The Scrappy Peer-to-Peer Mastermind
Pool money with peers to buy access to an expert you couldn't afford alone
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
The mechanism inverts how masterminds normally work. Instead of paying a host who profits from curating a group, or buying into a large organization that sorts you into a cohort, you self-organize. One person volunteers to organize a not-for-profit peer group, sets a per-head contribution, and collects payment upfront. The pooled sum becomes a budget large enough to make an expert's time worthwhile. An operator who would never do a one-on-one, or whose hourly rate is prohibitive, will happily spend ninety minutes with twenty people who have collectively raised a meaningful fee, especially when they can layer in their own benefits like content creation or exposure. Because contributions can range from $100 to $10,000, the model scales to any business stage. The organizing principle is scrappy action: no rules, no gatekeepers, just results.
Origin
Jasmine Star's friend Stacey Tuchel invited twenty peers to an invite-only, not-for-profit mastermind in November 2023, pooling contributions to bring in Leila Hormozi to consult in Las Vegas.
Core principles
- 01Access to high-level rooms is gated by money, but the gate can be built rather than paid for
- 02A not-for-profit, peer-organized group removes the host's profit motive and lowers the barrier
- 03Aggregating many small contributions makes an otherwise-unaffordable expert's time worth their while
- 04Scrappy action beats waiting for perfect conditions because it produces results, not rules
- 05The right speaker is only a couple of steps ahead of your business, not a distant celebrity
How to run it
- 1
Gather peers into a not-for-profit group
Reach out to a group of industry peers or colleagues and invite them to a mastermind you organize but don't profit from. State plainly that you're not making money off it, only organizing it.
Pro tip Being explicit about the not-for-profit framing builds the trust that gets people to say yes quickly.
- 2
Set the price and make paying easy
Set a per-person investment amount everyone in your strata can afford and facilitate a simple way to collect payment.
Pro tip Contributions can be $100, $1,000, or $10,000. Pick a number your peer group can actually clear.
- 3
Lock the budget once payment clears
Once everyone has paid and attendance is guaranteed, you now have a defined budget to hire a speaker.
Watch out Collect first. A speaker will treat a confirmed $50,000 budget completely differently from a hopeful $3,000 inquiry.
- 4
Recruit a speaker a few steps ahead
Use the pooled budget to invite someone further along in their career or with a specialty the group wants, offering enough that the time is worth theirs.
Pro tip Let the speaker stack their own wins onto the deal, such as filming content or short travel, so the yes is easy.
In the wild
Stacey Tuchel invited twenty people to an invite-only, not-for-profit mastermind and had everyone chip in an equal amount. The pooled money was enough to bring in Leila Hermosa, CEO of Acquisition.com, who does not take one-on-one clients. She agreed because Las Vegas was her hometown, she could bring her videographer to film high-end content, and she could speak on business strategy to an engaged group. Each attendee got high-level one-on-one insight into their business that none could have bought alone.
→ Twenty entrepreneurs received personalized insight from an operator they could never have hired individually.
Common mistakes
Approaching a speaker before collecting money
Inquiring with a vague budget gets you nowhere. A speaker weighs a confirmed pooled fee very differently from a tentative ask, so lock the money and attendance first.
Assuming you need celebrity-level money
People fixate on the huge numbers required for elite masterminds and quit before trying. The contribution can be modest and the speaker only a couple of steps ahead of you.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and solopreneurs who want proximity to more experienced operators but lack the capital to buy into elite masterminds.
Not ideal for
Someone unwilling to organize logistics or who has no peer network to draw a small group from.
From the transcript
“You can get together with a group of people to pull money to bring in a speaker.”
“I wanted to remind you that your investment can be $100, $1,000, $10,000, whatever it is you need that other people in your similar strata…”
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