Maintaining Member Retention in Business and Mastermind Groups Part II

Welcome everyone to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. This is the podcast for you if you are wanting to create or already running peer groups. It's what we call PACs, Peer Advisory Councils. They might be known as mastermind groups, CEO peer groups, all the same. But this is the podcast if you want to run better PACs, that you want to be better at being a moderator, you want to up your game, learn advanced techniques, hear from myself as well as guests, what works, new concepts, trends, techniques. Also learn content, things you could take back to your meetings, different ways to do different things to solve problems that we all have when we're running groups. It will increase your retention, reduce your attrition, get you more members, make you more money. This is the podcast for you. I'm Tina Corner Stolz. The host. I've been doing this since 2005. I built a territory of 10+ groups, sold for a multiple, started Ellis Council, Leader Exchange Council, in 2012. We are a licensing model. We are the leading educator in the peer advisory council space. We have the podcast. I have a licensing program with certification. I've written 2 books. So today, when you hear this episode, each and every week it's a new podcast where we dive deep into a topic for 15, 20 minutes. One week it's me doing a deep dive on all the experience and insights from not only today with our entire licensed partner community or the past, what I've learned along the way, but we also have guests that are out there doing groups today that share their insights and new concepts. So let's get started with today's episode. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. I'm your host, Tina Corner Stolz. Today is a continuation of talking about techniques to increase retention. So in a previous episode, I talked about the red flags of retention, the importance of how much money it can save you, i.e., or cost you when you have attrition. And we talked about the top 10 red flags. And in today's episode, we're going to talk about techniques to increase the retention. How do you calculate retention? So this is going to give you some thoughts about what to do, particularly it's when you not only can be proactive in being sure you have good retention, but a little bit about what to do when suddenly you're in a position that someone is at risk and what do you do. Okay, one of the things I will start with, for those of you that you are running multiple groups and you have others that are running groups for you, so you might have 1, 2, 3, or a team of people that are leading groups, um, on your behalf of your organization. And I highly recommend to you, you do this. So this is what I did that was extremely important when, um, I had a team, is that we would meet monthly. And one of the key topics they always had to prepare for is who was at risk. So I wanted to know who was at risk, who fit any one of those top 10 red flags. And then they were to come with their plan on how they were going to mitigate that risk. So today we're going to talk a little bit about the plan on how to mitigate the risk. But I'm back to, if you don't have a team of people and it's just you, then you should do this with yourself, okay? As part of your monthly debrief after your meeting and doing an audit on the meeting, is go through and go, do I have anyone that is at the beginning stages of being at risk? And then if so, what is my plan to mitigate it and turn it around where I don't have this feeling they might be at risk? So that you confirm they are at risk, or you begin to be sure they are de-risked, even if they're not going to tell you they are. Okay, so techniques to increase retention. Probably one of the most obvious is process meaningful COPIs. So anybody that's new to this, um, episode of listening to Mastermind Mastery, COPIs are challenges, opportunity, problems, or ideas. And determining the most important COPIs during onboarding a member, or on a regular one-on-one you have with them, or a quarterly meeting you have with them, is critical. So you have them literally think through all of their copies and choose which one is going to make the biggest impact for them to bring to the group. So if a member is just doing layup copies, they're not putting forth the effort to truly think through. They're probably driving to the meeting and they're thinking about, what am I going to bring up? Or they get to the meeting and by the time you ask them, they're just choosing something off top of their head, which was the most recent thing that was on their mind, which has nothing to do with most important thing that they should be bringing up. So helping them to choose the best and most meaningful, impactful copy is really critically important, and that you teach them how to do that when you have onboarded them as a member. And using the processing and issue sheet that we have, um, which, you know what, I can include in this episode in the episode notes— many of you are completely familiar with that— but being sure that until they get into the habit of Choosing the most impactful copy, that they fill that sheet out for their own use to get clarity on what's the right one to bring. So determining the most important copy is one, a technique to increase your retention. Bonding. Rarely will a member leave the group when they're really bonded to the group, no matter what is going on. So it's to your benefit and it's your responsibility to be sure the members have bonded to each other at the highest level possible and that they connect strongly with each other and with you so that they are open and vulnerable with their issues. They trust the group, they take the meeting seriously, they're prepared, they're not late, they show up, they believe the group is their group. So you've heard me talk about this in the past of the evolution of a member and their experience of month after month after month, what happens to them as they go through their member journey, and that they first talk about that they're in a group, and then they talk about that they're in your group, but you want them to talk about how the group is theirs. Now they have ownership to the group and they really believe it is their group of advisors. So bonding— there are so many exercises you can do, so many techniques to bond the members with each other. I'm not going in those today. That's a completely different episode of all of those. My point here is, when was the last time that you did an exercise with the group to bond them to each other, whether it was in the meeting or retreat or social? Uh, I'll get to that in a minute. Um, or you are having them do something one-on-one together but they need to be doing things that increase the relationship with each other. Bonding. First meeting in regards to bonding, how you introduce a new member will tell a lot about how quickly they will bond to the group. We talk about bonding exercises. Okay, socials are a form of bonding, particularly if you ask them to bring their leaders, their spouse, significant other, whoever that might be, to a social will help with the bonding, right? Whether it's after the meeting, a totally separate time, you celebrate successes, help them appreciate each other. So that is a way to increase bonding and really encourage regular communication between them between the meetings. Buddy them up with another member. Make sure that they're all in tune with the guidelines you have set out for your charter, for the group. And that you have some form of communication to gain feedback on how the group is doing for that member, how you are doing as a moderator. So if you're getting feedback, it's going to help them really believe that the group is theirs and encourage that. So those are kind of all deep dives, um, conversations in their own right. But I want to get you thinking about what are you doing —so you continue doing it—what are you not, and consider adding it in order to increase retention. Now I'm going to throw this out there: when do you think a member is most likely to leave? Meaning, what month is a member most likely to leave? I suggest you track what month the member is in when you have a member leave and look for a trend. I will tell you, in all of our tracking that I've done years over years over years, there are 2 months that are critical in regards to being sure a member gets past. One is month 4. So month 4 is when they start to evaluate. They've done 90 days, and is it worth their time? Have they gotten anything out of it? Have they bonded, etc.? And they do a mental evaluation typically after 3 months. So month 4 is critical to get them over the hump between 3 and 4. So after their 90 days of a new member being in a group, you have to connect with them and do a debrief and be sure they don't have any other questions, address concerns. See what needs to be done differently regarding them getting more value, et cetera. So connecting members to their peers are important after that 3 months because they're still making judgments on if these peers can help them. So pair an existing member with a new member for mentoring is really, really helpful. You know, suggest they schedule a coffee meeting, happy hour, they meet at one of the business's locations, whatever it might be. But also, Be sure that you're seating— this is such a simple technique to do— but that you're seating new members, you know, with members they don't know well, so they get a chance to chitchat with them while they're in the meeting and get a chance to meet someone. Don't leave that to chance. Be strategic about who you're setting your members by in the meetings if you're holding those meetings in person. Okay. The new member has to present to the group within their first 3 months, if at all possible. If you do anything that's like member spotlights, member perspective reports, member strategic plans, whatever it is, it's important if it's possible for them to view another member doing the presenting before they do theirs, so they have a feel for what the experience is like. Because otherwise it's this huge question mark and can be very stressful for them if they haven't seen an example yet. But the soonest you can do that, the better, to not only be sure that member gains tremendous value, but they see the expertise that's in the room based on the feedback they got. Because it's a highly valuable experience for them, and it gets them set off on the right track about what they can expect from their experience of being in the group. Back to seating, for example, make sure you don't seat the new member at the end of the table or on the outskirts. You want them in the middle of the group so they feel included and not on the outside. That can also be the same for your members who you feel like are in jeopardy, right? Making sure if you have a member that's not engaged, they're being disengaging, etc., getting them back into the middle of the group so they feel surrounded by the members is a feeling that will create this part of being included. It forces engagement and it can be the game changer, just that alone, on turning a member around of being engaged. So we've talked about a new member after they've, they've been the first 3 months and you're going to call them to gauge their thinking and work with them on the most important copies to bring to the group, etc. So these are all proactive ways to be sure you're getting the member over month 3 to month 4, okay, in their membership, because that's when they're most likely to leave. So what's the other month they're most likely to leave? Month 11. So if you do anything like annual commitments, the time that it's coming up to renew, you got to go all out in that month prior, or maybe it's 2 months prior, whatever is the right timing for you. Based on the notice that you've asked them to give you if they are going to leave. So whatever your notice period is, you got to do this before the notice period. And that is a good time to talk about the past year, the future, the next, you know, X number of months, whether it's the next year, the next quarter, whatever it might be, and be sure they're going to renew. Don't leave it to chance and you just think they will. It needs to be a formal meeting to do a debrief so you can handle any, any situations of them possibly thinking that they're not gonna renew. Okay? So it's month 4 and 11 are critical months for you. Keep that in mind. But more importantly, track it so you can see what the trend is for you. One of the things I learned from, um, a fellow person, peer who was running groups, many groups for years, is to do a membership plan. And the membership plan for the year is this: it's not about the meetings and a plan of what your meetings are going to be like. It's what are you going to do to interact with the member between the meetings. And it's very intentional, and it's to encourage them to move through the process, up the, the stages of a member experience to where they are the most vulnerable. They feel that the group is theirs, that they are bringing the highest and best value of copies to the group. They're fully engaged. They will never miss a meeting, all that. How do you get a member to that point? And interacting with them in between and providing value to them in between is just a smart thing to do as a leader over groups. And so having a 12-month plan of what you're going to send to your members in between the meetings can help mitigate attrition. Okay, it's just added on layer of value, showing that you care with the members, that you've given significant meaningful thought as to what you're sending them. You have them top of mind. And you've probably heard this before from me if you've listened to anything that I've talked about earlier, is that the member needs to feel like you are as invested, if not more, in their business as much as they are. I'm going to repeat that. The member needs to feel that you are just as, if not more, invested in the success of their business as they are. So how do you do that? So a member will not leave your group if they feel like you and their peers are as or more invested in their success. Like, who would do that, right? So how do you create that? One thing is this member plan for the year. So what do I mean by that? You put on a piece of paper months 1 through 12, and you think about what would be meaningful for me to send or share with my members in between a meeting. So it can be articles. Think of all kinds of articles that you could send that would be meaningful. It could be coordinating a meeting with another member. So maybe in month 3, right, you're going to be sure that that new member is going to meet with an existing member when month 3 rolls around, and you're going to coordinate that. Okay. You might include like birthday, like making sure you know when their birthday is. You might— one month your theme is making sure that you're gonna connect them with somebody meaningful that will help them. So think about all the connections you have, and you're gonna make a connection that might help them personally with some hobbies or anything like that that they own. Or maybe it's business-wise that might help them with their business. So you're gonna make a meaningful connection. So you have month one might be, I'm gonna make sure that I send an article on XYZ. Okay, month 2, I'm going to email them with 7 Relationships You Need. It's a YouTube clip reinforcing, you know, the value of peer groups. And, um, I'm going to do that. That's month 2 when they've come on board. Month 3, I'm going to make sure they meet with another member one-on-one. Month 4, I'm going to follow up. I'm going to do a member audit. I'm going to make sure How's the last, you know, 90 days been? We're going to plan for the next 90 or the rest of the year. I want to make sure that they're good and they have no questions. Right. And you just keep going. Again, it could be articles. You might send them a book. You might know of a hobby, and then you might send them something relative to that hobby. If they collect stamps, maybe you let them know about, you know, a collection conference that's coming, etc. Um, so this is what I'm talking about, is when you have a plan like that, it doesn't take long to execute it because when you're in tune with your members, it's actually super easy to do because you know them. So think about doing a 12-month plan, okay, for your members. When your group has been together for some time, that 12-month can look the same for everyone. But it shows that you have their best interests at heart. It shows you're thinking about them in between the meetings, not just the meeting, and then you go away and you'll see each other again in 30 days if that's your cadence, and you don't think about them at all other until then. They are your customer and they need to feel like you're thinking about them all the time. So these are all techniques for you to think about in making sure that your retention is high as it is. And I'm going to leave you with one thing, which— how in the world do you calculate retention? And I'll give you a formula. Um, so if you're not calculating it, think about how— this is how you calculate it. Um, there's a couple ways to do it. I will leave you with the most important thing is you just use the same way every single time. Um, because then that will tell you your trends and that'll tell the story. Don't switch up how you do it, uh, but if you stick with the same way you do it, it will give you the same type of, um, good data and dashboard that you need. The basic theory is you choose a period, okay, of time. So maybe you choose all of last year and you look at how many members you had at the end of that period you minus out how many members you acquired during that same period. Okay, so number of members at the end of the period minus how many new members you had, divided with how many members you started at that time, then times 100. So, got it? Number of members at the end of the period minus how many you acquired divided by how many you started with, then times 100. So for example, if you had at the start of the year 20 members, you gained 5 new ones, and you had 1 member churn, then you had 5 new members, 1 member churned, you have 4 new net. So you had 20 members at the beginning, 4 new nets, you had 24 minus the 5 you got divided by 20, which is what you started with, times 100 is a 95% retention rate. So figure out your retention rate. Aspire to make it better because from the previous episode you can tell how much money it makes you when that is the case. And come up with a plan for when you feel somebody is remotely possibly in jeopardy and at risk. How to mitigate it, and then from today's episode, be proactive in regards to the value you're giving, and you will have an awesome retention rate. Thanks again for listening to another episode of Mastermind Mastery, and until next time, go make it happen and happy retention. Hello listeners, and this is a quick promo because we have our national conference, Live Exchange 2024, coming up in October St. Petersburg, Florida. One day you can attend for a mere $500 and interact with your peers, others that are running groups, network with them, find out best practices, all those challenges that you're having, get insights that can help you personally. In addition to hearing a phenomenal list of speakers, I will open up that day with some insights in regards to moderating and it will turn it over to Vern Harnish, who, if you do not know him, you know, he's the one who founded Entrepreneur Organization. He understands peer groups extremely well, and he runs Scaling Up. You will take away phenomenal information that will help you run your groups, not only to scale your own practice, but to help your business owners in those groups with the content Vern Karen is going to share. You will also hear on two other subjects, one about the importance of preparing your members for exiting the business, whatever that transition may be, and how do you do that. You will also hear about making change. How do you manage change? How do you facilitate change, which is required in today's environment? Again, content you're going to be able to take back to your groups and use yourself. And last, we're going to end it with Horse Soldier and 12 Strong. So if you don't know that story, that is the 12 soldiers that went into Afghanistan on horseback prior to us invading Afghanistan. You will hear their story about leadership and how they have transitioned that into a phenomenally successful bourbon brand called Horse Soldier, and you will hear how they have scaled that business. And we will end the conference with bourbon tasting. Again, a very packed day. I encourage all of you, if you are serious about your own personal development, I will see you and I will love to meet you personally October 18th in St. Petersburg, Florida. Go to our website and you can get all the details, see the details of the agenda, and register. Thank you everyone for listening to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. And to get access to today's episodes, not only the show notes but any tools and resources, encourage you to— not only will you find them in the episode show notes, but also you can go to the website www.lxcounsel.com. So lx counsel.com, and you will find a plethora of articles and content and tools and resources and worksheets and things like that that can be helpful to you in creating and running successful PACs. I want to leave you with one thing that we end and teach to do in every single meeting, and that is the very last thing is to ask, what is your takeaway from today's episode? I encourage you to give that thought. Take advantage of the time you just invested in listening to the episode, and what can you do to move one step closer to the vision that you have and the goals that you're trying to achieve with your groups? So again, take a step back. What's What's your key takeaways? What can you actually act on? And I leave this with one note. And those of you that have read my book, Your Seat at the Table, you know that I ended the book with a story about my mentor. He always, when he met people, had a pebble in his pocket that he passed to them when there was knowledge shared. And so I ask you today to think about that pebble concept and to pass what you learned today on to someone else, which could be your members, or take it internally to yourself and act on it. So now go do something with those takeaways.