Mastermind Guidelines

Succeeding Together

We all know that being part of a mastermind and surrounding ourselves with the right mix of individuals can be extremely powerful in helping us make rapid progress as we grow our businesses.

I’ve come to understand that the success of a mastermind relies on the following 3 factors:

  1. Bringing together the right mix of people
  2. Having members that are committed and disciplined
  3. Having a clear and detailed structure and system to run the mastermind

After experiencing first-hand how beneficial masterminds can be, I have decided to launch a new service that helps others join and establish sustainable mastermind groups.

Using my past experience, I have compiled the following guidelines for creating supportive, effective and most importantly, sustainable mastermind groups.

Please read the following guidelines and let me know your thoughts.

Regards

Mastermind Guidelines

1. Group Type

We are a group of business owners that are working on growing our online businesses.

2. Purpose

The purpose of this mastermind is to:

  • offer each other support, feedback and experience on a regular basis
  • help each another overcome hurdles and barriers that are holding us back reaching our next milestone
  • challenge each other and ask the difficult questions that we need to be asked to move forward
  • hold each other accountable regards to achieving our current goals
  • discuss, brainstorm and explore new ideas tactics and strategies

3. Ground Rules

Cost & Responsibilities

  • This is a free mastermind and will always remain free.
  • The founder will be responsible for the initial setup of the group, enforcing the ground rules and dealing with any problems.
  • Responsibilities of running the group will be shared amongst the members on a monthly rotating basis.
  • Each month one member will be in charge of setting up, coordinating and chairing the meetings for that month.
  • Unimportant decisions will be made by the founder and important decisions are made based on a group vote.

Personal Values & Group Involvement

  • All members understand that there needs to be a balance of receiving value from other members and providing value to other members.
  • All members commit to honesty, integrity, trust, and respect for all other members.
  • All members will be self-aware and will not try to dominate the conversation or give orders.
  • This mastermind is not group therapy, and whining, complaining, or gossiping will not be tolerated.

Privacy

  • All members agree to respect that this mastermind is confidential – whatever is shared within the group will not be shared outside of the group.
  • Members are welcome to share personal stories and challenges to the extent that they feel comfortable sharing these.

Meeting Attendance

  • Members commit to attending all meetings and being on time, unless they need to excuse themselves due to some reasonable unexpected occurrence.
  • Members commit to attending all meeting for the month that they are the designated organiser. If for some reason they cannot attend, then it will be their responsibility to find a replacement to run the meeting/call.

Members Leaving & Joining

  • Members that miss two meetings in a row or miss more than one meeting per month will be asked to leave the group.
  • The group founder reserves the right to ask a member to leave the group if any problems arise or if the mix of members is no longer a good fit.
  • The group founder reserves the right to screen new members if space becomes available, however inviting and accepting new members will be based on a group vote.
  • Members are free to leave the mastermind, should however first discuss their plans with the founder.

Mastermind Size & Structure

  • The initial size of the group will be limited to 5 or 6 members.
  • The size and structure of the mastermind can be changed over time based on group discussions and votes.

5. Meetings/Group Calls/Hangouts

Frequency, Format & Setup

  • Meetings/Group Calls will be held once a week or every two weeks (to be decided)
  • Meetings/Group Calls will run using Google Hangouts.
  • The organiser of the call will setup the Hangout and will post the link to our shared Google calendar at least one day in advance.
  • Meetings/Group Calls will start on the hour at …. (to be decided)
  • The organiser should start/join the Hangout at least 15min earlier and all other members should join 5-10 minutes before the hour so that the meeting can start on time.

Meeting Agenda

The following agenda will be followed by the meeting organiser, who is also in charge of keeping the meeting on track, on topic and on time – a timer needs to be used.

  • Welcomes everybody to the call.
  • Introduction & Win(s) of the week – every member gets a turn to talk for up to 3 minutes – 2 minutes to introduce themselves (elevator pitch – if required) and 1 minute to quickly share their win(s) of the week. (Approx. total: 15 – 20min)
  • Hot Seats (Approx. total: 30 minutes)
  • Action steps & goals – each member get’s 2 minutes to share their action steps and goal for the upcoming week (Approx. total: 10 minutes)
  • Meeting/Call officially ends on the hour, however members that would like to stay can stick around to chat or plan one on one calls.

There are two options for the hot seats – still to be decided

  • Option A) One In Depth Hot Seat – one member gets the hot seat for 5 – 10 minutes to explain something in depth (a challenge, opportunity, concern, problem, etc.) that they need help with.  The other members take 20 – 25 minutes to discuss the topic, ask questions, give feedback, comments and suggestions.
  • Option B) Multiple Shorter Hot Seats – two or three members get their turn (5 minutes) in the hot seat to share their topic, then the group provides their feedback (10 minutes)

6. Private Forum / Google+ Community

  • To get started, we will use a private Google+ Community as our free private forum, where we can interact outside of our regular meetings and manage our events/meetings.
  • We can also vote on switching to a different platform such as Slack, FB Group or Basecamp, however some of those do not offer unlimited free use.

7. One on One Calls/Meetings

  • It’s strongly encouraged to get to know the other members and regularly setup one on one calls (outside of the group calls) to discuss specific topics or challenges.