Running a small business is no easy task. It's messy and thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. But no matter what, it's definitely a journey worth taking. As a mom of two littles, I know the daily struggles, and I'm here to walk this journey with you. If you're ready to feel empowered, encouraged and on fire for the things you truly love, then you're in the right place. I'm Rebecca Rice, a pizza loving hot chocolate drinking family photographer and educator and this is the business Journey podcast.
Hey, friends, welcome back to another episode of the business Journey podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca rice. And I teach family photographers how to gain A life of financial freedom through a thriving photography business. So today, we are continuing the conversation all about masterminds, we are going to be talking through, you know, a mastermind versus a course and which one may be better for you. And before we do, I want to officially announce that my mastermind application is open. So I mentioned last week that we were going to be you know, opening applications for my next round of masterminds. It goes from June to November. And I'm just so pumped to finally like start getting applications and filling these spots with just the people that are going to be the perfect fit. So if you want to apply and in this episode, we'll get through like if you're not sure if a mastermind is for you, like hopefully some of your questions will get answered. But you're like, Yes, I already know I want to apply. The link is Rebecca rice.com/mastermind. And that will take you straight to the application, you can fill that out. And it's on a first come first serve basis. So as applications come in, I start going through them, and I start filling spots. And so if you want to join, be sure to fill out your application early so that you could potentially get one of our spots before they all fill up. So I'm super, super excited. I can't wait to see the amazing business owners that are going to be coming through the applications and just get to see how I can walk alongside you. So fill out application and it'll be great. Okay, so let's jump into our topic of mastermind versus courses and which one is better for you? I mentioned last week like I did an explanation of like, what is a mastermind and how you know if you're ready for a mastermind, if you have not listened to that episode, pause this and go listen to last week's it's short and sweet. It won't take you too long. But that like will give you a really good foundation going forward of like, what is the mastermind? Rebecca, I answered that last week. But this week, I really want to walk through the difference between a mastermind and a course. Because I get that question a lot from students when they're looking at joining my mastermind. They're like, how is this different from the courses that you offer? What am I going to learn that's different. And so I want to kind of talk through the differences in just the structure of a mastermind. And of course, and you know, one may be a better fit for you than the other this is not to say like, masterminds are better than courses. Of course, I'm biased because I'm taking applications from a mastermind. But there are some things that a course is better than a mastermind. So they're just different. And I want to be able to like outline that today. So the first like major difference between a mastermind and a course, is the time commitment. So with that, you know, a course typically you get to go at your own pace, that could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on like how your personality is. I know some people whenever they have like no structure, and it's like a go at their own pace, they will never finish a course they're like oh my gosh, I have so many courses and none of them are done. And it can be hard for some people to you know, do the go at your own pace kind of thing. With a mastermind. It's very different. So the time commitment. Typically, for me, our masterminds are six months long. And so we have scheduled calls, like two calls a month, and there's homework in between. So like every other week, we're having a call. And then in between we have homework and for me it's not the kind of homework that's like you get an F or whatever if you don't do it, like we're not grading this it's really the homework is there to help you to implement the things that we're doing. We you know, walk through that, but the time commitment is very different with a mastermind than a course for you and for me, and so with that the investment is also different. So typically a course because you get maybe, you know, anywhere from like three to 1015 hours of content for a course the price is going to be a lot lower, whereas with a mastermind you get a lot a lot more content with it because So you have the bi weekly calls and unlimited Voxer access to me and things like that. So the investment is larger, larger time commitment, larger investment. But the payout is usually better with a mastermind versus a course. Now, for me with some of my courses, you can see immediately the revenue that comes from it. But not all courses are that way. Some courses, you know, like, I
have a course that is all about posing, it's brand new, my family posing course. But that course doesn't necessarily have like an immediate revenue, you can't say, oh, I made this much more because I took this posing course. Now down the line, will you make more because you can raise your prices and book more sessions, because you know how to pose effectively, absolutely. But it's just kind of hard to tie like $1 amount to that, something like that. Whereas, you know, my mini sessions course, you can tie $1 amount to it to say, well, because I learned mini sessions, I was able to make this much revenue, it doesn't always have $1 sign attached to it, but sometimes does with masterminds, the return on the investment is usually a lot higher, because you have a lot more content and a lot more like specialized and personalized feedback, and training and teaching. So for me, I've taken a lot of courses, and I'm taking a lot of masterminds. And for masterminds, it did take a lot more of a time commitment, it was a lot bigger of an investment. But I saw just an immediate change in my business through going through masterminds and my revenue increased dramatically, because I was able to apply the things and get really personalized feedback that you just can't get from a course. So those are just a few things to keep in mind. The next, like big difference between a course and a mastermind is the level of accountability. So I kind of mentioned with a course, there's no one there to make sure that you're making progress and you're reaching your goals. It's very much like at your own pace, you complete the course content and apply it however you want. Sometimes that's good for people that you know, either don't need that level of accountability, or just are in like a really busy season of life that they're like, Okay, I wanted to get this course. But I'm not going to apply it for another six months, maybe they're having a baby, and they're like, I just can't apply this right this second, so I can apply it later. So the level of accountability is different there. Whereas with a mastermind you have built in accountability. And I talked about this a little bit in the last episode that we did about a mastermind last week, but you have this built in accountability, this group of people that are helping you make sure that you're making progress. And so you're checking in with each other, you know, every other week when we have calls, and they really help you stay on track. And I think that there's just something that happens when you know, you're getting together with a group of people on a consistent basis. They're like, Okay, I want to go into that next call, having felt like I made progress, right. And so you will take action in your business that maybe you wouldn't otherwise take just because you are going to be updating this group that you're, you know, doing life with for the next six months, you're updating them on a consistent basis with how things are going. So you have that level of accountability. And it also comes with a group of cheerleaders. So if you need like help to be hyped up, and you're like really nervous about something, you have a group of people that are there that can encourage you and help you like really get rid of that impostor syndrome and tell you, your work is beautiful, I promise like, go ahead and launch this you're gonna be so you know, thrilled with the amount of bookings that you get from it and whatnot, whether you're doing mini sessions, or full sessions or weddings or whatever, it doesn't matter. You have this group of built in accountability, but also like cheerleaders and people there to encourage you. So that's a big difference between a mastermind and a course. The next thing that is a really big difference is the individualization. That is a really big word, the individualization of the actual content. So in a course, just the nature of how a course is made, it has to be more broad, and you're able to, you know, go in and take things and adapt them to work for your business. I've gone through my fair share of courses. I've gone through several that were really intended for wedding photographers, but I don't shoot weddings. I'm a family photographer. So I had to take the nuggets and like reframe them. For my family photography business. Maybe I'll take a course from an Instagram guru who is teaching in general about Instagram, I have to take it and say, Okay, how do I apply that to my family photography business, whereas with a mastermind, is very, very personalized content. So you get specific application to you and your business through a mastermind. So when I'm teaching in my mastermind, during one of our calls, I tell my girls Is that I teach a lot. But if you have a question or want to know how to apply it to your business, stop me like, they
literally have to interrupt me because I just like, go. But they're like, Hey, Rebecca, my business looks like this, how do I apply what you're saying to my business, and they're able to get immediate, personalized feedback for how to use whatever it is that we're teaching in their own business. And so you just don't get that with a course, again, not necessarily a bad thing. It's just very different. And so if you're wanting more of that, like very personalized application of whatever it is that you're learning, then a mastermind would probably be a better fit for you than a course, for me, my mastermind is all about marketing. So it is the level up marketing mastermind. And so we talk all about marketing. And marketing is one of those things that if you learn it from a course, that's a lot more broad, it can be difficult to apply to your own business. Or you may have questions because, you know, marketing is not easy. If it were easy, everybody would do it well. And so that's why I wanted to like really point my mastermind towards marketing was because I see so many business owners that really, really need help with it. And so I'm able to say, you know, Lindsey, who is in my mastermind, right now, I can say, okay, Lindsey is doing, she does these mini sessions. Oh, my gosh, what she called them, she calls them doodle day. So she does these mini sessions for families with dogs. And they sell out every year. They're so cute. But she she does this doodle day. And so, you know, we were talking about for example, you know, email marketing, or Facebook ads, and she's like, okay, so I have this doodle day, How Do I Use Email Marketing? Or how do I use Facebook ads to target people, that would be a good match for my doodle day. And so she wouldn't be able to get feedback like that from a course, literally only from a mastermind, because it was so specific. Or I have another mastermind girl named Sarah. She specializes in like motherhood type sessions, and she really loves doing breastfeeding photos. And so you know, there's a very like specific type of marketing to get women who want breastfeeding photos, because it's a very like niche market. It's not impossible by any means. But it's very specific. And so the marketing that is needed for that is very different. Or, you know, last one, I
promise, I'm like giving all these examples, but I have another girl in my mastermind named Anne, who she does branding photography. And so several of my girls, we have some in families and some in weddings, and some in branding. And so for her, I'm teaching about marketing, and then we can stop and say, Okay, let's talk about this type of marketing, specifically for branding, photography. And we're able to like really dive into that, that we just can't get that same kind of like personalized feedback from a course. And so if you know that you are wanting more, one on one more like personalized feedback, things like that, then a mastermind may be a better fit for you. Then, of course, another thing that comes with my mastermind is Voxer. Access to me. So Voxer is a like voice chatting app. And basically my girls can ask me questions on there about anything. And we can just, you know, chat back and forth. It's kind of like walkie talkies. It's so funny. But we can chat back and forth about whatever questions. And I loved this when I was in a mastermind with my business coach last year, and I had Voxer access to him. And I was asking him questions that were totally not related to anything we were covering. I just know that he's very, like wise with money. And so I was asking him about investing and stuff like that. And it was cool. And he would send me these like 15 minute boxes, talking about investing and answering my questions. And it was just such a cool way to like, have that kind of access to somebody just to ask all my questions, too. And so you know, that's what I open up to my girls, like, ask me questions about business or life or literally anything, you have that kind of access to me. So all that to say, you just don't get that with a course it's very different. And then the last thing that I want to like really point out that's different between equate a course and a mastermind, is the feedback and support that you get. So with a course, oftentimes, you know, for my courses, they come with access to a student community, a student Facebook group, and I'm really good about answering questions in the Facebook group when I can, but it's just different getting answers through a screen written down versus, you know, immediate face to face or Voxer answers to these kinds of questions. And so, in a mastermind, you get immediate or close to immediate personalized feedback, whether that's through Voxer or through slack, or, you know, on the Zoom calls that we do every other week, that you just don't get that kind of immediate response in a course and I mean, it's just so different the type of support that you get and Though masterminds and courses are very, very different. And so to kind of recap, if you feel like you don't have time for a six month commitment, or you're not looking for that, like intense level of accountability, maybe you're okay with a broader approach to a subject or you don't need that, like personalized feedback, that, of course, may be the perfect fit for you. But if you're somebody that is willing to commit the time to something like a six month mastermind, you would love or need the extra level of accountability, you want more personalized coaching from somebody that's been there, and you know, want that immediate feedback, mastermind may be the perfect fit for you. And so it is very different from a course the investment is higher than a course. But man, the level of intimacy and the things that you get from a mastermind, go far beyond what you get in a course. And so I know for me, I have met some of the greatest people in the world in masterminds that even like the networking level, there is one mastermind I was a part of, that I didn't learn that much from, but the fact that I was able to connect with the people that I did in that mastermind, made all the difference, you know, this world is about who you know, and I can like confidently say that my business would not be what it is today. And it would not, you know, be shaped like it is my team wouldn't be shaped like it is if I wasn't a part of that one mastermind that I felt like I didn't learn much from because it was all about, you know, connecting with people. And, you know, I met amazing people through those people and things like that, that you just don't get from a course. So that could be something that you're looking for as well, is just like wanting to be closer with people or you know, be in an inner circle for somebody. So anyway, all that to say,
if you want to join my mastermind, if the things that I've said sound enticing. You're like Rebecca, I would love that like to be in your inner circle for six months get to learn from you in that super personalized way, then applications are open, you can apply today, right now at Rebecca rice photo.com/mastermind. That'll take you straight to the application. And we'll link it here in the show notes for you if you want. And if you're listening to this and applications are closed, that link will take you to a waitlist. So either way, but right now it's open if you're listening, like in real time with us. So you can go ahead and apply again applications are first come first serve, and I do start filling spots, once applications start coming in, so I'll give it like 24 hours to let the first like wave of people come through. But if you're not sure if you would be the best fit or if you're quite ready, apply anyway, let me decide. Let me help you and have the conversation of whether you're ready for it or not. Because like I said, I am not the kind of person that will let somebody pay me and be a part of my mastermind if you're not ready for it that if you're not going to benefit from it or whatnot. I won't let you do it. I'll wait until you are ready. And so if you're not sure Maisel apply anyway and see what happens but I'm like super, super excited to see the applications come in. And we've already had like, he's just come in, which is super exciting, but I'm super pumped to see who we get and I'm just really excited to see who you know, I get to spend the next six months with so all that to say go apply if you feel like a mastermind may be good for you and and if not, no worries, no hard feelings. I have so many other resources. You know for you I have courses and templates and mini courses and you know, a membership and all that other stuff that you know you can also benefit from so anyway, that's all I have for masterminds. Don't forget to apply and we will see you this time next week with a whole new topic. So hope you guys have a great week. Bye
