Make Money Online “How to”

What did Henry Ford, President Warren Harding, Harvey Firestone, Napoleon Hill, Andrew Carnegie, Jack Welch and many other very successful people have in common?

Two “board of directors”.

The first as you all know is the standard board of directors of any corporation.  But the lesser known but far more powerful one, the one with greater impact on your personal performance and success is a “Mastermind group”.

Ok, here comes the first objection… I am not incorporated, hence I don’t need a board of directors.  WRONG, You, Inc. is the most important incorporation you will ever work for.  So you don’t like the term Directors? Neither do I, so we will call them “your personal board of power partners”.

To resolve a few questions, does a mastermind group replace a coach or mentor? No, a coach and mentor are two different roles in your personal/professional growth. For your maximum potential you should have and cherish use of all three.

A Mastermind group is an inner circle of trusted friends that are there for one purpose, you!  And in return you are there for them.  The collective of the group has more brainstorming capacity and as a results greater impact on solutions to your challenges.

Next objection?  This blog is too long and I have things I need to get done… Hey, stop right there move your mouse away from the “back” button.  You can never be too busy to make the best investment of your career/life, investing in you.  Please read on… it will be worth it.

The group size should be about 6 people any more then that and the group tends to become unwieldy.

Pick a time that works for everyone.  I have found that earlier in the day is better. Before everyone gets caught up in the day.  I like to do early in the week, Monday is my preference, but it is up to you to pick the best day and time. Every other week works well too. Here comes another objection.

Why Mondays?  Monday is the start of the week, if you leave a mastermind meeting with your batteries fully charged and that is how it should always be, you have a full week and a second week to make your business flourish using the results of your brainstorming with “your personal board of power partners”.

Life happens, we all know that.  But if you join, you should make every effort to attend every meeting. You need the others in the group as much as they rely on you to be there for them.

So how does a mastermind work? There really is no right or wrong way to do one but here is a sample structure of a typical mastermind group.

First of all “your personal board of power partners” are non-judgmental, no one is there to evaluate you.  On the contrary, it is amazing how good it make you feel to help others succeed.

The meeting begins promptly at the agreed on time with 2-3 minutes per person during which each reports on successes they have had since the last meeting. It gives us a chance to be acknowledged and encouraged as we make progress toward our stated goals.  Everyone must bring success stories with them, no matter how trivial.  And yes “I taught my daughter to ride a two wheeled bike” counts as a success story but no, it is not trivial.

Then everyone should negotiate for time in the rest of the meeting. Each person brings a challenge if they have one. Simply divide of the remaining meeting time among the members with a question. Not all participants will have things to talk about at each meeting. Some questions have more urgency than others.

The member with the question states their question on the call. Spend a few minutes making sure that you are focused on the “correct” question. It is surprising how many times others can assist by refining/reframing the question. Often the member lacks insight into the nature of their true problem.

It is critical that the question is succinct and properly worded. If the question is framed incorrectly, then the help or suggestions provided will answer the question but may not be the answer to the underlying problem.

Once the question is framed, then the brainstorming begins.  Try to come up with as many ideas as possible I like to try to get to about 21 ideas. Offer solutions to the problem as stated or actions to be taken. The member with the questions only job at this point is to act as a scribe and write the solutions offered while the brainstorming continues until the group runs out of ideas or you have about 21 solutions.

As you might expect the first dozen or so are too easy. When it gets difficult the creativity really begins. The best solutions generally happen after solution #16 or so. When the contributing members have to really think and dig, the breakthroughs occur.

The person with the question then chooses 2-4 items to complete or work on over the next several days or weeks.

Always end with everyone committing to two action items to be accomplished by the next meeting.  After all this makes sure you will have at least two success stories for the next meeting, right?  These actions don’t need to be about business, they can also be personal growth, professional growth or anything else you want to make happen in your life.

It is your life, live it large!

Hopefully there are no more objections, and the only question left is why arent you in a mastermind group yet?

Seek out people you would like to keep in touch with and would enjoy helping them as much as you would like them to help you and watch the magic happen.

All the best,
Harry

“Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential” - Winston Churchill

Well, I started my 24 hour project on trying to create a PowerDay. The goal was to spend as much of a 24 hour block of time “Working ON my business” vs. “Working IN my business”. First let me preface the results by saying in every obstacle there is a lesson, it is up to you to discover the lesson.

Here are the lessons I took away from the past 24 hours:

1. Plan ahead or face the obstacles of poor planning.Two of my obstacles yesterday

This was only 10 minutes into a conference call yesterday. You can see the webinar on the left screen. Neither cat was there when I joined the call. Shutting the door to my office would have prevented this.

2. Always have a plan but be flexible. 45 minutes into the call I received a phone call from by best client saying their network backbone had failed. It was a medical facility so I had to leave the call and head up to troubleshoot the problem and obtain new equipment and reinstall the network. I finished the work about 2pm today.

So much for the PowerDay.

3. Sometimes the thing that you see as an obstacle can be a benefit if you open your mind to it.

While I ended up not even working in or on my business(internet business) my other company made a significant profit from that phone call that rescheduled my past 24 hours.

4. So final lesson, things happen for a reason, if you learn to accept that and not fight it then there is always the chance to try again tomorrow but with new information/lessons that will help you.

So on Friday at 7am I will be trying another PowerDay.

What lesson have you learned lately from an obstacle that presented itself? I would like to hear from you, leave a message in the comments section below.

All the best,

Harry

This is something I get caught up in all the time.

There are two kinds of work when it comes to your business.  If you are “Working IN your business” you are doing task and responding to things that an employee can should be doing. If you find yourself doing this you are just keeping your business alive.  You are just and Employee of your business.

This is similar being dropped off 200 yards off shore and treading water. If all you do is tread water eventually you will tire and drown while the shoreline has been in sight the whole time.

When you are Working ON your business” you are acting as the owner and entrepreneur that you are.  This means learning how to find others to do tasks and delegate to them.  This will create time for you to think, plan and develop your business.  This will move your business forward.  This is the same as seeing the shore and soon as you hit the water you start swimming for shore, treading water only when needed to catch your breath.  Very soon though you will be back on shore reaching your goal.

So for the next 24 hours starting today at noon.  I am going to try and dedicate  a full day (24 hours) on working on my business.  Obviously there will be some time that I will have to spend working in my business but I will be keeping focus on being an Entrepreneur.

I will post my results tomorrow just after noon my time(EST).  If you give this a try using noon to noon your time or any other 24 hours period that works best for you leave me your comments and results, I would like to hear about them.

All the best,
Harry