How to Choose a Mastermind for Agency Owners

The best mastermind for agency owners is the one where your revenue sits mid-band, each member gets at least 15 minutes of airtime per 3-hour session, and every useful hour costs less than a one-to-one coach. The ICF’s 2023 Global Coaching Study puts North American coaching at an average of US$272 per one-hour session (2022 data), so a US$10,000 group plus travel has to give you about 42 hours you would otherwise have paid a coach for.

Rules of thumb

• Join where your revenue is mid-band, not at the floor. Agency Mastery, for example, says it is not a fit for agencies under $700K in annual revenue.
• Keep the cohort at 8 to 12 if you want 15 minutes or more of airtime in a 3-hour session (180 minutes divided by 12 members is 15; by 16 it is 11).
• Price a group against one-to-one coaching: at the ICF’s North American average of US$272 an hour, US$11,500 buys about 42 coaching hours.
• Prefer groups that make members share financials and admit one agency per market: AMI’s live owner peer groups state both rules.
• If a group cannot give you its size, its vetting rule and its all-in annual price in writing, do not sign an annual commitment.

How do you score a mastermind for agency owners?

An agency-owner mastermind can be scored on six criteria, each worth 0 to 2 points, and a total of 9 or more out of 12 is the line LeadsNow suggests for joining. We call it the Agency-Owner Mastermind Fit Scorecard. Score each group you are considering before the sales call, using its own pages, then ask the facilitator to fill in the gaps.

The thresholds for airtime and cost come from the worked calculation below; the format and vetting rows reflect what the agency-specific groups in our shortlist publish about themselves. The revenue-band row matters most because a US$400K agency and a US$10M agency have different problems: the first needs a repeatable sales process, the second needs a leadership team and an exit plan.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best mastermind for agency owners?

The best mastermind for agency owners is the one that scores 9 or more out of 12 on the Agency-Owner Mastermind Fit Scorecard for your agency. On the pages we checked, AMI’s owner peer groups score highest on format, vetting and financial sharing; Agency Mastery fits agencies above $700K a year.

Is a mastermind worth it for an agency owner?

A mastermind is worth it when it delivers peer financials, referrals or exit experience a coach cannot. On cash alone, a US$11,500 group needs 81% of its 52 contact hours to be useful to match a US$272-an-hour coach.

Should I hire a business coach or join a mastermind?

Hire a coach if you need hours on one problem. The ICF’s 2023 Global Coaching Study executive summary reports an average fee of US$272 per one-hour session in North America and US$244 globally, from 2022 data. Join a group if you need peers’ numbers.

How many members should an agency mastermind have?

Eight to 12 members gives each owner 15 to 22.5 minutes of a 3-hour session. Vistage runs 12 to 16; AMI caps its virtual groups at 10 agencies.

How much does an agency owner mastermind cost?

Two of the four groups we checked print a price. The Bureau lists $29 to $899 a month and AMI’s virtual owner network shows one payment of $4,000 (neither names a currency; AMI does not state the period). AMI’s live groups, Agency Mastery and Vistage did not list fees on the pages we read on 3 November 2026. Ask for the all-in annual price in writing.

What does a $10,000 agency mastermind cost per useful hour?

A US$10,000-a-year agency mastermind costs between about US$369 and US$885 per useful hour in the model below, against US$272 for an average North American one-to-one coach. Every input except the coaching rate is a labelled assumption: replace them with the schedule the group sends you.

The break-even is 42.3 useful hours divided by 52 contact hours, or 81%. Few groups clear that bar, because in a 12-person room most of the time is spent on other people’s problems. So on cash alone a one-to-one coach wins. A mastermind earns its fee from things a coach cannot sell you: eleven other agencies’ real margins and salary lines, referrals from owners who will not compete with you, and the experience of members who have already sold an agency. If a group cannot point to at least one of those, buy coaching instead. Owner time is left out of the model because it costs you roughly the same either way.

Which agency owner masterminds fit which agency?

Four peer groups for agency owners publish enough on their own sites to score, and they suit different revenue bands and formats. The order below is LeadsNow’s ranking against the scorecard, using only what each group’s own pages said on 3 November 2026. LeadsNow is not a mastermind, has no relationship with any of these groups, and none is a LeadsNow client.

AMI ranks first because its live owner peer group page is the only one of the four that states market exclusivity, a facilitator and financial sharing together, which are three scorecard rows; it also requires members to have attended one of its owner workshops first. Its virtual network gives 18 hours a year of contact if you attend 12 monthly sessions of 90 minutes, which is light but cheap in owner time; its page shows one payment of $4,000 without stating the period it covers, so ask. Agency Mastery ranks second for established agencies: its mastermind page states the band twice, as $1M to $30M in the headline and $700K to $30M in its fit list, so ask which applies. The Bureau’s join page prints its prices without naming a currency; its $899 Concierge tier comes to $10,788 a year, close to the US$10,000 in our model if those are US dollars. Vistage suits an agency owner who wants peers from outside the agency trade; its peer advisory groups page states the 12-to-16 size. For what CEO peer groups charge and why most do not publish it, see our CEO peer group pricing breakdown.

Facilitator-led or peer-led: which mastermind format suits an agency owner?

A facilitator-led mastermind suits agency owners who need decisions forced to a deadline; a peer-led group suits owners who mainly want benchmarks and a sounding board. The difference shows up in the scorecard’s format row. A trained facilitator keeps hot seats to time, which protects your 15 minutes in a 12-person session. In a peer-led group the loudest member often takes 30 minutes, which halves someone else’s share.

A content-and-chat community is a third format, not a mastermind. It can be good value: The Bureau’s $89 Connect tier costs $1,068 a year with its annual commitment. Judge it as a community subscription, not against a US$10,000 group.

Who is an agency owner mastermind wrong for?

An agency owner mastermind is the wrong buy for an owner below the group’s revenue floor, an owner who will not share numbers, and an owner whose real problem is lead flow. Agency Mastery says it is not the right fit for agencies under $700K in annual revenue. An owner who will not open their books gets little from a group like AMI’s, where financial sharing is the point. And a group cannot sell for you: if the honest answer to “what is stopping growth?” is “not enough booked sales calls”, US$10,000 spent on a peer group buys advice about a problem that needs pipeline.

What a mastermind will not fix: an empty sales calendar

A mastermind will not book sales calls for an agency; it can only tell you why yours are not booking. Most agency owners hear the same advice in the room: answer enquiries faster, follow up more than twice, work the old leads in your CRM. Doing that yourself costs owner hours or an appointment-setter’s salary. If you run a mastermind of your own rather than join one, our guides to pricing a mastermind seat and raising mastermind renewal rates cover the seller side. For agencies and consultants who want the follow-up done for them, LeadsNow runs AI appointment setting by calling, texting and messaging each new lead within permitted calling hours, and has booked 50,769+ sales appointments since 2017. Its consultants page shows how that works for service firms.

Sources

1. International Coaching Federation, 2023 ICF Global Coaching Study, Executive Summary: average fee per one-hour session, US$272 North America, US$244 global (2022 data).
2. Agency Management Institute, Live Owner Peer Groups (read 3 November 2026).
3. Agency Management Institute, Virtual Agency Owner Peer Groups (read 3 November 2026).
4. Agency Mastery, Digital Agency Mastermind (read 3 November 2026).
5. The Bureau, Become a Member (read 3 November 2026).
6. Vistage, Peer Advisory Groups (read 3 November 2026).