Unlocking the Power of Masterminds with Stephan Spencer

In this Episode

• [00:31]On the Strategy Sprints Podcast with Simon Severino, Stephan discusses his main SEO tip: networking and his transformational journey.
• [03:15]Stephan shares a little bit about his current goals in his consultancy as he aims to be more self-managing.
• [05:09]An overview of Stephan’s “networking” experiences and approach is provided.
• [09:57]Let go and let God. Stephan speaks about his spiritual transformation and how serendipity works for him.
• [17:25]Simon desires to learn about the different layers of Stephan’s book, The Art of SEO which has been considered the bible in SEO.
• [20:39]There were three books that Stephan cited as the most influential and shaped him.
• [22:06]During the conversation, Simon describes his five-day retreat experience, while Stephan describes his thoughts and opinions involving consciousness. Moreover, he talks about Akashic Records.
• [28:58]As Stephan discusses his business endeavors, Simon asks him about the “friendly universe” and what he thinks about the current political and social events.
• [36:59]Stephan is asked to recommend the next Strategy Sprints Podcast guest.
• [39:56]What does Stephan’s biohacking day look like?

Jump to Links and Resources

Welcome back, everybody, to the Strategy Sprints Podcast. I’m your host, Simon Severino. My guest today is an internationally recognized SEO expert, best-selling author, and sought-after keynote speaker. He is the co-author of The Art of SEO, widely called the “bible of SEO.” He also hosts two podcasts, Marketing Speak and Get Yourself Optimized. Welcome, everybody, Stephan Spencer. 

Hello. It’s great to be here. Thanks for having me, Simon. 

So cool to have you here, Stephan. The fact that you’re here is the first validation of your main SEO tip that networking via Mastermind is a real thing and that it works because we met in Mastermind. 

Yes, we did. 

You have such cool stuff to share with our community because you will share with us how you network via Mastermind and how, for example, just one specific Mastermind, the Genius Network, Tony Robbins Platinum Partnership Program, has significantly affected your business bottom line. Super excited. I’m going to take notes. 

Okay. Sounds good. 

How are you, Stephan? 

I’m doing fabulously. I am so blessed. 

What are you currently working on? 

I’m working on getting my small consultancy into more of a self-managing organization, turning it more into an agency, which ironically is what I went away from back in 2010. I sold my agency at the time to another company, and then that company got acquired by a multibillion-dollar ad agency conglomerate, Dentsu Aegis.  

I decided at that time in 2010, when I exited, that I wanted a lifestyle business, but in actuality, that was holding me back because I thought, okay, I can travel the world, I can follow Tony Robbins around all these amazing, exclusive experiences, and learn all sorts of cool things, but the thing is I couldn’t remove myself from the critical path of my business. So I still had to stay involved. Otherwise, things would fall apart.  

I want a self-managing agency, so I can hang out as the visionary and not have to manage all the implementation and client work.

I want a self-managing agency, so I can hang out as the visionary and not have to manage all the implementation and client work.

It is so beautiful to see when people with passion start something, they become their own bottleneck, and they get to the executive stage where they say, okay, let me create the conditions for me to let go so this thing can flourish even more because from now on, I am the only thing holding this back, just my time limit. Beautiful. So cool.  

Tell us about networking. What’s your approach? What’s your experience? 

I don’t actually call it networking. I just think of it as investing in myself. When I invest in high-level masterminds—these are oftentimes ones that cost many thousands of dollars—I realize that not only is this investment in money. It’s also an investment of my time, energy, and focus. I am very deliberate and disciplined about where I allocate these precious resources.  

Currently, I’m in Genius Network. I’m also in Strategic Coach, Abundance 360, JVMM, where we met—Joint Venture Mastermind—and then there’s a free mastermind that I got hooked up with where we’re going through the book, You Were Born for This. That’s not costing me any money, but it already reveals a lot of light in my life.  

That’s what I’m up to currently, but I’ve been in Tony Robbins Platinum Partnership and did that for three years. I’ve done Taki Moore‘s Black Belt. So many. Neil Strauss has a mastermind called The Society. I did that for six or seven years. There are a bunch of others that I’m sure I’m forgetting.  

I need to follow the signs that say, “Okay, it’s time to move on.”

The thing is, I get something out of each one of them, but they have a certain shelf life or certain appropriateness for my life at the time, and then I need to follow the signs that say, okay, it’s time to move on. 

I have got so much value from these different masterminds. Tony Robbins, for example, his Platinum Partnership—a six-figure a year investment—is serious. I met my wife through it. I had a spiritual epiphany and awakening through it in India on a Platinum trip. I had a physical and emotional transformation. I was literally unrecognizable 10–12 months later, after my first Tony Robbins experience. Actually, I wasn’t a Platinum Partner at that time. I went to Unleash the Power Within and had this powerful epiphany. I walked on the 2000-degree hot coals in my bare feet, I didn’t get burned, and I realized, wow, if I can do that and I can do anything, why am I holding myself back?

Two weeks later, I got LASIK, so I didn’t have to wear glasses anymore. Three months later, I got a hair transplant, so I looked completely different than I did prior. I changed my diet and started exercising. I became literally unrecognizable. I’d show up at conferences to speak, hang out in groups, and they wouldn’t know who I was until I told them. They’re like, oh my God, it’s Stephan Spencer. What? Then, they show me around. They’re like, “Look, it’s Stephan. Can you believe this guy?” 

Anyway, that was fun. Of course, it paid for itself. Revenue-wise, that was really nice. I managed the Platinum Partnership, which was the most expensive investment for me. I managed to get that direct client ROI pretty quickly because Tony had me speak at Business Mastery several times. I got a lot of business from that. Some Platinum Partners also became clients I met through networking and hanging out. It’s been amazing. 

If I can do anything, why am I holding myself back?

Let’s dive deeper into this beautiful topic. Buddhists say you need to learn three things: Dharma, Sangha, and Buddha. Buddha is yourself. You have everything. You just don’t connect to it right now. Dharma is the teachings. You need teaching. It can be taught or at least some form of teaching. It can be tools or templates. Then, the third one, Sangha, says you need peers. You need your community that is on the same journey and has the same problems as you discuss. 

Let’s go deep into that. It was so powerful what you experienced in many different locations. What were the main elements for you that made the difference? 

Looking back, I would say now that it was serendipity. It was letting go, letting God, and realizing that I’m not the only one driving this bus here, that I can just allow the universe to unfold and present the people I need to meet at the right time, in the right way, and at the right place. 

For example, after my India trip and I had that spiritual awakening, two months later, I was in Palm Desert for Date with Destiny, an amazing event that Tony does. I highly recommend it. In the very end, everything had finished. I was in the lobby, and a Platinum Partner friend introduced my wife and me. 

It’s serendipity. It wasn’t just being a Platinum Partner and making that conscious choice to step up. That’s the ego speaking like, yeah, you’re so smart, clever, and whatever. No, it wasn’t that. It was that I was humbled because 12 hours earlier, I had prayed for her to show up. I was writing my relationship vision as part of this exercise of creating a poster board, the relationship vision, your power virtues, your mission statement, and all that. I was working on that. 

After I finished writing up my relationship vision, who I was going to be—not just who my soulmate was going to be like and how she was going to show up—how I was going to show up, and how the relationship was going to blossom, I prayed for her to show up. I was very specific too. I asked for her to show up right away. 

Eighteen hours after we first met, I said I love you to her, and she said it back. Nine days later, I gave her a ring and dropped to one knee in a hot air balloon above the Las Vegas desert to her complete surprise because I knew within 10 minutes of meeting her that she was the one, but the funny twist of fate here or turn to the story is she said no. She said, not yet because it had only been nine days. That’s pretty out there to have a ring and everything nine days after you meet someone. 

Nine months later, I proposed again, and she said yes, but we were inseparable the whole time. It was amazing. Serendipity is the magic of how life works on this plane of existence. 

I was agnostic my whole life. Until age 42, I didn’t even believe in God.

By the way, I was agnostic my whole life until that India trip. Until age 42, I didn’t really even believe in God. 

Amazing. One of the positive aspects of you exposing yourself to so many networks and situations is that you have met a ton of cool people. I am specifically curious who you nominate for the strategy word after one word from our sponsor. 

Hey, if you love what you are hearing, you will love our free master classes. You can grab them at strategysprints.com. 

You can pick only one person who gets the strategy word. 

I met Gareth Simpson, the founder of Seeker Digital in the UK because of all the networking, connections, and masterminds; I’m certain it was serendipity. This guy is amazing. He has a pay-per-performance pricing model that is just really genius and really sets him apart from everybody else.   

His company does link building and link outreach. It’s essentially digital PR with that important distinction that if you don’t get the links, you don’t pay. You pay a retainer, but if you don’t get the value out of it in terms of the links, you would get a refund. But they always deliver. It might take a couple of extra months to fill a month’s budget, but they deliver—an amazing way to do a risk reversal. 

Absolutely. I love guarantees because it creates this situation where both have skin in the game. Now, you’re not a brand, and it’s just a transaction. You’re a team. You are in this together. Both parts want it to work. It changes communication, atmosphere, and energy. I love it. 

We also introduced a guarantee last year on our main coaching program. That has changed everything. We take it even more seriously. The client takes it even more seriously. It’s beautiful, the energy that it creates. Nobody wants not to win, so we are all in this. We are a team. 

We would get all these big blue-chip clients because of that free audit we did.

Yeah. The thing about money that I learned since that whole spiritual epiphany is that money is energy. You can give money in a way that generates a lot of value, and you can give something away for free that generates a lot of value and get money in return later. It’s like you’re paying it forward in a way.  

An example of this is we did a free SEO audit for target.com many, many years ago when we were first really making a name for ourselves as an SEO consultancy and agency. This was the early 2000s. The agreement was we would do this free amazing audit that we normally would charge a lot for in exchange for a testimonial and use of their logo on our website.  

That really catapulted us to another level because people started seeing, wow, you’ve done work and created a lot of value for Target. We want to hire you too. We would get all these big blue-chip clients because of that free audit we did. 

You could find, for example, a nonprofit and something that you’re passionate about, donate your amazing services or products to them, and maybe they’ll give you a testimonial, some sort of introductions, referrals, or what have you that could catapult you to another level. 

Let’s talk about your SEO book. You have written many books, but specifically, one has become the bible in SEO. What was the reason why this one became the bible? What were the different layers? 

Again, there’s a lot of serendipity there. I didn’t really know Rand Fishkin at the time. This was back in 2008 or 2007. I knew of him, but I gave a presentation at a conference that he was just really impressed with. We were both on a panel. It’s the give-it-up panel; share your best secret tips on SEO. I am really over-delivered. I shared stuff that nobody else in the audience knew. Maybe a few hands went up when I asked, does anyone know about this one? 

At the next conference a few weeks later, Rand Fishkin came up to me, hugged me in the speaker lounge, and said, “dude, you really brought it.” We just started talking, we decided we were going to do a book together, and pretty much by the end of the conversation, we had a book deal because, at that very moment, Danny Sullivan was at the O’Reilly unconference. We contacted him, asked him if we could get an intro to O’Reilly, and he talked to some people there because he was right there on the campus with everybody at Foo Camp. Pretty much by the end of the day, they said, “Yup, we’re going to say yes to this with you.” The rest is history. 

A couple of things about putting a book together, I think it needs to be a labor of love. Don’t worry about the fact that you’re probably getting paid less than the minimum wage for the time you put into it. It’s really about giving back, creating value, and karma. You’ll get it back in spades.  

That’s been the case. I’ve put countless hours into the three editions we’ve already done, and now, we’re already on a fourth edition.  

Rand has dropped off of the book. He’s too busy these days, and it’s not really his area of interest right now compared to what he’s doing at SparkToro. It’s been amazing. Just don’t worry about the how; figure out the right person to help you, like my co-authors. I had ghostwriters’ help as well. It’s a labor of love. 

I’m so curious about the three books that shaped you most. 

Don’t worry about the how; figure out the right person to help you.

Ho’oponopono: Your Path to True Forgiveness is amazing. It’s by Dr. Matt James. The Ho’oponopono prayer is from Hawaii. It’s about not just asking for forgiveness but coming to a sense of completeness, peace about things that have passed, people who have passed and situations that haven’t gone your way. That’s been super powerful for me. 

You Were Born for This, I mentioned. I’m in that Mastermind, and we’re going through the book. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s already created some really powerful miracles in my life. 

And the book ASK Whitedove. A medium wrote that, so it’s pretty, pretty amazing and life-changing. 

So cool. Three books that were never mentioned here. Amazing. Stephan, what have you recently changed your mind about? 

Reincarnation. I used to not believe in it. I didn’t believe in much really before I was awakened by monks in India that gave me the Deeksha blessing, but I didn’t really buy into reincarnation until fairly recently. Now, it’s obvious. 

It’s funny. I was on a five-day retreat two weeks ago with Rupert Spira who is a wonderful spiritual teacher from the Advaita non-dual scholarship. We went through what it is right now observing which is the main question that you ask in Advaita. What is observing right now? You strip off, it’s not my body. You strip off, it’s not my mind. You are in eternal consciousness, and you say, okay, I am this infinite consciousness and awareness. 

After five days of just being infinite awareness, we were all discussing what about reincarnation and stuff? We were quite clear that we do not have any evidence of it. We do not have any evidence of the opposite.  

It seems to be the sanest assumption that life is like a river of water, and then you have these whirlwinds inside of it and that human life is basically a whirlwind. It is the same structure. It is just an intensification for a specific period of time—and we call it I—and when it dissolves, it dissolves into the river. The parts of it will become the next whirlwind somewhere else, but the information is not lost. It just reconfigured. It seems to me—without having any evidence—that it is the sanest assumption. I’m curious about your thought process behind that. 

Consciousness absolutely survives the body. We are not our bodies. We have bodies. One of the holiest and most elevated people that has ever lived, a rabbi who shared this concept that he would talk to his body as if it were a separate entity, say, alright, body, I think you’re hungry, so let’s get some food. It’s time to take a shower now. Come on, body, we’re going to clean up.  

You actually could try this. You could go through this exercise for a while and see how that shifts your consciousness because we are much more than the physical atoms that make up our bodies. It’s something that is hard to grasp until you really have some sort of epiphany or access to something more because I heard this going to some different masterminds.  

We are much more than the physical atoms that make up our bodies.

There was a great workshop I attended, The Society Mastermind, the Neil Strauss one. We went all through this. The light didn’t come on with that. There was this one exercise where we were on stage. Each of us had our time on stage, and we had to explain who we were. Then, everybody was instructed to say, “but who are you” over and over again.  

It just didn’t resonate with me. It didn’t achieve any breakthrough for me. Some people have breakthroughs, but everybody accesses them in their own time in their own way. It’s incredible to see or at least get a glimpse of the bigger picture. So just pray for it is my advice. Pray for access for those epiphanies. 

Absolutely. It goes back to why your book number one touched you so much: our essence and true nature is peace. It’s happiness. Not an exciting kind of happiness but being the whitespace that allows everything to come in and to get out. This kind of calm, generous state is the space where things come and go. This is basically our true nature, and it’s always here. It’s just veiled most of the time. We don’t connect to it. We disconnect, but it’s here. 

One of the most important concepts I’ve ever got in my life so far is that our every thought, word, and deed is recorded. It goes into what’s called the Akasha or Akashic Records. You can get an Akashic Records reading.  

An internet marketer, Stephen Renton, introduced me to Anne Marie Pizarro, who is amazing. I’ve been working with her for several years. My wife has as well. What amazing insights we’ve got. You can ask the recordkeepers who Anne is channeling to give you answers to everything pretty much other than when you’re going to die and how, but to have that kind of access to what’s come before, what’s coming, and what’s in your present moment based on everything you’ve ever done, said, and thought is a real gift. It’s the real thing. Akashic Records are not just some woo-woo fantasies. It’s legit. 

I have a similar approach. I practice behaving with every object and every person as if it was myself or my kids, which I love above everything else. When I touch my kids, I do it with the most kindness that I am capable of. I try to think of everybody as being the same, and that we are not disconnected. We are the same soul. We are the same in the end. Even when I wash the dishes, I try to be kind and gentle to the dishes. If I leave a room, did I leave it like I would leave the room for my kids? I love it. 

Now, if we go back to your business endeavors, looking forward, what excites you? What are you trying to solve or build? 

I’m working on a self-help book, which is a big departure from my technical marketing books that I’ve put out so far. I’m very excited about that. I’m excited and scared a bit as well, but I want to touch a lot of people and help them see that we live in a friendly universe. That’s the whole point. 

I want to touch a lot of people and help them see that we live in a friendly universe.

The book is just going to be part of the whole picture. I’m going to do events and whatever else I’m led to do, but this is something that I’m very passionate about.  

Actually, I’m working that into the business, so it’s not just an SEO agency consultancy working with folks who I resonate with and who resonate with me and that I can help amplify their message. It’s also about amplifying my message, getting a lot of lives changed, epiphanies, and so forth out there. 

Two powerful topics that turned me on. One is the friendly universe, and the other is how do we bring in more of what we are in our businesses or agencies?  

Let’s go to the universe first. Is it a friendly universe? I have the same assumption. I am absolutely certain that it is a friendly universe we live in and that we are at peace in our true nature. At the same time, if we watch just the current unfolding political and societal events, we see all kinds of stuff going on. What’s your take? 

You have to be open to receiving the messages that there’s more to this than just the physical, tangible stuff that you see, taste, touch, feel, et cetera. It’s really a magical place once you open yourself up to those serendipities, magic, and so forth.  

A quick example is my ex-wife’s mother passed away from COVID, and my stepdaughter watched the Netflix shows Surviving Death. There’s an episode about receiving messages from your loved ones who have passed.  

She is not into anything nontangible at all, so she just decided, I’m going to try this. Within half an hour, this brochure ends up on our driveway that says, I love you, granddaughter. It has the music box picture that she had gotten from her grandmother 30 years prior. 

There are no coincidences. She was just so touched, sobbing, and everything was over. Clearly, it was a message. It was for her reassurance that there’s more and that this is not all bleak, dystopian future sort of stuff. This is a beautiful miracle that we’re experiencing in life.  

Once you open yourself up and tune into the frequency, all these clues are everywhere.

That’s just an example of it. Once you open yourself up to it and tune into that frequency, all these clues are everywhere. 

The universe checked off. Now, let’s go through the second topic, which I resonate greatly with. Many people in our community listening right now have the same topic. As a human being, I am evolving spiritually. How much of it can I bring into my business? My business might be a specialized technical thing like SEO, marketing, or growth consulting. How can I bring in more of what nurtures me and what I know is good for them but in an appropriate way? 

So much. Actually, you are part of the signs that I could really ramp that up because we had a conversation. You shared an example of your equalizer webinar and template and that the title tag kept showing up on the tabs. I still had that open: The Freedom to Choose the Clients You Want.

I knew that was a message for me. I don’t have to work with clients that don’t bring me joy, aren’t adding massive value out in the world, and aren’t a vibrational match to me. I don’t have to work with them, and they don’t have to work with me. There are plenty. There’s no scarcity. 

I don’t have to work with clients that don’t bring me joy, aren’t adding massive value out in the world, and aren’t a vibrational match to me.

Just in the last couple of months, I’ve got double or triple the lead flow that I normally get. It’s not that I’m doing anything different from generating leads. It’s that I’m more intentional about how I focus and how I vibrate. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s just amazing stuff, things that you think, okay, that’s pretty wild.  

When the prospect had a call with me to go over SEO and what an engagement would look like, he said the weirdest thing happened. I have got to tell you before we jump into all the SEO details. I was just listening to a conversation between Tucker Max and Dan Sullivan. Stephan and Tucker just brought you up 45 minutes ago. Out of the blue, he dropped your name and The Art of SEO into a completely unrelated conversation.  

I thought, wow, that’s pretty amazing. I just know that you can bring all of your vision, soul purpose, and what’s important to you into your business, and there’ll be room for it. 

Your thing seems to be synchronicity. You know how things come together. There is a whole book on synchronicity. The author had this moment where he had a patient, and she was talking about a butterfly, and the butterfly was in the window at that moment. That triggered him to explore that path. Do you know that book? 

I don’t. What’s the name of it? 

I have to send it to you. In German, it’s synchronicity, but I have to check the English version, what the exact title is. I will send it to you because every time we talk, you have these moments of synchronicity where different things come together, and something happens. It’s beautiful. Stephan, who should be my next guest? 

I could give you a huge list, but I’ll start with Scott Donnell. He has been a guest on Get Yourself Optimized, my biohacking and spirituality podcast. He’s also a client.  

His company is called Hapbee. The product is a biohacking device that helps you to tune into certain frequencies of experience of happiness, alertness, relaxation, and sleepiness. There are these six different frequencies or channels you can tune into. You don’t hear anything. It just is a low-level EMF that the device emits, and it emulates. For example, the alert signal emulates having a cup of coffee without any jittery side effects, which is pretty amazing.  

Scott Donnell is a really cool, super-smart entrepreneur. He’s got another company that helps kids with becoming more entrepreneurial. He has a whole marketplace for kids and a training program for entrepreneurship for them. That’s called My First Sale. He’s a really cool guy. I met him through Genius Network and Strategic Coach. 

Powerful. Where can people stick around and read more about you? 

Stephanspencer.com is my main website. There are a lot of SEO resources there. You can get lots and lots of free information there. Still, I also encourage you that if you’re into spirituality, biohacking, personal development, upscaling, and up-leveling, Get Yourself Optimized is a passion project of mine. It’s my podcast. Just go to getyourselfoptimized.com for that.  

I have another podcast. It’s all marketing, and that’s fantastic as well. Mainly online marketing. That one’s called Marketing Speak. That’s marketingspeak.com. 

Now that you mentioned biohacking, yesterday, I had a talk with somebody from our Mastermind. We were talking CrossFit and basically having fun. He said, oh, Stephan is so much into biohacking. You have to talk about biohacking. I was like, okay.  

Tell us a little bit about what you did on one biohacking day in the life of Stephan. 

I take a ton of different supplements like Neo40. Hyperbiotics Immune with EpiCor is another one. Tru Niagen is another. These are really amazing supplements. Brain Octane Oil, which is a C8 chain of MCT oil, medium-chain triglycerides. You can get that at bulletproof.com. And the Hapbee device I mentioned.  

Some big transformational experiences that I’ve had from a biohacking perspective were 40 Years of Zen. That’s a company owned by Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof. It’s like you can experience 40 years of Zen meditation condensed down into a week with neurofeedback with these intense many-hour sessions of neurofeedback. It was incredible. I accessed memories I hadn’t had since I was a tiny kid. That was super cool.  

Another biohack that was profound for me was stem cell therapy. I definitely don’t think I look as old as I am. I’m 50, and people are usually surprised to hear that. Stem cell therapy is amazing. I went to Dr. Harry Adelson‘s Docere Clinics. I could go into some detail on that, but that’s the whole thing. Those are two really good ones. 

Thank you, Stephan, for being on the show and sharing so generously your experience and your wisdom. Come back soon, my friend. 

Thank you so much for having me. You’re doing great work. Your show and what you do is helping a lot of people. Thank you for that. 

Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

Important Links