I see a huge cross-over appeal between business coaching and mastermind groups.
Of course the emphasis is different since the accountability and feedback comes from a group of peers rather than a business coach but the focus is still on improvement and creating continual momentum.
Personally I see masterminds as potentially be a front end and a back end product for business coaches to sell.
MasterMinds As A Front End For Business Coaches
As a front end product, a mastermind group is lower priced and takes away the objection of getting advice from an "expert" rather than somebody actually doing the stuff and reporting on their own experiences.
I know that's unfair to many coaches but potential clients think it. You can get the feeling that the coaching schools and franchises can churn out coaches who don't really know much.
MasterMinds As A Back End Product For Business Coaches
As a back end product, a mastermind group is a great way to help the client to keep momentum in the business and to keep regular contact with the coach. I suspect every experienced coach has a tale to tell like Michael Gerber does with Sarah in E Myth Mastery.
Things move forward very nicely when the coach and client are working together but the obstacles and day to day worries can soon overwhelm the busy business owner when the accountability and focus that comes from coaching finishes.
It would be wrong to create a coaching program which breeds dependence rather than independence. As a coach you want the business owner to be empowered and have more confidence and ability to do the right things to drive the business forward. Coaching has to come to an end to be replaced potentially by some kind of ongoing mentoring, membership of a mastermind group or nothing.
A MasterMind group is a nice halfway house and the sharing of ideas between similar small business owners and entrepreneurs can drive each of them to do bigger and better things.
So What Got Me Thinking About MasterMind Groups?
Two things:
- I posted a Napoleon Hill video on my Business Coaching Blog yesterday
- I am planning to introduce my own small business mastermind groups
I thought it might be nice to start a special focused mastermind group on coaches, consultants, trainers and advisers based around the one hour mastermind each week.
I Can't Think Of A Better Person To Explain More About The MasterMind Principle Than Napoleon Hill
I highly recommend you spend the ten minutes watching this video.
If you like this video, you can see more of Napoleon Hill and Think And Grow Rich on my Business Coaching Blog.
The Coaching Mastermind
I will be sharing more details but the idea will be to run it for free for the first four weeks and then turn it into a paying proposition when the mastermind members can see the benefits of belonging to the group.
The cost for this first group will be £65 plus VAT per month after the four weeks with mastermind calls most weeks at a regular time.
The focus is how to develop a successful coaching business, help your clients and make more money.
Have You Had Experience Of A MasterMind?
If you have experience of working in a mastermind, I'd be very interested to hear what you think so please leave a comment.
The idea is much better established in the United States than the UK with masterminds and peer support groups.
What Do You Want From A MasterMind Group?
If you are looking for a mastermind group, and especially a small business mastermind group in the UK, I would be very interested to hear about what you want if you could design the perfect mastermind group arrangement.
Do you want an industry specific group? i.e. do you want to mastermind with people who sell similar things to you in different parts of the UK?
Do you want a market specific group? i.e. do you want to mastermind with people who sell to the same type of customers but sell very different types of products? For example accountants are a notorious group to try to sell to so a mastermind of consultants, lawyers, IT companies etc all focused on serving the accountants could be interesting.
Do you want to mastermind on a specific topic and if so what and how detailed? For example you may say marketing or narrow it down to Internet marketing or Pay Per Click marketing.
Do you want a mastermind group based around the stage of development for your business? E.g. a group for planned start-ups or young businesses which have started or established businesses only?
Do you want to mastermind with a local group of businesses?
Do you want to have a telephone based mastermind group or a meetings based mastermind.
And if you want mastermind meetings do you want regular short meetings - like a networking meeting every week or two weeks but focused on the mastermind principles - do you want longer, less frequent meetings?
As you can see, there are a lot of different ways you can mastermind and I'd appreciate your thoughts so either leave a comment below (which helps to encourage others to share their ideas as well), or email me at paul@plancs.co.uk if you want to share private and confidential issues).
I am open to ideas because I know the mastermind concept can be a great way to develop a business and gain momentum for continuous improvement as you draw on the shared knowledge of the group.
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