hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to an
edition of ask Evan today I mention a
question from one of our YouTube viewers
G West Oh want one who wrote in asking
about mastermind groups and the question
is I have a question that I would love
for you to comment on I was recently
reading a book that talked about the
mastermind circle how can I get or find
people that I can bounce ideas off of
and give advice to so thanks for the
question
awesome question I’m a firm believer in
mastermind groups and I’ve been running
a couple of them here in Toronto for the
past seven years I want to say one of
the things that I’ve done as part of the
website is we interview famous and
successful entrepreneurs and one of the
entrepreneur’s were interviewed from
Western Canada has built this company
from 0 to 8 million a couple of years
and he credited his success to starting
mastermind groups and so that got me
interested in the concept as well as
reading Think and Grow Rich we actually
created a worksheet on it so there’s
information how to launch and create
your own mastermind group but in terms
of kind of high-level overview of what
to do first I would look at you know are
there any groups in your area already
that exist and if there are it may be
worth investigating those instead of
creating your own because there’s a lot
of headache work hassle and men in
setting up a group so there’s something
that exists then that might be worth
investigating
I really prefer meetings in person I
know there are a lot of mass time groups
that meet online or by phone and they
can work but my personal preference is
to have ones that where you’re actually
meeting face-to-face and I think the
reason is you get to know people a lot
better when you’re sitting across from
the table from them and also you have
people’s attention it’s too easy when
you’re on the phone or online to get
distracted check email to now go you
know check Facebook or some other
website and you hear clicking always
happening on the computer so I prefer to
have it in person but again explore your
options see what’s out there if there’s
nothing available in terms of creating
your own group I try to think about the
types of people that you want to have as
members and when I first created my
first group I did it by approaching a
few of my friends who are entrepreneurs
who I met with every now and then to
talk about business I thought if we had
a formal structure where we met
you know once a month to talk about our
businesses that would be helpful to
everybody and so a number of them agreed
and we started the first group around
that and then we expanded by bringing
new people in so I started with people
who are already kind of knew who I
wanted to tap and connect with on an
ongoing basis so think about the people
who you’ve met with in the past to talk
about business and may have gotten a few
ideas from them and you know they you’ve
given a few ideas to them as well that
could be a great way to start from there
I create even just a simple website and
most of the people who find our groups
now find it through the web whatever
area are in like say you’re in Portland
if you created a website that had a page
that said Portland mastermind group
anybody searching for that kind of stuff
is gonna find you and chances are this
if you’ve already done your research and
you haven’t joined another group because
there’s nothing there
anybody who’s searching for that is
gonna find you and so for us if people
search you know Toronto mastermind group
or Toronto peer mentorship group or
Toronto entrepreneur group the page
shows up and people self-identify and
write in to say I’m interested in
joining this group we have some
information on there and people end up
coming in you know potentially as
members of the group there’s a whole
process that we go through to make sure
we get the right people in the group you
don’t want the wrong dynamics or the
wrong types of people in the group
because I can bring the whole thing down
you have two people who don’t like each
other so you have to really make sure
you do a lot of qualifying going through
that whole process I guess is another
another video we answered in the
worksheet as well but in terms of
finding people to come into the group
I again start with my friends people who
ie who I knew who I found some advice
helpful to and who I was able to help as
well and then expand it by creating a
simple website that explained what we
were about explain the types of people
were looking for and you want to be
really clear on the types of members you
want you know do you want startup
entrepreneurs you want people who are
beyond the setup stage you can have a
minimum revenue criteria or employee
criteria are there’s types of businesses
you want to have certain industries that
you want to have or don’t want to have
the more you can clearly lay that out
the more people can self-identify and
won’t waste your time and won’t waste
their time as well so for us for example
we looked for members who are beyond the
startup stage have $300,000 plus in
revenues and so that helps eliminate a
lot of people who may not be at that
point yet so I don’t want to waste their
time and coming in to a meeting and you
know use up my time as well when it’s
obviously not going to be a fit for the
group so the more you can be clear about
that criteria the easier it is for
people to self-identify before they even
write to you but having a simple website
that can be found in the search engines
people will start coming to you and you
can go through your process before
bringing them into the group again a
super helpful tool one that I definitely
recommend for is to go through because
it’s it’s hard and it’s lonely and I
find with the mastermind group that the
two benefits are one you get the bounce
ideas off each other so you’re thinking
of a problem that you’re facing and if
you can surround yourself with the team
of people who have different skills than
you and different expertise and
different backgrounds they may be able
to help you and stretch you and help you
grow beyond what you thought you were
able to do which is great and the second
reason I find them the group’s helpful
is just a motivation know there’s
something about hanging around other
entrepreneurs that gets you excited and
gets your juices flowing and you hear
what they’re up to and you want to do
more and do better and and get out of
whatever rut that you may be in at the
time a lot of mantras go through peaks
and valleys you know you get excited
you’re working like crazy you’re on top
of the world and then life sucks
nothing’s happening you don’t get
motivated to get up and out of bed it’s
such a strange existence I guess but
that’s that’s the roller coaster that we
ride and I find that being around other
entrepreneurs gets the motivation going
gives you ideas give you that spark and
we always leave the meeting motivated
energized want to go out and achieve new
things with our businesses
so it can be definitely lonely being an
entrepreneur you may have friends and
family who understand what you’re doing
but if they’re not entrepreneurs they
can’t really give you advice like they
can maybe give you an ear they can
listen to your problems but they can’t
really help you and if you even if you
have staff or partner can often be hard
to talk to them about the problems that
you’re facing in your business and so
having an external group people to to
turn to is awesome my last bit of advice
is on the selection side really make
sure you do your work in qualifying
people and you know both from us size of
business and type of business but also a
personality point of view we’re never in
a rush to bring members into the group
well we’ll start with with four and
build it to eight as a maximum but we’re
happy to stick to four you know my
groups now are eight and six with two
potential people coming in but it’s
never a rush the group with eight that
sold out we were at seven for a year and
a half just because they did love the
each other yes we had an open spot but
there was never a rush to fill that spot
it had to be the right person and so
it’s much more valuable to get the right
people in the group and have fewer
people and just have somebody in the
chair because they’re an extra space and
you want to try to get it up to eight or
ten or however many people you want in
your group so hopefully that helps again
love the concept and and I think it
could be helpful for you and for any
entrepreneur who’s watching so thank you
guys for watching this video if you
liked it please give it a thumbs up
below I’d also love to hear what you
have to think if you have a comment
about this video or question about your
own business that I can answer for you
feel free to leave in the comment
section below I always read those and I
try to respond as quickly as I can and
I’d love to hopefully one day answer a
question from you about your business so
thank you and I’ll see you on the next
episode
you
edition of ask Evan today I mention a
question from one of our YouTube viewers
G West Oh want one who wrote in asking
about mastermind groups and the question
is I have a question that I would love
for you to comment on I was recently
reading a book that talked about the
mastermind circle how can I get or find
people that I can bounce ideas off of
and give advice to so thanks for the
question
awesome question I’m a firm believer in
mastermind groups and I’ve been running
a couple of them here in Toronto for the
past seven years I want to say one of
the things that I’ve done as part of the
website is we interview famous and
successful entrepreneurs and one of the
entrepreneur’s were interviewed from
Western Canada has built this company
from 0 to 8 million a couple of years
and he credited his success to starting
mastermind groups and so that got me
interested in the concept as well as
reading Think and Grow Rich we actually
created a worksheet on it so there’s
information how to launch and create
your own mastermind group but in terms
of kind of high-level overview of what
to do first I would look at you know are
there any groups in your area already
that exist and if there are it may be
worth investigating those instead of
creating your own because there’s a lot
of headache work hassle and men in
setting up a group so there’s something
that exists then that might be worth
investigating
I really prefer meetings in person I
know there are a lot of mass time groups
that meet online or by phone and they
can work but my personal preference is
to have ones that where you’re actually
meeting face-to-face and I think the
reason is you get to know people a lot
better when you’re sitting across from
the table from them and also you have
people’s attention it’s too easy when
you’re on the phone or online to get
distracted check email to now go you
know check Facebook or some other
website and you hear clicking always
happening on the computer so I prefer to
have it in person but again explore your
options see what’s out there if there’s
nothing available in terms of creating
your own group I try to think about the
types of people that you want to have as
members and when I first created my
first group I did it by approaching a
few of my friends who are entrepreneurs
who I met with every now and then to
talk about business I thought if we had
a formal structure where we met
you know once a month to talk about our
businesses that would be helpful to
everybody and so a number of them agreed
and we started the first group around
that and then we expanded by bringing
new people in so I started with people
who are already kind of knew who I
wanted to tap and connect with on an
ongoing basis so think about the people
who you’ve met with in the past to talk
about business and may have gotten a few
ideas from them and you know they you’ve
given a few ideas to them as well that
could be a great way to start from there
I create even just a simple website and
most of the people who find our groups
now find it through the web whatever
area are in like say you’re in Portland
if you created a website that had a page
that said Portland mastermind group
anybody searching for that kind of stuff
is gonna find you and chances are this
if you’ve already done your research and
you haven’t joined another group because
there’s nothing there
anybody who’s searching for that is
gonna find you and so for us if people
search you know Toronto mastermind group
or Toronto peer mentorship group or
Toronto entrepreneur group the page
shows up and people self-identify and
write in to say I’m interested in
joining this group we have some
information on there and people end up
coming in you know potentially as
members of the group there’s a whole
process that we go through to make sure
we get the right people in the group you
don’t want the wrong dynamics or the
wrong types of people in the group
because I can bring the whole thing down
you have two people who don’t like each
other so you have to really make sure
you do a lot of qualifying going through
that whole process I guess is another
another video we answered in the
worksheet as well but in terms of
finding people to come into the group
I again start with my friends people who
ie who I knew who I found some advice
helpful to and who I was able to help as
well and then expand it by creating a
simple website that explained what we
were about explain the types of people
were looking for and you want to be
really clear on the types of members you
want you know do you want startup
entrepreneurs you want people who are
beyond the setup stage you can have a
minimum revenue criteria or employee
criteria are there’s types of businesses
you want to have certain industries that
you want to have or don’t want to have
the more you can clearly lay that out
the more people can self-identify and
won’t waste your time and won’t waste
their time as well so for us for example
we looked for members who are beyond the
startup stage have $300,000 plus in
revenues and so that helps eliminate a
lot of people who may not be at that
point yet so I don’t want to waste their
time and coming in to a meeting and you
know use up my time as well when it’s
obviously not going to be a fit for the
group so the more you can be clear about
that criteria the easier it is for
people to self-identify before they even
write to you but having a simple website
that can be found in the search engines
people will start coming to you and you
can go through your process before
bringing them into the group again a
super helpful tool one that I definitely
recommend for is to go through because
it’s it’s hard and it’s lonely and I
find with the mastermind group that the
two benefits are one you get the bounce
ideas off each other so you’re thinking
of a problem that you’re facing and if
you can surround yourself with the team
of people who have different skills than
you and different expertise and
different backgrounds they may be able
to help you and stretch you and help you
grow beyond what you thought you were
able to do which is great and the second
reason I find them the group’s helpful
is just a motivation know there’s
something about hanging around other
entrepreneurs that gets you excited and
gets your juices flowing and you hear
what they’re up to and you want to do
more and do better and and get out of
whatever rut that you may be in at the
time a lot of mantras go through peaks
and valleys you know you get excited
you’re working like crazy you’re on top
of the world and then life sucks
nothing’s happening you don’t get
motivated to get up and out of bed it’s
such a strange existence I guess but
that’s that’s the roller coaster that we
ride and I find that being around other
entrepreneurs gets the motivation going
gives you ideas give you that spark and
we always leave the meeting motivated
energized want to go out and achieve new
things with our businesses
so it can be definitely lonely being an
entrepreneur you may have friends and
family who understand what you’re doing
but if they’re not entrepreneurs they
can’t really give you advice like they
can maybe give you an ear they can
listen to your problems but they can’t
really help you and if you even if you
have staff or partner can often be hard
to talk to them about the problems that
you’re facing in your business and so
having an external group people to to
turn to is awesome my last bit of advice
is on the selection side really make
sure you do your work in qualifying
people and you know both from us size of
business and type of business but also a
personality point of view we’re never in
a rush to bring members into the group
well we’ll start with with four and
build it to eight as a maximum but we’re
happy to stick to four you know my
groups now are eight and six with two
potential people coming in but it’s
never a rush the group with eight that
sold out we were at seven for a year and
a half just because they did love the
each other yes we had an open spot but
there was never a rush to fill that spot
it had to be the right person and so
it’s much more valuable to get the right
people in the group and have fewer
people and just have somebody in the
chair because they’re an extra space and
you want to try to get it up to eight or
ten or however many people you want in
your group so hopefully that helps again
love the concept and and I think it
could be helpful for you and for any
entrepreneur who’s watching so thank you
guys for watching this video if you
liked it please give it a thumbs up
below I’d also love to hear what you
have to think if you have a comment
about this video or question about your
own business that I can answer for you
feel free to leave in the comment
section below I always read those and I
try to respond as quickly as I can and
I’d love to hopefully one day answer a
question from you about your business so
thank you and I’ll see you on the next
episode
you
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