Alright, BBC community, here’s a question for you: How do you create an effective and valuable mastermind group?
Let me explain…
If you’re in business like I am, you spend a lot of time making your own business decisions without much advice from peers or mentors. Sometimes that’s cool, but sometimes you can really make big blunders and move your company or consultancy in just plain the wrong direction. Larger companies have a group of executives who can be counted on to analyze strategic and tactical decisions, and the smartest of them have a Board of Directors, a group of senior people who offer sage advice (except, maybe, for HP, but that’s another story) and help the company grow smart, strong and true.
But I don’t have anything like that. Like many other entrepreneurs, I’m flying solo, so while the idea of a Board sounds good, I don’t really want to put anyone in the fiduciary line of fire for my business (there are legal responsibilities when you’re a board member).
Instead what I want to create is a small group of entrepreneurs and business folk here in Colorado who have the savvy and experience to help me steer my business in the right direction and, hopefully, I’ll be able to help them do the same. It’s basically a board of advisors, but I’m going to refer to it by the more appealing name of a mastermind group.
And so my question. Are you in a mastermind group of any sort? If so, please do share logistical details like how often you meet, how long the meetings are, how many members you have, what membership criteria you use, etc etc. If you aren’t, why not consider creating one in your own local community?
I’m not fishing for people to join my mastermind group as I already have a couple of sharp and successful colleagues with whom I’ve been noodling this idea, I’m more just interested in the logistics, in the pragmatic day-to-day implementation of a mastermind group for successful entrepreneurs.
Thanks for any insight you can offer!
having read much about such groups (another term, barbara sher’s “success teams”, comes to mind), having taken part in a course that placed much emphasis on such groups, and having realized how much others have contributed to my successes, i thought, hey! this is wonderful! can’t everyone see that? let’s do it!
it was like pulling teeth. fortunately, i now have at least a “business buddy”, for about 10 months. we keep working on trying to get more people.
we meet every week when we need to, every three weeks when we think we don’t need to (and invariably realize how useful it is to meet every week). when we feel really wobbly, we call each other a few times a week.
having a set time seems a good idea.
something we have done the last few weeks, which is very useful, is to spend three hours together where we mostly work on things that we’re otherwise trying to avoid (like updating our business plan). we just sit in the same room, hacking away at our computers and phones, and once in a while something comes up and we ask for input.
membership criteria? the people we are looking at have to feel right and show evidence of being serious about their work and the commitment to each other.
would love to hear about other people’s experiences.
Comment by isabella mori — October 12, 2006 @ 11:16 am
“mastermind group”
Dave, have you been reading Napoleon Hill lately? One of my favorites!
Comment by Lee Odden — October 12, 2006 @ 11:22 pm
Hi Dave,
We run a successful group out of Toronto at: http://www.evancarmichael.com/entrepreneur-mastermind-group-toronto/entrepreneur-mastermind-group-toronto.html
Here are the main components:
• Meetings with your group are once per month
• Sessions begin with a 15 minute presentation by a group member or expert guest on a lesson learned
• Each member will then have 15 minutes of their own time to share their challenges and get feedback and suggestions from the rest of the group. This is your time to bring up your important business issues and get valuable advice to help you move forward
• At the end of the session members set goals for the next month and are paired with another member. A weekly time is set between pairs for a quick phone call to follow up and make sure you follow through on your goals
• Members are from non-competing industries and sign confidentiality agreements
• Members get a guaranteed profile on EvanCarmichael.com, the top 10 Internet sites globally for entrepreneurship
I hope this helps!
Cheers,
Evan.
Comment by Evan Carmichael — October 17, 2006 @ 10:22 am
As another person said Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich speaks about this but putting one together is the most challenging steps in the book.
http://sms100.blogspot.com/
Comment by Tom Bailey — December 4, 2006 @ 5:13 pm
Finding the RIGHT members is important. If you have 2 or 3 people you have great confidence in who are interested in being members, that is great. The other barrier is TIME. The amount of TIME for the meeting and the TIME the meeting is to be held and what TIME during the week.
Online is a reasonable answer with the technology that is available now with audio/video chat and other tools available.
Comment by Glenn Sojourner — December 26, 2009 @ 6:20 pm