What is a Mastermind? How to Create a Mastermind Group for Your Online Coaching Business

If you have been curious to learn more about what masterminds are and how do they work, you came to the right place. Have you ever heard the term "mastermind class" and wandered what a mastermind is?

Masterminds are not a new idea, in fact, the first notions of modern-day masterminds date back to the 12th century when the concept of the peer-to-peer group was already used by leaders such as King Arthur, known for his "Knights of the Roundtable".

So undoubtedly, masterminds are an extremely powerful concept when applied to the right business.

Keep reading below to learn all about what masterminds are, why you should think about building a mastermind group for your online knowledge business and how to do it.

What is a Mastermind Group?

So what'a a mastermind? A mastermind is essentially a small group of people (generally about 10 members) who share the same values, come from similar backgrounds or have the same goal in mind. The purpose of the mastermind is to provide peer support, brainstorm ideas and offer a safe space for communication.

In the corporate world, masterminds are better known as "boards of directors" or "advisory boards" and they are the same idea of being goal-oriented groups of professionals.

Masterminds are a great tool for professionals in a certain industry to meet other like-minded individuals, brainstorm ideas, network and help each other reach a common goal through mentorship and feedback.

Depending on the industry and the goal of the mastermind, these groups can differ from each other in terms of how many members they include and how diverse are the participants.

In a mastermind group, the members are the main focus of the discussion and they run the agenda of the group. Each member's participation is important: peers give each other feedback, help brainstorm new ideas, and set up accountability structures that keep each other focused on the end goal.

When is the Right Time to Start Your Own Mastermind?

Anyone can start a mastermind, but if you want your group to be successful, you should take into consideration a few important things.

The structure of a mastermind is very similar to the one of a group coaching program, however, masterminds are more exclusive and reserved for vetted members only in order to guarantee all members are at a similar level of experience with one another. For many coaches, a mastermind is the highest ticket offering and comes at the highest price.

This is why it is better to start your own mastermind once you have already established your online coaching business and you already have a few product offerings such as an online course, one-on-one coaching sessions or group coaching programs.

If you already have an established coaching business, with loyal customers and a solid audience, then it makes sense to think about creating a mastermind to offer even more value to your clients. However, if you are starting from scratch, our recommendation is to build an audience first and start offering lower-valued products to grow your customer base.

That said, if you are ready to start your own mastermind group, keep reading below to learn about the benefits of masterminds and how to get started!

Why Should You Start a Mastermind?

Starting your own mastermind can have many benefits both for your online business, but also for your personal life.

If you are an online coach or course creator, it is a good idea to start a mastermind group dedicated to a few selected people from your network, or students who already purchased your online course.

Having a mastermind together with other coaching product offerings can help you offer even more value to your clients and increase your customer lifetime value. But these are not the only benefits: instead of only bringing value to your clients, a mastermind group will be beneficial for you too.

Since masterminds are run by the group members and not by a single voice, you can benefit from the mastermind as any other participant would.

So let's see in more detail what are the benefits of starting a mastermind for your online learning business:

1. Offers More Value to Your Customers: if you are already offering other coaching products (online courses, memberships, digital products, one-on-one coaching etc...) a mastermind is the natural continuation in your value ladder. It is also considered the most exclusive and valuable offering you can provide to your customers.
2. Increase your Revenue and Customers Lifetime Value: typically a mastermind is the most exclusive product you can offer to your customers. For this reason - and its high price - people who will join your mastermind are most likely your existing customers who already bought from you, know you and trust you. So overall masterminds are a great way to increase your customer lifetime value, because of the value they provide, their high price and the fact that you can run masterminds over and over again.
3. Improve Your Leadership Style: masterminds are not only great for your customers, but they can also help you as well. As the coach who runs a mastermind, you will be the one setting the goals and vetting new members. However, after that, your job is pretty much done: aside from setting a few guidelines and guiding the conversation, you will receive as many benefits from the masterminds as the other participants. This can help you improve your leadership style, keep you accountable to reach your business goals while gaining helpful feedback from other members who are on the same professional level as you.

How to Start a Mastermind Group for Your Coaching Business

Now that you've learned the definition of a mastermind and its benefits, let's see how you can start your own mastermind group as an additional product offering for your online coaching business.

If you have no idea of how to run a mastermind or you were never part of one, our suggestion is to join a mastermind in your network before creating your own. This will help you gain real-life knowledge of how masterminds operate, what works and what doesn't.

#1: Set the Goal of Your Mastermind

Every successful mastermind should follow one or a few goals for the participants to reach. This will help members feel motivated and give them concrete tasks to complete between each meeting.

Depending on your niche and topic of interest, your mastermind can have different goals. If you are an online coach or course creator in a specific niche, your mastermind should be aligned to your topic and offer a natural continuation for the learning experience of your customers.

So let's say as an example that you are an online course creator who focuses on teaching freelancers how to start their own digital marketing agency.

Your mastermind should have the same or a similar goal, for instance, you could create a mastermind for students who took your online course and managed to start their marketing agency but want to grow their business to the next level, get more clients and so on.

#2: Create Some Guidelines

Guidelines and rules are also an essential part of a successful mastermind group.

These rules should align with your goal and can be whatever matters to you and your group. You want your guidelines to set the tone of your mastermind and guide your members in the right direction.

For instance, you might say that your mastermind group supports constructive criticism only, full confidentiality, complete honesty and so on.

Once you created some guidelines, make sure that mastermind members are aware of them before they join.

#3: Vet Participants

Now that you set the tone of your mastermind with goals and guidelines, it's time to promote the group and start vetting new participants.

This is another highly personal step that depends on you and your goals. There is no right and wrong answer for finding a way to vet participants. Keep in mind that generally, the most successful masterminds are small (possibly around or under 10 people) and members have something in common.

Here are a few factors to question to ask yourself when vetting people into your mastermind:

• What are their background and industry? Are they similar to yours and do they align to the group goal?
• Are the members open-minded and respectful of other people's opinions?
• Are they at a similar professional level in their business as you, or as other members?
• What are their goals and expectations?

In a successful mastermind, every member should be able to offer value to other members in the group. If you let anyone with any level of skill into your mastermind because they were willing to pay, then you risk the less experienced member taking up the time of other members asking questions that don't provide any value to the more experienced members. When members are at a similar level with one another in their business, the questions they ask will be useful to others as they will likely be about problems that other members are either recently or currently facing.

#4: Find the Right Structure to Boost Productivity

Last but not least, you should think about how to structure your mastermind meetings. What kind of actions or activities will spark the most enthusiasm among the members and boost productivity? What can you do to start a conversation and get the best possible learning experience for your members?

Depending on your goal, the structure of your mastermind can change. However, try to think ahead of time about what kind of questions you want to ask your members or what kind of activity should you do that will help everyone achieve their goals.

Aside from your own personal goal, the general purpose of a mastermind is to keep members accountable and inspire productivity, so try to find out a way to keep track of your group progress and incentivize your members to take action.

Conclusion

A mastermind is a great tool that can offer tremendous value to its members and to you.

If you already have an established online coaching business and you wish to increase your customers' lifetime value, it is a good idea to start your own mastermind.

To do this, start by identifying a goal for your mastermind group, set a few rules and guidelines, decide on a structure for running your meetings, and define a level of experience that all members must have in order to be qualified to join. Now it is time to promote your mastermind and start vetting participants into the group.

To create a mastermind, you will also need an online course platform that offers community building and membership tools, where you can schedule meetings, calls and offer continuous content to your members.

Heights Platform is a great choice for coaches who want to build a complete online knowledge business selling online courses, digital products, memberships, coaching products and masterminds in the form of an exclusive membership site.