MBA1054 5 Reasons Masterminds Fail

Hey O. Welcome to the hundred dollar MBA show. Because when the going gets tough, the tough get learning. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online over at 100 MBA net and in today's lesson you will learn the five reasons why masterminds fail. I've been a part of a lot of different masterminds. Some of them have been incredibly helpful and some not really that much. I want to give you from my own experience why masterminds just don't work out. What are the things that make it break down and just not work? There's a lot of things you actually have to do to make it work. And, and if you don't pay attention to these details, unfortunately, you're gonna find yourself wasting a lot of time meeting with a group of people and getting very little benefit out of it. The whole point of a mastermind is to meet with people on a regular basis so you can learn from one another, support each other and motivate each other. But sometimes that doesn't happen. Why? That's what we get into in today's episode. So you can steer clear. So let's get into it. Let's get down to. Today's episode of the $100 MBA show is supported by Podia. Podia helps thousands of creators earn money from their passion. It's an all in one digital storefront that you can sell courses, memberships and digital downloads in one place. It's the most creator friendly platform on the market with zero transaction fees and a super friendly 24, 7 life support team. No matter what plan you're on. So they're gonna take care of you even if you're just getting started. What's great about Podia is that it eliminates all the technical headaches. It takes care of every aspect of selling your course or membership or digital download. If you've got video courses, they do the video hosting for you. If you want an easy way to charge your members on a reoccurring basis for a membership, Podia takes care of it. You want a secure way for people to download your products. When they pay for them, they take care of that too. They also offer free migrations on their shaker plan. Best of all, Podia puts their money where their mouth is. They have a 30 day free trial with no credit card required. So if you don't love it, you don't pay a penny. If you're looking to start a online course, sell any kind of digital product, or start a membership site, check them out and support the show by going to podia.commba that's P O D I a.commba having a mastermind group is great. It's like having a board or advisors that can give you some great perspectives on your business. It's a fantastic way to see things differently, to get support when you need it, and to support others. Like I mentioned, I've been in masterminds that really were great and some not so great. So I want to give you the five reasons why masterminds fail. Now, if you're going to start a mastermind, this is going to be really, really important because you're going to be managing this whole process and you want to make sure that you tick all these boxes that you don't do the things I'm going to mention. You also want to communicate this with the rest of the mastermind group so they know what to expect and what they should be doing and not be doing. All right, let's start with mistake number one. Not meeting consistently. This is at the top of the list. When you don't meet consistently, this breaks down the whole purpose of a mastermind. You need to be able to rely on your mastermind meetings, whether they're in person, on the phone, on a video call, you got to make this happen. I've been a part of in person masterminds and online, you know, video call masterminds and some people think, oh, the in person ones, people are going to be more committed to those. I found actually that's not the truth. It has nothing to do with being in person or actually being online. It has to do with the commitment of the group. Everybody in the group has to commit to being there every single time you meet. Whether it's once a month or once a quarter or some masterminds meet once a week. As soon as people start not showing up to your mastermind meetings, it's the beginning of the end. It's a slippery slope. You're either consistent or you're not consistent. There's nothing in between. A lack of consistency can really kill your mastermind group. So make sure you can stick to a consistency. Don't choose weekly if you can't commit to that. If you have too much on your plate, we're all busy. I'm currently in a mastermind group that meets once a month and that seems like a good amount of time. We have A small group. So an hour is plenty of time for us. So make sure whatever your format is in person, online, choose a consistency that you can stick to, because the consistency is key. What happens when there is no consistency is that when people don't show up, you start to feel resentful. You feel like you're showing up, you're making an effort, you're trying to help other people and you're relying on the other people to show up so they can give you feedback. And when they don't do their end of the bargain, you start to feel like, well, if they're not going to care, well, they're, why should I care? Obviously that's not a good attitude to have, but we're all human. So at the start of organizing your mastermind, this should be priority number one. Hey, what is the frequency we want to have? We need to commit. We got to make sure that we make every single meeting. And if you can't commit to this consistency, then it's better for you to leave now before we start. There's nothing wrong with just being brutally honest about this because this is what's going to keep your mastermind going, the consistency. All right, mistake number two, and I've experienced this personally. When you have too many people in the mastermind group. When you're starting a mastermind group, you have to define how many people do you want to limit the group to. When you have too many people, unfortunately, you just don't have enough time to allocate for everybody's needs. Even if it's an in person mastermind, let's say, for example, you meet once a month for a day or two, let's say for two days. Believe it or not, if you have, let's say a group of 12 or 14 people in this mastermind group, that's too many. You just can't cover or everybody can't talk or share or explore solutions to their problems in that amount of time. People need breaks. You need to eat. If you have a weekly one that's online, and let's say, for example, you have eight people in this group, how are eight people gonna share an hour? That means if you start on time, end on time, everybody has like seven minutes to talk. That's nothing. So when you just invite more and more people and you have no limit, this causes a major problem. And people don't get what they need out of the group. They don't get the value. So what happens is they just drop off. They say, hey, I don't get a Chance to really explore the solutions to my problems, to share my wins, my losses. And that's a problem. You need to make sure that it's a win win for everybody in the group. So when you start a mastermind group, it's best that you agree as a group that we're going to limit this to X amount of people. We're not going to invite any more people than this amount. All right, mistake number three, a poor fit of Mastermind members. You can't just throw people randomly into a group and say, hey, go ahead, mastermind. You have to at least make sure that everybody is sort of at the same level in their business or in their journey. Somebody who's an absolute beginner in business is a poor fit. For people that have been doing it for quite a while, they're going to have more of an advanced discussion. They might voice things that might sound ridiculous to the beginner, like, oh, man, I need to move my, you know, monthly recurring revenue from 20,000 to 30,000. And for the beginner, that's like, what are you crazy? That's crazy rich. But they don't realize, hey, that business has a lot of expenses. They need to pay off, you know, their employees and all the other expenses. What also happens when you have people from different levels is that it becomes a little bit unfair, a little bit lopsided. The beginners only get help and they really benefit from the group, but they really can't help the more advanced members in the group because they're just not there. Maybe they can give a fresh perspective, but that's pretty much it. And sooner or later, the more advanced people are going to feel like, you know what? I'm not getting the maximum amount of benefit from this group. I am dedicating a lot of time. I am committed to this. So I rather dedicate my time to a group that will benefit me more. So when you're joining in a mastermind or when you're forming one, make sure that you're joining a group that is, you know, maybe a little bit higher than you, a little bit lower, it doesn't matter. But somewhere around the range, we're all not going to be at the same level constantly. You know, when I look at my own mastermind group, we're all somewhere else. We're all working on different, different projects. Maybe I'll have a great year and then the next year somebody else have a better year. But when it comes to our entrepreneurial journey, you know, we all have some experience in some areas and we can help each other out. That's the point. As long as you can help each other out consistently, that's great. When it's lopsided, it's just not a win for everybody. All right, mistake number four, a lack of honesty and transparency. This often happens when you have competitors in the same mastermind group. This is why when you're forming a group or you're joining a group, you got to make sure that, that you don't have somebody who's your head to head competition in the group. Why? Because you're going to be tentative. You're going to not want to share your struggles or your mistakes or what you're working on because, hey, that's your competitor over there. So it's important to have a group where you don't have head to head competitors. You want to make sure that honesty and transparency is the forefront of everything. This only works when everybody's sharing honestly. If I feel like I'm sharing everything and putting all my issues or problems or challenges on the table, asking for people for their input and for their help, and everybody else is kind of clamming up and they're just like, hey, you know, I'm not gonna share everything. I'm just gonna say everything's fine. I'm gonna like, tend to say, you know what, I'm not gonna keep on sharing because, hey, the whole point of this is that we help each other out. And if everybody doesn't share, then somebody's gonna feel like, oh, maybe I'm embarrassed, maybe I shouldn't share that. I'm struggling in a certain area in my business. So at the start of your mastermind, you gotta make sure that, that you commit to honesty and transparency. It's gotta be a safe place. It's gotta be a place where people could say, you know what, I had a hard week. I made all these mistakes. I don't know how to get out of this situation. Guys, what do you think, gals? What do you think? That's the whole point, to be able to be open and honest. When that's gone, the mastermind's value really diminishes. Guys, I got more on today's topic, the five reasons why masterminds fail. But before that, let me give love to today's sponsor. What are you using to manage your sales, HR and finances in your business? My guess is you're using a ton of tools slapped together with spreadsheets and manual processes. How's that working out for you? You're probably spending a lot of time and money trying to make it all work, here's a better idea. Introducing NetSuite by Oracle, the business management software that handles every aspect of your business in an easy to use cloud platform. With NetSuite, you can save time, money and unneeded headaches by managing sales, hr, finance and accounting. Email instantly right from your desk or your phone. 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Mistake number three, a poor fit people from different levels, people at different stages in their journey often becomes one sided for one side of the group. Mistake number four, lack of honesty and transparency. And now for mistake number five. And this one is the biggest one of all. I find that this is the main reason these masterminds just break down and don't continue. And it's a lack of organization. You need to have some level of organization with a mastermind group and it doesn't have to fall on one person, but there's gotta be some sort of responsibility for everybody in the group. Somebody has to be responsible for scheduling every single mastermind meeting, whether it's weekly, monthly, whatever. If this is a physical mastermind where you meet in person, somebody's got to be in charge of booking the venue, making sure that's all done. One of the things that we do in my mastermind group is we have a Google sheet that's called an idea dump. So instead of just rocking up to the meeting and saying let me think about the things I'm struggling with or the things I want to talk about prior to the meeting. Before we get on that call, we start dumping some ideas, dumping some things that you want to discuss on that mastermind call. As a month is rolling by, I might Be trying to solve a problem or I'm working on a certain thing and I want the advice of my mastermind group. So I'll open up the sheet and just put it in the. This idea is a dump sheet, so I have it handy the next time we meet. This keeps you organized and make sure you save time when you actually meet that you already have your discussion points already written down. You have to have somebody in the group in charge of chairing the meeting. Somebody has to say, hey, okay, we have an hour. Let's divvy this up. You know, if there's three people in the group, 20 minutes apiece. All right, first person to go is me. I went last last time, so I'll go first. And a timer. You put a timer from your phone or something like that. And then when your time is up, time to move on to the next person. Doesn't have to be super, super tight like that, but, you know, somebody finishes early, they can keep moving on to the next person. But somebody's got to chair the meeting. Somebody's got to organize it now, again, all these tasks, they don't have to fall on the same person's shoulders. You can divvy up these tasks and that's what really works. And this is what I found has really worked for our group. But you have to be organized. This has to be serious. Otherwise everybody's gonna feel like this is a waste of time. And, you know, it just becomes a hangout, a chill session. And that's great and all, but that's not why you formed the mastermind. Schedule a separate chill session, and then you can keep it loose then. Alright, there you have it. Those are the five biggest mistakes, the five reasons why masterminds fail. My advice, take these pieces of advice on whether you're forming a mastermind, joining a mastermind, or you're part of a mastermind right now. Discuss these points with your group. Say, hey, are we guilty of any of these? I just learned this in this podcast I listened to. Are we guilty of any of these mistakes? If so, how can we correct them? Let's get organized. Who's going to take notes? Who's going to be able to, you know, chair the meeting every time? Let's take turns on who chairs the meeting, who's in charge of scheduling? Trust me, everybody will thank you for actually implementing these ideas in your mastermind later. Alright, that wraps up today's lesson. Thank you so much for listening. If you love this show, let us know in an iTunes rating and review. I'd love to hear from you. We read every single review. It lets us know what you love about the show. Also lets others know your thoughts of the show, what you get out of the show so they can hit subscribe as well. Alright, before I go, I want to leave you with this. Having a great mastermind group can be a huge asset, especially if you're building some big things in your business. You have things on the horizon and hey, we help each other out in our mastermind group. So if one of my mastermind group members is launching a new product, I got their back. How can I help you promote? How can I help you make this a success? And when it's my turn to launch something, they have mine. We like to celebrate each other's wins and be there when we're struggling. Be there when we're trying to solve a problem. You can got to make sure you're conscious that everybody is reciprocating so that it's a beneficial transaction, a beneficial group for everybody. All right. Thank you so much for listening. I will check you in the next episode. Take care.