Before I set up in business I couldn’t see the value of a mastermind group. It was just a bunch of people patting each other’s backs as far as I was concerned. It was little better than a mutual support and benefitial society where nothing of value got done. I didn’t need that thank you very much!! What I needed was an expert, preferably one who wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg because as a beginner in business funds were tight. How wrong was I???

I am now a member of not one but two mastermind groups and I have benefited hugely from both of them. One of them is a coaching mastermind group. We started in late January and meet up once a fortnight for a couple of hours. We decided at the start what each of us wanted from it and agreed on a format and got an agreement typed up that we have all signed. The nice thing is that because we are all coaches in one form or another, some are Life coaches, some are NLP coaches, each of us is specialising in different niches, when we get to a stage where one of us is stuck we help each other by coaching, which in turn hones our coaching skills even further. It also lets us see and benefit from another coache’s techniques. And it’s never the same person who gets stuck it always changes. The other really nice thing is the other people in my coaching mastermind group can see niches for me to try out that I hadn’t given serious thought to and I can do the same for them.

The other mastermind group is group that formed in a network marketing opportunity that has since gone belly-up on us. We all got great benefit from the actual content of the product we were promoting and we got on well together too. We decided to keep in contact as a mastermind group to support each other in our “normal jobs” and any other opportunities that might arise. We meet up once a month and we are a very diverse group from banking to affiliate marketing, from social media training to property investments, from coaching to tele-communications. And we tend to trash out ideas and opportunities in an informal setting. We also let each other know of opportunities that may be benefitial. We can legitimately promote each other to potential clients looking for the services we each provide – so it has the added benefit of referrals too.

There are different levels of experience in both of these groups, some have been business owners before, some are serial entreprenuers and the wealth of experience and information they have to share is priceless. And then there are those of us who have very modern skills and can pass that on to those who haven’t. It is definitely a two-way street and extremely useful. There is often the possibility of a joint venture too. Sometimes teaming up with another business can bring benefits that being on your own can’t. The really good thing about that is you already know and trust the other business person.

If you haven’t tried out a mastermind group and feel you might like to but don’t know where to start you can contact me here.