Being apart of a mastermind group has been one of the most valuable things in helping me change my life. As I've mentioned in previous articles, who you surround yourself with is one of the most important decisions of your life. We all need what I call an Empowering Ecosystem – a group of positive, successful individuals that are living life at a high level. Who we surround ourselves with influence who we are more than anything. They affect our beliefs and values, which are the controlling forces of our destiny.
I recently received a question from a PLM follower, which was “How do I find a mastermind group”. I recorded a video, shown below, which reveals how you can find a mastermind group and change who you surround yourself with.
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
You Attract What You Are
I've found that when I attend different seminars or events, I meet people that are just like me. We have things in common… whether it be online marketing, self-development, or health and fitness. It's easy to relate to the people that I meet at these types of events, simply because we have things to talk about and are on a similar playing field. I can offer insights and value to them, while they can offer the same back. It becomes easy to form friendships and we're naturally drawn to masterminding together.
Don't Be A Leech
I get a lot of e-mails from people or messages on Facebook that are LEECHES. They don't try to add value in any way, but rather just want me to help them and expect me to add value to them. They're “value suckers” and don't bother to try to build rapport in any way, or consider how they can add value to me in any way. This is the wrong way of going about it – this often turns these people away from wanting to be around you.
Let me give you an example. Think about a celebrity for a minute here. A celebrity constantly has people that wants to be around them and they are always in the spotlight. They have people approach them everywhere they go. People want their autograph, to take a photo, or to ask them questions. People want to be around them.
If you were this celebrity, don't you think this would get extremely annoying after awhile? Don't you think it'd be frustrating? You have all these people that WANT something from you and are taking value from you, without being considerate in any way. Instead, if you found ways to add value to the other person and focused on helping them – then you're coming from a different angle than everyone else out there. You suddenly are someone that is ADDING VALUE and guess what? People want to be around others that add value to them.
How Do You Find Successful, Likeminded Individuals?
In order to form your mastermind group, you need to find successful, likeminded individuals. One of the easiest ways to find people like this is to put yourself in environments where these people would naturally be. This could be seminars, events, fundraisers, trade shows, fitness classes, or meet up groups. You could even turn to online environment, such as message boards and Facebook groups. I've had good success meeting people in all of these places and networking with them, developing friendships.
Once you begin to meet and develop friendships with some successful people, it's much easier to meet more. People begin to introduce you to others and a “snowball affect” happens. People begin to talk about you to others and you become more and more popular.
Right now as I write this, I'm in San Diego at the Traffic And Conversion Summit. It's an online marketing event of over 2000 people, most of which are very successful. Since being at this event over the last 3 days, I've met so many successful, amazing people. I've talked to the people next to me (or they begin talking to me) and we end up exchanging contact information.
I have been going to dinner with complete strangers and we've been discussing our businesses and what we do. I also have a lot of friends here, and so when I've been around some people that I know, they've been introducing me to people that they know. It's become EASY to meet people and develop friendships, which opens up the opportunity to create a mastermind group.
Take Initiative And Be A Leader
You can't expect others to just invite you into their own mastermind group. Instead, you need to take initiative and create a mastermind group on your own. You can do this by simply reaching out to these people that you've developed friendships with and see if they are open to forming a group. If they are, you can decide on how often you guys will have a meeting or get-together. It could be every week, or even every month. The key is to make sure that you schedule time together to discuss your goals and help each other achieve them.
In my case, I'm apart of a few mastermind groups. I'm apart of a mastermind group that I formed a few years ago with 3 other high level friends, and we meet every Monday morning at 8AM. Our sessions are about two hours long and we each get 30 minutes to discuss our goals and challenges. We give each other feedback and support each other. It's powerful.
We've also had a lot of mastermind sessions over Skype or via a Google Hangout. Since I recently was traveling Bali, Indonesia, we had our sessions over a Google Hangout every week. So you don't necessarily have to be with these people physically – you can form an online mastermind group.
I'm apart of another mastermind group of 200 other members that are all over the world. To be apart of it, you have to be making six figures and must be an entrepreneur. You also have to pay an annual fee to be apart of it. All of these people are successful at what they do and it's a powerful synergy of people that all help each other in their own businesses. Since everyone lives in different parts of the world, we put together mastermind trips every few months somewhere and people fly in for it. It's fun and powerful.
Create Your Own Mastermind Group
I didn't start with an amazing mastermind group; it took awhile to develop the friendships and be apart of what I am now. As you grow and evolve yourself, then the people that you attract and surround yourself will change. When I was broke and struggling in my life, I still had a mastermind group of friends that were in the same position as me – but they still had goals and were motivated to get somewhere in their lives. We were still on the same path.
So my advice to you is to start NOW to create your own mastermind group. You might not be able to find or attract the highest level people yet, but you can at least find other likeminded people that are on the same path. Find the people that are motivated and will push and support you. Someone with a positive attitude and is always growing is the most important thing. Start just by contacting people you know, offline or online, and put together a weekly meet up that can help you with your goals.