Coaches, Courses, Mentors & Masterminds

_{885 Words | 3 min 41 Sec Read}

VC Daily Digest is a daily smart digest that sends morning venture insights, funding updates, and startup stories direct to your inbox.

Join 7500+ Founders & Investors by clicking here now 🚀

Welcome to another issue of Passionate Income.

Today we’ll be discussing the top four methods entrepreneurs use to grow their companies through education. In particular, coaching, courses, mentors and masterminds.

As someone who’s spent tens of thousands of dollars on all of the above, I can tell you first-hand all four have their Pros and Cons. And if you drop serious money into something that ends up being a bad fit, it can be a nightmare. On the flip side, the right investment can help you grow your business at lightning speed.

Let’s dive in.

#1 - Coaching 👥

As someone who’s spent serious money on coaching, I’ve had both great and horrible experiences.

The good thing about coaching is that - assuming the person actually knows what they’re doing - it is arguably the most affordable way to shortcut the learning curve. Mainly because the right person will coach you on both the skill(s) you’re trying to improve, and the mindset blocks keeping you down.

Unfortunately, many people who get into coaching either don’t know what they’re talking about, or lack the empathy and skills required to help their students overcome mindset issues. Which, in 90 - 95% of cases, is what’s holding their students back. Because of that, it’s critical you choose your coaches wisely.

#2 - Courses 🖥️

If you haven’t bought a course (or ten), are you really an entrepreneur?

Joking aside, while course sellers get a lot of hate, a good info product can be worth it’s weight in gold. Mainly because all it takes is one insight - one golden nugget - to help you achieve the type of breakthrough that leads to you reaching the next level in your business.

Sadly, 95% of courses are worthless.

From outdated information to ‘gurus’ who are great at marketing themselves, but suck at whatever skill they teach, it can be hard to separate the good from the bad. Our tip: If they offer low priced info products, start with those to see how good they are before you drop serious cash on something.

#3 - Mentors 👩‍💼

A common misconception in business is people referring to their coaches and consultants (who they pay money to every month) as mentors.

This is a misnomer, as paying someone means they are by definition not your mentor. To the contrary, mentors are people who go out of their way to coach you for free. Usually because you had some kind of pre-existing relationship, and/or because they see potential in you and want to help you succeed.

Sounds awesome right?

Sadly, legitimately mentoring someone is a serious commitment. And since most truly successful people are short on time, it can be hard for them to mentor more than one person on an ongoing basis (assuming they have the time and willingness to mentor anyone at all).

#4 - Masterminds 🧠

As Napoleon Hill discusses in Think and Grow Rich, when two people put their heads together, 1 + 1 = 2. But when you get 20 or 30 people together, the “hive mind” creates a scenario where 1 + 1 + 1 = 100.

Mainly because the cross-pollination of ideas, experiences, and overcoming obstacles allows for hyper-speed growth. The problem?

First, masterminds are typically the most expensive method of learning. Reason being, most MMs cost $10,000 to $25,000+, and involve traveling to in-person meetups that can last entire weekends (if not a full week).

Second, just because you’re sitting in a room with 20 people doesn’t mean you’re going to grow. In reality, the caliber of people you’re interacting with matters a lot. And because of that, most masterminds require your business achieve X level of success before they even consider letting you in.

#5 - Books (Bonus) 📚

As an avid reader, I’m a huge fan of books. The fact you can download decades of an expert’s wisdom for $5, $10 or $15 is insane.

Unfortunately, reading is a passive activity. And in most cases, the handful of nuggets you get are drowned out by hours and hours of fluff. Further, just because you achieve an insight as a result of reading does not mean you’ve improved your life or business.

Instead, you’ll only see real improvement when you take what you learned and put it into action. Which is precisely where most book readers fall short: Instead of implementing their newfound knowledge, they treat books like entertainment.

💡 Takeaway: Between coaches, courses, mentors and masterminds (and even books), there are multiple ways you can learn, improve your skills, and shortcut the process of improving your business/career. Some of which may or may not be suited to your learning style, budget, etc.

Because of that, you’ll want to consider the Pros and Cons of each before investing a serious sum into your ongoing education.

I'll leave you with this quote…

Post Of The Day

Tweet Of The Day