Tarzan Kay

<tarzan@tarzankay.com>

April 25, 2023

to you

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Subject:

why I stopped running masterminds

Prefer to listen in? Tune in to the audio version of this email:

It’s been years since I’ve run a mastermind.

There was a long run where I didn’t feel qualified to lead. I couldn’t ask anyone to pay me $10K while I was grappling with tough questions about this industry and my place in it. 

Did I really *earn* the millions in my Stripe account, or are they there because I’m white / privileged / got lucky early with one famous client? (Would I have hit that mark so early if I was BIPOC?)

‍♀️Was I leaning too hard on my beauty and charisma to sell my offers? (Could a shy introvert replicate my success?)

Can online businesses be profitable without coercive sales strategies? Is it ethical to throw around the word “transformation” as though it can be purchased with a plastic card?

Those are not easy questions.

I had no idea what I was signing up for as I went looking for answers. This examination required me to strip apart my entire life—my business, my marriage, all of my closest relationships. 

Asking those questions shredded my worldview. 

I’ve spent years discovering a new one, and learning to run a business that’s more inclusive, accessible and also profitable.

The Tarzan who stood on a stage four years ago, glossy pamphlet in hand, asking the room if they wanted to transform their lives and businesses by joining her mastermind? 

She had to take a step back.

Give someone else the mic.

Listen.

Take a second to regroup.

Running my Email Stars program as a small cohort has given me an enormous amount of confidence in my leadership abilities. Sometimes it’s like I’m watching myself from outside my body and I feel SO PROUD. 

“You’re doing it, Tarzan.” I say to myself. “That was really brave and you did a really good job.”

It’s given me the itch to run a mastermind again, and I’ve quietly been reaching out to some of my peers who I hope will want to join. 

This time it won’t be me standing at the front of the room giving lectures. I’m shaking off the authority of teacher status.

It’s going to look more like a circle, less like a pyramid.

I want to put smart people in a room together who will learn a lot from each other, people who already know that “how can I make the most money possible” is the wrong question.

I’m looking for the people I used to attend conferences with who spent most of their time at the bar asking peers they only got to see once a year, “So what’s really happening in your business right now?”

This group will be (I hope) a safe place to answer that question honestly, and get feedback from people who’ve been there.

If you’re wondering, “Is this for me, Tarzan?” Here’s how to know:

>> Your business revenue is between $250K-$1M, with at least $100K from digital courses 

>> You often feel like you’re the smartest person in the room, which is cool but also, like, not that helpful

>> You have a small team and the capacity / ability to take one big idea from the group that easily covers the cost of the program

My plan is to take 8 ppl, and the cost will be $12K for a 9-month mastermind. For those who are a good fit, that price should feel like a super good deal, not a “how am I ever going to make that work” investment. 

We’ll kick off this summer.

THIS GROUP IS OPEN TO ALL GENDERS. My groups are almost always all women, but I’m really hoping to have some gender diversity. We’ll see how it shakes out. 

I hope that the transparency with which I’ve run my business these last few years has been enough to earn your trust. It’s taken me this long to feel qualified to run such a group. For what it’s worth, I feel more than ready. 

If you want to talk about it, there’s no sales page or shiny pitch coming (not yet, anyway). 

Just hit “reply” and tell me who you are and what you’re up to, so we can open up a conversation.

TK

NOTE: 

If your business revenue is under $250K, I recommend working with me in Email Stars. 

I’m going to be rigid about this boundary for the mastermind because businesses have different problems at different levels of revenue. In order to preserve that quality of conversation for all participants, I won’t be making exceptions. 

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