Formats and fit
How do you choose a mastermind group?
Last updated 5 July 2026 · Reviewed by Nick Thorpe
The short answer
Choose a mastermind by checking seven things: who else is in the room, how members are vetted, how sessions are structured, the facilitator's own business record, the size cap, the commitment length, and what the fee actually buys. Walk away from pay-to-pitch rooms, guru-audience dynamics and groups that accept anyone who can pay.
The word mastermind covers everything from a serious peer board to a hotel ballroom with a stage. The label tells you nothing. What matters is who is in the room, how the room is run, and whether the person running it has done the work themselves. Here is the checklist I would use before paying anyone a deposit.
What should you check before joining a mastermind group?
Check seven things before you commit: the people, the vetting, the structure, the facilitator, the size, the term and the price. In that order.
- Room composition. You want stage-matched peers: owners running real, trading businesses at a broadly similar stage to yours, with no direct competitors in the room. People slightly ahead of you are ideal, because they have recently solved the problems you are facing now. If everyone is two stages behind you, you become the teacher and stop getting value yourself.
- Vetting rigour. Ask how members get in. A serious group takes applications, speaks to people before admitting them, and turns some away. If the only qualification is a card that clears, the room is unfiltered and so is the advice you will get in it.
- Structure. Ask exactly what happens in a session and between sessions. Look for hot seats, a fixed cadence, and real accountability mechanics: commitments written down, follow-up, someone checking whether you did the thing. Good intentions without mechanics fade fast.
- The facilitator’s record. Ask what they run today. There is a difference between someone coaching from a live P&L and someone whose main business is the mastermind itself. We set out how we judge the options on why Core. Apply the same test to anyone, including us.
- The size cap. A cap protects airtime. Ask what the cap is and how often each member gets the room’s full attention. No cap usually means the economics matter more to the organiser than the outcomes do.
- Commitment length. A defined term, commonly a year, gives the group time to learn your business and hold you to your plans. Rolling monthly membership is easier to sell and easier to drift out of.
- Price against what is delivered. List every element you actually receive: in-person days, calls, one-to-one time, accountability between sessions. Then judge the fee against that list and ignore the headline number.
What are the red flags in a mastermind group?
Walk away from pay-to-pitch rooms, guru-audience dynamics, unvetted membership and promised results.
| Red flag | What it looks like | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-to-pitch | Members sell to each other from the stage, sponsors get speaking slots | You are the market. The fee bought someone else access to you |
| Guru-audience dynamic | One person talks, everyone listens, hot seats are rare or staged | You are buying content, and content is available far more cheaply |
| No vetting | Anyone who can pay gets in | The quality of your peer group is down to luck |
| Promised results | Income claims, promises that the fee will pay for itself | No one can promise your results, and honest operators do not claim to |
None of these make the organiser a bad person. They make the room the wrong purchase.
How do you weigh the price against what you get?
Break the fee into its parts and price each part on its own. A group that will not itemise what you get has already answered your question.
For transparency, here is ours. The Cabal is Core’s 12-month mastermind: three in-person Cabal Days a year, monthly calls, weekly accountability and quarterly one-to-one Power Coaching, with capped numbers and entry by application. It costs £8,000 a year paid in full, or £800 a month (£9,600 across the year if paid monthly). Put any room you are considering through the same exercise. What does each element cost on its own, and would you buy it separately?
Who is a mastermind wrong for?
A mastermind is the wrong purchase for pre-revenue founders, for owners who want a cheerleader, and for anyone who cannot commit to preparing and turning up.
Peer scrutiny needs a trading business to scrutinise. If you are pre-revenue, spend the money on getting to revenue first. If what you need is dedicated attention on your own numbers rather than shared airtime, one-to-one coaching is the better tool; the trade-offs are set out in mastermind versus coaching. And if you want a room that tells you your plan is great, a mastermind is an expensive way to be disappointed.
Run the checklist, ask the awkward questions, and treat any hesitation in the answers as information. A good room answers everything plainly, because a good room has nothing to soften.
Nick Thorpe
16 years a British Army officer, then a decade building his own companies. Coaches business owners on the CoreOS framework. The story.