The Mastermind Groups that I run each have members from different industries. If you're in the same business, or closely related, you cannot get into the group. The reason we set it up this way is that a) you don't want to share secrets with your competitors and b) chances are you know how things work in your industry - it's better to get ideas from people in different industries to learn how they do things.
There is an alternative way of thinking, however, for many groups where they set up a Mastermind Group for a particular industry. One recent blog post I came across highlighted this trend as the author, Glen Hopkins, shares advice on setting up a Mastermind Group in the technology sector:
One of the best ways I have found to create a mastermind group is through networking. The more you get to know like-minded people in your industry, the better the chances are of forming a powerful mastermind group.
For example, if you are an Internet marketer like me, you might want a computer programmer, a graphic designer, a copywriter and a sales professional in your group. This way, each of you can approach a challenge from a different perspective and offer valuable insight that the others would never have seen.
I suggest you do some research and learn as much as you can about mastermind groups. Start by networking and meeting with other people. Once you've formed a group, you should meet with each other once every week or two. This can be done online or via the telephone.
A mastermind group gives you a way to learn, understand and apply much more than you know now and at a much faster rate than trying to figure it out yourself. Nobody knows it all, that's why entrepreneurs need to help each other by forming mastermind groups.
Mastermind Groups are a great way to meet creative, innovational, and thought provoking people. You bounce ideas off of each other and collaborate and elaborate on each of the ideas. Some of the best discussions have come from seemingly "ridiculous" ideas, but once you start going through the process and discussing the idea, it actually creates a positive and energizing dialog.
What happens after you've been in the same group, with the same people month after month?
It starts to get boring!
There are a couple of things you can do to prevent this problem.
The first is to make sure your mastermind group is constantly introducing new people each month. With these new people coming in, there are constant streams of new thoughts and ideas. In larger groups like this, there are people from every industry that can bring in fresh perspectives.
I belong in one group that has only five people, and it will always only have five people. Once a month, we invite someone to come join us for a meeting. This type of meeting is just to let the guest come in and inject us with new ideas and playing devils advocate.
This allows our group members to think in new and different ways, keeping us sharp and focused throughout the year.
I've been involved with another small group like this (that didn't want to grow its membership) and it failed. It failed because after some time, we couldn't come up with more creative ideas to bounce off of each other. We had all come to "think alike" and in any mastermind group, this is not good.
Whichever type of Mastermind Group you join, you must make sure that they have a process of introducing fresh ideas. Hopefully these two tips will help you achieve just that.
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.
