another mastermind until I joined yours this year.
Tara Newman: Can you tell me why you joined before you were ready? What did that look like?
Stacey Harris: Honestly, I think it was that evil-evil word of should. It’s easy to fall prey and I choose that word very intentionally to some of the messaging that happens when some people sell masterminds around like, “You’re not legit. You’re not taking your business seriously if you’re not investing like this.” It’s like, “Well, that’s not totally true, like there are other factors.” I think I went into a mastermind not totally because I don’t come from a corporate background. The closest thing I had to a corporate job was I worked for a record label. That was pretty casual. You know what I mean?
I didn’t have any experience in traditional masterminds. I didn’t really understand what I was buying. That’s a really dangerous place to be.
Tara Newman: What did the mastermind that you participated in consist of or look like?
Stacey Harris: We had three retreats, two domestic, one international which quite frankly I could not afford. Then we had I think a monthly coaching call. I think we met as a group once a quarter.
Tara Newman: Were the retreats additional? Is that why you said you couldn’t afford them?
Stacey Harris: No, what I mean by I couldn’t afford was the travel and the time away from my business. I don’t mean so much the expense of them, but it was just me. For me to take a 10-day trip out of the country was a huge expense to my business, not necessarily in I can’t afford to go but in I can’t be afford to be gone, which I think is a distinction that is important. Is the cost worth remembering when you’re looking at those things?
Tara Newman: What I like that you said and that I think where we want to touch on, I want to touch on right out of the gate is like what is a mastermind. In the most traditional sense, masterminds have been around for a very long time, but a lot of people refer back to the book Think and Grow Rich where Napoleon Hill talks about being in a mastermind which he says very specifically, a mastermind. You’re coming together as a group and leveraging all the zones of genius and strengths of the people in the group.
I’d like to call it like an ad hoc team. These people become a part of your team in a way like your C-Suite executives so to speak or your board of directors because they are all these high-level strategic thinkers that have varying and different skill sets and diverse backgrounds. I saw on Facebook once that they said masterminds are new and they’re just like this thing that online business owners do to make cash. It’s actually not true. Masterminds have been around for a very long time. Masterminds are incredibly effective way to learn and educate and grow your business. I see them not only in small businesses offline. I see them in companies and corporations.
I used to run these when I was in corporate. I’d bring groups of people together from cross-functional teams to get that diversity of background together to share their experiences and support each other in their growth and development. I think I just want to make some distinctions though. In the most traditional sense, a mastermind will meet once a month and oftentimes a half a day. That’s a lot of what I’m seeing in the offline space is that people come together for half a day and they go through goals and actions and receive feedback and brainstorming and all those things.
Our mastermind, the Bold Leadership Mastermind, is a little different in the respect that we don’t do one day once a quarter. We do two two-hour sessions a month. Now, most traditional masterminds don’t also have one-on-one coaching involved in it. It’s strictly a group thing. It’s not group coaching. Group coaching would be me sitting there and coaching each person individually in a group which is effective. It’s incredibly effective. When I’m pulling people together for a mastermind, I’m not the only one that has value in this situation.
My value actually here is in the facilitation and the coordination of the group and the guidance and leadership of the group, so that you can leverage effectively, efficiently and fairly each other’s bodies of knowledge.
Stacey Harris: I’m going to interrupt for a second because I really want to highlight this from a consumer perspective. It’s one of the things I really appreciate about you is oftentimes on those calls like I can almost see you biting your tongue when some of us are talking, usually me. It’s like you just don’t just jump in and say, “Well, do this,” which is still not coaching. You’ll often say … The excitement is almost like I can’t wait to tell you who is going to answer those questions for you. You know who in the room you’re going to call on first to respond to whatever it is we’ve said.
That’s my favorite part. It’s like, “I know exactly who’s going to answer this question or give me feedback.”
Tara Newman: I know everybody’s strengths. I know everybody’s blind spots. I know everybody’s zone of genius and where their history and their stories and their background come in. Really, I’m there to facilitate this peer advisory. That’s really what a mastermind is. It’s peer advisory. I try and go last. I always like to give some feedback to you. I try and go last unless I feel like I’m the most experienced person with the topic that’s being asked or I feel like a stronger conversation or tone needs to be had or something like that is when maybe I’ll jump in and have some input.
Stacey Harris: We had a really feisty call yesterday. I was just thinking there was definitely some directing of the conversation like leading us to water.
Tara Newman: It’s a good call. Really, that’s what a traditional mastermind is, peer advisory, oftentimes it’s one time a month, but what you’re what you’re starting to see … It’s a small group. A mastermind is a small group. In my mind and this is just my opinion, but a mastermind is six to 10 people. Everybody needs time to have a generous hot seat. They need time to be able to focus and really go deep and become intimate with each other’s businesses and each other achievement beings and each other’s personalities.
Traditionally, masterminds are six to eight to 10 people, not 100 people. There’s a lot of this in the online space, the 50-person mastermind, the 100-person mastermind. You’re paying a lot of money for a seat in the mastermind and you may or may not be getting a certain level of attention. That’s not how we do things here. The mastermind is definitely a more intimate experience, creating that safety and depth and intimacy needed to truly make a contribution to somebody else’s life in business. We add a few things in because over the years I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work and what gets results. Anything that we add in is designed to get a better result.
The reason why we split it out two calls a month is because I want people to have more accountability, meaning showing up to the call, sitting in the seat, asking the question that they may ask or having the space to process what they need to process, getting questions asked to them, what have you. Then what we do is we put one one-on-one call with me in that container as well. Typically, on a month-to-month basis, you will have two calls with the group and one call with me. That gives you three weeks of accountability and one week where you can go often really get into implementation and step back and not be involved in your own coaching and development.
Stacey Harris: I will say though what’s nice is we do have access to you and the group should during that week we run into something. Oftentimes, I find it’s like, “Hey, this came up on the call. I’m executing now with A, B and C. What does D look like?” or like, “Can I get your feedback on B?” I think that’s a really nice access point, like phone-a-friend lifeline.
Tara Newman: We have the group Voxer that we’re using and it’s interesting. That was new this year. We haven’t done group Voxer in years past and we actually only have started group Voxer as an outcropping of going on the retreat. We add things as we see. They make sense and they’re getting results. The group Voxer has become a huge source of support because we’re here to remove obstacles for each other. That’s it. We’re here to take the load off. I’m here to get you out of your head and into action and to remove whatever obstacles we can.
Sometimes, those obstacles happen when we least expect it, when it’s the most inconvenient, when you don’t always have direct access. That’s why we have that additional Voxer support.
Stacey Harris: Before we go any further forward, I want to go back a little bit because you have been running this mastermind for several years. Before that, you were in corporate. Can you walk us through how you leading the mastermind got to how you’re leading going in to 2020?
Tara Newman: Sure. If you’ve been following this podcast long enough, you know I beta test everything. Everything is always in beta.
Stacey Harris: She’s laughing because I made a face. Don’t I know it?
Tara Newman: “Are we ever out of a beta, Tara?” No.
Stacey Harris: No.
Tara Newman: We’re always testing. We’re always researching. We’re always experimenting. We’re always evolving with what works and what’s getting results because I am 100% committed to delivering something that will get a result. We started the mastermind in 2016. It was because I had clients asking me, “Do you have a mastermind?” I said, “Sure. Sure, we have a mastermind.” Basically, I just took all my private clients and I gave them one group call a month. At that point, they were coaching with me twice a month and they’re having one group call a month.
I didn’t charge anything extra. We were very much testing how this would work. Until this point, everybody wanted to work with me one on one. I would try to sell group programs. People would get on calls with me. They’re like, “We don’t want to do a group program. We want to do one on one.” I started to have this story that nobody wanted group. They only wanted to work with me one on one. Then I finally had some people started to ask, people who are already working with me, “Can we do a group thing?” I was like, “Sure. Let’s do this group thing.” It was really exciting. There’s a lot of potential and a lot of expansion for people when you come together in a group.
Whether you are having a hot seat and a mastermind or you’re having a hot seat in a group coaching program, you learn from what other people are saying on their hot seats. It’s fantastic.
Stacey Harris: I often learn more what other people are.
Tara Newman: Correct.
Stacey Harris: I’m not working through my own awkwardness.
Tara Newman: Right. I agree with this 100%. I’ve been in masterminds. I love them. One of the reasons why I love this is for this very reason. The meeting was 2017, we started the mastermind. Either way, I think it was 2017. Then in 2018, we evolved it. Everybody was loving the group calls. What I did was I did two one-on-one calls and two group calls, wanting to get everybody comfortable with the two group calls, so that in 2019, this year, we removed one one-on-one call with me. They weren’t as necessary anymore, but we added other things in that became relevant and necessary.
The group calls were getting such amazing results. One-on-one coaching always helps. Throwing a little bit of that in always helps. What I started to notice is that we really needed to be addressing the fact that women business owners and men, but I don’t have men in the mastermind, women business owners need to be having more conversations around financial literacy and money mindset. We added quarterly money dates with each other. We come together as a group. It’s a shorter call, but we just talk about money.
Sometimes, it’s super awkward and I always tell people, I’m like, “If we just sit it here and say the word, money, money, money, money over and over and over again, it’s fine. This is the safe space to talk about money.” These calls have blown me away.
Stacey Harris: I always think these calls are really fun because everybody gets on the call and nobody wants to raise her hand and go first. By the time we hit that 15-minute mark, man, we are in it. We are like, “Da, da, da, da,” like we all have things to say.
Tara Newman: We have talked about generational stories with money. We have talked about the lack of presence and role model for women around financial literacy in a specific generation like I’m Gen X. You’re probably a millennial
Stacey Harris: I’m technically a millennial, yes.
Tara Newman: You’re an older millennial?
Stacey Harris: Yes, I’m both old and a millennial.
Tara Newman: For both of our generations, I think we’ve had like a real lack of presence and role model around this. How can you guys will show up and be there for each other? Then what has started to transpire was what it really takes to create a sustainable business. We’ve seen people go out and get life insurance plans. We’ve seen people look into disability plans. We’ve seen people open lines of credit and move through their beliefs and feelings around borrowing and debt and what that all means to growing a business and funding growth. We’ve had people go after some really big contracts, multiple five-figure contracts where-
Stacey Harris: Navigating what it’s like to receive that payment when that contract come through, its own process, like, “Oh, wait. There’s more in my account, but I’ve never seen it one time.”
Tara Newman: Navigating these big money hurdles. It’s a process to navigate. Nobody tells you that, but it is. It’s a process to navigate what happens to you emotionally and mentally when you start receiving larger and larger sums of money and the stories that come back to you and the beliefs that you might have and how you view yourself as a person.
Stacey Harris: The mindset stuff, you thought you handled thousands of dollars ago. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything.
Tara Newman: Right. These money calls have been really lifegiving, epic, transformative. That’s how we evolved. This year, we added retreats.
Stacey Harris: I was going to say, “You’re forgetting my favorite part.”
Tara Newman: This year, we added the money calls, retreats. I pulled out one one-on-one session with me, but I added-
Stacey Harris: A truckload of things.
Tara Newman: The money calls, the retreat and guest consultants. Paid consultants that come in and support the mastermind in my absence while I was on sabbatical but really most importantly because that was the kind of support that all of the women in the group needed in that moment. It wasn’t done to be fluffy or to be filler. It was done because it was truly needed.
Stacey Harris: I want to talk about that a little bit because I think, a) the way you approach bringing the guest experts is really cool and I think it’s something that is worthwhile to talk about because I think as we talk so much about sabbaticals and taking time and that rest, filling that in the quality way I think is a really important conversation to have. Also, as a participant, I love you and I missed you, but I was good while you’re gone. We had some great calls.
Tara Newman: Good.
Stacey Harris: I mean this with all the love in the world, but we had some really awesome goals while you were gone on sabbatical. I think that’s really cool. How do you choose who comes in as a, and I want to highlight this, paid contributor, speaker, consultant, however you want to language that? How do you choose who those people are?
Tara Newman: Here’s how I see it because this is me bringing something really unique about myself and my strengths and my past experiences to this mastermind. A lot of times, women leaders, whether they be in corporate or whether they be running their own business don’t really know what they need to do next to get to that next level. They don’t know what’s next for them in terms of their growth, what competencies they need to develop, what things they need to learn, what the right next step is going to be to get them where they want to go.
Bridging that gap is often very challenging of where you are now and where you want to be. That is what my background is in. It’s in developing, learning opportunities and experiences for leaders in business. I can see that’s happening in everybody’s businesses. I understand where you are. I understand what level you’re at. I understand what some of your next steps are going to be and maybe where you’re missing information or just some conversation and dialogue.
This year, we had my CFO come in, Josh Kreitzman because we are really committed. Josh and I are both really committed to seeing small business owners thrive financially and prosper. The whole gamut, not just about yourselves and how you’re making sales, but we’re talking your profit potential and how you’re going to maximize your dollars and spend them and plan for growth. Josh came in. He will absolutely be with us in 2020. As a matter of fact, we have an early bird bonus that includes Josh.
Stacey Harris: As someone who has had a call with Josh, trust me you want it. We got off the call and I was both happy and like, “Wait, wait, how much money have I been not billing out because we’re not accurately pricing out agency services? Oh, yeah. By the way, it’s five figures a year.”
Tara Newman: In that call, you found five figures?
Stacey Harris: I found five figures and I think we were on the phone for about 45 minutes. I was like, “Whoa, okidoki,” which was great and also like, “Wait a minute.” You want that bonus just a little-
Tara Newman: All right and now we’re holding you accountable to executing on it.
Stacey Harris: It’s true uncomfortably, but it’s true.
Tara Newman: Right and we’re doing the work.
Stacey Harris: That’s right. No, but him coming in was absolutely … I think all of us on the call where he came in, we talked a ton about taxes. I think I love about Josh is he’s not trying to make you feel dumb.
Tara Newman: No, not at all.
Stacey Harris: He’s very approachable. He’s hilarious. He’s very charming. He’s like, “No, let’s figure this out. Pull out the calculator. What does this look like? This is what we need to do. Cool. We have a solution.” He’s all about getting you where you need to be wherever it is that you are right now and that you want to go.
Tara Newman: “This is where you’re at.”
Stacey Harris: He’s not trying to be like, “Well, this is where you’re supposed to go.” I love that.
Tara Newman: Josh is amazing. He’s a trained actor. He’s a funny man. He plays guitar. Could you come up a cooler account-
Stacey Harris: We all little bit had a crush on him after the call. We’re all a little bit in love with Josh. Well, to be fair, I told him that already. I was like, “We’re all in love with you now. Good luck.”
Tara Newman: We also had Cher Hale come on and talk publicity. Because she was paid, she didn’t come in and just give information.
Stacey Harris: No. She had specific example. She had gone to each of our website.
Tara Newman: She audited.
Stacey Harris: Something like, “These are the places we should go.”
Tara Newman: Yes, she audited everybody’s business. She did her research. She came prepared with very specific information. This was not a generic put together talk or workshop.
Stacey Harris: Followed up with like contact information for people who she thought we should connect with. I’m like, “Okay now, good luck.”
Tara Newman: I’m really, really proud of the way she showed up. You guys had a really powerful month in August.
Stacey Harris: We did. We still love you, but it was great.
Tara Newman: I know. Listen, I think one thing that sets me apart from a lot of business coaches is that when you go through actual coach training which not all business coaches have gone through, they kill your ego because coaching is not about you, the coach. Coaching is not about your agenda. Coaching is not about you being the answer or you’re a conduit, a catalyst, a guide, Obi-Wan, not Luke, not the hero. The client is the hero. We all have an ego, but when I come to my clients, I do it in a way that keeps my ego in check. I’m very aware that I am not the only salvation and I also know that one of my greatest strengths is building team.
Stacey Harris: I’m going to say, not to speed your ego, but I think finding the right people though is your gift.
Tara Newman: Knowing who you need on your team when you need them and then filling in those gaps and helping you communicate with that person and helping you get the information that you need from that person and helping everybody come together and work together. I refer to our mastermind as Team Bold Leadership and then you get your year after it that you participated. This year, we are Team Bold Leadership 2019. Next year, we’re going to be Team Bold Leadership 2020, but we really do together as that board of advisers, as that ad hoc team and then we pull in the consultants that need to fill in for sure.
Stacey Harris: I love that. Now, we’re going to talk about my favorite part and you know what this is. It’s retreats. I love Tulum so deeply. I want to start with, because this is where I get to selfish ask you the questions that I just wanted to know the answers to. What made you add a retreat this year?
Tara Newman: I’ve gone on retreats and they have been the most powerful experiences in my business and in my life. Getting yourself outside of your comfort zone, getting yourself outside of your natural surroundings and habitat. I feel like my retreats are specifically designed to accelerate performance because of the formula that we follow for creating them.
Stacey Harris: Will you tell them a little bit about that for me, like the way you structure the days?
Tara Newman: Sure. I will say that I went on a retreat to Tulum which is why I chose to go back to Tulum because it’s magic.
Stacey Harris: It really is. Can we go back right now? We are. We are. We’re getting the contract today. So happy.
Tara Newman: Yeah, super pumped. I was walking on that beach with my mentor and we were having a conversation. She wasn’t even coaching me. We were walking on the beach, our feet in the water, standing there. The water is amazing. We had a conversation. It was a multiple six-figure conversation, period. I’m convinced that it was because I was on retreat, because I’d given myself that opportunity to step away from my business, to gain a different perspective, to hear things that I wouldn’t normally hear, to pull my head up out of the work.
Our retreats are designed purposely to promote growth and transformation and the first thing that we do is we rest in our flat. We have been in stress. Whether you think you have a stressful life or not, your nervous system is taxed and stressed, your day to day. Even my day to day, I can feel it. Like, the dog needed to get to the vet because he has something going on with his paw. They were going to sedate him and give him an x-ray. That distracted me for my day. I’m using a lot of my effort and attention to stay focused on task.
Now, I need to go pick up the dog. Then the kids are going to get home from school. I’m recording a podcast. I feel my body is just where I’m in it.
Stacey Harris: Life. You’re just like-
Tara Newman: It’s just life. Business is life. I’m not doing anything wrong. I take great care of myself, but when you go away and you step out of your day to day, it is completely different. All we ask you to do is book your plane ticket and we got you. From the minute you step off the plane to the minute you get back on the plane, you’re ours and we take you through rest and reflection. We literally change your physiology by taking you to the spa not because it’s luxurious but because it has a physiological benefit to you as a human being, to go and calm your central nervous system. Then on day two, we do the thing that most super achievers have a hard time doing, we play.
Stacey Harris: We had so much fun.
Tara Newman: We play. We spend the day doing something adventurous and we play. We feel expansive. We’ve done something that’s been outside our comfort zone. Then we go back and we look at our vision. We start to get into some of these basic fundamentals of our businesses that most people overlook in the day-to-day race. We get back into our vision. I challenge people to think bigger.
Stacey Harris: It’s true.
Tara Newman: … because that is everybody’s issue.
Stacey Harris: Confirmed.
Tara Newman: Confirmed. Then on day three, once we’ve rested and we’ve had some adventure, we get into some strategy stuff. You get one-on-one coaching time with me. You get time with each other. I challenge you to make one life-altering decision. Do you remember what yours was?
Stacey Harris: Yeah and I’m not going to say it because I haven’t done it. You’ll yell at me.
Tara Newman: I thought that was the one you did.
Stacey Harris: Wait, what? Yeah. I did. I made two. I committed to doing a spa day at the end of each quarter which we’re about to end Q3 and I have not done for Q2 or Q3. The one that I did do was really prioritizing my physical wellness. I think the spa day thing came up before the wellness. I think the spa day thing led to the wellness. It was less about going to the spa and more about like physically taking care of myself which is why I started CrossFit and I totally did. I am going to hang up this call when we’re done and go to CrossFit today. It’s been great.
Tara Newman: Right.
Stacey Harris: It could also feel like play in a weird way.
Tara Newman: Exactly. We had people step into making one life-altering decision. We set some strategy. It changed the trajectory of people’s years, the year. I think everybody’s at that point.
Stacey Harris: By the way, you’re doing this surrounded by incredible people and amazing space. You’re not in a stuffy hotel conference room. We were outside. We were by the water. It was in an environment that serves us being creative and thinking outside of the box of our office and really the box of our computer which is what most of us are spending the most time in.
Tara Newman: It was probably one of the most significant and powerful experiences for me as the retreat leader.
Stacey Harris: And me as the retreat attendee.
Tara Newman: One of the changes we’re making because nothing ever stays the same with the mastermind, that’s of my values, promises to the people who I work with and who want to work with me is that I will always evolve the programming to reflect where people are. Every year, the program evolves. That’s why we added a retreat and why we added the money calls and things like that. We evolve the program. This year, for 2020, we’re evolving the program. There’s going to be three retreats this year. We’re adding two more retreats. One will be international and two will be domestic. They are included in the price of the mastermind.
We’re really looking forward to coming together, flesh and blood to have those experiences this year.
Before we wrap up retreats, I want to just take a second and talk about why that flesh and blood component is so important. I think that we spend so much time like I said in the box that is our computer in front of us or our phones or whatever. I think that the impact that these women were able to have on my business this month is because of the time we spent sharing oxygen in March or April, I don’t know. The whole year is really blended together into one big thing. It was because of the time we spent literally sharing oxygen, literally like being together and not necessarily just talking about our businesses but just being together.
Stacey Harris: One of my favorite things that we did that I really didn’t expect to like as much as I did was at the table for dinner each night we had one conversation. The entire group had one … You’re smiling because you know I’m obsessed with this. The first night, we’re sitting at the table and you tell us to introduce ourselves and I’m like, “Okay, we’ve spent literally all day together. I know all of these people. Why are we introducing ourselves?” I a little bit rolled my eyes and my head and then we had the best conversation.
I learned something about every single woman at that table. I got to talk to people all the way at the other end of the table, not just the people sitting on either side of me. That was so incredible. That has allowed us to have an entirely different relationship come September, October, November of this year as we support each other. I think that’s so important. I just had to get on my soapbox for that.
Tara Newman: Thank you.
Stacey Harris: I love it. Before we wrap this up, which we’re just going to do in just a second, aside from the additional retreats in 2020, is there anything else you’re excited about evolving with this group?
Tara Newman: I’m just feeling really blessed and grateful that I have the opportunity to do this again and that we have women who want to commit to growing their own businesses alongside of other women who are looking to grow their businesses and to come together as a team and really be in service and support to one another. In a way, that feels good. I don’t think anybody in our group feels like their zone of genius is being trespassed against or that they’re over … That happens in some of these groups that they feel that they’re leading the group. They’re-
Stacey Harris: The smartest person in the room.
Tara Newman: … the smartest one in the room. Trust me, I will not allow you to control my group.
Stacey Harris: Yeah. True. I don’t think I’ve tried, but that’s true.
Tara Newman: I lead the group. Nobody else leads the group unless I’m not there and they’ve been specifically designated to lead the group. I promise you that you will not be the smartest person in the room. You will be an energetic match for everyone in the room because the group is carefully curated and purposeful. The one thing that sometimes doesn’t excite me about this time of the year is that sometimes to help people know that they’re not the right fit. That’s hard for me.
Stacey Harris: I think that’s such a gift too. Like I wish somebody would … I go back to what I was talking about at the beginning of the call, I wish somebody would have said to me, “No, it’s not time yet. Here’s how we can help instead.”
Tara Newman: I’m so grateful for the work that we’ve done in this business to grow and build out other means of being supported as a leader and as a business owner, so that we have something for everyone at every level. There’s no leader left behind.
Stacey Harris: Absolutely.
Tara Newman: There’s a place for everyone. It’s just a matter and of what’s the best place for you. The only way that you know what the best place for you is is to get on a call with me and have that conversation. I will not let you get in over your head. I will not let you join a group that is not right for you. if I don’t think that we’re a great fit to work together and that my programs aren’t the right programs for you, I know lots of amazing people who do have programs that could be a good fit for you depending on what you want to do.
Simultaneously, I don’t like telling people that they are not good fit for the mastermind if they really have their heart set on it, but I really do love helping women find that next best investment for themselves. We talk so much in corporate leadership around developing female leaders and putting female leaders on a path. Whether or not the company comes through and actually puts their money where their mouth is and does it is a whole other story, but nobody is looking out for women small business owners. What are their best next steps? Where could they be putting their effort into developing themselves as a business owner and a leader.
Those are the conversations that I really love having this time of year. Whether it results in a sale or not, I think this is my greatest act of service.
Stacey Harris: I also think you have a really good gift for … I go back to talking about the guest experts in the program. You have a really gift for identifying problem and who the solution is. Again, going back to this idea of not having an ego, the solution doesn’t have to be you to be a good solution.
Tara Newman: I know I’m the solution, right, Stace?
Stacey Harris: I assure you. If she knows the solution, she will make it abundantly clear. I mean I was all but kidnapped to go to Tulum. No, I’m kidding. I’m going to take over now. I’m going to take leadership of your group.
Tara Newman: You do your thing.
Stacey Harris: I think that if you’re cautious about getting on sales calls or you’re somebody who’s uncomfortable with getting on a sales call, a really good idea, a good way to get a feel for what sales calls are with Tara is on the Discovery Call page, there’s a link to an episode where she walks you through exactly what she’s going to do in a sales call which by the way is not really a sales call, so much that it’s a conversation where she helps you identify your next step. If you’re nervous, DM me and I’ll tell you, you don’t have to be nervous, but listen to that podcast episode because I think it’s a really good way to figure out, a) how you want to show up on that call with Tara, but also get a feel for what that conversation is actually going to be like.
That’s such a great asset that I think most people don’t provide. Check that episode out and I’ll link to it in the show notes and the transcript for this episode, but it’s also on the Discovery Call page.
Tara Newman: Good job with that.
Stacey Harris: It’s like I’m a professional-
Tara Newman: Or something.
Stacey Harris: … or something. It’s like I do this for a living.
Tara Newman: Did we hit everything? Do we need to leave them with anything else?
Stacey Harris: I think the only thing we need to leave them with is, “Hey, guys. Go book your Discovery Call.” We’d do that.
Tara Newman: That’s how you’ll know that this is whether or not this is a fit for you because we’ve had Rachel come on and she basically gave like a masterclass in masterminds as well and like how she knew it was the one for her, why she picked this mastermind. Some of the things that she thought about.
Stacey Harris: Also, I would point you back to last year’s episode with Nicole Otchy talking about her process in deciding if this was a mastermind or was a fit and she came I think pretty blank slate why it’s like I did was like what a mastermind is and how this was going to work for her. That’s another really great episode to check out.
Tara Newman: Yeah, she really talked about the value of investing in yourself in that call in that episode.
Stacey Harris: I like that conversation because of the value of investing. I like the conversation with Rach because Rach is a list maker. She is checking the boxes and she talks about what she thinks of when she goes to make a mastermind investment or two, who’s she going to work with and I know for me she thought of several things that I didn’t think of. I was just like, “Because Tara told me to.”
Tara Newman: For you, what would your advice be?
Stacey Harris: I think the advice is have the conversation before your make the decision because, and I’m going to be real honest here so tell me if you want me to delete this part of this episode, I was a firm no. I was like, “No.” I was launching the agency and I was like, “No.” I think I said just like that when you asked. Then we had a conversation about what I really wanted this year. That helped me clarify what a service this was for me as a leader, but also what a service this was to my clients and to my team to really make the investment in my leadership of this organization that I’m growing. I’m not going to spend that kind of money on me in my development when really that was the best gift I can give my clients and my team was investing in my leadership.
Tara Newman: I think you were so in it at the time.
Stacey Harris: Yes, so deep.
Tara Newman: You were so in it like we all are. We’re all in our day to day. We’re all in what’s right in front of us right now. I could see a little further down the line and saw some of your rollercoaster that was coming for you.
Stacey Harris: That was even more evident like about six months into this year where I was like, “Hey, I think I need to make this decision.” She was like, “Welcome. I’m so glad you got here.” I’m like, “Wait, what?” She was like, “Yeah, this is what we’ve been working towards.” I was like, “You could have told me that six months.” She was, “No, you weren’t ready.”
Tara Newman: No, I won’t give you that advice. You got to come to it on your own.
Stacey Harris: Thanks for that.
Tara Newman: We can have conversations around it. I would probably eventually.
Stacey Harris: If I didn’t get there on my own, you would have held my head underwater and be like, “Would you just drink?”
Tara Newman: Listen, when somebody tells you what to do, what happens?
Stacey Harris: Me specifically or people in general? I’m somebody who goes, “No.” I’m going to do literally the exact opposite of that.
Tara Newman: Right.
Stacey Harris: You’re not the boss of me.
Tara Newman: Great. I’m not the boss of you. I’m here to-
Stacey Harris: I’m perpetually a 13-year-old teenager.
Tara Newman: That’s right. I know.
Stacey Harris: All those, I can handle. I throw tantrums. I’m a full 13-year-old girl. I think that blind spot thing is something that’s so common, epidemic like. Everybody’s got them. What is that cliche you can’t see the label from inside bottle or whatever, but it is that. You need that perspective. That’s what I love about just your discovery goals, what was working with you is this idea of like, “Here’s a nudge.” You ask the right questions so that I feel like I got there on my own even though I know you well enough to know that you were already there.
Tara Newman: I’ve never been so firm with somebody when I finally said to you, Stacey.
Stacey Harris: Yeah. You were like, “No, no. You’re doing it.”
Tara Newman: “You have to do this. We’ll work it out. We’ll figure it out. Let’s have a conversation around what the sticking points are or the things that are coming up or the things that are going to get addressed.”
Stacey Harris: I think of it where I am at this point in the year which is still in it. I think it’s funny because now I feel like I’m just as much as in it and can’t see it, but now, I’m more comfortable with not being able to see it because I know someone can. You know what I mean? Like I’m in the middle of an ocean, but I have a life preserver.
Tara Newman: What I think I hear you saying is that when you’ve become more comfortable with uncertainty-
Stacey Harris: Yes.
Tara Newman: … and you trust-
Stacey Harris: Yes.
Tara Newman: … that you have people around you who will help you when you raise your hand and ask for help or will say to you, “How can we support you right now?”
Stacey Harris: Yeah, I’ve spent a lot of this year learning to raise my hand. I hopped in Voxer this morning as a result of the part of the conversation. I was like, “Okay guys.” I always preface it with, “This is me asking for help.” That’s a terrible aim and I have to start with. “I’m raising my hand. Help me.” I think having that lifeline has been really, really impactful for me because I feel, I’m using feeling words, I essentially started over this year.
I’ve been doing this, what, nine years, but not at a level and/or in a way that I’m doing it this year. I went into the conversations we were having about me joining with this. It’s like I’ve been doing this, I’ll head down and muscle through as I always have, it would have killed me.
Tara Newman: I think that one of the greatest gifts for you this year from the mastermind has been just that extra resiliency.
Stacey Harris: Yeah, exactly. That place to land. That place to be like, “Okay, no, no. What do we need to get through this?” It isn’t just muscling through it blindly but going, maybe just stepping back. We had some family stuff go on at the end of last week and I stepped out for two days. That’s something I wouldn’t have done a year ago. That’s something that I would have been like, “No, we’re going to put the blinders on and I have to muscle through this,” which was wildly detrimental to me and my growth and my team and my clients.
Tara Newman: Do you remember what your word is for the year?
Stacey Harris: No, do you?
Tara Newman: Yeah.
Stacey Harris: What is it?
Tara Newman: This is like an admittance of why people need to work with me. I remember, expansion.
Stacey Harris: Was it? That’s a terrible one. I shouldn’t choose that word anymore. Next year, we’re choosing like, I don’t know, ease, comfort.
Tara Newman: I’m like, you created it. You asked for it. You-
Stacey Harris: Next year, we’re going to put some qualifiers on this word of the year.
Tara Newman: Noted.
Stacey Harris: Ease. That’s our word for the year next year, ease.
Tara Newman: Noted. We could do that too.
Stacey Harris: Easy expansion. Ease-filled expansion. No, it’s been incredible and I’m so grateful to, a) just have you in my life as a friend and have our relationship but to have you on my team in this way and my team is endlessly grateful that you’re on my team because then I’m less crazy.
Tara Newman: Thank you. I appreciate you. All right. I hope that we gave the listeners a fun conversation.
Stacey Harris: I’ll say entertainment if nothing else.
Tara Newman: Good takeaways around what a mastermind is, why we have this mastermind, how we run the mastermind, the different features and components of the mastermind. I’m hoping they heard some of the value that you’ve shared around the value they’ll take away and the results that they’ll get from being in the mastermind. I want to see my inbox flooded where people applying to talk to me. Nothing else, they just want to know what might be the next best step for them, whether it’s a mastermind or no. It’s a great time of the year to get on my calendar.
Stacey Harris: It’s one of the few times a year to get in your calendar. It is.
Tara Newman: Take a bit.
Stacey Harris: That’s worth nothing. Just so you guys know. Lane only lets her do this like three months a year. We all know whose actually in charge of your calendar.
Tara Newman: All right, rolling out of here.
Stacey Harris: All right. Thanks guys. Peace out.
Tara Newman: Bye.
We are so excited to announce that their doors are now open for our 2020 Bold Leadership Mastermind. Now, if you’re thinking it’s a little too early to start thinking about next year’s investments, let me tell you that spots are already filled, and here’s why. One, because running a serious business means getting serious about where you’re committing your dollars way ahead of time. It’s about prior proper planning. And two, it’s because there’s a new leadership paradigm emerging and it’s changing the trajectory of business.
As a matter of fact, it’s because business is changing and becoming more disruptive that leaders are being called upon to be more bold and brave than ever before. And we know something about bold leadership over here at the Bold Leadership Revolution HQ. Now, this means business owners today need to build resilience to thrive through uncertainty, empathy so they can connect deeply with others and courage to lean into their edge every single day. We’re able to train resiliency, empathy, and courage by creating the critical habits that keep you focused and accountable on your most important work. When these skills and habits are paired with a solid business strategy and operational skill, your business benefits by generating stable and consistent profitability.
Now, the funnel or marketing tactic might have gotten you to where you are, but it will not get you to where you need to go next. What my clients find from working with us is the answers don’t lie outside of them. The strategy is you. When you stop looking for the quick fix, the sexy or alluring strategy and focus on strengthening you, the leader, you set your business up for reoccurring growth year after year. You stop giving your power away to situations, circumstances, and the next guru. You have the power.
Here’s what you need to know before booking a call with me. This opportunity is for you if you’re looking to optimize three core pieces of your business, you the leader, the business operations, meaning you want to have the most effective and efficient business, and your team. Whether it’s one person or you’re about to start hiring a team, you want to make sure that when you hire a team, they are optimized for efficiency and they’re going to be hitting the ground running with you.
Now, you want to do those three things and you want to be supported by an incredibly committed group of female business owners. If that sounds like you, my calendar is now open for the two of us to sit down and talk about your business and your leadership for 2020. You’re going to want to go over to my website, TaraNewmanCoaching.com/discovery-call now to book a time to meet with me. We’ll also drop the link in the show notes of this episode.
If you found this podcast valuable, help us develop more bold leaders in the world by sharing this episode with your friends, colleagues and other bold leaders. Also, if you haven’t done so already, please leave a review.
I consider reviews like podcast currency and it’s the one thing you can do to help us out here at the Bold Leadership Revolution HQ. We would be so grateful for it.
Special thanks go to Stacey Harris from Uncommonly More, who is the producer and editor of this podcast. Go check them out for all your digital marketing and content creation needs.
Be sure to tune into the next episode to help you embrace your ambition and leave the grind behind.
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