STM has really pushed forward the idea of creating mastermind groups in the industry. It has proved a great way to speed up the affiliate marketing learning curve. Masterminds have provided STMers a tonne of value, including myself!
But recently there has been hundreds popping up without structure, direction, and in a lot of cases unwanted solicitations.
So in order to make sure there is still quality in STM masterminds we have put together some guidelines for those who want to start their own.
1. Keep them small.
The ideal productive mastermind group is 4-5 people. These 100+ plus mastermind groups are just unproductive chatter/time killers. You do not need more than 8 applicants if you are specific about what kind of people you are looking for. That leads me to the second guideline...
2. Be specific.
Specify the traffic source type, or offer niche your mastermind will focus on. Also specify the level of experience needed to join the mastermind. The more specific you are, the more productive the mastermind will be. If you are not experienced, please do not try to host an experienced mastermind, it's the fastest way failure.
3. Keep people accountable.
To insure you have a super solid team, and everyone is pulling their weight specify some goals. Set some expectations in terms of roles and availability. This also means no selling or pitching of other services or products or otherwise abusing the mastermind format for personal gain. This includes even the host! A mastermind is for a group of people to equally share knowledge, don't host one to just leech off others.
Hello Great post. I had a question. Would it be ideal to host a mastermind of 4-5 newbies that are trying to learn quicker. I understand that there are plenty of content of newbies on STM, to learn. I however have found it easier to learn when I form a group of people that are currently in the same track that I am in. It could be a group holding brand new newbies who go on a journey to learn as much as they can in order to reach and intermediate and advanced stage together. Please let me know if this is recommended or not? Thank you very much for your post once again