Everyone should join a mastermind group

I think every small business owner should join a mastermind group. Everyone deserves to have a tight network of trusted friends on their side, and all of the most successful entrepreneurs I talk to have been members of several mastermind groups over the years. The mastermind groups I’ve been in have been a massive help to me and my business.

I’ll take you through what a mastermind group is, what to look for in a group that works for you, and how to avoid the scammers and false groups. Plus, how to find and join a mastermind group for entrepreneurs and small business owners like you.

Later on, I’ll show you the simple way to get matched into a mastermind group with other small business owners who are going to become that network of trusted friends for you, without having to pay huge fees or risk wasting time on people who are not right for you.

First of all – what is a mastermind group?

Definition

I’ve written a guide to business mastermind groups here that gives a lot more information about why these groups are so necessary when you’re running a business.

Read Business Mastermind Groups – an electric jumpstart for your business

What Anita Toth says 

I’m in a small business mastermind group with Anita Toth. She’s a real business person, for sure. I knew that Anita had been in many different groups over the years and is also a big fan of the boost you get from being part of a business mastermind group. I asked her what she looks for in a small business mastermind group.

What to look for in a mastermind group for small businesses? 

This might sound completely obvious, but the first thing to look for in a business mastermind group is that you’re going to be meeting with business people. Not pre-starts, not charity employees and not junior accountants who have been sent by their firm to find clients. The whole point is that you’re getting structured support from your peer group, other people who own small businesses.  

Make sure people have paid something to be in your mastermind group 

As well as making sure that the other people in the group are going to be business people, and, as Anita says, that they are either at the same stage of business as you or a little ahead, you’re looking for people who have made a clear commitment to being part of this mastermind group. One way of being reasonably sure of both of these is to choose to pay to join the group. Now, that might sound silly, I mean, who wants to pay for something when you can get it for free?

But the reason I say that you should pay a fee is that it weeds out all the people who are not serious business people and puts off anyone who is not committed to contributing. This doesn’t have to be tens of thousands of pounds. In fact, you’ll see in the next section that I urge you to avoid the high-ticket one-off mastermind groups, especially if you’re a small business.

Are mastermind groups a scam? 

I’ve come across some horror stories of mastermind groups that are definitely scams. It seems that some (bad) people have used the term mastermind group in a way that I just don’t recognise. For me, a mastermind group is, by definition, a small group of people who have something in common that they can support one another with. They meet regularly with the explicit intention of supporting one another.

A mastermind group is not a group programme 

I don’t think that mastermind groups work as large groups. Certainly not more than a dozen people, because otherwise, not everyone gets a chance to receive the support that is the whole point of going. And a mastermind group is not the same as a course. You’ll learn loads from being in a mastermind group, but from other small businesses rather than a teacher.

And a retreat with a guru is not the same as a mastermind group 

Sometimes you see small business mastermind groups offered, but when you look further, it’s a retreat, one-off strategy session or the chance to hear a well-known guru speak in person. I don’t know why they don’t just call their event a retreat or a speaker session, cos that’s what these are. Maybe it sounds better, or they think it will be perceived as higher value if they call it a mastermind group.

But, for me, this is missing the point. A mastermind group, especially for entrepreneurs, is where you meet the same group of people regularly. Most of the benefit comes from talking to people who are facing similar challenges to you. You’re looking for the repeating wisdom of a group of people who get you, not the “one size fits all” approach of a guru.

If your mastermind group is charging tens of thousands of pounds to listen to one guru or influencer, I’d run in the opposite direction. There are better ways to find a mastermind group – and ones that don’t cost tens of thousands of pounds.

Does that mean that mastermind groups shouldn’t have a facilitator? 

A facilitator can be helpful in a mastermind group, but you don’t need one. In a group with more than five business owners, it can be good to have a facilitator just to keep things structured and make sure everyone gets a chance to get (and offer) support. However, most business owners can use the timer on their phone to make sure that no one rants on for more than their allotted time, so maybe I’m going to change my mind on that one – you don’t need a formal facilitator.

So, you don’t need a facilitator for a mastermind group. You should be in a group of grown-ups who can be civilised. See my notes below about how to structure your mastermind group meetings.

I’ve been in a few entrepreneurs’ mastermind groups as the facilitator over the years. To be honest, my reason for doing it was to find business coaching clients. It sort of worked, but I wouldn’t recommend it as the best business development tool for coaches, and I wouldn’t bother with it now. Just being transparent here. Not every business coach is as ethical as I am, and some people will definitely use this as a way of aggressively promoting their services. That’s when the red light “Is this mastermind group a scam?” alert goes off for me.

My top challenge as a facilitator was to not offer my own advice or knowledge when someone asked a question, and to constantly remember that the valuable part was that everyone in the group was able to give and receive advice, encouragement and support from the other members. My job was to facilitate that process, not to answer the questions posed by the business owners.

How to find a mastermind group 

Let’s think about what we’re looking for here. We want: 

And we want to avoid:

How to find your mastermind group

There are several ways to find a mastermind group to join that fits this criteria.  

Put the word out  

You can post on social media or Reddit outlining who you’d like to be in your group and what your expectations are. I’ve spoken to a couple of people who have tried this approach recently. One person said that no one had responded at all, and she’d felt quite despondent. The other reported twenty people getting in touch, but they were all very early-stage entrepreneurs, and he was running a much more established business. He was embarrassed to have to say no to the people who had got excited about being in this new mastermind group.

If you already have a highly engaged group of like-minded business people who are at the same stage as you, following you on social media, this approach can be worth trying.

Hand-pick some people and approach them 

A more likely approach would be to pick some people you think would be helpful to learn from, entrepreneurs who are at a similar stage or a little ahead of you, and contact them directly through mutual contacts, email or LinkedIn messaging. This would take a little work, and not everyone would be up for it, but it could pay off.  

I think this way of inviting people to your new mastermind group would work well if you were looking for people who weren’t competitors but were in a similar vertical market or industry as you. For example, I might invite people who also support small businesses but don’t have my expertise in productising.

Pick people you already know 

This is how I ended up in a mastermind group with Anita Toth. Anita and I were on a course together for a year. I was very impressed by how she asked such astute questions and thought she’d be good for me. I plucked up the courage to ask her if she wanted to create a mastermind with me. She said yes, and we’ve been meeting every other Friday for about 8 years.

You can make a larger mastermind group by asking three or four people you know if they’d be interested and then seeing who they might want to invite as well. Just be very clear as to who you want to be in the group.

Use mastermind matching  

I recommend being part of a mastermind group to many clients and other business owners, including the advice above about creating your own mastermind group. But, because we’re super busy running our businesses, this kind of research and reaching out can be just one step too many when you’re just thinking about joining a mastermind group. And for entrepreneurs who are more introverted but would still like to be part of a trusted network of supportive business owners, that kind of direct ask to people you don’t know can be off-putting.

So…

To make it easier for you to get going with your mastermind group, I’ve invented mastermind matching.  

How mastermind matching works 

You send me some details about you, what you want to get out of joining a mastermind group, and what stage of your business journey you’re at. There’s a simple form to fill out to get started with mastermind matching.

I then take your details and match you up with other people who I think would be a good match for you, and you can create a great mastermind group. It’s only at this stage, when I’m sure that I’ve got the right people matched up for you, that I’ll ask you to pay a small fee. Then I’ll introduce everyone, and you can get going.

I’ve matched dozens of business owners so far, and it’s going really well. Here’s how to get matched into the right business mastermind group for you.

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