Abundance Unlimited

While I’d like to be able to offer “4 easy steps” to forming your own mastermind, there aren’t any. What I can provide are some guidelines that you can adapt and build on as you pursue a meeting of the minds.

1. Identify speakers with complementary businesses, similar career levels and shared values. The diversity of the group is a strength, and everyone should have something they can bring to the party in the way of expertise. Be careful that there is not too much disparity between experience levels, or the sharing of ideas may not be as relevant. Shared values underpin everything you do as a group.

2. Determine a purpose. There are many different reasons why your mastermind might meet, ranging from lead sharing to being a support group or some mix of different elements. Be very clear on what you’re trying to accomplish. The more specific you are, the more productive you’ll be.

3. Establish guidelines. Talk about meeting time, length and attendance, and address the soft issues around how you treat each other. Melanie Mills puts it well when she says, “Establish guidelines for how you operate with each other like not putting down other speakers, a solutions-orientation versus a problem-orientation, sharing time so nobody dominates, confidentiality, and mutual respect. This is probably the most important step as it creates the atmosphere for you to operate in. I would keep them simple but clear.”

4. Pick a leader. Whether this person holds the position forever or temporarily is less important than the need for someone who will coordinate schedules and meeting locations. Scott Friedman served unselfishly in this capacity for our group.

5. If it stops working, try something different. Recently our group had to deal with some difficult issues around members moving out of state, time commitments and revised goals. After several years, the nature of the group has changed because what once worked was no longer effective. Don’t be afraid to revisit your purposes and goals frequently to address if adjustments should be made.

Reference - How to set up a mastermind group

I just finished Napoleon Hill’s book Think And Grow Rich. At the end of the book they have an offer for a free bookplate with Dr. Hill’s signature. So I started writing a letter asking for it. I thought oh there is a foundation I wonder if they have a website. After a quick search I found The Napoleon Hill Foundation on the web. The foundation has several seminars and other resources listed. Plus a Mastermind Online Success Club.

Our Mastermind Online Success Club is an international group of enthusiastic members who are like-minded in that all share a common interest in the works and teachings of Dr. Napoleon Hill and motivational practices that work.

Hot Seat Format: Each MM member has specific problem solving/planning session whereby members contribute to the Hot Seat person?s needs. One meeting may be devoted to one individual or each individual may have 15-20 minutes in the Hot Seat each meeting. The Hot Seat selects their topic and can prepare and send information in advance.

Topic Format: A topic is chosen for each meeting and members bring in a sample of their work pertaining to the topic. her personnel policy, Vacation/Sick time policy. Job Applications etc. Each member is asked to bring one resource article that they have used previously or to find one article from current reading.

Education Format: The group chooses a book and reads and discusses one topic per month. Can be supplemented with current newspaper and trade and industry magazine articles.

Guest Speaker Format: Each member recruits a speaker for a meeting?s first hour. The second hour is spent discussing the topic and any homework assigned to back up the topic

According to an article I found which I posted under this article, only 11.5% rely solely on the telephone to conduct meetings. Nearly all (91.6%) of the interviewed survey participants indicated that at least part of their Master Mind interactions take place in person. Nearly half (48.2%) of the online survey participants who actively participate in a Master Mind group fall within the category of having 2 to 7 members; the most common number was 4 members, reported by 13.2%. However, a startling 42.6% of online survey respondents reported that their group consisted of 10 or more members, a statistic that leads us to believe that their concept of a Master Mind network differs from the traditional format. The average number of participants in the Mastermind groups of the interviewed business owners was 5 members, a figure closer to the norm.