A mastermind or peer-to-peer advisory group offers founders practical feedback, helping them to develop empathy and follow through on plans and commitments.
Empathy, feedback, and follow through:
a Mastermind group helps founders thrive
SKMurphy Mastermind Origin Story: We have offered facilitated Mastermind (peer-to-peer advisory) groups to support entrepreneurs since 2011. We were encouraged to do so by entrepreneurs who attended Bootstrappers Breakfasts but wanted to meet with the same people each month. Like any good entrepreneur confronted with a suggestion for how to improve an offering, we initially rejected it.
When the first attendees said, “I don’t like having to explain myself each time to strangers who I am not sure I can trust,” I answered, “but that’s the whole point, the Bootstrappers Breakfast is a blind date with destiny.” When the third attendee said, “I really don’t like the blind date aspects of the breakfast,” I realized there might be a need for a distinct offering.
How a Mastermind group helps founders thrive
- Voicing aloud your perspective on a challenge and your plans to address it can cut down on second guessing. Putting it in writing and emailing it to the group can bring a lot of clarity and trigger suggestions for new perspectives and creative solutions from other group members you may not have considered.
- Like the Bootstrapper Breakfasts, it’s a chance to compare notes with other entrepreneurs who understand what it means to be a business owner with all of the attendant anxieties, responsibilities, and freedoms.
- But unlike the Breakfasts, it offers a chance to share concerns and challenges more deeply, with peers who understand what you have accomplished and what you are trying to achieve. There is a stronger sense of learning together and making progress together.
- A Mastermind group can bring your blind spots to your attention in a way that is more difficult for strangers–or family and friends, for that matter.
- The opportunity to describe your situation when it feels like a jumbled mess can help. It’s a chance to dump all of the puzzle pieces onto the table and ask others to help you sort and organize them.
- There is a sense of shared journey, that “I am not the only one who is experiencing this.” This can be a source of energy amid the natural ups and downs of the entrepreneurial roller coaster.
- Group feedback can also help you empathize with partners, customers, prospects, and employees. It is very useful to be able to walk around a situation and see it from multiple perspectives.
- The group can help review an email, a proposal, a demo, or a strategic plan for the quarter or the year before you pull the trigger.
- It’s important to set goals and hold yourself accountable, but many find that making commitments to a small group gives them extra incentive to follow through when their mojo is flagging. It’s equivalent to having a set of workout buddies who help you follow through on what you need to do to improve.
Why SKMurphy, Inc. Mastermind
At SKMurphy, Inc., we have been advising bootstrapping entrepreneurs for more than two decades and understand the challenges of the journey from zero to four million (in particular, the journey from zero to 100K in revenue) very well.
We have seen the many challenges that entrepreneurs face, mistakes they have made, and some creative problem-solving moves that can be repurposed to other situations. Heroics are often required, but must give way to routines and standard operating procedures if you want to grow to a sustainable business configuration and effort level.
If you’re curious about our Mastermind Groups, we host an open house once a month; you’re welcome to drop by. Signup at https://www.meetup.com/skmurphymastermind/
Related Blog Posts
- Peer Advice and Support for Startup Founders
- Benefits of an SKMurphy Mastermind
- SKMurphy Mastermind: A Peer Advisory Board
- A Mastermind Group Can Help Entrepreneurs Achieve Their Goals
- Four Services We Offer That Help Entrepreneurs Bootstrap a Business
- Seeing The Elephant: The Entrepreneur’s Challenge of Integrating Advice
- Scott Swaaley, Founder & CEO of MAKESafe Tools on SKMurphy’s Mastermind Group
- Why I Like Working with Entrepreneurs
- Planning and Reflection
- Peter Drucker on Why Entrepreneurs Reject Success
Image Credits
- SKMurphy Mastermind logo (c) SKMurphy, Inc., all rights reserved
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