Napoleon Hill wrote about the power of mastermind groups and reported how Andrew Carnegie (the richest man in the world at the time) and others were using mastermind groups to their advantage.

Mastermind groups work in lots of places and lots of ways.

As Napoleon Hill wrote, you don’t even need the people in your mastermind group to be physically present or even alive to be in your group. Doing that makes your “group” an advanced form of talking to yourself but definitely works – I’ll talk about it a bit more later.

How to start a mastermind group

Before you actually start a group, you need to decide a few things.

I’ve been in several groups – some started by my friend David Hyner – and it seems to be best to have a definite aim rather than just let the group meander around.

That could mean that you’re a member of one group to encourage you to reach your ideal weight, another to improve in sport and another to improve your business.

And due to our ever-shorter attention spans, it’s probably best to put a time limit on a group as well as a numbers limit. That’s better than letting the group slowly fizzle out as the interests and skills of the members change.

It may be best to draw up a checklist:

• What will the mastermind group cover?
• What’s your ideal number of people?
• What’s your policy on drop-outs and drop-ins?
• Where and how often will you meet?
• How accountable should everyone be?
• What’s the format of the meetings?
• How long should the group last for?
• How long should each meeting be?
• What (if anything) will be charged?

There are probably a few other things that you’ll need to consider but those are a good start.

What will your mastermind group cover?

Most of the groups I’ve been involved in have had a reasonably specific purpose.

That’s varied from a fairly general “business success” topic through to a much more specific “internet marketing” theme.

There’s a trade-off here – especially if you’re meeting in person rather than across the web – because you need to find people who are interested in the topic you’ve chosen and that could get more difficult (or less easy if I wanted to couch it in words that still gave you a good chance of success) to get enough people in the group.

If you’re going to be meeting online, there’s a good chance there are no constraints on how far you could drill down for a topic choice.

And if the people you’re “meeting” are only there in your imagination, even that constraint doesn’t matter.

It probably pays to be flexible on the precise topic you’ll be masterminding on so that you can adjust it before the group starts according to the precise needs of your members.

What’s your ideal number of people?

Masterminds can have as few as 2 members up to about a dozen.

As with everything else, the precise number in the group isn’t cast in tablets of stone.

A lot of paid-for mastermind groups have around 12 people in them, partly because that makes the economics work out. They may also be called something like a Platinum Group depending on the marketer involved but the principle is the same.

For the groups I’ve been involved with, somewhere between 4 and 6 participants seems to work well.

More than about a dozen gets closer to being a committee and it’s probably worth splitting the large group into two or more smaller groups and have a meet-up of all the members on a less frequent basis.

What’s your policy on drop-outs and drop-ins?

One of the plus points of a group like this is that you get to know people’s strengths and weaknesses.

But there are bound to be occasions when something doesn’t go as planned and one or more of your group members stops attending.

They may tell you this – maybe it’s a change in personal or business circumstances – or they may just attend your group less and less often until someone has the courage to ask them whether or not they’re still committed to being a member.

This happens everywhere – with my Scouts, we don’t expect them to miss very many meetings and we expect them to apologise if they’re not going to turn up. Any more than 3 meetings missed without an apology, they get called and asked if they’re still a member.

You need to come up with a similar ruling for your group.

And if your group becomes successful, there’s a good chance other people will want to join in. Maybe via word of mouth, maybe via an existing member.

It’s easier to decide ahead of time how you’ll handle this.

In the early days of a group, an extra person will just be someone else you don’t necessarily know.

Once the group has become established, an extra person could change the dynamic of the group – for better or for worse (and you don’t necessarily know which of these in advance of it happening).

Deciding between you early on in the group’s life is a good idea, even if you bend the “rules” at a later stage.

Where and how often will you meet?

Location of meetings will depend on group members.

If you’re spread across the country or the globe, chances are you won’t meet in person very often but you might meet via Skype or conference call.

Frequency of meetings is up to the group to decide – with most of the groups I’ve been involved in, the frequency has been once a month but I’ve also been in some Skype groups where we “met” once a week.

And I’ve also been in some groups where there’s been a buddy system where you pair off and catch up with each other somewhere roughly mid-way between the main meetings.

The more you decide this before the group starts up, the better.

We’re all rule-based to an extent and if we agree to something in advance, chances are we’ll comply with it.

You could thrash this out at the first meeting or you could do it before your group even begins.

Your choice – but make sure you decide something!

How accountable should everyone be?

Part of the beauty of a mastermind group is the accountability.

After all, that’s almost certainly one of the reasons you joined the group in the first place.

But if one or more people aren’t doing what they promised, that can quickly lead to disintegration of the group as a whole because other group members run the risk of getting demoralised or not contributing as much because “other people don’t listen”.

There’s an openness about mastermind groups that means there’s less room for slacking off and getting away with it. Anyone making too many excuses as to why they haven’t done things almost certainly needs to be called to account.

What’s the format of the meetings?

This is best decided in advance of the group starting.

It sounds a bit like hard work but it serves a good purpose – it allows you to have meaningful meetings where you can get as much done as possible.

Tasks tend to grow to fill the space alotted to them.

So if each person has 60 minutes to describe what they’ve done in the month since the last meeting, chances are that’s how long they’ll take. Even if 15 minutes was all that was needed.

One person needs to chair the meeting and make sure it stays on track and that people observe the rules.

One format I’ve experienced is where everyone says what they’ve done in the time since the last meeting, what their goals are before the next meeting and what their sticking points have been.

Then the group work on each person’s sticking points in turn – with the person actively listening to the suggestions rather than ruling them out the second they’re suggested!

The suggestions then get turned into an action plan.

This is very similar to the way I suggest writing sales letters – brain dump first, edit later – and works just as well in a mastermind setting.

How long should the group last for?

I think it’s best to decide a length of time that the group will last for – maybe 6 months, maybe a year, probably not much longer than that without everyone deciding whether or not they want to continue.

Things change – sometimes with our consent, other times not.

Having a time limit gives a deadline to the group. There’s nothing to say the group can’t be extended beyond the original time frame but having a limit set means that you’re all working to the same deadline.

Of course, if the group has run it’s course before the deadline, you could always decide to end it early.

How long should each meeting be?

This will depend on the format of the meetings and the number of people in the group.

Anything from one or two hours (likely the limit if you’re meeting on Skype) through to most of a day or even a whole weekend.

Decide with your group how long your meetings will last, keeping in mind that when it’s done properly, masterminding can be quite intense so your initial 8 hour day could be too long.

If you’ve not run a mastermind group before, a short “half day” starting at, say, 10am and running through to lunch time (12:30/1pm) will probably work well.

What (if anything) will be charged?

Some Platinum groups run into 5 and 6 figures.

Smaller groups may be a few hundreds or early thousands.

Other groups may just cover the cost of the venue and food/drinks.

Again, it’s down to the group members to decide what to do.

Obviously if you’re running a mastermind group as part of your business, you’re more likely to be charging for it.

But if it’s a group of friends then it’s more likely to be free and the venue could be someone’s house or a local pub or restaurant.

Just make sure everyone knows up-front what the charges will be.

And if you run a free mastermind group, do your best to make sure that everyone treats it with the same respect as they would if they were paying.

Imaginary friends mastermind groups

These can work incredibly well.

You can run them in your head and you can ask your group members (some people call them mentors) what they’d do in the situation.

If you know enough about the people in your mastermind group – maybe you’ve read their books, watched their TED talks, watched videos and documentaries – then you’ll almost certainly know what they’d do in most situations.

You can then “quiz” them in your mind and get answers that are likely very close to the ones you’d get in the real world.

It’s a slightly weird concept and it may be one that you prefer to keep to yourself initially but don’t rule it out as an option.

Where to next?

You could find out where local mastermind groups are by asking in forums and Facebook groups.

You could decide to start your own group by making it known in those same places and also to your email list.

Or you could form one now – this instant – if you go down the imaginary friend route!

Your choice.

But I’d strongly recommend getting involved with a mastermind group and seeing how it helps grow your business.

And if you’d be interested in joining an internet marketing mastermind group on Skype with me, drop me a message.