Building a Powerful Mastermind Community: Platform Selection and Strategy Guide

An engaging and active mastermind group can bring transformational change to the members' lives. But, this brings the question -- what exactly is a mastermind group? This term was first introduced by Napoleon Hill in his book, Think and Grow Rich. Here is how he explains Mastermind groups

“Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose."

To simplify this we can say that keep yourself surrounded by motivated and helpful companions. This is much more impactful as collective wisdom is always more powerful than an individual’s intelligence.

So, where does the concept arise? I believe it is rooted in the innate nature of humans.

It is very much possible that you have a strong team working with you or you’re running the show on your own. In both cases sometimes the situations would make you rethink and question your decisions. And that’s normal for every person!

The good news is that a mastermind group solves this problem since this gives a group of dependable and experienced friends who already share the problems you have or have solved earlier in your life. This support network of like-minded people empowers each member to achieve the goals they have set and are often held accountable by the group to reach them as well.

"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." -- Henry Ford

People who have already accomplished success in their field and believe that they can help others by enabling intelligence-sharing between members in a tight-knit community have a great opportunity of building a successful mastermind group and make money by monetizing the same as well.

Before moving how one can start a mastermind group and build a business, let’s first get a detailed understanding of the mastermind group.

Key elements of a mastermind group

So, to reiterate what we discussed, a mastermind group is essentially a collaborative network of people who share a common goal and support each other through peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. Let’s now weed out some common misconceptions about mastermind groups:

• Mastermind groups don’t have a single guru or a lead coach -- the group operates by the members who help each other.
• Although mastermind groups help people connect with each other and form valuable networks, that’s not the sole purpose. The target here is to achieve the set goals.

Now that we have a good understanding of what makes a mastermind group, let’s now go through the benefits.

Benefits of an online mastermind group

With the advent of technology and internet-powered communication, now it is much easier to connect with people who share a passion in comparison to the older times. In fact, web-based meetups have become the norm when it comes to meeting others from remote locations.

Given below are the top benefits of a mastermind group formed via an online platform.

Save time and resource

When you are operating online, you are not restricted by the location of the members and there is no need for a dedicated physical space. No need to commute and burn fuel.

Celebrate diversity and talent

There is a reason why places like Silicon Valley are the breeding ground of tech innovation. The ability to attract talented people regardless of the location and bring in diversity into groups improves the combined knowledge.

And, of course, an online group gives you this access to a larger pool of global talent.

Brainstorm and refine ideas

A mastermind group filled with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences allows the members to brainstorm together. This ignites the collective thinking to come up with solutions with creativity and alternative approaches.

Boost efficiency and acquire resources

According to a report by McKinsey 80% of companies are already using social collaboration to improve processes. Collaboration keeps people engaged and helps them come up with the best possible plans.

Another key point to note here is that apart from producing highly efficient ideas people from different backgrounds create a large resource pool. This practically means you always get complementary skills and access to things that you lack.

Make consistent progress

The members of mastermind groups keep each other on their toes and hold them accountable to make progress. The scheduled periodic meetings, takeaways, and micro goals ensure that members are always on track to reach the target.

A good example is the "Eccountability" masterminds program that helps entrepreneurs find their tribe.

Build a valuable network

Mastermind groups can also be termed success teams since they are focused on helping each other to succeed by delivering value. This is an arrangement of give-and-take relationships that have worked out for humans for many years. This network between the members gets strengthened because of value reciprocal value delivery.

Here is how 10xfactory lays out the value delivery:

To sum up, the massive amount of support and help the members get from the mastermind groups via commitment, accountability, and sheer grit propels them toward success!

Since we’re clear on how mastermind groups work the underlying benefits, let’s now focus on how you can create such a group and monetize as well.

Step #1: Select your subject

This is the foundation on which your group will be built, so invest the right amount of time to think through what you’re going to build. The theme of the masterminds group should be ideally a subject for which you are truly passionate.

It could be anything from improving personal productivity and growing avocado to tech entrepreneurship and learning new languages. Ensure that you actually connect with the subject you choose.

If you are interested in the subject or lack experience, how can you grow, facilitate, manage, and help other members?

Here are some questions to help you shape up the groundwork:

1. What do you want to achieve with the mastermind group?
2. Which central theme of the group appeals the most to you?
3. Who is the target audience for your group?
4. Why unique value proposition would attract a member of your group?

Based on this, select the subject that excites you the most. Now you should narrow down the persona of your member.

Step #2: Zero in on the target audience

You already have a rough idea of who will be your members, but it is time to document the thoughts and set a clear-cut view of the potential member. Here are some key factors to consider:

• People with a shared passion
• People who have similar achievements
• People who are inherently helpful
• People who believe in sharing knowledge
• People who have complementary skill sets
• People with grit and zeal to reach the goals
• People who are focused on problem-solving

Here are some sample questions to help you screen the members:

• What prompted you to choose this mastermind group?
• How much time can you invest and how can you help others?
• What are your targets in the next 6 months?
• What would you do if you don’t get accepted into this group?

Now it’s time for you to build on this to add customized questions based on what you stand for. The next step is about setting up expectations and norms.

Step #3: Establish the guidelines

In this step, you would frame the rules that your members should follow when connecting with each other, interacting, and helping.Some rules for you to consider are:

• Engagement frequency - How frequently the members would meet? What would be the time span of each session? What happens when members continually fail and don’t meet the goals?
• Discussion format - Will the members be allowed to interrupt others mid-way and ask questions? Or it would be done at the end of the person’s message?
• Values - What are you offering to the members when they join? What are you offering (time span, partnership with other solutions?

This exercise finalizes what the members expect from their peers and community owner. Also, as a group builder, you know what they are expecting from the mastermind.

Step #4: Craft an action item list

A key element of the mastermind group is to set up regular meetings with structured agenda items. Consider this as similar to how standup meetings function for Agile teams.

Here is a useful resource for setting up a meeting agenda (with a template) by Yesware. The ideal way to approach this is to create agenda items before the meeting and allow the members to prepare themselves for the discussion during the meeting. Broadly here are the important points to discuss in the meeting

• The current action item on which the members are working
• If they are stuck and need help with any specific task
• One key resource they can share with the group

Members can spend some time putting together the thoughts around these questions and then work with each other to solve the issues. The next step is about building automation and using modern tools to boost efficiency.

Step #5: Configure the apps

In the modern digital world, there are thousands of tools to make our lives easier. However, specifically for a mastermind group the following functions necessarily need help from tools.

Video meeting

Since the members are from different locations, it is imperative to have a video meeting tool. This helps keep everyone in the loop, saves resources, and boosts productivity, efficiency, and communication.

Plus, video conferencing helps people feel less isolated. 89% of remote employees claim that video helps them feel more connected to their team members.

Popular tools include Google Hangouts, UberConference, and Zoom.

The next is all about building a secure online space for the members to foster engagement and organization.

Community platform

A community platform complete with a membership management solution allows you to structure all the content and keep everything organized.

You can integrate the platform with a different set of tools you are already using (including video conferencing), and enable extensions such as gamification, reputation management, and virtual currency to boost member engagement.

The members can discuss, ask questions, answer, write blogs, vote on certain questions, upvote others’ posts, and fellow peers to remain updated. This truly helps you connect your members with a valuable network.

A dedicated community platform allows you to position your group in the premium category and charge the membership fee accordingly.

Resource management

The mastermind group will produce a wide range of content and there would be different types of files -- from documents to videos and audio. Ensure that the platform on which you are hosting your mastermind actually integrates with popular file storage solutions

.Some of the popular storage tools are Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox. The next step is all about monetization.

Step #6: Set the membership fee

Since the group owner is taking the initiative to build the community, shape the direction, recruit members, facilitate content sharing, create content, and deliver the platform to the members to help each other, it is often justified to charge a membership fee to monetize the community.

The subscription fee for the group starts from the value you are delivering.

A platform like Bettermode can help you charge membership fees from the members via a host of options -- direct integration with Stripe and PayPal, custom integration with API, and Zapier.

The tricky part is that the value you are delivering based on your notion, might not match the actual value received by the members. This means the pricing needs to be reviewed frequently to stay relevant. Sometimes, you might decide the membership has to increase.

Step #7: Engage and grow

Boost engagement in the community by implementing gamification techniques and delivering high-quality resources at a regular frequency to help achieve their goals.

This ensures that you are motivated and fully dedicated to seeing the members succeed.

Although there are different formats for content and course delivery, at present videos are the most preferred and highly engaging format. They grab the attention of people and keep it.

Bettermode has video support, and you can control access to different videos by creating groups inside the community.

To sum up, keep the members loyal to your group by evolving with the progress of the group, regularly delivering unique resources, and engaging with the members.

You have a good grasp on how to make a mastermind group successful. Now, it’s time for you to take action.

Time to harness the power of the mastermind group

For people with expertise in a specialized domain, and a passion for building a business while helping others achieve success via a thriving online community, a masterminds group can be a trump card. Here is the gist of this article for easy reference:

• Mastermind groups celebrate diversity and bring in the best talent into the group so that unique solutions can be crafted based on the collective wisdom
• The members complement each other by sharing resources and skills by forming strong networks based on value delivery
• Creating own mastermind group starts with selecting a subject that excites the group builder
• The next step involves screening the target audiences and inducting the right members
• Post this, form the rules and guidelines for the community members
• The next step is to get the members accustomed to the action item list, scheduled meetings, and follow-ups
• Set up the tools to improve efficiency and productivity
• Start with the pricing based on the perceived value delivery and then review continuously to ensure that it matches the actual value. If not, tweak the pricing to better match the offering.
• Ensure that the members are engaged and you are regularly sharing knowledge resources as well as empowering the members to help each other.

All in all, mastermind groups are great for building a successful team dedicated help each other by tapping into peer-to-peer value delivery and making a business out of it along the way.

And it all starts from a branded online community!