An Inner Circle Mastermind alumni’s experience

The Inner Circle is an intimate hybrid-style mastermind combining private coaching, consulting, and a like-minded micro-community for multi-passionate, growing copywriters, marketers, personal brands, and freelancers.

✨ It’s the place where you get to dream up your next moves and build a solid foundation to scale your way—in alignment with your goals and your life. ✨

The “how” is customized for you through your individual action plan that you and I create together at the kick-off. From there, the group is guided through homework prompts, and tools and exercises that I pull straight from the backend of my business. There’s no set curriculum, but a curated experience rooted in proven resources I only have previously shared with 1:1 clients (or kept to myself because they’re my biz baby’s IP).

But rather than me explaining this program to you, I’d prefer to show you what it’s like. Or rather let alumni and current members talk about their experience inside. Because while I guide, coach, and consult along the way, it’s really about the group: What you give and get from your time inside The Inner Circle.

This blog post includes a bit about why alumni Grace Baldwin joined, her big takeaways from our 9 months together, and a message to you as a potential participant.

The why, what, and how for Grace

Grace Baldwin is a SaaS brand strategist and copywriter who participated in the first cohort of The Inner Circle. Here’s her take, which she wrote for me only a few months into participation. Since writing this, she went onto exceed her revenue goals for the year by $38k, develop new offers at premium rates, hire a team to support her, and so much more. I’m honoured to have had a front row seat to witness her growth.

Grace originally reached out because she wanted a Type-A, systems-oriented brain on her business. She knew the theory of business, but wanted tactical tools to figure out how to make things work for her. Grace also wanted someone who would be hands on with their support, and lucky for her… I like to poke my fingers into everything and don’t hold back any systems and tools with my mastermind community.

Through 1:1 support, group masterminding, and our weekly Snackable Homework, Grace achieved more than she set out to in the beginning.

Grace gained tools that grow with her

The Inner Circle was a total game changer for me. I came into the program feeling like a freelancer, and left the program feeling like a CEO. There were “hard” wins: blowing past my revenue goal by $38k, learning how to hire people, creating better offers. But the really big wins? They were the result of a series of smaller, subtle shifts that Jill gently coached me through over the course of 9 months. I’m coming out of the program with tools and strategies I can use for the rest of my career — and it feels really awesome.

Grace Baldwin’s message to future masterminders

This message originally was sent as an email list takeover, but I want to give it a permanent home on the blog too. If you’re on the fence about joining, don’t take my word for it. I think the experience of The Inner Circle Mastermind participants speaks louder than anything I can share about the program.

Have you ever had a baking show change your life?

Weird question, I know. But stick with me. 

If you don’t know me, by the way… hi. 👋 I’m Grace—a B2B SaaS copywriter and brand messaging strategist. Here to take over Jill’s email list for the day.

I got into the Netflix show Nailed It! a few years ago. 

It’s a comedic baking competition where they take self-acknowledged below-average bakers and try to have them recreate beautiful Pinterest-worthy desserts.

Every episode has two rounds.

The first round is usually something smaller, like a cookie design or a doughnut. If you win this round, you’ll usually get a prize like a stand mixer, plus an advantage in the second round. 

That advantage is key though, because it can make winning the second round (which is a significantly more complicated project, like an alien-shaped cake covered in green fondant) a helluva lot easier. 

One of the advantages you can win? It’s called the Panic Button—a literal button that a producer will bring over to your workstation. At any point in the second round, you can use it to have the world-famous pastry chef Jacques Torres (who is one of the judges) come over and help you out. 

Now, most of the contestants wait until their buttercream tastes like something that came out of Santa’s House of Horrors to hit the button and call in the big guns. 

As a result, Jacques has to spend his 3 minutes telling them how to unf*ck whatever they did. 

He helps them figure out what went wrong, might tell them to add more sugar or lemon, and can gently guide them towards a better outcome…

…but sometimes a cake just can’t be saved.

However, in one episode a woman got smart: she pushed the button the minute the countdown clock started.

Instead of using those precious 3 minutes trying to diagnose why her buttercream tasted like cheese, Jacques could give her guidance on how to move through the challenge efficiently… 

As a result, she baked the least hideous cake—and took home the well-deserved $10,000.

Smart, right?

Nailed It! is by all means a ridiculous show. But this single episode so clearly demonstrated the value of getting help from experts before you try to embark on a big challenge by yourself. 

It was a huge mindset shift for me that’s affected my career (and life). 

And it’s why I think you should sign up for Jill’s mastermind. 

Coming into The Inner Circle, I had high expectations. I’ve known Jill for a few years, and know that she puts 150% of her energy into everything she does. 

But I had no idea how seriously transformative this experience would be.

Whether it’s learning how to plan my capacity better or standardizing my pricing and processes across the board, Jill’s mastermind has given me the space to focus on the business, not just run around in it. 

And Jill herself has been there every step of the way to answer questions, dole out advice, point out my blind spots, and literally give me pieces of her business (hello, email templates) that make life easier. 

It would have taken me years to amass this knowledge. Even then, I’d probably have lost thousands of dollars in missed opportunities and hundreds of hours of sleep.

But with Jill’s help? I’m feeling more and more confident about my business every month. Hell, this is my highest-earning quarter ever and there’s still a month left to go. 

I want that for you. 

Jill obviously asked me to write this email. But I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t believe you could get value out of this program. 

And I know you will, because if you’re subscribed to Jill’s list, you’ve clearly got some ambition.

The Inner Circle is your chance to take that ambition and do something with it—the opportunity to hit that button before you realize your cake tastes as dry as an unused dish sponge. 

And even if you’re a pretty okay baker by yourself already… imagine how much better you’d be if you had a world-class expert giving you advice. 

So if you’re on the fence, this is your sign to trust yourself and take the leap to join The Inner Circle.

You might just find that the next stage of your business tastes better than you imagined. 🎂

Here’s to you, friend,

Grace

Your input is directly tied to your output

As a coach, consultant, and mastermind facilitator, I take my responsibility of curating each cohort of The Inner Circle seriously. That’s why I love when Grace DM’s me. She asks great questions. She takes action. And she leverages the opportunity to get that direct access to coaching as needed. And she actively participates with the group.

Here’s what Grace had to say about the small group and 1:1 coaching aspect of The Inner Circle Mastermind…

“I love how hands on this is. And how small and intimate it really is. It’s been so, so helpful and Jill’s made herself so available and really coached me through a lot of situations. And I feel like I’ve grown so much more since joining than I did in the years prior.

It surprised me how hands on Jill is. I think that was the biggest surprise to me: How available she’s made herself to us.

I had high expectations for this, but I’ve been blown away by how supportive and helpful and also just how motivating it is. She has so much knowledge about the business side of things, which I thought I had right, but she really knows how to fucking nail her own business. I’ve just been shocked at how much I’ve been learning because I was a bit afraid, like, okay, you know, this is a big investment. I was expecting to learn, but I’ve been learning way more than I expected to… And getting shit done.”

Gushing about Grace is 10/10 one of my favourite activities. If I could, I would clone her to make 8 other Graces who join the next cohort of The Inner Circle.

Apply to The Inner Circle Mastermind

If you want to be like Grace, you can learn more and apply here. After I receive your application, we’ll find a time to connect via Zoom to make sure this is 100% a good fit.