The room was only 40 people

Last week I was in Dallas with my mastermind.

We did the things you'd expect. Taught each other. Ran hot seats where one person puts a real problem on the table and the rest of us dig in. Ate too well at Capital Grille. We even hit the Texas State Fair on opening night, which, if you've never been, is a genuinely absurd amount of corn dog and live music and farm animals, and somehow I cleared 10,000 steps just walking from one end of it to the other.

Mike and I had almost the same identical shirt at dinner :)

But that's not the part that stuck with me.

The part that stuck was sitting around with these people and getting into the real stuff. Business pivots someone's scared to make. Cash flow that's keeping a person up at night. Marriages and families going through hard seasons. Heavy, honest conversations most of us never get to have out loud with anyone. And then, ten minutes later, we'd be crying laughing about something completely stupid. At one point we spent an embarrassingly long time trying to do each other's accents, which we are all uniformly terrible at (except me - I nailed ‘em all 🤥 ), and I don't think I've laughed that hard in a while. That's the combination that gets me. A room where you can put the heaviest thing you're carrying on the table, and also lose it laughing over nothing. Same people, same day.

Here's what I keep bumping into. I think I take this for granted.

I know, in my bones, what a room like that is worth. Getting to share the wins and the struggles with people who genuinely want the best for me has grown my business more than almost anything else, and it's grown me right along with it. It's given me a place to think out loud.

And I need that place, because I can't get it at home. Andrea supports me completely, fully, no question. But she's not an entrepreneur, and she doesn't want to be, so she doesn't turn my business over in her head the way another founder does. Her perspective is a gift precisely because it's different. But I can't imagine being this far into building something and still trying to figure it all out alone, with no room full of people who actually get it.

I owe a lot of this to Mike Kim.

Back in 2018, Mike hosted an event in Austin, and it was the first time I met him and his people in person. I almost talked myself out of caring about it, because there were only 40 people signed up. Forty. I remember thinking that sounded small and maybe a little lame, like I'd show up to a half-empty room.

I could not have been more wrong. Those 40 people created something a room of 1,000 never could. The conversations were intimate and real in a way that only happens when it's small enough for everyone to actually be known. I left that event changed, and I left it with a realization I hadn't had before: I could do this too. I could fill a room with 30 or 40 of the right people and create the same kind of magic.

Circa 2018 - still connected to all of these people almost a decade later!

That realization became my own event. I'm hosting the sixth one next week, and it's still one of my favorite things I get to do all year. And the way Mike ran his mastermind became the blueprint for how I run mine. I took what he built, ran it my own way, and some of my members have stuck with me for years now. That kind of loyalty tells me I'm doing something right, and I don't take it lightly.

So if you've ever thought about joining a mastermind, let me save you some time with the one thing I've learned about picking the right one.

Find the group that wants to help its people, not just grow itself. Steer clear of the rooms full of folks trying to become influencers, and look for the ones full of people trying to actually make a difference. When you find that room, don't dip a toe in. Go all the way in. Share the real stuff. Get plugged in. The people who get the most out of these rooms are the ones who stop performing and start being honest.

And if this stirred something up, I've got a reason to mention it. I'm starting a brand-new mastermind in a few weeks. It's built for business owners who want a small room of peers who genuinely have their back. People who want to make a difference, not chase a following.

If that's you, or might be, just hit reply and say you're interested. I'll send you the details personally. No pressure, just a real conversation about whether it's a fit.

Onward, my friend,
Ryan

P.S. If you're not sure you're "far enough along" to be in a room like this, that hesitation is usually the exact sign you'd get the most out of one. Reply anyway and let's talk.