The goal of the sales conversation is to determine the needs of the prospective member and to see if your mastermind group is a good fit for them (and you).

Selling has gotten a bad reputation because consultants try to sell to anyone with a pulse and a wallet. If you approach the sales conversation as a mutual and respectful opportunity to discover the needs of your prospective member, you won’t feel so slimy and “salesy.” After all, you are in business to help others achieve their goals, right?

Are you and your prospect a good fit?

The only way you’ll fill your mastermind group is to discover if the two of you are a good fit. There are three questions you want to answer in the sales conversation:

• Does this prospect have similar goals to the others in the group and/or similar problems the group can help them solve? (In short, are they peers?)
• Are they motivated to work on their goals and solve their problems right away?
• Do they have the money to invest in your mastermind group?

Your sales conversation agenda is designed to answer these three questions.

If they’re not a good fit or motivated to take action, you’ll have a difficult time closing the sale. If they don’t want to spend money, you’ll have a rough time, too.

Are you ready to sharpen your facilitation skills and learn powerful group techniques for running thriving mastermind groups? Join me for Mastermind Group Facilitator Training. In this self-paced online learning program, we focus on developing new facilitation skills so you can run awesome mastermind group meetings, helping your members achieve their goals and solve problems quickly. Save $150 if you register by February 16!

The 6 steps in the sales conversation process

• Step 1: Determine your goals before the meeting
• Step 2: Determine their needs and wants
• Step 3: Determine their motivation level and their timeline
• Step 4: Determine their budget
• Step 5: Determine if your mastermind group is the best option for them
• Step 6: Answer questions and handle objections

Step 1 is crucial — What do you want to get from the conversation? Do you want to close the sale immediately in the meeting? Or book another appointment to make the final decision?

Steps 2 through 4 — these are accomplished by asking your prospect good coaching/consulting questions and listening fully and respectfully to their answers. Here are seven questions to ask during this phase of the discussion.

The 7 questions to ask in a sales conversation

It helps to write a “sales script” in advance of your meeting. This way, you’re not floundering around trying to find the right questions during the sales meeting with a prospective member.

1. What are your goals? — For instance, if you’re talking to a small business owner, you might ask, “What are you trying to create for your business? Do you have a clear vision of where your business will be a year from now?”
2. What does your world look like today? — This helps establish a baseline. Your mastermind group helps them get from where they are today to where they want to be a year from now. This way, they can see progress when they’re part of your group.
3. What’s stopping you from reaching your goals? — It’s important to find out what’s holding them back. Do they need practical knowledge and skills? Or do they need personal development help, like making good decisions, creating action plans, managing time, and dealing with limiting beliefs? Are there problems they need to solve?
4. What outcomes do you want from working with someone like me in a mastermind group setting? — What are their expectations of working in a mastermind group with you and the other members?
5. What happens if you don’t work on your problems now? — Ask them to imagine what their world will look like if they procrastinate. For instance, you might ask, “How will you feel if you don’t reach your goals?” or “What happens if you don’t solve this problem?”
6. What’s your timeframe for getting help or solving this problem? — You want a sense of whether they’re ready to get started right away or if these goals are for some vague point in the future. Here is where you get a sense of their motivation level.
7. What’s your budget? — How much are they willing to spend to reach their goals and solve the problems along the way?

Certainly, there are deeper levels of sophistication when writing your sales script and having a sales conversation. However, these seven questions will get you moving in the right direction as you’re perfecting your sales skills.

Question #3 is tricky

Be prepared for this common answer: “I don’t know why this problem exists” or “I don’t know what the problem really is, I only know that I’m not moving towards my goals.”

Part of the reason they’re looking to join a mastermind group is to clarify why things aren’t going smoothly. If they can’t answer question #3, just move on.

Finding the matching service or product

Step 5 — Once you get through these seven questions, decide if they are a good fit for your mastermind group. Suggest that they either join your group or if that’s not a good fit, tell them about your other products/services that might be a good match.

Perhaps working one-on-one with you is the better solution for them. Maybe you have a workshop that would be perfect for them.

Unless you’re working with a corporate client, most people won’t know their budget, or they’ll only have an intuitive sense of what they’re willing to pay. If they’ve joined other groups before (or paid for workshops, etc.), they might have a more concrete range they’re willing to pay. If they don’t have a budget in mind, tell them the fee for your mastermind group, then determine if it’s is within their price range.

Don’t forget the final steps in this process

Steps 6 — Answer any questions and ask for the sale. If you think they’re a good fit, tell them you’d like to have them in your mastermind group and help them achieve their goals.  Explain why your mastermind group is the right fit based on the needs, timeframe, and budget they shared in the meeting.

And if you don’t think it’s a good fit, tell them so.

Then be prepared to answer any questions they have and to deal with any objections to moving forward.

I wish you much success with your next prospect meeting!

The post The 7-Question Mastermind Group Sales Script appeared first on The Success Alliance.

Recently in a mastermind group meeting, a member (let’s call him Marty) shared with us how he had created some beautiful graphics for his Facebook page. Marty had taken all day to find the right stock photos and then modify them with his well-crafted text. This was clearly a task that needed to get done, and he did it extremely well.

Meanwhile, Marty forgot his big vision, which was to get more speaking engagements so that he could build his audience and fill his mastermind groups.

What’s happening when a member does this?

Several factors could be in play: self-sabotage (for any number of psychological reasons), not clear on his real goal, no longer committed to his goal, distractions, etc.

There’s one widespread and often overlooked reason that I call Staying in Your Success Bubble.

We all have things we do well that we feel competent in doing.

Pause for a moment, close your eyes, and list for yourself five things you do really, really well.

Now ask yourself: How did it feel when you were thinking of those five things? I bet it felt great! These are five tasks that you can do seamlessly, flawlessly. They’re not necessarily effortless, but your confidence level is extremely high, allowing you to complete these tasks or use these skills with ultimate effectiveness.

And that’s not a bad thing, but…

Are these the right things to be doing NOW, to complete your goals? Are you the right person to be doing these tasks?

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Marty did the right task at the wrong time. He did it because he was extremely comfortable in creating graphics, and not so comfortable trying to book speaking gigs.

Marty stayed in his success bubble, where he felt confident and competent, and used the excuse that the graphics needed to be completed as his reason for working on them, while he let the more important and strategic task slide.

A smarter move would have been to outsource the graphics work to someone else and spend his time prospecting for speaking engagements, creating proposals, and contacting past speaking clients to ask about new opportunities.

What do you do when a mastermind group member stays in their success bubble?

Five things:

1. Let the member know what he’s doing; cite specific examples.
2. Ask him what it cost him to do the right task at the wrong time.
3. Ask him if this is a pattern in his life.
4. Ask him if he’s the right person to be completing that task. Can he delegate it to someone else so that he can focus on more strategic tasks – tasks that only he can do?
5. Ask him to create a 3-task project plan for the next three tasks to be completed so he can move forward on his big goal. Get him to select only the next three tasks so that he’s forced to prioritize and focus.

Moving outside our success bubbles requires personal growth. We must shift our habits, thinking, and patterns so we can move towards our vision. After all, that’s what mastermind groups are all about, isn’t it?

Help your member release himself from his Success Bubble and watch amazing things happen!

P.S. This is why you want to take complete notes about every mastermind group meeting. If Marty had only done this once, it would be a minor problem. But Marty had done this multiple times over the course of a year, and a pattern clearly emerged by reading through my notes about him.

The post Members Who Do the Right Thing at the Wrong Time appeared first on The Success Alliance.

Whether you’re looking to join a group or start one of your own, the design and purpose of the group must fit the needs of the members. From my perspective, the best way to think about it is that a mastermind group can include everything an accountability group does, but an accountability group rarely includes everything a mastermind group does.

As you design your group program, these distinctions help you communicate to your audience while marketing, so they know if your group is right for them. After all, what you promise in your marketing has to reflect the value they’ll get by joining your group. It sets expectations for their behavior in your group, as well.

Let me give you an overview of both types of groups.

Accountability groups

The primary purpose of an accountability group is to help members reach a goal or complete a project. Because members want to be more productive and manage their time better, an accountability group is about getting things done. It’s about holding each other’s feet to the fire and being accountable for taking action – or inaction.

Accountability groups meet frequently because everyone is focused on making forward progress on goals and tasks. Meetings can be weekly with regular check-ins between meetings  (sometimes daily check-ins!).

• The group might include brainstorming solutions to problems, but decision-making and problem-solving on a deep basis is not their main focus. Sometimes it is only the facilitator who is available to answer questions and help solve problems (the rest of the group does not chime in on the conversation).
• Sometimes there is training in an accountability group, often centered around productivity and time/task management.
• Some accountability groups are preceded by a workshop on a topic, and that workshop topic is also the focus of the accountability group. For instance, first members attend a workshop on designing your website and later join an accountability group to help you as you design your website and get it published live.
• Some groups are focused solely on action planning and getting things done (and don’t include any training or brainstorming).

In accountability groups, it’s often the role of the group facilitator to hold individual members accountable. However, in a mastermind group, everyone holds each other accountable…

Mastermind groups

The focus of a mastermind group, like an accountability group, is to help members reach their goals. But a mastermind group includes much more: a strong portion of brainstorming, problem-solving, decision-making, and sharing of ideas, solutions, and resources. A large part of each meeting is devoted to individual Hot Seats, where each member can share a challenge or question, and everyone (including the facilitator and all members) helps the person in the Hot Seat.

While some accountability groups can have a strong community focus, mastermind groups are always community-focused. It’s about the members helping each other. The role of the facilitator is two-fold: to mentor and advise individual members, and to manage the group dynamics and discussion, which creates a strong, trusting community of members. When accountability is part of a mastermind group, the facilitator tracks action plans and results for individual members — and all members act as a supportive team.

Mastermind groups often include accountability and action planning as part of their overall design. Plus, mastermind groups include strategic thinking, decision-making, and sharing of best practices. A crucial component is where all the members help each other to achieve more and reach their goals.

• Some mastermind groups include a heavy focus on accountability, other groups either have no accountability focus or use a very light touch (everyone simply shares their goals with occasional short check-ins during meetings).
• Sometimes mastermind groups include a workshop prior to the mastermind group so that everyone starts at the same education level. (That’s what I love about mastermind groups — you can design your group to include everything your members need: coaching, consulting, training, masterminding, accountability.)

Can your group be both?

Yes, of course. Some accountability groups include masterminding, and some mastermind groups have a strong accountability focus.

Don’t get hung up on the name:

• If the group you’re designing has a heavy focus on accountability, and that’s why your members join, then call it an “accountability group” (even if it includes masterminding).
• If the main benefit of the group is sharing best practices, solving problems, and making strategic decisions, and a key focus is on the community (with some accountability and action planning included), call it a “mastermind group.”

Above all else, the name and definition of your group must resonate with your audience and what they’re seeking in life.

The post Mastermind Groups versus Accountability Groups appeared first on The Success Alliance.

In this blog post, I share insights, strategies and exercises for changing the way you ask clients to set goals, deal with fear and resistance to change, and hold them accountable for reaching their goals. You can use these immediately in your very next meeting with clients!

The growing edge

When studying motivation, we know there is a “growing edge” where you are most likely to accomplish your goals and move forward on your dreams. Setting goals on this growing edge is a simple skill to learn,  but you have to work with your clients for them to get it just right. Here’s why:

• If you tell yourself something that’s not true, your brain begins to reject all further internal conversation. Let’s say your goal is to double your revenue. If you use postitive affirmations (“I can easily double my revenue!”), your brain says, “Huh? That’s not true!”
• We want to find statements that are true so your brain doesn’t push back too much.
• The growing edge is the place in your mind that says two things that are true: that the goal is challenging AND the goal is doable; that is the place where the most growth can arise without self-sabotage.

Finding that sweet spot is an important task — even if it’s the uncomfortable conversation at first. As a coach, consultant, or facilitator, you can lead them through this journey. I’ll outline it below.

We often resist changes in our life

Fear will inevitably arise as you work on your goals and dreams. Your growing edge goal will naturally bring up your resistance to change — and it should. Resistance shows you where you need to stretch yourself. Tell your clients, “Keep your focus on the vision of possibility while respecting the fears that come up. Don’t spend energy pushing fear away, simply acknowledge that it exists.”

It’s okay to make mistakes as you work through the steps to finishing a big project or reaching a major goal. Taking risks is welcome because it releases creativity and imagination.

How to find your growing edge

When looking for your growing edge goal, always start with the truth of where you really are right now. Do not start with your history or what has prevented you from moving forward in the past. Instead, always start with what’s true right now and your vision for your future.

Many people have two dreams, two visions

You have two ways you look at your future:

• the “big dream” for the distant future (an all-encompassing dream of how we’d like things in the future)
• the “short-term dream” of what can be accomplished today, or this week, or this month.

It’s important to keep both dreams in your mind simultaneously when doing this work because that is where your passion and energy reside.

Where do you want to be a year from now?

And where do you want to be by the end of next month?

What’s your growing edge today?

Your growing edge goals will encompass those projects you need to complete and the habits you have to change, which are both challenging and doable.

• Don’t pick goals that are too easy to do — you won’t put the effort or energy into them the way you would if the goal fired you up.
• On the other hand, don’t pick goals that are so difficult or outside your comfort zone that you’ll resist doing them.

Find the growing edge, the middle ground that ignites your vision and energy, and that will ask you to grow as a human being, without tipping you so far into a goal or project that you’re instantly feeling overwhelmed.

Want to learn how to start a mastermind group? Click here to get my free video tutorial on how to create a mastermind group of your own.

Your mastermind group can hold you accountable

Each growing edge is unique and no two people have the exact same growing edge — even if they have the same goal.

Say that you run a business-building mastermind group. Everyone in the group wants to increase revenue, but each member’s individual growing edge will be a different revenue number.

In a mastermind group, all members should be aware of each other’s growing edge. In this way, they can your feet to the fire.

Your mastermind partners should always be asking you: Are you on the growing edge? Or are you either playing safe or overcommitting?

Accountability plays a key role here. Your mastermind group may encourage you to set big goals. But they also make sure you implement your plans and look for failure points.

It’s easy, fun and exciting for a group to come up with huge, wonderful goals for each member. But it’s harder for the individual member to achieve those goals without the group brainstorming and support that happens each month as you implement your action plan. Make sure your group is encouraging you to grow and that you’re all helping each other by making sure those goals are on the growing edge.

For mastermind group facilitators, coaches and consultants

Try these exercises with your clients/members:

• Ask them to define their big picture goal and their one-month goal — are those two goals in alignment?
• When defining their big picture goal, are they choosing goals that are both challenging and doable? Are they on their growing edge? (Hint: this is a great exercise for the group to do together, helping each other craft and refine growing edge goals. It helps them learn the process so they can do it on their own later.)
• How will they help identify the growing edge of the other members and hold them accountable?
• How will individual members self-identify when they’re getting off track and how will they course correct to get back on track?
• How will they identify and discuss fear, resistance to change, and the setting of goals which are too easy or too difficult?

The post Setting Yearly Goals: Are you helping clients to grow? appeared first on The Success Alliance.

• One prospective member is ready to join right away! They’re super excited to join your group and can’t wait to jump in and get started. They are your “hottest” prospects.
• There’s another type who has to think about it. Perhaps the timing isn’t right for their schedule. Or they need to work on their financial budgets so they can join in the future. Maybe they’re just getting to know you and aren’t ready to work with you yet. They are your “warm” prospects.

Which ones do you market to?

Ideally, you market to both your hot and warm prospects.

I know — you want to fill your mastermind group now! You’re eager to jump ahead and have your first meeting with your new group, so you want to nudge people into joining today.

But not everyone is ready to become a member during your marketing campaign. It’s foolish to ignore those people who are interested but not ready to join. I’ve had people join my mastermind groups after being on my mailing list for 3 years. They waited until the time was right for them.

And I have had some mastermind group members join when they visited my website yesterday and have never been on my mailing list. They saw the offer on my site, liked it, and contacted me to join.

Take a moment to think about a “split marketing plan” — with one path for those who want to join quickly, and a separate path for those who want to join later.

Get them while they’re hot

A portion of your audience will be ready to join immediately. Depending on your existing relationship with them and how much they trust you, I would estimate this to be 5% to 20% of your entire audience (higher if you’ve been warming them up all along). If they’ve just completed another program with you, like a training program, then they’re ready to take the next step after working with you over several weeks or months, and they might be 50-60% willing to say yes to your offer.

When marketing to this group, test the waters to see if they’re ready to join. Tell them about your mastermind group and offer to set up some time to talk together about whether your mastermind group is a good fit for them based on their goals and needs. If they don’t take you up on that offer, then put them in the warm prospects audience.

If they are ready, then they’re in the hot prospects group, and you’ll move forward with the sales process and onboarding them as new members.

Get them when they’re ready

But what do you do with the other 80% who aren’t ready?

Some people say, “Just ignore them — only go for the people who are ready to join today.”

That’s crazy!

You are building a relationship with these people. They might join one of your mastermind groups later, and since your next mastermind group won’t be your final mastermind group, you need a pipeline of people for future membership.

When marketing to this not-ready-to-join group, the focus is on sharing valuable ideas and content that help them feel that you are someone they can trust around your topic. Through your blog posts, podcasts, webinars, etc., you keep them in the loop. When it’s the right time for them to join a mastermind group, yours is the first they’ll think of joining.

Move them to a different part of your marketing campaign where you communicate with them regularly (but less often than you’re communicating with your hot prospects). From time to time, test the waters by announcing you have available seats in your mastermind group.

Every prospective member moves forward at their own pace. It’s your job to walk alongside them as they journey through your world.

But whatever you do, don’t treat them like they’re all the same when it comes to your marketing campaigns!

The post Hot Prospects versus Warm Prospects appeared first on The Success Alliance.

Why is it so hard to decide on the best price for your services?

It’s because you don’t have clear guidelines for making this kind of decision. How can you make a wise decision if you don’t know the criteria to consider?

Here are the 7 guidelines I use when pricing my services (private consulting, live classes, and mastermind groups) and my products (self-study programs, books):

1. What is it worth?

What results or outcomes will people get from the product or service you’re selling?

This is, above all, the most important piece in your decision-making process.

• If you’re helping someone grow their business, it’s worth it to them to spend the money because they’ll get the result they want quicker than if they work on their own.
• If you’re helping someone finally write their first novel, or lose weight, or climb the career ladder, it’s worth it to them.

Define the specific results people will get from your products and services. The clearer you are on the true value your offer provides to your client, the easier it will be to charge a solid fee for what you’re offering. These can be practical, tangible results and psychological results. A business owner can Google how to write a business plan and get the same tangible results (the written plan), but they’ll get it done more quickly, with more strategic insights, and fewer costly mistakes by working with you.

2. What is your brand?

Are you a high-end brand, and therefore charge high-end prices for all your offerings? Or a middle-of-the-road brand?

Your pricing needs to be aligned with the brand image you’re creating.

• If you want a high-end brand image, you can’t charge $50 a month for group coaching. It wouldn’t make sense to your high-end clients who are used to paying more for the highest quality or exclusive access.
• If you want to be seen as an “everyday person” brand, then you can’t offer a $35,000 mastermind group, because that price point isn’t reasonable to the “everyday person” you’re trying to attract.

Decide now what your brand represents and if your pricing is in alignment with your brand and its message.

3. How does your audience think about money?

People react differently to spending money: some cautiously spend money, and others are more carefree about spending money.

• I had a client who had a profitable solo business and took home $400,000 a year. Yet she bought her “fun” clothes at a discount store because she didn’t want to spend money on more expensive clothing.
• I’ve had a client who made $35,000 a year in his new business. He purchased a $12,000 mastermind group because he wanted to surround himself with smart people who would help him get to the next level and hold him accountable.

Why do people spend money the way they do? What makes them choose one purchase over another?

To get inside the minds of your clients, ask them what they’ve purchased in the past two years to help them work towards their goals, and what they paid for each of the items they purchased. Ask them how they think about buying decisions, what criteria they use (linear mind), and how these purchases make them feel (emotional benefit).

Want to learn how to start a mastermind group? Click here to get my free video tutorial on how to create a mastermind group of your own.

4. What do YOU think about money?

I see business owners falling into this trap often! They use their own beliefs about money and project that belief onto their entire audience.

• If you are uncomfortable investing in a $400 per month mastermind group, you’ll be uncomfortable asking others to join your group at that same price point.
• If you would never pay $1,500 for a workshop, you’ll resist charging your students $1,500 for your own workshop.

Get clear on your own money personality, and DO NOT assume everyone thinks about money the same way you do.

People have all types of “money personalities” when it comes to investing to solve a problem or to move forward faster. If you’re a cautious buyer, you might think everyone in your audience is also a cautious buyer. If you jump in quickly to invest in a product or service you want, it doesn’t mean all your prospects act the same way.

5. What is the price of your other offerings?

In the eyes of the customer, the fee for your mastermind group should be less than working with you one-on-one, but more than if they take a class with you (they don’t get as much attention from you in a class). So a client might spend $750/session working with you privately, but only $400/month to join your mastermind group.

Look at your pricing ladder and make sure your tiers make sense: are the prices for all your products and services in alignment?

6. Does the math work?

If you sell your offering at the price you want, will you make enough profit to hit your financial goals?

If you find that you can’t reach your profit goals at the prices you’re charging, you’ll have to increase your prices. But if you find that you can’t increase your prices with the existing audience you have, it’s time to rethink your business model and strategy. Maybe you’re going after the wrong segment of your target audience. Or maybe there’s a leveraged service or product you could offer that would be within your audience’s price range and still be more profitable to you.

7. Is it scalable?

Imagine you set a price for your consulting program. It’s profitable at that price point – but can you grow it?

There was a time in my consulting business that I was working with 30 clients a month. The price point was perfect, and clients streamed in. But I could not find the time to squeeze in Client #31. I had hit my ceiling.

Increasing my prices led to buyer resistance — and just the right pricing strategy led to fewer clients paying more money, which increased my profitability and used fewer hours.

If you can’t increase the number of client hours, can you either increase the number of sales you make or increase your price? Or can you offer a more scalable option, like group coaching or mastermind groups, instead of working one-on-one? This way, you’ll reach your financial goals without you and your team experiencing burnout.

In the end analysis, smart pricing rests on what’s included in the offer and the results the client will get.

So how do you know if your price is right? Put it out in front of your audience and see if they buy. Surveys won’t work – people are notoriously bad at estimating what they’d be willing to pay for something in the future. (We simply aren’t good at guessing what we’ll do in the future. It’s a common problem with surveys and market research work.) They’ll make a real buying decision about pricing only when the offer is in front of them. My best advice is to put an offer out there and see how your audience responds.

Related Blog Post

• Mastermind Group Fee Setting

The post 7 Guidelines to Finally Unravel Your Pricing Problems appeared first on The Success Alliance.

The supportive group behaviors

We think and act differently in groups than we do on our own. We work better because it’s motivating to be part of a group. You form clearer goals, make wiser decisions, and take consistent action toward your goals when you witness others in your group doing the same thing. Working in a group makes your members feel they are part of a community.

Psychologists find that smaller groups work in a more cohesive manner. According to a study by Michael J. Saks, PhD., they studied the use of 6-person juries versus 12-person juries. In the end analysis, he indicates, “In smaller groups, members shared more equally in the discussion, found the deliberations more satisfying, and were more cohesive.” This is one reason I recommend smaller mastermind groups versus larger ones: you can take discussions deeper and create stronger bonds among members.

The behaviors that harm the group

Groups can support and encourage us. But we do odd things in groups that reduce our effectiveness.

• Groups have a psychological need for a sense of harmony among the members. In the “groupthink” norm, people modify their ideas to go along with what the majority wants so they don’t rock the boat. But in a mastermind group, this can be deadly. As the mastermind group Facilitator, tell your members about this social phenomenon and assure them that each individual idea is important, even if it doesn’t match what the others are saying. Sometimes the best ideas are generated by outlier thinking, not consensus thinking.
• “Social loafing” means avoiding effort because you think someone else in the group will pick up the slack. When you are facilitating a meeting, pay attention: Is everyone participating equally? Or do some members sit back and let the others do all the work and share all the ideas? Are the conversations deep and impactful, or do they only flit across the surface? Also note: As a group grows in size, social loafing increases.

The Google Team study explains it: On the good teams, members spoke in roughly the same proportion. As long as everyone got a chance to talk, the team did well. But if only a few people dominated the conversation, the collective intelligence declined.

And that’s what mastermind groups are all about — sharing the collective intelligence. We can’t control instinctual group social behavior. But we can be aware of group psychology and watch out for it in our own mastermind groups. Then, bring it up in your meetings and have your members discuss it.

The post The Psychology of Mastermind Groups appeared first on The Success Alliance.

1. Questions you ask directly after the preamble, so everyone is clear about what help the member is requesting. (The preamble in a mastermind group meeting is when a member first takes the hot seat and explains their situation and what they need help with.)
2. Questions you ask during the masterminding portion of the meeting, designed to dig deeper and understand the entire situation.

What’s the difference?

What’s the distinction between Preamble clarifying questions and Masterminding clarifying questions?

• Preamble Clarifying Questions – The first type of clarifying question happens directly after the preamble. The member in the Hot Seat defines his focus and shares his backstory. Then, all the members (including the Facilitator) ask clarifying questions to make sure they understand where the member wants to focus. This is not the time for a fact-finding mission into the depths of the jungle! Instead, the purpose of these clarifying questions is to make sure you understand what help is being requested. Is there anything in the member’s request for help that’s confusing? Is it clear what type of help the member wants and needs? (There are 10 types of help he could be requesting – we need to pinpoint it.)
• Masterminding Clarifying Questions – The second type of clarifying question is used during the masterminding and brainstorming portion of the Hot Seat. Sometimes we need to know more about their situation, or what they’ve already thought about or already tried. We need to understand their goals and why this problem is arising now. We are seeking deeper information, fact-finding, historical context, motivation, challenges, limiting beliefs, vision, and values.

Let me share an example

Joe comes to his Hot Seat with this Question and Backstory:

Question:

How much should I limit who can be in my mastermind group?

Backstory:

My first mastermind group didn’t seem focused enough and people didn’t feel compelled to join it. The more I learn about mastermind groups, the more I see that facilitators have a background of skills and knowledge that they use to focus their groups around specific topics or specific goals.

I have a background both as a business owner for many years and many personal growth topics I’ve studied, so I could use any of those topics for my next mastermind group and make it more focused.

From Joe’s Question and Backstory, are you clear about what type of help Joe is asking for?

There are so many ways to interpret what he’s said.

A million possible clarifying questions spring to mind

There is so much more we’d like to know about Joe so we can help him. We’re just itching to ask a million questions, right?

Here’s where the distinction between the Preamble clarifying question and the Masterminding clarifying questions becomes apparent.

Look at this list below — which questions will help you understand what help he needs from the group (preamble questions), and which questions will give you deeper insight into Joe’s situation (masterminding questions)?

Preamble Clarifying Questions:

• Joe, are you asking “Should I limit the focus of my mastermind group?” or are you asking, “I plan to limit the focus of my mastermind group — how tight should the focus be?” (PREAMBLE – This is the perfect type of question to ask directly after the Preamble so that we can understand what help Joe is asking from the group. We need to know if he’s already made the decision to narrow the focus/topic of his groups and wants to talk about the next step, or if he needs help deciding if he actually should narrow the focus.)
• Joe, are you really asking us who is right for your group? Your original Question was “How much should I limit who can be in my mastermind group?” but I’m not sure if you’re asking about who your prospective members should be, or if you’re asking about the topic of your group? (PREAMBLE – Joe did pose his Question in a way that could be interpreted as him asking about who should or should not be in his group. But his Backstory implied the problem was in the topic of his mastermind group not who the members were. So, his Question didn’t clearly reflect which of these two topics was most important to him.)
• Did people tell you why they weren’t interested in your first mastermind group offer? (PREAMBLE – only because his Question should be, “Why didn’t people feel compelled to join my first mastermind group and how can I target my next group to a more receptive audience?”)
• Who is the target audience for your mastermind groups? (PREAMBLE – only because it’s possible that his Question really is, “Why did the specific people I invited to my first mastermind group not show interest in it?”)

Masterminding Clarifying Questions:

• What type of business did you own? (MASTERMINDING – gathering historical information)
• Is your mastermind group related to your business and are you offering your mastermind group to the same audience? (MASTERMINDING – while it’s important to know the context of the problem, this question doesn’t clarify what help he’s seeking from the group. This is a fact-finding question.)
• What personal growth topics are you interested in? (MASTERMINDING – unless this is part of his mastermind group, this is merely a question asked out of curiosity and not pertinent to Joe’s hot seat.)

The first set of clarifying questions, asked directly after the Preamble, makes sure we all understand the Question and that Joe has chosen the right Question for his Hot Seat. This allows all the other members to have a narrow focus and deep conversation around one specific topic.

Once we know that, and we move on to the masterminding portion of the Hot Seat, we can ask fact-finding and insight-finding questions to probe deeper and find solutions.

Related Posts:

• Case Study: Clarifying the Hot Seat Prep
• How to Frame a Hot Seat Topic

The post Two Types of Mastermind Clarifying Questions appeared first on The Success Alliance.

The key indicator of a “true mastermind group” is that each person regularly gets to be in the Hot Seat and the entire group brainstorms with that person. That means you need to schedule each member to be in the Hot Seat in every meeting (or every other meeting).

Some facilitators want to scale their mastermind group business and cut corners by making members wait months to get in the Hot Seat.

Or they call it a mastermind group, but conduct it more like a question-and-answer session where the mentor provides all the answers.

Here are some tips and solutions to help you deliver the highest value to your mastermind group members.

The strongest value a member gets out of a mastermind group is the chance to be in the Hot Seat

When the member gets to pose their problem or question, it forces them to gain clarity about what specific help they’re asking for. Then, having a small group of people brainstorm around that problem/question brings tons of creativity to the process, yielding innovative solutions and insights. The member in the Hot Seat walks away with many more ideas and solutions than he could generate on his own. That is why people join mastermind groups.

Imagine that you have one meeting a month, but your group is so large that only one-third can be in the Hot Seat each month. That means each member gets a turn every three months. I can’t see how they’d find enough value to pay for a group where they’re only getting in the Hot Seat every three months. (In this case, consider running your group every 2 weeks so that members of a large group can get in the Hot Seat more often during the month.)

Want to learn how to start a mastermind group? Click here to get my free video tutorial on how to create a mastermind group of your own.

Is listening enough?

It’s true: there is a ton of value members get from listening to all the ideas and solutions generated for others. I often watch a table full of members furiously taking notes during someone else’s Hot Seat. Remember, the members of a mastermind group are peers and often have similar situations. One member’s Hot Seat can be helpful to the entire group.

But…listening to someone else’s Hot Seat is like standing under an apple tree and hoping an apple will fall just when you want one. The topic one member wants to discuss might not be important to you. Being in the Hot Seat is like climbing a ladder and plucking an apple — just the right apple — when it’s the perfect time to eat an apple.

What about shorter Hot Seats?

One solution is to reduce the time for each Hot Seat. I’ve seen people get much value from a 10-minute Hot Seats. The trick is for members to be concise — the person in the Hot Seat can only take one or two minutes to describe his situation. Otherwise, too much time is taken explaining the challenge or need, and not enough time is spent brainstorming ideas and solutions.

Super-short Hot Seats are problematic for several reasons:

• The person in the Hot Seat cannot fully explain his situation. This leads to misunderstandings about the help he’s seeking.
• The other members can share the main concept of their idea or solution, but they can’t get to the details. It’s frustrating for everyone to get a taste but not the full meal!
• People aren’t always skilled at delivering concise ideas. Unless you prep the group well, members are going to think on their feet, which means they need time to talk through their ideas. (And you always have the dreaded problem of people who talk too much.)
• There’s no room for discussion, for broadening ideas or deep-diving into topics.
• Some members might not be able to participate because you run out of time. One of the values of membership is that you get to help the other members.

Because of these drawbacks, I find these short Hot Seats do more harm than good and should be used sparingly or in another setting, like a Jam Session.

The challenge of scalability

Some of my clients want to scale their mastermind group business and have large groups. But if you have 20 or 40 people in a group, it brings up logistic problems and can limit true masterminding and brainstorming discussions.

In some groups, especially very large ones, it’s more like a group coaching program than a mastermind group: one person is in the Hot Seat, the mentor does laser coaching with that person, and all the other people sit silently and observe. In a true mastermind group, everyone gets involved in the conversation. That’s the power of peer brainstorming!

It’s not masterminding if there’s no peer brainstorming in every meeting. Otherwise, it’s really group coaching or a Q+A session, that’s being called a mastermind group.

Overall, my best advice is to design your mastermind group so that members get to rotate through the Hot Seat as often as possible. It might mean you need to re-think your group design or the way you facilitate meetings!

The post Do Mastermind Group Members Need to be in the Hot Seat Every Time? appeared first on The Success Alliance.

And if you’re a trained, professional coach (I’m talking about the International Coach Federation standards), you’ll have to unlearn some of your communication patterns and boundaries to become an extraordinary mastermind group facilitator.

It’s about learning to switch hats and know when to use each of your coaching, facilitation, teaching, and consulting skills when running a mastermind group.

It took me a long time to master this!

Here are some tips, based on whether you’re a teacher, consultant or coach to make the transitions smooth and easy.

If you’re a teacher, advisor or consultant…

In most mastermind groups, the facilitator is the expert on the topic. That’s why people want to join your group and work with you. You’re used to giving advice and being seen as “the teacher” and “the expert.”

Now, you have to shift to a new mindset: “The answer is in the room — but it doesn’t have to come from me.”

Definitely, the answer shouldn’t come from you first: the point of a mastermind group is that the members coach and advise each other first, then you add any missing pieces at the end of each Hot Seat.

Want to learn how to start a mastermind group? Click here to get my free video tutorial on how to create a mastermind group of your own.

You have to take off your consultant or teacher hat, and put on your facilitator hat: don’t be the first to jump in with the answer or the question. Allow the group to help each other first. In this way, you teach the group that you’re not going to be the first to respond, which increases participation in all discussions. Then, if the group misses something crucial, you can add in the missing pieces after the other members have shared their ideas.

Once I absorbed that, it was incredibly freeing to not have to be the only one with the answer. The power you feel when the discussion gets deep and productive is amazing, and you wouldn’t want to stifle that by always being the one with the answer.

If you’re a professional coach…

I graduated from CoachU. It was embedded into my consciousness throughout my professional coach training that coaches do not advise, they are not directive, and they don’t tell the client what to do.

The whole idea of a mastermind group is to share advice, brainstorm ideas, and share best practices.

For professional coaches, this can cause some angst: Can I still be a coach and a mastermind group facilitator? Can I still use all these wonderful coaching skills I have?

Of course, the answer is Yes. So many of the skills you learned in coach training (listening,  co-creating the relationship, designing actions, etc.) are hugely valuable in a mastermind group. You can even ask coach-like questions to garner insights.

This isn’t about only asking coach-like questions — you’ve got to be willing to give advice and share ideas, too. Mastermind groups aren’t the same as group coaching, and you’ll need to bring both coaching and mastermind group facilitation skills to the conversation.

Bring all your skills to the table

Think of it this way: you can use all your skills and talents as a mastermind group facilitator. Imagine a career where you can use the combination of your coaching, teaching, consulting, and group dynamics skills, all at the same time! It’s very liberating.

Just remember, as the facilitator, you’re the last to speak, not the first. Keep that forefront in your mind and you can’t go wrong.

The post Adapt Your Style: Coaching, Consulting, or Facilitating appeared first on The Success Alliance.