The Exponential Power of The Mastermind
This weekend I was lucky enough to be one of twenty selected to attend a mastermind group in Puerto Rico that featured John Lee Dumas (JLD) and his lovely sidekick Kate Erickson. If you aren’t familiar with JLD, he is of Entrepreneur on Fire podcast fame, and over the last five years has developed a multi-million-dollar business off of his podcast. He’s a truly dynamic individual and has endless amounts of insights and passion. I felt like I grew as a person just from hanging out with him for the weekend.
One question I asked him, and will stick with me forever on my journey was, “JLD, how do you deal with your haters and subtractors?”
His response was to the point, and with no mixed words. He explained that he refuses to get into a back and forth with them, and knows that the real issue is with that person not being happy with who they are, and hold an unfounded anger towards those who are pursuing their dreams and passions. I am paraphrasing there, but it was a great insight to an all too common issue. I asked this particular question of him because I know in my three years of following him on his podcast and social media, he is not scared whatsoever to pursue greatness. Too many of us are scared to pursue greatness, and frankly, that is not the way I want to live the rest of my life.
Now back to this mastermind concept, Puerto Rico Mastermind to be exact. This group was the vision and creation of Dr. Mark Wade and Dr. Krista Burns of The American Posture Institute. Not only did they provide a great setting, concept and featured presenter (JLD), but they were amazing wealth’s of knowledge regarding developing a business that provides tons of value for Chiropractic, and how to grow the business strategically.
I have been practicing now for 11 years, and over the past 4, I have made masterminds an integral part of my growth as a doctor and business owner. Many doctors believe it is not worthwhile to try to understand and learn how to grow and develop a business or obtain proper marketing strategies to help grow their practice. This thought process couldn’t be more damaging to the health and growth of a Chiropractors business. I hope presently and in the continued future I can do my part in dispelling the myth that you can’t be both a “good doctor” and a good business owner. I made this realization about five years ago and subsequently set forth on my journey.
In the past four years, I have been a member of Strategic Coach, which is an entrepreneurial coaching group, not specific to Chiropractic. I also attended the Chiropractic Freedom thru Marketing Group in San Francisco, CA with Ben Altadonna, which was four sessions of small group settings where we developed marketing strategies to enhance our practices. Last year I attended the Content Marketing World (CMW) event, which wasn’t a mastermind per se. CMW is the top conference on content marketing, which is my passion within marketing.
My latest learning environment that I have been developing is the closed Facebook group I developed called The Modern Chiropractic Marketing Group which is, to date, a 350 member “think tank” of chiropractors and select marketing folks all bouncing around ideas to grow their practice. This is a “digital mastermind” if you will, and it has been helpful for many to date. I am excited to keep being a steward for this group, and bringing in more and greater people to grow our marketing chops.
So what makes a Mastermind so great?
In my humble, but accurate opinion, there are two key aspects of what makes a Mastermind optimal, and so amazingly effective. First, you need a good leader(s) of the group to facilitate the information and knowledge. The PR Mastermind being led by Dr. Mark and Dr. Krista and having JLD and Kate as presenters, was first class all the way. This group had some of the top minds in the field of chiropractic and marketing in the world. We had folks from Australia, UK, Netherlands, and throughout the U.S. in attendance. Which leads me into key aspect number two, the Mastermind is only as good as the collective group in the Mastermind because that is where the huge value lies. The best part of Masterminds is the networking and idea sharing that goes on during and after the sessions, plain and simple.
As the saying goes, if you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room! This Mastermind had 5 of the top marketers in the Chiropractic profession, a top social media expert from the UK, a dominant duo in the Virtual Summit space, and many others doing BIG things. I left the weekend with my mind blown and even more prepared to level up in 2017 and beyond.
To wrap this written love fest up, I have one piece of advice for you moving forward. If you aren’t in a Mastermind, never been in one, or had not desire to be a mastermind, please reconsider! Even if it is a small group in your city or town or a digital/teleconference version, please be active in idea sharing and growing. Please find what passion you have, and find or develop a Mastermind around that, and be active.
Keep leveling up!