2022 was the year we got the most Mastermind applications we’ve ever had.
The market had just taken a real hit, and people who’d been sitting on the sidelines were suddenly asking the question they’d been avoiding: where else should my capital be working?
I’ve watched this pattern repeat every cycle since.
When the market’s climbing, applications slow down. People check their portfolio, see the number moving up, and figure everything’s handled. My portfolio’s doing great. Why look anywhere else?
Then the correction comes. And it always does, eventually.
The people who waited are the ones scrambling. Trying to build a strategy in the middle of the worst possible moment for it. Scared and reactive, with no time left to think clearly.
If you’ve read my book, you’ll remember that Commandment 2 is Reduce the Risk. You can’t protect what you haven’t thought through. Deciding what a good deal looks like to you, and what’s an automatic no, takes a calm head. A quiet week, not a market in freefall.
My own criteria isn’t abstract. I didn’t work any of it out mid-deal, under pressure. I decided it in advance, so when a deal actually lands on my desk, I’m not doing the math for the first time. I’m just checking it against a decision I already made.
That’s the whole value of preparing before you need it. The real ROI shows up in how fast and how calm you are the moment the deal is actually in front of you.
That same principle… deciding in advance… is what unlocks everything else inside the Mastermind. The network, the deal flow, the tax strategy, the education that reshapes how you run your financial life.
Most people in your position don’t have anywhere to take a real number. Tell most friends what a syndication actually returned, or what a bad quarter looked like, and it either sounds like bragging or it goes over their head.
Inside the Mastermind, that same story is just Tuesday. The members who talk openly about their mistakes learn faster than the ones who only post wins. That’s the norm the room is built around.
Most people admit that the deal flow is why they applied in the first place, and with good reason. We spend over $300K a year on due diligence. Having vetted deals and a framework for evaluating what lands on your desk is great. Having that framework built while you can still think straight is even better.
The best investment I’ve ever made was in tax strategy. Having the right people steering my financial life has done more for me than any single deal I’ve ever done. Members get access to sixty to seventy tax strategies most CPAs have never even heard of. Actual mechanics you can hand to your own CPA and use this year.
While most members come in for the deal flow, the first year rarely goes the way they expect. Instead of jumping straight into deals, most of that year goes into the actual infrastructure. A real buy box. The right entity structure. A tax strategy that’s finally proactive. Relationships with two or three operators they trust. By year two, the fundamentals are already locked in. That’s when the compounding really starts.
You shouldn’t wait for the next downturn to start looking. If anything, that’s the worst time to start.
If you’ve been considering applying, this is me telling you: don’t wait for the reason 2022 gave everyone else.
Justin
Keep Learning
The Hidden Cost of Poor Company Culture with Cathy Christen – EP 311
From Living in a Van to $1.4M in Net Worth with Michael Alberse – EP 310
