Let’s talk about what exactly is a mastermind group. As mentioned in my book, the Mastermind group concept is often contributed to Napoleon Hill. In his book Think and Grow Rich, Hill defines a mastermind group as a "coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose."
“Coming together is a beginning: Keeping together is progress: Working together is success. - Henry Ford
Synergy Of A Mastermind Of Entrepreneurs® Group
A little more simply put…two minds are better than one. Better yet, when you bring several minds together, and they are working on a common goal, a synergy happens within the group that could not happen with one person by himself. In other words, “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” That is the power of The Mastermind Of Entrepreneurs® Groups.
A good business mastermind group will allow the participants to come together and discuss an idea or ideas about their business. This may include a specific business idea such as marketing, business growth, FTSE 100 leaders who want to achieve even more, for a group of business start-up, or it can be something more broad, such as how to balance work and life as a business person.
How Mastermind Group Members Learn
The members of the group learn from each other by offering suggestions, insight and support to each other that they would not normally receive within their own organisation or from friends and family. This is not a “support group” and it’s not a “networking group”. It goes far beyond that. It is about having a solid group of like-minded people working on a common goal and sharing experiences to help one another achieve those goals. There is a GOAL at the end. Not just a “talk session”. In my Mastermind Of Entrepreneurs® Groups ( Ritz Hotel, London) if you don’t achieve results for two months you are asked to leave the group. Accountability and commitments within the group are a must in order for each member to succeed, when you let yourself down you are letting the whole group down.
So let’s move this forward to a typical business mastermind group of today. Here are some of the components that make up a successful mastermind group:
GOAL
In a nutshell, The Mastermind Of Entrepreneurs® Group is a group of like-minded business individuals with a common goal who meet together every month to brainstorm, support, learn and assist one another. For business members, mastermind groups can provide support, motivation, inspiration, problem-solving, ground breaking ideas from one industry to another encouragement and ideas. The goal of the mastermind group as a whole should be as defined as possible. “To have a successful business” is not a strongly defined goal. However, “Increasing the profitability of each member of the group by a minimum of 20% in 2016” is a more precise goal, then helping each member to breaking it down to smaller but manageable chunks, so that the goals can be achieved not just visualized, the more you break your goals down, by year, by months, by quarters, by months, by weeks and even days, this will give you and the group members a much clearer vision and help to identify any obstacles and unforeseen problems. The mastermind group has the ability to see things from a grander perspective. Even better, as different minds start talking and expounding on ideas, others will chime in and new ideas will form. You may find yourself coming up with an idea that never occurred to you before as you are inspired from the synergy in the group. Or you may be that inspiration to another member in the group.
NUMBER OF ATTENDEES
In a typical business mastermind group, there are a set number of attendees that may join the group. The number is usually kept small enough to ensure that everyone can participate. “Small” means that a typical group will usually consist of somewhere between 10 and 12 people. You need to have enough people so that there is interaction and enough ideas are flowing (my groups consist of 10 to 12). However, if there are TOO many people in the group, not everyone gets a chance to voice their opinions or bring up their challenges. Each group really differs in finding their “sweet spot” with regard to the number of participants that fit that particular group. It is easier to start on a smaller scale and see how it works and then add participants if the group is functioning well. This is much easier than having too many participants in the beginning and finding that people are frustrated because they feel they don’t have a chance to participate. Also, keep in mind that vacations and other issues do come up. If you have a group that is too small, you may find yourself with only two or three attendees for some of your sessions. While you can still have a mastermind session, it’s not as productive as having more members there to fully bounce ideas and suggestions around.
FACILITATOR
There is often a facilitator or a moderator of the group. We’ll be talking more about the benefits of having a facilitator or a moderator for the group in a later chapter (you can find out more in my book Mastermind Groups on Amazon).
AGENDA
The agenda may be up to the group. It usually consists of a small period of introduction, and then time to go through each person’s “issue”. Or you may choose to have a hot seat topic. We will discuss these options more in a later chapter in the book if you decide to buy it on Amazon or join one of my Mastermind Of Entrepreneurs® Groups.
FULL PARTICIPATION
One thing is vitally important, and that is EVERYONE in the group must participate. Your peers will be giving you feedback, and they will expect your feedback in return. It is only through full participation that the group will truly be able to fully attain new heights. As an individual business person, it is easy to get caught up in seeing things one way. You are too close to your project, you visualized it from its inception, and you simply can’t see it from another direction. By being able to see it from a fresh set of eyes, someone who is totally from another sector to yours – you will learn how to adopt new ways of exploding your business and not just what everyone in your industry is doing. When you have 10 plus members from none competing backgrounds from 10 different industries, you have a much greater chance of discovering, learning, systems, processes and strategies that you can adopt into your industry to grow in leaps rather than incrementally.
ACCOUNTABILITY
The mastermind groups are also about accountability. It is easy as a business person (especially as a solo entrepreneur) to put off setting goals, or to justify not hitting goals. Soon you can find yourself losing any form of accountability. In my Mastermind Of Entrepreneurs® Groups, you will have an accountability partner appointed from the group to help and hold you accountable each month with weekly updates on progress. You’ll find yourself more inspired than ever to do so when you have a support system and the group behind you. Feeling like you’re “not in it alone” can be a tremendous weight off your shoulders. Knowing that you have someone to report in to and bounce ideas off can also be a huge motivation for most members of the mastermind groups.
Results Achieved In My Mastermind Of Entrepreneurs® Groups
As a Strategic advisor and Mentor to the FTSE 100 leaders, I have managed to created one the most dynamic learning communities in the world through our peer Mastermind Of Entrepreneurs®. The entrepreneurs and leaders in our communities help each other to learn. Since we has been running our communities of mastermind groups, taking a very conservative figure even by cutting it in half we have increased revenues in excess of £760 million.
Come join us and see how your business can take off with immediate results by being part of
The Mastermind Of Entrepreneurs® Groups......
Moe Nawaz: is the Author of Mastermind Groups, Strategic advisor and mentor to FTSE 100 leaders.
