Elevate – peer to peer mastermind groups

Elevate and Empower Humanity Through Entrepreneurship

Get Direct, Hands On Help With Growing Your Business (and your life).

Learn, be challenged, and held accountable in a professionally facilitated group of peers.
Work on your specific issues and help others while you grow your business and yourself.

New groups starting monthly.

Learn MoreApply Now

“We all need to make a living but wouldn’t you rather be doing it while creating meaning for you, your employees, customers, and humanity?”

About Elevate

ELEVATE is an intimate group of passionate entrepreneurs that meet twice a month to solve problems, evaluate opportunities, and work on an array of strategic and day to day issues.

Members of the confidential group, support each other with advice, honest feedback, and accountability. Elevating each other and creating meaningful impacts in business and in life.

Details

What: A safe and supporting peer to peer mentor group of like-minded entrepreneurs.

When: Meetings are every two weeks with daily check-in via Slack chat.

Who: This group is for entrepreneurs that want to grow and create meaning for themselves and others. (Entrepreneurs that believe that business is about more than just making money.)

Where: From the comfort of your home or office. We meet virtually via the Zoom video conference platform.

How: This is a very small group of 7 people maximum. Each meeting, members bring current challenges, questions, and ideas. Collectively the group shares solutions, ideas, expertise, and support. In between group meetings you will meet 1-1 with the facilitator to discuss and uncover your current challenges.

Investment: A very affordable $900 for 3 months, monthly installments available.

Facilitator: Victor Jimenez; Hi my name is Victor and I am an entrepreneur just like you. For 30 years I have been a trusted advisor and enabler, helping people have fun and do what they love. Over those years I have started several small businesses of my own focused on my passions for fitness, cycling, business, marketing, and conversation. The one thing that has connected all of my ventures is helping people do what they love. More about Victor

Back in 1988, in sunny south Florida, I started my first significant business. At the time I had no idea how to run or grow a business. I found advisors in lawyers, accountants, relatives, sales reps, family members and even through several “entrepreneurship” programs. The problem was that most of the advice wasn’t relevant to my particular situation and often not in my best interest. I really struggled with funding, pricing, managing inventory, marketing, employees, nearly everything involved in running a small business. After 4 years in business, I was in debt, working 80 hours a week, and making lower than minimum wage. Not what I had in mind when I started that business.

Entrepreneurs are Busy

Unless you set aside time to work on your business and your life, growth can remain elusive.

A recent report by the National Small Business Association, states, small businesses said that they plan on incorporating new marketing strategies, strategic alliances, hiring new employees, introducing new products, outsourcing, expanding into new areas, and more.

Stacking those on top of day to day operations and everyday life leaves very little time to work on the things that matter.

Vulnerable to burnout

Entrepreneurs are venerable to loneliness, depression and burn out. Harvard Business Review said that entrepreneurs are 30% more likely to experience depression that their counterparts.

Lack support

One of the main reasons businesses fail is because of their lack of support and accountability to others.

Its rarely because of lack of funding, product demand, poor marketing. Those are really just symptoms of a broader problem.

According to a study by by the American Society of Training and Development “if you have a specific accountability appointment have a 95% percent chance of getting it done, vs only 10% chance of completing just by having an idea or goal.”

I was determined to grow that business I started in 1988, with luck and a lot of time I managed to turn things around and build a very profitable business. It took years… a lot of reading and trial and error. One of the things that I always wanted was a sounding board and a group that would help me sort through ideas, so that I could move forward at a much faster pace. Books and seminars helped, but everything had to be tweaked for my exact situation and that was not easy on my own. At the same time, I was busy working “in” the business, managing daily operations and did not set aside enough time to work “on” the business.

I ended up selling that business for a good profit, but in many ways, I felt like I was still not in control. I have always wondered how much better things could have been with a dedicated group of people that could help me move forward. I was lucky, but most small entrepreneurs are not so lucky, many continue to struggle and just go out of business or physically and mentally just burn themselves out.

This is exactly why I started these mastermind groups. To help others grow their business and avoid many mistakes that I made.

FAQ

Who should join? You must have an existing business and been in business for minimum one year. Members are carefully vetted with an application and short interview beforehand to make sure they are a good fit.

Why should I join? If you want to grow as a person and as a entrepreneur in a small community of peers then you will get a lot out of this group.

Who should not join? If you are just starting out and don’t yet have your business, then this group is not for you. (In January I will have a group for people just starting.) Also if business for you is just about making money, then this group is not for you. Sure profits are important but its not the only thing that matters.

What about confidentiality? What is discussed in the group stays in the group. All members must sign a non disclosure agreement. Furthermore, we take the psychological safety of every member seriously and do everything we can to make this a safe and inclusive environment.

Is this a good place to network? This is not the place to try and get business or clients. Its about helping each other and building genuine relationships.

Where are the meetings held? All meetings are held on the Zoom platform. The meetings are “face to face” meaning we try to always use video because that it tends to help build better conversations.

Is this group just for working on business? I believe that business and entrepreneurship is an expression of who we are and how we view our place in the world. Because of this, I believe that it’s critical that we also work on personal development issues as they come up. As the facilitator I insure that we work on the specific things that the group as a whole wants to work towards.

Are these just presentations? No, not all. While there are occasional short presentations, the group is experiential and participation is mandatory.

What if I need extra 1-1 help? 1-1 meetings with Victor are included once per month. If you need more than that we can discuss.

Do I have to show up for the meetings? While recording are provided if requested. You will get nothing out of the group if you don’t participate and make a commitment to show up. Your group members depend on you to show up, listen and participate fully in the conversation.

What kinds of things are discussed? One member may bring the challenges in preparing for a new product launch and another might have challenges with employees and even personal overwhelm. Through 1-1 mentor meetings Victor will help you uncover and bring your current and most pressing challenges to the group.

What I do

Through group masterminds, mentorship, and consulting, I help entrepreneurs and small businesses to contribute to humanity in a positive way while making a profit.

Why I do it

I believe that if people follow their dreams and build a business around their interests and passions, the world can be a better place. Work, hobbies, even business are not just about money or winning. It's much more than that. It's about helping people, and learning to be better human beings in our very short time on this earth.

My Imperfect Guiding Principles

Embrace Change: Change in all things is inevitable. We can either embrace it or let it crush us. I choose to embrace it. With constant change, it's easy to close our minds off to new ways of thinking. We must consciously work to keep our minds open.

Value Relationships: We help ourselves by helping each other. It gives us meaning. Every interaction we have makes us more human. Relationships are more important than making money or getting to the "top."

Keep It Simple: Simplicity is always the better road in any aspect of our lives.

Everything is a Learning Opportunity: No matter the circumstances, everything is an opportunity to learn.

Eighty percent is Good Enough (well in most cases seventy is enough): Striving for perfection is great, but we have to share our thoughts, ideas, and products for them to be of value.

About: Victor Jimenez

Victor Jimenez has been a trusted advisor and enabler, helping people have fun and do what they love for nearly 30 years. A consummate entrepreneur, Victor has founded many small businesses focused around his passions of fitness, cycling, business, marketing, and conversation. The one thing that has connected all of his ventures is helping people do what they love.

Not perfect

Some have been wildly successful and some have been abysmal failures. One thing that has been common among all of his ventures, is that they were based on interests and dreams. He knows what it feels like to start from scratch and also to salvage a good business that is not reaching its potential.

Creative

His writing has been featured in print magazines such as Endurance, Top Fitness, and business blogs like Greatest and Latin Business Today and The Street, on topics related to cycling, business, and life.

Victor is the host of The Flywheel Podcast, where he hosts conversations about building and growing a business around your interests.

He is the co-host of a popular cycling podcast (Cycling 360 Podcast) that achieved close to 2 million downloads with over 500 five star ratings. The show has helped tens of thousands of people become better cyclists. He is a recognized expert in bicycle positioning and cycling technique and is a technical advisor to athletes and teams.

Influenced in school

Victor struggled in school mostly because he thought the rote memorization of facts and figures was a waste of effort. In his early years, he was labeled with a learning disability. It was not until many years later that he learned that what he thought was his weakness was actually his greatest strength. That is, the ability to see things in a different light and connect disparate ideas.

While in middle school our school developed a curriculum for students with different ways of learning. As soon as I was placed in this system I did really well in school. What was unique about this program is that all of the curricula was focused on the student's interests. I was interested in sailing, riding bikes and business. I flourished.

The program was so successful for me and other students that they did a documentary film about it. It's called "Victor"(as an aside if you are reading this and you can find a copy of this film I would love to hear from you)

Started selling catfish door to door

One of his first business ventures was when he was about 9 years old, selling catfish door to door! Later, he sold tickets to friends to watch he and others ride their bikes into a lake, and he even sold cinnamon toothpicks at school.

To me being a entrepreneur is not about being fearless and taking risks. It's actually just the opposite, I am an entrepreneur because I am completely terrified of what my life would be if I don't follow my dreams and do what I am passionate about.

Loves working with creative people

Victor now works with creative small business owners and entrepreneurs in the fitness and wellness industry to help them build real businesses that are both financially and personally fulfilling. He has worked with a wide range of businesses from nationally known ceramic artists to retail bicycle stores.

Conversations

Victor has given talks and participated in panel discussions on entrepreneurship, podcasting, new media, and technical topics related to cycling. He enjoys attending TED events for the interesting conversations that come up after the talks.

Tidbits about Victor Jimenez

Loves bitter chocolate and bitter beer. I love spending time with my wonderful family; hiking, camping, traveling, or just hanging out together.

Favorite quotes:

"Follow your bliss and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be." Joesph Campbell

"Rules? Nobody told me about any rules." Bob Dylan

Main Content