subject: Successful Mastermind Groups Begin With The End In Mind [print this page] Most of the effective mastermind groups these days are those that meet over the phone. There are no professional organizers, it's just us doing the best we can to harness this powerful process to help us grow collectively and individually.
The smart people start out with a tried and true track to run on, an ebook perhaps, to set the course and to eliminate the wasted time and energy of trying to make it up as you go along. When planning your group's first over the phone meeting, remember, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
While the members are not taking money out of their pocket to be there, they are still making a huge investment of their time and attention to the group's success, something far more scarce than their money. For the group to be successful you will have to get the right people to buy in to the process and make the decision to get on board. This requires serious preparation on your part, before that first group call.
If you want all future meetings to achieve their potential you will address each of the issues that come up, as well as those you bring up, thoroughly and conclusively at the very beginning of the process. This is the call when people meet officially for the first time as a group to learn more about each other and to discuss goals, protocol and logistics.
Therefore it needs to be handled thoughtfully so that each member is heard and their input recognized. Remember you are forming a group of coequals. You will want to communicate the importance of everyone being prepared before the calls in order to keep them from degenerating into simply chit chat.
When members are prepared they send the message that this is important, which encourages their fellow members to take the process seriously, resulting in each session having value. Because you will be sharing the various roles and responsibilities among the group, being prepared will keep the process flowing smoothly, in the unlikely event someone with a specific part in the meetings is unavoidably absent.
Technology makes these mastermind groups work. You can arrange your calls using a free teleconference service, you can post you documents, even your individual bios on your Yahoo! group, and you can create a dedicated private Twitter account for communication.
Some of these free teleconference services provide an option for recording the calls too. These recordings can be uploaded to your members only Yahoo! group website. These are just to name a few of the virtually unlimited ways that make it easy for you and your mastermind group to stay connected and make the process both simple and seamless for all of you.
A members only Yahoo! group can become a central location for documents uploaded by the members, the calendar function with its automated email reminders can give each of you a heads-up regarding upcoming events, and all the group's management details can be there where each of you can quickly access them.
For example prior to the first call, as the organizer, you will want to send each member an email stating the date and time of the call as well as the call-in number. The benefit of the freely available technology is that it reduces to the minimum the "details" leaving you and your fellow mastermind group members to focus on what's important. Each group will determine which technology is best for them.
You are asking people to make a commitment to this process and their first experience will communicate the level of respect, professionalism and efficiency they can expect going forward. How this first call is handled will set the tone for those that follow. Therefore it is important that you manage it professionally.
