OK, Now What?

In that post, I promised to follow up and talk about how my "Insiders" group fits in with what I'm doing to get you going with your own Mastermind group.

As I write this I'm on a plane heading home from my own group's semi-annual meeting, this time in Austin, Texas; I'll send it out on my layover in Denver. The conference room where we met was on the 17th floor overlooking downtown, a lazy river flowed by in the foreground. Some members came in on a private jet. The first night, a member took a dozen of us out to dinner, and picked up the check without looking at it -- it was his way of saying "thanks" to the other members who have helped make him a millionaire. He waved off the $100 bill I was trying to hand him for my share. "I've got this one," he said with a huge grin on his face. He has done it before, too.

At the meeting, I watched that same member's jaw drop as he had a realization of how he could easily more than double his already hugely successful business. An unusual breakthrough? Hardly: just business as usual in my group. I came away with a great idea for my own business, too. In fact, I close each meeting by asking each member what their "biggest take-away" has been for the rest of the members to hear. No one has a problem coming up with something they plan to do; most have a hard time choosing just one breakthrough idea, though.

And it drives me crazy that you don't have that. Nearly all of you have that dreaded four-letter word: "jobs", and even if you have your own business you probably feel overwhelmed by it, rather than freed by your efforts. Most of you couldn't even consider doing what I do fairly often: take off in the middle of the day with my wife to go to a fun restaurant, arriving just after the rush (as everyone else heads back to work!) to enjoy a leisurely meal. We then spend some time together during the afternoon before we decide to do something else, whether it's to go back to the office to work for a few hours in the evening on a project (which we sure don't mind, since we so enjoy what we do for a living), or maybe prepare for guests at our home, or watch a movie, or....

Isn't that what most people consider "THE life"? Yet it's not an impossible dream. I've got it. My group members do too. We have decided to define "success" on our own terms, and we have helped each other get there. For some that means more money; others want more time to spend with their families; some like the idea of more fame (and one of my members really got it: you've very likely seen him on TV, his new career path as an actor that he developed in my group). Others want to travel; one member is heading to Italy soon. More than one is working to "give back" to the world via charity or service work. Members of my group have been able to do all of those things according to their own goals, with the help of the other members, who are happy to help them get there since they have received so much help themselves.

And it's not because we all do the same sort of work. A Mastermind group doesn't just work for entrepreneurs, and it doesn't just work for people working online, like me; doctors, stockbrokers, Realtors, product managers -- people in just about any profession that has a path for advancement can benefit from a Mastermind group. And you can do it too -- with less burnout, not more -- just like me and my group members.

Will it happen overnight? Will it happen if you just sit on your butt? Of course not. It's a step by step, incremental process, not a get-rich-quick scheme. I sure can't afford a private jet myself, but then, that's not part of my own goals or how I envision my own success. But yeah: you have to work on it, and the group will show you how to get there. Six days a week on the Mastermind Source Facebook page ( http://www.Facebook.com/MastermindSource ) there's a new quote, and today's fits right in here: "The secret to getting ahead is getting started." (Sally Berger) If you're on Facebook, hit "Like" there to see the posts in your "news stream".

So how does the MMS "Insiders" group fit in to all of this? The "Core Articles" series that you signed up for on the MMS site lays out the basics on how to start a group. It's pretty wide-ranging; most probably can't absorb it all in one sitting. It takes some reading, some pondering, some rereading, to "get" it all. It's really wide, but some of it is pretty surface-level. Some will need a deeper understanding of some of the points, or have questions.

I've addressed two such topics with in-depth reports. The first you've already heard of, the "Dues Report". I wanted to run my group for free, but its members knew it would be better if they paid me, and I explain in the report why they were right. It's almost startling how much they demand to pay me -- it's more than the median salary in the United States, and it's on top of the income from my successful "regular" business. (The other report, and a lot of in-depth articles I've written, are not available to the public yet.)

It's all in response to the simple fact that some of you have wanted more than the core articles. You want help putting it together. You want someone to bounce ideas off of, like what should be their group's focus? What sort of rules to put in place? How long should dues be free or reduced, and how do you talk about it to prospective members? Do you need a domain name and web site? How do you set it up? How should the group mailing list be set up, and where? How do you get the conversation flowing when everyone is new and feeling intimidated? Do you have to be an "expert" in the field of focus to be a group leader? (I'll give the short answer to that one: No!)

The irony: the best place to get answers to these questions and a lot more is in a Mastermind group. That's where the "Insiders" group comes in.

Insiders is the Mastermind Group for Mastermind Group Leaders (and those who want to be). It quickly built up to almost 50 members when I got it started in July, and I closed it to new members because I knew I wouldn't be able to handle more for awhile.

Since then a number of members have dropped out: they learned what they wanted, and headed out to implement their next phase. A few decided that they weren't cut out to be group leaders, and moved on. That, by the way, is a "win" in my book: being a group leader isn't as hard as most people think, but it's still not for everyone, and if you learn that and move ahead with other plans (like, say, helping someone else start a group so they can join!), great.

But most are still there, working with each other's help (and mine) toward starting groups. Some have already launched, and it's great to watch: we're all learning from the mistakes made, and the questions they're coming up with as they move forward.

Still, I'm not quite ready to invite more members to join Insiders. I'm going to start my assistant on a new project (which was planned out at my meeting in Austin!), and I have one more trip to go on, and then I'll be turning my attention toward bringing in a very limited number of people into Insiders. The time to start thinking about joining is now, since when I announce that I'm taking applications, I expect the limited number of spots will fill fairly quickly. I'm not sure how many spots I'll have, since I need to sit down and figure out how many I can handle. It might be as many as 30 spots, but more likely it will be fewer than that. If you want in, you'll need to jump pretty quickly. I'll give as much warning as I can, but it will be toward the end of this month that it gets opened up. The first and second times I did this, the doors were only open for about 48 hours.

I'll announce to this mailing list when I'm ready. Stay tuned....

Meanwhile, feel free to comment on any of this: Comments are open below.

Oh, and the Insiders are having their own meeting: in Denver, at the end of July. I hope you'll be able to join us and really get on track toward starting your own group.