How do you record and follow through on the conversation?

Guest Contributor: Chris Barrow
Chris' Posts - Chris' Blog


I don't know about you - but at the end of a day and a half mastermind session, my head is normally spinning with the ideas that have been generated?

I'll admit that our members often look like startled rabbits, overwhelmed with the "to do" list that they have written for themselves and with the "pings and truffles" (as we call them) that have emerged as the gathering has unfolded.

I hesitate, throughout, to use the word "meeting".

"Meetings" are a heart-sink occasion for many people - "oh - no - not ANOTHER meeting!" could be a cry from the corporate sector.

And we don't want our groups to see their calendar date approaching and feel the same way.

A "meeting" is often a one-way affair, with "bosses/trainers" handing out tasks/data to "workers/delegates" - and can be frightfully dull.

We prefer "conversations" in which true, empathetic, listening tales place - the kind of listening where you are absorbing what the speaker is saying and not simply waiting to make your own next world-changing, insightful, comment.

Because we have learned how to have "conversations", the ideas flow.

Which brings me back to my point - how do we capture the ideas?

Two simple solutions:

1. We use an old fashioned flipchart to record ideas as they emerge - and then take photographs of each flip chart page and distribute them to members as a photo album after each session;

2. I also use a digital recorder to capture my main thoughts and impressions from the 36 hours - the digital recording is saved as an MP3 file and emailed to a professional copywriter, who turns the ideas into a simple workbook that "captures" the content.

3. Workbook pages are then graphically designed to fit with our brand and printed/mailed to each member, to add to a prestigious folder they are given when they join the group.

In this way, we create content, some of which is then used for on-line sales to non-members or as handouts at our public workshops.

The mastermind members are asked which data they are happy to release into the public domain and which they want to keep exclusive.

It's a simple system - which is highly appreciated and which adds value to our offer.