You Are Not Alone… How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be

by Francis | Business, Self Development

How often do you put yourself in a situation where you are stimulated mentally, challenged and encouraged to step it up in your business physically, and inspired emotionally to do things beyond your wildest dreams?

If I can be honest, it didn’t happen too often in my entrepreneurial life – until I found an opportunity that quickly lifted me up and moved me into higher gear.

I think I can speak for a number of solo entrepreneurs when I say that: when you start your business, you expect it would take a lot of hard work to get it up and running successfully. But what you don’t expect is that in the process you become lonely and even start to feel distant from your family, your friends and even your social life. The reason for this is that even though everyone you know might be supportive, it is difficult to talk to them about your business, simply because they do not fully understand exactly what you do.  You then start to crave conversations with people who are on the same path as you – someone who understands your situation, the decisions that you have to make and the pressure you are under – just someone with whom you are able to talk about your business issues.

For me that “someone” came in the form of joining other like-minded entrepreneurs in a mastermind group. Apart from getting the mental stimulation and an influx of fresh, new ideas when talking to others about your business, you are also motivated and inspired to take action on those ideas. That creates growth in your business and takes you from where you are now, to where you want to be.

Here are three ways a mastermind group helped me to grow so much faster.

Harness the Power of “Access”

Over the course of my business, I realized that having access to the things you need to grow, is what changes your life and current business position. This includes having access to the right tools, roadmaps and shortcuts so you do not have to re-invent the wheel and spend endless time, effort and energy figuring things out on your own. Also, having access to a group of like-minded individuals for on-going support, encouragement and sharing best practices, is just priceless.

When I joined my first group, I thought I had quite an extended knowledge on running an online business in general. But it just blew my mind to hear about the innovative ideas from the other members as well. I was able to learn so much from the successes and mistakes of others. I received excellent advice on my own business challenges, and vice versa I felt that I was able to contribute to the group with my own experiences. Overall it was a huge confidence booster.

Masterminding gave me access to the combined thinking-power of a number of other individuals to receive the tools, shortcuts and support I need to progress faster in my business.

Start Thinking Bigger

To really achieve more in your business, you sometimes just have to get out of your own head, and your own way.

We limit ourselves with pitiful excuses why we cannot do something: “I’m not good enough. I’m not in business long enough. I don’t know enough. I can’t speak English well enough”. As well as fears of: “What will people think and say when I start doing xyz! I’ll deplete my finances when I do abc.” Etc. etc…

What I however found is that when you surround yourself with people in a mastermind group who are on the same journey as you, you suddenly realize that all those fears and excuses are just keeping you small, and that in fact:  Anything is possible. So you allow yourself to start thinking bigger.

You experience first-hand how other people have already done what you wanted to do – and they are not smarter, more knowledgeable or better than you. They just bit the bullet and did it! This is so motivating, because then you know you can do it too! That realization is not only empowering, but it also provides the inspiration to step up and take big leaps to grow your business faster.

 Be Accountable To Someone.

Accountability is something that we all could use more of in our businesses and our lives, right? As a solo-preneur it is easy to procrastinate and let things slide a little while longer, because there is no one who keeps you accountable to implement.  Sure, you could set goals and then try to keep yourselves on track. But the moment you know that someone else also knows about your plans and will keep you on top of it, you experience a whole new level of motivation and desire to accomplish things.

This new level of accountability is a natural progression of being part of a mastermind group. Subconsciously, nobody want to be the person who don’t make progress or who has to inform the group that you didn’t take action on what you’ve said you wanted to do. So as a result, you take more action, get the solutions and implement things faster. And in the end, you are astonished about what you’ve actually achieved over a short period of time.

So, whether you are starting out or own a well-established business, surrounding yourself with a group of advancing entrepreneurs offers an incredible opportunity to grow your business faster. In my own business it proved to be absolutely priceless. Both for my personal and professional growth.

It can do the same for you..

To your Success

P.S. If you have experienced the power of masterminding in your business already, please share with us in the comments below what you got out of it.

And by the way, if you feel masterminding is right for you at this stage and you want a mental, physical and emotional injection in your business,  have a look at the brand new Client Chemistry Mastermind Program starting on September 17^th, 2013. It is a carefully designed mastermind / coaching program to help you go from where you are now, to where you want to be. Click here for more details.

The Power of Association – Who Do You Hang Out With?

by Francis | Business, Self Development | 2 comments

Did you know there is power in association and that the people who you regularly hang out with have a huge influence on your attitude, your determination, your beliefs, your inspiration and the outcome of your success? They impact on how you think about things, how you act on things and on the decisions you make on a daily basis.

It’s true, and that’s why hanging out with the right people is important!

Jim Rohn said it best. He described the power of association in one sentence as:

“You’re the average of the five people you hang out with most”.

For solo-entrepreneurs, this can be a scary thing to comprehend, because in reality, who are the people we spend the majority of our time with?

• Perhaps a spouse or other family members who do not really, fully understand what we do and what we try to achieve with our business?
• Perhaps friends who have no real clue of the challenges of entrepreneurship and are subconsciously trying to convince us that having an online business is a complete waste of time?
• Perhaps moms at our kids’ after-school activities?
• Ourselves – alone at home doing our thing?

This is not a great list of powerful associations, right?

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To raise the quality of your life and business, hang out with people who already are where you want to be.Click here to tweet

And the scary thing about it is that if we take Jim Rohn’s quote literally, it means that everything about you and your business will average out to be similar to those five people whom you are currently spending most of your time with!

So, is there room for improvement on your list of the top 5 people you hang out with most?

If I just look at my own life and business, then there will always be room for some improvement!

SO….to raise the quality of your life and your business, hang out with people who can inspire and motivate you! People who have been there and done that – who reached the place where you want to be.  For example, if you want to become a better communicator, hang out with great communicators.  If you want to be more positive, hang around with more positive and optimistic people. If you want to be a terrific entrepreneur, have a thriving business and make lots of money, spend time in the company of people who have mastered the art of entrepreneurship and are already killing it online.

This is why there is so much truth in the saying “birds of a feather flock together”. Just take for example a flock of birds migrating over continents during changing seasons. If one bird attempts that long distance migration on his own, he won’t make it. If he tries to join just any flock of birds flying by, he might not end up where he wants to be. It is only when he joins his own kind; birds heading into the direction he wants to go into, that he will eventually reach his end destination.

It’s the same with people. When you want to advance in your business, it is worthwhile to think about the power of association. Surround yourself with “people like you”. Key people who are either on the same path as you, or more successful than you.

So, here’s what I hope you take from this article: Hanging out and surrounding yourself with the right people is priceless and you can use this power of association to grow your business. Thus who you associate with is too important to be left to chance.  Unfortunately, many solo-entrepreneurs never put it to work for themselves, because often their choice of who they hang out with is primarily driven by convenience or circumstances. But ultimately, you are in control and solely responsible for choosing who you associate with and who you spend your time with.

As a take-away assignment: look around and see who in your industry you want to spend more time with (online and offline). Who can you learn from? Whose business do you want to model your own business after? Then go out actively and start spending more time with them, learn from them and start working with them…

You Your Success!

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Masterminds: A Sure Way to Grow Your Business Fast

by Francis | Business, Self Development

I believe one of the most productive ways to grow your business fast is through joining a mastermind group.

Although most people are familiar with things like coaching or even group coaching, masterminding and being part of a mastermind group is still a fairly new concept to many.

So What is Masterminding / A Mastermind Group?

The idea of masterminding has been around for over 100 years but I first learned about the mastermind concept a couple of years ago through reading Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich.

At its core, a mastermind group consists of anything between 2-50 individuals (but typically around 8-10 people) who meet on a regular basis.  The group then combines the collective knowledge and experience of all these individuals with the core purpose to help each other succeed.

It is a place where you can surround yourself with people who you can learn from and who can help you build your business (and vice versa). Within these groups you can openly share obstacles and challenges in your business and then receive answers, feedback, support and encouragement from all the other members to help you move past these obstacles and challenges. It is also a perfect place to share and celebrate your successes – something that many solo-preneurs lack in their business – we often do not have people who understand and celebrate our business successes with us.

How Does a Mastermind Group Work?

The members of a mastermind meet regularly. This can be weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, depending on the group structure and needs. These meeting can be over the telephone or in-person.

A mastermind group can consist of only peers meeting regularly (typically free) or the group can have a leader who provides more structure and guidance (typically paid). Both types of groups are beneficial.

In my experience however, groups that offer the most benefit are paid groups since they have a leader / coach who can provide deeper training that is applicable to everyone in the group. Paid groups also have a clear advantage in that the members tend to participate much more in order to benefit from their investment.

How Can Masterminding Grow Your Business Faster?

Masterminding helps to spark new ideas on how to grow your business faster. This business growth usually happens when you hear yourself “think out loud” by sharing about what you do and growth also happens by listening to others where they either show you the way or just share about what happens in their own businesses.

Therefore, participating in a mastermind often gives you immediate results, because you leave each session with more wisdom, having a better perspective on your own business, feeling supported and being motivated to take bigger risks.

Your group also keeps you accountable and focused. This is something that we all could use more of in our businesses and our lives. Although it’s true that you can set your own goals and then try to keep yourself on track to achieve them, your commitment and desire to implement stuff is taken to a whole new level when you know someone else is also going to keep you accountable.

This added accountability is often the key to implement things faster – to not procrastinate on doing things. And we all know that when you take action on your goals and implement things, you get results. And with every result you get, you move closer to what you want to achieve in the end. So the faster you implement, the faster you grow and for me, that is one of the biggest benefit of a mastermind group.

Whether you are starting a new business or own a well-established business, you can benefit from the stimulating input that mastermind groups have to offer. When you surround yourself with other like-minded people who support you to reach your bigger goals, it becomes one of THE fastest ways to grow personally, and to grow your business. The saying of “two heads are better than one,” really comes into play during masterminding as it becomes easier to find solutions to overcoming the obstacles keeping your business from moving forward.

So, tell us in the comment box below what your thoughts are about mastermind groups. Have you ever joined a group and how did that work for you?

To Your Success!