Chris Chandler Yates is a US expat currently living in New Zealand. Once a police officer, Chris has transitioned into running Masterminds, and these aren't your typical business gatherings – some even involve motorcycles!
My interest in Masterminds was piqued through Napoleon Hill's "Think & Grow Rich," and in this episode, Chris and I delve into the intricacies of curating and participating in Masterminds, whether in person or online.
Chris sheds light on the often-overlooked issue of loneliness among ex-cops, leading him to create a unique not-for-profit Mastermind called "The Debriefing Room." This safe space allows current and former police officers from around the world to come together and share their experiences.
Tune in for an engaging discussion on connecting people with a purpose through Masterminds, and discover the diverse range of topics these gatherings can encompass – including ones with a touch of adventure, like motorcycle-themed Masterminds!
Get in touch with Chris:
Email - Chris@makemoremarbles.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/chrischandleryates
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.chandleryates
Mentioned on this episode:
https://motorcyclemastermind.com/
https://mastermindtomillions.live/
https://makemoremarbles.com/
Episodes You Might Enjoy:
#18 – Josephine Palermo – How Retreats Enliven Our Soul and Bring Kindred Spirits Together : https://youtu.be/gbyxLVLKAjs
---
I hope our conversation inspires you to rediscover connection in your personal or professional life.
Subscribe now and let the magic unfold.
Love & sparkles,
✨Shelley
About Your Host
Hi, I'm Shelley Doyle, a Social Wealth Strategist and Connection Coach, helping remote and hybrid leaders who are struggling to find a balance between tasks and relationships, within and beyond the workplace.
I combine cutting-edge research on social wealth, social health, social capital, and social tech, with two decades in corporate communications to deliver mind-shifting talks, workshops, and programs around the world.
Find me at TheCommuniverse.com and on LinkedIn.
Global Workshop Tour "Beyond Screens" launches September 2024.
I also help people who move or work remotely activate their social wealth, so they can feel connected and supported, online and offline, everywhere! Discover More.
To hear when new episodes drop, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, or check out recent episodes.
Chris Chandler Yates is a US expat currently living in New Zealand. Once a police officer, Chris has transitioned into running Masterminds, and these aren't your typical business gatherings – some even involve motorcycles!
My interest in Masterminds was piqued through Napoleon Hill's "Think & Grow Rich," and in this episode, Chris and I delve into the intricacies of curating and participating in Masterminds, whether in person or online.
Chris sheds light on the often-overlooked issue of loneliness among ex-cops, leading him to create a unique not-for-profit Mastermind called "The Debriefing Room." This safe space allows current and former police officers from around the world to come together and share their experiences.
Tune in for an engaging discussion on connecting people with a purpose through Masterminds, and discover the diverse range of topics these gatherings can encompass – including ones with a touch of adventure, like motorcycle-themed Masterminds!
Get in touch with Chris:
Email - Chris@makemoremarbles.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/chrischandleryates
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.chandleryates
Mentioned on this episode:
https://motorcyclemastermind.com/
https://mastermindtomillions.live/
https://makemoremarbles.com/
Episodes You Might Enjoy:
#18 – Josephine Palermo – How Retreats Enliven Our Soul and Bring Kindred Spirits Together : https://youtu.be/gbyxLVLKAjs
---
I hope our conversation inspires you to rediscover connection in your personal or professional life.
Subscribe now and let the magic unfold.
Love & sparkles,
✨Shelley
About Your Host
Hi, I'm Shelley Doyle, a Social Wealth Strategist and Connection Coach, helping remote and hybrid leaders who are struggling to find a balance between tasks and relationships, within and beyond the workplace.
I combine cutting-edge research on social wealth, social health, social capital, and social tech, with two decades in corporate communications to deliver mind-shifting talks, workshops, and programs around the world.
Find me at TheCommuniverse.com and on LinkedIn.
Global Workshop Tour "Beyond Screens" launches September 2024.
I also help people who move or work remotely activate their social wealth, so they can feel connected and supported, online and offline, everywhere! Discover More.
To hear when new episodes drop, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, or check out recent episodes.
And for me, like one of my really big things, is about loneliness and finding ways to feel less alone, particularly when we're working from home in silos, when we're not able to go very far or when we're moving. So we're moving to a location and we haven't found our people yet. Do you think that masterminds are a way to having that regular time with familiar faces? Do you think that can lend itself to overcoming feelings of loneliness?
Speaker 2:Oh, definitely Again, ex-cop, you want to talk to people that have the biggest need to be around people and camaraderie and feel like they fit in. We were talking to cops. We literally strive for it every day. It's one of the reasons that cops take their own life within five years after they leave the job is because they feel like they have nobody around, which is one reason that I'm starting this free debriefing group for police and police communicators, because there's that camaraderie side. You need some people that are outside of your inner circle. But yeah, same for me. I'm part of a group that's all law enforcement ex or current law enforcement that have struggled with some sort of trauma or just want to come and have a conversation. It's called Power of Our Story and I joined in with that middle of COVID and it's virtual and it was just because, again, it felt like it was good.
Speaker 1:Hello, this is Rediscovering Connection and I'm here today with Chris Chandler to talk all things masterminds. This is a very topical conversation for me, since I am almost ready to launch my first mastermind in February 2024. So Chris has been on my radar for some time. I know that masterminds is his thing, so we're gonna get onto the skin of what is a mastermind. How can we use masterminds to really feel connected, to reconnect with people who are like-minded, who are gonna help each other to grow, learn, thrive together. And does it matter where you are? Do they need to be in person or online? We're gonna delve into all of this with Chris today. So welcome Chris. Thank you so much for being with me today.
Speaker 2:Hi, Shelley, Thanks for having me. It's good to be here. Yeah, masterminds have changed my life definitely.
Speaker 1:Hey, exciting. So why don't we go back to the beginning of your mastermind journey? Where did you start and how did masterminds come onto your radar?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my background is originally from Northern California, the US, and then sailed halfway around the world with my parents. Then I got here to New Zealand, where I'm currently based, and then I joined law enforcement and went through a long about seven and a half year policing career, doing everything from front line all the way to protecting the prime minister in New Zealand. So I was a bodyguard as such, if you want to put it in layman terms, but I went through a lot of PTSD, trauma and left the job, almost lost my whole life, marriage, everything. Then did a soul searching trip around the US on a motorcycle, decided I wanted to help people with mental health through fitness and so came back, got my personal training certificate, was doing personal training and this is that was 2017, 2018, resigned from the police, so we're talking like 2018, I was doing personal training, working in gyms, doing boot camps, doing the normal personal training thing. And I heard about this thing called masterminds, which is where you help other people using the collective of the knowledge of everybody and having a leader who facilitates it, and I heard about it started trying to do my own online one-on-one clients online, trying to do a little bit of my own mastermind, creating my own mastermind.
Speaker 2:And then I went to date with Destiny Tony Robbins date with Destiny and then I met my mentor a good friend now as well, brad Hart, at Day with Destiny, who I know we kind of connected through there. I work for him a bit now as well, doing a lot of kind of conversations with people and my wife was actually his buddy. And he comes to me and he goes. I've been doing these masterminds for a while, running masterminds and that, and now I'm gonna help people build them. And I was gonna run a beta thing in 2019. And I was like I'm in, like just call me, let me know when it is.
Speaker 2:And so January 2019, he called me up I was still on a trip from that date with Destiny and he told me about his beta program, his beta mastermind to help people build masterminds, and had some like six and seven figure people that were gonna be in it and I was like I wanna be like them. So yeah, and so I put it on my. I put the first payment on my credit card, didn't know how I was gonna pay it because I was making, if I was lucky, two and a half three grand New Zealand at the time of month and went, cool, I'm gonna go all in. We now fast forward. That was 2019, fast forward five years.
Speaker 2:And that mastermind I just shut it down December 2023. And I had over 600 people come through the mastermind, helping people build their fitness, pass their police entry test and do and build their mindset to not go through what I did as a police officer. So yeah, and then I run other masterminds, like I got a motorcycle mastermind that I started up last year. So I think that answer your question before I go. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I love that Like in our pre-chat and you said about this motorcycle mastermind, because one of the things I wanted to talk to you about was themes, because when I think of mastermind I'm thinking business. I'm thinking you're all gonna be helping each other to with tips, tricks, trials, failures and what wins. You've had to be inspiring each other, right, but tell me about this motorcycle mastermind.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So before I jump into that for your audience, when it comes to masterminds, a lot of masterminds are around business. They're around how do we help each other overcome and solve the business problems, how do we make more, impact, more, and so that is a huge thing. With masterminds, it's kind of where it all set up. Napoleon Hill talks about it and think and grow rich, henry Ford and all those guys doing stuff. And yeah, most of the time it is Now.
Speaker 2:I'm a huge advocate for mental health because of what I went through and have been able to help so many people with. And so last year was it last year? No, it was the end of 2022, I think it was I was like I wanna take I literally you can use masterminds to go on trips, like get yourself paid to do these trips in a way, all because you just bring together people that want to solve a common problem. And so for me, I was like I wanna take my wife to where I went on my motorcycle trip when I was soul searching and refining myself, and so I was like, cool, I'm just gonna do it. I love motorcycles and my wife recently got on started getting on the back of mine, and so I did, and so we did this trip and it's called the tag is ride, grow and recharge, and so it's all about recharging during the week that we do it. It's full VIP, so you don't have to think about anything besides getting on a motorcycle Harley Davidson, actually.
Speaker 2:And then I started doing research around kind of because I knew the impact of it. Riding had it's kind of a sense of meditation for me. So I was like, okay, started doing research, got told hey, the UCLA did some research with Harley Davidson and showed that anxiety drops in a 15 minute ride versus a 15 minute car drive. Anxiety drops like 23%. Your your impact, your your ability to focus increases. Obviously your cortisol levels drop, uh, just from going on a 15 minute motorcycle ride through the same area, through the same roads. And so I was like, okay, cool. So I kind of brought all that in.
Speaker 2:So that's where I kind of came up with the idea of let's do a motorcycle mastermind, also with Brad Hart's help I can't like not talk about him with his help as well. He was like hell, yeah, let's do it. He was the first one to sign up. He's the first one to sign up for the one that we have happening in September, so it's a full VIP. Every day we have a new topic like new intention for the day. That all that all set, and then in every night we'll talk about what came up during the day's ride, which is normally only a couple of hundred miles that we ride, uh, and then we we talk about that at whatever venue or hotel that we're staying at. My wife's an event manager, so she takes care of all the logistics, all that she's been doing.
Speaker 2:She's done. She's done incentives for like million, you know, for big insurance companies and other companies and that taking, you know, their top sales people around the world. So she puts that flavor onto it and so we we stayed at some amazing places through. We went through four corners, so I went to mess a Verde, all these things. But every place we go and stop, we mastermind, and so we'll have different topics. But it's all about growing. So the questions that are getting asked are asked are different, different growth questions than every person that we bring is the growth. So the whole thing is about helping you recharge. You walk away with tools and strategies to not have to wait for that next holiday or vacation, but you can actually recharge yourself quickly through just mindset tips, just through asking yourself better questions. And so we just mastermind every day and ride and see some really cool scenery. This next one's going to be up in New York during the fall, so we're looking forward to the scenery for that, because haven't been up there before.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. And is there anything kind of before you gather to introduce the different riders to one another or anything after the mastermind, like as a follow up to keep the conversation moving? Yeah, so what?
Speaker 2:so what we did is we just created you know, you can do Facebook groups, you can do different things we just created. Most people that were on the ride were all had iPhones, so we just created a group chat and then we just let group chat still goes, like we still message each other and we'll drop motorcycle things in there. We'll drop some different wins that have happened, different things, like one of the guys just got married recently, so he was posting videos and photos of his way of his of getting married and different things. So so, yeah, so we kind of connected that way and then, obviously, leading up to it, we're sending out email blasts of telling people what to expect and what we're going to be doing and and the little like the more fine details than what are on the website.
Speaker 1:I love it. And I interviewed a woman named Josephine Palermo last week who runs retreats so very different to to this but actually not too different in the delivery of it, and she's done a couple of them so far and this next one that she's running she is going to have three dedicated sessions afterwards to keep that conversation, to keep that conversation moving. But that's trial and error and she's realized actually there is that there is that demand for that from the people that come. And something that she also said was about the unlikely relationships that form at these events. And she was nervous at her last one because the youngest person was 19 and the oldest person was in their sixties and she was like, is this going to work? And they ended up forming this unlikely friendship during the session. So, yeah, I love to hear that that's the power of masterminds.
Speaker 2:It doesn't really matter at your age. You're all there for a collective reason. So, like for my motorcycle mastermind, they're all there because they want, they love to ride. We instantly have a common interest and they want to actually grow and develop. So we're not talking you're, you know, you're, you're, you're, you're a Harley guy who just wants to, like you know, ride and do hundreds of miles. I mean, I'm part of other groups that are like that I can ride, I can do 700 miles in a day and be totally happy and do it for a week, whereas this ride is more around. Let's figure out ways to recharge, let's connect, let's grow.
Speaker 2:I mean, we talk business as well. Obviously, brad Hart's there. He talks masterminds, he talks masterminds. We had another guy who does businesses and helps people with systemization. So we were talking, we talked some system systems within business. We had a celebrity there who happens to be my uncle as well. I managed to get him to come along Kyle Chandler. So he came, he might come on this next one. We're trying to get some another celebrity to come on this next one.
Speaker 2:And then also, out of the woodwork, a third cousin of mine came along, who's border patrol. So, yeah, so he, they came along and my cousin was like, hey, I want to learn more about this business stuff. Like how can I do stuff so that after I'm off of you know, I get a retire from border patrol? I have some sort of nest egg or something that I'm kind of kind of going? So we were, we talked one night, we just talked business stuff all night long.
Speaker 2:It was so funny I think it was like day two my uncle, who he we're sitting there talking to each other and still all of us, and he goes is this an intervention? Like, is there somebody? Like is something going on? Like, because that's the kind of depth that we're kind of going into None of us. Like it was just all the cards were laid on the table. And that's the thing with it is like you'll get these things from people from all different walks of life that can come together and they all want to help solve, solve a common problem or struggle from from each other. And that's the. That's the amazing thing with masterminds is you can do anything with them, as long as you know the facilitator can put the right people in the room.
Speaker 1:Right and curate the experience because it is. It is a big responsibility as a facilitator, I think, because you do need to. You do need to drive it in the right direction and make sure that everyone's really going to get that value out of it, but meanwhile also surrendering at times to just allow what's needed to emerge.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly so finding that balance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is finding that balance and, you know, not pushing people too hard and not, you know, but still pushing people hard enough that they get out of their comfort zone and and getting them to actually, you know, getting people to actually ask the right questions and give the right advice, because that can be some of the biggest thing with a mastermind. It's not all about what the facilitator knows, it's about what each person can bring and help out with, Because when you, when you're able to actually, you know, do that, and people are asking and giving the right advice, which is advice that they've actually proven that it's worked for them, then that's when the whole thing just explodes. If you have people just giving ideas and giving things that could work, that's when it kind of, I mean, yeah, you get lots of ideas, but we have so many we all have so many ideas as business owners and entrepreneurs that we don't need more ideas, we need solutions to yes, what's flying, yes, love it.
Speaker 1:And then, as the facilitator, do you feel like you're able to also be a, be a participant as well and be kind of open up as much as all the other participants are in that space?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, like for my motorcycle one. Yes, because you have, like I definitely have time to like, chill and think and like I pondered the same things that I set for each person each day. And then the questions like I have a, I'm an ex-cop, so I have a. I have a tendency to kind of hold like I've got to force myself to, you know, really lay my cards out for everybody. But that's the great thing with like a multi-day one is where you can actually, you know, it gives you that time to trust I mean, most of the people that I knew, I knew on the trip, and I obviously facilitate them together.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you do, because you can actually facilitate and make it so that you can be like, hey, actually I'm going to put myself in the hot seat and this is what I'm struggling with at the moment. This is what I need assistance with. You know, what do you guys have for me? And so that's the thing when you do like you know, for depending on how you're running it, you know, it just depends on kind of what you can do, so you can do that Like on a motorcycle one, we each, every night, we each would ask at least one question, and so we'd come to the evening with a different question Got so much so that my wife went and bought. She found at this little store this little conversation starter cards, and so one night we just literally started handing out conversation starter cards, not because we didn't have questions to ask, but just because it was just something new and questions that we wouldn't normally think of.
Speaker 1:Right and I've been playing with this a little bit in the work that I do like different relationship deepening games and there was one by a name, by a guy named Arthur Aaron, and he came up with this 39 questions. I think it was designed for love and it was like through through a university came up with these questions and they you go through 15 minutes on each level. So level one 15 minutes, very top line. Basically like if you had a dinner party, what celebrities would you invite round tonight? So that every every time, if you want to repeat these questions every day, it's going to be different, because every day you're going to feel like having someone else over for dinner. Then you, you sit in the alarm for 15 minutes and it doesn't matter how many questions you've got through, and you ask each other the same question that you ask. So you only ask something that you would be willing to answer Right.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:And then you go down level level deeper. So I have trialled this with a few people but I found actually doing it with someone I didn't know going down to level three was actually a little bit too intimate and a bit unnecessary. But actually doing it with people that I know was great.
Speaker 2:That's the great thing, whether like an ongoing mastermind or even like a longer mastermind, as you do start, and even those smaller, intimate lines, I keep my masterminds currently at that, like you know, kind of that, 15 kind of people are motorcycle, one is maxed out at eight people total. So there's, you know, there's a chase car, then there's, you know, myself, my wife, and then there's about six participants, six to maximum, eight participants depending on this. Last one only had four, one, two had four participants. So it was nice because you're all intimate, you're all get to know each other. You understand, you know the little quirks about each other and that, but also you, by day seven, we're sitting there Like we know things about each other that, like partners, probably have taken ages to get to know. Because you have that time to get to know each other and then you can dive deep into those, like the conversations we had on day one completely different to conversations we had on day six.
Speaker 1:You started to build that trust. And yeah, something in my research is about reciprocal vulnerability and if someone's willing to shift, someone's willing to go a level deeper and you're kind of going steady in stages, then that's when you can really feel feel the trust.
Speaker 2:And that's the. That's the importance of doing like when it comes to masterminds. That's the importance of doing your market research on the people and also being really clear on who you invite into the mastermind, because if you invite one wrong person it can change the dynamic of the whole mastermind and people won't feel that trust, they won't feel like there's that reciprocal there. They, you know, they might, you know they'll stand off, as I've had. I've had seeds that I've had to fire out of my math, my police entry mastermind, because it was just like this person is destroying the group because of just their attitude around life, like they're just not far enough along and in their experience to be able to actually, or they've had past traumas that they need to go deal with before they come.
Speaker 2:Therapy needs to come, get some other stuff done and then come back because they're bringing too much past trauma with them and they need to, you know they. They need to deal with that. So, because otherwise everybody's feeling that energy and people stop turning up, stop. People, you know, struggle to actually, you know, share their, their vulnerabilities. So the market research side of stuff and the and the clarity calls and the on on boarding is is probably more essential than actually what you're going to be doing in the mastermind.
Speaker 2:Because if you have the wrong people, the mastermind is not going to matter anyway, it's going to die a very quick death.
Speaker 1:Especially with that small size right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's no hiding. Especially, you know, if there's a, if it's less than like 20 people, there's no hiding.
Speaker 1:So so you're vetting, so you're vetting process. You would have kind of an application, you'd have a vet, you'd have a clarity call to like check that there's, that you're vibing with that person, yeah, so how we?
Speaker 2:how I kind of run it and this is what Brad taught me. You know, brad's been doing masterminds for 15 years I think now 1215 years. I've been doing them for about five. And so the key thing is is first, like when you're trying to think of a mastermind and you really want to get some market research done, you really want to, you know, really want to have conversations with people and see what is actually needed and wanted, because otherwise you're selling them something that they don't actually want or need and so you won't actually close anybody, you won't actually get anybody in your mastermind. And then from there, so that's like a 10 minute conversation with somebody just to get to know them, kind of like a discovery vetting kind of thing. And then from there you're like, yeah, this person could do pretty well, but we need to get to know you more. And also you want them to get to know you. That's when you do like what someone call your sales call, or you know your enrollment call, or you know clarity call whatever you want to name you want to put on it but that's like you know a longer conversation to really get to know what they want, what they need and are they right for the right for the call.
Speaker 2:And you know there's certain people for my motorcycle mastermind where I'm like you're not experienced enough to riding a motorcycle because we're doing long days, we're doing long miles and we're not on small bikes, it's kind of the big one.
Speaker 2:And then there's other people that it's like, wait a second, your mind is not like, you're more about speed and yahooing and doing dumb stuff on bikes. We just a cruising, having a good time yes, hitting twisties and, you know, having fun, but we're not about like let's do wheelies and dumb stuff. So you know, those are kind of some of the things. With that one, with my police one has been like people that like literally just aren't right for the program. It's you're not, you're not at the place where you're mature enough or that. I feel like you're actually going to make a great, like you need to go work on you before you even think about the police and you get some life experience, things like that. So you get to know those people before you join them and some slip through the cracks sadly, but most of the time it's pretty good.
Speaker 1:And it sounds like quite a few of yours are in person and I know wonder. I'm sure there's a lot that are online as well. I'm just wondering how you find the difference between in person masterminds versus online, or perhaps a hybrid of the two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my main, my main mastermind, that, my police prep one that I ran for ages that one was fully virtual, so we didn't do anything in person. We do a random kind of like testing day for people that live close by to me that I kind of do it before they would go to their fitness test, but that was once in a blue moon, whereas the motorcycle ones fully, obviously in person. There's different things with different like. With each one virtual one. There's nothing like in person when it comes to the energy of people and that, but there's a lot more logistics to go with in person.
Speaker 2:I'm lucky enough to have a 20 year veteran event manager upstairs that can help me do stuff and she loves doing the stuff. She spent like four hours, six hours the other day going through and looking at hotels and different places that we can stop for this seven day trip and I'm like do you enjoy that? And she's like I love it. I'm like thank God because that anything worse. But like with a virtual, you literally just turn up on Tuesday night at 7pm and we're there and so you all you need to zoom, and so there's different things with different ones.
Speaker 2:You know you get good at. Like I'm really good at reading people through a computer screen now, so I'm even you know, I was already good at reading people in person. But you just don't get that energy and you know you can see when people are kind of not paying attention with it, whereas when you're in person everybody kind of you don't. There isn't the distraction. So there's different things, different ones. I find I like a both, I like to do both, I like to have an aspect of both. I like kind of you can do that hybrid where you're mostly online and then you do an in person once a year as a bonus type thing, where you all get together.
Speaker 2:I did that one year with my police, one before COVID, because I was like, hey, let's all get together. The problem is that then people have to pay for accommodation, that pay for flights, that pay, you know the expense to people go up. So it's just something to remember when you're doing it that the clientele that you're hitting have to be able to afford that as well.
Speaker 1:And I'd love to delve into length. So obviously, with the motorcycle one, there's an obvious start and end point, but for your virtual ones, have you found a sweet spot in terms of length, duration, exit and also frequency of getting together?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it depends Brad will talk about this a lot in his program that he runs Build, a Mastermind is it depends on how long it's going to take them to solve the problem.
Speaker 2:How long is it going to take them to solve the problem, and how long when you're doing like, how often should you run, your mastermind is, how long do they need to, you know, to accomplish the tasks that are being set, that they're saying they're going to do on the in the mastermind and then until the next one to make sure that they actually did it like how long do they need to do that, but how long is not too long? So it's again kind of that trial and error. I found one of my police one because it was based on fitness, so we meet every single week and we would, we would like do that and we most of my mastermind was only 12 weeks long, because if I made it longer, people would kind of fluff around and not really care so much if they didn't have like a dedicated time of okay, cool, you've got 12 weeks to make this happen, and so you know, that's kind of that, whereas other things like business stuff, might be six or 12 months.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's kind of with with business stuff. Normally it's that kind of six, 12 months. Let's get you into a year long program, the investments quite decent. So you actually you're actually leaning more on the fact of I've got some skin in the game here. But then you're meeting. It might be monthly. You know, I know some masterminds that, like Brad goes to in person ones, they meet once a month and there's other ones where they will meet once a year and it'll be one event every year and you just go and it's like an immersion. I think it's like two days long and they just go nuts for two days. So it really depends on what your offer is, what it is that you're actually creating and the problem that you're solving.
Speaker 1:Right, and something you said before that struck me was about a decent investment. So they've got skin in the game, so that makes them want to come, versus the idea of a reciprocal mastermind where you, where everybody, is kind of giving value to one another and I think there still needs to be a facilitator who's going to be bringing those people together. Have you any experience of more like reciprocal based masterminds, whereas most of your mastermind experience been skin in the game?
Speaker 2:So I'm about to launch a free mastermind where it's kind of everybody kind of comes together. It's for law enforcement and it's called the debriefing room. The reason I'm doing it free is because for a long time, I've talked about the number one thing that police need is the debrief every single day, slash, every single week, and for me, right now, I'm like, okay, I don't want to charge these guys anything for it. Eventually it might be a paid mastermind, but it's just going to be. Everybody kind of comes and does it. They're all cops, they're all, and I'll facilitate it. And what I believe, though, also is that people will get more out of what they pay for. Now.
Speaker 2:Pay can be time, pay can be money, the financial. A lot of times, people attach that you know most people, unless your business person, don't think about time. They don't think about how important, how much time costs, because we can't get it back. But people think about the financial side, especially your blue collar. You know people, you know that are, you know making, that are on wages, because they're like, hey, I'm working 95, okay, whatever.
Speaker 2:But money wise is a tight thing. Especially these days, right now, with what's going, with what's going on in the world. Money is a huge thing. So if you ask somebody who's on you know $30,000 a year to spend five grand, they're probably going to actually make sure that that five grand go the long way and they're going to show up, they're going to pay attention, they're going to do a lot.
Speaker 2:Whereas if you ask someone who's making 100 $200,000 to pay five grand Depending on their relationship with money they'll probably go, yeah, I'll pay that, and they may or may, you know, they'll kind of have one foot in, one foot out possibly. Whereas if you charge somebody who's making 200 grand, you charge them 10 to 15 grand for the year and you go there for you know six months and you go, hey, we're going to do this problem. They'll probably go oh, yeah, that's, you know, a tenth of what I'm kind of earning. That's a decent amount. I want a good return on it, so I'm going to put a lot of effort into it. So that's where, when it comes to the financial investment, I think people well, this is what I've learned over different mentors and Brad and watching different Tony stuff and Dean Grotziosi and different business courses that have been in is people get what they pay for.
Speaker 1:So I love that and something that's coming to me that I've, that I've heard recently is a like a pay what you want model, or a pay what you feel model, where you have a suggested price for something I know a lot of artists have used this for, like music releases and things, but that so so there isn't a barrier to entry but at the same time people yeah with that work in a mastermind.
Speaker 2:Problem with that model? It would. I mean, anything will work on a mastermind. The problem is is, again, it comes down to the clientele that you want in your mastermind. Do you want people that are like, okay cool, yeah, like I'll pay? You know, again it comes down to the value and the people that you're attracting. But in my mind, when I think about pay what you want, it's like you're going to have those people that are just like, okay, cool, pay you a dollar and it's a 10 is worth $10,000. Again, people, if you put like you take, for example, when I joined Brad, when I joined Brad's mastermind, I did not have the money. I put it on my credit card and I did not know how I was going to pay the next payment, let alone pay that one off on my credit card. Do you think that I fluffed around and I kind of went and whatever kind of and no, brad said jump. I said how high.
Speaker 1:You trusted the process.
Speaker 2:You know the process method yeah, and in 30 days I made six grand. Amazing 30 days I made six grand and another 60 days I made 20. Eight months later I did a 15 K month. So because I had the skin in the game, like it was, like I have to make this work because I can't pay the next one, so I've got to find the money, tussle, let's make things happen. Whereas if he said, hey, pay what you want, I've been like, okay, cool, here's 100 bucks because that's pretty much what I got.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then do you think your commitment would have been as high?
Speaker 2:It would have been up there because of where I was at in life and just coming out the back of like events and just different the stage of life, but I wouldn't have had as much skin in the game.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So that's where my belief is like getting people to actually pay that thing, like my motorcycle mastermind, is seven grand to do it and I granted 1800. That goes with a bike hire, but it's seven grand and I'm asking. You know, one of the guys is board patrol that wants to come on again. He's not making, he'll be made. I think he'll probably be on 100 K maybe If you're lucky off.
Speaker 1:Off the back of that, maybe he'd be inspired to launch a similar thing, because exactly eight members is the competition is like anyone can. Anyone can do this. It's not like he's taking your customers, it's like there's only a few anyway. And it's friends of friends, of friends, of friends right. So, relationship driven.
Speaker 2:Exactly exactly, and so it's that thing of it's that thing of you know putting that but not making it too much, because then you know you're putting everybody kind of out. But again you've got to think about and this is where market research comes in you've got to think about who's your ideal client. Who are you trying to attract? My police entry prep program? I was attracting people that are, you know, doing like entry level jobs. You know waitresses and you know retail work and that. So they're you know.
Speaker 2:So I couldn't, like I can't, ask them to pay me five grand for 12 weeks or six months to do it. Also the values probably. I mean, yet I'm getting them into a job where they're going to be. Most of them are taking a pay increase. So I was charging 1500 to $2000 for 12 weeks. At one stage I was giving six months that we would do it for For two grand to grand. They can, they can. It's still a significant investment, but they can do it and it would make them do it.
Speaker 2:The ones that were making more and I found this true through the five years of doing it the ones that were making more and Two grand was really nothing to them. They didn't turn up and they didn't, they didn't, they didn't, they didn't dive into it as hard, almost religiously. Where's the ones that were like, shit, that's a lot, okay, how can I make that happen? Okay, the payment, yeah, okay, no, I'm gonna make this happen. And they, they would make it happen, they'd turn up and they'd be the best clients. So it's kind of that's my belief on it. That's just from what I've seen.
Speaker 1:Thank you for sharing. I think that's a very valuable insight for others who are looking to like jump into them as well. To know what kind of mastermind do I want to look for, what is going to be right for me, and even just to know. Like masterminds only came onto my radar by reading thinking grow rich, and I was already thinking about bringing a group together, but I just hadn't put that term, I hadn't thought of that term before, and then, once I heard it, I'm like obviously, yes, this is what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, granted, again, like I'm doing a free one, I'm going to do a free one but I'm going to like it's inviting people in, and again it will be those, I'll see, kind of how it goes. And it'll be that thing of hey guys, we're here for a specific purpose. If you are not participating and you're not giving it value as well, you'll be booted out. And so there's that thing of that scarcity kind of thing of hey, wait a second, I might miss out on this. And then it's up to me to make sure that the value is delivered that they want to keep coming, and so it's one of those things that you know we've got to.
Speaker 2:When you're looking at a mastermind, it's that okay. Is it going to solve the problem that I want? But also, is the investment, is the return on investment going to be good enough? You know, for example, build a mastermind. I help promote that and I help talk about it and sell it for Brad because I totally, 100% believe in it. No matter what he charges, it's worth it. And he like for a while, like his motto is he's going to help you make, add $100,000 to your bottom line with doing five to 10 hours a week of facilitation, five to 10 hours a month sorry, a facilitation. So the price tag, like if it was, if it's 15, 20 grand, 10 grand, five grand, whatever it is around that mark, it's totally worth it because I'm adding, we're adding 100 grand to your bottom line and it's really like so that you can do things like get paid to go ride motorcycles around the US.
Speaker 1:I wish I had any motorcycle experience because I'd be like, can I come? But I have literally never even ridden on one. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2:And this is the thing I have plans to do a paraglide. I'm like I want to go paragliding in Columbia. Sweet. How can we turn that into a mastermind? Like different things, like you can do different stuff. Like Brad just approached me this morning around a mastermind in Hawaii and I'm like, ooh, that could be fun.
Speaker 1:I'll come to that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll let you know about it when we kind of do stuff. He just threw the idea out there. But it's like this is the power of masterminds is you can impact and make income off of masterminds. And it's not that as long as you've got a little bit of a network or kind of know what you're offering that's the biggest thing is know what you're offering then you can talk about the mastermind all day long and you'll find people that'll want to do it.
Speaker 1:It keeps Harley Davidson just keeps coming to my mind, because where I live there's a Harley Davidson just around the corner and I drove past it the other day and then, after seeing that, I went to a cobbler's and there was a Harley Davidson clock there. I'm like there's something with this Harley Davidson.
Speaker 2:It's following me around.
Speaker 2:So there we go, and the only reason we're riding Harley Davidson like I'd much rather prefer like to ride like adventure bikes and different stuff. But in the United States Harley Davidson is just so easy to rent it's like they're literally every Harley dealer you go to. You can rent a Harley from Eagle Rider and so they're super easy to rent and that's why we're doing it. But it's also kind of that little iconic thing Like we did Route 66 on the one in May last year in 2023. And so it was kind of cool to have like all four bikes like all parked up on Route 66 with the neon sign and do it. So it was kind of that iconic thing and they're comfortable. I mean, to be honest, the new ones are pretty reliable and comfortable. But yeah, we'll do it on literally anything.
Speaker 2:I know some people that runs kind of like masterminds but they take guys all around the world on dirt bikes and so they'll ride like different places on dirt bikes. I know I think it was, I think it's this month that coming down here to New Zealand to ride like dirt all through New Zealand and so you can do this is like. This is why I love learn to learn the knowledge around how to fill. You know how to set up and fill and create that offer and actually run a mastermind. You can do it in anything and any capacity to your network that you have, or to your friends, or to the people that you know.
Speaker 1:Very inspired. Okay, just wondering what have we not delved into? Is there anything that you're itching? Okay, so one of the things that I love to know from my guests. You've spoken a lot about Brad, and you spoke about going to the Tony Robbins. Are there any other communities or individuals that have really helped to shape the path towards like really feeling into what you're doing, what you're meant to be doing here?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So for me, kind of really feeling into that, like the people that have inspired me the most is will be Brad. It's Brad Hart, he kind of. That's why I'm still friends with him, that's why he's come down here in New Zealand and we've done nine days on motorcycles, camping in tents and his bike broke down and he rode Pillion of Mine Like we've got stories for Africa to talk about. When it comes to that. It's why he comes on all on my motorcycle ones, is why I'm teamed up with him.
Speaker 2:Some of the other things is I mean, I can't not say it but my wife is literally like I, honestly, yeah, she has issues. The reason I'm probably alive still actually definitely is from all the trauma that I went through in the police. But as far as courses and that like really Brad's build a mastermind program has been kind of the biggest changer and added to my groups, you know, added to my capability of what I'm capable of. You know I came into it with not knowing much about marketing. I was had done retail so I knew how to kind of sell and get people to kind of do what I wanted to this, while I was a good cop, but it was like learning everything else I mean going to mastermind and millions was really helpful which is Brad is teamed up with J Fassette, which J is Brad's mentor, who he learned from masterminds like 1520 years ago and J's been doing this for like 35 years masterminds. So if you're interested in that, look up mastermind and millions, or I'm sure I'm sure she'll you'll put my email and stuff down below. You can send me an email as well and I can get you any kind of details on that we do have. There's an event happening here soon, in May 2024, an in person one actually. I don't know when this is going live, but there's a virtual one happening on the 22nd of January, which is next week, so another week in a bit so that you can, that people can come to. But so those are kind of some of the events.
Speaker 2:I mean I've done neuro linguistic programming. The Tony Robbins date with destiny event literally changed my life 180 degrees from where I was. I walked in there anxious and scared and depressed and like I was feeling a lot better after my motorcycle trip. But I went into, I went into the day with destiny and walked into 5000 people and went oh my god, I don't know if I can do this, but I have more willpower than brain cells sometimes, and so I just pushed myself through it and came out the other side, I was like, oh my god, that's insane. I want to learn more. And so that's when I got into neuro linguistic programming and then did my you know neuro linguistic coaching course and did all of that, which was good but for growth wise, honestly, the best thing that I've done is be part of my masterminds.
Speaker 1:That's yeah, yeah, and for me, like one of one of my really big things is about loneliness and finding ways to feel less alone, particularly when we're working from home, in silos, when we're, you know, when we're not able to go very far, or when we're moving to a location and we haven't found our people yet. And do you think that masterminds are a way to you know, having that regular time with, with familiar faces? Do you think that can lend itself to overcoming feelings of loneliness?
Speaker 2:Oh, definitely, you know, again, x cop, you want to talk to people that have the biggest like need to be around people and camaraderie and feel like they fit in. We were talking to cops. You know we we literally strive for it every day is one of the reasons that cops take a long life within five years After they leave the job is because I feel like they have nobody around, which is one reason that I'm starting this, you know, free debriefing group for for police and police communicators, because there's that, that camaraderie side, that you need some people that are outside of your inner circle. But yes, same for me. You know I'm part of a group that's all law enforcement X or current law enforcement that have struggled with some sort of trauma or just want to come and have a conversation. It's called power of our story, so that middle of COVID and it's virtual and it was just because, again, it felt like it was good.
Speaker 2:When I left law enforcement I got into powerlifting because not because I wanted to be able to, you know, I want to, you know, do other strong things and challenge my body, but most importantly is because I heard that the camaraderie and powerlifting is next level and I was falling. A military guy at the time, there's powerlifting was talking about how it was. So I left the police and I was like I've lost my family. As such, which you think about, you, would you do think about his family. And so I went into that and it was literally didn't matter if you were competing against the guy next to you.
Speaker 2:It was always supportive. There was no put down in it whatsoever. It was always like, yeah, man, you can do it, like let's go, like you'll be screaming at your competitions, yet you're competing against them. So you know, because you're there to lift your numbers is not there, you know. And so masterminds are probably with you know. Now that you say that is one of the reasons why I love him so much is because it does create that group again. You're all there for a common thing. You don't join a mastermind just to see what it's about. You join a mastermind because it's like, oh, I want to solve that problem to, or I want to help people solve that problem. So it definitely a long way to tell it to say that, but for me, especially being an ex police officer, it's that finding my tribe is very important.
Speaker 1:And what was coming to mind when you were saying that was Arnold Schwarzenegger and his recent documentary and was so, so told that story about the camaraderie of powerlifting down in down on down on the beach in LA bodybuilding, the bodybuilding, those guys back in the day, like they had that massive thing.
Speaker 2:You know, the thing with bodybuilding my wife's done three bodybuilding comps is the thing with bodybuilding might be this day, this day and age, or maybe it's just you know more that amateur level is everybody you go backstage and nobody's talking to each other. One they're hungry, sweaty and they haven't had a shower for days, but but to it's it's not as this why didn't get into bodybuilding, like when I left the place was because from what I saw from it is not there is camaraderie there, especially once you're back in the gym and you're not at stage. But like doesn't powerlifting doesn't matter where you are when you're at comps. If you're at the gym training, there's always like that place lights up at a competition. When you're going to lift or you're going for a personal best, it just it lights up. It doesn't matter what powerlifting comp you're at, it will light up with all your competitors and everything as well, which, which is interesting.
Speaker 2:But Arnold's documentary does show how, like back in the 80s, and that especially with them they were very there was a lot of camaraderie, especially once they were, when they were in the gym working out together and they were. They wanted the best for each other, but I do know from bodybuilding and listening and watching other bodybuilders once you get up on stage, it's there's no supporting each other. It's like I'm going to win.
Speaker 1:Get out of my way which which is, which is, which is good, but yeah, it's, yeah, but yeah because I guess with the powerlifting like you lift so much and then you need to put it down, you need to let your body recover rest recovering between. So I guess you have that time to connect with each other in between sets right whereas and power the other thing.
Speaker 2:With powerlifting, you know the different. It's not a topic to mastermind, but powerlifting is. It's one of those things that it's also not subjective. It's very like, it's very either you lift the weight or you don't. There's no in between. Where bodybuilding is very subjective, it's up to the coaches what they see, what they're looking for, what they want. Powerlifting it's you lift the weight, you go through the movement, you finish it or you don't. There's no cut and dry is very black and white. It's like you lift that way to touch, like bench press. It touches your chest, they say press. You press it up, you hold it, they say rack.
Speaker 1:If you did that, you win you know, you know where you're at. You know where you're at, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know how strong you're feeling that day yeah, whereas bodybuilding it's like oh, is that muscle kind of right? Is that like it's symmetrical, like, is it like there's so many different variables with bodybuilding?
Speaker 1:and your wife and your wife does, does she?
Speaker 2:doesn't, she doesn't do it anymore. So she did it. She did it for a couple years actually we've talked about it's probably a little bit of a way of like kind of escaping and stuff. When I was in my dark days she was, she was doing it and it was kind of it was a way for her to like for something for her. But yeah, and she did, she did. She did that. She did kind of entry level bodybuilding, the shape kind of level, so it's not the big like monster looking people, but more of the bikini type stuff and she placed I think her top placing was second and that was yeah.
Speaker 2:And then she went to her last one and she realized she did her last one while I was on that motorcycle trip of mine, the soul searching one, when I left law enforcement and coming back to the whole mastermind thing, she, she was at it and she was there on her own and nobody was there because obviously I wasn't there because I was in the US and she's like she was doing it because she wanted to. You know, that was that kind of experiencing it with other people and so she recognized that wait a second, I'm doing this because I want to experience it with other people and nobody's here and, yeah, I'm kind of done. And so that was kind of her last one and then she kind of was like, no, I'm done with it now.
Speaker 2:It's very hard on your body bodybuilding very hard on your body, especially for females, because you get down into that low body weight where that low body fat, where you lose, you'll even lose. You'll lose your period, like there's not really many bodybuilders that will still have their period because your body fats getting below. I think it's like 15%. You start to 15%, you start to lose your period. The female don't quote me on that but um, yeah, that's um. So you females will start to lose their period because there's not enough body fat to be able to sustain a life inside of you.
Speaker 1:Something that's just coming to my mind as well, kind of leaning into this subject is.
Speaker 1:I watched a podcast yesterday, chris Williamson had had a journalist on who was talking about the imaginary audience that so many people are living their life with the back of their mind. So, like some people would think, your wife, even though she didn't have anyone in the room. Think about the selfies, think about sending that out on your social media and it's like it seems as though she's actually really living in presence, knowing that it wasn't worth it for her not having, not feeling like her. People were there with her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so I'm a huge. What I've learned through a lot of the masterminds again is doing stuff and with my group, and it's one of the things that I teach on in all my masterminds is finding your purpose and your why. And so you know I use the the seven step process but I put my own twist onto it. Use some neuro linguistic programming stuff and recognize that any person can go through the logical brain and get down to the level four but it's getting passed in the emotional brain that most people can't get, can't get passed in into. But my wife, during COVID she lost her job, lost like she was meant to be taking 200 people overseas and on the day that New Zealand went into lockdown and then like literally lost a job a few a couple months later Well, actually within days and then went through the whole process with them. But during that process we went through that process, the why process and the purpose with her and recognize that her thing is all about creating joy and experiences.
Speaker 2:And so it's also why she and I get along so well, because my like, third level, from deep as mine, is to create less pain and be seen and to help people be seen or be seen myself. But it's mostly to create less pain. But my level above that is to create joint experiences as well. So that's why we we click so well. But you know, knowing that, after the fact of all the bodybuilding, you can now recognize hey, that's why she didn't, because it wasn't about her, it was about the challenge for her and the mental fight and the physical fight. But it was more importantly about the, the experiences with others and with myself. And you know, on the on the day. That's why she did the competition, you know, to give her a goal, but it was about that experience for herself and for others.
Speaker 2:And so once you recognize, once you recognize that now that's why she loves events, that's why she loves putting things together, that's why she loves doing the motorcycle thing, why when we're on the trip, it's all about how do we create the best experience for these guys?
Speaker 2:So she'd do little quirky things like like every day on the motorcycle trip, you don't even have to worry about checking in. It's literally should we turn up places. She hops off the back of my bike and like walks back with a card and the key cards and goes you're in room 204, you're in, like you know, making sure every place we stop you look after. You know, figuring out, like one of the days, one of the guys she found out that he had two Docs and so one of the places that we're at she recognized the place had a Docs and so she made sure she told him, hey, there's a Docs and behind the front desk, and so, like he, we've got this amazing, this really cute photo with him where he's holding this Docs and it's licking him and giving him kisses and he's so excited because that's this is the type of dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doxin so like a wiener dog.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so like the dash on there those long?
Speaker 2:there's a long. Dogs with little, short, little legs, would we?
Speaker 1:call them? We maybe call them sausage dogs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sausage dog yeah sausage dog, the actual name for him is doxin or dash on.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the sausage dogs and so, yeah, so like she. But those are the things. That's why she does that. And so with masterminds like she's, she hasn't been part of many of them, but when it comes to helping me, like put them together or put the motorcycle one together, she really enjoys it, because being part of that is that whole experience type of thing. So when you can recognize those sides of things and bring that into a mastermind and actually drive that, it makes it even even more. Mine is to create less pain. So when we're on the mastermind, that's why. That's why the facilitating every day, that new intention every day is so important to me and talking about it because it's going to help in the long term help people overcome that pain.
Speaker 1:Love it. Chris, it's been such a joy, first of all, to have you on. Thank you. Thank you for your generosity of sharing of knowledge and thank you for the work that you're doing with this upcoming free mastermind. It sounds like that's a really, really valuable service for police officers and communicators in New Zealand. So I do have quite a lot of contacts there, so I'll certainly be sharing this, sharing this around with those guys and where can people find you and if they want more of you.
Speaker 2:If they want more of me, I'm on Instagram, facebook, all of it is just Chris Chandler Yates, pretty simple and easy, and yeah, for that moment. That just so you know. For that mastermind it's actually for anybody worldwide. I have a feeling that a lot of my audience is me in New Zealand, in the US, but then the other place, the other thing that you can find you can also get in touch with me.
Speaker 2:Probably when it comes to masterminds, the easiest way is just to email me, chris at make more marblescom and we can talk mastermind stuff and talk about that. You can find stuff on, you know, masterminds for Brad, stuff like we talked about before, mastermind and millions. It's just mastermind to millions, all spelled out, and you can also go to mastermindlive, so mastermind to millions dot live. Or you can look up make more marbles, which is Brad, and you can look at build a mastermind in there, which is the program that I did and I'm still part of, and the nice thing that he does with that is it's lifetime access, which is quite rare to get a course where you can have lifetime access to help you build and hone and dream up and nail in things.
Speaker 1:so I do love the lifetime access programs that I've been in as well, because the content does change as well and develop as the program develop.
Speaker 2:He's on like the third. He's on like the third version of the content that got me to a six, six figure business in 12 weeks, 12 months. So, like you know, it evolves in that, but also it's more along the support side of things. It's that. It's that you know you will always it's business. You'll always have challenges, you always have struggles that come up at different levels. So you know why not being something that you have for life?
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Well, I wish you well. I'm excited about your motorcycle trip and I hope that I'll come on your motorcycle trip in 2025. See there.
Speaker 2:Yep, and if anybody wants to learn about that motorcycle trip is just motorcycle mastermind calm, pretty simple.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. All right, have a great day, Chris.
Speaker 2:See you soon.