How to Keep Clients for 3 Years to Grow Your Revenue

Are you a coach or consultant who is tired of the "ascension ladder" grind of launching low-ticket offers over and over just to hit your revenue goals?

In this episode, I sit down with serial entrepreneur and mastermind expert Jay Fairbrother to discuss how flipping your business model upside down can help you reclaim your time while significantly increasing your profits. Jay shares his "Fewer, Better, Longer" model for building high-ticket masterminds that keep clients for years, making your revenue growth easier.

You'll discover:

01:30 - Why the traditional "ascension ladder" model limits solopreneur revenue
03:55 - What a real mastermind is (and why most "masterminds" are just group coaching)
04:51 - The "stickiness" factor: How deep human connection creates extreme client retention
05:27 - How to keep clients for 3 years instead of 3 months
06:54 - The primary difference between one-on-one coaching and true community benefits
08:35 - How to decide if a mastermind should replace or add to your current model
09:59 - How to know if you are qualified to lead a mastermind
11:21 - The 6 or 7 different types of mastermind models you can employ
14:55 - The 60-day roadmap for launching a high-end mastermind
16:15 - The "Math of Masterminds": Why finding 9 clients is easier than finding 67
18:50 - The biggest mistake leaders make when defining their mastermind niche
20:30 - The Hybrid Model: Why your expertise is still 80% of the reason people join
23:21 - Using exclusivity and application processes to drive perceived value

Key Insights:

– It is easier to gain 10 clients at $10,000 than 1,000 at $100 to earn six figures a year

– Retention in a mastermind isn't just about your content; after the first year, people stay because of the relationships they’ve built with the other members

– You don’t need a massive email list or a complex sales funnel to build a six-figure program; you only need 10 to 20 of the right people

– A true mastermind follows the Napoleon Hill concept: two or more brains creating a "third invisible force" of collective wisdom that no individual possesses alone

– The tighter you niche your mastermind avatar, the higher the perceived value. Your members should feel "these people are exactly like me"

– Exclusivity is a major value driver. Implementing an application process ensures you aren't just taking anyone with a checkbook, which protects the group culture

– High-ticket masterminds provide a path to "peak hopping"—moving from one financial peak to the next without the exhaustive valleys of constant course launching

– As a facilitator, your job is to build the "container." Safety, confidentiality, and mutual respect don't happen by accident; they must be established as protocols from day one


🎁 Free Resource Mentioned:

👉 Fewer Better Longer Mastermind Training:
https://sixfiguremasterminds.com/

Thanks for listening to the Seven-Figure Life-Fulfillment podcast.

🎁 Claim Ken's free gift — Revenue Growth Stalled? Before you spend another dollar on marketing, make sure you're fixing the right problem.

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Transcript

Ken Steven 0:00

If you're a coach or consultant who is working more hours than ever and struggling to grow your revenue, you're going to love my special guest today. Hello and welcome to the Seven Figure Life Fulfillment Podcast where we share strategies to help coaches and consultants grow their revenue while working fewer hours so that they can finally build a life they enjoy. I'm your host, Ken Steven, and my guest today is Jay Fairbrother. Jay is a serial entrepreneur, business coach, and mastermind thought leader with 30 years of experience starting, buying, and selling seven-figure businesses. He helps coaches, consultants, and subject matter experts build premium mastermind offers designed to keep clients for three years, not three months. That sounds pretty cool. Jay, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Thanks, Ken. Pleasure to be here. Looking forward to it.

Ken Steven 0:51

Yeah, I'm looking forward to because uh what you do with masterminds is directly related to the second driver in my five-driver revenue growth framework, and that's offer and business model. And what I found is that a lot of coaches and consultants immediately default to marketing whenever they've they find themselves stuck on a revenue plateau. Okay. And what I find in working with clients quite often is that the real problem is that they've got an offer or a business model that doesn't scale very easily. So let's start there. Okay. Like when you're working with coaches and consultants, what do you see breaking down in their offer and business model?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Yeah. So when people start out and as a coach and thought leader, you know, the first thing we need is more of everything. We need more traffic, we need more leads, we need more clients, we need more revenue. And so the industry sort of preaches and teaches us the ascension ladder model. You know, come in with a low-ticket offer and then bump them up to a mid-ticket offer. And eventually someday you can graduate like the big boys and have a high-ticket offer. And I did that exact thing trying to grow my business. I learned from a mentor who said, you know, build the low-ticket offer and then create a signature course. And in my sit in my case, it was like the fourth or fifth time uh after I'd launched my signature course. And I'm looking at my numbers, going, What am I doing wrong here? And I I actually had two mentors at the time, and I took all my stats and numbers and shared them. I said, Jay, you're not doing anything wrong. You're hitting industry averages with these course launches, and I'm looking at it going, man, I'm gonna have to launch like eight or nine times a year just to turn this from a hobby into a real business. And so the, in a sense, the model itself is broken because people aren't getting to that high-ticket offer fast enough, and you're losing people along the way who might have bought your high-ticket offer had you made it available earlier to them. So I kind of flip the model upside down. When people come into my world, I steer them directly towards my high-ticket year-long mastermind program. And then, you know, for the people who don't love me enough yet, or the people who don't have the means to invest in the high-ticket offer, then I have a downsell, which can be my course or a VIP day or something like that. Um, but it is a more efficient way to create, you know, high-ticket clients, which is really what you need to scale.

Ken Steven 3:31

Okay, so what you're doing is you're you're now defining a mastermind as a high-ticket offering. Right. And so let's continue with that. Okay, let's talk about the definition of a mastermind. Because, you know, I think a lot of people put different labels on programs and call them masterminds, but they're not really masterminds, are they?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Yeah, in our industry, there's a lot of things labeled a mastermind that's really just a big networking group, or it's glorified group coaching, you know, where it people show up and pray to the altar of the guru and there's QA or maybe a hot seat, uh, but we're gonna call it a mastermind because that's sexier and we can get more money. Um, so yeah, you know, I, you know, go back to, I think Napoleon Hill coined the term like 90 years ago and think and grow rich. And his concept was pretty simple. One person in a room with a brain, second person with a brain creates this third invisible intangible force that he labeled the mastermind. Imagine putting eight to fourteen brains in the same room, the size of that invisible intangible force that's created when you tap into the collective experience, collective knowledge, and collective wisdom in the room. So it really is about, to me, the key, the key sort of the stickiness, the glue for a mastermind is it's about the relationships. It's about deep human connection that you form because you're no longer just one of many participants in a program that never get to know each other and connect and collaborate and co-create. You're in a program where the person running is is intentional about building those relationships among the participants so that they can tap into that invisible and tangible force.

Ken Steven 5:26

So you mentioned that by having a mastermind, you keep clients for three years, not three months. How does that work?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yeah. So when you invite people initially into the program, you want to get at least a six-month, preferably 12-month commitment. But unlike a course or group coaching program, it doesn't end in six or 12 months. That's just renewal time. And while people, you know, 80% of the reason they'll join a high-ticket mastermind is still because of you, the coach, consultant, thought leader, right? They they still want your training, your coaching, your mentoring as part of the program. But 80% of the reason they will stay after the first renewal period is because of the relationships they've now built with everybody else. So even if you've run out of content in six or 12 months, now they have they have they're getting such value from the other people, and they're like, I love this community, I get so much support and value from it, I don't want to leave. And so you can renew them year after year. And I do this, I walk my talk. My after my first year that I offered my client a high-ticket mastermind, 100% of the people renewed into the second year. And I now have people going on three years.

Ken Steven 6:54

Wow. So unlike one-to-one coaching, for example, where you're imparting some kind of solution, either facilitating it as a coach or recommending it as a consultant. The difference is that they're getting benefit. It's it's the benefit from a community, it's the relationship building that's the benefit, right? It's the it's it's having a peer group of like-minded people with like-minded challenges, okay, that it's a safe environment where they can say, hey, I've got a problem. Can we talk about it? And and that's the that's the benefit of it, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah, you know, I the first mastermind I ever joined 25 years ago, we joined it simply to grow our businesses and become better entrepreneurs. But what happened, I was not expecting in within four or five months in these meetings. I'm starting to watch like grown men break down and cry as they open up and talk about their terrible marriages and their kid problems and the anxiety and depression that they feel running a business. And it was like, this is not what we signed up for. But it to me, it was that's the stickiness, right? And that mastermind, that first one I joined, I stayed in for 17 years because every month I got value from hanging out with those, you know, it wasn't the exact same people for 17 years, but that same sort of, you know, you're having it, you have that tribe, you have your inner circle of people that are there to support you and and carry you through the good times and the bad times.

Ken Steven 8:35

So let's bring it back to the to the offer and business model again. How would having a mastermind how should that be added to a model that someone's already got? I mean, should it replace the model that they have now? Should it be an add-on to the model they have now? Does it depend?

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Yeah, so I don't believe in a cookie-cutter way to run masterminds or to create them for thought leaders. I think for thought leaders, there are six or seven different types of model, mastermind models that you can uh employ. And I think the key is to figure out what's the best one for each for you to choose. So it could be an add-on or it could be a replacement. Um, but it certainly serves typically as one of the best high-ticket offers because of that retention factor and being able to keep clients long term. Um, but it's also, you know, it also can be easier to run because it's not so dependent on content and your individual coaching and mentoring. Um, so I think there's there's different ways to position it. Um, you know, there are masterminds that actually can be a mid or or lower level thing, but um typically people are creating it as that high-ticket offer.

Ken Steven 9:58

How would a coach or consultant know that they're even qualified to create a mastermind? I mean, I'm sure that I mean you you would have to have certain elements of your business in place and a certain level of expertise before you would even want to think about doing a mastermind, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:20

It's interesting. I have a a lot of clients who are at a relatively new stage of business. Um, what you do absolutely have to have is understand how you help people and what transformation that you can create and provide to people. And you have to have be able to package that into an offer, right? Which, as you know, that's there's there's a art and science to just creating the offer and and packaging it and marketing it correctly. Um, but uh yeah, I have people from all over the spectrum. So I've had people who are relatively just starting out go out and create a mastermind. Now, maybe it's not a you know $20,000 a year mastermind if you're starting out. Maybe you start at a lower or you start with a beta price to get the first cohort going. And then I have seven-figure entrepreneurs who are already there at seven figures, and now they want to add that high-ticket or ultra-high ticket uh offering to what they already have.

Ken Steven 11:21

So you're saying that like there's six or seven different types of masterminds?

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah.

Ken Steven 11:29

Can can we kind of run quickly run through what each one of those is? Because I I'm thinking there's only one kind of mastermind, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Well, yeah, so there's there's a peer-to-peer mastermind, right? So so here, I'll give you an example. I run three masterminds of my own. I run a local in-person mastermind here in Pittsburgh for local entrepreneurs. I run a peer mastermind, so that is other uh multi-six, seven-figure coaches, and we all serve the coaching market. So it's run as a true peer mastermind. And then I have my client mastermind where we teach people how to build this model and how to you know run their online business and scale it. There are also industry masterminds. So uh, you know, maybe I'm a car dealer and I've become a superstar car dealer in my local local or region, and I want to create a mastermind for other car dealers now to teach them what I've you know, become an expert in. There are corporate masterminds, corporate large corporations like Google run internal uh peer masterminds for you know people who are at a certain level in the corporation in different buckets within the corporation that don't normally get a chance to interact or don't get that chance to interact without peer subordinates or or or superiors in the room. Um there are uh you know diversity of masterminds. There's a model where you fill seats, certain seats around the table. So you only have one salesperson, one HR person, one finance person, one operations person, and you kind of fill a board of advisors around a table. So that's what I mean. There's different types of masterminds, and they can all be structured differently.

Ken Steven 13:14

So for for depending on the type of mastermind, how how would a coach or consultant go about figuring out what the value would be to the end user and therefore what they should charge for that mastermind?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah, I mean, that's that is the you know million-dollar question right there, right? Because that's really the key to figuring out how to how to package the program, price it, and who it's for. Um, the the one thing that I can share that will help in that respect is that a mastermind is designed, and you know, when it's a true mastermind, meaning it's going to be, you know, 10, 20 people, not 100 people, it's the the narrower you make the niche, the avatar, the the more perceived value it has. Like there are people in the thought leader industry, I'll use the uh name Jeff Walker as an example, product launch formula, you know, one of the early internet gazillionaires. Well, for a long time, Jeff had a $100,000 a year mastermind. That's what I call an access mastermind. That's one type of mastermind. People weren't paying $100,000 to learn from Jeff Walker. They were equals paying $100,000 because Jeff assembled some of the other top, top gazillionary internet marketing people at the time. And you were paying for access, intimate inner circle access to those other top thought leaders. So that's what I mean. There's lots of different ways to look at it and structure it and build it.

Ken Steven 14:56

So let's talk about the process then. So if someone was to work with you, for example, okay, and say, hey, help me set up a mastermind, what process do you take them through?

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Yeah. So we first look at what's the right type of mastermind, then we really dive into the who, right? Who are the right people to fill it? Um, and then we look at packaging it into an offer and creating all the marketing copy and that kind of thing. Uh, and then we look at the funnel. Um, how you know, I'm all about efficiency and speed. What's the easiest, fastest way for you to find those 10 to 20 people who have the means, the motivation, and want your transformation and help. And when you focus on that aspect of it, I'm only looking for 10 or 20 people. Everything else gets put into perspective. Like suddenly, you don't need to have an email list with thousands of people on it. You don't need to have, you know, all this huge amount of traffic, and you don't need one of those fancy complex sales funnels because you know, you kind of old school it, talk to people, build relationships, get referrals, and look for those right 10 to 20 people.

Ken Steven 16:14

So let's talk about the math for a minute, right? Because I, you know, you you talk about the fact that I have it here somewhere, it's it's uh where did it go? Where did it go? Yes, you're a fewer, better, longer model, right? Yeah. Let's talk about that, right? Because that relates to the math.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Yeah. So if you think about if you have a $1,500 course or you have a one-on-one package that you sell for $1,500, you need 67 clients just to reach six figures. And as you know, to get 67 clients requires hundreds, if not thousands, of people coming into the top of the funnel. It would probably uh there's a lot of automation in the sales funnel and complexity. Whereas, you know, nine people paying you a thousand dollars a month is a six-figure program, six-figure business right there. And, you know, if you're a fan of Dan Sullivan at all, you know the book 10x is easier than 2x. Um, it it honestly is easier to find those nine people when you know who you're looking for than it is to find 67 and capture 67 clients.

Ken Steven 17:28

How how how would you decide? I guess it depends on the niche, right? You you pick your niche first and then you figure out where those people hang out. Is that the idea?

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Yeah, and then you have to craft your branding and marketing messaging to attract the to speak to those people. And that's a mistake that so many thought leaders make is in their marketing, they think, well, I can help everyone, or I can help this huge, you know, the an entire niche of people, and the entire niche of people are not who you want in a mastermind. You want a subset of a niche in the mastermind because the the the reason it the the stickiness, that retention factor, the way that kicks in is when the way I say it is in every single meeting, every person should walk out with a sense of, oh my god, these people are just like me. They have the same issues, they have the same aspirations. And when you get that commonality, that's what people, that's where people it creates that stickiness, and that's where you get that value driven and the perceived value of wow, these these people, I can relate to every single one of them.

Ken Steven 18:49

So if someone's setting up a mastermind or thinking of setting up a mastermind, what are the most common mistakes you see them making when they try to do that?

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, it's usually around aiming too broad, right? Like I'm gonna, you know, I want uh women coaches. Well, you know, that's a very you know, there are millions of women coaches out there. So it's it's not, you know, so I want women coaches who are healers in a specific modality, or I want women coaches who only work with uh, you know, C E C suite executives, or I want women coaches who are um, you know, combine business and life coaching together. You got to tie that commonality tighter. So that's the one big mistake. And then the other is that they don't know how to create the container, and so um you end up with some of these programs that are out there called masterminds that are not, they're run just like group coaching programs or networking groups, and it doesn't create that relate the relationships because it seems simple, but there is actually an art to creating the container where you create the culture of psychological safety, mutual respect, confidentiality, trust, like that doesn't happen automatically. You as the facilitator need to establish those protocols and cultures and the rules and expectations up front, and then manage that as the group begins to form the group dynamic and develop the safety.

Ken Steven 20:31

So before we started the recording today, I mentioned to you that my idea of a mastermind was that you'll get a bunch of people in a room and it's kind of going back to that old concept that two heads are better than one. And obviously, if you get 10 heads in a room, then 10 heads are better than two. And and and you said, hey, it's more than just facilitating a conversation between you know like-minded people in a room, there's much more to it. And that that people people are expecting more than than just a brain trust. They they they want to hear from you as an expert as well, right? So so you had mentioned it's something called a hybrid model.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah. So if you contrast it with what I would call a peer mastermind, where everyone is equal, and you can organize and facilitate and run a peer mastermind, but it's not necessarily a high-ticket program unless you're, you know, somebody like that Jeff Walker name or some, you know, you're Tony Robbins, or somebody you're providing that elite access. So you can you can run that kind of program, but it's not necessarily going to have the same perceived value to be 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 a year. What adds to the perceived value and what where it becomes what I call a hybrid, is people still want your training, coaching, and mentoring, right? And that's what they will. Pay for, and that's 80% of the reason they will join when they sign up. If it's positioned as just like a book club or a coffee club or a kumbaya party support circle, you know, that meets regularly, certainly that has value, but not necessarily something I'm going to pay $10,000, $20,000 a year for. So when you add back in your expertise, your thought leadership, the transformation that you can create with people, that's where you take it to elevate the perceived value and get it to a high-ticket program.

Ken Steven 22:34

Okay, good. So who would this be ideal for? Who should be considering doing this?

SPEAKER_00 22:42

It's ideal for any coach, consultant, speaker, or any entrepreneur who wants to add something like this to their plate because they're a thought leader in their industry. One of the way, one of the best ways to uh add perceived value to these programs is with exclusivity. So you want to list all the reasons you wouldn't be qualified for the program, who it's for, who it's not for. And with these programs, I always suggest having an application process because as soon as you and that's a distinction between like group coaching or or something else, when you allow anyone who can write the check into the program, there's no exclusivity. Right? When you create an application process and it's very clear whether you qualify or don't qualify for it, that in itself creates perceived value.

Ken Steven 24:03

So you've got a couple of ways that you help people get started, right? Can can you tell us more about that?

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Yeah, so um, you know, that I have a uh you know basic um PDF and video training on the fewer, better, longer mastermind just to learn more about what we've talked about today. Um, I also do three-day virtual events. I do a few of them every year. Um, these are you know full eight-hour virtual days, three days in a row, and that's really where we walk through this entire process of the what, the who, building the simple funnel, creating exclusivity. Um, and that's a really transformative process. And again, I've had people who are beginners that come to that and say, I don't know if I'm ready to do this yet, but now I have a roadmap of where I can go. And I've had you know seven-figure uh business owners come into that and stay all three days and and they create a new program out of it. And I do have the a course as well that's pretty much soup to nuts create and launch or high-end mastermind in 60 days. So the you know, plenty of options for people to consider um if they want to look into this further.

Ken Steven 25:15

And so if they wanted to reach out to you, how do they find you?

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Sixfiguremasterminds.com. You can actually spell it with S-I-X or the number six, either way. Oh, and sixfiguremasterminds.com. Uh, I'll also just throw out my email address is Jay at fairbrother.com. Pretty easy to remember. I read my emails, shoot me an email if you're interested in learning more.

Ken Steven 25:39

Jay, this is fantastic. I I think this is something that any coach or consultant who's struggling with their revenue right now and and literally thinks that the only way they can grow their business is to start working more hours. This, I think, is something they should definitely consider because, as you say, the math works, and all of a sudden now you've got a higher ticket offer. You're dealing with clients that are like-minded, they're better quality clients, they're all they're all on the bus for the same reason. They all want to go to the same place, they're all on a journey, want to support each other in getting there. Mastermind sounds like a really good option to consider. So, again, I'm gonna put the link to your website and to uh to your offer because I think your offer is to is to download a PDF and a short video, right? To to get them started on their journey towards creating a mastermind. So I'll definitely put that in the show notes below. And uh, Jimmy, thanks again for being on the show and being such a great guest.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Thanks again, appreciate it.

Ken Steven 26:40

All right, and we'll see everybody again in the next episode of the Seven Figure Life Fulfillment Podcast.