One of the new features of Exponential Growth 2017 includes tapping into the power of the Mastermind group. The morning of the first day, we will apply this powerful process toward how you communicate your value to win more ideal clients.

If there is one book responsible for creating more millionaires than any other, my guess it would have to be Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  One of the many concepts Hill covers is the power of the Mastermind.  He said, “When two people get together to brainstorm solutions to problems, it creates a third mind.” This third mind can create ideas that wouldn’t happen with an individual on his/her own.

I like to call this concept a Mastermind group, other people call it a “study group.”  Regardless of what you call it, do you have one?  And it is bringing you the results you set out to achieve?

7 Tips to Harness the Power of Your Own Mastermind Group

I’ve been using the power of the Mastermind for over 20 years. I currently belong to not one Mastermind group, but three. Each one has a different dynamic based on the members and overall purpose of the group. If I wasn’t getting value from these groups and the relationships, I would have stopped long ago.

1.  Who should be in your group?  Your Mastermind group can be made up of people just like you, in your same line of work, or it can be made up of folks from other industries.  One of my groups contains two people who have similar businesses to mine and two others in businesses that are indirectly related. By having people from other industries, we all get fresh ideas that don’t just reinforce the “industry speak.”

2. How many should you have in your Mastermind group?  I’ve found 5-6 to be an ideal number. (I know others like slightly smaller or slightly larger groups).  Since we almost never meet unless everyone can attend (because we value everyone’s unique perspective), we want to have plenty of energy and creativity, and still be able to “go deep” with each person’s situation.

3.  Do you have to meet in person?  There is no question that in-person meetings are the best. As you might imagine, you can see visual clues that might cause you to go down deeper with parts of your discussion. I suppose that Napoleon Hill would argue that an “energy” is also created that won’t happy if you aren’t meeting in person.  One of my groups does a combination of in-person and over the phone meetings. We meet in-person quarterly (traveling from different parts of the country) with monthly check-in phone calls in between. Of course, the more you have in your group, the harder it will be to coordinate meetings – especially in person.

4.  What do you talk about?  Most of our meetings consist of the following items:

• Share recent wins and challenges and what we learned from them.
• Share our revenue actual numbers and compare to our goals.
• Brainstorming solutions to problems.
• Setting goals for the year (or quarter, etc.).
• Setting specific actions to be accomplished between meetings.

5.  What else do you talk about?  From time to time, we have brought in “guest experts” or created a special theme for the meeting that dominates a good portion of the meeting. Bringing in a guest or creating a theme can bring out ideas and perspectives we might not normally tap into.  Sometimes we’ve given one of the members time to expand on one aspect of their business that is truly working for them.

6. How long are your meetings?  My local group currently meets for about 7 hours per day – plus 30 minutes of “warm up” time over a continental breakfast. Whomever hosts the meeting covers this light breakfast and a more filling lunch. We spread the meetings around and figure that if we didn’t have to drive 60-90 minutes to the meeting, we can spring for the meals.

With 5 people, 7 hours is usually enough. Each person ends up getting about 50-60 minutes of time devoted to their issues at hand. Members are expected to bring issues and/or question to have the Mastermind group address. If the member does not bring enough fodder for conversation, we ask them questions to make sure they are handling things that we know to be important to them.

My two groups where we travel (long drive or airplane), we devote about 24 hours – meaning we travel in the morning of the first day and travel home the afternoon or evening of the second day. We have working lunches, working dinner, etc.  

7.  Do you give referrals or do any business together?  Sometimes. We have definitely referred business to each other over the years.  And we have even hired each other a few times for the other’s expertise. Usually, we just help each other out, but when the “project” becomes more involved, we’ll pay the other person a fair fee for their help.

It’s very rare that anything in our business or personal life that’s worth accomplishing can be done alone.  Asking for help is a sign of strength.  Find ways to bring people into your life to continue your education, brainstorm ideas, and hold each other accountable.

PS – Don’t keep these ideas a secret. Tell your colleagues and business-owner clients.
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