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Tips & Talk 31 – How to Start Your Own Mastermind Group
6th October 2021 • Gift Biz Unwrapped • Sue Monhait
00:00:00 00:16:38

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Masterminds. Perhaps you've invested in one before that included a professional moderator and was timebound - a few months or even a year. These is the traditional structure of a formal mastermind. I'm talking today about how you can create your own local mastermind group. It brings a level of support that will prove to be a powerful resource to move your business forward. And it's free! I've also created a blog covering all the points I bring up in the podcast. To read or print this out for your own mastermind development use, you can access it here. CONNECT with me here: WebsiteFacebookInstagram SUBSCRIBE to the podcast: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify PAY IT FORWARD by leaving a rating and review. I'd love to hear your comments. Tell me how the show has helped you or a specific guest or point that had an impact. You can do that right here. Thanks for listening!

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Transcripts

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Hi there.

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It's Sue.

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And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.

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These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and

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things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.

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If you'd like to submit a topic,

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DME, over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped today,

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we're going to talk about masterminds and more importantly,

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how you can create your own mastermind.

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I think that probably a lot of you have heard about

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masterminds. It's like,

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oh my gosh,

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they're going to cost thousands of dollars.

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Sometimes masterminds are tens of thousands of dollars.

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And this isn't for you.

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I'm going to tell you about how you can make your

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own mastermind,

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what the elements are,

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what the advantages are coming from your girl who has done

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this. I have been part of a local mastermind for 20

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years. Truth is it's just disbanded,

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but that's because of lifestyle changes.

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People moving businesses,

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completing their lifecycle,

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et cetera.

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A mastermind is a group of people getting together.

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You can do this either virtually,

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but I really think the very best thing is in person.

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And that's what I'm going to be talking to you about

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right now and helping each other,

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grow your businesses.

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The value of doing this is a few things.

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Number one,

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you learn from other people.

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Number two,

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you get a chance to strategize,

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kick around ideas with people who aren't just friends or family,

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people who are also trying to grow their own business.

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And they may have some ideas that can apply to you.

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They may have done some things that you're thinking about and

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give you some cautionary tales or some advice to way to

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go back and forth and talk about what you're planning to

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do. So you don't feel all alone,

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you know,

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as a solo entrepreneur,

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just being all by yourself.

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And then the third thing is accountability.

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Because once you create a plan and you tell everybody in

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your mastermind that you're going to do it,

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then the trick is actually following through and taking the action.

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Those are the values of masterminds learning the ability to do

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strategic planning with people who get it and then accountability.

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And guess what?

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You don't need to always join an organized mastermind where you're

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having to pay money into the system to get the advantages

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that a mastermind can bring.

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I was mentioning a minute ago that I was part of

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a mastermind here locally for years,

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at least a decade.

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I'm not even sure if it was more than that.

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And I'll tell you something.

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We went through selling businesses,

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having people being sued,

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buying businesses,

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some personal things too,

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like adopting a child from overseas,

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let's see employee problems,

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all different types of things we talked about.

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You can imagine within the 10 years of being in a

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mastermind, what ended up happening as we progressed in time,

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we all knew each other's businesses.

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So well,

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we could celebrate the wins.

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We could be there for support with the challenges,

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but we had each other's backs.

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And how awesome is it?

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When you have a group of people,

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you can help in an instant because you know their businesses

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so well.

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So let me share with you here.

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Some steps of what to do,

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if you are interested in creating your own mastermind.

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The first thing that I would look at is the selection

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of people who you want to reach out to,

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to be part of your mastermind.

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My advice here is not to select people who are in

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the same industry as you.

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Why? Because different industries provide different opportunities for learning.

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And so people will bring more information to the table for

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you. For example,

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in the mastermind that I had,

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we had me.

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And at that point I was in my gift basket business.

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When I first started,

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of course now I've evolved to my other businesses,

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but I also came with a corporate sales and marketing background.

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We had an organizer,

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she came from corporate HR.

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So now there's another layer of experience that we can tap

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into. Then we had an orthodontist,

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by the way,

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she's the first woman president of the national orthodontic association,

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shout out to Robin.

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She was also a professor at a local university.

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Then we also had a travel agent and gosh,

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how that industry has changed from 15 years ago.

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So you can see that by bringing people in from other

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types of industries,

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you're layering on the value and the knowledge that'll be around

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a table for a mastermind.

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First thing is the selection of the people.

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Second thing I would suggest is size somewhere between four and

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six people.

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The reason for that is you can have a very small,

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intimate discussion.

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I know masterminds can get up to 12,

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18 people,

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which is fine.

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If it's more structured and you're actually paying for that structure

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where you have a moderator,

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but if you're putting your own group together,

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keep it smaller.

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Four to six would be my advice.

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Personalities is the third point.

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If you're the one who's putting this together,

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you can reach out and we're Nate and organize people who

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you already know personalities don't have to match,

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but they should blend together.

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So they should be compatible because there will come times as

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you get to know each other better,

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where you might challenge each other and say,

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Hey, I think you could be doing more than you're doing.

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Or what do you think about doing this?

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I know you're afraid to do it,

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but make a commitment,

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go to that craft show next weekend,

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you know,

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or, or whatever the case might be.

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And you want to have compatible personalities to be able to

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do that.

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The next thing after you have invited people to be in

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the group.

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So let's say you've selected your four to six people and

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they've said,

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yes. So yay for you.

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Now let's talk about where you would meet the big value

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here is meeting in person.

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What we did is selected a local,

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no, not local well local,

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because it was easy enough to drive to,

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and we'd talk over dinner,

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nothing wrong with talking business over a glass of wine and

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a nice meal,

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have a meeting place that all of you will look forward

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to going to,

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and I suggest that it not be right in your hometown

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or right in a popular location.

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You want it to be where you can grab your own

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table off to the side where people aren't going to be

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coming up and saying hi to you every minute,

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because this should be considered a business meeting.

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You're strategizing with other people about their businesses,

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right? So you want it to be uninterrupted time,

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albeit fun,

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entertaining time,

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which is what you can do.

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You know,

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if you're doing this over a meal that's location,

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you want to make sure that it's an atmosphere that allows

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some level of privacy.

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Because if you're talking about something that's personal,

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you don't want the table over to be able to hear

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that. Now with social distancing lately,

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that's become less of an issue,

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but it's something to think about when you're thinking about a

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location. Now you've picked your location.

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Let's talk about the schedule we used to meet monthly and

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monthly. I felt was a really good timeframe because it was

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enough time for people to accomplish things that they decided they

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were going to get taken care of and done.

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And then they can report back within four weeks.

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Right? But it's not too much where you're going too far.

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Like if you met quarterly,

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I don't think that that's enough for a mastermind.

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So monthly,

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I think is perfect.

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And what we did is we said the second Tuesday of

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every month,

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something specific,

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so we could get it in our calendar right away.

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Everybody knew that that was the date.

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And I'll tell you,

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we were so committed to each other.

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That pretty much nothing overrode those dates,

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unless like you're out at a show which you can't change

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the dates of a show.

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Something happens with illnesses,

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that type of thing.

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We were really,

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really committed to being there for ourselves,

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but more for each other,

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by being able to put those dates in your calendar,

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right from the start,

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you're more likely to be able to honor those dates.

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Okay. So you all get together around a table.

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Now, what are you going to talk about?

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The best thing to do when you're just starting,

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obviously, as you have to learn about each other and gain

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a level of trust with each other,

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go around the table.

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Talk about your businesses a little bit about your family,

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because business does include personal life.

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Obviously get to know each other.

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And this takes a little bit of time.

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And over the course of meetings,

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your trust will develop and then talk about where your business

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is and what you're trying to achieve,

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or what your biggest challenges next.

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And then get feedback.

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It's like being on a hot seat where you are now

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talking about your business and you're offering up a topic to

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everybody that the table to give input on what ideas might

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they have brainstorming and conversation at each meeting.

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And this is another reason why you want to keep it

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between four and six people at each meeting,

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everybody gets to talk,

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okay? So everybody is giving help and everyone is getting help

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for their situations.

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And then when you get really comfortable,

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then you start holding people accountable.

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So you say,

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all right,

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this is what you said you were going to do by

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next time we meet,

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I want to know if it's done.

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And so then there's linkage between each meeting because one person,

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what they said they were going to do,

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then the next time you follow up and say,

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well, how did it go?

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What stumbling blocks did you have?

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Is it all done?

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What are you moving onto next?

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So that's where that whole accountability comes in.

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There are also times maybe where you'll decide we're going to

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tackle a topic that we all need to do.

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There was a point where I was talking about my business

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plan and everyone else's like business plan.

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What's a business plan.

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Why do you need a business plan?

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What is that?

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Anyway? And I have a whole different feeling today about business

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plans than I did then,

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but that led into each of us creating a business plan,

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not just to have on paper,

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to put on a shelf,

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never to look at it again,

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but to use as a working document,

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to guide our business forward for the year.

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That was a really interesting year.

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When we did those,

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you can see that you can start with topic that you

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are all going to share or each individual person what you're

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encountering in your business,

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where your challenges are and what are the next steps.

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We went through a whole bunch of different types of things

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that you may never encounter in your business,

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but how great is it to be able to be supportive

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and willing to help another person with what's going on in

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their business and knowledge,

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intimate knowledge,

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I'll say behind the scenes of other businesses strengthened to you

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as a business owner as well.

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Obviously there's a level of trust.

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We never signed a nondisclosure agreements.

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You may decide that you need to,

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but the value of this,

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I cannot overstate when you get to the point where you

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can be so honest about your businesses with each other and

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how much you can help another person move their business forward.

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And they can give you advice and confidence so that you

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can move your business forward.

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And the final part to all of this is celebrating your

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successes. When you have a group of people who know how

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much work it was to reach a new milestone in your

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business, not only that,

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but they might have contributed to helping you get there.

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The feeling of success for all of you at the table

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in the mastermind is great.

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I mean,

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I was sometimes even happier for other people's achievements than my

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own because I knew how hard it was and what an

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obstacle it had been for them to be able to get

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to where they were.

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So these are all benefits of creating your own masterminds.

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And I don't mean to say here or discount in any

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way, masterminds that you might invest in.

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I think there are different things you can get out of

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those types of masterminds.

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Then you can get with creating your very own local mastermind.

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So let me summarize again,

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what the steps would be and the different points to creating

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one for yourself.

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So you're the leader you're taking control.

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You're going to create a mastermind.

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The first thing to do is the selection of people.

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Look for people who come from different industries and possible multiple

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backgrounds within their past experience,

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because they're just bringing more information to the table that you

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guys can tap into.

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Secondly, size,

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keep it four to six people.

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Third personalities doesn't mean that everybody is a similar match of

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a personality,

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but everyone blends together.

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Like you don't want someone who's dominating.

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The conversation is always talking.

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You also want people who are all givers in one way

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or another.

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Oh, I forgot to talk about this earlier.

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Gender, something to consider.

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We were an all female group it's not necessary,

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but it's something to think about as you're forming the group,

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how you would feel about that,

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whether you would want it to be all one gender or

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not. If it matters,

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whatever, then we talked about the meeting place,

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something that is convenient and a fun place where you're looking

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forward to going to a place where you're not going to

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get interrupted by people who know you and come to your

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table and interrupt you all the time,

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then set a schedule.

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I personally liked the monthly and put it on the calendar.

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So everyone knows that these are dates.

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We are committing to each other as a group.

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Like I said,

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we were over dinner.

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So our meetings were two and a half,

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three hours,

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but maybe you have a time limit.

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It's an hour and a half a timeframe where you can

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get into the issues deep enough.

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And that also everybody gets a chance to talk.

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That's really important.

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Then topics you go around.

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And if you don't have a specific topic that you're working

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on, then have everybody talk about what they've achieved within the

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last month and then where their challenges are or what they're

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working on for the next 30 days.

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It could be something big.

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It could be something little,

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it could be part of a project.

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It really depends on where everybody is at that time.

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And then of course celebrating the successes.

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Michelle's asking what if you're a newbie business owner and you

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feel you have nothing to contribute.

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This is a good point,

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Michelle, and something that I didn't bring up,

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I find that masterminds are best if everybody is somewhat at

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the same level in business.

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So if you're a business newbie,

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then I would match up with other people who have been

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in business for a year or less.

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When you don't do that,

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when you have more established business owners and then newbies,

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what happens is most of the time the established people are

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coaching and there's not as much value for that other person.

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The best thing is to try and keep it on the

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same level of time into a business.

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As you possibly can.

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You don't have to wait for someone to invite you into

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a mastermind.

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You don't have to wait to have enough money to join

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an already structured mastermind.

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You can control this yourself and reap all the benefits that

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a mastermind can offer.

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That's a wrap.

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I'm a get to the point kind of girl.

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And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek

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sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream

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of yours.

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Share your handmade products with us.

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We want them,

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