The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 126: Jayson Gaignard – Mastermind Talks: An Event With A Lower Acceptance Rate Than Harvard

Starting point is 00:00:00 There's always a strong desire for more, that's for sure, and that can be to a fault sometimes because sometimes you feel like you've never made it. You know, you set goals and you constantly kind of move that goal post every time you get closer. But, I mean, the type of people we try to cultivate a mastermind talks are people who know that good is the enemy of great in all areas of their life. So they're not only looking to grow their businesses, they're looking to go deeper with their relationships. They're looking to improve their health.

Starting point is 00:00:30 looking to become better parents, better spouses. You know, we always say that an entrepreneur, somebody goes from working in their business to on their business, but there's a second tier of an entrepreneur that goes from working on their business to working on themselves. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success.

Starting point is 00:00:56 You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey everyone, it's Ryan. I wanted to make a quick announcement. A number of you had sent me emails in regards to asking for a place to further this dialogue with like-minded people, other listeners, fans, and friends of the Learning Leader show. So I set up a group on Facebook. It's Facebook.com slash groups slash learning leader. It's a closed group. But if you'd like an invite, simply shoot me a quick note and I'd be happy to bring you into the group.

Starting point is 00:01:34 This is a place where we can freely communicate and discuss leadership, learning, creative ideas, podcasting, and new and innovative ways of thinking a place where we could potentially argue a little bit, have an open mind and have constructive dialogue. I've loved the early response from the people who are already in the group, but simply send me a note. I'll add you to it. I look forward to talking with more of you very soon. Hey, and welcome to The Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk, and thank you so much for being here. really appreciate it. Also extremely excited about tonight's featured leaders with Jason Gainard, our first two-time guest on the podcast. He was actually on episode 0-01. My very first conversation I had,

Starting point is 00:02:23 it was incredible to hear the difference between then and now over a year ago. For those you don't know, Jason, he is the creator of an invitation-only conference called Mastermind Talks. Their acceptance rate is lower than that of getting into Harvard. Incredible. We talked about that during this conversation. A few of the other things we got into. The keys to throwing a world-class event. Why the importance of the people in the room are everything. If you're the smartest person in the room,

Starting point is 00:02:49 you're in the wrong room. Jason uses that phrase quite often. Then the element of surprise and how Jason has actually mastered this. And we discussed the specific stories around the element of surprise. And keys to making this great from the attendees side of the coin when it comes to actually going to an event and how you can go all out, some tactical, practical things you could use to implement for the next event you go to. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, so excited for Jason Gaynard. Jason, man, I'm so excited to have you here for round two.

Starting point is 00:03:34 It's the very first time on the Learning Leader show that I've had a guest back for the second time. And I was thinking about this and I thought there's no one better for it to be than you since you were a guest for episode 0-0-0-0. one, you are kind enough to humor me and join me and do a phenomenal job. So first, I want to thank you for being here and being the first two-time guest. Dude, I'm honored, and it's been great to see you, you know, really so many of some incredible episodes over the last couple months, and I'm definitely glad to be back. Thanks, man. I got a question around, so just to set it up a little bit. I just, you know, got back recently from the, quite frankly, the greatest event. ever been to in my life. And this was Mastermind Talks in Ohio, California, and at the end of

Starting point is 00:04:23 April here, 2016. And of course, I think most people know who are listening that Jason is the leader, creator of that event. And one of the interesting facts about the event, we're getting into a lot of it because I think that's going to be the bulk of our conversation. One of the interesting facts is the point that your acceptance rate for the event is so low, meaning it's harder to get accepted to go to Mastermind Talks than it is to go to Harvard. And there's not many people, especially in the event space, who can say that because most people in the event space just sell as many tickets as possible to bank as much cash as they can. And your approach is literally the complete opposite.

Starting point is 00:05:03 I love to hear your strategy when it comes to having such a low acceptance rate. Yeah. So, I mean, just for context, we've had just shy of 14,000 entrepreneurs apply for Mastermind Talks since our inception in 2013, and our event is capped at 150 people a year. So generally speaking, our acceptance rate is less than 0.4%. And it's one of those things. I'm a firm believer that the quality of an audience will determine the quality of an event. And it sounds nice and sexy as far as where we are now to have that strategy.

Starting point is 00:05:35 But back when I first started the event, I didn't know if that level of curation would pay off. But, I mean, if you look at the success of what we've achieved, I guess, in the last, three, four years as an event and as a community is definitely one of our secret sauces. And it's something we're pretty public about, but very few people who are in the event space will have that level of curation and will have that, I guess, the courage to curate to that level. But it's one of those things. I mean, in my last business, I had, you know, customers that just came in through my e-commerce store and I didn't necessarily like them all.

Starting point is 00:06:08 And some of them I had complainers and all that kind of stuff. And when I decided, whatever business I started next, I want to curate who, I got to spend time with and who I got to support. And that was kind of one of the core reasons why we just became vigilant as far as handpicking our audience for Mastermind Talks. And you speak with roughly every single person who comes to the event. Is that correct? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:31 I mean, I know everybody rather intimately or, I mean, the only way to get into the event now is either I know somebody directly and I'll send them a direct invitation. There's also a portion of people who will have back and with that said, we don't have everybody back. Historically, we only allow about a third of our attendees to come back every year. And then the other group of people who come to the event or who get invited come through nominations. So I'm a firm believer that amazing people know other amazing people. So, you know, those 14,000 applications, a lot of those people are just kind of random people that stumble across the website

Starting point is 00:07:04 or heard about the event and all that kind of stuff. And it's a big kind of sexy number to throw around. But truth of matter is, it's like finding a needle in haystack. I mean, sometimes some people put up a WordPress website and consider themselves an entrepreneur. So, yeah, we're usually the event is either filled through renewals, direct invitations, or people getting nominated into the community. The process for, I want to dig in now to the actual my experiences and kind of maybe some, discuss some ideas back and forth about how you came up with each and every detail to the event.

Starting point is 00:07:40 And if there's one thing I would say about it, there's a lot of things I could say. But the attention to detail at Mastermind Talks in Ohio this year is literally like nothing I've ever seen. From the moment I got on the property and the letter from you and Candice and from the beautiful space to the food. And most importantly, as I've said before, to the people in the group, the people. You know, whether I'm going on a hike up in the mountains outside of Ohio or I'm just having dinner, every single person I came in contact with, I'm not kidding, every single one of them, including some of these kids who are 15, 16 years old, which was a great touch we can get on at some point, was incredible, had accomplished some humongous things in their lives.

Starting point is 00:08:25 And so it really didn't matter where you looked at each and every person you could tell was highly curated, and that's why there's so much trust built in you. I want to take it a little bit back, though, to the beginning of this, because I have to believe at the beginning of when you're getting this created. Like you weren't in the best position financially. It would have been so much easier, I'm guessing, to literally accept anybody who would be willing to pay you money. And the fact that you don't do that is such a differentiator in this space that how are you able to resist the temptation to do that? Yeah, I mean, it's something we kind of set out to do out of the gate. And the truth be told, I mean, it was, it was difficult. It was very

Starting point is 00:09:06 difficult. I mean, one of the core reasons why it was so difficult is historically, as just an entrepreneur and as my operating system, I'm terrible at having difficult conversations. Therefore, when it came time to turning people away, it was a very hard muscle for me to exercise. So the first event we did, the process, how it looked like back then was, I think we had 4,200 entrepreneurs apply for our first event. When they applied, I literally went through every single application one by one, which was not scalable, which is why we've changed our model since. But I went through all the applications. Those who I thought were the right fit, I'd send them an invitation.

Starting point is 00:09:40 And when they secured their spot, I'd hold a phone call with them. And on that phone call, I tried my best to really get a good understanding if they were a good fit for the event. And there was several questions I would ask, for example, what was the most enticing aspect of the event that made you want to sign up? And if they said, you know, to meet Tim Ferriss or to meet Ryan Holiday or whatever the case may be, that oftentimes for me was a red flag. Because it was a mastermind talks is a non-soliciting environment just because of the cow. We have of people in attendance. So, you know, if their intention was to, like, really, like, network or pitch or where the case may be, it was just an indication they weren't the right fit, and I'd refund their

Starting point is 00:10:14 money. And the first event we did, we refunded $48,000 and paid tickets. And as I don't expect all your listeners to remember this, but in my first interview we did, we kind of talked about, I transitioned out of an e-commerce business and then landed basically a quarter million dollars in debt. It had no business, didn't know what was going to do next, no cash flow, it was in the worst position in my life. And then the idea for mastermind talks kind of stemmed out of indirect conversation, I guess, was Seth Godin. And yeah, so when I started mastermind talks,

Starting point is 00:10:45 that $43,000, I refunded, basically hit my bank account and I said, no, I don't want your money and I refunded it. So it was tough to do. And my mentors thought it was crazy at the time. But I just, I came off a business again where I really didn't enjoy the people we were serving and stuff like that. And I just really want to kind of curate an extended family to some degree and be excited and energized at, you know, hosting people and all that kind of stuff. And it ended up paying off. But truth be told, I didn't know how important this would be until the first event happened.

Starting point is 00:11:20 And I realized just how crucial the curation of those in attendance was to the success of the event. I want to take it to the very first, bounced around a little bit, but it's just going to just pop up my eye. the first dinner in Ohio this year. So you even came up to me, you're like, dude, you got such a sick table. And I was like, oh, okay. So I want to, so first of all, I'll, like, kind of try to set the stage. So I'm, I go to, I see my name tag. And it's a little bit nerve rack.

Starting point is 00:11:47 It's my first time there. You know, I think everyone, maybe the first time has this feeling of like, do I really belong with, I mean, I'm just sitting right next to my left shoulders, James Altascher and Todd Herman, these incredible guys who've done these massive things. and then at my table I've got Derek Hoburn and Yonick and Philip McCurnin

Starting point is 00:12:08 a Navy SEAL sniper Adam Frank I mean these incredible people I was like just just blown away but as we sat down we realized we all had a lot in common we all I believe we're fathers we all had an interest in sports and a few other things

Starting point is 00:12:24 so I want to ask you about the attention to detail when it comes to literally choosing where each and every person sits for dinner. Yeah. So, I mean, there's, there's a lot of thought in that. And that's actually one of the, I guess, most, I guess one of the magics in the event is, is the assigned seating. And it's something that takes a lot of time. Historically, it probably takes about four or five hours per seating. And during an event, we'll usually have three to five seedings. So it's definitely a lot of work. And the reason why we do the dinners in advance, and that's something we didn't do in the first year,

Starting point is 00:12:59 it's because even in a small environment of 150 people, when you walk into that conference room on the morning of day one, if you don't know anybody or even if you only know a few people, it can definitely be an overwhelming experience. So our goal with doing the dinners the night prior is to get people to connect in like these smaller tribes so that by the time you walk into the room on day one, you're already in a better space

Starting point is 00:13:23 because you already feel like you know a handful of people who, you know, worst case scenario, you can connect with them again and all that kind of stuff. And first impressions are huge. So when I said, you know, I put you out a good table, I mean, that was a really good table. That was an interesting group of guys. As far as the, you know, the thought behind it, I mean, I know your background with, you know, in college pro football and all that kind of stuff. And there was a handful of people at that table who are football fans.

Starting point is 00:13:51 So I know that it's one of those things we, what I talk about in the book, Mastermind Dinner, is about curating group. and this comes down to kind of curating communities regardless, is the power of uncommon commonalities. So the stronger an uncommon commonality, the stronger the bond will be between people. So, you know, if you grab 10 people off the street, put them at a dinner table, they may get along, they may not. They're all cut from kind of different clots,

Starting point is 00:14:16 have different experiences, have different jobs, all that kind of stuff. If you put 10 entrepreneurs at a table, that's a stronger uncommon commonality, or that's an uncommon common commonality to begin with. So there's a good chance you're increasing, your chances that everybody will kind of get along, have something to talk about and all that kind of stuff. If you get a group of entrepreneurs together who have, you know, seven-figure businesses, that's an even stronger kind of uncommon common commonality. So the more, the deeper you can go

Starting point is 00:14:40 with those uncommon commonalities, the better chances that there's going to be a great conversation and, in essence, great connections at the table. And I knew you're just, you know, when you come, when you talk about like leadership and stuff like that, which is the premise of this podcast, you know, sitting you next to a former Navy SEAL sniper. of 11 years, I'm sure you would want to, you'd be excited and you'd want to pick his brain, right? Conversely, you know, somebody like Derek, who's a huge, huge, like, football fan, like, every Super Bowl has a late, you know, to hear that of your experience playing football and your brother and just how, you know, football's been a huge part of your family,

Starting point is 00:15:17 that would be interesting to him. Adam, you know, his family, as you know, is huge into the sporting goods kind of space. So same thing, you guys all share that uncommon, common of, you know, love of sports and have had sports being a huge part of your lives for quite some time. And you add to the fact that you guys are all fathers. So that adds a kind of another layer of complexity. We had James Altucher there who also has a podcast. So, basically, I try to put myself at every single table and say, okay, if I'm sitting here, what are the potential conversations that could happen? And I don't like orchestrate those conversations. I don't fabricate them, but I just create the space so that they can happen.

Starting point is 00:15:53 and I stack the cards in my favor to some degree by curating a group of people who I know have several potential great conversations, you know, ahead of them. You know, right at the beginning of it when we kind of introduced ourselves, everyone kind of saw each other's name tag, and Derek looked over him and he goes, oh, dude, you have that really good podcast on leadership, right? And I was like, wow. You know, I didn't expect, I didn't expect to hear that without me. Like, I thought I would have to tell him. And he told me and even mentioned some specific episodes. And immediately it was just an incredible way to get the entire event started. And we became like buddies.

Starting point is 00:16:30 Like from that moment on, we even sat notes to each other when we had open seating later. Just like you mentioned, we, you kind of, and where he's going to actually come on the podcast, talk about his book, talk about cadre, everything that he's built. And I think it's, it was just a really cool, because you're right. Like he, I mean, all the guys there were incredible, but we really, I could feel like, okay, this guy would have been one of my boys. when I was in college playing football, whatever. I mean, like, you could just tell. And so that's why there was, I immediately, I remember going back to my room that night and when I talked to my wife, be like, this is just insane.

Starting point is 00:17:01 Like, it's just the way that it's already started. I had super high expectations for it. And we already got it kicked off between just the open dialogue between everyone at that table, really got it started at a high note. And then the next day, there is a signed seating in the actual conference room for some of the the speeches and the speakers that are coming when we're in the room. And you had me seated right next to Philip McCurnan, who I think in the whole room, he given the fact of what he does when he's on stage, he's,

Starting point is 00:17:31 I hate using the term famous, but like, you know what I mean? He's within that group, he's like the guy or one of the handful of guys that you point to to say, wow, that's Philip McCurton because of what he's able to do. He moves people with his words. And I was seated right next to him. And we had these great conversations that led to an actual breakfast in the future. So I was wondering why actually do you have me seated next to Philip for that first day? So I know that you interviewed him in episode 43.

Starting point is 00:18:01 Yeah. And you heard about him, I believe, through my podcast initially. So it was one of those things that you guys already had a little bit of a baseline relationship. And, you know, on the first day, again, of a conference, when you walk in that room, it can be overwhelming. and you don't know who you're going to sit next to and stuff like that. And sometimes I will try to calm those nerves, if possible, by sitting you next to somebody who you already know or at least have that baseline relationship with that you can kind of build off of.

Starting point is 00:18:30 So given the fact that I knew you were a fan of his, you interviewed him on episode 43, it just felt like the right guy to sit next to you. You know, it's interesting because I think of it from my perspective, but I also now need to put myself in your shoes from your perspective. there are essentially 150 of me there, like 150 people. So you're sitting there and thinking about that, what you just said, that this personalized, oh, I know he was episode 43. He was on your podcast.

Starting point is 00:18:59 Maybe it'll ease your nerves. So you're doing that with literally every single person that comes to the event. Yeah. And I mean, it's one of those things. There's opportunity costs with every kind of seating. So, you know, because I sat, Phil next to you, I couldn't sit him next to somebody else and all that kind of stuff. But the nice thing is, is, again, it's one of those things because. I'm in a unique position to know everybody rather intimately and know where they are and where they

Starting point is 00:19:21 want to go, it gives me the information I need to make very kind of thoughtful seating arrangements. So, for example, if I have somebody who is struggling with culture in their business, I'll sit them next to somebody who's a rock star in culture. And, you know, I can't guarantee they'll talk about culture, but there's a good chance they will. And, you know, once that happens, then it's, you know, somebody's pain point now has a solution to some degree. So yeah, it's one of those things you saw the intake form leading into the event. It's, I studied all of those over and over and over again leading into it. And again, the only reason I can do one event a year is because I need this kind of space to, to put

Starting point is 00:19:58 this level of kind of attention to detail and care. So. Yeah, no, it's, and it's so appreciate if you can tell everyone in there just genuinely appreciates the time and effort you put into it. Another aspect of the meeting were the round tables. And I know these are really highly rated. You've mentioned when we were there. Basically what they are, their breakout sessions where, I guess, a subject matter expert will speak. It's sometimes literally around a table with groups of people who want to learn on that topic. So if you want to learn about some of the art of writing, you go meet with Ryan Holiday. If you want to talk about a guy who grew his email list from zero to 275,000 three years, you meet with James Clear.

Starting point is 00:20:38 If you want to Instagram like Dan Belsarian, we have, we have, we have, we have, we have, we have, we have, we have, somebody for that too and on and on and on. I think the the round tables for me as far as when it comes to content and learning, I mean, I couldn't get enough of them. They were so good, led by people who were literally the best in the world at those specific topics. My only complaint, I know you get this from others, is the fact that I missed, I missed so many of them. So when you think of how How did you decide to put together the roundtables and do it in the time format, just everything around your thought process with the breakouts and the round tables? Yes.

Starting point is 00:21:16 I mean, one of the big things that, you know, whereas we're in a very kind of beneficial position where most events need big name speakers in order to draw an audience. With Mastermind Talks, we're able to sell out the event, the event, you know, four, we sold out four months in advance this year, I think, three, four months without any speakers or any agenda listed of any sort. And what that does, it just gives us tremendous flexibility to get a good understanding of where our community is, where they want to go, and then design the entire event and experience based on those needs. So the reason we choose roundtables, and you don't know this, and not too many people do, but this year we made a big shift. We went from having speakers on the stage year over year to having hardly any speakers on the stage this year.

Starting point is 00:21:59 We only had three or four when it was all said and done throughout the three days. So we made a huge shift into a kind of peer-to-peer model. And truth be told, when I was on the stage and was announcing like this new format, I was petrified. I didn't know how people would react because, you know, a lot of them were coming into the expectation that this is a traditional event. But as I kind of made mention from the stage, I mean, it's one of those things that when we did our first event, we had 15 speakers in 2013. 10 of them came back as paid attendees the following year. I mean, Joey Coleman won the Best Talk is voted by the audience. in year one. He's been an attendee ever since. Dave Asprey has been an attendee and came back as a, sorry,

Starting point is 00:22:40 I was a speaker, came back as an attendee. Cameron Harold, same thing, hasn't missed a year. So a lot of people in our audience often keynotes on other stages. And truth be told, if you want to, you know, if you want to consume, like, it makes very little sense to invest four or five days out of your time when you factor in travel. To consume content you could consume otherwise, right? So to sit in a room and listen to talks that you could listen to, really, if they were an audio format on the way to the gym or on the way to the office, to me, makes very little sense. So the focus of the event itself, we've made the big shift of just focusing purely on the connections and the relationships. And in the context of the roundtables, how they work is we have seven of these running simultaneously

Starting point is 00:23:20 with different topics at every single one. And it's led by somebody in the community. And they're about an hour long. And the person starts with a best practice or several best practices, maybe about 10 minutes in length. And then it just becomes this open discussion. So I kind of shared from the stage on Mastermind Talks that like we're, we're drowning in information, but we're starving for wisdom. And that's really what those roundtables are. To be in a position where you can sit down at a table across from somebody who's been there and done it and ask them questions that are meaningful to you, as opposed to just listening to a talk on stage is powerful. And the beautiful thing about, you know, positioning this as a community and all that kind of stuff is that realistically,

Starting point is 00:24:01 you know, if you had a question, a follow-up question for James Clear, you could reach out to James Clear, right? If you had a follow-up question to Jordan Harbinger about podcasting, you could reach out to him directly because you guys are all kind of friends now on some level, which is very different than like hearing a, I don't say a Gary Vaynerchuk, but hearing any speaker from the stage, really, taking information, but never being able to kind of, you know, pitch and catch and go back and forth. So I think it's a really unique format to us, and it's, it's, it's, it's, it's evolved over the last few years, but it's definitely from a, a content perspective and a learning perspective. It's, it's a beautiful format for us. I love them. Like I said, the only thing is I wish, I, I was in, I was talking to Dave Berkus about this for a while. And we were just like, ah, it was, it was so painful to have to miss, miss other ones because you just, you know, I had talked to James, um, clear the night before. And he's like, dude, I got a round. We were talking a lot about some things. He had a roundtable. And we kind of won over a lot of it, but he's like, he's like definitely come to it.

Starting point is 00:25:02 We'll talk. We'll talk after it. And we've even talked since then. And so I did. But in order to do that, I had to miss some of the parts, some other roundtables that I just like really want to go to. And I know you've mentioned that Mastermind Talks isn't just a one-time event. It's basically when you sign up, you sign up for, well, really it feels like for life because you're going to have access to everyone that you met online as well as well as the virtual round tables that I know you talked about are about to start happening.

Starting point is 00:25:29 Yeah. Yeah. No, that was the one thing is we do know that every year that we get the feedback that there's FOBO around the round tables. People wish they could attend, you know, several at once, which they can't. So one of our goals, and although, like, we say, like, you know, content's abundant and all that kind of stuff, and it makes very little sense to consume content from the stage when you can consume it on, you know, an iPod or where the case may be.

Starting point is 00:25:52 Because of that, we've changed our model and moved from a three-day event to, really a one-year kind of membership. And we have the event, which kind of kicks off the relationships. And then throughout the year, we're trickling out and redoing a lot of those roundtables as virtual roundtables. So really everybody will. I mean, they sat at the ones they really, really need to sit at during the event. But they'll have another opportunity to experience them all over the next coming months. The other aspect that you absolutely crush it on is when it comes to surprises.

Starting point is 00:26:24 So the first or the second night, we're going to dinner at this really cool, I don't know, house with a big barn and incredible food. I could go on about the food. It was just out of this world. But anyway, so we're all kind of lingering, having great conversation, and all of a sudden you open up the barn doors and outwalks Gary Vaynerchuk. And obviously not announced, complete surprise. And then there forms the like the wedding reception line of.

Starting point is 00:26:54 all of us going to say hi and hug hug on gary and thank him and he was so gracious and incredible and then we sit in the barn with him and he does a Q&A literally as long as we wanted to go uh and he's canceling meetings i know or or at least being late to him because there's so many good questions and so the element of surprise i would you mind kind of pulling the curtain back on how you got the whole gary vaynurchuk aspect and the part of that like how you got him to commit to being there at that time, he's one of the most busiest guys in the world, to coming out to Ohio and then how you pulled it off. Yeah, so, I mean, Gary and I have been, we've known of each other for quite some time, and we've crossed paths before, but we've never been on, like, speaking terms to some

Starting point is 00:27:40 degree. Just, we never had an opportunity to kind of really connect. But my apprehension, truth be told, is I was a little apprehensive to have Gary at Master My Talks. And the reason is, is because we shy away from having big name speakers, because we've kind of shown, time and time again that the big name speakers oftentimes don't deliver. We've shown this with our competition, our speaker competition, where guys like Joey had twice the amount of votes of the second place winner, and he was competing against some, like, really, really great, you know, big-name speakers who charge huge keynote fees.

Starting point is 00:28:08 And in the context of Gary, I mean, he's been everywhere as of late. You know, with the launch of his book, Ask Gary Vee, he's just, he's been on every single podcast, it seems, his YouTube is blowing up. He's speaking like, when he came to speak at Mastermind Talks, in the last, two weeks he shared the stage with four people in our community on different stages in different countries so the man is just on a tear right now and I knew if I announced Gary in advance it would the I don't know the anticipation would kind of wear off and they would treat it like any other experience but if I were able if I was able to kind of surprise people by having Gary there and

Starting point is 00:28:44 like you said we we brought everybody to this barn where we had like a mechanical bull and we had drinks and we had a petting zoo and it was all kind of themed and we had people having dinner and we switched from country music to rap music. I'll figure out what we had playing or something like that. And then Gary opened the door and kind of popped out. But in the context of how we got him, we were able to negotiate. We always try to make it a win-win. And we never really kind of pay for speakers historically, but we do try to, in some cases,

Starting point is 00:29:13 like support them with books and stuff. And so we supported him with the Ask Gary Vee book. And yeah, I mean, and it was one of those things that we were, what was even more enticing for him to come to master my talks was there was a lot of people who were his peers in the room right i mean yeah i sensed that for sure it felt like it he wasn't i've watched a lot of his talks on video and the tone was slightly different in the fact that like he's pulling people up right next to him that he's actually worked with that he's talked to that you could tell he was friends with it just felt like a different type of a room than he's normally and

Starting point is 00:29:51 like okay i'm with i'm with with my people here. So it just, it felt a little bit different to me, which was just, again, incredible to be a part of that. Yeah, I mean, he went very deep in that Q&A, as you may remember. And it was one of those things, again, I think because a lot of people were his peers in that group. There's some people in that room who have $200 million businesses. So, you know, bigger businesses than Gary to some degree. And some people he's known for years. I mean, he pulled up John Romano, who was like his personal trainer back in the day. And he didn't know he was there. So Gary was just as surprised as everybody else. He probably knew easily a good, you know, 30, 40 people at 150 in attendance.

Starting point is 00:30:29 So it was a win-win, I think, for both parties, for sure. But it was definitely, it was a good surprise. And I didn't know how people would receive it. You know, like I said, because Gary's been kind of everywhere as of late. But, I mean, the post-event, people sharing the video of the group and all that kind of, the video of the event and all that kind of stuff, I think is a testament to the importance of surprise and delight. And again, you take. get even a step further the following night. We had this incredible dinner at this great big mansion with a great pool, and there's this phenomenal conversation going on, and I remember Candace came up. She's like, hey, you might want to, Candace is your wife, by the way, for those who

Starting point is 00:31:06 don't know, came up and said, hey, go down to the bottom area of this backyard by the pool. James Altisher is going to interview Tony Hawk. And I'm like, what? Like he just, she's like, yeah, he just walked through it. I was like, okay. And I remember I was with Jordan, actually, Harbinger at the time. We both walked down there and we're like, this is just insane, man. And then, and then we have a like baseball game live James Altisher show of him interviewing Tony Hawk. Again, another surprise, another, I think definitely not somebody. It's funny, I'd actually, was with James a day before and he had mentioned to a few of us that he had kind of a surprise coming and he was going to be talking to somebody and people were trying to guess and all these things. He's like,

Starting point is 00:31:50 I promise you're not going to guess. who it is. And so he obviously didn't want to ruin the surprise, and he didn't. And so we go down there, and it's like, this is just, again, another really great twist to what would have already been an incredible night full of great food and great place, great venue, unbelievable conversation. And then you have James and Tony Hawk doing a live Q&A, which was incredible. Yeah, I mean, you know, it should be told, in hindsight, it looks like this was all beautifully orchestrated, and we knew it was going to be a big hit. But the truth is, I didn't. I didn't know how he would be received.

Starting point is 00:32:23 Really? Yeah. No, I just, you know, he's not everywhere anymore. You know what I mean? Like, he was really, really relevant in like the 90s, early 2000s to a lot of us. But he's not, you know, the typical kind of keynote speaker. He's not a Tim Ferriss or he's not whatever, Marcus Limonis or something like that, right? So because he's been off everybody's radar, I actually got him, I got him when he came in,

Starting point is 00:32:49 I got him to walk through the house. through everybody to see if people would recognize him and be like, oh my God, Tony Hawk. And I was walking ahead, so I was to have a hard time judging. But I didn't feel like people cared all that much because they were all like in deep conversation. And we were walking towards the backyard and I'm like, oh, shoot, what did I do? Like I set up a Q&A that nobody cares about. And then he sat down with James and then Candace and I broke out and started telling

Starting point is 00:33:13 people, hey, it's optional. But if you want to go see this interview with Tony Hawk, it's happening in the backyard. And then, again, post-event. you see how meaningful that experience was to a lot of people because they were sharing photos. They wrote blog posts that, you know, Tony Hawk's my hero and I got to meet my hero and all this kind of stuff. But so in hindsight, it looks like it was, you know, well orchestrated. We had it all strategized. But truth be told, you know, even walking Tony to the backyard, I was like, I don't think this is going to work.

Starting point is 00:33:39 I don't know if this is going to work. Oh, man, I think everybody. And even, I think it was Cole Hatter who shared that great story about how he, Tony inspired him to really start his entrepreneurial journey where he went door to door selling. I forget what he was selling, but selling things to then save up money for a skateboard and to go and do what Tony did. It was a cool way to cap off that night. And then Tony State and met all of us who wanted to meet him, which is really neat. How did you get, like, do you ever, how do you build a relationship with him? So Tony, um, so Julie Coleman and I went to Tony's office about a year ago.

Starting point is 00:34:14 I think, I think I won a charity auction. I want a charity auction. I made a donation to the Tony Hawk Foundation to spend, like, like half a day with him or something. And that was last year. And didn't know if anything would come from it. But I'm like, again, Tony Hawk's a pretty cool guy. And it's, you know, it's going to benefit his foundation and all the kind of stuff.

Starting point is 00:34:31 I'll invite Joey and his wife and I'll have Candace with me. It'll be a cool experience. So we went down. We sat in on his radio show. And his office is awesome. He has, like, he has his office all around a half pipe, like skate park in the center of his building. So literally like in between calls, he'll just go and skate.

Starting point is 00:34:48 So when we got there, he just started skating. he was doing all the kinds of tricks and stuff like that. And then I thought he did his radio show and then we chatted. And that was almost a year and a half ago. And when planning this year's event, I was like, Oh, hi is about three hours from where he's based out of. He lives in Encinitas near San Diego. So I'm like, maybe we should try to see if we can get Tony Hawk to this thing.

Starting point is 00:35:10 So we reached out to his COO, which is actually his sister, oddly enough. She's been his CEO for 15 years. And I had a conversation, and he was excited about it. And the one thing I love about Tony, and he actually, I don't think they mention of it in the interview that he did with James. But, like, this guy, like, even though he's not, you know, on the podium anymore, competing for, you know, championships and skateboarding and all that kind of stuff, he still skates. Like, it's part of his DNA. And it's something he's going to do for the rest of his life. So when he actually got to Ohio for the event, he showed up, like, three, four hours in advance.

Starting point is 00:35:46 He went to, like, a local skate park to skate, just like everybody else. And I'm like, could you imagine if you're like a kid, like a 12 year old kid and Tony in this small town and Tony Hawk shows up to like skate with you? I'm like, that'd be an amazing experience. So super humble guy, really different to Earth. And yeah, he was pretty open in that Q&A as well. And like I said, it paid off. People enjoyed it immensely. But yeah, we didn't necessarily know how well he would be received initially.

Starting point is 00:36:14 Yeah, it's just, it's crazy, man. I absolutely love that night. There was some. And then there's like a singing guitar party going on after that later on, which just kind of brought everyone together amongst a bunch of great conversations. There's so many things to get to. I don't need to. I guess I'm kind of going through a play-by-play. I didn't expect to do it this way, but it's just kind of happening.

Starting point is 00:36:33 And there's so many neat events. It's cool to be able to kind of deconstruct how you orchestrated all of this. And so I might as well move on to the next day when if we fast forward to the final net, final. night, there's a big hot air balloon I notice as I'm walking down to the space where we're going to eat, get a picture, so you get a hot air balloon. We have this incredible dinner, and then you bring in, I hate that I forget his name, I didn't write it down. This, this, one of the best violin players I've ever seen. And with people listening, think, violin player, why would you want to hear that? And it's like, no, this guy, say, what's his

Starting point is 00:37:11 name? So people could look him up if they want to see his word. His name is Damien Escobar. Damien Escobar. And he just rocked the house. Absolutely just got it rolling, everybody jump. I remember seeing Philip being the first male, the first guy, get up to dance with the girls. And it was. Yes, he was. He was the very first guy. I looked at it.

Starting point is 00:37:29 I saw it because there was like two or three of the ladies getting up and dance him. And Philip's the first guy. And I literally, you know, because he's kind of like one of the leaders, if not the leader of that group. He feels like it at least, especially after his incredible keynote and then the painting. There's too many, there's things I'm skipping over, but there's just too much. We would be here for five hours. But anyway, he gets something dancing. I think it was like that, not like the Derek Sivers video that people have seen from his TED Talk, but it was kind of like that.

Starting point is 00:37:53 It was very simple. Everybody's like, okay, okay, like now we're all going to get up and it just rushed the stage. And I think it gave the, what's a, Damien, you said? Yeah, Damien Iskabar. Damien, it gave Damien some juice to like keep going, to even go harder and even change the songs. And it was just an incredible moment, I think, of bonding and togetherness with everybody. Yeah, no, and that was, yeah, that was another. I guess, example of us trying to integrate that kind of surprise and delight.

Starting point is 00:38:21 And, I mean, truth be told, you know, in order to integrate these surprises oftentimes, you know, at least in our case, you have to have a huge level of trust from your audience. And it's something, you know, we always say, like, I don't want to say I'm anti-scale. But when you think of scaling in the event space, it's, or in any business, really, it's like more clients or, you know, more money and all that kind of stuff. And for me, like, my focus is scaling trust. because I know if I have trust, I can make magic happen to some degree. So thankfully, we have that trust where we're in a position where people will sign up for the event without knowing what to expect.

Starting point is 00:38:53 So you can kind of surprise them along the way. So, yeah, that dinner, you know, it started initially in the orchard area. And people didn't know where dinner was taking place. We just had kind of drinks and all that kind of stuff. We had that air balloon because it was actually on two people's bucket lists in the community to go on a hot air balloon. So I'm like, well, let's spend a couple grand and get a hot air balloon on. property. So, yeah, so we did that. And then we ushered everybody into that kind of that final dining kind of area where the pool was and had another violinist there first that maybe not

Starting point is 00:39:26 too many people noticed. And then we brought Damien on for contrast. And like you said, I mean, it was very much the Derek Sivers thing. I mean, for the first two, three songs, people were just sitting there, you know, watching and clapping and bopping their heads and that kind of stuff. And then it wasn't until two or three of the woman stood up. go dance that literally probably two-thirds of, you know, everybody there went to go dance as well. And for me, that was the highlight of the event because that's when you really see people kind of meshing and bonding and he was killer. He was like that guy, like I didn't know what to expect from him. Like I knew he was, his music is phenomenal into what you said. He's not just

Starting point is 00:40:02 a violinist. He plays on on like tracks like Prince or Michael Jackson, like really great stuff. So I highly recommend your listeners go check out his work. But he was a, he was a, he was a performer like you could see he like he would just feed off of the he owned it oh yeah so it just it worked out beautifully and and that was that was a great way to cap off the event too and to the whole surprise and the light thing the downfall is is you set an expectation as well so we had a big name surprise on day one a big name surprise on day two now day three it's just expected to have another big name and truth be told i was worried going into that final dinner because we didn't have a big name nobody knew who Damien Escobar was, but I knew he was amazing.

Starting point is 00:40:46 And I'm incredibly grateful that he was well received because, again, it kind of shattered that expectations that a lot of people would come back in and say, like, who does he have today? Obama, you know what I mean? Like, they're always looking for that big name. It's funny because Joey and his talk shared that, like, when he was doing his reenactment of like going to the clerk for the airport or whatever case maybe. And he's like, oh, I've got to go to master my talks. Adele is singing or whatever.

Starting point is 00:41:11 Some people actually thought, like, Adele was going to be at that final dinner. It would not have surprised me. It wouldn't have. So, yeah, so that was the one nice thing is that it was very much in alignment with Mastermind Talks to have Damien cap off the event because he wasn't a big name, but he blew everybody away. And that's kind of the one of my biggest things I always focus on is finding the diamonds in the rough, right? Invest in people early on. Just like people invest in businesses and see undervalued businesses, I try to find people who are undervalued

Starting point is 00:41:40 and invest in them early on. And, you know, truth be told, that's one of the things that has always appealed me to you. And being kind of trying to be one of your biggest fans is I've always been a huge fan of you. And that's why I came on, you know, the first episode. And ever since, I've been trying to, if I can, make introductions or support you anyway I can because I know, like, you have tremendous potential. So that was kind of the nice thing about capping with, the capping off the event without using a big name. Yeah, I appreciate your kind words.

Starting point is 00:42:09 and I felt that and your support has meant the world to me. And especially just from everything, because you didn't have to do this. There's literally thousands and hundreds of thousands of people from now as you've grown as well that want your time. And the fact that you've been so gracious with it, it means so much to me. There are a few other things I want to get to just to reinforce that that was just an incredible way to end it. I was happy we got to talk right as before I was going to my room.

Starting point is 00:42:33 And I know a lot of people were to say, wow, because I had to get up and I think like three something in the morning was not the wisest. flight, but my flight actually got canceled. But anyway, long story. But I even heard, I saw on Facebook that you even got up early to give out snacks to people. I was about to say, I just missed you. I got up five. Which is insane because that night went into the night, that, you know, the event went

Starting point is 00:42:54 into the night late. People were having a good time. And then I see on Facebook when I'm at the airport that you're getting up early to give people snacks on their drive. Just thinking about the care that you put into it. And like I said, the attention to detail, it's not. not, it's unmatched. And that's why everybody loves it. I mean, people are raving. We're on this, we're all, you know, emailing and Facebook messaging back and forth. I was talking about this

Starting point is 00:43:19 before we recorded, you know, a lot of people I've become now, I feel like close friends with, and we're saying we're on kind of this, I don't want to say low, but it's hard to stay at that level when we're all together. We're in this beautiful place with great food and events and people and then you're not there anymore. And it's tough. It's tough. So you have to slowly, kind of get back into regular life. And that's what's really interesting about mastermind talks. I know if people that are at that went to the event with us are listening to this, they're going to be like, I know exactly what I'm talking about because we've all been

Starting point is 00:43:50 emailing about it on a regular basis. The one aspect, I want to flip it a little bit here, Jason, and say, if you had to give advice to, I'm going to ask this from both sides. So let me just start actually with the attendee. So if you had to give advice and you attend other conferences, you attend mastermind talks, You obviously are running that one, but you also are in the moment. But if, for example, I've seen you vlogs and you've talked about your strategy when you go to an event of what you're looking to get out of it. What advice would you give to people when they go to, whether it's Mashmind Talks or even another event, to get the absolute most out of that event?

Starting point is 00:44:30 Yeah, so, I mean, one philosophy that I have, which is a spinoff of a quote from 22 mutable as marketing, which is what we're, and networking, it works and the military works in networking, and that's the unexpected. So, you know, even when it comes times, like going to an event, dressing differently so you stick out, or, you know, leaving,

Starting point is 00:44:51 there's somebody at Mastermind Talks this year. I don't know if everybody receives a note, but a handful of people did. He actually wrote, hand wrote, like a thank you note to everybody and got them delivered to the room, at least a lot of people he interacted with. I mean, that stood out, you know, post-event. It's one of those things, like,

Starting point is 00:45:06 also a lot of people are introverts, and I'm an introvert as well. I'm not amazing in kind of live situations when I'm meeting somebody for the first time. I tend to like step into a place more where I kind of sit back and observe people. And you also think there's so much noise at an event as well, right? Everybody's connecting. And oftentimes you may not remember like too many conversations or people's names and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, after an event, I do a really good job of following up.

Starting point is 00:45:34 And so I kind of go the extra mile in regards to that is following up. And then if I do meet somebody at the event itself, I will do a very good job to try to remember key points of that conversation. Meaning, I mean, I remember I went to an event in 2011. One of the guys who was there, his daughter was three months old at the time and was born blind. But she was like she had some surgeries leading up to when I met him and she was getting better. So that was like a point for me to kind of reach out in the future and be like, hey, how's your daughter doing and all that kind of stuff? And that meant the world to him, which is much different than, like, hey, I met you at this event and this is what I do. And I know this is what you do.

Starting point is 00:46:15 You know, let's stay in touch type thing, right? So finding out those unique points of conversation is huge. Going into the event, doing as much kind of homework as you can, ideally, as far as who else is going to be there, potential conversations you can have. And I do this as well. If I know I'm going to be sitting at a table, most likely with somebody like a Gary Vaynerchuk, all have. or anybody for that matter, I'll have some potential conversations in my head so that there's no lull in that interaction when I first meet them. It's like, hey, you know, I'm Jason. Hi, I'm Gary and you don't know what to say next, I think, and you're trying to fish or something. I'll have, like,

Starting point is 00:46:53 a few, like, potential conversations or potential questions in my head so that when I'm in that setting, I'm kind of well prepared. And then also playing full out. That's kind of one of the biggest things as well is, you know, starting the event early and leaving the event late. to some degree. So trying not to, and I've been guilty of this, you know, in the past of not playing full out of, you know, after lunch there's a session, but maybe I'm just going to go back to my room and do a few emails and stuff like that. So whenever I go to an event, I try to clear my calendar and try to be as present as possible. Absolutely. A few of the things I would add to that.

Starting point is 00:47:28 I think the other aspect of it, I'll bounce around here, is that you started each morning at 10 o'clock. and there were, which first of all, to anyone running an event, start them at 10 o'clock in the morning. I'll start them at 8 because every other event starts at 8 or 8.30. Now, what was cool was that you had options in the early morning. So, for example, you could run, you could met as a group, you could meditate, you could do yoga, or you could do a Ben Greenfield workout. And so since there were three days of this, I decided I'm going to do three different, just to experience them and to meet different people. So for me, as an attendee, I, now this is way out of a, my cover zone. Normally, I would just went to the Ben Greenfield all three days because that's what I

Starting point is 00:48:09 like to do. His type of, like, I think they were titled the Navy SEAL workouts, but I would prefer those. However, I've never like fully meditated my life. Now, I went to that. So, again, I was sitting next to the fillet for that one, small world. So I went to the meditation one day. And then I went to yoga one day. And it just, I met, I think six or seven other people that I had not even seen yet to that point because I went to the yoga. And then the bend event, I did, you know, talk to some other people that were, I was already somewhat close to. But for me, that gave me an opportunity to then do the, do the exercises with those people.

Starting point is 00:48:45 Then we would go to breakfast together and, and have a good meal. And then I would, you know, take a shower and be super energized for the event to start roughly around 10 o'clock. It was hard for you to get started, I know, because everyone was just talking and wanting to hang out together. But I think that's one of the big notes that I circled on my note. was start the day at 10 o'clock and have an option if you want to to do some sort of activity with others before that.

Starting point is 00:49:14 Yeah, no, I mean, we're very blessed that the people who come to the event, I mean, it's not a small investment, right? It's $7,000, $8,000 with hotel and flight. It's a $10,000 investment when it's all said and done. And this group of people, I mean, they value time more than they value money. So they're investing their time to be in an event like that. this, most oftentimes they're going to play full out. So even though the schedule started at 10, realistically, it kind of started at 7 because of

Starting point is 00:49:41 those optional activities. But for the most part, the majority of people participated in those optional activities. And to loop back on what we talked about about the dinners before the event and the power of uncommon common commonalities, that's another example of that, is even though we have 150 people at the event, grouping them down into smaller groups where they share like-minded interest. So like meditation or yoga or the case may be, it's just another way for those people to bond. And then, yeah, to what you said after that was breakfast. And then we gave a little bit of space for people to take a shower, get kind of refreshed, and then be ready to go for the

Starting point is 00:50:17 event. And truth be told, we've been guilty in the past of starting the event at 8 a.m. I mean, this is the first event. We didn't do that. You always, you know, our days were kind of jam-packed historically where we'd have breakfast at like 7.30. Event. would start at like 8.15. We'd be in a conference room until 5 o'clock. Then there'd be a dinner. But this year we made a pretty big kind of shift, like I said, in the format. And also, you know, as I kind of made mention from the stage, as I evolve as an entrepreneur

Starting point is 00:50:46 and what I value evolves, the event is, you know, going to evolve as well. And through my work with Philip, who oddly enough you've had, and we've talked about several times on this episode, I mean, some of the things I've learned to evaluate and the things I want to cultivate in life are things like presence and space and simplicity. And if you look at the schedule for the event, it was really pretty basic. There was like four or five moving parts when it was all sudden done. And there was a lot of space. And, you know, a lot of the activities allowed you to be present because we had like no cell phones and all that kind of stuff. So, so yeah, like I said, I mean, this is our fourth event. So it's been an evolution. Definitely don't want to make it

Starting point is 00:51:26 sound like we came out of the box kind of guns blazing. But I think there's something to be. note about, and I made mention of this as well, is like, you know, with success comes, success breeds complacency and arrogance oftentimes, right? And if it's, you know, the whole saying, if it's not broke, don't fix it. I mean, the event was not broken, right? We were selling out every year. We were raising the price every year. We have a huge wait list. But it was one of those things that the fact that people signed up this year without announcing any big name speakers, without announcing any kind of agenda, just demonstrated a huge level of trust that the audience had in the brand and in myself, and I don't take that trust lightly.

Starting point is 00:52:05 And one of the ways I know how to honor that trust is by constantly trying to push the limits and push the bar to some degree by trying things that are new. Because usually oftentimes when you get successful, you become, you go on the defense and you stop doing the very things that made you successful in the first place. And I didn't want to fall into that trap. And thankfully this year we made some big changes. And, you know, for the most part, they virtually all paid off. completely agree. I mean, I couldn't speak highly enough. So what, what's next, man? I mean,

Starting point is 00:52:36 it's no, it's just ended, but I know kind of the way you think you live your life from one mastermind talk to the next. What's going on for the future? I mean, I do. And that's kind of the scary part. I don't tell a lot of people is that I really do only live one event at a time. And I don't have, you know, after mastermind talks this year happened, we opened up registration for a few people to leave renewal deposits and stuff like that. And just coming off the last event, I don't know how, I mean, I have a few things in mind as far as how we're going to evolve the event and how we're going to raise the bar yet again next year.

Starting point is 00:53:12 But I put everything I had into that last event. So it's hard for me to see how we're really going to make a big leap. But that's one of the kind of the benefits of doing an event only once a year is that I can guarantee you in six months from now. I'll have clarity as far as, oh, we can do this, we can do that. And those will increase the experience exponentially. But every event I finish, I always run into this kind of instance where I'm like, I don't know if I can raise the bar next year.

Starting point is 00:53:38 But thankfully, you know, we've done it four times. And it works out for us every time. I love it, man. I've got just a couple more thoughts. This is something I typically ask people at the beginning, but this is a difference since we're talking about an experience that we shared together. And so, you know, now it's been four Mastermind talks. countless other events, incredible amount of conversations with people who have achieved massive

Starting point is 00:54:07 things in their lives, people who have sustained excellence over really an extended period of time. I'm curious from your perspective, after taking a step back and looking at all of those types, I could name names, but we don't need to even go there. But when you think of those people, what are some of the common characteristics they all share? I think, I think there's a strong, there's always a strong desire for more. That's for sure. And that can be to a fault sometimes because sometimes you feel like you've never made it. You know, you set goals and you constantly kind of move that goal post every time you get closer.

Starting point is 00:54:48 But, I mean, the type of people we try to cultivate a mastermind talks are people who know that good is the enemy of great in all areas of their life. So they're not only looking to grow their businesses. They're looking to go deeper with their relationships. They're looking to improve their health. They're looking to become better parents, better spouses. We always say that an entrepreneur, somebody goes from working in their business to on their business, but there's a second tier of an entrepreneur that goes from working on their business to working on themselves. And that's really the type of group we try to, I guess, collect to some degree.

Starting point is 00:55:22 And not to play on Gary Vaynerchuk stuff too much, but I mean, self-awareness. A lot of these people in the group are very kind of self-aware. They're very aware of the things they're good at, the things they're not good at, the type of people they need to bring in their life to complement those areas that they're not so great. So I think self-awareness is a big key as well, and is a topic that comes up a lot, which is why, you know, somebody like a Philip McCurnan who is, has the innate ability to sit with you and call out the BS. Because, you know, oftentimes we're the easiest ones to kind of fooling ourselves is one of the easiest things to do. I think is, again, a very common trait is the strong desire for more and also the importance

Starting point is 00:56:06 of self-awareness and how that plays into that. I love it. I couldn't agree more after personally getting to live it with you there for at least this one event. And then speaking to a lot of the guests, it's interesting. You know, there was one night, the night by the pool of Tony Hawk night, where it just kind of naturally, I don't know how it happened, but James Clearer came up to me and you know, we talked, we started talking. He's, he's moving to Columbus actually. And so we're going to get together in Ohio. So that's, I'm here in Dayton. So we're, that's like an hour and 10 minute drive for me.

Starting point is 00:56:41 But it's James and I and then Dave Burkus and I who became, became pretty good, good friends over that. And Ryan, Holiday and Jordan and Harbinger. And I'm sitting there with like not even realizing I'm just having a conversation with my buddies. And it's, you know, four or five guys that I've had on my podcast, you know, who at some, at one point, you looked at them like, you know, like there were on another level. And you're just sitting there hanging out, having real useful conversations on how to better yourself as a leader, better yourself as a person. What are some tactical things you could implement? All of that happening in just a span of 30 minutes. And that 30 minute conversation alone, I texted my brother that.

Starting point is 00:57:22 And I remember was like that that was those 30 minutes. I don't know how I could get that without being here. And that happened so many times throughout the event. But I remember that one specifically, mainly because they were guests on the show. But the people that I met that weren't guests to my show equally as impressive, have done in some cases bigger things, maybe not as famous, but it's just incredible than just the caliber of people. I can't stress enough how much I want to thank you for having me to be a part of it,

Starting point is 00:57:52 to be around that level and that caliber of people, it had a tremendous impact on me. And I can't wait to keep it going and to go back next year. I'd love to be there and to keep being a part of this community because it's been just simply phenomenal, man. I want to thank you. Yeah, no, well, it was an honor to host you. And yeah, no, I really appreciate taking the time to chat because, like I said, a lot of this stuff, I'm so close to it. I don't see it as, like, unique anymore as far as how we do things and our thought process. So it was good to hash out, I guess, some of these things.

Starting point is 00:58:26 And having you on the opposite side of not knowing behind the scenes, but just the experience itself was a great conversation. So I really appreciate it. Awesome, man. Thanks. Well, I really appreciate it. I don't know if you want to send it. Mastermind Talks.com I could probably public for you.

Starting point is 00:58:40 Or is there any places you want to send people to go more online? Yeah, I mean, Mastermind Talks.com. They'll get more information about the event. There's also, I have a podcast, MMT, podcast. which sometimes we repurpose some of the talks from Mastermind Talks. So even if you can't get into the event itself, you can still benefit from some of the amazing talks that are given from the stage. And that's pretty much it.

Starting point is 00:59:05 Awesome, man. And again, I mentioned this last time, but the podcast is awesome one. It's incredible when you get it gone. It's a must listen in addition to your book. And I think you're writing another one. Is that right? I am. I'm working on one hopefully, hopefully, finally final one.

Starting point is 00:59:22 But, and a final one in the context of networking relationship building. So I did a book about Mastermind Dinners where it was all about using dinners as a catalyst to kind of connect people. And the book was incredibly well received. I think it moved something like 22 or 27,000 copies in the one year. So, and it was just, yeah, it was amazing to put out a body of work. And you, you know this, right? I mean, doing a podcast, putting out a body of work and then having people follow up months later about something you released, you know, a couple months back saying, you know, this changed my life. for this got me at the perfect time and all that kind of stuff.

Starting point is 00:59:55 So working on another book now, because I haven't really found that many great books on the, I guess, as far as relationship building and networking are concerned. I mean, a lot of them are very tactical. But I think there's a huge kind of void in the market. So for me, I just want to put pen to paper and I've been doing that over the last couple weeks and just put one last kind of book out there on how to leverage the power of peers, mentors, and masterminds. and yeah, so I'm working on that.

Starting point is 01:00:23 That'll definitely be coming out in the next coming months, and it's one of those things I had to get it out regardless. There's a saying that I got to a point where I couldn't listen to another podcast. I couldn't read another book because there's a saying that, you know, reading is inhaling and writing is exhaling. And I got to a point where I just couldn't consume any more content. Like, I need to sit down and write. So I'm going through that process right now so I can, you know, get everything out.

Starting point is 01:00:45 And that will most likely be a book in the coming months. Awesome, man. Love it. Thanks again, Jason, for being here, man. And obviously, we'll be continuing this dialogue. All right, brother. All right, man. Thanks. Bye.

Starting point is 01:00:58 This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learningleadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again. and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 126: Jayson Gaignard – Mastermind Talks: An Event With A Lower Acceptance Rate Than Harvard

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.