What should a good MasterMind Group be like?

Guest Contributor: Julia Wert-Marrocco
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That depends. There is no right or wrong; the Mastermind Group needs to have a clear purpose and be formed and styled around its vision and what the members want to accomplish through it.

Once I belonged to a MasterMind group with 100 people in it, all in the same industry. There were various requirements for being in, and staying in, the group. It was very tightly run by one person with a support team. The group met 6 times a year in person at different locations around the country. We each brought a book report on and distributed copies to everyone, so that each person went home with many reports on books, without having to read the whole book. I loved that part. We always brought in a well-known speaker, and spent about 3 days together doing various activities. We would break down activities into small groups of 6-8 for idea creation, then aggregate with the rest of the groups' ideas, have a piggy-back style conversation and then compile all the ideas. Small independent groups formed organically within the larger MasterMind and developed little projects totally on their own, voluntarily. Sometimes we made challenges to each other involving money. For instance, 6 of us each wrote a check for $2,000 to a charity, and had one person hold all the checks. We each agreed to one thing outside our comfort zone, within the next 6 weeks. We wrote our promises down and signed them. Anyone who didn't accomplish their promise, their check was sent in to the charity. If they were able to accomplish their promise, their check was held and carried over to the next meeting, at which time another agreement was made. On another occasion, one fellow in the MasterMind Group challenged me to do something I tried hard to accomplish but didn't quite hit the mark,and the deal was that I had to count out 1,000 in cash (ten one hundred dollars bills) to him in the hall in front of several other people. These might sound like silly things, but do you hear the underlying theme of accountability in there? With "negative" consequences for non-accomplishment. And stretching out of what is comfortable...... That's what that particular group was about. It was a great group. It really stretched me and made me uncomfortable and my business grew and so did I personally.

On the other end of the spectrum, I belong to a MasterMind currently that is small (3 of us) and is gentle, supportive, and akin to group therapy; dealing with problems we each have in our businesses.

No rights...no wrongs....just differences. Decide what you need out of your group and find other like-minded people who have the same needs and similar goals.