If you're new to mastermind groups or wonder how your group compares to another, then you'll want to read the answers to the following question.
What the heck do you talk about in a mastermind group?
Our most recent mastermind group meeting found us focusing on the following topics of discussion among the four group members.
Member 1. Pricing and marketing strategy for ateleclass product.This member has plenty of experience in running teleclasses and pricing them, but for some reason wasn't quite comfortable with her planned pricing.The member polled the group after briefly describing the subject matter, the intended target market and the course session timing and frequency.Each member offered a price based on the description and a little bit about the rationale behind the answer.Member 1 got valuable feed back and confirming comments about her plan.Doubt was erased.
Member 2.This member needed a speech title and content description NOW for a convention she will be speaking at attended by her target market.The group collaborated and brainstormed and within five minutes Member 2 had a killer title and content summary.Her information was due in two hours.Action completed.
Member 3.Member 3 has a good gig for assisting a new client with a new marketing program.The project has hit the brakes like a fighter pilot on a carrier deck. Electronic data base info. has been promised for weeks, but hasn't shown up in Member 3's e-mail box.Group members suggest that the data may not be accessible or recoverable and client's support team is covering up.Since an excuse hasn't been offered, the group suggests that Member 3 have a frank discussion with the business owner.The purpose is to tell him the project timing for delivery has been severely disrupted due to the lack of the data base delivery.The project is in jeopardy and if the data base is not recoverable, then it's time to admit, reorganize and move forward.Ask the tough question.
Member 4. asked for accountability from other group members to set up a January seminar venue and begin promoting.The accountability will come from e-mails from the group asking him why this isn't done yet and report back to them when it is done.Kick in the pants delivered.
The problems our group solves are the same problems everyone else has to solve.The benefit of mastermind groups is that members cut through the smoke screens, see situations with objective eyes and make the decision making process faster.
It may seem a bit early to be planning 2008, but not if it arrives as quickly as 2007 seems to be disappearing!
My Friday afternoon mastermind group was discussing this subject and how themes for the year are helpful in staying focused on annual goals. A theme, in the sense of a recurring unifying idea, is a terrific reminder of your objectives.
"What's your theme for next year, Doug?", came the question from a mastermind group member.
"Gulp."
"Theme? I dunno", I answered, feeling like I'd forgotten to do my seventh grade social studies homework. The group discussion got me thinking over a few days and I know now my theme for 2008.
My theme is: Visualize, Materialize, Capitalize.
Not exactly quotable like, "Veni, Vidi, Vici", but it helps me.
Visualize- If you can see the idea in your mind,
Materialize- then make it appear in reality and
Capitalize- take advantage of the opportunity it creates, you'll make great progress.
My theme felt lonely without goals to back it up...
Goals for 2008
1. Maintain the best Attitude-Rephrase the negative to positive (work that law of attraction, you never know)
2. Eliminate Delay- stop shuffling paper, seeking perfection and get on with it
3. Accelerate Decision Process- Trust the facts and trust intuition and decide now
I discovered a hidden benefit of being a member of a four person mastermind group last week.It happened outside of our regular mastermind meeting.The hidden benefit is-
Fast Forward
Let me explain that I'm not talking about a time travel machine.Mastermind group member Paul and I traveled together to listen to business consultant Alan Weiss, author of "Million Dollar Consulting" give a presentation to a group of 40 in Syracuse, NY. If you are in the consulting business and you don't know of Weiss, you should.His books are great value about pricing consulting services based on the economic value delivered to the client rather than priced as a commodity or calculated with a clock.
The two hour drive to the meeting and the return trip gave each us plenty of talk time for our businesses.As mastermind group members, both of us know a fair amount about the goals of the other's business, the business structure and the business history.
The drive home after the meeting was a discussion of how Alan Weiss's concepts could be adapted to our businesses.Having a mastermind group history with each other, we were able to "fast forward" and focus our discussion quickly.
Had we been traveling with others not as well acquainted with our businesses, much of our time would have been spent (wasted) on individual business history and explanation of the present position.Just like an instructional tape or CD recording, without our mastermind background, we would have been immersed in a chronological step by step discovery process:Track 1, Track 2, Track 3... yawn.
We mentally pressed the fast forward button to get right to the present in our discussion of the 3.5 hour talk delivered by Weiss.With the freshness of the information, both of us found fantastic value from our follow up discussion and instant gratification from our investment of time and money to travel to the talk.
My last post was about my mastermind group starting an experiment to review and study a popular internet marketing manual we had all purchased previously.Another form of a study group, the plan is to cover a chapter a week to take advantage of the wisdom printed on the pages of our only slightly used and slightly dusty three ring binders chock full of just under 300 pages .The discipline of the weekly mastermind group meeting is the force designed to pull us through the pages.
Here is the update.
We've made it through the first two chapters and will be discussing chapter three in our meeting this week.I expected us to be further along in the manual at this point and I'm disappointed in our progress in fast forwarding through the manual and putting more of the material to work for our businesses.
So what we have we been doing in our weekly meetings?
Discussing cash flow crisis
Announcing member's new book release and publicity
Website makeover advice
Pros and cons of various shopping cart providers
The merits of starting a membership site
Taking summertime holidays
Regaining focus on the important things and ignoring the trivia
Analyzing blog and newsletter numbers and their importance in marketing
Speaking fees
How to organize workbooks to accompany workshops
While I'm disappointed that we haven't been able to cram more marketing information into our busy brains, a review of the list above reminds me of the value each of us is getting from our membership in the mastermind group.
At first glance it may seem we have distracted ourselves from our earlier "chapter a week" goal to review the marketing material.But, since the purpose of our mastermind group is to be able to freely bring up topics for input, guidance and how-to at our meetings, my thinking was naive to assume the normal business of our meetings would be kept on hold while we dedicated ourselves to massive marketing efforts.
Our experiment proved what has been proved many times before.There is no fast forward in business. Just like building a wall, businesses are best built one brick at a time.
No, we're not signing up for advanced college courses.We're taking advantage of our weekly telephone meetings to create an opportunity (forced) to learn more about a popular marketing program manual that we had all purchased at various times over the past few years.
If you are like most people, the universal problem with self help books and recordings is that the scheduling of time to study the materials and put it into action never happens.The mastermind group members have all put bits and pieces of this program in use, but have not taken full advantage of the depth of the material offered in it.
Jen of our mastermind group came up with the idea of using part of our meeting time as a study group to review the excellent marketing material we all bought.Then we can, with the help of input from the group, put it into action in our own businesses.
I've already done my homework for our next meeting:Read Chapter One and be prepared to discuss it.I'd read chapter one before, but my enthusiasm is restored to put the information into action for my benefit.I've even begun to read chapter two.
Stay tuned for my post next month where I'll let you know my progress and the group's progress with the experiment!
Graduation month, June, has just ended and many fine words of advice have been offered to the graduates of high schools and colleges.
The grads heard about the challenges they would face as they built their careers and shaped their personal lives.They were encouraged to move forward with setting goals and taking advantage of opportunities.
I wonder how often the commencement speakers, parents and friends advised the grads that while courageous independence is an important part of success, another contributor to success is giving and receiving help from others? Yes, I mean the benefits of a mastermind group.
High school grads who go on to college will do far better academically if they become members of study groups to help them through the harder courses.And isn't a study group, (like minded individuals helping each other with a common goal like passing organic chemistry) another form of mastermind group?
College grads looking for the fast track for career advancement in the corporate world will benefit from the encouragement and support of an unbiased mastermind group dedicated to career promotions and advancement for its members.The adjustment from college life to career life is filled with decisions about not only careers, but also auto financing, apartments, furniture, clothing, relationships and always life balance.Many of these decisions will be easier with some additional input from others who are going through the same learning process.
If you are in a position to offer some simple advice to a grad, let others do the speech about goal setting, discipline and drive. Don't be shy about recommending the value of the idea of making life easier with a little help from your friends in a mastermind group.
A week ago I spent 3 action packed days with my 11 member mastermind group in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montreal.Two members live in the U.K., the balance live in Canada or the States.We get together twice a year for three days sharing the common expenses of a hotel meeting room and administrative costs. Everyone pays their own way and we splurge on a comfortable meeting place because environment matters.
It's a serious investment of time and money and a serious group attending.However, our serious sides are tempered during our meetings with laughter and as later, as we get together for dinner even more laughter with occasional moments of silliness.We are immersed in our work together with few distractions from the outside world.I don't bother reading the newspaper or even watching the weather forecast.
We've evolved into a tight group.And, what happens in mastermind stays in mastermind.
Because of that, it's an open forum.Wide open as in closet skeletons sometimes rattle, blood pressure elevates and tears leak.And that's all good because we're self employed and we push ourselves and our fellow group members.
All of us have 101 good reasons not to attend a mastermind group meeting, including time, money and lack of support for our businesses while away.
We have one good reason to attend.
Success.
Hang out with the best in your field and watch your business grow.
I was traveling during the appointment time for my regular weekly mastermind meeting last week.It wasn't practical for me to join in via cell phone on our weekly teleconference.Good things were happening last week in my business and I was disappointed that I'd have to miss out on the conversation and report on my positive progress.
It was then that it hit me that a mastermind group meeting becomes a habit.
And it's a good habit.
Failure reports are offset by success reports and business balance is maintained with depressing thoughts being replaced with enthusiastic thoughts.It's easy for the self employed, especially solopreneurs, to become blind about direction and mired in negativity without some outside opinion and contact.Mastermind groups help solve the problem especially when they meet regularly out of good habit.
The larger numbers of self employed working solo from home these days are finding the absence of opportunities for thoughtful business conversation often hampers their personal progress.While the environment for concentration on work in the home office can be optimal, short of interruptions by the dog or thoughts about the snack contents of the kitchen cupboards, focus can be hampered with lack of stimulation by new thoughts or a helpful nudge with sticky problems.Chance opportunities for discussion that once existed in corporate jobs, have vanished.
A mastermind group provides an excellent opportunity for a break from routines, a safe and comfortable place to test new ideas and solve problems and the opportunity to have a spirited conversation.And that is a different kind of conversation than the type you have with your customers.
Participating in a mastermind group removes chance and replaces it with certainty for an evolving and improving business.My telephone meeting mastermind group has become my virtual water cooler: a place to take a break, hang out for a few laughs with friends and become refreshed.
I learned to drive a farm tractor at an early age.I was ten years old when Dad allowed me to drive the "Cub" to mow the grass.The Cub had a manual transmission and selecting the right gear and operating a clutch smoothly were the challenges of the job.
I got very good at it and was a smooth operator knowing when to change gears and how to avoid jerky starts and changes.
When I was old enough to drive a car, manual transmissions were still common, but on their way out as the preferred transmission.Eventually, most transmissions in vehicles became automatic.
The automatic transmission makes life easy and comfortable while driving a vehicle.
As a parallel, we often get our personal and business lives set in automatic for ease and comfort.The problem with running in automatic is that we lose the feel of what the process of change involves.There is no thought about the need for shifting gears because all of the decision making is predetermined.
The benefit of meeting with my mastermind group is that I can get out of automatic and go back to "manual" thinking.As the group discussion involves reasons for shifting thinking, either up or down, I mentally smooth out my business ride. From first gear to overdrive and occasionally to reverse, the shifting process makes the difference and breaks the limitations of running in automatic.
Get the feel of driving your business back by relearning how to shift mental gears.
My mastermind group meets every Friday by telephone.The discussion is focused and we get much done in our hour long scheduled meetings.In between the intensity, there are moments of laughter, a little gossip and some conversation of questionable relevance.
Although the chit-chat is not strategic, the in between chatter is relaxing and serves as a tension reliever and warm up for any heavy discussion that follows.
The in between concept also carries through the week.As our members think about what has been said at the past sessions, new ideas and revisions of old ideas are passed around during the week in short e-mails.Announcements, breakthroughs and breakdowns are also relayed via e-mail.
The "in betweens" are what makes a mastermind group more successful since they provide continuity between scheduled meetings.In my area of specialization, the horse industry, horse trainers know the value of steady reinforcement "in between" training sessions.Whenever a horse is handled, brushed or blanketed, the ground manners training work previously done by the trainer is constantly practiced.It's all about reinforcement isn't it?
Make sure your mastermind group tends to the "in betweens" for the best results for you and your group.
Looking through "Think and Grow Rich" last year about this time, I reread the section about Mastermind groups. Like a lot of people, my copy of "Think and Grow Rich" is quite worn and is filled with inked in arrows, circles and notes highlighting the passages of importance.Napoleon Hill's section on mastermind groups always intrigued me when I read it, but Fear had always stopped me from forming my own mastermind group.
I was afraid of my invitation to join being rejected by potential group members; worse yet, a declination to join might also be taken as personal rejection.
I was afraid that some members would not provide the right kind of support and input to the group and the messy process of rejecting them from the group would be controversial and painful.
I was fearful that the project would die a slow death of apathetic neglect as enthusiasm dwindled by group members.
I wish my imagination for success was more powerful than my imagination for disaster all of the time, but at that moment about a year ago, my thoughts for the success of forming a mastermind group overpowered all fears of failure.
With the help of another member, we talked about and invited two others to be members of a mastermind group that met on a conference call weekly.We knew each other; not all of us had known each other for the same amount of time.
One year of masterminding weekly has provided these results:
Accountability to members who understand me and my business objectives.
A forum to whine a little and then be positively directed to move on.
Education about others' business problems which are common to all businesses.
Quick observations and suggestions from members in a spirit of helpfulness and camaraderie with no strings attached.
If you are thinking of joining or starting a mastermind group to help you in your business, the only thing you need to be fearful of is waiting another day.
Doug Emerson writes a blog about making money in the horse business.
EvanCarmichael.com is the world's #1 website for small business motivation and strategies. Evan also runs a series of successful Mastermind Groups in Toronto for entrepreneurs.
Guest Contributor: Doug Emerson
