Start Your Own Mastermind Group!

…WITH THESE 10 EASY STEPS

Step one: have a Clear Goal!  

Be crystal clear about what you really want to achieve when you want to start a mastermind.

It needs to be like a burning desire.

If it’s not something that’s really going to be a burning desire… something you really, really want…

…guess what?… You’re not going to stick to it!

So that’s the first thing you got to keep in mind. Is it something that you really are burning for and want to make a change?

Okay, so we call it to have a Strong WHY?

Step number two: find a friend that you like and respect…

It shouldn’t be a personal friend. I would say a friend or acquaintance from maybe a business setting…

It can be someone you know from a meeting or from a group or organization.

…Someone that you can collaborate with, and look up to.

You respect their opinion…you feel that they are a giver, and a helper just as much as you hopefully are as well.

It’s Very, very important to start a group with one friend like that.

Step number three:  decide on a topic. 

Obviously, you might have thought of a topic that you have a burning desire for already.

So you can tell your first “friend”, what your burning topic is.

You can then have many people with many different topics.

You can also be focused on certain topics like I had, with one of my mastermind groups, we were all Amazon sellers.

You don’t have to do exactly that… you can be different, if you like.

So that’s one way to do that. That’s step number three, decide on the topic or what you’re going to focus on as a group.

Step number 4: You cannot be in competition with each other.

I’ve just learned over the years that if you view your group members as competition, they tend to hold back information and not share freely.

So what we do in my Amazon Sellers MM Group is that we don’t know about what each other is selling so we don’t treat each other as competitors.

That’s exactly what I suggest you do as well.

Step number 5: Decide on the format in which you want to conduct the meetings.

You can start with these questions which you and your group will need to agree on.

1. How long the meetings should be?

2. How do you decide to meet…online or in person, video or no video?

3. The format of the meetings? (Hot-Seat or Round Table?)

I tend to like online meetings. Obviously, it’s better to meet in person but online meetings are by video so that you can see everybody… that makes a big difference!

Step number 6: Growing your group.

After finding a business friend that you like and respect, the two of you would select the third person.

And you move on like that when you’re building your group.

It means, when you’ve selected the third person… then the three of you would select the fourth person together. So you all are part of that growth of the group.

That’s very important because then you can establish more of the “ground rules” or qualities that you want to look for in that next person…

…and the next person, and the next…until you are like five to six people Max. In “my book” that’s the best way to go about it.

Step number 7: Decide on certain “Ground Rules”

Here are some examples:

1. How are you going to run the group?

2. How strict Are you going to leave the meeting times?

3. Attendance

4. Confidentiality…

Those things are super important. So you want to look at those and be very mindful so that everyone is clear about this.

If people are not showing up for the meetings, what are the consequences?… And there should be some because otherwise, you’ll have a group where people come and go

They won’t remember the group’s goal and agenda and they can’t contribute to those people that were struggling with things if they haven’t been attending these meetings.

Step number 8: Have a timekeeper and somebody that possibly also records the meetings.

Usually, the “timekeeper” is the one that starts the “show”. But it doesn’t have to be the same person all the time. You can delegate those things and record the meetings.

It’s advisable to record everything in audio/video, and also transcribe it. It’s very, very useful because sometimes you are given advice on the calls, and you want to make sure you can play it back again to really hear what was said.

You should obviously have software that transcribes it for free for you.

Make sure to take detailed notes because things are happening fast. The feedback you get from your group, they’re intense, and they’re very valuable!

Step number 9: The Ground Rules of CONFIDENTIALITY

I’m mentioning it again because it needs to be respected. If it’s not respected… people are ousted… it’s as simple as that.

If you want other people to know about some valuable information you got from the mastermind, you need to ask the group and or the person that shared it if it’s okay for you to share it.

So little things like these are extremely important in order to keep the group “healthy”.

Step number 10:  Helpful Tips!

Where to find potential members?

Think about the online groups you’re in. I have found many of my members in live meetings, seminars, webinars that I’ve been on, and also in-person meetings.

I actually prefer in-person meetings, but think about it this way… today, the “world is your oyster”…. You CAN actually have it “all”.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a person from China, Germany, Scandinavia, US, France, Spain and Latin America and Mexico in your group to get different perspectives from different parts of the world, depending on what kind of business you’re dealing with?

What kind of criteria should you look for in the potential members?

There’s a whole list of that: likable, helpful, kind, not dominating…all of these things are important qualities.

How do you decide on a new member?

One trick I use there is that you can invite somebody in to be a guest for one call and or two and then you’ll see how they gel with the group and all of that.

What you as a leader can do and should do to make the mastermind group stick.

There are lots of things you can do, to keep things fresh and make sure that you hold people accountable.

It’s important to share goals with each other so that we know what other people are working on… And ideally, that should be written out and be measurable and time specific. You should have that saved probably in a Google Doc.

You should also share personal information about yourself so they know what kind of person you really are…

Do you love dogs?  Are you into sports? How important is health to you? How are you in terms of relationships?… All these things are important to create a bonding and the relationship with everyone.

And that concludes the 10 Easy Steps to Start Your Own Mastermind Group! I hope you liked it and got a lot out of it… so that You can start your own Mastermind right away.

Thanks so much for sticking with me through this journey.