Speaker 1: 0:54

Hello and welcome to SEO is not that hard. I'm your host, ed Dawson, the founder of the SEO intelligence platform, keywordspeakleasercom, where we help you discover the questions people ask online and learn how to optimize your content to build traffic and authority. I've been in SEO and online marketing for over 20 years and I'm here to share the wealth of knowledge, hints and tips I've amassed over that time. Hello, welcome back to SEO is not that hard. It's me here, ed Dawson, as usual, and today it should be, if this is all scheduled correctly, the 19th of March, wednesday, the 19th of March 2025. And today I'm actually away at a mastermind. Now, if you don't know what a mastermind is, it's basically it's a small, focused and highly motivated group of like-minded people who meet regularly to share ideas, challenges and strategies, and the concept was popularized by um napoleon hill in his book think and grow rich, where he described it as a coordination of knowledge and effort in the spirit of harmony towards a common goal. I don't agree with everything I think and grow rich, but the um, the concept of mastermind, is one I really do enjoy and basically it's all about collaboration over competition. So in a mastermind, all the members work together, we share experiences, insights and sometimes even resources to help us yeah, each overcome obstacles, um, and it's not like traditional networking where you might just, you know simply exchange business cards with people, um, and see them only infrequently and never really understand and learn exactly what they're about. A mastermind is different. It's a commitment to mutually helping each other grow, and it's also about accountability and support. So it's not just about sharing ideas. It also helps you accountable for your goals. I know I've talked about accountability before and I've been using the accountability method with you guys with the growth framework that I'm building. But when you're part of a group that meets regularly, you're more likely to follow through on your commitments. If you're constantly talking to people these people about things you want to do, problems, things, how you're going to solve them, that kind of thing then if you know that you're going to talk to them again about it and they're going to ask you about it, means you're more likely to follow through on your commitments. Now I would recommend highly to everybody and I've done episodes, but an episode about this before, but I just thought, being as I'm away at one, it's worth really sort of going over this again.

Speaker 1: 3:12

So why are masterminds so beneficial for people in SEO and online business or any business in general. First of all, fresh perspectives. Working in SEO or an online business, it can sometimes feel really solitary. A mastermind brings together people with different viewpoints, experiences and expertise, and it can really help you identify blind spots in your strategies that you might not have spotted and discover new opportunities that you haven't seen. Helps you with rapid problem solving. If you hit a roadblock, you can call on the people in your mastermind group. They're like a think tank and instead of struggling on your own, you can tap into the collective sort of group wisdom to try and find solutions faster. I've actually even talked about this case where there was a friend of mine who was selling products on Amazon being hit by a competitor who leaving negative reviews against his products. This guy he's in this mastermind group and when he had this problem, he called us all together and we looked through all the data and we really helped sort of find fresh perspectives for him and how to solve it.

Speaker 1: 4:17

A identifying the issue and then how to solve it gives you motivation and accountability. Regular meetings create like this kind of built-in accountability systems so you share your goals with others. You're more likely to stay on track and a group can offer both support and constructive pressure when needed. It's good for learning and growth. Masterminds are a great way of learning new things. When you're talking to each other about what you've all been up to, you'll find new techniques, possibilities, tools that you might not have found otherwise. You know, in a group helps foster that kind of like continuous education, really, and it gives you great networking opportunities. You build these strong relationships with people in a mastermind. They each have their own other people and network that they know. So if you are trying to find clients or a new service provider or any kind of thing that you need to go out there, they kind of give you an extended network and you know, because you're in this mastermind, you know these people well that they're. You're only going to get trustworthy, honest information out of them.

Speaker 1: 5:18

So if you want to find a mastermind and you like the idea, then here's some tips on trying to find one. First of all, you want to think about what your goals are. So think about what you want to achieve. Are you looking for accountability, idea generation or networking? Knowing the kind of things that you're after will help sort of align the right people with your needs. The group I'm in originally came together as an Amazon-based mastermind. I used to sell on Amazon. Some of the guys in the group still sell on Amazon, some don't anymore. Some of us have moved on to other things, but we are now so invested into each other that it doesn't matter that we're not completely Amazon focused anymore, but it was Amazon that brought us together in the first place.

Speaker 1: 6:03

Start within your industry. Look for similar people or mastermind groups that focus on you know if it's SEO or digital marketing or online business, these groups of members are facing similar challenges and understand the same nuances of the industry you're working in. Look within your existing networks. Check with your professional networks like LinkedIn groups or in online communities like Reddit or specialist forums. Often, other professionals are aware of active masterminds or possibly in the process of forming one. If you attend industry conferences or webinars, many of these events have networking sessions or breakout groups and these can sort of lead to informal creation of mastermind groups. A lot of groups will start with people who originally know it should start with and maybe pull in some other people.

Speaker 1: 6:46

And finally, there are paid options. You know some people actually establish masterminds and charge a fee for them. Now they can come with a cost, but they often have a very structured format and a commitment from all members. I've never tried a paid mastermind so I can't offer any kind of information on how good they are. But I would say, you know, if you're struggling for any other way, then do look at that and just try and err on this. You know, don't be afraid to try out a few sessions before committing. You know, if you're finding the group dynamic isn't for you, then you don't have to stick with it. You know a mastermind should be supportive, it should be constructive. It shouldn that a mastermind should be supportive, it should be constructive. It shouldn't be a place where you feel judged or out of sync.

Speaker 1: 7:27

And how do you get the most out of a mastermind if you join one? Well, first of all, you need to come to each meeting with your updates ready on your projects, the challenges you're facing, any kind of specific questions you've got. The more prepared you are, the more value you will get and your group will get. Participate actively, don't be a shrinking violet. Share your experiences and insights. It really is very different to any other kind of group that you'll be in, because everyone should be participating and being honest and open with each other.

Speaker 1: 7:58

It's also good to if you can set the clear goals. Think about what you're trying to get out of it. Write down these goals, share them with the group. They're there to help you meet your goals. So if you've got goals, then share them with the group and the accountability is the best thing for me. You've got to embrace that accountability. You need to commit to your goals and let the group hold you accountable. Regularly checking in with your group will help you stay focused and motivated and be open to feedback. A good mastermind will give honest feedback, even if it's stuff that people don't want to hear. But the goal isn't to beat you down. Okay, people are trying to help you succeed. If they don't think what you're doing is going to help you succeed, they should let you know and you should be open-minded and be willing to change tack. If that's what you need to do, follow up between meetings, keep that momentum going. You know, just because you're in, you have, say, maybe more formalized meetings doesn't mean that you can't follow up informally between them, and if that's the right thing to do, then do um and then evaluate whether a group's been effective for you. If you're in a mastermind and it's not meeting your needs, you're not getting the support, then maybe it's time to leave, duck out, find a different group or maybe adjust the group format that you're in.

Speaker 1: 9:08

So back to my experience, this mastermind I'm in, as I said I mentioned earlier. We've been in this group for over 10 years now and it was formed by one guy in the group, richard um, who's kind of been the linchpin that keeps us all together. To be fair, um, now, when we first started over 10 years ago, we had very formalized, regular online meetings, zoom calls, with a very set format, which worked well for us at the time when we were all working towards Amazon. Now we're a much slightly more informal group. We have less as a formal sort of zoom meeting. Um, get-togethers we do. If anyone wants to call a meeting, if someone's got an issue and wants to call a meeting, then we will all find time for each other. Um, we now spend a lot of time on whatsapp, um, and we've actually become not just a group, a mastermind group, we're actually now a group of friends.

Speaker 1: 10:04

I can see, you know, I consider all the people in the group friends. Um, you know one guy, um, greg. He actually came and stayed up at my house recently because his son, um, does uh, he's getting really into sailing and I live near one of the uk's sort of biggest lakes, um, and there's a big sailing club there and I can actually see it from from the farm. My farm overlooks the, this lake and, um, yeah, and you can actually see the sailing um from our house, so, and that's where his son was doing this course for two days. So he just said, oh, can I come and stay? I was like, yeah, of course you can come and stay, and it was fantastic having him over.

Speaker 1: 10:42

And I say we meet up physically probably about on average once a year, and right now I am in a fantastic airbnb in the cotswolds. We've got like a seven bed place, all luxury, it's got jacuzzi, it's got a sauna, it's got a plunge pool, it's got, you know, everything, everything you could want. It's a nice little village in the cotswolds in the uk and we all met up together and we, you know, we all chip in. We've got a private chef, um, who cooked us a meal last night. Um, obviously I'm recording this in advance so I don't know exactly what we had, but we've had this same private chef. Come to all the meetups that we've done. There's a guy called gee. If you ever want a private chef in the Cotswolds, bristol region of the UK, just send me a message. I'll put you in touch with this guy. He does a fantastic Michelin standard tasting menu for us on the first night every time we get together.

Speaker 1: 11:37

And then we spend the next day. We'll go out for a walk, we'll go for a nice lunch at a nice hotel or a nice pub. Then in the evening on the second day we'll go out for a pub meal and, yeah, we just spend a lot of time talking about what we're up to at the moment, what our businesses are, what problems we've got, the things we're trying to achieve, what we think the future possibilities are. And I say as we all start off as Amazon sellers, but I'm not selling on Amazon anymore anymore. That's a story for another day. Um, I was selling mainly into europe and small products and brexit killed it for us in the uk. Uh, for that. So I I ceased doing amazon a few years ago, but all the stuff I've been doing with seo and affiliate marketing and software as a service and all that I share all that. I help these guys, help me with that, and I share my story with them and my problems with them, and they help with advice. But since then, three of the guys actually sold their Amazon businesses for big seven-figure deals. One guy still in Amazon originally and always has been. He's absolutely smashing it though. He sells in the US, uk, around Europe. I won't give away what he's selling, but he's multiple seven-figure turnover. He's going for a big, big exit. That's what he wants to do.

Speaker 1: 12:57

One of the guys who sold his Amazon business really big in crypto made an absolute fortune in crypto. That's really, really interesting. I wish I'd followed more of his advice, um, because I'd have an awful lot more money now than I do in crypto. I have a little bit of crypto, but I don't know anyway as much as I should have followed his advice. Um, yeah, and we just have a really good time when we get together and the beauty is that we can be so honest with each other about each other's businesses. So when we have good times, we can celebrate it. When we have bad times, we can can discuss it honestly, openly, and get help, get advice, and it's really, really good.

Speaker 1: 13:29

So this is, for me, is a value, and I've now got a group of friends I can call on at any point and I can be completely honest, with no judgment against me, and they know my story, they know everything I've done, they know the things that have worked and haven't worked. So it's just like having a group of really trusted, trusted advisors who you can call on at any point. Uh, with no questions asked and with no judgment. Um, yeah, and so it's five of us and um, it's really, really valuable. So I do, if you, I would suggest anyone who can find this. Even if you can't find it straight away, it's a great thing to have and will help you grow in the future if you can build up something like this, and I strongly recommend it. So, anyway, that's it from me today. Um, so, it wasn't hugely about seo today, but you're an seo to build a business right. This is important. Part of business is to have something like this that you can rely on. So, yeah, strongly recommend it. So, anyway, that's it for now. So until next time, keep optimizing, stay curious and remember seo is not that hard when you understand the basics. Thanks for listening. It means a lot to me.

Speaker 1: 14:32

This is where I get to remind you where you can connect with me and my seo tools and services. You can find links to all the links I mentioned here in the show notes. Just remember, with all these places where I use my name, that ed is spelled with two d's. You can find me on linkedin and blue sky. Just search for ed dawson on both. You can record a voice Thank you. Keywords into related groups so you know what content you need to build topical authority. And finally, connect your Google Search Console account for your sites so we can crawl and understand your actual content, find what keywords you rank for and then help you optimize. Continually refine your content, targeted, personalized advice, keep your traffic growing. If you're interested in learning more about me personally or looking for dedicated consulting advice, then visit wwweddawsoncom. Bye for now and see you in the next episode of SEO is not that hard.