A Masterclass in How to Host a Masterclass
(and then record an entire podcast season just hours afterward)
Y'all, I'm tired AF.
(That's tired "as Fahim," just to clarify.)
Fahim, Seema, and I—the dynamic trio of Business & Leadership Coaches with AYM High Consultants—just finished our highly anticipated golden ticket invite-only event: a print masterclass hosted at our AYM High home office and adjacent training facility, Island Ship Center, in Grand Island, New York, from August 28-30, 2026. And it went so, so, so well!
To top it off, the night we wrapped the event, we began recording season two of our MoJo Motivation™ podcast, set to begin release the first full week of September. We recorded nearly 20 episodes in less than 48 hours, with nine in-person guests, four zoomed-in guests, and five sessions with just Fahim and me chatting about business, the print, shipping, logistics, mailbox, and business center industry, life, faith, pet peeves, favorite podcasts, and so much more.
Guests on season two of MoJo Motivation™ include some big players in our home industry, as well as golden-age caregivers, a muralist, a youth services librarian, an HR specialist, an attorney specializing in entrepreneurial law, an Indonesian travel influencer and aeronautical engineer, a world-class barber, a public school teacher and writer, a Tony award winner, a personal trainer, fitness coach, and very buff car buff, a nuclear waste management specialist, and more! What do all of these people have in common? Mojo—that inner-something that drives a person to slay in business...and in life.
If you want to be inspired, heart-warmed, educated, and feel good about humanity again, please make sure you tune in to MoJo Motivation™ on your favorite podcast platform, YouTube, or at mojomotivation.com. Be sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss an episode from season two, which will start dropping in a matter of days.
Now that that shameless podcast plug is done, let's get back to the print masterclass...
The AYM High Print Masterclass: a Golden Ticket Invite-Only Event was intentionally a very small, intimate gathering. Golden tickets were sent out to a select few of our AYM High clients (whom we affectionately call "Soarers" to align with our motto, "Let's soar!") with an invitation to come to the Buffalo / Niagara Falls / Grand Island area to learn from our AYM High team and curated guest presenters.
Participants were hand-selected for a reason. The AYM High team wanted a very small group of no more than 12 clients so conversations could be more focused, classes, presentations, and hands-on training could be designed specifically for each need, and invited guest presenters could not only teach one-on-one, but also really take the time to get to know each attendee so that their training and equipment needs could be directly addressed and worked on. We wanted only people in the room who would be collaborative, wouldn't draw focus solely to themselves, and would gel well with everyone else.
We priced tickets 15 times higher than some of the big mega-gatherings our industry is used to. Yes, that's right. This wasn't yo' momma's run-of-the-mill conference. You see, we know our value. We coach our clients to know their value and charge appropriately. And we model that lesson to them by our example.
Guest presenters were hand-selected, also for a reason. You see, when Seema, Fahim, Yusuf, Steve, and I created AYM High Consultants a few years ago, we resolved to never charge a vendor a fee to be a vendor, to attend an event, or to present to their clients. We are dead set on avoiding a pay-to-play trap and to ensure that anyone we recommend or promote to our Soarers will be done so solely because they have something good, useful, and needed and not because they simply paid a fee to have their product peddled or their ideas and advice listened to.
The hand selection worked like a dream. The symbiosis and synchronicity of the event were outstanding! And the testimonials from the event have been bringing tears of joy and gratitude to our eyes and filling our inboxes with warm fuzzies that make us so grateful...and allow us continually to grin from ear to ear.
We got the best Niagara Falls hotel for our guests that we could, at a rate that was pretty sweet, considering it was the tail end of peak tourist season. We took everyone on a Maid of the Mist boat tour and also guided them through the park at the top of the falls.
We ate amazing food, including two meals out at some of the area's best restaurants and catered meals in for working breakfasts and lunches, made with love by local chefs with whom we have relationships. And Seema and Fahim prepared a homemade spread for our opening reception, including Seema's famous chai!
We hired a shuttle driver and also had our videographer capturing every session, presentation, and conversation that he could, and complete video records of the weekend will be shared with each attendee so they can relive, remember, and review the weekend again and again as they continue to grow their print businesses. Yes, we'll release some of that footage as snippets on socials and on our popular YouTube channel (@aymhighconsultants), but our attendees have promised not to share the footage otherwise outside of those who were in attendance—FOMO, y'know.
Our guest presenters included everything from cutter specialists, paper specialists, and sublimation specialists to accountability specialists, web presence specialists, and media specialists. Sessions were hands-on, interactive, conversational, and overly-informative. It was a lot. Honestly, my head is still spinning.
Hand-selection, a small group, hands-on exercises, boat tours, shuttle drivers, videographers, abundant swag, top-tier guest presenters, confidence that no one will be talked down to or sold anything that's not right for them, award-winning cuisine, and perfectly matched attendees aside, wanna know what truly makes a successful masterclass? It's leading with gratitude.
It may sound simple...or even silly to some who don't regularly practice gratitude. But, I promise it works. And not only does it work, it really kinda solves most problems. When we are honestly grateful for what we have and where we are, and we express that gratefulness, we can then live in an abundance mindset and not a scarcity mindset. We become givers and not takers. We become leaders and not snake oil salespeople. We become collaborative and not selfish. And the results are so impactful.
I say this not to pat myself on the back, though I must admit that this semi-retired dude hasn't worked so hard in quite some time and my 16-hour-day muscles had started to atrophy. But rather, I say this because I see it in Seema and Fahim—truly living in gratitude and leading others by their example—and I want to take those lessons for myself to help me improve my own leadership style.
Stay tuned to AYM High's socials and YouTube channel for clips, snippets, and testimonials from the print masterclass...and, just because I truly believe you'll benefit from it, make sure you subscribe to the MoJo Motivation™ podcast on your favorite podcast platform to not miss an episode!
Thank you, on behalf of my dear friends and colleagues Seema and Fahim, as well as on my own behalf, to all who made both our print masterclass and our season two recording sessions such a huge success. And thank you to our dear retired colleague, Steve Merrick, who gave an amazing gift at the end of the conference...the perfect cherry on top of the gigantic gift totes which were by then spilling over with swag and gifts and customized print projects for each attendee given out during the event.
Let's soar!
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Marty Johnson is a Business & Leadership Coach at AYM High Consultants, a columnist, an editor, and Co-Host of the MoJo Motivation™ podcast. In 2023, he sold his popular shipping, storage, and printing business, Uncle Marty’s, and retired from shopkeeper life in order to focus on writing and coaching. Subscribe to his free newsletter and read more at askunclemarty.com; follow him on socials @askunclemarty.
