Mastermind Groups: Gathering Successful People Around You

Don’t we look happy? This is me (the bald guy) and four of my classmates from theater school at Central Park in NYC in 2013. After the World Domination Summit that Summer, I was jazzed with the idea of growing TAA into something bigger than just my little blog. I want to help ALL the Artists of the world understand that it’s possible to support yourself while making art. I sent out a letter to just the subscribers of TAA’s newsletter. In that letter, I asked artists to take a short survey on what their biggest needs are, and to talk a little about how they could help spread the notion that the Starving Artist is a myth. I got lots of responses. It was overwhelming, but eventually I sorted through all of them, and started putting a plan into place, which I want to tell you about here.

Connection

After going through the responses last week, however, there is on thing that is abundantly (heh) clear: artists crave connection. Nearly every single response at least mentioned the desire to connect with other artists, for various reasons:

• to simply make a human connection outside of the lonely studio
• to be enabled to believe that they can be “truly valued for their creativity, and help others do the same”
• to find other artists to collaborate with artistically and in business
• to receive help from artists who are further along in their careers
• to help other artists learn to do more

Powerful desires. They get right to the heart of the matter, don’t they? Connecting with other human beings is powerful. It’s how we grow. We need outside perspective.

We Need People for Success

In 1937 Napoleon Hill published the book Think and Grow Rich. In the book Hill outlines 13 principles that make people successful. He created these principles after spending 20 years studying the most wealthy people of his time. One of my favorite principles is the idea of the Master Mind (sometimes called accountability groups, salons, or other names). Hill makes a comparison between the human brain and a battery. The more cells a battery has, the better it works. Also, the more batteries you have working together the better they work. The most successful people that Hill studied included Henry Ford, the Rockefellers, Thomas Edison and others. These business geniuses recognized the need to gather smart people around them. There’s a long tradition of successful people coming together to discuss ideas and help each other. Some art salons (which are just variations of the mastermind idea) date back to 16th century Italy. My own experience tells me that great accountability groups go something like this:

• Meet one to two times per month, usually early in the morning before things get crazy
• Depending on group size, the meeting is 1-2 hours long
• Each person in the group gets a few minutes to talk about 1 – 2 current challenges in a focused way
• The group takes 10 – 15 minutes to come up with solutions to the problem
• Rinse and repeat for each person in the group
• An email list or private forum for between-meeting conversations

Here’s the other (unfortunate) reality: most mastermind groups don’t work unless you’re paying for them. I first heard that several years ago when I attended my first big marketing conference with Dave Dee. I didn’t believe him. Since then, my experience has shown me 4/5 of the mastermind groups I’ve been a part of fell apart in less than six months. People who were a part of it didn’t take it (or their business) seriously. You might be great friends with the people in your accountability group, but if all you do is sit around and laugh and chat, you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow professionally. Which brings me back to my original point in writing this post…

Artist Mastermind Salons

In September 2013 I started organizing test mastermind groups. We met frequently and tried lots of different formats. Some of those groups spun off into their own self-maintained group and some fizzled out and went away. One group in particular has stayed strong and its members are growing their businesses like gangbusters. So I decided that I should start another one just like it. This group will be:

• Small. 4 – 6 people at the most
• Focused on building an artist business
• Savvy for artists who have already sold more than a handful of pieces of art, and are looking to take their business to the next level

Dozens of you have already told me that you want to connect with more artists. This is one way we can make that happen. There are thousands of artists reading TAA every month, so why shouldn’t I help you connect with each other? It doesn’t really matter where you live. The technology exists to do group video chats. If there is enough interest, we will probably split groups up by general location (West Coast, NYC), style (oil, watercolor, sculpture), and stage of career (emerging, full time artist, long-term success). If you are interested in joining the group, click here to fill out an application and get more info. I’ll sort everyone and try to create the right group dynamic, and we’ll see what happens. You can also click this apply now button. Yes, there is going to be a fee for this mastermind group, and probably a substantial one (between $150 – $400 per month), but I haven’t decided what that fee will be just yet. I’ll wait until a few of you have filled out the application to see what interests you. I am giving these groups a lot of my time, and there is a direct correlation between how much you pay for something and how seriously you take it. Last thing: if you’re a flake, don’t sign up. These groups only work if everyone can learn to depend on and trust each other.

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