In this excerpt from Mike Michalowicz’s video “The Ultimate Mastermind Rule,” Mike explains how to deliberately design a business mastermind group. He emphasizes intentional member selection based on what each person can contribute and their diverse backgrounds. A key principle is avoiding direct competition among members, because competing businesses hinder openness and raw sharing. He also stresses that members should agree not to do business with each other, preventing conflicts of interest and accidental sabotage. Overall, the conversation highlights that a well‑facilitated mastermind thrives on diversity (gender, age, ethnicity) and clear boundaries that keep members focused on learning rather than competing or transacting.
Side question. So when the person who's forming these masterminds, are they actually making sure that, hey, we don't want to be, you know, too many degrees away from any one person? Everybody has to be pretty alone in what they're doing, basically. Yeah.
A well-facilitated or managed mastermind is intentionally built that way. Each individual is considered. What do they contribute? What's their backgrounds? Where's the diversity? I think a good mastermind won't have competition because if I feel threatened in some capacity, if you and I are in the exact same business, say serving the exact same customers, Can I really be raw about my business? Right. And vice versa.
No, you protect yourself to some degree at some point.
Yeah. In an entrepreneurial mastermind, I don't think we do business together. Can you imagine you're my client and I screw you over by accident and now we have to help each other? It's like, I think a great structure for masterminds, if it's a business one, is no competition. So diversity there. Secondly is that we do not do business together and agree to that, even though it may feel like there's great opportunities.
Right.
We don't do it. Thirdly, it's a mix of men and women. The best masterminds I've been in, not completely, but for the most part, have been a mix of men and women. A mix of ages. So I'm in a mastermind where we have some millennials, we have middle-aged folks, and we have a couple of people that are retired out. And the perspectives are unbelievable. Diversity in color— ethnicity is probably a better choice of words— which often indicates perhaps a different upbringing, different expectations, a different culture. Those type of elements.
