What's The Ideal Group Size?

I get a number of questions from people interested in my Mastermind Groups about how many people are in each group. Some want small, intimate groups, while others want to meet as many people as possible.

We try to strike a balance in our groups by having a minimum of four members and a maximum of eight.

The reason we work within these boundaries is that you want enough opinions around the table so that it's not just two people talking to each other. With four people who have different backgrounds and skill sets, you can have enough experience in the room to get a meaningful discussion.

On the other hand we limit the maximum to eight because you want to make sure that every member has enough time to get meaningful input on their businesses. If you meet after work, as we do, then the meetings would go on late into the night if you go over eight people. We try to keep the meetings to three hours or people start to lose their focus.

I would also like to say that we never rush to fill the membership to eight. It's always more about getting the right people in the groups than just filling the groups. If two members don't get along with each other then they will tear the group apart an nobody will benefit from the experience.

One of my groups has gone for over a year with seven members and while they are open to the idea of getting an eighth, they are happy with seven and don't want to disrupt the flow with the wrong member.

Keeping your groups to a minimum of four and a maximum of eight helps keep the intimacy of a small group but also allows for enough opinions and makes sure you finish while your mind is still fresh!

Evan Carmichael

Integrating Two Mastermind Members At Once

Getting into one of our Mastermind Groups is a process. First everyone meets with me face to face. Then you have to prepare a one page bio which gets submitted to the group for review. Finally you are invited to the next meeting as a guest to participate and see how you get along with the other group members.

From there everyone decides if the new candidate would make a good member or not. Both the candidate and 100% of the existing members need to say yes for it to be a go. The entire process usually takes two to three months.

Typically we bring one new candidate in at a time to allow everyone to get to know each other. This past week was an exception.

We had two potential candidates for one of groups and the members decided to take the unconventional approach to bringing them both in at the same time. I was curious to see how it would work out and I was pleased to see that it went extremely well.

Here's what we did to ensure a smooth transition:

- Both new members were asked to introduce themselves at the beginning and give a quick overview of their businesses

- We then proceeded as usual and we went around the table discussing the challenges we were facing. The members all went first so that the new potential members could get an understanding of how our process worked. Each member also quickly introduced themselves before talking about challenges so the candidates knew who they were listening to

- The candidates were encouraged to provide feedback and help the members as they worked through their business problems. We were fortunate that both members were experienced and had valuable opinions to offer

- The two candidates were then asked to share their challenges after they had seen how the other members presented. It was a smooth transition and we gave both members a few additional minutes of time to allow everyone to get to know them better.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the process and I will be following up during the week to see if the new members will be invited to stay with the group. Regardless of the outcome, it was a positive experience that I believe benefited everyone and I would not hesitate to bring two members in at a time again if the group decided to invite them.

Evan Carmichael

The Importance Of Written Goals

We've found two key things about entrepreneurs and goal setting. 1) When you commit to someone else (ie your Mastermind Group) you are more likely to follow through and 2) When you have clearly written goals you are more likely to understand where you want to take your company and will actually go out and achieve it.

In my Mastermind Groups everyone has two set of written goals. The first is one main annual goal. Each entrepreneur takes the most important goal for them for the year. Come December 31st what does your company look like? It has to be a goal that is numeric and can be measured. It can't be something qualitative like "I want to feel better about my company." Most of my members choose a revenue goal but sometimes they have a goal that is more meaningful than revenue. For example, my December 31st goal is to be at 35,000 or under in Alexa rankings.

Each meeting the members update where they are with their goals and how they are making progress (or not). The key here is to have the other members help hold you accountable for doing what you said you were going to do and help you achieve your goals.

The second set of goals we write down are the plans of action for the next month. We meet on a monthly basis so at each session the members discuss their plans and write down the three most important things they are going to work on over the next month. Throughout the month they are partnered with another member who will check up on them to make sure they are following through. Then at the next meeting each member updates how they have done and checks the items from their list.

By writing down your goals and sharing them with the Mastermind Group members you gain greater clarity on where you want to take your company and have someone to help hold you accountable for accomplishing what you said you were going to do.

Evan Carmichael

Evaluating New Members - Business vs. Life Experience

We had a new potential member create his one page profile and submit it to my Mastermind Group that met last week. He is a very early stage business - in fact he currently has a full time job and is working on his business part time. One of his goals is to transition to full time and continue to grow his company.

Usually such a candidate is not ideal for our Mastermind Groups. Most of our members are beyond the startup stage and have between $100,000 and $2,000,000 in annual revenues. They have hit a ceiling and need help getting to the next step. This new member, however, was referred by an existing member and I always meet with someone who was referred.

I'm glad I did.

What the new potential member lacks in business experience, he has made up for in life experience. To protect confidentiality I cannot go into detail in this post but the candidate has definitely seen a lot in his life to last three lifetimes. He could offer some valuable insights to the rest of the group and definitely bring a different perspective.

The group read his bio and agreed to meet with him for his test meeting next month. Whether he gets accepted into the group or not depends on how he interacts with the other members and if everyone feels like there is value being created but it was a valuable lesson to learn that life experience can sometimes be just as important as business experience when you are looking at adding new members to your group.

Evan Carmichael

Beware of who you bring to your groups

If you do not have the right members around the table it does not matter how good a system you have in place, it will not be a success. I personally interview with each potential member before they are brought to a trial meeting with a group.

The first thing I check for is to make sure that the person is not coming for the wrong reasons - to try and sell the members of my group on their products or services.

Whenever you have a group of entrepreneurs, people are going to be interested in coming to pitch their products. Anyone who sells business to business products could potentially be a problem member.

Insurance salespeople, financial advisers, real estate and mortgage brokers often require extra scrutiny to make sure they are interested for the right reasons. We also have not had a member who is involved in network marketing (one member switched her business from a service business to network marketing and was asked to leave the group).

I do not rule anyone out because of their industry alone - people can surprise you and you never know what they might bring to the table. That being said, be very careful as to who you let into your groups because one bad member can bring down the entire group.

The members who do make it through your thoughtful interviews will appreciate the process and will be better qualified for your groups.

Evan Carmichael

Go Beyond The Call Of Duty To Support Your Mastermind Group

Last week a TV producer from one of Canada's largest TV networks about a new show that they are going to be launching that focuses on entrepreneurs. The producer ran over a few of the topics they had in mind to launch and if I knew any up and coming successful entrepreneurs who would fit the profiles.

Whenever I get these kinds of requests I always think first to the members in my Mastermind Groups. Fortunately four out of the five topics she discussed were perfect fits with some of my members. This week I will be connecting her with the business owner members.

I have found that by going above the call of duty you win the loyalty of your Mastermind Group members. They sign up for the monthly meetings and weekly accountability program but there are a number of additional elements that they get including:

• Evan On Search - A bi-weekly members-only newsletter packed with strategies to get top rankings and win at search engine marketing
  
  
• Search Engine Reports - Over US$2,500 in free reports on how your website is doing compared to your top competitors and specific steps to take to rank #1
  
  
• Entrepreneur Events - We hold regular social events like pool nights and barbeques for the members to get to know each other as well as business events where we learn from those who have accomplished more than us. See the video at the top right of this page for an example.
  
  
• Entrepreneur Forums - A private, members only area for the members to share resources, discuss important topics, and stay connected to each other in between the meetings

What else can you do to support your Mastermind Group members? The more you go up and above the call of duty to help them grow their businesses the happier your members will be and the more referrals they will send you!

Evan Carmichael

Mastermind Group Task: The 5 Year Vision

Last Thursday I met with my third Mastermind Group, "The Visionaries", and we discussed our 5 year company visions. The purpose was twofold:

1) To help the members create a clear direction of where they wanted to take their businesses as most entrepreneurs do not have an end goal in mind.

2) To share that vision with the other members so that they can be held accountable to achieving their goals.

I shared with them that my 5 year goal was to have the most popular website for entrepreneurs in the world, a position currently held by Entrepreneur.com. It is no small task and will require my site to grow by more than 10 times what it is today.

What surprised me was how many of the members wanted to sell their businesses or take them in a completely different direction. They see what they are currently doing as stepping stones to something greater in the future. Some want to have sold their businesses, some are looking at franchising, some see themselves serving a different client base.

It was a useful exercise for the members to get clarity on their direction as well as for me to better understand my members and what they want to accomplish.

If you have not already done a 3 or 5 year vision session with your Mastermind Group, I would suggest bringing it up as a topic for discussion at your next meeting!

Evan Carmichael