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 17th, 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.
