One of the key ingredients for success, whether online or offline, is being able to come together or “hang out” with like-minded people to achieve a common goal. This is often referred to as the “mastermind” by the successful.
However, I’ve had my fair share of failed masterminds, and I think I may have discovered a better way of doing it…
Inside this video, I share some reasons why masterminds can fail and what it takes to create an effective mastermind. I also share three levels a mastermind can operate at – I’ve never seen anyone teach this, so this bit may be a truly unique insight for you!
Make sure you watch the whole video because I share a recent example of a VERY successful mastermind. In fact, you can see the result of some of our work here:
Watch The Become A Blogger 2.0 Mastermind In Action!
Enjoy the video now and let me know in your comments what you think about this whole mastermind thing.
Talk soon!
Gideon Shalwick
Transcript Of Today’s Video
Click Here To Read The Transcript
The key insight that I had was about “masterminds“. How to use them and set them up in the right way. Many masterminds that have been set up in the past have amounted to nothing.
Before I continue with this, just to quickly define what a mastermind is, in case you haven’t come across this.
The first time I came across the idea of a mastermind was through Napoleon Hill in his “Think And Grow Rich” book. Since then I’ve studied some more of his material and also read his “Law Of Success” Series – amazing book series!
Anyway, inside these books he talks about the mastermind as “two or more minds coming together in a spirit of harmony for a common goal“. Those are the requirements for mastermind.
That got me thinking. Because I’ve been to so many mastermind groups that just wouldn’t work out. It could be very frustrating because you get together with some cool people and then after a couple of months, it just dies out.
So the question I had was: Why weren’t these things working?
I think the number one reason why these masterminds didn’t work was because they lacked that one thing of having a common goal in mind.
That got me thinking… Okay, well what does it take to have an effective mastermind then?
Then I thought, well perhaps, the mastermind that Napoleon Hill was talking about is the kind of mastermind you have within your own team; building your own team of a mastermind within your own business so that you can have that common goal. The common goal of making your business successful. The common goal of creating a really cool project within your business.
I thought that was it; that was all you needed to be able to have an effective mastermind and to be successful. But there’s more to it than that because recently I had a chat to one of my entrepreneur friends, Michael Maidens.
Michael told me another interesting thing about masterminds that I haven’t really considered. That is that you do need a mastermind group outside of your own internal mastermind group.
Let me re-define this. So now we have internal mastermind – that’s your own team within your business. Then you also need an external mastermind.
What Michael was talking about was that you still need these external mastermind meetings. People from external/outside of your business to be able to help you achieve your goals. This can be people like business mentors, people that are interested in your success — whoever can help you form this mastermind to help you in your quest for success.
That was a really nice key insight. But the key with that was that it was for a common purpose. So the success of this external mastermind group would have to be tied in with having a common purpose; and of course, everything in the spirit of harmony.
But then there’s the third level of mastermind that I’ve just recently discovered or recently been thinking about more. And that is what I am just labeling as “invisible” mastermind. This is the stuff that happens inside of your head. These are things like goals. These are things like reading books from great minds from the past and using that information to form your own invisible mastermind within your head.
Napoleon Hill also talks about in his Think And Grow Rich book, in the last chapter, how he has set up this invisible group of men (perhaps women as well) in his mastermind group where he would have “conversations” with them just inside his head. He said that was one of the most helpful things he’s done. He just imagined these really amazing people to be part of his mastermind group.
I think those are all really good examples of masterminds; but I guess a really good recent example of this mastermind thing of many different levels is one that I’ve just been involved with, actually for the last four years, but even more so in the last couple of months.
Recently, we’ve just relaunched our Become A Blogger product. We launched that the first time about three or four years ago. Very, very successful! We’ve got a following of about 40,000 people. Now, I think there’s been over 3,000 that have joined us in the Become A Blogger Premium Program.
But that all started with me and Yaro Starak. We formed our little mastermind. That was our internal mastermind. Each one of us still had our external masterminds as well where we hooked up with people who were in similar industry and gave us ideas about how we could set this thing up successfully.
Just recently, we teamed up with yet another person in our internal mastermind, Leslie Samuel. So now there are three of us who were masterminding together on this latest launch of Become A Blogger. We just opened doors to it end of last week.
Once again, it’s just taken off like crazy! We’ve only kept this particular launch internal so we haven’t invited affiliates yet, but already were seeing signs that this internal launch is more successful than our original launch where we invited affiliate partners as well.
This just blows my mind. It’s not more successful yet; we don’t know yet, we’re in the middle of it. But it’s certainly showing the signs of great success which is really cool.
I think the key thing there is that there were three of us in a spirit of harmony working towards a common goal. Those two things — (1) working in a spirit of harmony (2) towards a common goal — are just incredibly important. Without that, you can’t have any kind of success.
What I’d like for you to do is to think about what kind of masterminds are you currently involved in? Are you currently involved in one of these kinds of masterminds where you just get together once a week and there’s no real common purpose among the people within that group?
That’s one of the key things. If you don’t have that common purpose and it’s not in the spirit of harmony, get rid of it. It’s just a waste of time. Then work towards creating your own mastermind groups whether it’s external, with your own mentors to help you towards that common goal; or build your internal mastermind group which is you and your team within your business.
And think about your invisible mastermind as well, where you can maybe consult with these “invisible” mentors just inside your head, sort of like another way of looking at it. Perhaps some people might think it’s a little bit strange. I haven’t tried it all that much. But Napoleon Hill swore by it, of course.
Think about that in its different levels. I haven’t seen anyone talk about it in these three different levels; in terms of creating different levels of mastermind groups to help you succeed in your quest for success.
What do you think about this whole mastermind thing? Have you got any thoughts about it? Have you got any successes?
I’d love to hear from you so make sure you leave your comment below this video. Do “like” this video. Subscribe to my channel; I’d love to have you as one of my subscribers and interacting with you on my channel.
Oh yes, before I forget. If you want to see the kind of success that we’ve been having with this Become A Blogger project, there’ll be a link either below this video in the description area, or on the post with this video on my blog.
Go, check it out. See what me, Yaro and Leslie came up with because of working together in this harmonious and well-focused mastermind. The stuff we’ve come up with this is better than anything we’ve ever done on our own before. It’s one of our best works.
Go and check it out. There’ll be a link either below this video in the description area, or somewhere on this page. Please check it out and see what we’ve come up with. There’s some good stuff in there.
That’s it from me for now. Make sure you subscribe and like this video . I’ll see you inside my next video.
Good points Gideon. Masterminds can so easily whittle down to just idle socializing. Which is fine, but sometimes you gotta have some drive to create change.
Gideon, I have had the eternal version of the mastermind without really calling it that. It is very powerful. It has given me ideas I never would have come up with on my own by just imagining what certain people would have said about a certain topic. I do this by imagining I am asking these people questions and how they might answer them.
This is great advice Gideon, both Masterminds I’ve been involved with have fizzled out as people all have their own goals and aims that were completely unrelated to what I was trying to do and the areas of expertise that I have. It’s hard to give back or others to give to you when visions and objectives are not aligned.
Thanks for this free video, Gideon! I really like how “clean” your presentations always are.
second!
I also found out about masterminds from Think and Grow Rich and would like to start one myself so thanks for posting this video Gideon.
Gideon, interesting thoughts. Thanks for sharing.
I really like your concept of an invisible mastermind in your head. I believe that can help to mentally break out and to think differently.
Regarding the common goals: It helps a lot to write it down on paper. Formulating the goals together in the team and writing down forces all people involved to think clearly. Furthermore, written thoughts are more easily retained in the top-of- mind. That helps to focus.
Best Regards Bernd
Hi Gideon – my 2c on the topic is that you can break down “the common goal” into sub parts:
1. Intention 2. Principles 3. Issues to overcome
prior to starting work as a team.
Should also be very clear on the identity sought, the type of relationship sought and the information to share.
If you want more on this model you can PM me.
Cheers
Ant
Loving that studio setup …
Here’s how my “internal” mastermind works …
I imagine I’ve been paralysed and I’m having to pay a clone of me to do exactly what I do every day, which quickly leads you to say “Why the hell are you wasting my money doing that” – works wonders for proritising ….
Congrats on the launch!
The most successful mastermind group I have been involved with consisted of five of us with the common goal of receiving answers, comments and tips for the running of our businesses – all different but all working on marketing and goals. We all had about 15 minutes of time and picked a leader for that day. We were accountable for what we set as our individual goals and the leader kept notes for our next get together (it was a conference call every other week). We finally broke up because of other committments, but I feel that I really benefitted from our meetings.
Hi Gideon
You are correct, most of the masterminds I am in have problems with getting commitment from the vast majority of members. I think I will “internal” mastermind with product launch gurus now
. And then see if I can “attract” a better quality mastermind participant in future.
Would love a studio setup like yours, have the equipment, lack the space.
I want to be successful just like you.
[..YouTube..] I definitely think all three types are vital for a higher level of success. I’ve gotten to where I am now by myself aside from trainings and this would probably be my breakthrough hen done correctly. Thanks!
I’ve never been to a mastermind event but I’m already working with 3 of the best masterminds in online marketing : Gideon, Yaro and Leslie – Become a Blogger 2.0 – that’ll do me.
Great video, Gideon!
Hey Gideon, loved your video on masterminds. I really wish I could join one of the ones you are in!!!
Anyways, never noticed the ads on your videos before, I was so surprised I had to click on it! Lol
Take care!
Bryan
Interesting point Gideon…I just attended Yanik Silver’s Underground8 and got a large dose of Mastermind opoortunities and options to explore. Definitely good takeaway points to keep in mind. Thanks!
Congrats on your success with the newest mastermind. Your entirely correct that many today are just thrown together and lack the common goals and mindset to make them work.
nice and interesting video gideon.
to all reader, is there anyone come from indonesia want to create a mastermind.
i mean something like creating a killer product with videos
i can help you
Gideon has helped me a ton with getting more traffic to all of my YouTube Channels. I really think he sees the big picture. Not just to be “the guy with all the video views” but to be a “mastermind” with a sense of seeing the big picture and direct your online business in the right direction. I’ve also had great luck with Tube Tool Box too. It’s a great program that builds your YouTube Customers, Views, Subs, Likes, etc! Check it out: tinyurl . com / 7lbs28r
Hi Gideon,
Thanks for an insightful video, having been a member on your original launch of Become a Blogger I find content from both yourself and Yaro exceptional and very grounded. Will get to go through the new launch when I have some time.
Mastermind groups, I agree wholeheartedly unless everyone is in the group with a common purpose, it will fail. I have been involved in a few online that start out great, then flopped.
My personal experience is local, I met a person in the Become a Blogger forum, little realizing the wealth of knowledge and strength of leadership I had stumbled upon.
Her Marketing Strategy and Planning course attendees join breakfast meetings every second week as a follow up to help everyone wishing to attend to move their businesses forward.
Gideon it was great catching up with you in person today…matching the good guy on video with the good guy in person.
Mastermind groups have been around the traps for a long time and many seem intent on creating revenue for the Guru rather than for the advancement of the group… but I have noticed of late that Closed groups on facebook have become successful mastermind groups if they have 2 things….A Benevolent Dictator (Leader) and Rules.
The reason why a Gym Buddy is so necessary is because you become accountable to someone other than yourself…same applies to successful Mastermind groups. If you have no rules and consequences then you will lack accountability…most will fail because we are so good at finding excuses for our own lack of success… unless we are brave enough to be held up to the light by people we respect as Peers.
A Group that adds value to our lives is one we find painful to disconnect.
Thanks again…you inspired me today with your generous gift of time…donated to a total stranger ( Me )
This was some really good information Gideon. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
Hey Gideon! Hope all is well bro..haven’t seen you on the tube in a minute. Hope all is going well!
Hi, My name is Suzie. Thank You for the video. I love N.H.My husband & I have formed a mastermind alliance. I will subscribe & like your video too. I have been making weight loss videos for a year now. I have been toying around with the idea of making money using the internet. I have a job I thought I loved, until reading all of the self help success books. I have also been reading Bob Proctors stuff. I know 1st I must educate myself on computer use & editing all I can do is email & upload
Hi Gideon! Thanks for another excellent video. I would love to begin a MM group in my area and I hadn’t heard of Napoleon Hill before, I will put him on my summer reading list
I picked up Screen Flow recently and I’m eagerly learning how to use it. I was wondering, how you use Screen Flow to make text appear next to you in your videos? I understand how to make a slide (with Keynote), but how do you make just the words appear in the video?
Thanks very much for any assistance!
Heya Gid, I figured it out, so never mind about about my previous question. It’s quite simple, but that’s easy to say now that I know how to do it
[..YouTube..] Thanks for the rekindling of a Mastermind, I would love to elaborate a little bit on what you’ve talked about, as Napoleon Hill was first introduced to the concept of a mastermind through Andrew Carnigie, who was the Steel Giant of the early 1900′s. Andrew spoke about how to build a Mastermind by getting a group of people with different perspectives that come together to help attain specific goals. When you choose to create one keep that in mind as some people see the same others see differently
Thanks for the rekindling of a Mastermind, I would love to elaborate a little bit on what you’ve talked about, as Napoleon Hill was first introduced to the concept of a mastermind through Andrew Carnigie, who was the Steel Giant of the early 1900′s. Andrew spoke about how to build a Mastermind by getting a group of people with different perspectives that come together to help attain specific goals. When you choose to create one keep that in mind as some people see the same others see differently
[..YouTube..] When looking at an internal Mastermind, Napoleon spoke about Making a board room and placing in the seats people who inspire you and who you respect. He speaks about studying these people so then when you have your internal board meetings your capable of being able to see through their perspective more easily.
When looking at an internal Mastermind, Napoleon spoke about Making a board room and placing in the seats people who inspire you and who you respect. He speaks about studying these people so then when you have your internal board meetings your capable of being able to see through their perspective more easily.
[..YouTube..] Great Video by the way Gideon, I am going to be going over your older video’s to rekindle everything that you have taught about video and how to use it. I am currently putting together a Blog and am still to get over my own boundaries of putting my mug on video. Even with this I should be giving it in a video response and not typing it. Soon I will be getting in front of the camera. Keep up the good work.
Great Video by the way Gideon, I am going to be going over your older video’s to rekindle everything that you have taught about video and how to use it. I am currently putting together a Blog and am still to get over my own boundaries of putting my mug on video. Even with this I should be giving it in a video response and not typing it. Soon I will be getting in front of the camera. Keep up the good work.
All you online marketing guys seem to have no product at all to sell apart from the knowledge about how to sell something online…but what the heck have you actually sold as a product in your life? I don´t get it…
Thank’s Gideon for another inspiring video. I read the book you mentioned a few times, and have had many ideas from it. One idea was to write my own adventure novel and market it online. Thanks for helping.
Thanks Gideon! Another Great Video!
Thanks for the great video! We are currently working with a mastermind group and sharing great ideas so far. Let you know how it works in the long run!
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thanks for the great videos. you have really helped me in the beginning stages of creating my channel. i believe the “invisible mastermind” you are referring to is the invisible counselors technique and it is one that can help tremendously in anything you are trying to do. it helps you tap into the infinite intelligence contained in the either to get answers to questions you have no other means of answering. I highly recommend trying it. I am also a firm believer in the master mind thanks again.