How to run a mastermind weekend
Want to know what the #1 most valuable tool is in my business tool belt? My business BFFs. Hands down, no question.
They are the best!
And last weekend we all headed down to the Great Ocean Road for a DIY mastermind weekend.
We laughed, many of us cried (some of us more than once), we shared our dreams, frustrations, and our own unique gifts and experiences.
We all came away feeling energized and inspired, it was next level amazing.
So amazing in fact that we have vowed to make it a regular bi-annual event, and I’m already counting down the days until our next one.
If you’d like to recreate some of this business magic with your own Business BFFs then check out this week’s SBB Live video (or just read the transcript below), where I am stepping you through the simple but super effective format for running a mastermind weekend with your business besties.
And if you don’t have any business besties just yet, then you probably should click here (we can help you with that too!)
Welcome to this week’s SBB Live!
I wanted to share something really epic that happened this weekend, and that I think a lot of you guys will get value out of. That is how to run an amazing, business changing, mastermind weekend with your business BFF’s.
This weekend, I was lucky enough to head down to the great Ocean Road with nine of my business besties. These are girls that, some I’ve known for over eight years. Most of us met in a paid mastermind group about four years ago, and we’ve stayed pretty close since then. Since that group ended, it was a 12 month thing that we did, catching up. It wasn’t until the last 12 months that we decided to actually make a real official thing out of it.
It’s been one of the most valuable things I’ve done for my business this year. I’m feeling like my cup is full, if you know what I mean. It’s something that doesn’t cost the earth at all. It cost us $65 each to do this.
It’s hard to put into words actually what the benefits of this are without experiencing them. It’s massive clarity, it’s finding support, it’s finding inspiration, it’s having a really safe space to talk about the stuff that you’re scared of, the stuff that you’re struggling with, and to get really great insights into what other people are doing in their business. This is why I’m sharing with you how to run a mastermind weekend.
I want to share how to run a mastermind weekend, so that you can go and replicate this for yourself. This is the second time we’ve d0ne, it’s a slightly different format to the first. The first time we did it, we did just for one day. This time we decided to do a whole weekend.
Even though the single day was great, we did spend a lot of that day just chatting, and catching up because we only see each other every six months. If you have only one day together, you don’t get enough time to really get into some of the exercises that we were doing, as well as have a bit of time to relax, as well as having that really valuable catch up time.
This is how to run a mastermind weekend: There were nine of us, and I think that was a pretty good number. You could probably go up to 12, that would be about the max. I think you’d want a minimum of about five, just because it’s good to have that different mixture of people. All those different points of views, and different skill sets as well.
The beauty of doing something like this when you get a whole lot of people to come together, and share a bit of their own geniuses in the group, it’s that you get to learn from each other, as well as obviously having the sharing, and the support, and just finding out what everyone’s doing.
How to Run a Mastermind Weekend: How Many to Invite
I recommend somewhere between five and 10 is your sweet spot, but obviously it’s really quality over quantity.
How to Run a Mastermind Weekend: Who to Invite
Well that one can be tricky if you’re not already in a group like this, if you’re not lucky enough to have already found an awesome group of people. I wouldn’t go inviting strangers, invite people based on recommendation. If you know one or two people, you probably each know one or two other people. Maybe you can bring them together.
I would be weary of inviting massive personalities. As in, the kind of people that suck the air out of the room, and don’t leave space for everyone else. It’s good to have a space where everyone is going to feel like they are able to be seen and heard, and get a chance to actually speak, and share, and have a turn in the limelight rather than it just being the one person who’s really stealing the show when everyone else kind of hiding behind them.
I’d be really careful with the people that you invite. You want people you feel safe around, people who are going to be really generous with their time and their information as well. Often this takes a little while to find these people, but you’ll know them. Generally if it’s someone that you’re happy to go away for a weekend with, they’re probably the right people.
How to Run a Mastermind Weekend
We went down on mid Friday afternoon so we could spend Friday afternoon really just hanging out, having a chat kind of thing, and catching up. Then to kick things off we have an opening ceremony.
What we normally do is we go around the room, and we each draw an oracle card. We then sit with that, and we use that to see what that brings up for us, and what that message means to us, and where we are in our business right now. Some really powerful stuff can come out of just those prompts.
Then we go around and everyone shares some wins and some wisdom. Something that they’re really proud of that’s happened in the last however long. Wisdom is something that they’ve learned, like a lesson that they’ve learned. It can also be something that is working well for them. It could be something they’ve figured out that’s working really well, and they’re going to share it with the group, and everyone can kind of benefit from that.
We rented a five bedroom house and we got some takeaway for dinner just to make it nice and easy, I brought a whole bunch of wine, way too much wine to be honest. Particularly seeing as half the group was pregnant, but never mind. We just had nibbles, and wine, and dinner and it seems that’s a really short amount of stuff to do in one night, but when people really stop and share their wins and everyone discusses it, that process can actually take a couple hours.
Don’t necessarily feel like that’s not going to be enough, and it does spark conversations, and you want to have the space for people to go off on tangents, and to just reveal whatever that’s going to reveal. That’s what we did the first day.
How to Run a Mastermind Weekend: Make it Valuable
Another thing I did, which actually worked really well, was we gave everyone assignments. We knew that there were going to be certain activities we’re doing throughout the weekend, and that there are going to be certain meals that had to happen. We just assigned one person to be in charge of making each of those things happen.
Someone was in charge of making breakfast happen, and making sure it was cleaned up on the first day. Someone else was in charge of making sure we all went down to the beach for a walk, which was one of the things we had planned. Again, that means whoever’s organising it isn’t sort of running around frantically the whole time, and everyone is contributing, and it adds to that really nice collaborative feel. That was the first night.
Then on the second day, we slept in, had breakfast. The people who felt like it went for a bit of a walk just to get some movement happening. Grabbed a coffee, came back, and then we did some shared learning sessions.
We got people to either nominate someone that they wanted to learn something particular from, or people could put their hand up and say, “Hey, I’ve just figured out this really cool thing, I’d love to share with the group.” Everyone had about 10 to 15 minutes just to discuss and share this particular new tactic or strategy. Maybe it was something that was working really well in their email, or maybe it was something that was working really well when they’re dealing with clients, or even something in their own lives.
How to Run a Mastermind Weekend: Get in the Hot Seat
We had three of those and after lunch we had our mastermind sessions. Now, mastermind sessions, or “Hot Seat Sessions” are where you split up into groups. You probably don’t want a group of more than five. If there’s only four or five of you anyway, just do the one group. Four to six is probably your optimal number.
Then what you do is everyone gets 20 minutes to go around and ask one question. One thing that they want to mastermind, one thing they want some help with, or feedback on, or that they’re stuck on. Everyone just contributes.
Normally if you’re going to have groups of more than four, you might want to split up into two blocks. If this goes for a couple of hours, people can get a bit drained by the end of it. I highly recommend when it’s your turn, that you record what people are saying. Most likely you’re not going to remember it later on, especially when you’re going around the group, and then helping other people as well.
We did just 20 minute mastermind hot seats each. They are probably the hardest. Sometimes it’s frustration, sometimes it’s bringing up stuff in your own life. Where else do you get in your day to day to share that stuff, and be kind of allowed to have that outlet without fear of anyone judging you, or thinking that you’re weak, or giving you advice or anything like that. Just to have a safe space just to say, “I’m just sad right now.” Or, “I’m frustrated right now.” Or even, “I’m just super happy right now.”
It’s that plus the insights and having the second opinions is just golden. It’s amazing. That was the afternoon, and then it was just chill time, relax time, and we had dinner. The official part of it was pretty much done.
We did a second round of mastermind sessions in the morning. But that was it. We just wanted to keep it nice and light, and you would be surprised how quickly the day goes between meals, and things like that as well. It was just really chilled. I can’t put it into words.
Someone asked me like, “Oh, what was your biggest a-ha’s?” My biggest aha was just that these women are amazing, and that we need to do this more often. And that it’s something that anyone can really go out and do if you know a couple of people.
Most people who have their own business know a couple of other online business owners. They will all probably know a couple as well. If you think you don’t have enough people to do that, ask your other business owner friends. Stress to them that this person needs to be someone you’d be happy to be locked in an elevator with for 24 hours.
You want no stress heads, no people who are too highly strung, no drama queens. Unless you’re all drama queens and you all want to feed off that energy, then fine. You really want this to be a pretty safe space where you’re not going to have people being catty, and bitchy, and whatnot.
How to Run a Mastermind Weekend: How often?
I reckon you probably want to do this every six months as a minimum. Some people do them every quarter. But every six months is great, it gives a lot of time for people to actually go out and do stuff.
Then you’ll be amazed when you check back in with those same people six months later to see exactly how much stuff people have got done, or how much someone’s business has changed, or how much someone’s energy has just changed because they’ve broken through some stuff, or they’ve worked on some stuff. It’s great to see, and it’s really exciting.
That’s my little how to run a mastermind weekend for your business BFF’s. It doesn’t have to be difficult, all you need to do is delegate.
Ready to create your own mastermind weekend for your business BFFs, grab my simple checklist below.
Have you ever attended a mastermind weekend? Make sure you share your tips on how to run a mastermind weekend with us by commenting below!
