Want to achieve your goals with me? | #39
I'm thinking about making a mastermind
In this edition,
My pitch: a mastermind, accountability group kind of thing
Some benefits I've received from masterminds and accountability groups
How to achieve those benefits with as little effort as possible
The principles I'm following: some arm-chair think-boi equations
Miscellaneous tweets and quotes that inspired this post
My pitch: a mastermind, accountability group kind of thing
I've done many accountability challenges both by myself and with others. Doing it with people makes it better. Like a mastermind.
But, I noticed that most fizzle out because people aren't getting value from them. Great masterminds that survive the test of time are rare.
Which is a shame. In my experience, it's important to have people to bounce ideas off of, get moral support, etc.
The hard part is that most of these benefits are intangible and emergent. Producing them on demand and at scale is hard. The best you can do, it seems, is create the right container and take a step back.
I have a few ideas for how to make a great one, and I want to give them a shot.
If you're interested, I'd love for you to take a few minutes to fill out this survey.
Here's my pitch so far:
It's an async(?) mastermind for smart, friendly, busy people that want to hit their goals in a way that feels good.
~15 minutes a week
no meetings (unless you want to meet)
at least one person (me) committed to helping you succeed (as defined by you).
You answer weekly check-in questions that make sense for you (like "what blocked me this week?"). If you want feedback, criticism, or support, I'll give it to you.
That's the base of it.
Other things I'm thinking about integrating that sound like good ideas:
an initial "get to know you" meeting to help contextualize feedback
I'll also pour through your existing body of work if applicable
an (optional) weekly 15 minute meeting to block time for folks to answer their questions
a traditional weekly mastermind-type meeting
I'm skeptical about this, but I'm open to it. Let me know in the survey!
referral-based accountability partners, meetings, etc
if I'm reviewing your check-in and I notice someone else is doing something similar, I'll ask if you and them want to meet
I'm skeptical about making a discord, slack, or weekly meeting right out of the gate. I'm already in plenty and I assume you are, too.
I want this to be as little effort or overhead as possible.
I only want to put you in a meeting with someone if it's valuable for everyone.
I only want to add stuff if it's obvious it should exist.
In the rest of this newsletter, I muse about what makes a good mastermind.
Some benefits I've received from masterminds and group accountability challenges
aha! moments: Often someone asked me a great question that helped me clarify my thoughts. Or they said something that gave me a great idea.
conviction: For me, it's tempting to rush into things without planning them or thinking them through. If I talk to someone first, I often realize that my idea is a bad idea, so I decide not to do it. But when that doesn't happen, I gain more conviction about my idea. Hearing myself say it out loud and having someone give me a sanity check gives me more confidence.
focus: When I know someone will be reviewing my work, imagining it through their eyes helps me focus on what matters.
accountability: When I have something I need to do that's important but not urgent, telling someone I'll do it helps me focus on it.
energy: If everyone around me is doing something, it makes me want to do that thing more.
camaraderie: When everyone shares a similar context, it's like grease for jokes, banter, scenes, relating, etc.
acknowledgement: It feels great to be seen and understood. For example, when I create something and get comments like, "oh that's so you" or "I see what you did there". Or when someone knows me well enough to keep an eye out for my common blindspots. Or congratulate me when I achieve something that was particularly meaningful to me.
Achieving those benefits with as little effort as possible
I think 1 through 4 (aha moments, conviction, focus, accountability) can happen without a formal meeting.
Something like a form or spreadsheet you fill out weekly. Maybe 2-4 questions from this list:
What did you do last week that you planned to do?
What did you *not* do last week that you planned to do?
What stopped you from doing it?
What do you plan to do this week?
What do you want to get out of this?
How will you measure progress?
What's the next step?
What is the most obvious bottleneck?
If you have something you want feedback on, link to it:
What type of feedback would you like, if any? (criticism, praise?)
What medium would you like that feedback through? (zoom call, voice note, google doc comments?)
They would be customized to the individual and will likely change over time.
This is where the 15 minutes a week figure comes from: 15 minutes for you to answer those questions. I'll review them and give you feedback if you want it.
I can bring in some 5 (energy) by hosting an optional weekly 15 minute call. The purpose of this call is to act like a co-working session where we all fill out our questions. This can also help with 3 (focus) and 4 (accountability) since it's dedicated time on the calendar.
Some of you have read this and thought, "wait, so I'm only talking to you?"
As far as 6 (camaraderie) goes, I hesitate to try and create relationships from the top down.
So, yes, just me. But also, more than just me if it makes sense. I’m not sure, yet. Here's my logic.
If it's just 2 people (me and you), it's a lot easier for everyone to know everyone's background and give personalized, valuable feedback and support.
If it's 3 people, the workload for everyone has doubled. Now everyone has to do that for 2 people.
If it's 4 people, everyone has to do it for 3 people.
The more people there are, the more work for everyone, the more anonymous the group becomes, the harder it is to make it valuable for everyone.
Obviously it's not impossible, but I want to be intentional about creating these groups.
I want anyone who's helping keep you accountable or giving you feedback to
know your background specifically, and
be committed to being there for you on an ongoing basis
Even if I gather a group of friendly ambitious people, there's zero guarantee they're all willing to do that for each other.
My knee jerk reaction is to act as a match maker. As the weeks go by, if two people seem to have an interesting overlap, then I'll ask if they want to be introduced or be in an accountability group.
I'd rather be in group with 1 person I can rely on and knows my background than be in a group with 5 people who are cool but don't know me and aren't committed to getting to know me. At least to me, 7 (acknowledgement) is important.
But maybe I'm in the minority, I don't know! Tell me through the survey!
The principles I want to build on top of: some arm-chair think-boi equations
Here's how I'm thinking about masterminds in 4 over-simplified equations:
success = consistency + intent + community
consistency = joy + progress + environment
intent = awareness + experimentation + faith
community = cooperation + commonality + serendipity
Here are some stray opinions that informed those equations:
I think success is inevitable if you
keep going (consistency)
in the right direction (intent)
with the right support (community)
In my experience, all it takes to be consistent is
some level of enjoyment (minimal tediousness),
an indicator of progress, and
an environment that facilitates the activity
But just going through the motions isn't enough. I think intent has 3 parts:
awareness: being present in the moment, existing between overstimulation and disassociation.
experimentation: having hunches, testing them, learning from the results, having new hunches
faith: having the courage to take action when gathering more information is no longer wise (the irony!)
Also, we aren't doing this in a vacuum. Mentors, peers, cheerleaders, customers, etc are all a pivotal part of one's success. I think a flourishing community comes from
cooperation: creating win-win relationships and respecting the culture
commonality: aligning on goals, values, and interests
serendipity: creating lots of surface area for people to interact, but not forcing any of it
Miscellaneous tweets that inspired this post
Funny enough, all of these thoughtful, friendly folks have substacks! Check em’ out!