The Power of a Mastermind Group
In this episode, I talk about my experience joining business masterminds and why I am a huge advocate for finding a group of people on the journey with you. We are the average of who we surround ourselves with. You'll learn some takeaways on how to go about starting your own group.
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Podcast Transcript
Hello, friends. Welcome to another mini episode of the Art and Business of Meditation podcast. My name is Lou Redman. I am your host. I am a meditation creator, artist, teacher, life coach, and I'm really passionate about helping other creators and coaches figure out a way to live their truth, to support themselves as they make their impact in this world. It is not always easy, but if you're listening to this podcast, I imagine you are in it for the right reasons and you're in it for the long term. You're not trying to get a quick fix, get rich quick scheme. That is not what this podcast is about. This podcast is about building a foundation. Building a foundation of our business that grows for years and years. It's about leaving a legacy and having that long term mindset rather than trying to figure this out in a year or two years and then running away when it's not long working yet. It took me four plus years just to start making enough where I could support myself. And I even look back at that time and say, well, you know what, that's actually not that much time. That's actually, I'm happy with that. I see people that are getting, you know, making it, quote unquote, much sooner than that, of course. And it's all part of our unique journey, what we need to learn. And it's all beautiful because if it hadn't taken me so long, and I've been pursuing this since 2015, and I've learned so much and that's why I'm so passionate about this podcast. This podcast wouldn't be a thing if I had achieved instantaneous success. This podcast is a thing because I know how difficult it can be to stay motivated, to stay inspired, to be like, well, how do I actually make this thing work? Can I make this thing work? And I hope by the guests that I bring on, I hope by these episodes, I hope they show you the possibilities. Obviously it's going to look different. Obviously it's not going to be always easy, but it's fulfilling and rewarding and all those good things. So today's episode is around masterminds and the power of being in a mastermind. I'm first going to define what mastermind is and then give you a little bit of my journey and background and experience with masterminds. So in essence, a mastermind is where people on a similar journey gather to receive support, mentorship, inspiration and guidance. It's a group of peers or a group of people that are all leaders in some ways or wanting to grow themselves in some ways that get together and each share what they're going through, sharing what's on their heart. There's a lot of different structures that you can use for it, but in essence, and they get kind of the group feedback, the group support from being in that group. And some of the inspirations for this start back in Ben Franklin days. He developed his Junto or Junto group, a group of business leaders, political leaders that met at the end of each week to discuss things and receive counsel from each other. And I know Napoleon Hill, in his very popular book Think and Grow Rich talks about the power of a mastermind. That's where also some people get inspiration from doing this group. But I'm more inspired by Ben Franklin. And there's a reason why I'm inspired by Ben Franklin. Because if you had listened to my podcast episode, I think titled My story and why you might listen to me, not why you should listen to me, that was a little too aggressive because who the hell am I but why you might want to listen to me. In my story, I talk about the beginning of really my self development started in a mastermind group. Before I meditated, before I had anything spiritual or knew of anything spiritual, it was by being in this group group. And I won't tell the whole story here, but that group radically, radically changed my life and I wouldn't be here without it. And I was in that group for about three years. And so I have a place in my heart that's near and dear for masterminds. And so it's always been an idea in the back of my head to create a mastermind. I actually did a few pop up masterminds in 2019, a couple weeks, had a couple people come on to Zoom. I sent an email to my list and we did some masterminds. And so I have dabbled here and there. I've never really committed to anything. However, this past year, 2023 was really for me the year of the mastermind in so many ways. And so the first being I started a peer mastermind group with some other teachers and coaches, many who you might be familiar with. A few of them are on Insight Timer. They're all on Insight Timer and they all just are doing different things, but very similar. And so we meet every Monday, it's five of us and we get what each other's going through. So it's so helpful to have something that we're working through in our business or even our life. And we go to this group, bring it to them and they get to ask Us questions, give us feedback, and it's just a really helpful way to not do it alone. I think the biggest thing about this journey that is that it's such a solo journey, and so to have a place to plug in where other people are doing it on their own and where you have this little community is so, so valuable. So that began last year, actually at the end of 2022, and has been going strong ever since. It's one of my favorite things that I look forward to every week. And then in May, I also joined a new Mastermind that is a little different. It's not a intimate peer group. It's a larger mastermind with a group called Archangel and a lot of different entrepreneurs, different industries, definitely some coaches, but I'm definitely more. The more spiritual person in there, or I don't even want to say that there's a lot of spiritual people in there, but it's somewhat in more personal development energy. And I sit with that group every week, too. And it's very different because it's a larger group. So we typically have teachings. It's a little bit different than what I consider traditional Mastermind, where it's more intimate and you're getting group support. However, sometimes that is the case and they have conferences, and so you're able to have that experience. And so I find that really just nice to be around other people where I feel like, wow, I am feeling a little insecure in this group because these people feel like they're doing some really cool things. And so that's kind of a litmus test, I think, is to find groups where you're feeling a little insecure, where you feel like, I don't know if I quite belong here. And obviously we have our own stuff that comes along with that. But that was me at the beginning of my first Mastermind. I'm like, who the hell am I to be here? These people are doing incredible things. I got nothing to offer. And by being in that group, by being in that energy, it's so transforming. Putting ourselves in areas to intentionally feel uncomfortable is always, with proper intention, such a catalyst to our journey. And so the energy of the Mastermind, I mean, there's so much power to it tangibly. But I do think the energetics of it, the unconscious and conscious programming of it, is comes down to the famous quote by Jim Rohn that we are the average of the five people that we spend the most time with. We are the average of our environment, that our environment influences us whether we like it or not. And that Often, conforming to our environment is a better recipe for success than trying to will ourselves. And what I mean is, if you're around a lot of people that just have the mindset that they're thriving, that they have really great things happening, that they have these opportunities, all of a sudden you start to see, wait, that can actually be normal. Like, this is actually normal. And your mind starts to be like, well, if. If it's normal for them, right? Monkey see, monkey do. We start understanding that, oh, this can be normal for me too. And so we start to conform to this new resonance, that there's actually like a resonance that happens when we start to surround ourselves with a group of people that open our perspective, that lift us up, that show us what's possible. And that's often, sometimes a quicker. Not that we're trying to get there quick, but it's often a quicker catalyst to allow us to grow, to give us the continued motivation than being alone and trying to find the motivation and will ourselves to make it happen. Environment is so much stronger than willpower, and a mastermind helps us to grow in that. And it also helps to grow this mentality of abundance, meaning that when you're in a mastermind group, you might have people that are succeeding in various ways. And I know for me and a lot of people, there's parts of ourselves that might feel jealous, and that's okay, that's normal, that's human. And it helps us work through those parts and to really start to feel that actually when one person in this group succeeds, it's like, we all succeed. When you could start to have that celebratory energy to everyone, you start to share in their joy, that actually increases your receptivity to that very same thing. And so I'm a big believer that a rising tide lifts all ships. And so to have a mastermind that can help lift you up, you can bring your challenges to that, you can bring your wins too. And they can hold both, and they can give you feedback, and they can give you strategies, and they can go the extra mile and get on a call with you. There's so many. There's so much generosity that happens in a mastermind, obviously, if you find the right people and are in the right group. And so I'm saying all this because where my mastermind journey then led me, so I started a peer mastermind. I joined a kind of a larger entrepreneurial mastermind. And. And then I'm like, I keep having this bug. I want to start a mastermind for people like me six years ago. That's specific to meditation, coaching, art, whatever your creative gifts are. And so in October, I launched the first beta version of the Meraki Mastermind. Now, meraki is a Greek word that stands for doing something with soul, love and passion. It's the essence of putting a piece of yourself into your work. And that's really what I see this work as. And what I wanted to umbrella the Mastermind around. And I like the, I think it's called the alliterative. What's it when you have two of the same letters? I don't know, you can tell me, but Meraki Mastermind, we started in October and I've really let it unfold naturally. I really haven't talked about it that much. Besides getting people in initially, there was a lot of interest. I think I had over 30 plus people interested and it was actually a really, I don't want to say effortless, but it was a fun enrollment process. It was a fun way to invite people in where it didn't feel like work. And if you're like, okay, now I got to talk about this thing, I got to promote it. It was just fun to talk about something that is so I'm so connected to because of my journey and to show people the possibility of what could happen. And so we ended up having 11 people join this mastermind. And since October 25th, we've been meeting weekly. And it's been so much fun to witness people's growth, to watch people come out of their shell, to watch people who thought they would never be able to even create a meditation, Create meditations, post them on Insight Timer, develop new coaching offer offerings, develop new ways to get new clients to start YouTube channels and blogs. And overall, just increasing the accountability and consistency by seeing other people who are doing it too, not feeling like they have to do it alone. It's been so fun. It's truly something I look forward to dropping into every week. It's still evolving. This was a beta group, so I'm learning as I go along and that's been super fun and helpful and I'm sure it will continue to evolve. So we did a test for three months. That three month test will end, I believe, the second week of January. I think we'll take a little break and then reopen it. And so part of this Mastermind topic was to let you know that I have this Mastermind again. I don't know how many people are going to drop it. I want to keep it intimate so it'll probably only have a Few spots open, we'll see. I hope people love it and people stay and maybe there's not many spots left and you're like, well, I want to join a mastermind and maybe I open a different group. I don't know. You can see I'm still working with this, but overall the first beta version is going well. Really well, really fun. And I'm looking forward to continuing to grow this offering. So before I give the pitch of this mastermind, which I'm already giving a pitch or really not giving a pitch, I'm just, I hope you could tell that I am passionate about this thing and if for the right person, this would be amazing for. But beyond it being the Meraki Mastermind, if you're like someone like me who's like, you know what, I can just create my own mastermind. This sounds like I get what Lou's saying. Like, I know a couple other people that are doing similar work. I can reach out to them. And start your own mastermind? Absolutely. That's my first suggestion. Find three to five or six people that you know that you're all kind of, you know, in the same world or you're doing similar stuff and set a call. Meet weekly, give everyone some time. You know, maybe you do a minute, check in with each person on what happened, the week or celebrations they want to share and then you have space. 10 minutes, maybe you do. Some masterminds, they focus on just one person every week, so it's a deep dive on that one person's business and things that they need. So you can structure it different ways, but by all means, find some people that you know, start this on your own. You don't need to have someone facilitating it necessarily. So go for it. Now if you do are feeling called, maybe you don't know a lot of people in this world, then yes, check out the Meraki Mastermind. I would love to have a conversation to see if it's a good fit and to support you and to give you a community to tap into a community of people who are really about that devotion to long term success. The people in this group and the way that I'm curating this group again, it's not about let's, you know, figure out a way to make the most money as fast as we can. It's really, let's develop this foundation. I believe it takes 10 years to make an overnight success. That's all about having this slow, juicy growth that builds the roots, that expands the foundation so that the tree can ultimately grow much taller. And make a lot more impact. I would not be here without masterminds, without being in the energy of other people that are doing it. So again, if it calls to you, if you're interested, reach out. I'll have maybe a link or just send me an email. Just say, hey, I heard this podcast episode. What's the deal with the Mastermind, Lou? And I'd love to chat with you more about it. Okay, so that's the power of a Mastermind. Literally going from me being a partier drunk raver, living for the weekends to joining a mastermind that met at 6pm on Fridays, to completely 180 shifting and transforming my life, finding meditation, having a spiritual awakening, opening that pathway, quitting my job, going through the muck of figuring out how to make a living in this world and to find myself all the way here sharing the story with you and feeling like I'm giving back what I received when I joined that mastermind nine or ten years ago. So blessings to you. I hope this is helpful. And just even thinking about, even if you're not ready or you're not at the point where you think about joining a mastermind, just thinking about, oh, okay. So, yeah, people that make sense, people with similar things getting together and supporting each other. Beautiful. Like, that's, that might just be a seed planted for you that when it's the right time, as we always must trust, it will grow. So thanks for listening. Reach out if the Mastermind calls to you to get in when the doors open in January or reopen, I should say. And let me know how this podcast has been landing for you. Have you been enjoying the episodes? Please leave a review. It's super helpful to create some momentum to hit the Apple or Spotify algorithm with a little kind of algorithm love note of review. And yeah, just continue to support. So I appreciate you so much, deep vows to you and your work and I will see you again on another episode soon.