Loading summary
A
I am making life changing money. I know that the other agency owners are in there are in competition with me. I love it because now I get a run from you. Come get me.
B
I think that there is such a beautiful opportunity if you get in the right mastermind to overcome a lot of challenges as a business owner you face. It's also a very lonely place to be that I don't think a lot of people understand.
A
The loneliest thing you can do.
B
When are people all going to wake up and realize that I'm a big fraud and I've just gotten lucky over and over and over again. I think it's why we do so well because we're always so afraid to screw up.
A
Oh, fear of failure. 100%.
B
Hi and welcome to another episode of Special Ops podcast. I'm your host, Emma Rainville and this is where we give actionable insights to direct response marketers and e commerce sellers. Today I have with me from Barham Marketing, Mitch Barham himself. We're going to be talking about masterminds and micro learning topics. I'm super excited to invite you back, Mitch. Both of us are a part of a high ticket Mastermind Driven. For those of you who don't know, we love driven.
A
World's greatest mastermind. If you're not in it.
B
And I don't even have a gun to his head.
A
Nope. Was earlier.
B
I think that there is such a beautiful opportunity if you get in the right mastermind to overcome a lot of challenges as a business owner you face. It's also a very lonely place to be that I don't think a lot of people understand.
A
Being a business owner.
B
Yeah.
A
Oh, the loneliest thing you can do.
B
It really is.
A
Besides living on maybe an island alone. But I think you and I would enjoy that.
B
Yeah. We're both married to beautiful people that were very much in love with.
A
Yes.
B
But there's this thing that we have that feels challenging and overwhelming sometimes. And then, you know, you go through how much labor you're actually responsible for and you start usually right about 10 o' clock at night. Which is when I go to bed for me thinking about what if I can't make payroll someday? And it's never even come close.
A
No. Yeah.
B
Never even come close. But still, what if I can't make payroll someday? Oh my God. Tiago has a baby. What if Thiago couldn't feed his baby? Tiago would be fine. By the way. Tiago's really smart. He'd get another job in two seconds. But. But my brain goes Into I just made it so that Tiago's baby is homeless.
A
Holding a little baby.
B
They live. They live in a car and they don't have any gas to keep it warm.
A
Will coup for milk.
B
Thiago would be fine. Like, I didn't make him, right? His history and his ability made him. Richard would be fine. Sak will be fine. But there's still like this enormous responsibility that's felt. And it's not just that. It's like, it's tax season right now. I get all my stuff for taxes together, but my client's taxes also need to get done. So I'm working on their taxes and guess whose taxes come before my taxes. And then I'm worried, did I make a mistake at any point during the year? It's going to cost some money. Did I not get a tax strategy together that I should have gotten? It's not my job, by the way, at all as an operator, but I still kind of assist with that and making sure that people are talking about it way in advance. And then there's my own taxes. And I really should do the MI in the middle of February. And I should probably have my taxes done by now, by the way. My taxes are almost done. I probably have about an hour worth of work. But I still will fixate on this until they're completely done. And so you live in this place in the back of your mind while you're smiling to your employees and your spouse and your kids and both. You have one son, I have four kids. And it's like you're constantly smiling on the outside, but in the inside, some, not all the time you're screaming. But yeah, yeah, it can be really difficult. And then if you face a challenge, there's not someone that you can knock on their door and say, hey, boss, I don't know what to do. So belonging to a mastermind where you can for driven, we meet quarterly. So quarterly we can say, hey, I have a problem. But we also have a Slack channel and a Wednesday call and hot seats and owner one on ones. There's like tons of stuff involved there and the members are all super helpful. And that's been such an amazing thing for me in my business. And I believe for you and your business, 100. That's not only helped skill, revenue, but peace of mind.
A
Oh, big time. Yeah.
B
Subdue some imposter syndrome. Here's the difference and how I always know the difference between a fraud and someone who's either like, really knowledgeable or a guru. If you ask a Fraud. Do you ever feel like a fraud? No, absolutely not. Do you feel like you belong here? Definitely. I 100 belong here. If you ask, like a hard working business owner, an entrepreneur, or a guru. Do you ever feel like a fraud? Every day.
A
All the time.
B
Every day. Do you ever feel like you don't belong here?
A
All the time.
B
Every day. Every time I'm here. Only when I'm here, even walking in
A
the driven room, still years later, it's like, do I actually belong in this room?
B
I walk on the room, walk in the room and walk up to the stairs and walk up on stage.
A
Yeah.
B
And feel that way.
A
Yeah.
B
And so. And I know costume feels that way. I don't know if Perry feels like he doesn't belong, but I do know he thinks all the time, like, how did I get here? Oh, because he shared that on our podcast, Train Wreck. We all bought because of him. Pretty much. So, you know, he knows he belongs there. But it is like, did I get lucky?
A
Right?
B
It's like, dude, you're 62.
A
Yeah.
B
But also I feel that way. Did I get lucky? Did I get lucky with that client and then the next client and then the next client and then the next client? When are people all going to wake up and realize that I'm a big fraud and I've just gotten lucky?
A
Right.
B
Over and over and over again. What's wrong with us? What's wrong with us? But I think it's why we do so well. Because we're always so afraid to screw up.
A
Oh. Fear of failure. Fear of looking like we don't know what we're doing. 100.
B
But then finding the strength to be vulnerable enough when we get in the room to actually get the help that we need.
A
Right.
B
And you do a really good job of that, I think. I hope I do a good job of that. There's. There's times where I definitely can feel the pull. Love. Don't let anybody know.
A
Oh, for sure. I mean, it's. We all want to look like we have our together.
B
That's when I force myself the most around peers.
A
That it's like, you just have to be vulnerable. You're never going to succeed if you can't get your problem solved. And that reason, like, you have to admit, I have a problem. Can you help me, please? And then somebody at that table or in that room has the answer.
B
Right? And we won't get into all the people that are sitting at the table who are going to argue with you after they ask advice.
A
I love those people.
B
They're the worst. They. They're. They're the frauds. But they have a.
A
They have a special name called Ask Holes.
B
Yes. I love that. I recently described this to my son. He found out how much I pay a year to be in the Mastermind Zinn. And he was like, you complained about paying for my college?
A
Yeah.
B
And the bill's higher. Yearly. The bill's higher by a lot. So it is kind of crazy to think about, but that camaraderie and that network. The only way I can describe it to you, I ran track in high school and college, and I played rugby in high school and college. And one of the things that I can tell you is there's been no other relationships. Notice I didn't call them friendships. There have been no other relationships like that of my teammates. Until I, as an adult, I went to masterminds because they feel more like your teammates. Everybody's responsible for their own thing.
A
Right.
B
Particularly if you think about track. Everybody has their own race that they're running, and you're responsible for your thing, but you feel so empowered by helping someone else win their race that you're gonna make sure their baton is, like, ready to go for them, and they're gonna do the same for you and you. And just knowing that is beautiful. So here's where I'm gonna shift it a little bit. It was a lot of context, and I really. For people who haven't experienced masterminds, I kind of wanted you to understand why once you buy masterminds, you perpetually become a mastermind junkie.
A
Oh, for sure. You're always like, you find one that's really good, you stick in it as long as you can, and then if that one, let's just say, goes away or you level out of it, I mean, you're trying to find the next best one. Like, it's. You want to be in that room. You want to be the dumb ass in the room.
B
Yeah. That's kind of. When I'm looking, is at the point that I don't feel like I'm stupid. Literally.
A
No. Yeah.
B
When I feel like I'm not stupid, I want to find the next one, which is what's beautiful. Some masterminds, you definitely will get there. Others, others, you're never going to get there. Because the way the content is designed, it's designed to be given by a lot of other people, not one group of people.
A
Right.
B
So anyway, you have a mastermind, and I've built masterminds. I built Ignite with Perry. I built Genesis with Mario Castilli and Luke Mills and some others. There's something about that 297 to 497amonth. Mastermind does generally run about 3 to 5k a year, but there's always a monthly option that's really great for either businesses who aren't making enough money for that 25, $30,000 price tag but need that network and education and mentorship. Or when it's microlearning like Genesis is micro learning, yours is microlearning. Genesis is very much about copy positioning, messaging. Yours is all about buying traffic. And for $300 to be able to take my guy who's buying $50,000 in traffic every month and put him with someone like you, who's been in the industry like 20 years on your own offers in E commerce. So you've been scaling brands for two decades. So to be able to have someone who's staying on top of all the changes and updates and who's been through so many updates and changes and knows what to look for is phenomenal. With Ignite, you know, you've got Perry who's teaching how to grow a business. It's a business mastermind and it's for lower ticket and those are such phenomenal masterminds to get your start. But these micro learning masterminds like yours and Mario. And just to be clear, I didn't build his, I built Ignite and I built Genesis. Genesis at the beginning, Mario's way exploded that thing since I was there years ago. But to take and see what you can do for people. Talk to me a little bit about what a mastermind like that is, like what you focus on, you know, those things.
A
Yeah, I mean you're totally right with like the community and the people aspect. Like even in mine we got a community of business owners, other, you know, people running marketing for businesses and they can bounce ideas off of each other as well as, you know, bouncing ideas and learning the strategies that the big agencies, you know, that we're charging like $5,000 a month, these businesses to run their, you know, ads for seven eight figure brands. But you're being able to keep up with it in real time and be able to see all that data and know what's working is huge because like you're siloed into your one ad account right on the paid ad side. But then back to your point of the loneliness, like everything we do, especially with like this working from home era that we've been in, it's even more lonely because like you live and work in the same place. And not a lot of people understand what it is that we as business owners and entrepreneurs actually do. Like you go try to talk to anybody.
B
You guys are hanging out on yachts.
A
Yeah. They just think I'm sitting around jacking off and I'm like, nah, dude. Like I'm actually working and doing all this other stuff. But they don't get it. And so you can't have a conversation with like your best friend from college or your new friend or whatever it is your family. So it's super lonely. So get. And it's kind of like the, I like the, the saying of the. You. The sum of the five people you hang around with.
B
Yeah.
A
And so like I even do that in business. Like I try to be around my, myself around people who are, you know, at my level or ideally higher because I'm going to level up every single time. So I'm chasing.
B
I made the mistake early on. I very much. And we're. I want to be clear here because what we're not talking about is climb the ladder, find people who can like just ladder climb and leave everybody else behind. It's not like that.
A
No, no, no, no, no.
B
This is not like that. But when you do hang around with people who are great leaders, brilliant business minds, high earners, it's really, really great for you. Because if the five people that you hang out with are all gym rats and they're all super fit.
A
Yeah.
B
They're either not going to be friends with you, you're going to become super fit.
A
100%.
B
If the five people that you hang around with, their favorite pastime is hiking and camping, your favorite pastime is going to become hiking and camping. So if the five people you hang around with are high earnings entrepreneurs who are business savvy, that's what you're going to become. And that just is. I agree. I agree with that completely. The mistake that I made early on is there was a point where I surrounded myself with, I think, for lack of just better words, very greedy. They were high earners, they had a lot and they were just awful people. And so it took me months to figure it out price. 7, 8 months to figure it out. And then I course corrected very quickly. So I just want to throw that out there. Just because someone is doing well doesn't mean you want to absorb. Right them because they could just be a shitty person. So you want people who hold your values and morals who are at or above your level of earnings. I like to say earning potential.
A
Yep.
B
Because it's always going to be above.
A
Always. Yeah.
B
Who have strong morals, values and character. And for me personally, just because I'm operations, I want people with very strong leadership qualities. I'm very alpha.
A
No, you.
B
Very alpha. Very alpha. Very alpha, yes. So I want someone with strong leadership background, strong personality, because I'll. I'll eat them alive.
A
Oh, for sure, right? Yeah. No, I'm the same way. I made a mistake like that early on as well, back in like 2015 or whatever.
B
Quickly learned same for me.
A
I'd had a taste and to your point, with like the mastermind junkie, it had a taste and I want another one. This is my ecom days and I basically started looking for masterminds on the E Comm because I'd gotten to a certain level and I needed to know how to get to the next level. I'd hit seven figures. It was like, okay, I got here myself, few friends kind of in the industry that I knew, like, they still, they were guarded with what they knew and, like, weren't willing to share. And so then, you know, I stumbled onto one of ezra Firestone's masterminds 10, 11 years ago when I own my own brands. I mean, Ezra is a hippie and I don't mean that a bad way. Like he calls himself a hippie and he's very open, very transparent. One of the rules, which is a rule for Driven, was no, and you have to be willing to share, which is the same thing with Driven. And so that's where I started to look for masterminds like that. That, like, that was a rule. No, be willing to share. Like you're not the top dog. Don't think you're a top dog, all that kind of stuff. So I just say all that to, like, if you do look for a mastermind, like, that's, to me, one of the things you should look for is like, you don't want a room full of assholes that think that they're like the best and they're going to guard their secrets even though everything's on YouTube. But I started my mastermind because what ultimately happened, especially in the paid ad space, there are predatory agencies who will prey upon small businesses, like, you know, sub seven figure businesses. And you need to know how to run the ads and you need to know how to do this stuff and get real time knowledge about it. But you aren't necessarily in a place that you either can or don't want to pay for an agency because you've also likely been burned a million Times by agencies. It's wild. The world out there around agencies, and I will talk about agencies all day. Even though I own an agency, I run a very high ethical agency because I know what it's like to spend my dollar to try to make $3 back. My own businesses alone, we're spending like 6 to 10 million dollars a year in Just Met ads. So.
B
Right.
A
Anyways, I started my. Because it's like, there's a need for everybody to know how to run these paid ads without having to pay an arm and a leg and also have that community of businesses that are their same size. Because I like. I love that feeling. I love helping people. But, like, you get that community of other people in your same situation, your same size. During our calls, there are some calls just like in Driven, where I'm not even talking. It's members literally jumping in and helping members. We had one member. We were reviewing his ads and helping him redo his ads because he was paying way too much for his cost per lead. While I'm dissecting it and we're throwing out image ideas, one of the other gals on the call literally went over into Gemini, made the image that we talked about, dropped it into Zoom. He used it as an ad, and it's his best performing ad. So, like, that community that she was just so willing to do that, and everybody's helping everybody tear apart their landing pages or their product offerings or the ads. And then the strategy. Same thing happens on Driven, where, like, we're not necessarily just sitting there. You know, it's the community. Like, Perry's not the only one. Or costumes.
B
No, not at all.
A
Emma's not the only one giving feedback. Like, it's. It's Tim, it's the Chris's, it's me, it's who?
B
Any good mastermind is gonna be a collective of the group helping each other.
A
100 yo.
B
We interrupt this pod to tell you like and subscribe. What are you doing? Why haven't you liked. Why haven't you subscribed? Just subscribe. What's the problem? In all seriousness, subscribe so that you get notifications every time we drop new content. Additionally, if you have not signed up for our visionary vault, what the hell? Www.specialopspodcast.com Go sign up. It's free. We never try and sell you. And we're putting all kinds of stuff in there to help you with the operations of your business because we're passionate about it and we want to share operational excellence with our direct response, E commerce and Online selling family.
A
And we get each other. We know what we're all going through again. Your mom and dad might not. Your siblings don't. Unless they're entrepreneurs as well. Like, what we go through.
B
Dude, my family thinks I'm stealing thing from people online.
A
Yeah. I mean, my wife.
B
All people online sellers are thieves.
A
My. I don't think my parents still fully understand what I do after. After 21 years.
B
No way. No way. I'm a media buyer.
A
Yeah. My wife's family do not get. Get it at all. Like, they just think I'm sitting around all day doing nothing. I'm like, I wish. Like, that would be nice.
B
But my husband's family one time started like three or four guns in our house. And they were like, I knew it. No, I was like, you knew what? You're. You're smuggling guns.
A
Oh, my God.
B
Like, is that because I'm Israeli?
A
Yes, it is.
B
In the Middle East.
A
Yeah. Yeah, it is. But yeah, that's, like, why I started. Mine is there was a need to teach everybody, for everybody to know how to do this stuff if you wanted to do it yourself. And a lot of small, small businesses, and I don't mean that in a bad way, don't have a place to go.
B
Yeah.
A
So it's like, all right, how many
B
plumbers or H vac technicians or house painters, they're sending people to knock on doors during the day while people are at work.
A
Right.
B
When they could be running Facebook ads.
A
Oh, 100 Facebook.
B
But how do you run. How do you run a Facebook ad? Oh, you just go into Facebook. Like, what buttons?
A
Hit the boost button. Dude, I've ran Facebook ads. They don't work. And I'm like, oh, how'd you. Like, what did you do? Well, we hit the boost button. Well, that was mistake number one. And you ever been back here? No. Okay, then you've never ran ads. Like, you never truly ran ads or they did Google Ads and they didn't work. Well, how'd you do it?
B
Right?
A
Well, I ran a smart campaign. You didn't really run ads. You boosted a Google Ad. Like, great. Now let me show you the right way to do this. And it's going to be confusing at first, but it's going to click. You got all of this recorded material, so fall back on. Plus you get a hour a week with the group. Come in, answer any questions. And I love the masterminds that are so transparent. And I learned this really, like, it was ingrained in me from my E Comm mastermind days. And With Driven, like, everything is just transparent as. So, like, nothing is really off limits, right? To a degree. Like, like I jokingly tell my members, like, just nothing's off limits except for how much money I make. But that's a joke because when I would do Tick Tock Lives, people would ask, how much money do you make? I'm like, it's not your business, but
B
the government, I feel like that's a fair question. I feel like that's a fair question. I. Here's, here's how I feel. If you want to sit up and play guru.
A
Yeah.
B
And a lot of people do. I need to, I need to understand me, Emma, right? Are you playing guru because you're full of shit?
A
Oh, yeah.
B
Or are you playing guru because it actually backs out? Because there are certain people that are out there. I see and, and like, I've seen under the hood a lot of these guys. This one guy, he had a mastermind. He had. He's running it still, but it's, it's like really, really small. And he's not out there trying to get people. It's just like, what's left. And he moved into, I think, like GOP ones or something, but he would post himself, like, pumping gas into his Bentley. And his Bentley was on lease and they tried to repossess it a bunch of times. And he couldn't even have credit cards because he defaulted so many times, his credit score was so low. And like he, he owned a house which he had to like, sell. And I think they actually ended up giving it back to the bank. I'm not sure. And then he lived in an Airbnb, and it's just like, you are capable of generating a lot of cash to make it look like you have a high value lifestyle convincing hundreds of people, which blows my mind into listening to you. But every few years, everything changes. So I think, and I'm sorry, I don't mean to like go on a rant, but I do think it's a fair question. How much money are you able to generate that you can keep? I understand that there is tax strategy where you probably don't do that, but if you are teaching a thing and you're not able to generate five to 10 times more than I'm able to generate. I don't want to pay you to learn, so I don't mean to call you out on it.
A
Oh, I'm happy to. I guess I'll backtrack a little. Like, I'm happy to show somebody, and I do. I mean, all My mastermind members, they know how big my agency is. I have agency owners in the mastermind purely because they want to have an agency my size.
B
Right. And you have several agencies.
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So.
B
So there. So just to be clear, you have several people who do exactly what you do in your mastermind to learn how to do what they do better.
A
100% right? Yeah. Which is awesome. Amazing. Because that means that more businesses are going to get good results and their business, that agency, is going to grow as a result of these extra.
B
But also, you have now agency owners in your mastermind helping your other mastermind people. Which is. Which is actually the point of a mastermind. Often when people have never belonged to a mastermind, they believe that the person selling the mastermind is supposed to give all the value. And there is a lot of value in what you're doing and what you're doing, teaching and having you personally dissect. But having those sets of eyes that are running tons of products for other people as well is such a value add for $300 a month.
A
Yeah, no, it's. You're in a room right now of, what, 60 people? And they are like, there's 60 brains.
B
At least.
A
At least. And we're all there helping each other. It really is a beautiful thing. The other agency owners are helping each other out. They're helping the members out. The Facebook group is actually pretty active, you know, and I'm not the only one answering the questions in there anymore. So there's tons of people helping each other out inside of there, and I get to call people out. It's kind of funny. Like, one guy was scared to get his ads going. I was like, dude, just. He's like, I'm not sure am I going to do this right? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or maybe I'm just being a. Tell me if I'm being a. So I jumped in and I commented, stop being A and hit publish. And he did.
B
What was his spend?
A
I mean, we're talking 40 bucks a day. Like, it's not.
B
He was spending 300 on your mastermind to not publish his ads.
A
I know. So that's where, like, I called him out and was like, and then we'll review them on Wednesday during the call. And he did a good job. Just took some extra tweaking and, you know, cut his cost per lead way down. But also seeing all these women and men winning and growing and the excitement and, like, listening to them saying that, I'm like, oh, my God. Like, they're actually listening this is amazing. And it's not only just me saying it to somebody else. We've had entire calls where I haven't been able to pull any content out for myself because I talked the least during the entire call. I'll usually talk like the first 15 minutes. It's just me rambling about like what's the latest and greatest, what's new, what we're trying, and then open it up to like questions. And again, nothing's off limits. But it. That last 45 minutes, I hardly talked. All these guys were helping each other before I could even talk. But it was amazing. That community, that camaraderie.
B
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. You did AI morning club for me this morning.
A
I did. That was a lot of fun.
B
Yeah, I'm glad you enjoy it because you're apparently gonna do every Friday night.
A
Yeah, I guess.
B
So I'm gonna schedule you for a Wednesday ignite call too because they just loved you. But I think that it's such a rewarding thing. Way more than any of the money. Oh yeah, because it's such a low ticket, right? Way more than the money is having someone come and it's almost like, mom, look, I won my at the science fair or the kid who got Ds and tried really hard and get his first day. Not that the people in the mastermind are the underdog, but it's kind of like you're rooting for the underdog because to start doing something that you've not done before or to finally get things working and then having Facebook change the algorithm or Google change the rules.
A
I have one of the agencies in there and because I have imposter syndrome and like to self deprecate, but this dude, you want to talk about a video testimonial? I mean, he's like, what? You have helped me. Like I came in knowing nothing. I knew I wanted to do this. You helped us. Like you helped me figure out how to do these ads, how to fix my funnels, how to do this, do this, where like I'm making life changing money.
B
Great, here's my secondary invoice.
A
Yeah, but he's like it just then that was totally unprompted, just totally cried, didn't you? Oh no, I'm not like that. I don't cry. I was like, I looked at him and I was like, come back to me when you're making more. I'm kidding. I didn't really do that. But it that he cried. No, I didn't cry. Just like that level of like Gratitude and depreciation and seeing how happy he was, it was like, yeah. Like, seeing somebody else win, I. I don't know how to explain it. Like, I don't have a soul or
B
a heart, but it was like, I get it. I. I get it completely. I absolutely get it. There's. I think that there are two types of people. There are people that really get upset when other people win.
A
Oh, yeah. I hate those people.
B
Me too. And then there are people who genuinely get excited when other people win. And then there's different variables of that. There are people who, like, every time they see other people when they're happy for them, but they so desperately. Even if they've got something good going on here, they want this for themselves. They'll abandon everything to go try and get. That's a lot of entrepreneurs, by the way.
A
Oh, a ton of them.
B
And then there's people who will be happy for the person, like, super happy for the person. And they should implement some of the stuff that that person just showed them, and they're just like, oh, I'm gonna walk on the moon.
A
I like to do, like, see other people's success, and it's not a competition thing, but it's like, I turn everything into a competition. Well, it's a competition, but I didn't want to, like, say it for the
B
people, but I'm super. I'm super happy for them.
A
Right.
B
But now how do I beat you?
A
Right.
B
So that you can now come and beat me.
A
Right.
B
So that I can now come and beat you. And those make the best friendships. You and I have that friendship.
A
Yeah.
B
I think most of my friendships, even if it's like, something as stupid as the Apple Watch game, it's just a constant. Who can get the most steps right? Who can close the rings the most times. Like, everything's a competition with me, anyway.
A
Oh, I'm. Yeah, that's. I mean, everything's a competition for me. My wife hates that, but it's.
B
My husband hates it, too. He's like, I'm not playing. I'm like, yes, you are.
A
I know. 100. I'm like, you're married to me. You are my partner. Not everything's a game, though.
B
Yes, it is. Everything, like, everything. You don't have to always win.
A
Yeah, you do.
B
He's like, you can let the grandchildren win checkers once in a while.
A
No, I don't even.
B
I'm not raising bitches.
A
No, I'm not. My.
B
I won't even let Thomas win at a race. No, no.
A
I'M not letting my.
B
Not until he actually can beat me. Right now.
A
My kid asks me all the time. I'm sorry. Punch is going to sound horrible, but, like, dad will let. Will you let me win Mario Kart? No, no, no.
B
Why are you asking? What's wrong with you?
A
Even then I don't get 13th because you're gonna be. You're back in 12th.
B
Where in my child rearing did you come up with this nonsense so I can fix it.
A
Right? 100. Everything's a competition, so it truly is a competition. And then. But it's a competition in the sense of like. Like the competition I told you about today. Some people don't know they're in a competition with me.
B
Yeah, me too.
A
Yeah. But it's like an internal competition, which is truly a goal. But we make it a competition in our minds to.
B
To fill the void a hundred percent.
A
100. Like, the other person has no idea, no clue whatsoever. That's cool.
B
And meanwhile, we're spanking them.
A
Yep. Yep. It's game on. You have no idea. 100 but I even see that inside of my little mastermind where these guys are trying to one up each other. And I know that the other agency owners are in there, are in competition with me. Like, they're chasing me. That's great. Like, I love it because now I get to run from you. Come get me.
B
Yeah.
A
We're playing a game of tag. Yeah, Come get me.
B
Yeah.
A
Like, let's go. It's. I love it.
B
You just beat my quarterly numbers.
A
Huh?
B
I love this. I highly recommend that people find a mastermind group. One of the things that I do every. You actually know this about me. I do, like, crazy things starting in November to assess my life. Who I'm hanging out with, who's positive, who's negative, who I need to cut out, who I need to spend more time with. What have I been weak in? Now all of the books I read and courses I consume are going to be around the top three things that I feel like I was weak in this year. Like, where did I have gaps and where do I fill those gaps? And then starts my planning for the year and my goal setting for the year. And so I really think that people should look at where are the three places in my business that if I 10x them this year? And by the way, almost nobody. Almost nobody will have traffic on there or. Or paid ads on there. Almost nobody. That'll be on almost everybody's. So where can I 10x my business that'll move the Needle for my personal life, my professional life, my family, my whole and I will bet you optimizing your finances and wealth long term Wealth Strategy 10xing your ads, whether they're paid ads or your affiliate strategy. If you don't run paid ads, however, you bring in whatever your CPA derives from 10xing what you've done there. And then a lot of times, believe it or not, it'll be surrounding your marriage, the person you married to. Which is why there's always some big goal for me that has to do with me and my spouse. Because if we're working towards something together and we're actively working towards something together, then we always have a common enemy, if you will.
A
Yeah.
B
Do you know what I'm saying? 100 and it just that unity in our attempt to do whatever it is that year and this year we have five states to complete all 50 plus all the territories actually. So we are going to visit those five states this year. That is almost impossible for us given how much we travel for work. And we are always traveling to the same states.
A
Yeah.
B
So. And we're always traveling to the same state. So none of them are going to be on there because there ain't no way in hell south and North Dakota and Nebraska are going to be on like a driven mastermind list this year.
A
We can go hang out with the buffalo.
B
I do that in Caprock Canyons. Anyway, my point is hopefully you have something on your list like I want to read X amount of books this year I want to take one, two. I actually do four courses a year, one course a quarter. So hopefully you have something like that in your list. Dear gentle reader, if you do having a group like a paid group like he's talking about or an affiliate, there are affiliate paid groups as well. There are all sorts of things out there for traffic. Whether you're doing like local paid ads and there are local paid ads groups or something like Mitch has with a paid ads group. $300 a month is nothing in comparison to what you can bring in in the course of a year. And if you hired a media buyer you would pay more for one month than what you would pay at the 297 a year. So I would, I would highly recommend and when you're going through look at these micro and I call them micro paid ads is a huge thing. So masterminds are generally about business growth or their marketing or their wealth. So paid ads is a micro.
A
It's very niche.
B
Right. It's very micro learning. And so finding something that you can belong to for a year or 24 months to learn from a group of people and be able to strategize with is massive. So whether it be Mitch's group or something of the similar, I think that it's a phenomenal use of your time and deployment of resources. I. E. The $297 plus. What do you guys meet an hour a week?
A
Hour a week.
B
Beautiful, beautiful use of your time. We're going to wrap it up. Thank you, Mitch.
A
Thank you.
B
All right. Awesome. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Special Ops podcast. I really enjoyed filming it. Mitch is a phenomenal guest and such a good friend. I hope you learned a lot about masterminds, micro topics that you can learn through small group masterminds and all the stuff we talked about today. If you're new here and you still haven't signed up for the Visionaryville, what are you waiting for? Head over to www.specialobspodcast. that is where you're going to learn how to implement strategies into your business that create operational excellence. We have free courses, templates, checklists, all kinds of stuff, not only from me, but for my staff and from the guests we've had, including Mitch. So run over there. Sign up. It's always free. We never tried to sell you anything and we will see you next time.
Date: March 24, 2026
Host: Emma Rainville
Guest: Mitch Barham (Barham Marketing)
This episode of Special Ops dives deep into why joining the "right room"—curated communities and masterminds—dramatically impacts business success, mindset, and personal fulfillment for founders and operators. Emma Rainville and her guest, agency owner Mitch Barham, share raw, practical insights on how masterminds are antidotes to entrepreneurial loneliness, accelerators of growth, and crucial sources of peer support. The discussion also covers types of masterminds, how to choose the best ones, and the irreplaceable value of open, vulnerable, collaborative participation.
Emma and Mitch's candid, energetic banter underscores why “the right room changes everything”—especially for business owners facing isolation and ever-rising stakes. They make a strong case for joining supportive, open, peer-driven masterminds—particularly those focused on micro-topics—to expedite growth, increase resilience, and replenish both skills and spirit. Whether you’re scaling up, struggling, or seeking camaraderie, finding “the right room” is one of the highest ROI moves you can make.
Call to action:
Emma closes by encouraging listeners to intentionally review their business gaps and consider masterminds (especially those built for micro-learning and peer support) as key investments in themselves and their companies.
For actionable playbooks and resources:
Visit specialopspodcast.com for free downloads and masterminding support.