Paid $300 for a networking masterclass, learned more from a free local meetup

Last spring I got suckered into one of those online "mastermind" courses. The sales page promised insider access to investors and founders. All I got was a bunch of pre-recorded videos and a Facebook group that died after week two. The $300 felt like a donation to a guy with a nice camera. Then a friend dragged me to a free coffee shop meetup in Cincinnati, just 12 people, and in one hour I got a real intro to a supplier who cut my costs by 15%. Has anyone else had better luck with scrappy local groups over paid programs?

1 comments

1 Comment

joseph5291mo ago

Saw a similar story on a podcast last week, some guy paid five grand for a "deal flow" program and got nothing but a fancy PDF. Meanwhile, the local chamber of commerce breakfast he went to for free landed him a contract worth way more. It's funny how the internet sells the idea of shortcuts, but real connections still happen face to face, you know? Those paid courses are basically gambling on the teacher's network, while a meetup gives you the actual people in your city who can do stuff. I've started skipping any paid event with "masterclass" in the name, it's like a warning label at this point.