EP 13: Why SEO Masterminds Can Boost Your Marketing Efforts

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Podcast Transcript

Intro:

Welcome to SEObits, the podcast that helps smart business owners jumpstart their SEO strategy. Tune in each week for fresh SEO insights and actionable tips that will help you improve your site’s SEO one bit at a time. Now, here’s your host, SEO Trainer and Consultant, Rebecca Gill.

Rebecca Gill:

Welcome back, my friends. Today on SEObits, I want to talk about masterminds. Now, this is a phrase that I traditionally hate and I will admit that. I just have never liked it. My first mastermind interaction was when my friend, Chris Lema, started an event called CaboPress where literally, we, WordPress people kind of collectively come together and we huddle at a really nice 5-star resort in Cabo San Lucas for like three, four days. And I think he did like four or five years ago.

And I went to this event and then I’ve gone every year since except for one that I had a conflict with and I couldn’t go. But it was really a change for me in regards to how I view my business, how I view potential business partners. And it gave me some accountability.

And I’ll be honest with you, it was very emotional for me at one point because in a mastermind, you do accountability and open discussion and you talk about problems and you get advice from the other members of the mastermind and you really kind of develop this friendship based on common goals that you have.

And we were sitting one night at the resort and it came to me and Chris called on me to talk and I don’t even remember what we were talking about but it became such a very raw conversation for me at that point about digital agency and some of the things that I struggled with and the reaction from the group was wonderful. And I was almost crying in the middle of these people that are business associates.

But it was a powerful event for me. And after that, I started to change my mind about what a mastermind is and how it can provide value.

Last year, I did one with my friend, Carrie Dils, and Diane Kinney and some other wonderful ladies. And we just got together every week virtually over the internet and talked through the things that we were trying to accomplish.

Again, we discussed things like progress and goals but we had accountability for each other. And when we talked about what we were going to accomplish, we had this sense of we really needed to accomplish it before we all reconvened.

And what else I loved about it was I got some really good information from the other ladies within the group and I could really get a sense for some of the things that I was missing out on which I didn’t really realize I was missing out on. I thought that I had it down. But I didn’t. Little did I know Kim Doyal would pop up with some great suggestions that would really improve the things that I was doing. And so, those two situations really started to shift my mind on masterminds and what they could achieve.

So now, you’re probably asking yourself, “What the heck does this have to do with SEO?” Well, there is a point and I kind of want to set the stage on my view of them and how it has shifted over the last few years.

So when thinking about masterminds and what they offer, I really have come to the conclusion and this is with a little bit of help from other people as always that a mastermind might be a good idea for SEO. And that’s because it will help answer some questions that are missing for people and it will help build accountability.

And the reason this is important is because people will take my online SEO course or they will attend a summit that I’m doing with iThemes and then they go off and they may not actually complete the task that they’ve given themselves. So they are not making as much progress as they can and I want to change that.

So with a little discussion with Nathan Ingram from iThemes, he suggested that I do this. And I really want to roll two of them out. So here is what we are planning and an opportunity if you’d like to engage with me and others within the group. So I’m just going to give you a little bit about it so I’m going to – starting in October, I have a 6-week mastermind in two different sessions where we meet each week.

We are going to progress through our education together. We are going to have timeframes where each person within the mastermind is going to talk about their homework and the things that they’ve tasked with for the week, talk about challenges that they may have experienced or questions they have about it, and then discuss their next steps.

So there are going to be two. One is going to be for end users or anyone who is new to SEO and wants to learn SEO and we’re going to walk through my online SEO course and we’re going to take that week by week together and work you through it so that you have accountability to get through the lessons, you have homework that you need to do and then we’ve got one one-on-one time, you and me, where we discuss it within the groups there so we can all learn together. And I think that’s the powerful thing about it is because when you have a small group of people chatting, you get to see what you’re missing and you get to learn from them, and that’s super, super powerful.

So that’s one that I’m going to do. And then the other one I’m going to do is meant for freelancers or agency and developers that want to start providing SEO services to their clients. So in this one, it’s also going to be six weeks but we’re going to have a little bit of different format because instead of walking through my SEO course, I’m going to assume and you really need to have already a basis of SEO. So you’ve got the basics done and you really want to start helping provide better services to your clients, your existing clients or new clients that are coming in. I’ve been hearing this a lot from developers and freelancers and agency owners.

So in the second mastermind, we’re going to talk about how to perform website audits, how to interview and really get to the heart of what your prospects need and qualify them so you know it’s a great fit, what you need to do to set up some project management tools, what are the right tools to use as you work through projects with your clients, how to do scoping, and plan out your services, and then how do you manage some success and failures.

And we’re going to walk through that with the 6-week process again and you’ll have and like the course, you’re not going to have a course to go through. I’m going to actually give you education, give you checklist, give you homework, and we’re going to work through that together.

So those are two opportunities that are coming up in October. I am launching this for sale and you will be able to sign up for them through this episode’s show notes on SEObits.fm.

And before we proceed, let me just say that these are capped at 10 people each. I want this to be small and intimate, kind of like that SEO bootcamp feel that we had that I’ve done in Oklahoma and Dallas. In those groups, we had 15 to 20 people. And I’m going to even limit this down to 10. I don’t want to take up all of your time every week. I want to have it to be two to three hours that we do and I want to make sure that the time is meaningful. So, more than 10 people.

You are going to have to apply. You’re going to have to give me some information and then this is a paid service. So you will need to purchase this in advanced to secure your spot. But I think it’s going to be really, really great.

And I think that the group and the collective knowledge that is going to give you exchanged and the discussion that we have as people walk through their education and do plans and execution. I think it’s going to be a really invaluable process and I really encourage you, if this is something that you need then by all means, please sign up. And really, who is it geared for? It’s geared for those people that need an accountability partner. You get sidetracked. You’re busy. You just really need someone there to say, “You need to do this, and here’s how we’re going to do it. And now, let’s check your progress.”

That’s not for everybody. That’s not for everybody’s – that’s not how everybody works. But for those of you who do need that and really want to increase your SEO knowledge and get a good sense of process and execution or really get a good feel of how to this roll out to your clients, then this is for you.

So, visit the show notes at SEObits.fm. Learn more about this and if you do feel like this is a great opportunity for you, please send in your applications so I can review it and I can get a really good group of two different sets of 10 people so that we can really make October and half of November amazing and then get you ready to make 2018 wonderful online adventure.

So that’s it for today. Just a real quick one and just wanted to get that out there so you knew what coming and what was available moving forward.

Thanks so much for listening today. I look forward to continuing the SEO journey together next week.