Do you feel sluggish and non-productive sometimes? Well, one of the most touted ways to fix these problems is said to be personal transformation and according to some people, it works. One unique platform seems to have the solution, and you’re probably wondering what’s with all the buzz. Now, before you judge them, let’s take a look inside the Mindvalley membership and then you can decide whether to join or not by the end of this review.
What Is Mindvalley?
Mindvalley came to my attention when I started seeing their ads multiple times on YouTube. Then, I was browsing through some meditation topics and a class by Emily Fletcher kept popping up. As it turns out, she runs a program through the platform and that got me curious. Is this like an online meditation place or something?
Well, it’s more than that. Basically, Mindvalley is a learning platform that focuses on the improvement of one’s wellbeing through the mind, body and soul. Founded by Vishen Lakhiani in 2003, it engages with award-winning coaches to deliver comprehensive programs (sometimes referred to as master classes) to help you become better in life, relationship and career.
Here are just some of the trainers and the kind of skills they teach to help you with your daily challenges;
- Ken Honda, the author of Happy Money, teaches you how to build a good relationship with your money.
- Jim Kwik, the founder of Kwik Learning, teaches about optimizing your brain power through neuroscience. (He also hosts the Kwik Brain podcasts which you can access for free on Scribd).
- Emily Fletcher, the founder of Ziva Meditation, teaches about mindful meditation that anyone can do on a daily basis.
- Donna Eden, an energy medicine practitioner, teaches how to heal physically and emotionally by taking control of your energy system.
- Michael J. Breus, a renowned sleep consultant, teaches you how to boost your brain and body function through proper restful sleep.
- Shefali Tsabary, a clinical psychologist, offers tips and techniques for better parenting.
- Lee Holden, the founder of Holden Qigong, teaches you simple Qi Gong techniques to achieve everyday fitness and healing.
- Paul McKenna, a renowned hypnotherapist, teaches you how to become stress-free through proven hypnotherapy techniques.
Sounds pretty cool, uh? I mean, meditation practice is commonly heard of but energy medicine and hypnotherapy – I thought these two are of different levels altogether. I would never have considered them as being part of a personalized therapy program, but since they’re taught by qualified individuals, it does make me less doubtful of the approach.
Besides the core masterclasses, they also host events every year where you can meet the coaches personally and get to know other participants from all over the world. These events are usually by invitation only and they include both training and travelling activities which last between days to weeks on a site.
Other digital products (charged separately) related to Mindvalley are Omvana (a meditation app), Soulvana (a platform for spiritual learning), Wildfit (a program for body transformation through dieting, exercise and lifestyle changes) and Evercoach (a platform for coach training).
How Much Does Mindvalley Membership costs?
Currently, the regular membership comes with two types of pricing; monthly for $99 or yearly for $499 (about 60% savings). Backed with 15 days’ risk-free refund, it gives you unlimited access to ALL masterclasses (there’re currently 50+ in the listing) and forums, online LIVE ZOOM events, connection apps like Omvana, past recordings from live talks and interviews and Insights which is like a daily journal thing that you can post to the community.
There’s also a higher-end plan called Membership Pro which, in addition to those perks mentioned above, gives you access to monthly live coaching with the founder AND a place amongst exclusive mastermind groups. It costs $999/year for both memberships combined or an additional $499/year if you’re upgrading from regular to Pro.
However, if you aren’t ready to commit to any plans just yet, you may register with some of the free classes to test out the quality of teaching beforehand.
Take a Tour Inside Mindvalley Membership
Okay, I’m pretty sure you’re eager to know what’s inside the classes. As I said earlier, there’re many coaches from other areas and every program look interesting to join. Luckily, I was asked to pick five topics to focus on. So I selected these five areas which I know I’ve been struggling with for a while.
After a couple more questionnaires, a long list of classes was generated for me. Now, I can cut down on the guesswork and just pick a class to learn right away. Inside a class, you’ll get an overview of the lesson content and get to know who your tutor is. Once you enrol, you’ll be able to access bonuses/resources (if there’s any) and join community discussions with other students.
All the lessons are delivered through videos and are often accompanied by some short notes related to that particular topic. You can replay the videos as many times as you want and most classes can be completed within 1 to 4 weeks. If you want to take it a step further, you may also take a short test on the last day of the class and receive a certificate from Mindvalley with a minimum passing score of 80%.
The Pros
Having taken a class for almost a week now, there’re a few positive things that stand out in my opinion.
(1) Firstly, the quality of audio-visual is exceptionally good without any distractive background noises on the tutors’ sides. The videos are clear and they come with subtitles which I think is a great plus for people with hearing impairment.
(2) There’s a reason why some courses take up to 4 weeks (or more) to complete. This is because each curriculum is divided into weekly and then daily chunk bite sizes so there’s something to keep you learning every day. In my opinion, this type of step-by-step layout is particularly conducive and non-overwhelming for busy people.
(3) Before the current offers, masterclasses were more expensive in the past. Sometime last year, I remember that programs were selling between $300 to $500 per class. That’s almost the same price (if not more) you’d get if you sign up for personal training or attend physical conferences with these renowned coaches.
Now that everything is just right at your fingertip, I think the current membership plans aren’t that expensive after all. If you do the math, it only costs about $1.30 per day. The plan is that they’ll be adding more resources in the long term, so you’re definitely getting the best return on the invested money.
(4) Many coaching businesses are notorious for upselling. Some are genuine but pricey while others are just pure scams. What I like about Mindvalley (at least for now) is that the trainers don’t practice this tactic while delivering their classes. They’re just focused on the self-development aspect so I think that’s very professional.
(5) And here’s the good news for those who want to earn some money online. Mindvalley runs an affiliate program that lets you make commissions from online sales whenever you refer a new student to the membership. There’re several ways to do this, but I highly recommend starting with blogging because it can reach a wider audience, creates better engagement and generates long term income.
For example, you can blog about meditation and recommend Emily Fletcher’s class. Or maybe a fitness blog or a sleep therapy blog – these are just some popular niche suggestions you can tap into and they’re all relevant to the membership signup. Never created a blog before? No worries. It’s actually quite easy, and you can even do it for free using the little nifty tool below.
The Mindvalley affiliate program is available through three channels; each comes with different pay-out rates though.
- Mindvalley in-house affiliate program – 30% commission, 30 days’ cookie, requires a minimum list size of 200,000 fans/followers before application. In other words, they’re highly selective.
- AWIN – 20% commission, 30 days’ cookie, plenty of creatives to use.
- Rakuten Advertising – 5% commission, 30 days’ cookie.
The Cons
In an almost perfect learning environment, I find there’s always room for improvement and there’re currently two that I’d like to point out.
(1) While there’re other programs catered for the Entrepreneurship, Relationships and Kids/Parenting sections, the selection is quite limited compared to what you’d get with Mind, Body and Soul sections. Hopefully, they’d expand on these areas in the near future. By the way, if you’re looking to polish your entrepreneurial skills, feel free to check out my recommended training platform here.
(2) The interaction within the communities aren’t as robust as I’ve hoped. A lot of people are just checking in to say hi and there’s not much Q&A going on between the tutors and the students. In fact, some tutors are totally absent from the discussions. I guess that’s the reality of online coaching sometimes. If you want to have direct access to the experts, you’ll need to pay more. In this case, upgrading to the Pro membership should get you there.
Is Mindvalley Membership Worth The Investment?
I must admit I was a bit apprehensive when signing up for the programs because I didn’t want to get sucked into some delusional spiritual teaching. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. A lot of the teachings are backed by science and evidence-based learning so it’s not any brainwashing mumbo jumbo. I’m enjoying Jim Kwik’s class so far; never knew I could transform my brain that way. So given the current pandemic situation, I’m probably going to keep the membership for a bit to learn something new while staying at home.
What about you? How did you discover Mindvalley and what do you like or don’t like about the program? Do share your comments in the section below. Talk to you again in the next post.
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