📚 The End of Reading, Mastermind Dinners, and How To Take Over The World.

A&B #303

July 12, 2026

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📚 Book Summary:

This week’s book is “Mastermind Dinners” by Jayson Gaignard.

Jayson built a multi-million-dollar business by hosting dinners. Yes, seriously.

From these dinners, he’s been able to meet Tim Ferriss, Tony Hawk, and dozens of other incredibly successful and interesting people.

If you enjoyed “The 2-Hour Cocktail Party”, want to learn how to host better events, or get better at networking, this book is for you.

📖

1) Why Hosting Dinners Is The Ultimate Networking Hack

The #1 most impactful thing I’ve done in the past two years has been hosting mastermind dinners.

The funny part is that I started them by accident.

In November 2024, I signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster.

I tried to write the book by myself, but I had no idea what I was doing.

I wanted to connect with authors, but I knew that everyone hated requests like “let’s grab coffee” or “can I pick your brain?”

But if I hosted a meetup with a few other authors, they would benefit from connecting with other authors, and I’d have a chance to learn from them.

So that’s what I did. Here’s a photo of my very first author meetup.

Since then I’ve hosted 40+ meetups and met 150+ authors, including James Clear, Gretchen Rubin, Arthur Brooks, and many more amazing authors.

This is an incredible networking hack that can be used in any industry. For instance, my friend Andrew Yeung started hosting small meetups for people in tech. He’s since grown it into a $3M+ business.

Here’s how to start hosting your own mastermind dinners:

📖

2) How To Host A Mastermind Dinner

A perfect dinner starts with planning.

The first thing to remember is that you need to have a shared commonality among your guests.

It could be that they are all non-fiction writers, entrepreneurs, work in sales, or something else.

If you want to grow professionally, pick your job and make that the theme.

If you want to grow personally, pick your favorite hobby and make that the theme.

Once you have a theme, invite people who are at a similar level to yourself. People want to connect with others who are at a similar level to themselves.

Let’s say you work in marketing. If you’re a CMO (chief marketing officer), you want to invite other CMOs. But if you’re a marketing intern, you’d want to invite other marketing interns.

Note: You can try to invite people more successful than yourself, but it will be much harder to get them to come.

Keep the dinner size small. Aim for 4-6 people. Having a small group will allow you to have a deep, centered conversation. Once you start having 6+ people, people will split up into mini-groups and have separate conversations.

Once you have a few people in mind, start sending out emails.

Here’s a simple email you can copy and paste:

“Hey [NAME], my name is [NAME and WHAT YOU DO]. This is a bit random, but I’m hosting a group dinner next week for [THEME], and I’d love to invite you. Would you be interested in joining us?”

Keep the email short and simple. Even if only 50% of people say yes, you only need to message 10 people to get enough responses to host a dinner.

📖

3) Mastermind Dinner Tips & Tricks

Here are a few more tips for hosting a successful dinner:

  • Find a quiet restaurant. You don’t want people to have to shout to speak to one another.

  • Send everyone a reminder email about the dinner the day before to confirm that they’re still coming.

  • As the host, you set the tone for the dinner and are responsible for leading it. Start with a quick round of introductions, then dive into deeper questions.

  • A good way to dive deeper into conversation is to share a rose, bud, and thorn:

    • Rose: State one thing that’s going well in your business or life.

    • Bud: State one thing that has the potential to be great.

    • Thorn: State one thing that you’re currently having trouble with.

  • Try to get the introductions done before the food arrives. It’s awkward to talk to a group while everyone’s eating.

  • Remind people that conversations should stay confidential (especially if talking about sensitive topics like business or personal life) unless someone says otherwise.

  • As the host, you can pick up the bill or ask everyone to split it evenly.

  • Remember to take a photo of the meetup. It seems cheesy and silly, but the photos serve as social proof and show people that your meetups are safe and legitimate.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Hosting mastermind dinners is a simple and effective way to grow your network, career, and social life.

2) Pick a shared trait for your dinner, send people a short email, and book a restaurant after 4-6 people say yes.

3) If you want the full playbook, get a copy of “Mastermind Dinners.” It’s only 100 pages, so you can read it in 1-2 hours.

💎 Weekly Gem:

My friend Ben Wilson is the host of this amazing podcast. In each episode, he explores the lives and strategies of the world’s greatest conquerors, inventors, and leaders.

Here are a few of my favorite episodes:

I also highly recommend this interview he did with the world’s biggest content creator MrBeast, and Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer on power.

PS: Ben was recently diagnosed with cancer. If you can, please support him by sharing his podcast or donating to his GoFundMe. 🙏

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-Alex & Books

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