Unlocking Contractor Success with Mastermind Groups Featuring Karyn Greenstreet

Feeling isolated as a contractor? Discover how mastermind groups can transform your business. Join Wade and expert Karyn Greenstreet as they dive deep into the benefits, structure, and success stories of mastermind groups on the latest episode of Contractor Success Forum. 

Learn how these peer advisory boards can help you tackle challenges, innovate, and stay accountable. Find out what makes an effective group, the typical meeting structure, and how to choose the right group for you. Whether you're a seasoned business owner or just starting out, this episode is packed with valuable insights and practical advice. 

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Topics we cover in this episode include:

• 00:27 Meet the Expert: Karyn Greenstreet 
• 01:54 Understanding Mastermind Groups 
• 05:44 Different Types of Mastermind Groups 
• 09:25 Benefits of Joining a Mastermind Group 
• 16:12 How to Structure a Mastermind Group Meeting 
• 24:54 Finding the Right Mastermind Group for You 

LINKS

Need help choosing a mastermind group to join? Get the "Find Your Perfect Mastermind Group" ebook 

Want to start a mastermind group? Watch the "Speed Up Growth: Start a Mastermind Group" video tutorial for ideas and suggestions.

Visit the episode page at https://carpentercpas.com/mastermind for more details and a transcript of the show.

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Wade Carpenter, CPA, CGMA | CarpenterCPAs.com
Stephen Brown, Bonding Expert | SuretyAnswers.com

Transcript

[00:00:00] Wade: Ever feel like you're figuring out everything on your own? Like you're constantly putting out fires, but nobody really understands what you're going through as a Contractor? That's where mastermind groups come in. These groups bring together fellow business owners to share experiences, tackle challenges, and push each other to the next level.

And today we're diving into what mastermind groups are, why they matter, and how joining the right one could be a game changer for your business. And I am happy to say I have the absolute guru on mastermind groups with us today. Karyn Greenstreet. This is the Contractor Success Forum. I'm Wade Carpenter with Carpenter & Company CPAs, and normally my co-host Stephen Brown, couldn't be with us today.

But we are very fortunate to have Karyn Greenstreet. Karyn, I'd love to go a little more in depth on us 'cause I know we've known each other for about 12 years. I couldn't believe it's 12 years. But welcome and thank you for doing this for us.

[00:00:56] Karyn: Oh, thank you for having me. I'm loving it.

[00:00:58] Wade: I started taking classes, I couldn't believe it was back in 2013. On. She is the recognized leader, speaker, author, self-employment expert, but specializing in mastermind groups.

And I know she's taught almost 300,000 people worldwide about what mastermind groups are and many other topics. And I started taking her classes many years ago and she is an absolutely remarkable teacher.

Her ability to explain things very clearly, make them practical and give you real tools to implement is unmatched. And I know she has probably forgotten more about mastermind groups than any other people will ever know.

One of the fondest memories is going to that mastermind group I think we're in Philadelphia, up that way. I will remember that forever. So, welcome Karen. Thank you for being here.

[00:01:49] Karyn: I am excited. Wade , this is, you know, I just love mastermind groups. Love talking about the topic.

[00:01:54] Wade: Well, let's start off with just the basic, what are a mastermind groups?a lot of our contractors. They're running businesses, they're frustrated, they don't know what to turn. And sometimes it is a very lonely thing. So why don't we start off with just the basics. What is a mastermind group?

[00:02:09] Karyn: Sure. So a mastermind group is a group of peers that meet on a regular basis. So they would be all people in your industry, usually your same experience level. So you really are talking with people, who share a common situation and also common goals, growing your business, trying to run it more efficiently, hiring, firing, retention, you know, the whole thing. And the idea of a mastermind group is that you meet on a regular basis and, some or all of the members get into what's known as the hot seat. And so the hot seat is essentially.you come to the group and you say, here's where I need help. And all of these brains together, work together, brainstorm, come up with creative ideas, creative solutions to help you with that specific situation. And it's sort of like, if you go to restaurant or a bar with some friends and you say, hey, I got this situation, and you kind ofbatter things back and forth. But it's interesting because the creativity level one person, layers an idea upon another person and so forth, and all this layering, well, that's what happens in a mastermind group.

But instead of it being a one time dinner with friends, it's on a consistent basis. And the idea is, is that you can shorten the learning curve by tapping into the collective genius of these other folks. Also to strengthen your creativity skills. 'cause sometimes the solution is not something that exists. It has to be created. And so having a bunch of people talk about that with you at the same time is really helpful. Because they're like your personal board of directors. You get to be able to bounce ideas off of them. I've been thinking about doing this or I've been thinking about making this change. Can I just talk it through with you guys just to make sure I'm not crazy right? And they'll talk about the pros and cons of things and help you to see things that you can't see yourself. Sometimes we don't know what we don't know, and sometimes we have blinders on and we just don't see things. I was running a mastermind group once where they were all in different industries and they were talking about marketing and one guy said, oh. That's a great marketing idea. We don't do it that way in our industry. And so they were learning from other people in other industries about different ways of doing things.

Sometimes it's just a help to get, another group of people to bounce ideas off of when you're trying to make a decision that, am I making the right decision? Have I missed anything? do I have any kinda like internal biases that stop me from making a good decision?

And then the final piece of it, which is probably just as important as all these other things is the accountability piece. You are going to tell this group what your goals are. You're gonna tell this group what projects you're working on and when you expect to get them complete, and the group's gonna hold you accountable for that. They're gonna hold your feet to the fire. So if you have any kind of situation where it'd be great to be able to check in with people and say, here are my plans. And then to say, here's what I got done. And then maybe even say, here's what I didn't get done and I need help. I didn't get it done because I have a problem and I need to solve it now.

So all of those things combined are really super for a business owner, just to have another group of people who are in the same situation as you are, who understand what it means to be a business owner. Basically all they want is your success. There's no emotional agenda. You talk to your family, you talk to, your colleagues in the area.

There's a little bit of an emotional thing going on there too. And so, this Mastermind group, all they want is for you to be successful and happy.

[00:05:24] Wade: Absolutely. And I know they've meant a lot to me over the years when I started my own business, for several years. had few people to bounce things off of, my wife didn't understand, business people, understand. And so I got in one in 2008 and then I started in various kinds of mastermind groups or peer groups.

 I'd love to talk about more of like a consulting group versus a peer group versus a true mastermind.

And I know going through your Synergy program, that taught me so much about this and how there's an art form and that's exactly what you would teach is an art form to leading these groups, to getting a great group of people that can be your board of directors, as you called it.

[00:06:08] Karyn: So can you kinda like just talk in general about, maybe some of the history too?

No worries. So let me talk first about these different kinds of groups so that if you're looking to join a group, you understand what you're getting. So a mastermind group, sometimes it's called a peer advisory board, but absolutely the defining concept of that is that you get into being in the hot seat individually. Every meeting, every other meeting. However, the design of the mastermind group works, and that everyone is focusing on you during that time. And everyone is chiming in and giving ideas.

[00:06:39] Karyn: Like a mentoring program. Sometimes they're called a group coaching program. You're in the hot seat, but the only person who you're working with is the mentor. The person who's running the group and they're, mentoring you one-on-one with the rest of the group watching, but nobody jumps in. So that's the difference between those two kinds of groups.

So if you're in a group and you're not getting everyone's chiming in on the brainstorming and stuff, then it's not a mastermind group. Then you havelike peer networking groups, which is groups of people that are in a similar situation. You come together, but the idea is more like lead sharing rather than masterminding. And soyou might be in a group like a BNI or something like that. It is absolutely about, sharing marketing leads and not about solving problems and not about talking through issues. So that might help people to get a distinction.

I find that a mastermind group is superior to these other groups because you can do all these other things. in the mastermind group, the person who's running it is also giving their ideas and advice, so you are getting mentoring from them. You can network with the people in your mastermind group, so that works as well.

Sometimes mastermind groups include some training so you can get some training as part of what you're doing. Everyone designs their group a little bit differently. But it all started the word mastermind group, actually started from a Napoleon Hill book written back in the 1920s and the 1930s, where he called them a mastermind alliance. And it was this idea that when two or more people get together, there is like this synergy and energy that happens when two people talk together and try to help each other, and we've all experienced that.

Like stuff you would never think on your own when you're talking about it with a group of people, all of a sudden it's like light bulbs popping off all the time. it kind of morphed from mastermind alliance to mastermind group, maybe in the, I don't know, the seventies or something like that. So they've been around, the concept of it has been around since forever. Right. But the name of it has been around since the 1920s and 1930s. And then the actual name of a mastermind group or a peer advisory board in kind that official wording of it probably started in the 1970s.

[00:08:40] Wade: Well again, they mean a lot of things and there's a lot of different iterations of it. I know I've been in a peer group of CPAs since 2008, 17 years now. I was in that group, and then when I was taking your classes, we had a synergy group and then I also had formed a group here of different types of people. So not CPAs, but I got a different perspective from, had an IT guy in there, an insurance guy.

We had people from like investment, just different perspectives. And I think it's a give and take because they are going to have a different perspective, and sometimes you do want something outside of your industry. Light bulbs come on from different places. Any thoughts on that?

[00:09:25] Karyn: Yeah. I think the thing is, is that when you're tapping into that collective genius of everybody who's in the group, they are all coming to the group with their own set of experiences. But they're also coming to the group with every book they ever read, every class they ever took. So it's 10X-ing your access to information because instead of you having to take all the classes and read all the books, everyone is combining all that knowledge and that experience together. We say peers because, say you're, you've been in the construction in industry 20 years. You don't necessarily wanna be in a group with someone who's been in the construction industry like six months because their needs and their concerns and their problems and where they are in developing their business is so different from you that as a member, they will get a ton talking to you, but you probably won't get all that much talking from them. That's why we call it a peer group, because you really wanna be talking with people who are at your same level.

But as an example, you could be a construction person and be in a mastermind group with other people who own roughly the same size business, but in different industries. Or you could be in a group with people who are all in the construction industry, but maybe perhaps different niches within that.

And so the idea here is that you're all at this similar level so that the momentum is built because you're all talking at the same level, about the same things. A CEO of a construction company where you're still in the truck, basically has a different set of problems than the one who is managing teams of people, works outta their office. Never gets in the truck anymore. They're two different types of people.

But the idea here is that you cantap into the wisdom, but also the creativity of these other folks as well. So, like the group you were in, where they were from, different industries, their experiences are different. They have the same problems, but the way the industry solves them or even the way the industry thinks about them could be different from your own industry.

So that's a choice. When you wanna join a group, do you wanna join a group of. All people in the same industry because then the knowledge level's really deep? Or do you wanna join a group where they're in different industries? Because the experience and knowledge level's very wide? So, part of your decision making about which kind of group do you wanna join has to be about that. And like in your case, Wade, you joined multiple groups.

It just, you solved that problem by just saying, I'll just I'll be in two different groups.

[00:11:37] Wade: Well, I mean, I know I thought, so this particular group was CPAs from all over the country. And one of the concerns I had, obviously I don't wanna be talking about some of the things I'm doing with my competitor that's a mile down the

road. And so, that's where contractors may think about a couple of different.

Maybe you've got a group of subcontractors or suppliers that are in almost a, like a referral relationship versus I've seen construction mastermind groups or peer groups they go around to each other's places, which is what we were doing. It's like we'd go and sort of take a deep dive on what each other was doing, and it's amazing feedback that you get from those kind of things.

[00:12:21] Karyn: You bring up a really good point. You have to figure out, well, who's in the group besides your peers? Number one, should a, subcontractor be in the same group? Or should a vendor be in the same group with you?

And here's the thing about a mastermind group. If the facilitator is doing a good job. If they are skilled at what they do, they're creating this environment of trust where you feel like you can be completely open and honest about your business. So are you going to be completely open and honest about your business if your vendor is in the same room with you, do you really want them to know what's going on with your business? Or if your subcontractor is in the same room with you, do you really want them to know what's going on with your business?

And so a lot of times, we recommend that. Any kind of competing factor, a true competitor or someone that you don't, you won't feel safe about talking about the reality of your business with them. Especially a competitor in the sense that, if you are, let's just say you're working on like a marketing campaign.

You do not want your competitors to know about this brilliant campaign you're gonna be launching because they could do the same thing. Or this new program you're gonna be launching or this discount you're gonna be giving. So. I definitely encourage it not to be direct competitors. So, in the case of like construction folks, you might wanna be looking at a group that attracts people from all over the country, and then that way you meet via Zoom, like this. So simple to do. You don't have to. Get in the truck and go anywhere. but the idea is that, you could be tapping into the brains of people from Chicago and Dallas and Seattle and New York City, big, regions and small regions, and you can get different perspectives about what's going on.

And you might also, because you're hearing from all these different people, you might be able to pinpoint trends that are happening that you sort of had an inkling, something looked like it was a trend, but you weren't sure. When you ask people in different parts of the country, hey, is this happening to you? And they all say yes. You're like, oh, this is something.

It's not just me. I'm not just that in my mind, this is actually really, something that we're all talking about.Then of course there's all that new technology and stuff, how are these people using things like AI in their, businesses? Have they even approached it? if they have, what are they thinking of it? Where do they see it applying? So it's not just, solving everyday problems, it's also looking at the future and saying, what's coming down the pike and what do we need to be paying attention to?

[00:14:37] Wade: Well, that just sort of brought up a memory, I guess. You were doing Zoom Mastermind groups back in 2013 before Zoom was cool. I couldn't get a Contractor on a Zoom meeting before Covid to save my life.

[00:14:50] Karyn: Now we're all used to it. right?

[00:14:51] Wade: we're all used to it. Absolutely. But you know, a lot of the things that you brought up.

I think about the challenges that contractors have is like cashflow challenges, labor shortage, with your profitability. And you definitely do not sometimes want your competitors to know that kind of stuff. But when you're working with somebody around the country, it's not as big of a concern.

[00:15:14] Karyn: Because they have the exact same issues. And if they can talk about it honestly with you, that's a real benefit to them as well. So the idea of a mastermind group is really a win-win for everybody in the room. Because you're not just asking for their help, you're also giving help. You're sharing your knowledge, your experience, your ideas.

So I'll give you an example. COVID, nobody knew how to handle Covid because quite frankly, it was something brand new. So it didn't matter. Nobody had an experience to share, but they had ideas. And they're like, well, what about if we tried this? What about if we tried that? Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that?

And so having this group of people to help you when unexpected things happen, because now you're tapping into their creativity and their intelligence, not just their experience. And that's really crucial because that's a tricky thing for business owners, to, you know, they can't predict what's going to happen and how it's going to affect them. And one minute things are one way, and then poof the next day it's a different way. How do you juggle that?

[00:16:11] Wade: Absolutely. And I think you told us, just went into, one of the things I wanted to kick around next is, you talked about the hot seats, but there's a lot more to a mastermind group. Brainstorming goal settings. Can you talk about what a typical meeting structure looks like and some of the things that we actually get into?

[00:16:29] Karyn: Yeah. So the design of a mastermind group is, vast. there's so many cool options that if you wanted to start a group or join a group, you'd be like, oh, well how does the group run?

So some mastermind groups are pure mastermind groups. You go in, you do your meeting, you're done. Some mastermind groups meet for a whole day, once a month, and it includes, the morning would be a speaker or some sort of training, and then the afternoon would be masterminding.

So even that kind of design, sometimes training, education, guest speakers are part of the mix. Some mastermind groups have quarterly conferences or annual conferences. There's a lot of, different options for you depending on how you like to work with people and how you like to be around them.

But a typical meeting might be something like, you come in, you share what you've been working on, If your group is really strong on the accountability piece, maybe you say, this is what I got done. I promised last month I was gonna get these things done, or I was gonna start these projects or start these initiatives and I've done it, or I haven't done it yet, to be honest. Right. Some groups, they start off with some sort of like a professional development exercise. Maybe, vision setting or goal setting or a little thing on, how to have a difficult conversation with an employee or, whatever the topic is.

Usually the group votes on, here's the topics we like to talk about. We wanna talk about retention, we wanna talk about hiring, we wanna talk aboutdealing with governmental agencies. We wanna talk about finances. So the topics can vary. But usually the meeting starts off with something like that.

Then it typically goes into the hot seats. Now, every group runs it a little bit differently, but traditionally the idea is that everyone, each member, gets an even number of chances to be in the hot seat. So whether you're in the hot seat every month or every other month, that's up to you.

Some groups, what they choose to do instead is everybodysays, here's the topic I want to be in the hot seat around, and they list it on a flip chart, and then they vote on which topic is the most important to the most number of people in the group, so.Joe comes into the group, he says, I really need to talk about hiring and firing. It's making me crazy Up it goes on the flip chart, and if everybody else votes that, that's the important topic, then Joe will be in the hot seat.

The problem with that model is poor Frank didn't get his topic voted on for three or four months. In the meantime, he's got this problem that's not getting solved. So, to me, the best mastermind groups is where they rotate those hot seats. Because whatever your problem is, whatever your topic is you wanna talk about, it's important to you. Regardless of what the votes are, it's important to you or you wouldn't have brought it up. So I kind of like the rotation thing best.

And then, it depends on the length of the mastermind group meeting. So some meetings are as short as an hour or an hour and a half, maybe two hours. Some of them are four hours. So it gives you a little bit more wiggle room to put more stuff into the meeting.

But let's just say it's a 90 minute or a two hour meeting, pretty much by that time you might have done three or four hot seats. It's time to close down. You might have 8 or 10 people in the group, so some of these things take more time than other groups. But at the end I like to personally, end with talking about, what are the most important initiatives that I need to focus on in this next month if the meetings are a month apart?

And the reason I like to do that is as a business owner. How often do you get time to stop and breathe and think big picture, what is it I want for my business? What are my goals and what can I work on in the next month that's going to move the needle the fastest? And just to take that moment and say, I think the most important things for me to work on are these three things. And then the group will give you feedback and say, eh, why are you working on that? This other thing seems more important. Why are you avoiding it? You know?Because the thing about mastermind groups is not just the practicality about running your business. Sometimes it's the mindset side. If you're avoiding something. If you're making bad decisions, if you are, procrastinating, if you have limiting beliefs about what's possible to get done, if you don't have the knowledge, the skill, the experience to get something done, so you just don't do it.

Or worse, you're running at the speed of light. You're doing a whole bunch of actions, but you're doing the right actions at the wrong time. You're doing the easy, fun, interesting stuff first instead of the stuff that really needs to get done. So your mastermind group's gonna hold you accountable for all of that.

So that's like a typical meeting. Now, some mastermind group meetings, if it's a four hour meeting. You might do some sort of exercises in there. You might, have some discussion questions. You might have some worksheets that you're working through. Sometimes people will, have a spotlight hot seat where they get 45 minutes and they give a complete overview of what's going on with their business so that everybody knows what's going on with everybody. They give their financials, they talk about their, personnel systems. They talk about any,standard operating procedures that they're working on, cleaning up, whatever, that they really get a huge hot seat.

So you can see that the design of the meeting is just as important as anything, because when you're eitherjoining a mastermind group or maybe even starting a mastermind group of your own, what is it that the members need to have happen during that meeting? So I'm into complete flexibility when it comes to these meetings. How is it gonna serve the members the best?

[00:21:34] Wade: One of the things you taught me is how a skilled leader can pull out those things that somebody is not getting that burning question answered, whatever you wanna call it. But, just sitting here talking to you, just so many memories of things thathave come about some of my, mastermind groups.

And I remember one of ' , them calling me out on something and it was just, sometimes it hurts and, but sometimes it's , the best thing you could do for yourself.

[00:22:00] Karyn: Yeah, I was gonna say , if the facilitator allows constructive criticism, that's awesome. If the people attack you, that's not cool.

 So first of all, I really, encourage people that when they're joining a mastermind group or starting a mastermind group, there has to be a non-disclosure agreement. There has to be a writtencontract that says, I promise that nothing that I talk about in this group goes outside of this group.

Has to be, has to be true. Because the facilitator's trying to create this experience of deep trust, deep safety , and mutual respect. And so there's the whole psychology of groups and how they work together that's part of this mix that the facilitator has to be paying attention to.

Because. I want each member to come into that meeting feeling like these people have my back. They're gonna respect my privacy. They're gonna call me on something they're gonna tell me about it gently and kindly, but they're gonna do it. They're not gonna, let me avoid stuff and or ignore stuff. That's not their role.

And you'll do the same thing for them. if you hear them say something, you're like, is that true that you're gonna say to them, is that really what you wanna do? Is that really the way you think about it? Tell me why you think that way and really make you, think through what it is you want outta life and your business and where you might be holding yourself back.

But this trust factor I think is huge. And so part of this is the facilitator should have something called group guidelines. It should have a written document that says, here's how we're gonna behave in the group, including simple things like showing up on time.

Because when you don't show up on time to a mastermind group meeting, what you're basically telling people is, I don't respect you enough. I don't respect you enough to show up on time. My time's more important than yours. In a mastermind group, it's all about respect.

And so, group guidelines will say, here's the behavior we expect. turn off your phones, turn off your computer. pay attention to what people are saying, follow the course of the conversation. And sometimes it's difficult because as human beings, our brains are designed that we can only really focus for about 90 minutes before we need a little bit of a break. And so a good facilitator running a four hour meeting is gonna know exactly when to time those breaks to give everybody a chance to let their brain relax, before they're asked to deep dive and, focus on the next conversation.

But focusing and really listening to someone before you respond is a mark of respect. So, we enforce those things because that builds trust among everybody. When everybody sees that everyone's being treated equally and fairly, when everyone sees, everyone is treating each other with respect and dignity, and tough love sometimes,they feel safe to really talk about what's really going on, and also not just to talk about their problem, but talk about their dreams.

'Cause sometimes we have dreams and visions for ourself and our life and our business that if we say it to our spouse or we say it to a friend, they're like, oh yeah, that'll happen. But your mastermind group's you want that? Let's do it. And sometimes you don't get that at home, or you don't get that in your community, but you'll get it in your mastermind group. But if you really, really, really have a burning desire for something, tell your mastermind group about it.

[00:24:54] Wade: So Karyn, what would you look for if you were a contractor, you're seeking a group? We talked about industry specific groups or general business groups. Can you give us some guidelines on what somebody should be looking for in a group ?

[00:25:07] Karyn: Absolutely. Yeah. I was writing a book with some of my colleagues actually from the program that you were in, and we were identifying like, how do you find the perfect mastermind group for you? So the first thing is, is think about what do you need? What kind of topics would you like to bring up?

Is accountability important to you or not? Because some groups have a very strong accountability, feature and others don't. First figure out what you need as far as what do I wanna talk about? What kind of problems would I bring? And then the second thing then is to look for a group where they would be your peers. So if you've been, a business owner for five years, you wanna look for people who have been business owners for 5 to 10 years, you've been a business owner 20 years, and you wanna find a group that, may be a little bit higher.

It's not crucial, but it does help also the size of the business. So if you've got a construction company and there are 15 employees versus 200 employees, it's, you have different situations.

The next thing to think about is exactly what you did, which is do I wanna be in a group of only people in my industry, or would I rather be in a group of businesses the same size,possibly that, hire a lot of people to go out and do things on our behalf. So there's similar motivation stuff, but it's a completely different industry so you get new insights. So that's a possibility for people as well.

The next thing I would be looking for is who is the facilitator, who's running the group? Not only do you see them as a mentor, do they have enough experience in the topic that you're talking about? Whether they're, like another construction owner who's running a group, or someone who just knows this industry really well. But can they act as a mentor? Number one, are they bringing their knowledge to the game? Do they own a business? Right? And then the second piece is, , are they trained in to be a facilitator? Because like I said, there's that whole group psychology side that they have to understand. And there's also running the meetings well and getting conversations to be deep and doing really good brainstorming and all of that kinda stuff. Decision making, problem solving, they have to be really skilled at those techniques, not just as a one-on-one thing, but in a group setting, which is unique.

Because I've seen too many people, join a mastermind group and the facilitator's so weak that the dominant people in the group just basically take over. And it's not really run well, and they're not getting their needs met in the group, and they're disappointed. And I don't want people to be disappointed. So make sure your facilitator knows what they're doing. Maybe they've run groups before or they've been to some sort of training or something.

Then the next thing of course, is you gotta look at, what is the cost? Because is it, $3000 or $10,000 a month, or is it, $200 a month? How does that fit into your budget? Because there's a whole bunch of ranges of these things. Sometimes the range of the price has to do with what's included in the mastermind group besides just the meeting. So some mastermind groups, they include some training with it, some mastermind groups, they include some one-on-one coaching and consulting with the mentor, you get some private time with them, plus group time. Some of them include retreat weekends, some of them include quarterly conferences or annual conferences. So it just depends on what kind of experience you want. 'Cause the more you want, the more you're gonna pay for it. And I have seen really fine mastermind groups that are $300 or $400 or $500 a month. And I've seen, some mastermind groups that are $10,000 a month that are not worth it. So, you have to look to see what they're offering and look to see, what the background is. If there's any testimonials or people you can speak with who have worked with this person before, that would be really helpful as well. And then of course, are they gonna meet in person or are they gonna meet virtually? And what's more convenient for you? If you meet in person, you're in a situation where potentially your competitors could be in the group with you, unless it's a group of people who are not necessarily in your industry, just businesses of your size.

Or you might say, it's so much more convenient for me to hop on Zoom for an hour and a half, have the meeting, and then get on with my day. And so a virtual group might work for you. I've been running both kinds of groups for almost 35 years at this point. Started off running in-person groups, morphed over to virtual groups. As I was starting to get clients from all over the world, I had to be virtual. I didn't have a choice. And I can tell you that groups that'll run well virtually are just as good as groups in person. So decide do you prefer in person or virtual, 'cause that might have an effect.

And then, I know it sounds weird, but go out to Google and type in mastermind group and see what mastermind groups are near you.Google will show you a mapyou just type in mastermind group, it'll show you a map of the ones that are local, if you really wanna meet in person. you just need to double check because there's mastermind groups for all kinds of topics, not just business. There's mastermind groups for new parents, there's mastermind groups for people getting ready to retire. So make sure that the group topic matches your topic that you want.

[00:29:41] Wade: Well, I know if you Google Mastermind group, your face is probably liable to pop up.

For a construction company, we have challenges in the industry like cash flow, seasonality, some things that are unique to the industry.

 Some things you think are in unique and some things are common, more common than you think, but anything that our listeners should be thinking about is should they be structured any differently for construction professionals?

[00:30:08] Karyn: They can be, there might be, like you said, there might be these site visits. if you can do it. And there might only do this like maybe once a quarter where everyone goes to one person's site, they get a complete in depth of their business. And that can be really, you talked about it for yourself, how incredibly helpful it can be to go into someone else's space and see how they organize things, , what their operations look like. You could walk away with 10 ideas from that kind of a site visit. If you're looking for a group that does that, then you can specifically look for something like that.

[00:30:40] Wade: Well, again, there's all kind of different ways. I know there's things like Skool communities and Circle, those kind of things. But a lot of these groups, they're only as good as, what you put into 'em. And hopefully they're giving back some good value to you.

But, this has been great. I know Karyn is the absolute guru, and if any of our listeners are wanting to start their own, if you're looking to lead your own, I think she has some great classes. I know you used to have a listing.

[00:31:08] Karyn: Yeah. If you wanna join a mastermind group, I have a free ebook on how to find the perfect mastermind group. It kind of outlines, here's all the criteria you wanna look for to find the right group to join. So I'm certainly willing to share that with you. I also have a tutorial if you wanna start a group on kinda the basics of thinking about how would I design a group. So that can help.

And then, if you decide I wanna design a group, then I have two classes. One is on, designing it and pricing it and marketing it. How do you get members? And then the other class is on all those facilitation skills, the whole psychology of it and the, how do you work with these individual members and working in the group environment. So I have the whole soup to nut thing.

There is a find a Mastermind group listing on my site. Just go to thesuccessalliance.com. You'll see, find a mastermind group right there on that homepage. And, if you wanna join a group, there's a list of groups there that are looking for members.

If you wanna start a group, then you can put your listing there. So we get 80,000-90,000 people a year going to that, listing looking for a group to join.

[00:32:06] Wade: That's amazing. Well, this has been great. I know , Karyn, we're gonna put your contact information and that kind of stuff in the show notes. Any other final words or any thoughts?

[00:32:15] Karyn: I just think it's so important. A lot of times people feel very isolated when they're the business owner. Sometimes there's things you wanna talk about, you can't talk about with your management team because it's not appropriate, or they're not the right people to talk to. And if you're feeling isolated, if you're feeling like you'd like to be around your tribe, you'd like to be around the people that really understand you and have been in your shoes, then joining a mastermind group is absolutely the way to go. I've been a member of mastermind groups for years and years and years. My business wouldn't be where it was without me being a member of group, not just running them.

[00:32:47] Wade: I absolutely agree from my perspective as well, it's been a game changer. And I've thought about going now that my book is coming out in a couple of months, that's where I think I may spin up some new groups around that too.

[00:32:59] Karyn: That would be cool. That would be really a nice group to join.

[00:33:02] Wade: Well if our listeners have any questions, thoughts, comments, we would love to hear 'em and just put 'em down below.

If you enjoy this episode, let us know. Give us a light, subscribe. We appreciate all that stuff. And we really sincerely appreciate Karyn Greenstreet being here today. Good to see you and I don't talk to you quite enough, but I do appreciate you and, we will see you on the next show.

Thanks.