Reinventing Ourselves

Guest Contributor: Michael Lipp
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Every once in a while our group gets stagnant... Whatever we had stops working. So we basically call a halt. There is no designated halter. But whoever calls it somehow wakes up the rest of us and we begin to question ourselves and then reinvent ourselves and rejuvenate ourselves.

We have periodically lapsed into conversations that seemed to involve basic philosophies. So we modified our current format in the following way: Each of us had a few minutes to express our basic philosophy: our religiosity, our spirituality. Then each of us had 2 minutes to comment. (Given that there are now 7 of us, this will take more than one session.) Fascinating session. We all learned something, probably from each one of us. Certainly we all had formed opinions about each other, but then heard each of our own self evaluations.

The fascinating thing was matching our weekly actions against who we said we were, what our opinions were and so on. We haven't completed our first round, we only went through five of us. Then we'll reinvent a new weekly process. What's clear is that we've all discovered (or rediscovered) that we love one another and cherish the Mastermind.

Social Media Marketing

Guest Contributor: Kayleen Reusser
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At our last MasterMind meeting another member and I resolved to expand our spheres of influence by learning more about social networking. First on our list was Facebook. That very afternoon we both signed up and started adding friends. With my two 20-something daughters home for the summer, I knew I could count on them for advanced lessons.

Thus far, Facebook has been helpful in connecting with people from my past. We've shared photos and information about our lives. There's also in my opinion a lot of wasted information and time spent on this avenue of outreach. I'm not too impressed thus far with its possibilities for advancing my career. But I'm sticking with it monitoring my page regularly.

I did post a short note on it following our last MasterMind meeting, stating what a help this group has been to me. Two friends commented on it and want to know more. I've invited both to our next meeting. One is currently unemployed and available to meet with us for the first time.

My MasterMind friend and I also promised each other to sign up for Twitter. Having done that, I'm still wondering what the advantages here are. I'm not dissing it but realize I must be missing something as it seems to be all the rage.

Has anyone else used their MasterMind groups to delve into the world of social networking through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.? What help has it been to you? I'd be interested in reading your responses.

I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful summer.