Superstar Retreat Recap

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Mike Ferry TV. This is the week of July 22nd. My name is Tony Smith, filling in for Mike Ferry this week, and I am thrilled to be here. We just wrapped up the Superstar Retreat last week, and I have to tell you, it was off the charts. The attendance, the attentiveness, people taking notes, the energy, the enthusiasm—Mike’s points were incredible. For those of you that were there, thank you for being there. For those of you who didn’t make it, don’t miss another one.

The Hidden Gem of Mastermind Groups

During the event, something crossed my mind that I want to bring to our attention today. One of the really hidden gems of the Mike Ferry sale system, or a hidden gem if you’re going to run a business, for that matter, is the ability to get involved in a really strong mastermind group. In MFO, we have dozens and dozens of mastermind groups operating today. The mastermind groups don’t show up on the little value sheet when you sign up for Mike Ferry. They don’t show up on our website. This is a little hidden gem that I have to tell you is invaluable for some of the members.

Are You in a Mastermind Group?

First of all, you have to ask yourself, are you officially in a mastermind group? If not, and you’re trying to run a business, should you get into a mastermind group? We would say yes.

The Origins of Mastermind Groups

Let’s look at some thoughts about mastermind groups. If we go clear back to the late 20s and early 30s, 1920, 1930, there was a man named Napoleon Hill, and Napoleon Hill was an instrumental leader in thinking in a different way. In fact, you probably read his book, “Think and Grow Rich.” He spent the majority of his life studying successful people like the Rockefellers and the Carnegies. In his studies, one of the points that came out was developing what he called then the Mastermind Alliance. I remember writing it down: let’s create a virtual encyclopedia where a group of people can all tap into and draw from great ideas.

The Power of Synergy

His thought was, if I’m smart and I have some great ideas, that’s awesome. But if I can get four or five or six other people, and we can start masterminding together, and we can all bring our great ideas to the table and share them, don’t we have an encyclopedia of great ideas? Will we grow faster if we have that kind of synergy? Basically, it was the initial formal formulation of the word synergy. If you think about it, a mastermind group is a group of people in business that are trying to achieve similar goals. We’ve got mastermind groups of people trying to break through 50 deals for the first time.

Diverse Mastermind Groups

We’ve got mastermind groups of husband and wife teams running a business and how to work through that. We’ve got mastermind groups trying to break through $1 million in income, break through 100 deals. We’ve got mastermind groups on investing in Real Estate. Many of the people met and had little dinners last week. They got together and spent time together in this mastermind group. Think about it. If you could get a little group of people together, set up a structure, an environment where you get on the phone for 30 minutes every week, come up with an agenda, and start working through that agenda, can you imagine the power of that group?

Developing a Mastermind Group

Here are some things you might want to consider when it comes to developing a mastermind group. The first thing I wrote down is that you need to have somewhat of a common goal. You need to have a goal where you’re trying to achieve something similar because you’re bringing the ideas. Maybe you have a mastermind group wanting to dominate the skills in the industry that we’ve chosen. You need to have a common goal and work through that common goal.

Commitment and Participation

The second thing I wrote down is everybody that’s participating in the group needs to be committed. The only way this thing works is if you have committed individuals in the group—passionate, driven, committed, and involved. When you form the group, you have to make sure that everybody’s committed to being there. I wrote down the word participation. Boy, that’s a big word today in general. If you’re in the group, you have to expect and enforce participation. Nobody can hide out in this group, right? You can’t let one dominant figure in the group take over and everybody just sit and listen. That’s not masterminding. It requires strong participation. Some of the groups that I know that are operating actually set up a little agenda and take turns, like, you know, Bob, you have week one, Mary, you have week two. You get an assignment, and you’re responsible for leading the group call this week. You come up with your topics in advance. What are we going to cover? Maybe you have homework. Let’s bring some ideas or information to the table. Participation is key, and you have to enforce it. If you have a mastermind group and people aren’t participating, you either have to get them participating or move them out of the group.

The Importance of Accountability

I wrote down the word accountability. It only works if you have assignments that you’re going to do, research that needs to be done, projects, things that you’re going to do throughout the group. You have to be accountable to that. I’ve seen some of these mastermind groups that actually have a fee if you’re late. If you show up late to the call, you have to pay money. It’s accountability. Do we all need more accountability? Of course, we all need more accountability, so it has to have accountability. If you’re currently in a mastermind group, are you enforcing the accountabilities that you set out to do?

Having a Purpose

You have to have a purpose. It isn’t about idle chit-chat. This isn’t about us all talking about the week. How do we do this week? You need to have a purpose. This week, I think we all want to take on the assignment of coming back to the group with the best four or five answers we have of what value we want to bring to the database in terms of a conversation. Would that be valuable? Would it take the group forward? Or we’ve all made a decision that we’re all going to talk to 25 people a day for the next five days, and we’re going to report back. I know of one mastermind group that, in January every year, each person in the group takes their turn in the hot seat, presenting their business plan to the rest of the group.

Critiquing and Growing

What you have to recognize is that they all got together, and each took a turn in the hot seat, going over their plan, and everybody else critiqued it. “Hey, tell me more about that. Why do you think that’s going to work? Are those numbers correct?” Think of the power of that. If you had five or six other members critiquing you on your business plan, there are so many great ideas that you can get involved with. If you have a mastermind group, I highly suggest if you want to grow your income, increase your production, increase your profit, or get more involved, especially today, you either get into a mastermind group or recommit to the mastermind group you’re in and set this up to move forward going into the second half of this year.

Conclusion

I hope you guys all take some great notes from this. If you get a chance, and you haven’t read Napoleon Hill’s book, “Think and Grow Rich,” read the chapter on the Mastermind Alliance. You’re missing out. Let’s get mastermind thoughts going. Let’s get some groups together. Let’s recommit to those groups and push them forward. Thanks for your time.