I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the emotional side of leading a mastermind group.

When others look to you for growth, they usually bring along unanswered questions or unmet needs. You need to be able to help them to a point where they’re comfortable talking about them. 

As the leader, modeling this helps your mastermind group members feel safe in taking ownership of their daily lives. In this area, the three qualities that separate good leaders from great ones are:

• Authenticity
• Vulnerability
• Transparency

Are Your Words and Actions in Alignment With Each Other?

Many leaders tell people what they plan to do, or what’s most important to them. Sadly, few follow through with action to support their promises. 

Sometimes, it’s from a lack of organization, which is one reason we’ve built The Mastermind Playbook. It’s very difficult to build online mastermind groups alone, without a process...

If you’re going to start an online mastermind group, networking is an obvious “selling point.”

Any group where membership costs as much as a car payment, and commitment is higher than average, attracts high-caliber entrepreneurs. It seems so simple … and it is! As long as you know what to do with it once you start it.

The problem of being in the mastermind business gets tricky, if you’ve never joined a group before. One thing that worked in my favor was I’d been in business masterminds with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham and others for years.

I had a model to follow. Now, you might be reading this and think, “Big A! I’m in a mastermind.” Hey, if the shoe fits, wear it. If it doesn’t, send this on to someone who needs to read it. But I’m reaching out to people who want to start their own group, or already have one.

You may have heard me say, “Success is a marathon, not a...

When you lead a mastermind group, you focus on helping people think about their future. Having well-defined goals is part of success. Leading others means showing them how to craft a vision that compels them to reach those goals. 

A vision is the overall “dream state” you wish to reach. This is who you want to be, attributes you want to have, how you want to feel about yourself, and how you want others to feel toward you.

Is your mastermind business led by vision? Or is it just led by your current business model? I haven’t found a better blessing on this earth than guiding others. That’s my personal experience with masterminds, but I’d love for it to be the same for you.

It’s good timing too, because people are lost. Everywhere you look, they’re seeking comfort or the easy way out. If you have the chance to reach one person, you can reach more. The only thing stopping the size of your “impact” is the...

 A long time ago, I was once a lone wolf entrepreneur without community.

To be honest, I’ve got so used to having masterminds online and business coaches, it’s hard to remember what life was like back then. The longer I do this, the more I feel like it’s “always been this way,” even though that’s not the truth.

I’m writing because I thought you could do with one more reminder: isolation is the enemy of excellence. If you’ve thought about starting an online mastermind group, “now” is always the right time.

This year’s given us its own fear-based reasons to hold our fire. The ground keeps twitching under our feet, telling us it isn’t the right time. We don’t know what the future holds … so we think we’ll survive by hunkering down and playing Lone Ranger?!

That’s not going to fly. I can understand your hesitation to open a brick-and-mortar business in...

What’s the secret of mastermind groups online that gets results? Why do some groups have such consistent attendance, while others don’t?

One reason I can usually point to is an inconsistent, unclear communication strategy inside the groups. It’s about how you deliver the service you’re paid to provide. As you can imagine, it’s very important, both for retention and referrals.

Many entrepreneurs I’ve talked to over the years ask how I can oversee 19 groups with 8-12 members each, and still see single-digit turnover. I don’t mention those numbers to brag, because there’s no secret recipe or magic spell to this.

We simply observe the way the world works, and adapt to it. (Come on now, do you really picture me sitting around casting spells to get people to join online mastermind groups?)

But there are ways I’ve learned to run effective meetings, which become available to you when you use The...

How to Build a Mastermind Group That Lasts

Have you ever read a passage in a book that was like a blueprint or done-for-you strategy? 

I found 16 ways to improve loyalty for building a mastermind that lasts, from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, “Leadership In Turbulent Times.” 

It’s like it was written for me, and all I have to do is execute it. That made me think of you, because if you follow these principles, you can also build a mastermind group online that lasts.

WHY FOCUS ON LOYALTY?

You might think loyalty occurs naturally, so long as you’re polite and kind to people. That’s a start, but for online mastermind groups, it won’t cut the mustard.

I think back to my early days as business coach to drive this point home: the mastermind business is value-driven. Anytime you set up shop as a “people builder,” you’d better have some strong character to back it up.

...

Maybe you haven’t thought of this, but your mastermind groups online don’t need to produce winners right away. Sometimes, they’re more helpful to someone who’s deteriorating alone.

What I’ve found, in my years as a business coach, is you can’t always tell which one’s which. Some people seem like they just need a winning edge. You can have them done and dusted in 2-3 months. Usually, these people need much more professional than personal growth.

Others need much deeper work, but they look pretty good on the outside. In this case, the percentages usually reverse. People in this group need far more personal than professional growth. They’re good at making money, and terrible at most other things.

What It Takes to be President

We’re reading about four famous US presidents in our masterminds online this month. Two of them stood out, when it comes to retreating into the shadows to grow and mature....

Do you want to know something we all need to spend more time thinking about? It’s this three-letter word we don’t usually ask until something bad happens. To top it off, we ask it with a tone of complete innocence, as though we’re bystanders or victims of what happens to us.

I’m sure you know the word I’m thinking about: “why.” Those three letters get thrown around heavily when we’re in trouble. Ironically, the worse things get, the more hurt and surprised we are that there don’t seem to be answers. It’s time to shuffle the deck and put this question in the right place.

If they’d consulted me when they wrote the alphabet, I’d have told them to put the letter “Y” at the beginning, so we could be prompted to remember that everything begins with “why.”

Purpose Over Practicality

You’re an entrepreneur, thinking about starting or growing mastermind...

What Your Weaknesses Provide for a Mastermind Group

Would you like to know one benefit I never saw coming when I started mastermind groups online?

It’s how much more I’ve received from being weak, than I have from being strong.

As you begin to build your mastermind business, you should ask yourself this question: “Where am I weak?” It’s the opposite of what you’d think to ask, but it’ll go a lot further than your strengths.

Think about it this way - have you ever gone out of your way to help someone? If you’re starting an online mastermind group, chances are you’ve been a coach or mentor to someone already. You’ve probably experienced the pleasant feelings of being generous and helpful. 

Well, if we tend to attract similar-minded people into our circles, then you’re going to have other people who also like to be generous and helpful. They’ll feel even better when they get...

It’s the age of cancel culture and hair-trigger offense. Depending on the type of group you want to assemble for your mastermind business, that may be a big deal.

One thing the last few months has taught me is that even if you go to great lengths to curate a group of people who demonstrate great self-control, controversy will find them. Late last year, long before COVID-19 or the George Floyd incident, one of our members took fire from an online social justice mob.

We learned of the matter and quickly advised him not to retaliate, but as the weeks continued, the attacks mounted. This is heartbreaking to hear as the leader of an online mastermind group. I felt powerless to help him, but I also have enough experience and insight from years of dealing with situations like this to know - it would eat itself.

So let me tell you right now, you can have the most harmless mastermind group on the planet. It’s an age of being guilty by association, and...