The first time I heard about a Mastermind group was when listening to Amy Porterfield’s podcast. Amy, and many other marketing wizards have been members of a mastermind and found that the group is essential to staying on track and growing a business you love.

How can that be wrong? If you have ever joined one of those Facebook groups that you thought would be a great place to meet like-minded people and get advice about how to improve, only to find that your voice couldn’t be heard over all the noise and the rules, you’re going to love the Mastermind idea.

What the heck is a Mastermind?

The term was first coined by the motivational author (note – a writer!) Napolean Hill in the 1920s. He talks about it in his book, “Think and Grow Rich,”  where he explains the benefit of bringing together two or more people to bounce ideas and work toward a purpose together. The idea has grown to become a small group working together to further individual goals.

Imagine having your own group of like-minded people. All at different stages, but basically aiming for the same target. All willing to listen and help each other. AND the best part of all is that none of them are pushing a course or making crazy promises to get you into the group. That, my friends, is a mastermind.

[bctt tweet=”Imagine having your own group of like-minded people. All at different stages, but basically aiming for the same target. All willing to listen and help each other. AND the best part of all is that none of them are pushing a course or making crazy promises to get you into the group. That, my friends, is a mastermind.” username=”abaskmktg”]

How does a Creative Mastermind Work?

My mastermind started as just a little fledgling group of writers, but it quickly became a big part of my life. A fellow writer reached out to a small group of folks in one of those Facebook groups I mentioned to see if we would be interested in reviewing each others’ blogs. Which we did. It worked so well that she and I became fast friends and started to brainstorm how to keep the feedback and support going. We started a Trello board (for us, Facebook was too much of a time sucker) with writing goals and rules and each of us had our own list (that’s a Trello thing meaning you have your own space) where we wrote out our quarterly goals, our own rules for writing and what we hoped to accomplish this week.

We only have two real roles in the Writers’ Mastermind and those two roles rotate through the group every week. On each weekly call there is a hot seat (more on this in a mo*) and an editor. It’s the editor’s job to keep us on schedule, to remind people to chat offline and to present the Best of the Week award and call out the Fall Shorts. It’s not fun being an editor, but it’s even less fun being a Fall Short, so it keeps us motivated.

What does a Mastermind Meeting look like?

Each week, we jump on Zoom for a 30-minute Mastermind Meeting. Each participant plays one of three roles: Hot Seat, Editor, Participant.

The editor takes a kind of roll call and asks if anyone needs help from the group. Those people will be given 10 minutes at the end of the call.
Then one person gets the *hot seat. That person has 10 minutes where we focus on their goals and anywhere they might be stuck. This has to be super focused on the facts and not so much the emotions (like, “I don’t think I’m qualified” or “What if no one cares?”) That person gets feedback and help from the group. Then the editor gives the floor to those people that need help. They can state their issue and hope the group will give them feedback via email.

It sounds like a lot of rules, right? It is. We make sure that our group is small enough to be forgiving, but we also don’t want people that aren’t committed. Sometimes, life hits you with a rough week or turns your week upside down and you have to roll with it, but if tasks are continuously not completed, sometimes it’s good to have someone asking why. You could be avoiding those tasks for a very important reason. Maybe you’re scared and need a kick in the butt, or maybe it’s just not what you want to be doing. And facing that fact could save you a lot of time and energy.

If you’re interested in joining our Mastermind, we currently have openings for folks that are looking to grow a copywriting business. Sign up here:

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(but it doesn’t have to be…)