I’m in a couple of these groups that meet at various times throughout the year, and I gotta tell you, I’m excited as a porcupine meeting a pineapple because I always return from these things with a better, sharper plan of action and a brain full of ideas.
Are you in a mastermind group of your own?
Let me just say…you need to be.
Trust me on this. Start one yourself if you have to, but make it a priority to no longer run your business in a vacuum, but instead surround yourself with people who’ll ask you the tough questions, challenge you, share ideas freely and allow you to do the same. There’s just nothing else like it.
Allow me to paint the picture for you…
What the heck is a “Mastermind” anyway?
The “mastermind” is a principle that comes originally from Napoleon Hill’s famously awesome Think and Grow Rich. (Btw — Read. This. Book.)
Essentially a mastermind is a secret cabal of evildoers out to take over the world.
OK, just kidding…
A mastermind group is simply an alliance of two or more individuals dedicating themselves to a specific goal.
So in situation where one person (you) doesn’t have all the answers, a collective group of people could feed off each other’s wisdom and form a “master mind” that can come up with innovative ideas and solutions you can’t brainstorm all by your lonesome.
It could be an outside the box solution, or a new perspective. Or even a challenge to the original concept you’re wrestling with in the first place.
What goes down at my masterminds
They’ll all be a little different in approach and flavor, but here’s pretty much how they work…
We get together a couple of times a year just to sharpen each other in business and in life.
In the evenings we horse around and have tons of fun together. But during the days, we lock ourselves in a conference room together, sit round a big ole round table, and focus intently on:
(1) Sharing what’s working in life and business (celebrating some wins, successes together.)
(2) Sharing what’s not working so well (where stuff’s not quite humming along, or maybe flat-out broken, and we need some help fixing/refining.)
…and then we each take turns basically pouring the group “mastermind” into one person at a time, challenging, sharpening and idea-generating and pushing each other to greater levels of awesome.
The basic rules are:
(1) Show up – Your commitment to be there and be “present” is crucial and never taken lightly.
(2) Give and take – Be ready to both give and receive, energy actively flowing both ways.
(3) Don’t hold back – Open and honest, caring and sharing, always and forever, amen and amen.
(4) Take your lumps – The ability to give/take it on the chin if need be is a non-negotiable.
(5) Confidentiality – An environment like this demands that we all respect each other’s privacy, always.
What do you think? Sound kind of cool? It is!
Bottom line, masterminds work and can be ridiculously powerful when done well. In fact, as I said, I’m involved in two of them at the moment — one is the group led by Patrick Riddle and Trevor Mauch and the other is the Flip VIPs led by Steve Cook — we meet thrice yearly (yep, I said “thrice”) and monthly via conference call.
I can confidently say these two masterminds have added tens of thousands of extra dollars to my bottom line, and helped make my business and life clearer and more potent than ever.
So here, do this:
(1) Find a solid mastermind you can be a part of.
(2) If you can’t find a mastermind that works for you, create one from scratch…make sure you’re a part of something like this.
(3) Become more successful and generally awesomer.
Oh, and pick up Think and Grow Rich and devour it if you haven’t already. It’s really good.
Thanks for tuning in today. Here’s to hoping I rattled your cage at least a little. 🙂
Keep it real,
PS – For what it’s worth here’s what my buddy Swan McCloskey uses to warm up with at our masterminds :- )
Speak Your Mind…
Questions? Comments? Rhetorical quemment? It can only get better from here….
Great post JP. I absolutely loved going up to the Dells several weeks ago to learn from Steve! Too bad they aren’t accepting anymore folks in the Flip Vips or Titanium groups. I would love to start my own here in memphis, however!
Doing my titanium II mastermind right now. Mastermind groups, good. These people are the real thing too.
Absolutely, Paul. You guys were right across the hotel from us! I’ll bet your head came back full of ideas too, right?
Hey, Matt. I hear ya. They do have group spots open up in Titanium from time to time, but it’s not often. Once people get in, they don’t want to leave. 🙂 I’ve got an idea percolating for something in the Memphis area though. Not quite the same thing, but still a good networking/mastermind/idea-sharing type thing. It’s still developing at the moment though.
I believe being in a group of like minded people who help and challenge you to grow is extremely important. I am retiring from my career and going into real estate full time and would love to find or start a group to help grow as a person as well as be successful in business. I love Think and Grow Rich, time to read it again. Also, The Magic of Thinking Big as well as The Secet of Success. They helped me over the years, great stuff.