Should you join a mastermind?

Have you ever been a part of a group mastermind? Masterminding is popular for business owners right now, and there’s a good reason for it.

With the ever-increasing digital age, entrepreneurs and business owners tend to work alone in silos they have created for themselves.

You could easily go days or weeks without physically being around another entrepreneur or person who thinks like you do. When you’re more and more absorbed in your day-to-day work, you find yourself doing a lot less communicating with others.

This entrepreneurial isolation can be dangerous for a few reasons. Consider the following:

• When was the last time you talked about the strategy and vision for your business with someone who could support or challenge your thinking?
• How long has it been since you engaged in meaningful conversation with a like-minded person who understood your entrepreneurial lifestyle?
• How do you get unstuck when you need to bounce business ventures or ideas off of someone so you don’t second-guess yourself?
• Have you ever wondered if a community of people championing you forward would propel you faster into your business’ growth?
• How do you glean from someone else’s failures and experience… without having to go through it yourself?
• One more: Who do you go to on the days when you wish you could call someone up and just blow off some steam or go for a coffee?

Why do Masterminds exist?

It is very difficult for your business to continue to grow when you work in isolation, cut off from the physical, open office spaces that encourage communication, collaboration and human connection.

This is why masterminds exist. They bring like-minded, yet different, entrepreneurs together in one setting for a specific length of time. And you go deep.

This experience can be a day, a week, or a year of interacting with your mastermind group but make no mistake, masterminding is hard to do well without a leader facilitating the group.

The benefits you can experience from masterminding are huge:

1. You’ll realize you are not alone in the way you think.

When you’re working alone, day in and out, it’s easy to wonder if anyone else feels the way you do. You’ll quickly realize that your thoughts are almost identical to other business owners. We’re all in the same boat.

I’ve seen entrepreneurs breathe a sigh of relief on this one – and they’re able to be a bit more compassionate with themselves. You’re not the only one wondering if you’re enough. People doubt themselves in the exact same way.

The difference here is, that in a mastermind, you get to actually come and work through those fears together.

2. You’ll uncover the narrative you tell yourself about your business.

It helps to have an outside perspective on this one. Do you know what excuses, rationalizations, or limiting beliefs you tell yourself?

Having people point out the stories you tell yourself – the same ones that hold you back – and vice versa – is powerful. You build friendship and trust too.

Relationships are a shortcut to growing your business faster. They’ll point out your shortcomings and opportunities, and the other people in your mastermind will want you to do the same for them.

3. Mastermind = more brainpower for high-level thinking.

Everyone has a different perspective and process. Years into this work, I continue to be amazed at what a group of people can do when they put their brains together.

Business solutions will come. And the people you find those solutions with are not just peers, they can be accountability partners for you as well.

You want to find a mastermind that is run by a leader who encourages collaboration, risk-taking, and sharing. And even if that leader doesn’t have the answer to your question – you can be sure that someone at the table will.

4. Accountability and follow-through will skyrocket your success.

Are you ready to take more action? And be held accountable for it? Then a mastermind might be just what you need.

People tend to overestimate what they can do in a short period of time, and underestimate what they can do over a long period of time with consistent action.

On the days that you don’t want to show up, these are your people. It might be uncomfortable, but as the business owner – and boss of your own self – you know there are times when you need that extra push from someone else in order to achieve your goals.

This is a part of my growth strategy actually, and it can be for you too!

5. Celebrate your successes – and own them!

Let’s face it – wins, no matter how big or small, are hard to share with anyone else but yourself. But this matters.

A group can help you celebrate and savour your success. And these aren’t random people – they are business owners and entrepreneurs going after similar goals. They get it.

It’s hard to put a price on the relationships and community that you get out of attending and being a part of a group mastermind.

No more doing this lifestyle alone. No more working in a silo, grinding it out dawn till dusk and hoping to see another day.

In essence, finding a great group to mastermind with is a key strategy for success in business.

If you’d like to learn more about the mastermind sessions I host, feel free to contact me for upcoming experiences.

While I do not run a year-long program, I have mastermind events that people keep coming back to year after year. Those events have inspired significant growth and progress for those business owners, and have built a community of trust and respect.

Have you ever been to a mastermind – and if so, tell me what your experience was like.