HOW TO MASTER YOUR MASTERMIND Scientists estimate that when geese fly together, the whole flock can fly about 70% farther with the same amount of energy than if each goose flew alone. When you’re sharing the load the journey becomes easier. We’re able to fly farther, faster and use less energy because we are all lifted up by the energy and enthusiasm of one another. So how do you take this concept and apply it to your entrepreneurial journey? Start a Mastermind. How to Master Your Mastermind © 2015 The Foundation. All Rights Reserved How to Master Your Mastermind What is a Mastermind? A mastermind is a group of people in the trenches working on their business, learning and growing. The group meets weekly or biweekly for an hour to share ideas, questions, resources and tactics. The group helps keep you focused and your business moving forward. There is no king or queen of a mastermind group. At it’s core, masterminds are intended to be collaborative. Why Create a Mastermind? Masterminds are an important part in becoming successful no matter what industry you’re in. When you join a mastermind you are building a structure that literally pulls your business forward. It keeps you from getting sidelined. It keeps you from getting distracted, because you’re building an accountability system. GETTING STARTED How Do You Create and Run a Successful Mastermind? Step 1: Find your potential members Invite people that have skill-sets and backgrounds that compliment yours. If you’re strong in sales, but software scares you … look for a developer. Diversity is your friend. How to Master Your Mastermind © 2015 The Foundation. All Rights Reserved. How to Master Your Mastermind Step 2: Create guidelines and roles for your Mastermind Structure, roles and commitment are key to the long-term success of your mastermind. Establishing these right from the start will serve you and your mastermind well down the road. Create guidelines and commit Take the time on your first call to establish guidelines at the start so everyone is clear on the expectations of the group. Here are a two recommendations to get you started: Keeping your integrity: Be on time - Each member is expected to be present and 5 minutes early for the meeting. If someone cannot attend you must let the group know ahead of time. This is a great measure to see how successful you’re going to be in your business. Honoring your word. Integrity. How to share feedback: Ask permission first. “May I offer you some feedback on X? Wait for a yes or no. If you get a no then shut-up. If you get a yes then feel free to be open. When you do this the person is much more likely to hear what you are saying. As a rule of thumb, praise in public and give feedback in private. Offer solutions, not criticisms: Every criticism is a form of being against. Whatever you are against becomes your experience. Which leads to extra helpings of what you did not want: more dead-end job, more stupid boss, and more boredom. Every solution is a form of being for something. Whatever you are for becomes your experience too, and in turn you get more of that coming your way. The only solution is to have more for thoughts than against thoughts, and to make those for thoughts bigger. That is the simple lifestyle change required to control mentality. PRO TIP: Take a few extra minutes during your first meeting to agree on guidelines for your mastermind. How to Master Your Mastermind © 2015 The Foundation. All Rights Reserved. How to Master Your Mastermind Step 3: Create roles for your Mastermind Assigning roles will help keep your mastermind organized and running like a swiss watch. Here are four roles needed to run an efficient mastermind and keep your calls productive: Meeting Host - Leads the call, keeping it focused and on schedule (The host will rotate each week. Whoever was in the hot seat the previous week typically hosts the next week). Time Keeper - Holds the group accountable to time to make sure that everyone gets a chance to share. You have permission to set strict time limits, stop a conversation or suggest that a conversation be taken offline (This person should be a hard ass and own a stop watch). Reminder Person - Sets up team systems, figures out the call time and sends a reminder with all the info ahead of the call (This person is a natural communicator). Note taker - Takes notes and shares action steps to entire team after call. PRO TIP: Spend time on your first call to schedule out roles for the entire six months. How to Master Your Mastermind © 2015 The Foundation. All Rights Reserved. How to Master Your Mastermind Step 4: How to run a value packed call Structure is the key here. Have a clear agenda. Always have your webcam on because it promotes team bonding, prevents distractions and keeps you from doing other stuff on the call. Before the Call Before you join your weekly call, you’ll want to do two things: 1. Set aside 10 mins prior to the call to prepare your win, failure, greatest challenge and greatest opportunity. Each should be no longer than a sentence or two. Prepping these ahead of the call will help create an efficient call for everyone. 2. Turn off phones/remove any distractions to give your mastermind your full presence. 3. Show up on time and prepared to help! Call Structure Here is our recommended agenda. Feel free to change it up depending on what works best for your group. Kick things off with a round robin sharing your wins of the week. Once everyone has shared a win move on to failures and so on through the rest of the agenda. If something important and urgent comes up, make a note under the appropriate future meeting to revisit it then. Win (30 secs each) However big or small. Kickstart the call by sharing your successes. How to Master Your Mastermind © 2015 The Foundation. All Rights Reserved. How to Master Your Mastermind Call Structure (continued) Outcomes (30 secs each) There are no failures, only outcomes. We celebrate outcomes at The Foundation. This is a safe place to share those too! :) Your greatest challenge & opportunity this week (30 secs each) If you can help someone with something they mentioned, mention it to them, then arrange another time to call/email/meet after the mastermind. What you are committed to doing next week (30 secs each) Steer clear of results oriented goals such as "validate an idea" since the result is actually out of your control. Instead focus on goals you can control such as "Send 25 emails." or "Create my infopak”. Hot seat (20 mins - optional) Focused attention on one member of the group Use these three sentence stems to explain your challenge and kickstart the hot seat: The actions I've taken are .... I'm feeling.... My question is .... PRO TIP: Set up a routine order for your calls so you don’t have to waste time deciding who’s turn it is next. How to Master Your Mastermind © 2015 The Foundation. All Rights Reserved. How to Master Your Mastermind Mastermind Systems There are many tools and systems to use to help run your mastermind. Here’s a short list of options just to get you rockin and rolling: Call Hosting Options Google Hangouts Skype Zoom (paid but minimal) Resources Google Drive Folder Dropbox Folder Mastermind Communication Slack Facebook Group Google+ Group PRO TIP: Create a shared google drive or dropbox folder to share your best tools and resources with your mastermind How to Master Your Mastermind © 2015 The Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
