AP 0058: Why Are You in Multiple Masterminds? How Do You Keep Up with the Commitment?

AskPat 58 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? This is Pat Flynn, and welcome to Episode 58 of AskPat. I'm so stoked you're here, and just thank you for all the amazing questions that are coming in. You have questions about online business; I have the answers.

Today's question comes from Ted, but before we get to that, I want to mention that today's sponsor is FreshBooks, the simple, easy to use, mobile-friendly cloud accounting software you can use to organize all of your finances, create beautiful looking invoices with just a click of a button, and manage all of your business stuff. Something I wish I got in tune with much sooner than I did, because it's just great software. Start using it now so you can start focusing on your business. Head on over to GetFreshBooks.com and enter “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section. You can try Fresh Books for free for thirty days. Thank you for listening to the show. Today's question, like I said, comes from Ted, and it's about mastermind groups. So let's hear from Ted.

Pat Flynn: Hi, Pat. This is Ted Sarvata from PurposePodcast.com. I have a question about mastermind groups. I loved your show with Jaime Tardy about masterminds, and I'm curious about why you're in multiple mastermind groups. Is it possible for you to do all the work that you're committing to in each of those three groups? Are you committing to different things? Why are you in different groups? Love to hear your answer, thanks.

Pat Flynn: Ted, thank you so much for the question. It's actually a really interesting question, I haven't heard it ever phrased that way. I do often get the question, “Why are you in so many mastermind groups?” But I've never heard the sort of second part to your question before, which is, “Do you think you can keep up with all the different commitments that you're making in each of them?” First of all, let me just talk about why I'm in multiple mastermind groups. Like I talked about in Episode 98 of the Smart Passive Income podcast, that's SmartPassiveIncome.com/session98, Jaime and I talked about the power of mastermind groups.

Mastermind groups are when you get together with a group of people, and you meet frequently on a consistent basis, and you help each other out. You share the same goals and you are there for each other and you can bounce ideas off of each other. Some are more structured than others. The ones I'm in are, very, very structured, where one person is in a hot seat every single week. All three of them are weekly. What happens is that person in the hot seat can ask everybody else for advice or help or opinions. Everybody else, their job is to create an environment where a person can feel comfortable asking for questions, and they will get honest, on-point feedback, knowing that when they're in the hot seat they're going to get that kind of feedback too. It's so important to me. That's why I'm in three, because I just get so much value out of being in these different groups. I would get plenty of value from one, but I had the opportunity to connect and be with two other groups beyond my initial one. I'm at that point now where I can't say yes to any more because I have those weekly commitments with each of those three. It's so important because I just get incredible feedback and I love hearing the different opinions and views, and getting the wisdom from each of those different people and each of those different groups. All those different groups I'm in, they're completely different as far as the types of people that are in there. One of the groups has a magician, and the other groups has somebody who puts on conferences. It's all different and I love that. As a result, I'm able to help take my business to the next level. It's almost like having one giant mastermind groups with fifteen people, except it's spread into three different sessions and I just happen to be in each of those different three sessions because I'm selfish like that. I want as many mastermind groups as I can handle, and three is all I can handle right now. Again, it's so important for me. I've become incredibly good friends with each of those people in there. I can also learn, not just from asking questions and for opinions about the stuff I'm doing, I can learn from everything else everybody else is doing. Oftentimes I'll learn and discover things just from other people's goals and holding them accountable for what they want to do. I've learned so much from watching everybody else succeed, and I just get so amped up when they do succeed that it makes me want to succeed and do even more in my business so I can bring something to the table and help inspire them, and it helps inspire me, which inspires them, back and forth. It's just so great.

Beyond that, when I'm not in the hot seat in each of these three different mastermind groups, I am able to help teach using the experience that I have and what I'm learning even from some of the other groups. To help somebody is a great way for me to internalize those things and teach it. Oftentimes I'll share something that I may not be doing myself that I should be doing. That's just another indicator for me that that is something I should take action on, or I can see what the latest trends are and things like that. Am I making different commitments in each? No, I'm always working on one thing at a time, and I always bring up that thing in each of those groups. I will get more opinions as a result of that.

So it's not hard for me to keep up with the commitments because I'm just making commitments for myself and I'm sharing that with everybody else, the same commitment. I'm not saying, “Hey in one group I'm going to work on project A for the next month, and in mastermind group B I'm working on project B. Mastermind group C I'm working on project C. In all of the mastermind groups, A, B, and C, I'm working on project one, or whatever is the main focus I am working on right now. I'll often get different takes. I will get more advice, and throughout all three of the different groups I'll often get the same advice, which is great because that validates that that advice is something that, even though these people are split into different groups, it's something I should definitely be paying attention to. I hope that answers your question, Ted.

I know a number of people who are in multiple mastermind groups for the very same reasons that I just mentioned, being able to connect with more people, being able to get the opinions, and advice, and strategies, and opinions, and wisdom from more people, getting different groups of people together, different brains which can add a different effect to what it is you're trying to do. Also, more people for me to teach and share with their success, and see how they've grown so I can apply those things to my own business as well. Of course, the more people in your network—and you become very close to the people that you are with in your mastermind groups, just the better it is for your overall success. The more people you can connect with and become friends with, the better your success will be because you can't do this alone. That's why I really am in love with mastermind groups, and that's why I'm in three.

So Ted, thank you so much for your question again. An AskPat teeshirt is going to be sent your way. For those of you listening, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show, head on over to AskPat.com. Also I'd like to thank today's sponsor, which is FreshBooks. Again, if you go to GetFreshBooks.com and enter “Ask Pat” in that “How did you hear about us?” section, you get to try out FreshBooks free for thirty days. I love it because you can check it on your mobile, you can check it on your iPad or tablet. Again, you can create professional-looking invoices and track your time and capture expenses. That's a really big thing, capturing expenses. It's huge. So again, GetfreshBooks.com, “Ask Pat” in the referral section.

Thank you so much and I'm going to end with a quote from Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, among other things. In Think and Grow Rich, he actually has a section about the power of the mastermind. Here's a quote from the section. It says, “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” Now that's just in general with your audience, the more you help your audience succeed, the better your outcome is going to be, but also when you can help people close to you, they're going to want to help you succeed by helping you too, the same way you did for them. Thank you so much, and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat. Cheers.