[Hidden-tech] Interest in a peer support group in Amherst?

[Maria Korolov (Trombly)]

Is anyone out there interested in forming a Mastermind group meeting weekly
in Amherst or nearby area for freelancers and/or small business owners?

I was in one in Shanghai and it worked great. We rotated who would lead the
group every week, and the leader would email homework out to everyone and
then we would get together and discuss things, and ask each other for
advice. We went through the regular mastermind-style list of topics. For
example, work-life balance. Finding the true purpose in life. Figuring out
our core values. Aligning work and values. Learning to standardize our
business processes so we could delegate (to expand our businesses, or take
vacations, or build equity). Improving our sales skills. I've got a lot of
materials from the old group that we can use.

A group ideally would have five or six people -- any more and the meetings
take too long -- and wouldn't have members who are direct competitors of one
another. It also helps if there is a balance of skill sets. My last
Mastermind group had people who were expert in finance and accounting, a
sales trainer, a process engineer, and a retail store owner. I still meet
with them when I go back to Shanghai. By this point, those guys probably
know me better than my family does. :-)

It took a few meetings for the group to gel (we all met through a business
networking organization) and then after that the core of the group stayed
the same for several years. We only had to add two new members in that time,
to replace outgoing members, through personal invitation from existing
members and approval of everyone else in the group.

- Maria


Maria Korolov
Technology columnist, Securities Industry News
Editor & publisher, Hypergrid Business (hypergridbusiness.com)
President, Trombly Ltd.
508-443-1130 | maria at tromblyltd.com
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