If there is one book responsible for creating more millionaires than any other, my guess is it would have to be Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. One of the many concepts Hukk covered was the power of the MasterMind. According to him, when two people get together to brainstorm solutions to problems, it creates a “third mind” that can think of solutions and come up with ideas that wouldn’t happen with an individual on his/her own.
Many people call this a “study group” Regardless of what you call it, do you have one? Is it bringing you the results you set out to achieve?
I’ve been meeting with MasterMind group quarterly for about 10 years. If I weren’t getting value from the meetings and the relationships, I would have stopped long ago.
In this Referral Minute, I’ll share a few lessons learned and best practices that may be of some help to you. If you don’t belong to a MasterMind or Study Group, I strongly urge you to form or join one.
Who’s in the group?
Your group can consist of people just like you, in your same line of work, or of other business people as well. My group of five contains two other people who have similar businesses to mine and two others in businesses that are indirectly related. By having people from other businesses, we all get fresh ideas that don’t confirm the “industry speak.”
How many are members in the group?
After being in groups like this for more than 20 years, I’ve found five or six to be an ideal number. (I know others like slightly smaller or slightly larger groups). Because we almost never meet unless everyone can attend (because we value everyone’s unique perspective), we want to have plenty of energy and creativity, and still be able to “go deep” with each person’s situation.
What do you discuss?
Most of our meetings consist of these items:
- sharing some recent wins and what we learned from them
- sharing some recent challenges and what we learned from them
- sharing our revenue goals and actual numbers
- brainstorming solutions to problems
- setting goals for the year
- setting smaller goals to be accomplished between meetings
What else do you discuss?
From time to time, we bring in “guest experts” or create a special theme that dominates a good portion of the meeting. This can bring out ideas and perspectives that might not otherwise arise.