Succeeding at work and life is no easy task. Often it feels like it’s you against the world. But what would it be like if you had a support group that could advise, encourage, and inspire you? What if this support group could help you focus on your goals and achieve them faster? Would you take advantage of such a group, if it existed?

If you don’t know about mastermind groups, Meet and Grow Rich is a great introduction to them. A mastermind group is a powerful alliance between people who help support and enlighten each other on the road to success. However, it’s much more than a support group for like-minded people. Mastermind groups bring together individuals who share the same goals and dreams and work together to achieve them. Though this book focuses primarily on using mastermind groups for achieving wealth and financial freedom, mastermind groups can be developed to focus on almost anything—from hobbies to spirituality to personal relationships. The only limit to what you can do with a mastermind group is your own imagination.

Meet and Grow Rich shows you how an effective mastermind group works, how to create and operate one yourself, and how to use it as a stepping stone to finan-cial success. You’ll discover how great entrepreneurs like Andrew Carnegie and William Wrigley Jr. used mastermind groups to achieve profound success and how you can follow in their footsteps to achieve your own version of spectacular success.

In addition to comprehensive coverage of the ins and outs of mastermind groups, this complete resource includes tips and tactics from a long list of contributors with firsthand expert knowledge of the subject. No matter what your passion—from making money to making art—you’ll find here all the expert advice and proven guidance you need to form your own inspiring, enlightening, and supportive mastermind group.

By Bill Hibbler

I was in the music industry for over 20 years, and my first mastermind group was a music biz group.

If you’re in a band, in a way, you’re in a mastermind, but I want you to look at this differently. And although there’s nothing wrong with having members of your band in your  mastermind, I recommend forming one with people outside the band.

For one thing, you’ll be able to speak freely if you’re having problems in the band. For another, you’ll benefit more by having outside people. After all, you’ve already got access to your band members and can mastermind with them in regular band meetings. Plus, you probably already spend a lot of time with the people in your band. It’s good to have some time away from them.

If you’re in a band, the ideal people to form a mastermind group with are band leaders from groups musically similar to yours. It’s not essential, but being in the same or similar genre opens up a lot of opportunities for gigs and other promotions that won’t work if you’ve got a mastermind group where one person does country, another does jazz, another blues, another rock, and you’re a rapper.

Also, the reason I suggest working with other band leaders is that they’ll be free to make decisions on behalf of their group. Or at least they will be a strong influence. That becomes important if you decide to do a show together or go in on a piece of gear or rehearsal space or any number of other projects you might consider.

Same thing goes if you’re a solo artist or a songwriter. If possible, work with people either in your genre or one that shares a similar audience.

In addition to the brainstorming benefits we’ve talked about throughout this book, a music industry group can open up a lot of doors for you.

For one thing, you can pool resources. You can negotiate better deals with rehearsal halls, music stores, and recording studios. In the case of the rehearsal hall, you can also share with some or all of the other members.

You can organize shows together. If you’ve tried to book your band, you know how hard it can be to get into certain rooms. If you usually get only 20 or 30 regulars at your show, that’s not going to impress a lot of club owners.

On the other hand, if you’ve got four, five, or even six bands with similar-size followings, you can promote the groups as a package and  guarantee a much larger audience.

Of course, club owners may point out that they book five or six bands a night all the time and some groups draw and others don’t. If that comes up, you can point out that your situation is different. If they do it the usual way, some bands will put up flyers, some will call everyone they know, but others will do nothing, resulting in a mediocre night.

Here’s why things will be different if they book you. And by the way, you can set up a short-term mastermind with several groups or artists for the sole purpose of promoting an event like this.

Rather than the usual cheap flyers, if you pool your money, you can afford to have a nice poster done. And rather than having just four or five people putting them up, you’ll be able to mobilize 20 to 30 band members, plus friends, family, roadies, and so on.

You’ll also be able to send out a sharp-looking postcard advertising the show to the combined mailing list of all the groups. You could also consider purchasing 30-second spots on late night radio. Usually those spots are cheap, sometimes $5 or $10 each, because the only people listening at that hour are night owls and hardcore music fans. That may not excite the station’s usual advertisers, but those are the exact people you’re trying to reach. Radio ads would normally be out of reach for a single group, but by pooling your money, you can afford them.

With a little creativity and the power of the mastermind, rather than another night at the club, your gig becomes an event with a buzz.
My friend Roger Igo managed and played in a funk band in Houston. He worked together with a couple of other local funk bands to put on a series of shows, which they called The Texas Funk Syndicate. Kind of a local version of Lollapalooza or Lilith Fair.

You could do the same thing. You’re far more likely to get noticed by the local media that way, too. It’s about building a buzz.

The fun doesn’t stop there, either. You can make your show more professional, more organized, and more entertaining using
the power of the mastermind.

How, you ask? Good question.

First of all, do you have to rent a trailer, van, or truck when you do a gig? Instead, have everyone go in on one truck. Or there might be someone in your mastermind group that has one. Even if every band has its own van, you can save gas money by using fewer vehicles and hauling each other’s gear.

For that matter, you can also share gear. That may not be comfortable for some drummers, but chances are you can share some of the backline. Not only will you have less gear to carry, but it’ll make set changes go much faster.

Do you have a road crew for your band? Maybe you have one person who helps out. By pooling your resources, you can put together a good crew and hire someone to run sound and lights who’s familiar with all the groups.

If you don’t have roadies, consider helping each other out. If you’re a guitar player there’s nothing wrong with being the guitar tech for one of the other bands before or after your set. They can return the favor when it’s your turn. Also, rather than having each band trying to sell its own CDs and merchandise from the back of the room, you can have one big table for all the groups, just like at the big concerts.

If you’re playing for the door, you probably know it’s a good idea to have someone on your team working the door with his or her own counter. But you may not always have someone you can spare to leave on the door all night. Now you will. With four or more groups working together, one or two people can cover the door for everyone.

Another variation on this theme, especially for a temporary mastermind group, is to choose members from groups in one or two nearby cities. Then book shows in each city. The hometown bands get to headline in their respective cities. You can also bus or get your fans to caravan to the neighboring cities so you’ve got a good crowd at all the gigs.

This is a great way to broaden your fan base and expand your circle of gigs. It’s also a win-win for all the bands involved. More legwork is involved, but you can still combine resources and print one poster for all the gigs.

How you organize all this is up to your mastermind group. One of the first things you’ll want to do when forming your group is make a list of all the skills, equipment, and resources available to each group member.

Let’s say one member’s bass player is also a graphic designer. Or maybe the singer’s boyfriend works for a screen printing company. If so, then let that group be in charge of designing the posters.

One of the groups involved might own a killer sound system and light show as well as a good-size truck. Maybe this group’s primary responsibility will be stage management, production, and transportation.

Things may not divide out evenly, but can you see the general idea here? It all starts with taking an inventory of each group’s resources, both human and material.

If you’re a solo artist, this plan can still work. If you normally perform solo, get together with five or six other acoustic acts. If you’re a singer who needs a backing group, form a group of singers. You can hire sidemen to be the backing band for the entire show, with each of you performing an entire set or just several songs each.

I’ve focused primarily on a live event scenario here, but there are far more potential benefits for a musician mastermind group. You could record a CD in a similar fashion, with each group having two or three cuts.

Or it can be something as simple as this. Let’s say you need a new bass player. Rather than just relying on the people you know to find a replacement, you can call on your mastermind group to help and suddenly have a much larger group of people helping you find that replacement.

You can compare notes with other members about what certain clubs are paying, which agents are ripping off bands, where
to find great deals on gear, and which local journalists are friendly to local artists.

Far too many musicians form a jealous rivalry with other bands and never cooperate. That’s a huge mistake. When bands work together, the music community always grows stronger. That happened in Seattle with the grunge bands in the early ’90s, the hair bands in LA and funk bands in Minneapolis in the ’80s, and in other music hotbeds over the years.

Form a musician mastermind group now and you’ll be amazed by the results.