It's the question nobody wants to admit they're asking. You've found your person. ....you've agreed to meet weekly. And then it hits you: What are we actually supposed to do for 90 minutes...? This is the question that stops more masterminds before they start than almost anything else. People assume there's some secret format ....a professional agenda, ....a facilitator's guide, a curriculum they don't have. There isn't. And that's the good news. Here's the only structure you need for your first meeting, and honestly, for every meeting after that: Start with wins. Each person shares one thing that moved forward since the last time you met. It doesn't have to be big. It just has to be real. This anchors you in progress and sets the tone. Then the real work: one challenge each. Each person puts one genuine problem on the table ....not a polished case study, the actual thing keeping them up at night. The other person doesn't rush to fix it. They ask questions first. Good questions. The kind that help the person in the hot seat think more clearly than they could alone. Close with a commitment. Each person names one specific thing they will do before you meet again. Not a goal. Not an intention. One action, with a deadline. That's it. Wins, challenge, commitment. You can run it in 60 minutes when you're two people. It scales perfectly to five or six. The magic isn't in the agenda. It's in the repetition. When you show up to the same structure week after week, something shifts. You stop performing and start thinking out loud. That's when a mastermind becomes something you can't imagine operating without. So don't wait until you have the perfect format. You already have it. ....now go find your first person.

Most people, when they decide they want a mastermind group, go looking for a group. That is the mistake right there. They join a paid program, they sign up for someone's membership, they get put in a room with five strangers who all paid the same fee, and then they wonder why the conversations feel shallow. Why people disappear after week three. Why it never quite builds into something they actually count on. The reason is simple. You cannot manufacture trust. You can only grow it. Here is how I have always done it, and after 26 years, I have never found a better way. You start with one person!!! PERIOD!!!!! Not a group. ....One person. Someone you met at a seminar, an event, maybe through someone you both respect. Not your best friend from college. Not your cousin. Someone you saw show up in a room and thought, that person thinks differently than most people in here. Someone who earned your respect before you ever had a real conversation with them. You reach out. You say something like, "I want to start a small weekly group, just the two of us to begin. We meet every week, we hold each other accountable, and then we each find one more person to bring in. You in?" Four weeks together, just the two of you. No agenda, no fancy format. You learn how each other thinks. You build the kind of honesty that only comes when there is no audience and no performance. Then, together, you each bring in one more person. Now you are four. And something changes at four. There is enough perspective in the room that you get ideas you genuinely never would have found alone. There is enough accountability that showing up actually means something. You run it for a few months. You decide if you want to grow to five or six. No more than six. Everrrrr!!!!! The size matters because intimacy is the whole point. In a room of fifteen, you present. In a room of five, you actually think out loud. That is where the real work happens. And then there is the rhythm. Once a week. Same day, same time, no exceptions for the first ninety days.

Hi troopers. I wanted to ask a question about having the cameras on or off when we meet online. What would you prefer? I am interested in finding out your preference and opinions since I am starting the Tuesday calls up again. Please also tell my WHY when you give your opinion so that I can understand your preference a little better. Thanks for your replies 👍

Come join us for a weekly "Gatherings of the Minds" every Tuesday at 4pm (CET) so that we can collaborate around how you can get going on creating your own mastermind group. PS. Let me know how the timings of these calls match up for you, so that we can get as many people on these calls as possible. It is exciting times ahead and lots of great things happening. Looking forward to seeing you on the call. https://meet.google.com/evd-swoi-yyu Alf