Business mastermind groups – an electric jumpstart for your business
Business mastermind groups of all kinds have been a massive part of why I’ve been successful in business over the last 20+ years. I’ve been in many mastermind groups, as a participant and as a facilitator, and each time, there has a been an electric jumpstart to what’s going on in my business.
The most successful business owners I know are all people who have been part of these groups. Once you’ve been around the block a few times, building up your experience, you start to see these memberships as the essential place to get answers, support and help from other business owners who know their stuff.
But what exactly is a business mastermind group?
The first business mastermind group? The Lunar Society
When I was 16, I had to do a research project for my history class. I spent many happy hours in the Central Library researching the Lunar Society of Birmingham. The Lunar Society, established way back in 1765, was a business mastermind group where the founders of the Industrial Revolution met every full moon. Matthew Boulton and James Watt, Josiah Wedgewood and Erasmus Darwin were all regular attendees.
It’s fascinating to see how many different inventions, business endeavours and scientific discoveries were started as a result of the meetings of the Lunar Society. The group ran for decades, and the impact of their discussions and collaborations was huge.
Wedgewood and Darwin wouldn’t have called the Lunar Society a business mastermind group; that term wouldn’t be invented until 1925, but they would recognise that definition. If it worked for a bunch of hugely influential and successful lefty Quaker inventors and entrepreneurs, being part of a business mastermind will also be important for creating the mindset, connections and support you need for your business. Let’s dig in…
Why a business mastermind group could be good for you
Running a business is one of the most challenging things you can do. Yes, it’s massively rewarding, but the learning curve is immense. Some days being a business owner is great – you get that new client, the old client finally pays your invoice, or someone emails to let you know how much you helped them…But other days, well, not so much.
We have to hire people. And sometimes we have to fire them. We have to put ourselves out there in the world, take risks, and work so hard to build our businesses into a solid foundation. And all the time, the world is changing, sometimes dramatically. The learning curve can be intensely enjoyable or a roller coaster of hard lessons. Usually both at the same time.
But we still do it, right?
It makes sense to get all the help you can in this world of unexpected challenges, where you don’t know what is around the corner. Sometimes we need intensive one-to-one help, which is where a business coach like me comes in. And other times, we simply need a bunch of other business people we trust to be on our side and to fill in some of the gaps in our learning curve.
“You’re just doing it wrong, Julia. Watch this”
I’ve been in a small mastermind group with Anita Toth for a few years now. We meet every two weeks for an hour to support one another. Anita has dug into exploring AI much more than I have, so when I mentioned an issue I was having with Google NotebookLM the other day, she told me straight, “You’re just doing it wrong, Julia. Watch this.” Anita shared her screen and showed me a bunch of notes she’d collated in Google NotebookLM and then how she’d exported these into her Obsidian personal knowledge base. I had an expert on tap who was willing to take the time to show me exactly where I was going wrong.
A business mastermind group gives you a change of mindset
A few years ago, I was invited to join a mastermind by someone I knew through the Brighton Chamber of Commerce. This was a very different opportunity – I was in a group where most of the people were further ahead in their business journey than me. I left the first meeting feeling like I was out of my depth and seriously wondering whether to go back. But they seemed like good people, so I did. It was an informal group, and it only lasted a few months. But one of the members, Jim Jensen, said these words several times:
Each time, he was talking about a complex challenge he’d had in his business that he was looking for help and support with. And each time he offloaded his worries and got some input from the rest of us in the group, he followed up with, “It’s just a problem to be solved”. It was like a mantra for him. At the same time as saying this, his whole body straightened up, and he got a gleam in his eye again. He relished having that problem cos he got to solve it!
Jim doesn’t know this, but for all these years, I’ve been adopting his mindset when I have a challenge, and saying to myself, “It’s just a problem waiting to be solved”. Thanks Jim.
Are mastermind groups alternatives to a business coach?
Business mastermind groups are not the same as one-to-one business coaching. You don’t get the same level of focus and attention on your business challenges in a mastermind group. And a good business coach should be able to provide the kind of supportive challenges, small business growth strategies and tactical knowledge that, to be honest, you’re probably not going to get at the same level as with business coaching. If your business is at an important pivot or growth stage right now, I’d recommend either a group programme like Productise Your Expertise or one-to-one business coaching to get the maximum benefit.
Find out more about my business coaching
I’ve worked with several coaches for my own businesses over the years, and I’ve been in many different mastermind groups. I’ve got different benefits out of each of them. But there is an overlap between them.
Is a mastermind group cheaper than a business coach?
Joining a business mastermind group (especially if you use the Mastermind Group Matching service) is a helluva lot more affordable than a good business coach. And (I know, I would say this, wouldn’t I, but it’s true) your business deserves better than a crappy business coach who has never run a business and has no emotional intelligence.
If you’re on a limited budget, but recognise that you and your business need support, ideas and experience, my recommendation would be to join a business mastermind group, turn up at all the meetings, and be generous with your support and time to the others in the group. In return, you’ll get tons back and your business will move forward dramatically.
Find out more about Mastermind Matching
My mastermind group’s response to my daft idea
Has this ever happened to you?
I wake up in the morning and shake off the last of my dreams. It’s one of those rare mornings that I don’t have to bounce out of bed and get going. There’s time to luxuriate. In those delicious, sleepy moments, a new idea for a paid newsletter comes to mind.
Why don’t I do a paid newsletter with loads of inspiring content about marketing products? That would be so much fun and incredibly useful for people.
I keep a list of my new product ideas (yes, it’s a long list) in Notion so I grabbed my phone and made a quick note.
Later that day, the idea bubbled up again. I was still feeling enthusiastic about it, so I sent out emails to four other people I trust from a mastermind group I’m part of. I knew that each of these people had already agreed to confidentiality, and I’d been in the group long enough to trust them, so I had no problems about sharing a new idea.
Guess what? Yes. They all hated it. And they were right.
Here’s what they said:
“Sounds like fun to write, but isn’t this just for all the wannapreneurs you complain about? Which means they’re not going to pay for it”
“I’m oot. (Note, this guy was channelling Duncan Bannantyne from Dragons Den).You already do this with the Adventures in Products success stories, and you’ve published loads of those for free already, so you can’t charge for them”
“Um, Julia? This sounds like one of those products that are:
- Based on what you want to do, rather than what your audience needs
- Much less lucrative than at least three other potential products you’ve mentioned”
Now, maybe I would have recognised that this was not one of my best product ideas all by myself. But the immediate and confident condemnation of my idea meant that I could immediately drop it and move on within 24 hours. Rather than this idea clogging up my mental bandwidth for months.
Getting new ideas, inspiration, and immediate feedback on an idea is a major reason to be part of a business mastermind group.
It’s all about who you know
You know already about the power of your social capital and networks for your business. Putting effort into building this is why you get juicy referrals and recommendations. For one of my clients, his entire business is built on a network of ultra-high net worth clients that his father built up when he started the business forty years ago. Plus the network my client built from his parents’ investment in a private education.
If you didn’t inherit a business stuffed full of rich people, then being part of a business mastermind group can help you build those networks. And not just for potential sales. Your mastermind group members are not the only people who can help you. Through the trusted relationships we make in these groups, a whole new world of experts, introductions, skilled people to help with implementation, and new referrers opens up.
Okay, you want to do this. How do you get started?
Obviously, I’m a big fan of business mastermind groups. I’ve got tons out of the many groups I’ve been in over the years.
But when one of my clients asked me how to find a high-quality mastermind group for serious entrepreneurs like him, I couldn’t find an easy way to match him with a group. There were lots of groups for start-ups, but not much for the CEO of a more established business who wants to grow further.
I realised that most of the groups I’ve been in have either been the result of some kind of serendipity, where someone has asked me to join a great group and I’ve just been lucky. Or they’ve come from when I’ve been part of a course or specific interest group, and I’ve asked someone to be in a mastermind with me – that’s how I set up the group with Anita Toth.
Business mastermind matching
You shouldn’t have to rely on luck or pushiness, in my opinion. These factors don’t always get you what you want. After that conversation with my client and my disappointing research, I set up a programme for matching people who wanted to be in business mastermind groups. I set a sliding scale fee (from £250 to £1000, depending on how established the business is) to cover the admin involved in making the right matches and tried it out in a beta test.
And it worked!
I’ve now got a database of all kinds of business people I can match according to timezone, level of ambition and what stage of business they’re at. I’ve matched lots people now, and these groups are still going. Result!
How does the business mastermind matching work?
You send us some details about you and your business, so we can work out who would make a good match for you. Once we’ve got a group of people for your mastermind group, we’ll email you and let you know. At that point, we take a small fee, depending on what stage of business you’re at, to cover the time involved in all the researching and matching.
Then you get introduced to the other people in your new mastermind group, and you can set up your first meetings and get going.
Check out the business mastermind matching service
