Paying It Forward - Masterminding for a Good Cause

Guest Contributor: Michelle Rumney
Michelle's Posts - Michelle's Blog

Last month I decided to introduce Mastermind Sessions into the mix within our new Women in Business network. Surprisingly, in a group of around 25 business women with all types of backgrounds and experience, all but one were new to the Masterminding process.

So, to 'prove' the concept and keep it fair to all participants for the first meeting, we agreed that we would focus for the whole of the 60 minutes available on a non-profit organization rather than someone's business; our hostess happened to be involved in a project in Africa and we reasoned if we were all to experiment in sharing and giving our insights and experience, then putting it into a good cause seemed the best way to start.

It was an amazing first challenge to test our Masterminding capabilities; The Shingirirai Trust is a unique grassroots development project in Zimbabwe, Africa, started by a handful of local women to provide education, food and community (and love) for the growing number of children orphaned by HIV-related illnesses. It's main problem is getting funding to keep all the good work going until they reach their goal of being fully self-sufficient. We decided to focus the Mastermind session specifically on generating marketing ideas for raising awareness globally about the project and securing funding for the Trust.

What could the power of 25 women Masterminding in a small seaside village in Spain do for another group of 30 women thousands of miles away in a rural community in Africa?

For me, as Facilitator, it was a daunting session. As you may have experienced for yourself, getting the number of participants right for a Mastermind session can be challenging - the energy and depth can change dramatically if there are too few or too many. I think an ideal number is 8-10 people. But in this case, I'd decided before we started that I wanted the whole group present so that I could show them how Mastermind sessions work and also so that it would be a shared Mastermind experience, rather than breaking off into smaller, more manageable groups. Was I biting off more than I could chew though?

The energy of 25 focused business women in one space is an incredible thing! Once they got started, there was no stopping them - ideas flooded from every corner of the room, from marketeers, from presentation experts, copywriters, project managers, sales and events organisers, artists and coaches. We worked out that between us we had over 300 years of business experience to draw on!! As the ideas flowed, I ran out of flipchart paper while I was writing them down, then I ran out again, and again... we kept this going for 30 minutes.

We took a brief pause and grouped the ideas into possible areas to focus on and then we started on the next phase - WHO do we know between us who could help with any of this? Contacts and more contacts... again the list was more than a single page of the flipchart could handle.

Finally, we concluded, our group batteries having worked in Supercharge mode for the whole hour - enough already! But what had we really achieved?

Within 48 hours, with the help of a small volunteer group that met after the session to work through all the ideas, three main marketing areas had been selected to focus on. And just four weeks have passed but there is a already a new web 2.0 enabled website/blog for the Trust with plans to enable online micro-donations, a dedicated marketing team in place to keep taking things forward and co-ordinate efforts, and a calendar of events and strategies planned already for the next 6 months. Tonight, there's the first fundraising event to celebrate this new phase of energy and help from outside. Next week the website launches in earnest. How this will affect things on the ground in Shingirirai remains to be seen, but all seems like a step change in the right direction.

Meanwhile, having participated and seen it all in action, I've had repeated requests from many women in the network to do some more Mastermind Sessions - this time on their businesses - as soon as possible, and we've scheduled 2 already for next month's networking meeting. I think then, we proved the Mastermind concept that giving, contributing and sharing your expertise and ideas feels good and does good.

So, what is the Masterminding power of 25 when put to a Good Cause? Try it for yourself - how about a Mastermind marathon? Bring in your own favorite non-profits, 3rd Sector Organizations or NGOs and offer them a Mastermind session entirely focused on them. Or team up with another Mastermind group in a different field and combine your skills. Invite a local charity and simply take your group off-topic for a session to focus on something right here where you are where together you could all make a difference.

The possibilities are infinite...

If you'd like to support or find out more about the Shingirirai Trust, please visit :
http://www.shingirirai.org/