The No.1 Mistake People Make When Starting Their Mastermind

Thinking about transitioning your one-to-one coaching clients into a mastermind, but worried about losing them - or the depth of transformation you provide?

I’m sharing the exact process that’s allowed me to successfully move my clients into masterminds, without sacrificing results or relationships.

What You'll Learn:

00:00 Full with one-to-one clients? Start here
01:22 The video I sent to move 20 of my clients from 1:1 coaching to a mastermind model
02:17 The mindset shifts in transitioning to a mastermind model
04:29 The strategy of moving people into your mastermind
06:12 You lose clients if they think you’ve stopped caring

You don’t lose clients from evolving your offers. You lose them if they don’t feel cared for. When you center their desired outcomes, most clients will gladly evolve with you.

LINKS:

FREE GUIDE: Sell Out & Retain Mastermind Clients in 2026: https://ellieswift.com/mastermind2026

Connect with Ellie on Instagram: https://instagram.com/elliehswift

Subscribe to Inside The Mastermind Newsletter: https://ellieswift.com/newsletter

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elliehswift

Keen to work together?

1. Sell Out Your Mastermind: The Mastermind Model - https://ellieswift.com/model
2. Be Coached By Ellie to $500k+ : The Scalable Freedom Mastermind - https://ellieswift.com/scalablefreedom

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you are full to the brim with one-to-one clients, like I once was, then you probably know already it's time to move to a group. But you also love the depth and transformation that you help your clients to get and you don't want that to suffer. If that's you, keep listening. It sounds like a mastermind is for you. If you're an online coach or a consultant, a paid mastermind is the smartest way to scale your online business for freedom. I'm Ellie Swift. Welcome to the side of the internet that teaches you exactly how to do that. As someone who's made more than$4 million running masterminds with retention rates that average 80% plus. A word of warning. This is for the discerning coach with skills and expertise who wants to have an amazing business and lifestyle and help their clients to get great results. If that's you, let's go. All right, let's talk about how to transition your clients from one-to-one to a mastermind without losing them. What do I know about this? So when I moved to a mastermind, I was working with 27 one-to-one clients. I know it was a lot. 20 of them joined my mastermind. Seven of them I kept working with one-to-one. I didn't lose any of them in the process. And the thing that was even better than that is that I stopped working 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. five days a week. And now I run a mastermind that I deliver in less than 10 hours a week. There's one very specific reason why I believe that is. I share this process really in depth inside my program, the Mastermind Model. And it's one that my students have told me time and time again has helped them get the same result. In fact, I shared the exact video that I sent in 2019 when I switched my clients from one-to-one into the mastermind. Fun fact, I was wearing loungewear at the time of recording it, not camera ready at all. So today I'm gonna share a little bit more about the overall concept so that you can apply it for yourself too. So here's the thing: you know that a mastermind is going to serve your business more, but you've decided that it doesn't serve your clients. You think right now that they favor one-to-one coaching over and above all other types and containers. And because of that, your brain has decided that you're gonna lose all your clients the minute you pose a mastermind. That's negativity bias, my friend, and we need to get you out of it. So we wanna start with the belief that a mastermind is going to serve your clients far more than one-to-one coaching ever would. Now, seven years into running masterminds, I have evidence that this is in fact absolutely true. You might not yet have that same evidence, so you can for sure borrow my belief around this for now. What I know is that you need to really shift that belief for yourself over time. And so let me talk you through a few things that are gonna help you to do that, and then we'll talk about the strategy of how we're actually gonna make that switch. Right. So the first belief. Belief number one is that clients don't get their best results from access to you, they get them from perspective. Now, most coaches assume that results come from more time with the coach. In reality, what I found to be true is that the biggest breakthroughs happen when clients hear how other people are thinking. They see how other people apply the same concept and they realize that they're not uniquely behind or different or doing something wrong. It's just part of the process. So a mastermind gives your client that expanded perspective. And this is the whole concept of we're the product of the people we spend the most time with. Now, when you bring together other incredible people, you accelerate results. All right, now the second belief here is that the container matters more than the format. It's not one-to-one versus mastermind that determines results. It's clarity of expectations within that container. It's the quality of the structure, and it's the strength of the facilitation of you as the coach, mentor, consultant. It's also the standard that you hold inside that room. A well-run mastermind with clear leadership will outperform scattered one-to-one support every single time. Third belief I want you to know is that clients will mirror your belief about the mastermind that you're creating. So if you're creating a mastermind to help them get bigger results, you tell them that. You want to be creating a mastermind that is significantly better than one-to-one. And then you tell them all the ways that it is better. When you do that, they will be bought in to your experience. They will sign, they will re-sign, they'll see the value. Now, let's talk about the strategy. So the how. We've got the beliefs down. Let's talk about how we're actually gonna move people into that mastermind. So, what I recommend you do is that you pitch the idea to each client individually based on their unique goals. So instead of making this about you and saying, hey, I've evolved my business. We're moving to this mastermind format. You're gonna do five really specific things. And I recommend doing this via video. All right, the first thing you're gonna do is you're gonna anchor the conversation into their goals. So you're gonna reflect back to them what they've told you they want this year. For example, I know you want to scale to 200k plus in your coaching business and you wanna introduce a group offer to help you do that. All right, so you've named what they want. Secondly, you name the ceiling of the one-to-one support. I've been thinking about how I can best support you moving forward. And I don't believe one-to-one coaching is the most effective container for this next phase that you're in. The third thing you do, you position the mastermind as the next step. So, what's really gonna support you in this next level of growth is being in a room with other high-level business owners like yourself, navigating the same challenges and growth edges at the same time. All right, fourth, you share your considered approach. I've been working on something behind the scenes and I've been really intentional about how it supports you. Let me walk you through what this will look like. Here's where you share the outcomes first and foremost, the structure and the investment for them. And finally, you frame it as a loving invitation for them. Now, based on what you've told me that you want, this is exactly what I would recommend, and I'd love to hear how this lands for you. So if you're sitting there listening to this five-step process and you're thinking, I know a mastermind is my next move, but I'm really scared that I'm gonna lose people, I want you to hear this, my friend. You don't lose clients when you evolve your model. You lose clients if they think that you've stopped caring about them and their results. Now, you and I both know that this is a mutually beneficial decision. You wouldn't be making it if it wasn't. And when you center the conversation on their goals, not your business, most of them are not going to resist that change. All right, if you want more on the exact strategies that I'm recommending to sell and deliver your mastermind in 2026, make sure you get your hands on the guide, the five main strategies to sell out your mastermind in 2026. You can check it out via the show notes, the link below, or head on over directly to elliswift.com forward slash mastermind2026.