Tom Woods Jr. Mastermind set me up for success

The Tom Woods Jr. Mastermind busted a ton of myths that I was always tempted to buy into in my never-ending quest to perfect online entrepreneurship. 

I just finished up my six months at the Tom Woods Jr. Mastermind, one of many products and services Woods offers for those looking to expand their knowledge or, in this case, enter the world of owning a successful “freedom-based business.”

Before joining the Jr. Mastermind in what was a six-month cohort, my author business was, to be frank, a mess.

Here’s the shortlist of why it was firing on zero cylinders:

1. My author site wasn’t SEO friendly
2. The Liberty & Lore section was a wasteland
3. I was tethered to Amazon and other mainstream bookstores (Apple, Smashwords, etc.)
4. My idea of gaining visibility included
   1. Newsletter swaps with random authors on Bookfunnel/StoryOrigin
   2. Joining genre-first group promotions
   3. Forking out thousands in book promotion and getting a fraction of the ROI
5. Trying to get by primarily with premade and AI book covers
6. Sanitizing and softening my voice with readers

Yeah, it was pretty miserable. And if I didn’t go through the Jr. Mastermind, I’d still be wandering aimlessly and asking myself why I can’t gain any traction.

Fast-forward six months…

While my author site is still far from a finished product, it’s night and day from where it used to be. It wasn’t until someone mentioned SEO in the Jr. Mastermind Signal Chat did I have that OMG, my site sucks moment. Not a single page on my site had any uniformity, but fast-forward another three hours, and bam, that was fixed.

I also thought that, to be successful, you had to fork out thousands in ads and promotional services. Over the first three months of 2025, I can’t tell you how much money I wasted.

Then Paul Counts, the man who runs Woods’s Jr. Mastermind, put that myth to sleep. Not that ads and promos aren’t important. But I learned quickly that you don’t need to spend a portion of your life’s savings on them.

For years, I was basically a hermit, writing and churning books for my mailing list, but doing little in the way of connecting with current and prospective readers.

That also changed, and I’ve turned to Substack—where many writers, readers, and members who’d be interested in my work hang out—and I make it a point to engage with them daily. Once again, without someone from the Jr. Mastermind mentioning it, there would be no Rune-Written Resistance.

The Tom Woods Jr. Mastermind has success stories

Another cool thing is that the Jr. Mastermind didn’t have just rookies trying to make their way. One member, just to lay out an example, turned their business into a five-figure-a-month endeavor.

Others own established businesses, and they’re looking for more insight how to maximize them. Still, they’re full of knowledge and worth listening to.

Something I noticed was that, it didn’t matter what the business or niche was, the ideas that the members bounced off one another could apply. I went into this thing looking to take my author business up a few notches, and if you know anything about selling fiction, it’s a very, very hard niche to succeed in.

Most fiction authors are lucky to make a few hundred dollars in royalties or even direct sales per year. So to take the one niche I have that I felt I was the least likely to succeed in and put it front and center for the Jr. Mastermind and come away with a foundation, a plan, and a mailing list starting to warm up to direct sales speaks volumes; there’s not a single business out there you can’t gain valuable insights with.

Almost 24/7 interaction

I honestly don’t know how Tom and Paul pulled this off, with all the traveling and commitments they have. But every time myself or someone else had a question in the Signal chat, they answered it, often within 24 hours.

I often hung back, preferring to read what others had to say and ask, seeing how I could apply it to my own business. It showed that you can, for the most part, stay silent, and still pick up substantial information, myth busting, and direction.

And when you think about it, a six-month cohort is roughly 180 days. So across that frame, the info you’re getting exponentially adds up in a short time.

Add to the fact you have access to them on an almost 24/7 basis, despite all they’re doing outside of the Jr. Mastermind and it shows their overall commitment.

Were there any downsides?

I can see why Tom and Paul are successful internet marketers. They overdeliver. If there is a downside, it’s that space for the Tom Woods Jr. Mastermind is very, very limited, but that’s also not a bad thing.

In the cohort I went through, they capped it at 30, and it wasn’t by any means cheap to join. I won’t reveal the price since it could change at any time, but I will say that I wish it existed 10 years ago. I probably would’ve saved five figures on college loans. It’s expensive, but not enough to where you’d need to take out a loan.

But then again, I also fell for the assumption that you could only be successful in any field with a college degree. Yet if given the choice, I’d roll with the Jr. Mastermind over a business school any day.

The verdict

As I write this, I’m also getting into PLR marketing and creating digital products, applying principles learned from the Jr. Mastermind to them. In short, it was a smart investment, and one I would do all over again in two seconds.

Further, many members don’t limit themselves to just one cohort. I decided to hold myself to just one because, with a small number of people in each cohort, I felt others should have the opportunity to learn what I did. That was a decision I made back in March 2025, shortly before joining.

So, overall, I’m giving the Tom Woods Jr. Mastermind a five-star rating. I would’ve blown a lot of money this year on useless book promotion and ads that got me nowhere if I didn’t buckle down and learn from two online-business-savvy individuals.